This has been my bedtime story for the past few days. Myst is such a lore heavy franchise and hearing it explained like and audiobook from such a soothing voice is perfect, well done. Idk if you're gonna make this a channel norm or something but i hope you continue doing things like this for other things in the future.
I was literally about to say something similar. This has to be the most ultimate of bed time stories ever. Very glad this video was made. I'm on my second playthrough of it and I don't expect it to be my last! I have a feeling this will become an annual or twice annual listening for me. I love the story of the MYST series so much! Thank you for making this!
I remember playing Myst ages and ages ago, when my brain was too small. Trying to figure things out without any context made me quit several times. Finally knowing the story feels so good after all these years.
Absolutely wonderful, my friend. I have loved this series since I played it in '94. Beautiful work, and your voice is perfectly fit for the job! G'chehv ah’shehm ("and I thank you" in D'ni)
I used the numerical system of base-5 and the multipliers of 90 degree rotations of the overlapping symbols to encode massive numbers and insane passwords for years after this franchise ended.
Unfortunately I remember them too well, Cyan has a way of burning their worlds deep into your brain. I hadn't done riven in probably at least a decade. I just finished the remake. The numerals are simply too aesthetically pleasing to not only remember but also use for fun.
me: watch a movie for once instead of only watching yt videos? nah, takes too long also me: *watches 3 and a half hour video about a game° sure, definitely makes sense brain 🙄 anyway. absolutely amazing work you've done here. compiling all the information, cutting it down to what's necessary, making it understandable and easy to follow along, backing it up with fitting clips and pictures, not mention _making it three hours long_ idk what else to say other than it's fantastic!
Me pondering: the movies in question being something like later template-based Hollywood? Makes sense so much, seriously. /queues a musical based on Silmarillion right after this tale of many worlds/
Thanks for this wonderful compilation of your previous videos! Now I have somewhere to point people when they ask for a tl;dr! :) For those slightly confused about the context of "trap books" and "prison books": It may help to keep clear that -- within the context of the "lore," that is, the perspective from which this is detailed -- the Myst games that we've played (all five of them, but very specifically Myst and Riven) are fictionalizations of "real world events." Uru/Myst Online represents the canon reality, within which the Myst games are indeed just games. As Dr. Watson's in-Uru character explains: "trap books" don't exist, and the prison-swapping and topology of linking in and bumping out Sirrus and/or Achenar, and the topology dilemmas of trapping Ghen, are shortcut/gameplay representations of some more-complicated, real events. (In *reality* reality, of course, this was a retcon.) While the DRC Forums are gone, people may still see references to IC/OOC out there: "In Cavern" was interaction that was "In Character," and "Out of Cavern" was "Out of Character" discussion within the Myst Online/Uru Live player base, devs, and roleplayers (especially roleplayers who had fictional selves as NPCs). IC, the Myst games were intentional fictionalizations and the Book of Atrus giving a vaguely Middle Eastern or West Asian location for the underground cavern was to keep people away from the "real" cleft unless they were "called." OOC, the "trap book" concept and the location of the Cleft were later retconned. Hope that helps!
An excellent recounting of the series - so much lore. This also served to reinforce my favourite character of the series - Achenar. His decent to madness and subsequent redemption was done so smoothly. A true "from zero to hero".
There's a new alternate ending in the Riven remake: because you get control in K'veer, if you use the prison book before linking to Riven, Atrus berates you and is upset about his plan failing so stupidly.
I played the first few games religiously back in the day with the 3rd, 4th,and 5th ones being played very little. I did play Uru a bit as well, but without the online piece it just didn't get my attention. I also read the books. I had thought that I knew at least some of the lore of Myst / D'ni, but this video showed me that I know almost nothing and that the history of the world they crafted was infinitely more complex and richer than I ever could have imagined. Thank you for this amazing history lesson.
