URU FanFic

I wrote this FanFic for composition at my local library.  I thought I would share it here.

Jamie’s Cavern Journal

I have told nobody, but in 2008, I started having dreams about a great city under the desert in New Mexico. In the dreams, I am also in other places that do not appear to be on earth. In 2010, I won the lottery and used it to take a trip to New Mexico to investigate the place I saw in my dream. 

Chapter 1: Introduction

February, 2010

Upon arriving in New Mexico, I looked at a map and had a gut feeling to go to a certain location. I then came to this property, which I was drawn to. I took this photo:

I soon met Zandi, who said that I was drawn there. But how did he know that? If that was not weird enough, it was going to get weirder a lot weirder!

Below is a photo of Zandi; he did not seem to mind:

Behind Zandi’s trailer, I saw the cleft (pictured below), which was one of the things I remember from my recurring dreams:

I nside the cleft, there were some abandoned houses. That windmil in the background could actually power them up and a real hologram of a weird-looking women appeared. I was so shocked that I forgot to take a photo of her. She sent me on a quest to find hand-prints around the Ages. At the time, I had no clue what an Age was, but now I know it’s the most incredible thing you have ever seen. After solving some puzzles that seemed like they came out of an adventure game¹, I eventually found a book and a small cave. Flipping through the book, I saw no words in it, but on the last page was a picture of an island. This is where my journey began! I put my hand over the picture and touched it and felt a weird vibrating sensation and heard a loud sound. Then I saw nothing but black for about ten seconds; then I heard the sound again. The sound I heard was very weird. I can think of five different ways of describing it but I think the best way is : “VOWVOOOOCCHCHCHCHHCH”

I was in what those in our community would call another “Age.” Now, I might be rusty on this one, but I believe Ages are their own universes! Yes! That is as crazy as it sounds!

I was by a small hut on an island which we call Relto. From there, I found a book to the city. According to other explorers I met, they say it is indeed under New Mexico, like in my dream.

At this point, you probably don’t believe me, so here is a picture of one of the other Ages I recently visited:

As you can see, it’s a totally different world!

So this is what I know about what is going on. For years, an advanced civilization called the D’ni inhabited the city. D’ni is pronounced “Den-ni” but one of the last of their kind pronounced it closer to “Duck-Nee,” but he had a thick accent. The D’ni were NOT human and actually came from another Age. Eventually, their civilization fell, but left a huge legacy. Their most noteworthy technology was their ability to link (that’s what you call it) to other Ages. A book like the one I found is called a linking book. There can be many linking books copied from the same “master,” called a descriptive book. The guy who wrote “2001 a Space Odyssey” once said: “Any advanced technology will seem to the unenlightened like magic” (or something along those lines) and that’s what this “tech” seems like.

Closer to our own tech is something called the Ki. It’s a watch device that also functions as a camera and lets you communicate between the Ages!

A group called the D’ni Research Council or DRC set up base in The Cavern (the underground city) at one point. They where there for about a year when they ran out of funding and requested that people leave the city. Explorers started being “called” back in 2010, even though the DRC was not there to support us.

Now, I could talk about my adventures in Cavern for a long time, but I don’t have that much of it, so the last thing I’ll say in this entry is about another race of beings called the Bahro (Bar-ro) that were enslaved by the D’ni. DRC member Dr.Watson freed them in 2005 and this created the problem that, since the D’ni looked human (but were not), some Bahro were angry at us. There are two factions of Bahro. A teenage girl was, sadly, killed by the Bahro, who don’t like us. The good news is that this group is being held at bay by a group that do like us.

Oh, and one more thing, some explorers have discovered how to make their own Ages so I don’t need to go back to New Mexico again. There are now linking books that let you go to every major city.

Chapter 2: OHB

I recently found a neighbourhood named “The Guild of Robots”. Interested, I went in. There were two people in the “hood.” One of them called himself “OHB;” the other, “OHBot”. OHB stands for Orange Hair Boy since he has orange hair. OHBot was a robot created by OHB, who had a striking uncanny resemblance to his creator. OHBot was in very early stages of development. Most of the things I said to him, he did not understand and said something like: “I don’t know what you said; I’ll let OHB know, so he can fix the problem.”

If I only knew, at that point, that OHBot would be become a big thing! I left and continued my duties around Cavern.

