Tähtitieteilijä Lighthouse (ˈtæhtiˌtie̯tei̯lijæ ˈlaɪthaʊs)

The Stars all have their secrets
And know where we will roam
One came down to join us
And show us the way home

- excerpt from The Lighthouse Song

On the northern coast of Hiidenmaa is the Tähtitieteilijä Lighthouse. It was originally built to warn ships of the dangerous shoals along that stretch of coast, long before the Order of the Lightkeepers were ever heard of in the region. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the Ring of Light, and one of only a few remaining that were constructed independently and not as a deliberate addition to the ring.

The First Tähtimestari

One of the early keepers of the lighthouse was well known in the region as an expert on the stars, and was reputed to have the ability to divine the future from them. His name was Kõpu, and people came from all over Kotimaa and the other Norður Islands to ask for their fortunes to be told. Kõpu came to dislike the constant pestering of petitioners, and chose to train some of the local fishermen in the art of divination so he could spend more time stargazing. He had already been teaching them the finer points of celestial navigation, and this seemed a natural extension of his instruction. It was these students who bestowed the title of Tähtimestari upon Kõpu - in Saarenkieli, this means "Master of the Stars", and has become the title used by the head keeper of the lighthouse ever since.

As Kõpu's reputation spread and it was known that he was instructing students in the arts of stellar divination, students began to present themselves from further afield. Once again, Kõpu found his stargazing time being taken up by the demands of others, and once again he turned to his students to take up the load. He made his most advanced students junior keepers of the lighthouse, and gave over the classes of newly arrived students to them.

Kõpu the Haltijat

Years passed, and the reputation of the Tähtitieteilijä Lighthouse grew. The small fishing village near the lighthouse became the town of Tähtitieteilijä, and students began to arrive from further and further away. The earliest students had become masters, and were teaching the classes in astronomy, astrology, and celestial navigation. Classes in Saarenkieli became necessary, as did courses in mathematics and geometry. Throughout it all, Kõpu continued to pursue his true love - the study of the stars in all their glory.

His death was sudden. One morning, a student came to bring Kõpu his morning tea. The Tähtimestari was sitting in the same place where he often watched the stars, but his body was cold and his eyes had gone dark. The entire town mourned his passing, and Kõpu's funeral was attended by everyone who could make the journey in time.

But only days after the funeral, a student claimed to see Kõpu standing in his usual spot, gazing at the stars. It was the first of many sightings, always at night and always under an open sky. People said that Kõpu loved the sky too much to go beneath the earth and sea to the land of the dead, never to see the stars again. Others claimed that Kõpu had always been somewhat divine, and perhaps was the spirit of a fallen star, made mortal for a time and now returned to ethereal form. In time, they began to call him one of the Haltijat, the gods of the Saarelainen people. Kõpu achieved apotheosis, and became the small god of the lighthouse. When the Order of the Lightkeepers arrived on Hiidenmaa a century later, it was natural to include the divine lighthouse within the Ring of Light, and Kõpu as one of the gods of the Order.

Tähtitieteilijä University

The reputation of the lighthouse as a center of learning continued to grow after Kõpu's death and ascension, and students of the skies continued to make the long journey to Hiidenmaa to study with the master stargazers of Tähtitieteilijä. Inevitably, they began to teach each other classes on other topics as well - those who would and could study at the lighthouse were people of great intelligence and had wide-ranging interests, and anyone could begin to teach a class if they could find students willing to listen. Tähtitieteilijä Lighthouse became known as a univeristy on par with the great institutions elsewhere, such as Foxbridge College and the Gwāsa. The land around the lighthouse sprouted new buildings to accomodate the faculty and students, and the town of Tähtitieteilijä grew to support the university as well. Astronomers who could not come to Tähtitieteilijä in person still corresponded with the masters who did, and over time Saarenkieli has become the international language for the study of astronomy and astrology.

Architecture

The original lighthouse is a stone tower, built on the highest point along the northern coast of Hiidenmaa. The tower itself is just over a hundred feet tall, and its beacon can be seen nearly thirty miles out to sea. Since the apotheosis of Kõpu, the light of the tower has changed from the orange-red of fire to a blue-white that looks like an untwinkling star on the horizon; this beacon requires no fuel, and appears within the lantern room as soon as the first star appears in the sky each night.

The building has undergone modifications over time. The original tower was solid stone, with a wooden staircase around the outside allowing access to the lantern room constructed at the top. Over the centuries, the interior of the tower has been opened up and the exterior walls reinforced to allow for rooms within the tower. The exterior staircase is long gone, and windows for Lighthouse Signaling have been installed three-quarters of the way up the tower's height. The grey stone of the tower has been painted various colors over the years, and it is currently white with yellow and gold markings.

Type

Lighthouse

Parent Location

Tähtitieteilijä

Owning Organization

Order of the Lightkeepers

Characters in Location

• Aamanta Taivasvala

Another Tower

On the wall of the Tähtimestari's office is a painting of a metal tower, against a sky filled with stars. The subject is found upon the mountain called Mégisto, which is the tallest mountain in the world (but only from the top). For the last several hundred years, all those who aspire to become keepers within the Tähtitieteilijä Lighthouse travel on a pilgrimage to the peak of Mégisto, to see the skies and earth from that location, and then to pass through a secret door into the Dreamland known as the Tähtitaivas, or Starry Heavens. In this domain the gods of the stars live, and by entering the Dream upon Mégisto, a mortal might converse with these distant beings and learn secrets that may not be known any other way. It is not known what the priests of the lighthouse carry away from Tähtitaivas, but it has remained a key part of their initiation for generations and looks to remain so for the forseeable future. You can read more about Mégisto here.

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