"The thunder calls to me in the night. It wants me to douse the light - it knows that the light is keeping the ships away. The thunder is hungry, so hungry. It wants me to douse the light and then leap into the dark. It will be quiet in the dark." - Ian MacColin, junior keeper of the Earraid lighthouse, in his journal.
The Carraig Toirneach is a region filled with reefs, islets, and skerries covering approximately 15 square miles located to the southeast of
Eilean Mòr. This area is extremely hazardous to ships, and the Earraid lighthouse was built there to warn sailors away. The water in the region makes a constant thundering boom that has a strange allure on those who hear it. Before the construction of the lighthouse, ships would inexplicably sail directly into the Carraig Toirneach, only to wreck among the reefs. Later, the survivors would speak of being overcome by the noise and somehow knowing that the only way to find quiet was to sail into it.
Since the construction of the lighthouse at the edge of the rocks, the number of shipwrecks has gone down dramatically. However, the toll on the lighthouse keepers has been substantial. In the last thirty years, there have been seventeen suicides and murder-suicides, and in five instances the lighthouse lamps were doused and shipwrecks resulted. Several other keepers have been removed to the care of the lighthouse-monks at the
Solennefrieden Lighthouse, due to massive nervous breakdown. Attempts to establish a god of the Earraid lighthouse have had limited success - while the genius loci of the lighthouse is present, it remains unaware and unconscious. Additionally, the nature of the spirit of Earraid is itself in question - the sailors who encounter its light experience a sense of impending doom and dread, driving them from the region. This does keep the shipwrecks away, but few are comfortable with birthing a new god with such a focus on fear. The future of the lighthouse is a question that the monks of the
Order of the Lightkeepers are divided on - the need for something to guard against the siren thunder is recognized, but the cost of maintaining Earraid continues to mount.
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