Hertiage Night: DRC

The “D’ni Restoration Council” is an organisation founded to restore D’ni. It was founded in 1997. Dr.Watson seems to be the founder, but information on this topic was hard to research. They lost funding a couple of times, once in 2003 (URU CC) and again in 2007 (MOUL).

Some explorers have felt the DRC has been overly protective. Members of this group of explorers claim that the DRC is conspiring to monopolize the ages for themselves. Now, let us briefly go over members of the DRC.

Cate Alexander was on the council from June 2007 till November 1^st when she resigned. She had a good influence on things the council did and had invested a lot of money in the project.

Michelle Cunningham, Matthew Harrington and Sam Reynolds were translators for the DRC during the 2003 restoration. They did not return in 2006.

<To directly quote “http://www.mystwiki.com”, ‘Phil Henderson was a Restoration Engineer for the DRC during the first Restoration, and was in charge of the restoration of the Age of Eder Kemo.’

Restoration Engineers (often written as “ResEngs”) help restore areas of D’ni and other ages. They wear blue (Cyan) hard hats. Outside the game’s story, they are Cyan employees and have the authority to deal with troublesome explorers.

Dr. Ikuro Kodama was responsible for early stages of restoration of an area or age.

Tricia Lawson studied the D’ni culture in 2003 and did not return in 2006.

Victor Laxman was in charge of restoring D’ni tech. He worked on The Great Zero. I have seen his name often in historical documents.

Again from MystWiki.com: ‘Sonya Michaels is a former DRC contractor, who [used to?] work for a newspaper in Maine’.

Douglas Sharper was a Restoration Engineer, who helped restore Teledahn, The Watcher’s Pub, and Ahnonay. A lot of additional detail can be found here: http://www.mystwiki.com/wiki/Douglas_Sharper. He has an interesting back story. Note that the article does contain minor spoilers.

Accoding to MystWiki.com, ‘Michael Simpson was a member of the DRC as a Restoration Engineer during the First Restoration, and was in charge of restoring Gahreesen and the Watcher’s Pub.’

Marie Sutherland was also a member in the MOUL era (2006 -2007), but I can’t find much info on what she did.

Dr.Watson is the archaeologist who discovered D’ni in 1987 (before the DRC was founded). He freed the Barho from their enslavement in 2005. He has a similar name and appearance to Cyan employee Richard A. Watson. Richard stated that although they might have a similar name and appearance, they do have different personalities.

Finally we have Nick White, an engineer who worked with Douglas Sharper to help translate texts about Teledahn.

Thank you for listening, any questions?

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Heritage Night: Barho Discussion

Hello. Today we will talk here by the fountain.  These are the creature you hear screaming in the cavern. I have a brief presentation and then will open the floor to discussion.

Not much is known about these creatures; the name “Bahro” is D’ni for “beast people”. That may not be the best term for them. The D’ni did not think that highly of them and enslaved them through a means we do not fully understand. (It involved the tablet you see in Myst V).

Because of their enslavement, the Bahro are divided into two groups which are at war with each other. One wants us to leave the cavern and the other does not mind if we stay.

The Bahro have hidden wings which allow them to fly. They have also been known to do incredible things such as: disable linking books, heat areas, speed up time, make it rain, modify time, and create “Bahro Stones,” which break the linking rules.

Now, I open the floor to discussion: does anyone else have something to add?

Revent parts of discussion:

Susa’n: Escher did experiments on the Bahro in Noloben
HeritageNightGuy: Very nasty stuff
Susa’n: a pelt of Bahro skin is draped over his shoulder
Boywhith: Yeah, he used it to link without a linking book.
Boywhith: Because, all Bahro can link without a book.

Boywhith: And be have the war between two groups of bahro…
Boywhith: One group with red eyes and one group with blue eyes.
Boywhith: Ae’ gura is guarded by the ‘ good’ Bahro with blue eyes.
HeritageNightGuy: The war wages on until Cyan has the budget to continue the story
Susa’n laughs
HeritageNightGuy: ***PLUG*** donate to CAVECON today ***PLUG*** LOL

 

Heritage Night: Hood Tour

Hello and welcome. Usually, I start at the top of the stairs, but I will begin here.  