As time passed, I came back to visit them. OHBot had become a lot more advanced. You could ask him many things and he had many responses. For example, you could ask him “OHBot, what it your favorite colour?” and he would say “Orange.” If you pretended to throw something at him, he would respond by saying, “I set my phasers to 100% to destroy the object.”

There was a lot of silly stuff like that, but also a lot of useful stuff as well. He could tell you the weather, calculate a puzzle’s answer, and translate phrases into different languages.

OHBot looked human, but he could not see or move without OHB’s help. In other words, he was very limited. Yet some were afraid of realistic-looking robots in their

Cavern! Rand Miller is the CEO of a company that has a large investment in all things related to the D’ni. Rand approved of OHBot so he was allowed to stay.

OHB added a translation function for fun. He did not realize how useful it would be. When it was added, people were Ki-mailing (email with their watch-like device) their buddies, who did not speak that much English and were telling them to “get into the Guild of Robots now!”

July 10^th, 2010 – 7:00 AM EST

It’s my birthday today, but looking at the forums explorers use, it seems OHB has a nemesis, who has kidnapped him! His nemesis left a puzzle and if we can solve it, we can free him and, if not, a talking Bomb that quotes the game Starship Titanic (have to play that one sometime) will blow up the cavern!

July 10^th, 2010 – 8:00 AM EST

OHB is still not safe but apparently he has food and the Bomb has a bug in it that makes it restart when it reaches 0, so that’s good!

July 10^th, 2010 – 4:00 PM EST

I tried to go the city, but I can’t get in since the Nexsis’* security system says there are too many people there, oh well.

* The Nexsis is a repository of Linking Books accessible by sticking a Ki into a device. The Books are locked, can be used, but none of them can be taken with you.

July 10^th, later that day

Thanks to the hard work of other explorers, the Bomb has been deactivated and OHB freed. OHB has now hacked the Bomb so those who did not get to see it can, in a safe manner.

In the end, OHB was busy with other aspects of his life and OHBot “died” from disrepair.

Chapter 3: The Hood Of Illusions

Unfortunately, I missed most of these events, but here is what I have heard from others.

May 2010

It was reported that a Bahro had appeared in the city! Now, sometimes we hear them scream in the background and see rare sightings on rooftops, but this was apparently up-close and personal. He also showed up on the Ki as someone we could message with our Ki device. The name that showed up was “NotABeast”. This appears to be a form of protest as the name “Bahro” means “Beastman” in D’ni. It was proposed on the forums that we call them “Vachro” instead. Vachro (I might have spelled it wrong), means “linking people” as they can link at will.

Later that month

The DRC (who is still around, but very small) has investigated and it appears this was a complex hoax. We have been warned that the real Bahro might be offended and, as I said, some of them are unfriendly so if this sort of thing happens again, it might be unsafe to visit the cavern at all in the future. So, hopefully, it never happens again! Also, Dr. Watson, who has spent a lot of time amongst them, says they are not offended by the name Bahro at all and that we can keep calling them that.

February 2011, Rand Miller’s birthday

At first, it was reported that there was fog of unusual colours. Rand thought it was entertaining, but when he left, it began! There was a large screech and a huge number of Bahro flew overhead. They circled around a building by the lake! People who had been in the community for a long time said that the last time they had seen something like that, there was some sort of an attack! Later, people thought they were flung into the air and people got messages from their friends on their Ki, that their friends did not send. (A Ki hack.) What was this, was it the end of the Cavern!

Later, it was discovered that it was a large hoax using lots of stage magic to create realistic illusions, but the damage was done and I feared the Cavern would be closed to us, deemed too dangerous!

Since Rand liked part of what he saw, he used his influence to convince the DRC to keep the Cavern open and actually give people a place where it would be safe to practise these complex illusions. These places had two rules:

1. You are not allowed to use magic on anyone without their permission (so no more Ki hacks.)

2. Illusions must not leave the assigned areas.

These areas were called “The Fun House” and “The Hood Of Illusions,” with the first being a drop-in place where these illusions could be seen anytime, and the second being for events. The Bahro would not be offended if “magic remained in these locations.

Since the Hood’s creation, little abuse has been seen and we have enjoyed many great illusions over the years. Knowing they are not real, they can be very enjoyable!

Chapter 4: Kevin Nevek and Alex Vancar

January 2013

I met Kevin Nevek and Alex Vancar today; they have been on a couple of very entertaining adventures. Kevin had found an ancient D’ni artifact, which he needed several crystals to open. The crystals were located in several Ages including: a maze, a cave, a railway, a mountain top, and an asteroid converted into a lab.

