About the Exhibit
Seabreeze Shoal is a small fishing village in the southwestern edge of Berelyse, known for two things: deliciously fresh fish, and the legend surrounding the lighthouse that overlooks the village. The legend says this: that once, the western edge of Berelyse was uninhabitable, save for a single settlement on the central coastline. Eventually destruction rained upon the village, forcing its residents to search for a new home. They desired a place that still held the fish they ate and had the cool breezes they loved.
A young woman from the village looked out to the sea and saw a light on the horizon, the only thing she had ever seen pierce through the thick fog over the water. She and her people sailed towards that light, but soon heard the voice of His Eternal Warmth, the god-king of all creation, telling them to stop. That light would only lead them to destruction. The young woman challenged her god-king: either He would open a path over the land that could take them to that light, or they would brave the fog of void to reach it. He agreed to give them a path they could take over the land, but in exchange, demanded the young woman swear an oath. In order to keep her people safe and prosperous, she and her descendants would forever tend to the light that led them to their new home.
The young woman agreed, exchanging her freedom for duty. Her friends and family were free to fish, to shape glass, to leave the village and explore anywhere else their feet could take them. There was an abandoned lighthouse in their new home, and she and all of her descendents became bound to that lighthouse. For the rest of time, her family were to tend to that flame as the Lighthouse Keepers of Seabreeze Shoal.
Hundreds of years later, a young Lighthouse Keeper, the last of her lineage, abandons her post.
That desertion signaled the end of an era: not just for Seabreeze Shoal, but for the entire land and all of its people.
The Berelyse Institute of Cultural Illumination is proud to present The Last Lighthouse Keeper, which examines the end of an age primarily through the eyes of those who lived through it. Select works, including diary entries, letters, and legends, have been faithfully preserved and recreated for visitors to peruse. Though not from primary sources, additional exhibits have been curated by our team of experts to help aid visitors’ understanding of the events that transpired.
Through this special exhibit, we invite all visitors to ask: if you illuminate a single subject, who controls that light, and what might they leave behind in the darkness?