This is the fountain. To celebrate the D’ni New Year, fireworks come out of it. Over there are some Fire Marbles and there are some cones.

While here, I should point out something interesting about the neighborhoods. At one point, they were called “Bevins.” This was an error. The DRC corrected this when explorers pointed it out. There is only one “Bevin”; it was one of the first neighborhoods the DRC found. Like “Kiral,” it looks slightly different than the other “cookie cutter” neighborhoods. It also should be noted that, unlike whatever magic makes copies of the ages, each neighborhood exists in a cluster somewhere in D’ni. Different hoods have different features; for example, different lights<point if you can> and garden ages. Other things are also different too.

Fire marbles are a D’ni technology. They are stones filled with energy. They can be extinguished by water. A lot of the lights around here are powered by them<point>. As you can see, the fire marbles come in different colours. They also come in different sizes. We can kick them without hurting ourselves so they can’t be that hot. What the D’ni used for a power source is unknown.

I also mentioned cones; they are here to prevent us from going to dangerous places. In this hood, explorers gathered most of them in one place.

Now please follow me up the stairs. This is probably a sort of conference room. It is where I usually hold Heritage Night. I’m not sure why, but there are copies of “Inspired Verse” on the pedestals. The button does nothing. When I was here in 2003 [that is in the offline URU], I came across a button that played a message from Dr. Watson.

The left book goes to Garrison, where you got your Ki. The middle book goes to a garden age; it’s outside the scope of this tour. The right book goes to The Great Zero. I’ll talk more about that on the next tour. ;) The front-middle book leads to Nexus (age you were in to get here).

This is the classroom. On the walls, are ordered D’ni numbers. The projector behind me is out of order and can’t be interfaced with. I imagine, at some point, there were presentations on it.In front of me, is the guide to the Nexus and Ki. There is also a manual explaining how to use the clock. We don’t have time to look at these at the moment. 

This is the egg room. Pictured above is the egg. Kind of creepy, isn’t it? If you close any of the doors in this room, you can have a private conversation with someone. What you say can’t be heard outside the small room and I don’t think you can hear others.[Even voice chat won’t escape the room.]

On the tour, we joked about a monster living inside the egg waiting, ready to come out and eat people. Then two explorers stayed behind and did not tell us. I went back to bravely check on them. It was kind of creepy.  The explorers stayed behind to test out the chat functionality. 

The light garden is down here. You can also play Heek(picutered above).

It’s a rock-paper-scissors game. I believe book beats beetle, which beats the red thing (as you can see in its idle animation.)

There are switches by the bridge that turn the lighter here on and off. I like to keep them off since I can see well and want to preserve whatever unknown energy source powers them. The beachball is over there is called “Eddie”. 

This telescope lets you see a view of D’ni. 

This was the last stop on the tour.

The Age Awards

Hello and welcome. It’s time for the Age Awards!

The first category is “Best Puzzles.” It goes to “Teledahn”. Most of the puzzles are innovative and fun to solve. Gahreesen comes in second place; this is due to a game mechanic not found in other Myst games, that made it challenging for me. It does contain spoilers, so if you want to know what I am talking about, ask me at the end. (People who don’t ).

The second category is “Best Graphics.” It does not go to any one age, but all the garden ages. I think they are all graphically nice in their own way. Cyan set out to make beautiful gardens and succeeded.

The third category is “Best Music” and it goes too “Gahreesen.” The music in that age really sets the mood well. It conveys the sense of scale and mood for the age.

The fourth category is “Best Overall Age“and it also goes to “Gahreesen”. It’s a fun age to explore and is rewarding when you fix the machines in it. It was also well thought out and put together. Lastly, it adds to the story by showing some background of the Guild Of Maintainers. In the offline game, it’s even more special, since there is no clue that you will find your Ki there and the Ki is a big game changer.

The neighbourhoods in URU (not the offline game) have the best layout. It’s easy for players to find their way here, to the classroom, to the heek table and the imager screens. This is especially important for new players.