Kind of interesting to realize that Gehn could have escaped Riven easily...he just had to take a dive in the Star Fissure, same as the player/Stranger is left to do at the end of Riven.
Yeah, I guess he could never know for sure. I know he was throwing rivenese people into the fissure and watching them through the scope but he could never determin what happned to them. So he must have actually sent a lot of confused rivenese people to earth actually.
@@mdl2427 No, he could make his way down into the D'ni city, unseal the room on K'veer where Atrus is, and kill him while also re-gaining access to the ink and paper necessary to create more ages.
@@Xyzyxx Only problem is, would he have known where it lead? He was afraid of it clearly as I think from memory he'd experimented on sending people through there hadn't he? He didn't know it lead to earth, and I'm not sure even if he did that he knew about the D'ni city being there and even if he did, would he know at all where on earth it was etc. Think for him it'd be a huge gamble and, it'd of likely just ended with him living out the rest of his life there stuck personally not knowing how to get home or how close he was to being able to escape.
@@mdl2427He’s been to the Cleft before, he’d probably recognize it. Definitely doesn’t know where it goes before jumping though and he’s a bit too self important to be willing to take a leap of faith lol
You actually don't need to know anything about the descriptive book to write a linking book.Which is good, because no one has any clue where the original Descriptive Book for Earth is. Also the building you show when talking about "a new temple for Yahvo" is actually the Guild Hall, isn't it? Lord Amenjira and Tadjinar are non canonical currently - they were part of the misdirection to keep anyone from wandering into D'ni before the DRC were ready. The Star Fissure and daggers were part of Anna and Katran's messing with Gehn, not part of Atrus's patch. Atrus didn't tell King Ro'Eh Ro'Dan that he was only part-D'ni, he told Jethhe Ro'Jethhe. You didn't mention that Wheely was 14 when she died.
I always thought Myst could be made into a Tv Show, the world is so expansive that you can literally start anywhere and just have good interesting moments.
I remember reading somewhere that the prison books on Myst were very specifically and inconspicuously written incomplete and that you were trapped in the void between the age you were on and the age you were suppose to go to. Update 2/1/24: I found where I read this. It was in Atrus' journal in Riven and it quotes, "The procedure is actually quite simple: by altering key lines of text but slightly, a normal Linking Book's connection can be partially severed, such that anyone who attempts to use the Book will be permanently trapped in the dark void of the Link - that is, unless someone else then uses the Book, at which point that person would become trapped, and the first person displaced back into the world." It's this line of thinking that lead Atrus to create an altered linking book to D'ni to trap Gehn. So it appears that the interpretation of the prison books were retconned to be prison ages instead them being regular linking books that were altered to trap you in the void between both ages. Personal speculation, but I think it may have been considered too dark for Atrus' character to condemn his sons to live a permanent black void vs a desolate age.
This was absolutely fascinating! The original Myst came out when I was in high school, and I have treasured this series since I first played the original game in the Mac lab (before the Windows port). I had no idea the lore was so developed. I found this video both nostalgic and fulfilling. Bravo!
This is like a Hardcore History episode, but completely fictional. XD I started at Part I of the original series, and then found this when I went looking for the second video. I much prefer this version, and it held my attention and I found it entertaining and enlightening.
Never in my life would I have expected to ever hear "D'ni" pronounced "dunny" but otherwise this is a fantastic video about some fascinating lore, thanks for the compilation!
It was actually spelled “dunny” in the original game files, and this is how Atrus pronounces it in Myst. I think officially it changed to be more like “duh-NEE,” but I’ve always said “dunny.”
I have always gone with D'ni as it's spelled because of how people say it in Uru. Dunny is just too funny looking, and also it's south african slang for a toilet.
I do badly miss this game series. The story, the puzzles, the ambient music. I Played Myst, Riven and Exile. Never got to play Revelations, Uru or End of Ages.
Amazing! Much thanks for taking the time and effort to put all of this together. Truly outstanding work! Even though I've been on board since the beginning, there was still so much for me to learn and appreciate.
