Laguna

From an undisclosed location (it's right next to Hope's den, and she complains about the noise all the time) Laguna runs the fusion of magic and technology that broadcasts Sornieth's only radio show hosted by a cowboy wizard: Radio Starfall! With his co-host, a corven named Kedra, he brings the denizens of the Isles updates on the state of the world through both conventional airwaves and the mystic aether. Anyone with either a radio made from Lightning tech or a properly configured crystal array can tune in, as long as they've learned the frequency from somebody already in the know. Laguna broadcasts near constantly (he's got nothing better to do), so it's always worth checking to hear if he's interviewing someone interesting or just having an inane discussion with Kedra.

Laguna started Radio Starfall after getting fed up with just how ignorant his clanmates were about the rest of the world. Some of them don't even know where the Pillar of the World is, for goodness' sake! As far as Laguna is concerned, it's his duty to make sure Clan _______ has some actual perspective on what's going on around them. He'll keep the rest of the Isles up to date too, or at least those as far as his signal reaches. He doesn't know Lightning tech that well, but magical information travels farther through the aether the more crystals you stick together, so radio transmitters must work the same way. Hopefully he hasn't been making Kedra stack the wires higher and higher for nothing.

Some may think Laguna wouldn't make a great radio personality, since as fae don't have expressive voices he'd bore even a snapper to sleep. That's fair, but Laguna does have a impressively smooth radio voice. Unfortunately, it's still emotionless, and he can't turn it off, ever. That's why he has a co-host. Kedra's got enough enthusiasm to put a spiral to shame and serves to make the show significantly more interesting, mostly by yelling excitedly about everything. Sure, sometimes they annoy the clan so much that someone bursts into the studio to get them to quiet down, but hey, that’s a free special guest! Kedra’s also there to provide a beastclan's perspective on events, which Laguna holds to be very important. There's probably at least one centaur out there with a radio.

As they're based on a distant island, it can be difficult for the two radio hosts to get any news before it's well out of date. To fix that, Laguna bribes the courier dragons to bring back news of whatever’s going on in the other flights. Bribing every last courier is expensive, but it’s fine; Kedra hasn’t been caught stealing treasure from Primacy yet. But that still doesn’t fill up an entire day of radio, so they’ll try to convince any interesting looking travellers who’re passing through the clan to give an interview. Special-guests-to-be aren’t often eager to speak with a fae and a shrieking corven, but they’ll usually give Radio Starfall a shot after being offered enough snacks.

A number of other clan members are also regular contributors to the show, hosting their own programs where Laguna’s only there to ask the occasional question and keep things moving along. (Kedra’s there too, but their questions are often only tangentially related.) Melodie acts as their field correspondent, and she’s quite happy to finally have somewhere to present the stories she’s worked so hard to find. Her in-studio reports generally go better than the ones from the field, which are often cut short when she’s forced to flee from the Isles’ latest danger. Laguna does his best to assure listeners that Melodie will be fine, all while Kedra has a good laugh about it. Delyth and Lumisa both host history shows, and any number of clan members can join Laguna for a presentation on the latest advances in magic and astronomy. Karigan has even convinced travelling musicians to play over the radio on occasion, and while that’s been very popular, it’s also prohibitively expensive.

Still, sometimes there’s just nothing interesting going on. In such an event, Laguna and Kedra are forced to fill time, talking about whatever they came come up with. While occasionally they’ll find meaningful topics such as how beastclans and dragons can get along better or what to do in the case of a lair fire, usually they just prattle on about the first thing that enters their minds. Listening to a fae and a corven discuss whether they should attach fins to their pet snake for better air stability or wonder just how cramped the deities were in the Pillar of the World is a unique form of entertainment, to say the least.

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When he lived in the Windswept Plateau, Laguna had a hobby of perching atop one of the cliffs of the Reedcleft Ascent and yelling out into the wind, hoping that it would carry his words away to where somebody else might hear them. It was often lonely, since he usually chose to fly out into the middle of nowhere, but the idea of dragons he'd never meet being about to hear what he said struck a chord with Laguna.

But one day, somebody yelled back.

Well, others had shouted in response before. But they just wanted Laguna to shut up. This voice was saying hello back. To say Lagura was excited would be a grave understatement. The speed in which he took to the air and flew in the direction of the voice would have put a spiral to shame.

Laguna wasn't sure why he wanted to meet the voice's owner so badly. It wasn't like they'd be falling claw over tail to meet the dragon who yelled at the sky. But that didn't matter. What matted was that he wanted to meet them.

So he flew, southwards, to where the other voice had come from. It wasn't a long flight, since there's only so far sound can travel. Laguna's best guess at the location was a small outcropping of bamboo and tall grass atop a prominent cliff, and he reached it within minutes.

No one was there. Laguna wasn't surprised, but that didn't counteract the weight of disappointment. Heavy with both the letdown and embarrassment over getting so excited, he dove into the outcropping. It'd make a good spot to hide out for a few hours, where nobody could see him. Once he was only a metre or two above the ground, Laguna just let himself fall, trusting the grass to provide a soft landing.

He didn't trust the grass to squawk on impact, but it did so anyways. Grass doesn't care what dragons think.

Grass also doesn't care about what corven want, and didn't protect the one hiding in it from the small dragon who'd decided to crash land right on top of them. Not that Laguna weighed nearly enough to hurt a corven by falling on one, but the birdfolk did nearly sprain a wing in their subsequent flailing panic.

Fortunately, for once a meeting between beastclan and dragon didn't immediately turn to violence. Instead it turned to profuse apologizing, which lasted for a number of minutes before Laguna realized and was surprised by the fact that a corven had bothered to learn the local form of draconic. That turned out to be an accident on the corven's part. They were rather talented at not only imitating sounds, but learning through imitation, and had managed to learn draconic just in time to be accused of being a spy for the dragons. (Kedra would later realize that this means any actual spy got away with whatever they were doing, and as far as they're concerned that's what their old roost deserves.)

As such, the corven, who was named Kedra, had been alone for a little while. They'd apparently done rather well at the whole surviving thing, but had quickly become incredibly lonely. (Only later would Laguna learn that Kedra had been surviving by their lonesome for maybe three days, and not the months they were acting like it had been.) Without much to do in the wilderness, Kedra had taken to scavenging the wreckage of things that fell of the local cliffs. They'd managed to find what must have been a caravan from lightning that had travelled just a bit too close to the edge, and had accrued quite the collection of wires and shiny bits of metal.

With great excitement and also having not stopped talking since Laguna crashed into them, Kedra showed the fae how connecting all the various bits of junk they'd gathered together with wires created a truly horrible noise. Just the worst. And yet, once the feedback screech was gone and Laguna could think clearly again, he realized this corven was on to something. They'd need to get this equipment repaired, but somewhere among this junk was a working radio transmitter. All they needed was somewhere to set up a broadcast tower. Laguna did think it was a bit weird that he was already thinking of the corven and himself as a team, but the bird was quickly growing on him. Not that Kedra appeared to ever do anything slowly.

Which was nice. Laguna didn't want to wait to broadcast his voice around Sornieth either.