And now for the Player’s choice:

Here they are as counted from the forums:

Overall:

Kadish Tolesa – 1X

Gahreesen – 1X

Best Graphics:

K’veer -1X

Best Music:

Sharpers D’ni Office – 1 X

Teledahn – 2X

Ahnonay – 1 X

Best Puzzles:

Kadish Tolesa 1 x

People’s complet comments can be found here: http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28808

No questions about this event, if you have any, feel free to leave a comment.

City Tour

This is what I said on the tour. At each stop people could ask question, I have included any if there were any.

 

Behind me is The Arch of Kerath. It was constructed in 7057 BCE and was modelled after an identical arch found in the D’ni’s age of origin. A prophecy said that the “Great King”(a prophesied ruler of the D’ni) would be welcomed by the Arch. It was of great importance to D’ni people. Fun as it is, the D’ni never flew around the arch on the backs of Barho. That’s a popular trick made by modern “wizards” in the Fun House, a place where people are allowed to hack the game.

Welcome to the docks. Here, ferries would transport people to and from veryus places in D’ni. There was a meter on the docks at one point. People were trying to light the lake and it was supposed to tell them how well they were doing. You can read more about lighting the lake here: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/1401/ .

This is a memorial. It was discovered and set up by Dr.Watson shortly after the explorer “Wheely Enberg” was killed by the bad Barho. She was only a teenager at the time. The tragedy reminded everyone of the dangers of cavern life. The other names on the memorial are also explorers who have passed away. If I recall correctly, most of the others are real explorers and not characters made by Cyan.

(lets move on the pub itself)

Ok this is the “Kahlo Pub”.

Over here, we have some monitors. 

Obviously, they don’t work, but the DRC thinks they *might* have been used to broadcast information about races that took place in another age. Any questions about what you have seen in the pub?

Enteral Seeker wanted to know why it’s called the Kaho Pub and I told them I did not know that.

Spatially wanted to know if it were “off-track betting” and I said I believe so.

This is the “Great Stairs”. At one point, some of the Barho did not like us being here. They showed their anger by flying overhead and circling the arch. Later, on Rand’s birthday, this was the spot where the events that lead to the creation of the Fun House took place. This included an illusion of the angry Barho among other things. To find out more about the creation of the Hood Of Illusions, go here: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/the-fun-house-vidoes/.

This is a sort of “central hub” where explorers often meet. 

This is the museum. The books here lead to ages the D’ni used to study various animals.

This ‘library’ contains books about the D’ni You could spend a long time reading them. It is called the “Hall Of Kings”. Boywith new more about this area then I did, so I let him contribute this to the tour: 

As the name suggests, in the places, books are stored that tells short chronicles about the D’ni Kings. However,  a few books are missing. You can find 3 missing ones on the Tokotah roof.

We are now in the “Kadish Gallery”. It’s an art gallery by a Grand Master. The artwork is odd in that it is suspected not to be D’ni in origin. Please take some time to look around the gallery and let me know if you have any questions.

This is the last stop. This is the library. Most of it is unavailable to us, but there are several linking books here.

Once again, this is the last stop, any questions about anything you saw here or anywhere.

 

D’ni Holiday

Hello and welcome. Today, I will be talking about ‘D’ni holidays’.

Now the D’ni used a different calendar, but don’t worry, I’ll explain the dates in a way that you will understand. It should be noted that they don’t translate 100% to our dates as our calendar “shifts” compared to theirs.

Throughout the year, there are three “Feasts of the Maker”. The first would occur around March 27th. “The Maker” is the D’ni’s god. I can find little info about this event, sorry.

The D’ni New Year occurs around April 20th.. At this time of year, if you come in Cavern, you will see a confetti display in the neighbourhoods and some slightly different decorations.

Until D’ni “year” 233, the average person did not have access to linking books. On D’ni day “Leefo* 12” of that year, the “Common Library” was opened and the average person could finally travel to other ages! This day became a holiday amongst the D’ni and would occur around May 5th on our calendar. *Leefo is the first “month” in the D’ni “year”.

