The Living Lakes: Birdhouses and Tuonela

Traveling the muddy roadways of The Living Lakes, you are bound to come across a variety of birdhouses. These colorful nesting places act as mile markers, prayer sites, and protection. The woods are a strange place where distances can change, and all manner of fearsome critters or small gods skulk about. It is easy for a traveler to wind up dead, or worse, with a case of the “yaps” (going insane).

Well‑maintained birdhouses keep things in place and keep the weirdness in the woods where it belongs. That is why you will likely find Tuonela scattered beneath these tiny homes. Tuonela are the distinctive gravestones of many dwarves in The Living Lakes. Carved from stone or wood, they depict a chimera of dwarf and bird, with a distinctive nose and mustache melding into a beak and wings.

The afterlife is said to be a silent, miserable place where souls wait to be lifted into the starry heavens. To expedite this journey, dwarves bury their dead beneath birdhouses, hoping their souls will be carried away by a cardinal, warbler, or some other nesting songbird. Additionally, birdhouses provide peace of mind for the living by repelling grave robbers, gnomes, or necromancers.

If you come across Tuonela beneath any roadside birdhouses, you may see pasties, cardamom bread, spruce beer, or other delights favored by the deceased left as offerings. DO NOT TAKE THEM. When grave robbers die, they are said to wait in the gray hell for eternity, never to hear music nor be lifted up on colorful wings.

Howdy! I wanted to create simple terrain pieces I could use to spice up any diorama or miniature base. I had already decided how important birdhouses would be to the world, but the role of the Tuonela emerged through some happy experimentation. The word Tuonela comes from the Finnish afterlife. My paternal grandparents were from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and their Finnish heritage was always present (the UP actually has the largest percentage of Finns outside of Finland). Many aspects of The Living Lakes are filtered through my memories with them, as well as my efforts to learn more about the culture in my adulthood.

There were a few guiding ideas I had going in. I absolutely love the gravestones made by Gardens of Hecate and Ramshackle Games. The image of a hillside covered in these strange stones immediately evoked the playful and morbid tone I want for my setting. 

I also wanted to respectfully incorporate some of the veneration traditions found across many real-world cultures. I lived in San Antonio a few years ago, and the Mexican ofrendas built across the city during Día de Muertos fundamentally changed the way I think of death. Stunningly beautiful and painstakingly made, they felt like an opportunity to celebrate loved ones in an active, material way, not just through memory. 

Finally, I was inspired by Kitbash Chaos’ video about creating custom terrain you can send to friends for their games. I wanted to create objects that checked all of these boxes and were easy to replicate without the ability to cast resin models. 

I ended up using Sculpey oven-bake clay and loved the results. I can make five to six stones from a single brick, and they are very easy to mold with the right tools. It feels like a seriously slept-on material for simple designs.

As for the birdhouses, they turned out a bit more abstract than I had imagined. I’m an absolute fiend for Helados Mexico mango popsicles, so I had an embarrassing number of sticks available. They are thicker than typical stir sticks, which resulted in chunky cuts of wood arranged around a cube of XPS foam.

Beyond the obvious inspiration of real birdhouses, these were heavily influenced by the Belgian roadside chapels found throughout Wisconsin. These small, closet-sized shrines allowed travelers a chance to pray and rest during a journey. I first learned about them while working at Heritage Hill, where we had a beautifully preserved chapel from 1903.

The roadside chapel at Heritage Hill

Thanks for reading!

Coming next: More Schlub Cinema and Wisconsin’s favorite cryptid!

xoxo, Gray