Deranged Ramblings

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In the late 19th century, the "Grecian bend" was a fashionable manner in which upper and middle class women held themselves whilst walking. It meant bending forward from the hips rather than the waist and keeping the back straight.

It was generated by the use of tight, boned corsets and emphasised by the introduction of the bustle.

The term was also given to those who suffered from the bends or decompression sickness due to working in caissons during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Such victims walked with a similar leaning posture to that of the "Grecian Bend".

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Myst franchise

Games and their Ages

Myst	(Ages)
Riven	(Ages)
Myst III	(Ages)
Myst IV	(Ages)
Uru	(Ages)
Myst V	(Ages)

Novels

• Book of Atrus
• Book of Ti'ana
• Book of D'ni
• Book of Marrim

Comic Books

#0   #1

Miscellaneous

D'ni   D'ni Ages   The Art   Timeline   Items   Kings   Language   Numerals   People   Wildlife  

Organizations

Brøderbund   Cyan   Presto   Ubisoft   DRC

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Note: Fictional details from the Myst franchise follow, and may sometimes be referred to as facts.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

What follows is a list of unusual or interesting items — objects, devices, machines, etc. — that can be found on the D'ni Ages as described in the various Myst franchise games and novels. Most concern technology that was unique to the D'ni themselves.

Contents 1 Culture 1.1 The Art 1.2 Games 1.2.1 Ahyoheek 1.2.2 Gemedet 2 High technology 2.1 Maintainers' tech 2.1.1 Great Zero 2.1.2 KI 2.2 Imagers 3 Timepieces 4 Industry 4.1 Mining devices 4.1.1 Fusion-Compounder 4.2 Mining products 4.2.1 Deretheni 4.2.2 Nara

Culture

The Art

• Linking Books (Kor'vakh)
• Descriptive Books (Kor'mahn)
• Trap books
• Nexus Book Machine
• D'ni Ink

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Descriptive books, put simply, can be written in to "make" a world, called an Age and to link, or travel, to it; linking books are the counterparts of descriptive books and are a lighterweight alternative that can easily be carried around and used to link as well. Both types of book, however, consist of what would normally be found in regular books, i.e. an ink medium, paper pages, and a cardboard-like or wooden-based binding. The ink, however, is made from a special type of scarab beetle who's properties allows the words written in a descriptive book to actually link to the world described within. To write an Age one needs must describe the world one wishes to visit. The detail of the writing determines how simplistic or detailed the Age will turn out. The more precise the writing the greater detail can be achieved in the making of the Age, though if the writing is too detailed the Age might be unstable and unsuitable for visitation or habitation. A rectangle, which can technically be found anywhere in the book, is called a linking panel. Linking panels show a small, static window into the Age and the point where one will link into it, though in the Myst games it is sometimes dramatized and moves around the Age. If an Age is written improperly it can lead to disaster, as the smallest mistakes such as the degree of the axis or the rotation of the moon can lead to the destruction of the Age. Very slight changes can, however, be made to the descriptive book of the Age to slow the rate of decay if it was written improperly. If, when making changes to an Age, the differences are too large between the Age originally described and that being written, it is possible that the linking book will be directed to another Age entirely that, while still sharing the same characteristics, is minutely different.

Spoilers end here.

Games

Ahyoheek

An Ahyoheek Table

Ahyoheek is a game table found in public places inside many D'ni neighbourhoods. It is a game for two or more players which has some similarity to Rock, Paper, Scissors. See Ahyoheek for more information.

Gemedet

Gemedet is a two-player game quite similar to Connect 4.

High technology

Maintainers' tech

Great Zero

A Great Zero MarkerA part of the Great Zero Neutrino Dispenser

The Great Zero Neutrino dispenser is a device which emanates neutrinos, which are used by the D'ni location markers.