The Second Feast of the Maker occurs around June 21st.

The D’ni’s old home was destroyed on “Leetar 21 3646”. A holiday was created called the “Day Of Dancing” when this was observed.(As far as I know they all moved here but that point). Where it gets it name is unclear to me. It takes place on September 3rd on our modern calendar. In modern times, people have planned musical events around this time.

The destruction of the D’ni’s old home was prophesied. It was said that a “Great King” would lead the people to a new home. This prophecy was true, and a man named “Ri’neref” was the one to lead people to their new home. This day is celebrated as “First Arrival of the Great King”. It occurs around September 28th.

The last “Feast of the Maker” occurs around November 11th.

The “Coronation of King Kerath” occurs around November 23rd.

After the move to the new home, the D’ni realized that they had lost some important healing ages. This was a great loss to Dn’i society. They were found in the “year” 2262 and the day they were found became a great celebration. An annual tradition of parents hiding fire marbles to be found by children was started.(sounds like Easter) It occurs on “Leevobro 12”. I don’t know what day that would be on a modern calendar. (I don’t have a very good idea of how to translate D’ni years to ours; the other dates were on the D’ni Wiki).

Lastly, the opening of the Guild Of Writers on Leevot 9 is remembered, but not celebrated.

Thank you for listening. Any questions?

[NONE]

UPDATE: Explorer “korovev” made a handy table on the Myst Online fourms, it does
not render well here though, so here is a link too it:
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=427225#p427225

The Guilds

Hello and welcome to another Heritage Night. Today, we are going to talk about the guilds. Back when the cavern was operated by the D’ni, there were 18 major guilds and countless smaller ones. The larger guilds were pretty exclusive and they had a lot of influence over D’ni society at the time.

Some of the noteworthy major guilds were:

The Guild Of Writers – who trained the D’ni in the art of age writing.

The Guild Of Legislators – who made and revised the laws.

The Guild Of Cartographers – who mapped ages.

The Guild of Healers – who, as the name implies, were in charge of tending to the sick and injured.

The Guild Of Messengers – who were in charge of communications.

The last noteworthy guild was the Guild of Maintainers. They acted as a sort of police force. The age ‘Gahreesen’ was their ‘home-base’.

Each guild, at the time, had a Grand Master who was in charge of it. The master would have a bunch of “Guild Masters” who worked for him or her. A couple of lucky Guilds had “Great Lords” who were masters with the authority of a king. Below the Master was: the Captain, Guildsman and Apprentice.

People would work and could live at a Guild Hall. Some of the guilds were lucky enough to have their own age. I mentioned ‘Gahreesen’ before; another example was ‘Er’cana’ which was the base of the Guild Of Caterers.

In modern times, explorers have decided to form their own guilds based on four of the guilds of old. They are: the Guild Of Writers, Maintainers, Cartographers, and Messengers. There is also The Guild Of Greeters, which has no historical counterpart. The DRC has kindly made shirts for these guilds. You probably have heard of these guilds. Is there anyone here who is new to MOULa or would like a refresher?

If needed…

The people of the Guild Of Writers have learned the art of writing. A number of people in the Guild have written their own fan ages. Some of them are available on “The Gehn Shard”(a client/server pair) which the guild runs. Members have also made contributions to this game.

The Guild Of Maintainers are those explorers who wish to boldly go explore ages first. The connection to the guild of old is the maintainer’s suit, which members of the old Guild would wear when entering a dangerous location. Lately, I have not seen much activity from this guild.

The Guild Of Cartographers takes on about the same role as it did in the past. They don’t seem to be mentioned often in public.

The modern Guild Of Messengers is responsible for communicating information about the cavern, like they did in the past. Of course, today they also communicate on the internet. They coordinate the monthly All Guilds Meetings where people present events.

The Guild Of Greeters is an explorer-created guild. They welcome new explorers into the cavern.

..end of optional section

Thank you very much for listening, I hope you found this as interesting to listen to as I did to write it. I found the site “dni.wikia.com” extremely helpful in researching this topic and I suggest you check it out if you want more info. Any questions?

[None asked]