Kevin said he had help from some other explorers to find the crystals. The maze would take him too long to explain. The cave had a time machine in it, but it broke after its only use, so there is no proof of this. Some scientists were trapped (out of phase) in the lab on the asteroid. Kevin’s friends saved them. The train was launched off over a large gap and people apparently died and came back to life, but Kevin and I think those parts were exaggerated.

Alex briefly talked about their second adventure in which Kevin was missing, but it turned out he went on vacation in another Age. Kevin was understandably embarrassed by the misunderstanding, so we did not talk about it further.

He also told me about a rumour that the US military wanted to take over the Cavern, but I have not heard anything of this since.

After talking to some of Kevin’s friends, I realized there are a lot of things in this journal they have not experienced. I have now decided to run an event to tell stories of things that happened in the Cavern. I am the first person to tell stories about the Cavern. Compared with today, it was fairly active in 2007 when the DRC was fully funded. Other people told stories under the name “Heritage Night” and I think I can secure this branding.

Chapter 5: The Lost Art

Summer, 2018

Man, it’s been a while since I’ve been in Cavern; maybe I should pop in soon, I have been busy and am now a member of many clubs, so I don’t have that much time.

Today, I met with some people filming in the Cavern. They are making a fictional YouTube show based in the Cavern. Parts are up on YouTube so I can talk about those parts. It’s the year 2040 and the US military comes up with the idea to look for a solution to global warming in another Age. (Maybe this is where the rumours Kevin’s friends heard came from.) In this time, the Cavern has been hushed by the military. There are a lot of twists and turns and I don’t want to spoil it. Lets just say they find a lot of neat stuff here.

They are making the movie for free as volunteers, and I have joined their team, but movie-making is too stressful for me. Fortunately, they found a good role for me as a continuity checker. It’s been a lot of fun!

Chapter 6: Wrapping it up

Spring 2020

I’m still very busy and the Heritage Nights stopped a while ago without any sort of announcement, partly because I have run out of ideas and partly, like OHB, I just don’t have that much time. Maybe I’ll have time in the future, who knows! I leave you with a quote from a well-known person (Atrus) amongst D’ni archeologists: “and so I close realizing that the ending has not yet been written.”

-Jamie Marchant

1 Video games where you have to solve puzzles and explore rather than hurting things to proceed. Famous examples are: The 7^th Guest, Broken Sword, and The Journeyman Project (which is a lesser known one) There may have been another one, but I forget it’s name.

 

The Lost Art

So if you have not seen ‘MystiTech Productions”s “The Last Art”, I highly recommend it! Set in the future, man kind is exploring any options that may help them to deal with Global Warming. So a bunch of explorers head down to D’ni, hoping they will find the answers in another age. Now the cavern has changed over the years and you will see those changes in the episodes.

Although a lot of light-hearten videos have been made about Myst and URU, “The Lost Art” has the serious tone you would expect from one of the Myst games and high production values. Hear is the YouTube channel where you can see the videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx2BDDKdS_X6CVWPUXjeXHw. Season 1 is complete and they are working on season two. I love the series and have been helping them out with session 2. When you done the trailer watching session 1, the trailer for session 2 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsPuTrU4pJM. Enjoy!

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?

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]

Hertiage Night New Players Event

Hello and welcome! My name is Jamie Marchant. I may appear slow to type as I am pasting in my script and the game sometimes does not cooperate with me when I do this. I do a series of events called Heritage Night, where I talk about the game’s rich history and backstory.

I will be putting today’s script on the Heritage Night blog and in the forum thread for this event. If you type “/startlog”, you will be able to record a chatlog. This is a good way of recoding URLs. I am going to give a couple of them. To view the log, navigate to “Documents/Uru Live/Log”. [pause]. The Heritage Night blog can be found at: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com. If you heard about this event from the AGM, the URL for the event is http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=28727. The game’s manual, which I suggest you read, can be found: http://uru.mac-fife.me.uk/MOULa_Manual.pdf. Just to note, it has not been updated in a while. The manual can also be found in a “sticky” thread at the top of the “Spoiler-free Discussion” section of the Myst Online Forums.

Today, I will be giving an overview of the game and explaining some key things you should know. This is aimed at newer explorers.

