Beneath

Shorah, all. Not quite a longtime explorer (Didn't make my first Journey until after the second restoration), but glad to see the Cavern active and expanding again!

Just heard about the efforts underway to prep Noloben, Direbo, and the other Ages that were associated with the Tablet story (and made famous by our good friends at Cyan, of course) for public visit, and I'm definitely excited for that. As someone who gets excited for anything strongly connected to D'ni history, new and old alike, it'll be fascinating to experience these places for real and see the marks left by what's occurred there.

The news has gotten me thinking too about a subject, and one Age in particular, that's rather close to my heart in terms of how I was first exposed to the wonders of D'ni. And in thinking about that Age and how our interactions with it have been over the years, I'm brought to wonder something: Did the DRC actually ever recover a Linking Book to Myst Island? We've had the one to its library left to us via the Path of the Shell for many years now, but is it known if anyone has ever had a link to the rest of the island?

Thanks to Cyan's video games, Myst is arguably more well known than D'ni and the Art as a whole, and in retrospect it seems like it would've been a no-brainer for the DRC to have used the real-life Age for publicity and crowdfunding for their efforts, as shrewd as that may've been given its somber history. Yet all the DRC's efforts to market itself focused on D'ni itself with Ages as more of an afterword (perhaps understandably so given how outlandish they still seem today to those not in the know), not seizing on the opprotunity one of the best-selling games of the 1990s gave them. I know most of what was created in those games was based on the journals Katran left behind in D'ni, and in general the worlds mentioned in those accounts likely have either not been found or are not being left open to respect the privacy and memory of those places. Assuming Myst isn't in the latter category and the DRC simply felt it wasn't worth "cashing in" on, the thought that it was an Age nobody had until Yeesha gave us a limited instance of it is rather surprising for me.

Some of my views on this might come from my own bias, I admit. Like many I started my journey into D'ni playing an old copy of the "Myst" game my dad had on hand, so I've always identified that island as being the starting point of adventures into the world of Age travel, so naturally to see the place for real has been a dream of mine. I've often wondered if one of the things our "Explorer's Restoration" could accomplish was a full-on access of Myst Island, but if my thoughts are true, I suppose I have answered my own question. For now the library is all we have, and I'm willing to accept that (though I do miss when the fireplace was functioning, heh).

As far as I know, nobody's managed to get past the Library doors. Honestly, I'm not sure if there is a way to manage it, given the damaged painting controls. I've gotten shocked by enough D'ni tech at this point I'm probably not going to spearhead any such endeavors personally, though.

I would love to see the island personally along with Stoneship and the other Ages of Myst but as far as I've heard these ages might be lost or purely inaccessible. Myst Island itself is damaged beyond repair. Still holding out hope though.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that, even in abandoning Myst Island, Atrus and Katran would leave any surviving Age book left unattended on the island.

Yeah, at this point I think we can probably write off (no pun intended) any chance of seeing the real Myst (pun intended this time). If Myst V is to be believed, it's mostly in ruins anyway.

And Drewsko--if you go back to the Second Restoration, you pretty much ARE a long-time explorer at this point. Most people think of me as a long-timer, but I didn't hear the Call until the second. I never even meet any First Restoration-era explorers anymore.

Yeah, the Second Restoration is pretty far back now- only a few years 'fresher' than the first restoration when it it ended- hard to believe it's been almost 20 years now since then, sometimes.

Carl Palmner wrote: Sun Mar 27, 2022 8:18 pm Yeah, at this point I think we can probably write off (no pun intended) any chance of seeing the real Myst (pun intended this time). If Myst V is to be believed, it's mostly in ruins anyway.

And Drewsko--if you go back to the Second Restoration, you pretty much ARE a long-time explorer at this point. Most people think of me as a long-timer, but I didn't hear the Call until the second. I never even meet any First Restoration-era explorers anymore.

Maybe so, but I guess one can't help but not completely give up on dreams sometimes.

I actually wasn't around for the Second Restoration exactly. First reached the Cleft in the brief timeframe between the end of Cate's funding and when the DRC handed over the keys to the Cavern. The small 2 year period when the only clear paths were retreading Yeesha's journeys again. Somehow I got ahold of the Words collection and the green book Yeesha left regarding the Great Zero with my Relto, but I think I lost them when I was transferring books between there and home.