Thank you for this video. I'm a late comer to the Myst series, but read a few of the books as a child. It's always had a home in my heart, and I'm elated to find someone presenting the history of this universe so eloquently.
You deserve a million likes for this!! This is a masterpiece of a video... the amount of research, time, love and effort put into this is so clear. I've been a fan of the series since its release of the original Myst back in the day. Rand and Robyn are personal heroes of mine; to have created such a rich history, worlds (Ages), characters and lore... it's truly incredible. A wonderful Saturday evening spent immersed in this... thank you!
This is insane. With all the worlds and peoples etc I’m honestly just more surprised things didn’t go even worse than they did. Like, Fermi paradox speedrun.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Unwritten TTRPG based on the Myst world. It uses the Fate system so it's designed for more of an experience than hack and slash combat that most TTRPGs have. This game series is fantastic. It opened my eyes to the depth of story that can be told through image, word, and that video games were much more than diablo, starcraft, Mario, and others I was used to as a kid before experiencing Myst. Thanks for compiling this series. Really well done!
Quite amazing you were able to assemble all of this information. Well done! The only thing I noticed was that you stated an age as Selentic and it’s supposed to be Selenitic. 😊
Excellent video, CrimockLyte. You got a sub out of me. Myst lore is one of the most under-appreciated lores in all of fantasy...and I half way hope it remains that way, but I still like seeing youtubers discuss it. For Myst's reputation as a nonviolent, family friendly game, the lore can get really dark.
It's been decades since I pretended to be sick so I could stay home and play Riven. I never really thought I would feel like really playing the Myst games again but this does the trick. I heard Riven is getting a full remake, now I can't wait
I used to break into one of the teachers rooms at school to play when it came out. Can't remember his name but if you taught at CCA in the early 90s, it was me
2:32:54 There is one bit of info missing here, though this is a bit of speculation. We can see a fresh pile of rocks right next to where Sirrus and Achenar fought. Given Sirrus' plan, he might have invited Achenar to join him and use the memory chamber they prepared for Atrus 20 years ago, but out of his love for Yeesha Achenar tried to stop him. Sirrus then used a bomb (could be the nara or another one of the four frequencies he discovered) to destroy part of the cliff face and knock out Achenar. He then escaped and linked back to Tomahna.
One thing occurs to me...as of the end of Riven, there should be *two* Myst linking books at the Cleft...the one that Atrus dropped on that got the Stranger involved in the first place, and the one he dropped in at the end of Riven, that the Stranger followed to get back home.
not sure my friends would understand The World Of Myst . what it's about I do enjoy exploring these worlds and solving puzzles within the worlds themselves one other thing I'll enjoy about such games are history notes clues showing how to solve things the people in those worlds you see every inhabitants . learning how to use the books is another thing I want to have full knowledge of as many do .
Happy New Year. Fantastic work! I went thru the entire series as they came to us but only started when I discovered they existed a few years after Myst was released. This brought so much back to mind of those old days. I went to Uru Online until it ended and have missed it all ever since. Kudos to you for this
Descriptive books must be written in D'ni, but Linking books can be written in any language so long as they directly reference passages from the original Descriptive book
This entire story is so vast, and that’s just the story of the one that followed the people who went to earth. Who knows what happened to the people that followed the king
One bit of a plot hole about the Spire and Haven books...the brothers would presumably realize something is wrong with a book if there are pages removed...so how did the pages that the player discovers *beside* the books get there? The brothers would have seen them and either not used the books, or have at least returned those pages before using them.
I assumed they were sent into their traps with other linking books but the ones in the library on Myst were the original crafting Books and Artrus put the pages of the original books throughout the ages to stop either son rescuing the other if only one were trapped.
