This week I had the good fortune to be in Fairbanks, Alaska.  While the timing of the trip was driven by Mrs. Fey and Bard’s spring break as a teacher, and with the goal for us to both find time to relax while getting to see some new sites, a key purpose of the trip was on getting to see the Northern Lights.  As can be seen from the picture for the post we were successful and spent a wonderful couple of hours one of our nights under clear skies watching multiple bands of the Northern Lights dance across the sky.

It was a beautiful and magical experience, with a bit of solemnity as I contemplated some recent news in my life.  From the perspective of the storyteller, the Northern Lights are such a fascinating example.  The cultures of the world that developed with regular sightings of the Northern Lights have each have come up with their own explanation, as varied as the cultures themselves.  Some native peoples of Alaska considered them to be sign of a beast that would come steal away misbehaving children (and don’t we all enjoy using superstition to get children to behave?).  Other tribes, as well as the Viking of Norway, were known to believe that the Northern Lights were representations of the souls of the dead, making their march to the afterlife.  I think the one I find most interesting is that the Northern Lights were viewed by some Alaska Natives as a sign for large gatherings of caribou.  It seems that while petting the fur of caribou or reindeer they had seen the blue light of static electricity and so thought that the green of the Northern Lights was this same spark being seen in mass for large herds moving about.

The way that we humans have used stories to explain our world is always fascinating to me.  It speaks to our desire for order and sense, to make something structured out of chaos.  The creativity we can apply in generating such explanation is truly boundless.  I can’t help but wonder what the impacts of the Northern Lights would have in Illithiust.  Would normal Fey steal away caribou and move them into a nearby valley underneath where the lights were seen to prove the belief true?  Would Quartes,embracing the belief of Aenesi or Humans, track down the lights to converse with the dead of his cycle in his attempt to find a new way forward?  The stories we tell create definition and order to our world, and while certainly supplemented by the knowing of science, there’s still so much in our world driven by the desire to create a narrative and impose order where there may be known.  It’s why in the end I believe so fervently in the power of stories.  They frame and help to define how we see the world.

My own evening spent under the lights, moving between car and field to get a clearer view but to also avoid freezing in subzero weather, was all that I had hoped it would be.  While my engineering background gives me a full understanding of how the Northern Lights function, that knowledge does nothing to diminish their beauty or the awe I felt seeing them.  I feel incredibly blessed to have gotten to have this moment and to check it off my bucket list.

I hope that you enjoyed the telling of the History of the Landian Clans over the last three weeks.  If you’re wondering about the seventh clan, the Sundallasarians, I can assure you that they’ll appear in another tale where they make their own unique mark on Illithiust.  Looking ahead, we’ll return to some Fey and Bard stories, getting to spend some time once more with Quartes and Keto.  However, I’m finalizing and editing the story of the Soldier, showing a key series of events in the current Cycle of Illithiust.  It’s a short story length piece and you can expect the first part in April.  I think it’ll be fun to see Illithiust from an individual less involved in its grand events.

As always, thanks for sharing this corner of the internet with me and I hope you’re enjoying the stories.

Go forth and do good things,

Sean