Golden Compass

The Golden Compass is an item featured in The Shadow Prince. Unlike ordinary compasses, the Golden Compass does not have the usual directions of N for North and S for South. Instead, it has a variety of letters in all of its directions.

Link can only find it if Princess Zelda, Charles of Moria and him safely exit the Underground Tunnel. Charles and Zelda hop on Herald to head towards North Castle when just then Link notices that the Morian knight dropped a Golden Compass. He begins to say something to Charles but realizes that the knight and the pricess are already trotting away. Link keeps the compass in his pocked and decides he will give it to him later.

Later on in the book, after Impa tells the young hero that the King of Hyrule might pick Charles over Link as to who will take the Triforce of Wisdom to the Fifth Castle of Ancient Hyrule, he puts his hands in his pockets and remembers the compass that fell from Charles's belt. The young hero then tells Impa that the compass might tell them something about Charles. Impa discovers the directions on the other side of the compass, which are as follows:


 * March north, then south. Gather your strength and turn east, then go west to the sunset, then return east.
 * Sail southeast, into the wind. Change your course to southwest. Then head due south. The wind will carry you northeast into a calm, and then northeast again.
 * Fly with the wind south-southwest until a gale blows you east-southeast. Then soar northeast and finally west-southwest to your journey's end.

After Link and her decode the compass's message, they find out it spells out "GANON SHALL RULE." Whether Link has or does not have the Golden Compass during his adventure does not greatly affect the outcome of the story.