I wanted this video to exist and you did it all justice. Thank you! Watching it is an intriguing experience, especially as I only played up to Revelations myself. Everything from D'ni's past all the way through Exile is like a continuous story that all makes sense and has a consistent theme. Revelations goes a bit off rails but feels like a nice conclusion to the family storyline. And then you get to Uru and End of Ages and I'm sitting here going.... what the heck? It does seem to me to be the basis for the kind of storytelling direction they went eventually with Obduction, with its themes of enslavement and time wonkiness.
Ok this is amazing. Thank you for making this! No other history I've found covered the books and I loved those even more than the games (and I love the games a lot to this day). Subscribed gladly!
You know? I feel like Rand, if he did it correctly, can do a "What If?"-style Myst game in which the humans on Earth discovered the Ronay/D'ni civilisation and the linking books under different circumstances. Like what if the D'ni people and their portal technology suddenly became more... public and put under scrutiny by the US government? What if such technology was discovered during any of Earth's major conflicts/events involving the US e.g. the Civil War, the Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War? What if the Nazis or Communists discovered this strange new ability to teleport into new worlds? How would mankind use or abuse this new alien power? What kind of dystopian future would it bring to humanity? What if the events of Myst were shifted so far forward in time that The Stranger of Myst is an inhabitant of the modern world or even the future?
Sirius and Achenar burned Atrus's library? Why did they do that? Was it so that evidence of the crimes against humanity they committed within the Ages couldn't be brought back to haunt them later in life?
not sure if i’m misinterpreting something here (maybe i wasn’t concentrating enough when watching? idk) but why is it that ti’ana is so often blamed for the fall of d’ni when she had nothing to do with the plague being released? is this just gehn rewriting the narrative in his own head because he already holds so much resentment towards her? absolutely fantastic series btw, enjoyed greatly!
I've never played the games, but I've read the books countless times. From the events of The Book of Ti'ana, Ghen is bitter towards Ti'ana because both she and Aitrus let the Guild "take him away" for training at a young age. This gave him a disposition towards Veovis and A'gaeris, who both viewed Ti'ana as being a threat to D'ni. Even though it was *their* efforts that cause the collapse of D'ni, Ghen has this view in his head of *Ti'ana* being the threat instead. I don't have exact page numbers for you, but I'd be happy to hunt them down in my copy of the book if you want sources
Thank you for this video! I played the main series, read the books, and dabbled in Uru when I was young, but I learned even more about this amazing universe in your video. It was a nice nostalgia trip as well. It makes me wish for more books and games in the Myst series. I miss it.
I originally beat that first one in 1997. It took me a literal year to complete only to find out I could've been done in 5 minutes. 😆 I LOVE this game so much, I both bought them as they came out and the re-releases on my phone, my pc, even the console versions lol.
Just imagine being able to teleport into a book. The only problem is, the story (is required) to exist in the past, and time would only be able to proceed forward normally after it's ending, because the entire contents of the book would be locked in time, including it's ending. When you read a book, you read the past. Nothing can change the words, for if it is changed then that books story would be completely destroyed, even if it was changed by one letter, punctuation mark. Unless there are more than one dimensions. Are we or are we not, just words in a book? Locked in time, unable to change our will, fates. Is free will an illusion? Are we just words? Once the book's ending is written, it's story cannot be changed at all, or it's universe/dimension would be destroyed.
this video has been a godsend for me, my mother played these games all the time when i was a kid and after we lost the original disks, i was never able to actually learn about the story. i love learning about the D'ni
Amazing work putting all this lore together. I didn't know much beyond the first four numbered games, and now I know the entire D'ni monarchy and fate. What a ride, thank you!
This is one of my favorite videos on here. Sleeping, working, or just relaxing, I love to have this playing in the background. Thanks so much for the hard work you put into this!
Great effort and mostly good video of referring to the Strang as "them" was just stupid and confusing, especially when talking about multiple people as well
Ever since I tried the first myst game on pc in the mid 90's when I been curious at what the story of it all was. But I was and still am a impatient one, and I did not manage the puzles and riddles. I did not get far in the games. Also how big this franchise(?) was. Cool.
