Stories I Found
September 16th, 2025
The Only way to Begin is by Beginning…
Dear Readers,
Hello! Thank you so much for subscribing to Stories I Found! I am deeply grateful for you giving your time and energy to this project. I began work on these stories in 2021 (nearly 4 years ago now). It started as some simple myths that I wrote to flesh out a D&D world and sort of spiraled out from there. They have grown to be so much more than just D&D flavor text. They have become my way of exploring American culture (defined in the broadest possible way) using mythological language. They are also a way for me to understand what I believe about the world. I had a professor in undergrad at Taylor University named Daniel Bowman who taught my introductory writing course. He would quite frequently quote the English author E. M. Forster, saying “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” This quotation has stuck with me and been something I have reflected on quite frequently. These stories are what I have to say. Together we can see what I think. Hopefully, it makes for an entertaining story. So without further ado, let me introduce The Siblings, the Couple, the City.
This Week’s Chapter
As all good mythologies do, The Siblings, the Couple, the City opens with a prologue introducing our character and a creation myth. The prologue serves as a simple, quick introduction to the most important gods who make the world. It also establishes cultural factors that could lead to the creation of this myth. We are introduced to important figures that not only play a key role in the story, but represent ideas bigger than just themselves. Nature, craftsmanship, technology, and more are embodied in these deities. More characters will be introduced along the way, but if you want a quick reference as to who is who in the story, the prologue is a great place to go (This is deeply inspired by my father, who despite his love of Russian literature, cannot keep character names straight).
Chapter 1 then takes on the more formal creation of mortals. The creation myth explores several ideas, including “how would a culture that deeply values diversity and collaboration talk about multiple gods making the earth?” and “how might the tension between personal accomplishment and collaboration found in modern American culture express itself in a creation narrative?” These inform the voice of the story, which aims to sound as if a real culture might have written these stories.
Please feel free to share these newsletters with other people you think may be interested, and leave comments on the chapters!
“These are tales and stories passed from generation to generation in the land of Atisha.
They tell of how the gods withdrew from the world and how death became downcast.
Prologue: The coming of the Pelolmeth
The first of the Pelolmeth, the makers, to emerge from the space before was Aientas, bright and aged. Wrinkled and bearded, he brought with him the stars and filled the universe with light, taking up rule in heaven as a king. Then came Myliayar, Mother of spirits and all things unseen, the deep brown umber of her skin shining in Aientas’s light…”
Something Extra!
As promised, here is something extra! For this first newsletter I would like to introduce you to Kaelen Rodgers! Kaelen has been a good friend since we met at Taylor and she recently completed her MFA in Communications Design at Pratt Institute. When I began the process of designing my webpage, I reached out to her about doing graphic design for it and she graciously agreed. You can find her work all over this newsletter and the webpage in the form of the six sigils. Each one represents important characters in The Siblings, the Couple, the City. You can think of them as a fun little mystery to unravel as you read! Check out Kaelen’s webpage here . She is an incredibly talented designer and artist!
Want to Get in Touch?
Do you have a question about the story? Want to chat about writing? Just have something on your mind? Feel free to reach out using the link below!