Stories I Found
October 14th, 2025
A City From the Gods
Dear Readers,
Hello again! I am glad to be back in the States after a week away in Iceland! Getting to serve in Akureyri was a incredibly restorative experience and has provided a lot of clarity about what the next season of life needs to be. Much of the service time was dedicated to doing very ordinary things such as sorting clothes or cooking meals. This had a profound impact on me as I realized that I have spent much of my life feeling that to do something impactful I needed to do something extraordinary or miraculous. Watching people in Akureyri do small things consistently and faithfully to serve those in need showed me the importance of doing the same. I desperately long to set things right in difficult times like these. The fact that this is beyond my ability is deeply frustrating and I forget what I can do right around me. Small things like contributing to the regular meals for the homeless at church or cleaning up trash in a public space is valuable and impactful. I am working to not forget this.
As for writing updates, I took the past two weeks off as I was preparing for Iceland and traveling. It was the right decision as it let me step away from my laptop for the first time in years. Typically, I travel just about everywhere with it and have done so since college. It was good to have a break to allow ideas to simmer and boil in the background for a while.
This Week’s Chapter
Very often, myths communicate the ideals a culture strives for and how people often stray away from those ideals. This chapter very much falls into the first category. Its narrative lays out the basics of what the culture of Irrkengrond at its founding held up as the ideal for leaders. Future chapters will delve into other ideals, and how people in and around the city fail to live up to these ideals. There is some sense in which these are my ideals and what I believe about the what I think is true. The failures and successes of characters in the story are the failures and successes I see in the United States today. We are seeing what I think in the shape of the mythology written by a people who may have existed in a world much like our own.
The major characters that are introduced in this chapter are Ikata and Milyos. They will feature in multiple other chapters in the future. Their stories and their labors form the skeleton on which the rest of the plot hinges. The city Ikata gives mortals will play a central role in the narrative going forward. So to will Milyos and his desire to have magic explored to the fullest.
The image of Milyos’ swirling cloud of stars is one of my favorite in my writing. It nicely conveys the sense of mystery surrounding him as the god of magic. Contrasting this, Ikata is described as appearing like “citrine stone”, concrete, present, and physical. These bodily differences reflect differences in their concerns in the world and how they view the mortals they wish to influence.
As always, please feel free to share these newsletters with other people you think may be interested, and leave comments on the chapter!
“Chapter 3: The Kings of Irrkengrond
When the gods had parceled out their gifts to the mortal forms, Ikata, Architect of heaven, gave to the mortals the city of Irrkengrond. Built in the shape of a great hexagon and centered around the great central tower, high walls marked the perimeter of the city with a large gatehouse tower at each corner and at the center of each side. Between each corner tower and each tower in the center of the wall, there were three lesser towers, marking each mile on the walls. Between these are yet smaller towers marking the quarter mile. Working out from the central tower, there were concentric rings of roads. In the center most ring there was the divine spring that provided water for all of the city. Outside of the central ring…”
Something Extra!
This weeks something extra is a very fun release for me! A map! This is the world map for The Siblings, the Couple, and the City. Why is it coming now? One, because I hadn’t finished a nice copy of the map until now. Second, Chapter 3 introduces our second named place. Now you can find both Rosdoros and Irrkengrond on the map, and get a look in to other locations that will appear in future stories. I may add additional locations in the future as well.
You can find the map on the webpage at the bottom of the chapters page on the website here.