Lol I’m picturing forgetful me being like “Ah, silly me, leaving my linking book to get back home, back home” and I’m never seen again 😂 that would suck
There is a lot of real esoteric and occult truth in this game. The whole idea of “yah” the creator of the tree of infinite possibilities, that’s based on the creator God, Yahweh and how the garden of Eden was filled with branches and those branches were paths to alternate frames of reality. All possibilities were there including the world of duality, good and evil. Just scratching the surface but it’s crazy how much truth they sneak in to games and this is why it connects with us so much and why it feels so powerful. This stuff ain’t just made up lol
So I accidentally was hovering over this video unintentionally and it got saved in my history list. So fuck it I took it as chaotic fate and am now watching it. Also I like to support smaller RU-vidrs
Honestly, it went a bit off the rails starting with URU. The fact that they had to add in some "slave race" of natural linkers to further condemn the D'ni civilization as they used them for some unknown purpose, apparently skinning them alive to gain their power which is just... idiotic, when they already had the ability to write books was quite frankly insulting. I played the entire series and found the existence of Yeesha to pollute the lore of the game as they continued to make up ridiculous antagonists that went against her to seemingly validate her existence within the series. Her voice actor in URU played the epitome of a god damn sanctimonious hippy bitch in every damn tirade she went on. It's the kind of thing that can only be explained by an aging developer letting unworthy people influence him and the world building he had created. And then in MYST 5, she basically takes on the role of a destroyer of the MYST series. I couldn't give two shits about the Bahro storyline or this tablet drawing mechanic they added to the game for no real reason. It basically made it the last nail in the coffin and ruined MYST so much that now they have to remake their older games because that's all anyone cares about. Their other games after 5 were fine, but again, they are not MYST. And that IS a bad thing. If I had one wish for the series of games, it would be the option the smash that fucking tablet into the ground in MYST 5 with my final command to the Bahro being to go grab Yeesha and Esher, then link them and their entire Bahro race to the most horrific death age ever conceived. The only fitting end to a hijacked lore that murdered such a fun and cool concept. It's a sorrowful ending to an otherwise brilliant series of games. And I can't pretend it's anything else but them trying to appeal to a different audience, an audience that did not pay for or grow the series from the start by buying the original games and books. If they pick up some steam after the Riven remake and manage to redeem themselves with an alternate storyline post MYST 4, that would be the greatest thing Rand Miller could ever accomplish. Give the original audience back their game and kick the new demographic they were targeting to the curb. Uru failed, Myst 5 failed. Take the hint.
Hey ty. I grew up with riven. i was so young i had no idea what i was doing xD Got my mother inlaw to agree to try this series. and so i found you. Ty this was great
Wow I played Riven a lot, and before watching this video it never really registered to me that Tay was its own age for some reason. Also, boy howdy is the D'ni pronounciation unfortunate if you're Australian... I always assumed it was pronounced like 'Deny', oof.
@6:00 I'm still undecided which of those ideas I'd get behind. Something about the idea of the books just linking to worlds that already existed sounds a bit like a cop out to me; a way to shirk responsibility. "I didn't create the world, I just linked to it. They're not my problem."
Thank you for taking on this massive project. I always thought The Myst saga would make an awesome movie. This is pretty close with extra elements that a movie wouldn't have. ✌🏽
Thanks for a great video. I know most of the facts already from playing the games, but you really did a good job of putting it all on a timeliness. Well scripted.
Myst caught my attention when I was looking for some PSP games I could play. I liked the style I saw on screenshots, so I was really curious what it has to offer. When I suddenly saw your video of it, I couldn't help but watch it! I'm sure I will forget most of the details once I play this for myself anyway, but knowing how deep the story, no, history of this world goes... I'm truly facinated! Thank you so much for this video!