Maintainer Marks are markers in other Ages, which are connected to the Great Zero in some way. They allow for position tracking and KI communication across Ages.\

Great Zero Markers are markers which can be "collected" with a KI. If all the markers are found and registered with the Great Zero it will be calibrated and can broadcast positional signals to the D'ni cavern.

A Marker Dispenser

The Marker Dispenser is a device which can configure a KI to collect certain groups of Markers.

Maintainer's Suits are the protective suits worn by Maintainers on dangerous missions to untested or unstable worlds. They are created out of Deretheni rock.

KI

D'ni KI interface

The D'ni KI is a handheld device developed by the D'ni shortly before the downfall of the D'ni empire. Its actual name is unknown: KI (pronounced 'key') comes from the D'ni numeral 3 (shaped like the letters KI), found on some of the first KI's found. It is unknown why the devices were all labelled 3. The KI served as a communication device for the D'ni as well as a storage device for images and a positioner using coordinates from the Great Zero and Maintainer marks. KI's could also be used to track and store markers.

The D'ni technology underlying the KI allowed for communication between Ages.

In Uru, it is learned that the DRC rediscovered the KI and managed to partially translate the devices so they could be used by DRC members and authorized explorers. The KI is needed to finish the Age of Gahreesen, and also plays a role in the puzzles in the first Uru Expansion Pack, To D'ni.

Artist's impression of a Maintainer's Suit

Imagers

A D'ni Imager

Imagers, in the D'ni culture, were devices which somewhat resemble television screens. They could either display live data transmitted from a camera placed somewhere or a series of static images (either regular or taken by a KI). D'ni Imagers are found in most neighbourhoods, as well as in Ages, where they are sometimes used to display greeting notices or instructions.

Gehn's holographic Imager

Other kinds of imagers more closely resembled hologram emitters. An examples is Gehn's Imager of his deceased wife Keta found in Age 233.

Timepieces

A D'ni Timepiece, from Aitrus' map

As the D'ni counted time differently than the surface dwellers, their watches and clocks were remarkably different. A D'ni day was divided 5 equal segments of 6 hours each, making for a 30-hour day. (30 hours, 14 minutes in surface time). One example of a D'ni watch can be seen on Aitrus' maps. D'ni alarm clocks/timers are found in various Ages, such as in Age 233. Larger clocks are seen in D'ni neighbourhoods.

Gehn's watch/alarm clock

Industry

Mining devices

The D'ni used several immense machines to create tunnels that connected the diverse caverns that formed the D'ni empire.

• The Burrower
• The Cycler

The Excavator, from Aitrus' map

• The Excavator

• The Grinder
• Old Stone Teeth
• Rock-Biter

Fusion-Compounder

The Fusion-Compounder turned the tunnelled rock into highly compressed molecules, which were used to create the mining products below.

Mining products

Deretheni

Deretheni is a jet-black form of D'ni engineered stone. More malleable than Nara, the strongest Maintainer's Suits were created out of this.

Nara

Nara is a highly compressed form of D'ni engineered stone, which is green-black in colour, and emanated a faint green light. It is approximately 300 times stronger than stone, and was used to structurally support D'ni tunnels.

For the province of Iraq see al Anbar

Anbar, originally called Firuz Shapur, or Perisapora, a town founded about AD 350 by Shapur (Sapor) II, Sassanid king of Persia, on the east bank of the Euphrates, just south of the Nahr Isa, or Sakhlawieh canal, the northernmost of the canals connecting that river with the Tigris, in lat. 33 deg. 22' N., long. 43 deg. 49' E.

It was captured and destroyed by the emperor Julian in A.D. 363, but speedily rebuilt. It became a refuge for the Christian and Jewish colonies of that region, and there are said to have been 90,000 Jews in the place at the time of its capture by Ali ibn Abi Talib in 657. The Arabs changed the name of the town to Anbar ("granaries").

Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid caliphate, made it his capital, and such it remained until the founding of Baghdad in 762. It continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid period, but now it is now entirely deserted, occupied only by ruin mounds. Their great extent indicates the former importance of the city.

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.