Cynthia Weaver

The Lady of the Light

At first, The Lamp Lady, also known as Cynthia Weaver, plays a rather small role in the events of Alan Wake, but turns out to have a greater impact on the story in the end. She is one of the few people in Bright Falls that was involved and remembers the poet Thomas Zane and is aware of what happened to him. She was once a journalist, and investigated occurrences into the occult, until she became the light keeper for the whole town of Bright Falls.  
 

Background Story

Warning: This section contains spoilers.

Cynthia lives in a power plant by a dam and guards the "Well-Lit Room". Towards the end of the game, Wake learns that Zane entrusted a piece of "insurance" to Cynthia, this insurance is the line of defense against the dark presence. She's obsessed and borderline insane. Her life's goal is to protect the Well-Lit-Room and to do this she carefully checks every single light bulb (there are hundreds of them) and changes them regularly. She's against taking any risks, especially ones that involve venturing into the night. In chapter 5, when the Sarah Breaker and Barry crash their helicopter, she doesn't care, too scared to go into the darkness. Despite once being romantically involved with Thomas Zane, she seems to resent him when the events of the game take place. 
 
During the game, Alan Wake finds special chests with ammo and supplies. He finds these thanks to arrows painted around the environment. It's revealed that Cynthia was doing this all along, telling Alan that only people who'd seen the darkness can see the special paint that guides him to the chest. The symbol painted over the chest is actually the symbol of the power plant  where Cynthia is hiding. Cynthia's living quarters are simple. She lives in the main part of the power plant. Her front door is actually two large dors. Behind said door is a huge flood light, so no Taken can get in when they open. Cynthia controls these lights and never, ever leaves her lamp. In this large bright room there are some simple living materials: a stove, a fridge, a bed, a night stand... The walls of her "home" are covered with writings in yellow paint, writings that further stretch the fact that she's clearly insane. By walking down a flight of stairs, you arrive at a tunnel that leads to the Well-Lit Room. 
 

Trivia

• In the song "Poet and His Muse" by Old Gods of Asgard, she is referred to as "the lady of the light gone mad with the night". The song is heard towards the end of chapter 4 and the lyric is played in a loop, indicating to Barry and Alan that Cynthia is a vital piece of the puzzle.
• In Nightingale's diary, he refers to Cynthia as Diogenes. Diogenes was an ancient Greek philosopher who walked around Athenes with a lamp, looking for a man with a pure soul.  

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  The Lamp Lady is a clear reference to The Log Lady from the cult TV-show Twin Peaks. Not only do they share a similar name; their appearance, behaviour and importance to the plot is almost identical. The main character in Twin Peaks and Alan Wake both meet her in a dinner. She's written off as crazy by the inhabitants of the town. They even seem to have the same glasses. Other then the object they always carry around, what really sets them apart is that Log Lady's log seemed to have psychic abilities while Lamp Lady's lamp only serves as a way to keep the darkness away.
  Remedy Entertainment has always been keen to include a lot of pop-culture references in their games, but Alan Wake as a whole bears a lot of resemblance with Twin Peaks in general, which has been a huge inspiration for the game. In the game's developer commentary, they even admit that they wanted the local diner in Bright Falls to look exactly like the Double R Diner from Twin Peaks.
• Voiced by Linda Cook for English version of game.