Currently, we are standing in the abandoned city of the D’ni civilization. We were ‘called’ to this place. The D’ni had the power to write books that had, for lack of a better word, magical powers. They could transport you to other worlds. Worlds are called “Ages” and the transportation process is called “linking”. You know about these books as you have used them to get to this place. Currently, we are not in another Age, but on earth, miles underground. To be specific, this cavern is in the desert in New Mexico.

So where do the Myst games fit into this? The Myst games are essentially non-cannon; they tell the story of a nameless adventurer who helped out Atrus and his family. They took place in the 1800’s, hence the odd clothes people wore in the games.

Do you know about the chat commands? There are a nutmber of commands like “/clap”, “/cheer” that, if typed, will make your avatar do an action. “/ignore [avatar’s name]” can be used to make a troublesome explorer’s text invisible to you. The opposite function is the “/addbuddy” command, which adds someone to your “buddies” list, so you can contact them at any time.(Even in another age!) Communication is only one way; your “buddy” must add you in return before they can talk back to you from another age. “/me” can be used to tell everyone you are preforming an action. Example: “/me drinks some water”.

Now for some terms that may help you out.

The Den’i Research Concail are a bunch of archaeologists who are studding this civalizastion.

The Ki is the watch-like device you are wearing.It provides a number of functions, some of which you must discover on your own. Each Ki has its own number, which we refer to as a “Ki Number” or just “Ki #”. Your Ki # is visible to anyone you are in the same age with. For more detailed explanation of your Ki, see the “Ki guide” in the game’s manual.

Ki time is Mountain Time and is the time displayed when you open your Ki. To fully open your Ki, push “F2” twice.

So the books we use in the game are called “Linking books”. There are also “Descriptive Books” and they are thicker and contain the description of the age. Descriptions of ages are a lot more complex than links to ages. Both books are written in a special language known as “The Art”. Follow so far? [repeat parts if needed].

The Nexis contains many linking books. It’s a handy way of getting around. As you explore the game, you will get additional places you can go from your Nexis.

Each avatar is assigned a “neighbourhood” or Hood. You can talk to your neighbours, if you have any. Everyone in the same neighbourhood can manipulate things in the hood like the imager, what doors are open, etc. Don’t worry about neighbourhoods at the moment; just know that, in the future, you can join or create your own neighbourhood and you can find instructions online explaining how to do this.

A Door Run is an activity done by explorers to solve a puzzle that requires multiple people to solve. Don’t participate in one unless you ask it to be spoiler-free.

In Character/In Cavern is the term for when we pretend that all of this is real. People used to do this a lot more frequently than they do today. Out Of Cavern/Out Of Character is when you speak about the game as if it is a game.

The Guilds do various different things and you can find out about them in Kirel accessible from Nexis.

There are things called Instances. Basically, they are several different versions of each age. They are in different states, depending on how much progress their owners have made in solving them.

Shorah is a D’ni greeting.

That is all from me for now. Any questions? What you say to me will be used on the Heritage Night blog so others can benefit from your questions.

Q&A:

10/14 15:36:22) Ditto #13: are there different instances of the plaza?
(10/14 15:37:28) HeritageNightGuy: Yes, the one accasiable thougn Nexsis is global but if you use a book in an age it’s a “hood” instance
(10/14 15:37:55) HeritageNightGuy: I don’t fully remember all the instanceing rules but there are discustions online about how they work
(10/14 15:38:09) Ditto #13: you can get to it from the nexus public list but also from the hood or from youre relto book
(10/14 15:39:09) HeritageNightGuy: Yes that’s corect, if you use the nexus public list, it is a global instance that everyone can see, the other two versions will take you to an instance only your neighbours can see.
(10/14 15:39:44) HeritageNightGuy: Your Nexsis is allways private nobody can visit you there
(10/14 15:39:59) Ditto #13: is the relto one and the hood the same instance?
(10/14 15:40:14) HeritageNightGuy: I can’t say 100% yes but I belive so
(10/14 15:40:25) Ditto #13: ok thanks
(10/14 15:40:31) HeritageNightGuy: No problem :)
(10/14 15:40:38) HeritageNightGuy: Any other questionts?
(10/14 15:41:06) Korov’ev: Relto and Hood books both lead to Hood instance of Ae’gura
(10/14 15:42:04) HeritageNightGuy: Well thanks for ceoming I’ll put this on the blog soon.
(10/14 15:42:15) Ditto #13: thank you

People calp and chear :)