Sea Charts, local maps of the sea, play an important part in Rulers of the Sea. Any gamer can create Sea Charts, but this ability depends on the quality of the gamers’ Sailing Master, the navigator of a ship. A Sailing Master ensures a ship sails the most optimal course to its destination, taking into account the trade winds, currents and weather. The better the quality of a Sailing Master, the faster and less dangerous sailing journeys become.
The Sailing Master uses Sea Charts to navigate. The entire world is covered by close to a hundred regional Sea Charts. If a Sailing Master has no Sea Chart of a region he makes his own, marking down what he sees underway. A Sailing Master creates Basic Sea Charts, rough Charts that end up in the Charts folder of the Captain, the gamer.
There are sixteen University courses for Sea Masters, dealing with all types of navigation techniques, navigational instruments, meteorology, astronomy, oceanography and cartography. To be able to complete these courses the Sailing Master also needs a high degree of literacy and numeracy. The higher the certifications, the more accurate and efficient the Sailing Master becomes.
When the Sailing Master has achieved the highest cartography certification he can draw a Master Sea Chart. This high quality Sea Chart will allow for perfect navigation, but gradually things like navigational hazards or port ownerships will change, making aging charts less accurate.
Master Sea Charts are complete when the entire area that is included in a regional Sea Chart is explored. This will take substantial time. Once a Master Sea Chart is complete it can be traded on the Print Market. The gamer retains ownership of the original Master Sea Chart, only copies can be traded. A Master Sea Chart copy cannot be exchanged between gamers once it is purchased. This means that if the owner of a Master Sea Chart stops selling it, maybe because they retired, maybe because the Chart is getting too old, it will disappear from the market. Good Master Sea Charts can be rare commodities.