From Introduction: Th e first sign of civilization seen by so many early visitors to Ikstvarr was the lighthouse. Not just any lighthouse — for now this coast is blessed with several — but the lighthouse. Built by Baron Vodom before there was even a town on this island, it once guided ships around the storm-wracked southwest corner to safety in the port of Keelhafen. But its history is also steeped in blood. The memories of those who were there have made their way into the realm of nightmares, and from there they return to this Earth in a shape that kills. Baron Vodom’s lighthouse no longer stands, but the atrocities committed in and around it have given shape to a new lighthouse. Memories of flayed human skin draped across the tower’s walls and severed limbs hanging from its windows provide it shape and structure. Memories of alarms, of screaming human voices, give it voice and it asks why — “why did you bring me to this island, only to suffer?” — as if it expects an answer from humanity. But it does not. It cares not for answers. Its goal is only the suffering that will give it more memories to use as nightmare fuel.