Myst (series): Difference between revisions

{{quote| ''I realized the moment I fell into the fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse, of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit such conjecture is futile. Still, questions about [[Player Character|whose hands might one day hold my Myst book]] are unsettling to me. I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that [[Arc Words|perhaps the ending has not yet been written]].''}}

Myst was a puzzle-heavy first-person [[Adventure Game]] which [[Follow the Leader|sparked off a new sub-genre]]. Developed by the brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1993, the game became an unexpected hit, mainly due to its eerie, haunting atmosphere and, for the time, excellent graphics. It was swiftly followed by a host of imitators, most of which are decidedly inferior to the original.

The Myst games deal with the D'ni civilization, a race of people (not humans) that lived in a cavern under the Earth until their civilization fell a few centuries ago. The D'ni had the ability to write about locations they imagined in special books that could then physically transport a person to the places they described. Atrus, the main non-player character in the games, is one of the last survivors of the D'ni (though he's three-quarters human).

==== The Myst series has six games: ====

* [[Call Back]]: Three of the Ages in the original ''Myst'' have separate rooms that Sirrus and Achenar have inhabited at some point, where their pages are. Not so in the Selenitic Age. Sirrus' page is in the middle of crystalline ''spires'', while Achenar's is in the little spot of vegetation left - a ''haven''. Then comes ''Myst IV.'' {{spoiler|[[Fridge Brilliance|Three guesses what their prison ages are named, and why.]]}}

* [[Canon Dis Continuity]] - the comic book, ''Myst: The Book of Black Ships''. Cyan's main gripe was that ''Dark Horse'' mixed up Sirrus's and Achenar's names. When the publisher refused to correct this in the remaining issues, Cyan had the series cancelled.

* [[Chess Motifs]]: Yes Sirrus, Atrus made a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Légal move]].

* [[Closed Circle]]

** Also Mechanical, Stoneship, J'nanin, Edanna, Haven, Teledahn... A good number of the Ages are islands, so they get to use this a ''lot''.

* [[Dr. Jerk]]: Jarl .

* [[Endless Daytime]]:

** In ''URU'', Teledahn's sun moves horizontally across the sky, never dipping beneath the horizon as it circles.

* [[Face Heel Turn]] - {{spoiler|Veovis.}}

* [[Featureless Protagonist]]: All games, except for ''URU''.

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]] - There are a few. Gehn in Riven, {{spoiler|Esher}} in Myst V, {{spoiler|Sirrus}} in Myst IV.

* [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]] - Especially in Uru to block off unfinished areas, but examples of places that seem like they should be accessible but are not abound throughout the entire series. A notable exception is in Riven, where you can simply crawl under a locked gate.

* [[It's a Wonderful Failure]]

** Myst: Go to D'ni without the white page (a type of [[Unwinnable]] situation), or bring all of the pages to either brother so you get trapped in the book yourself.

** Saavedro thinks himself to be the last of the Narayani race due to a rather nasty civil war that occurred on his home Age. {{spoiler|This is also not the case.}}

* [[Large Ham]] - Sirrus and Achenar both, as portrayed by the Miller brothers. Also Sirrus in ''Revelation''.

* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] - Used to explain not only the existence of the ''Uru'' series, but to account for all the [[Retcon|Ret Cons]] in the Myst games.

** One might even say that ''Uru'' is all one big [[Retcon]].

** ''Revelation''

*** There are 46,656 possible codes to unlock the door {{spoiler|beneath the old Memory Chamber.}} This code is randomized.

* [[Meaningful Name]] - Gahreesan (Garrison); in the books, {{spoiler|Tehrahnee (Tyranny)}}.

* [[Messianic Archetype]] - Yeesha {{spoiler|Subverted. She fails to fulfill the role due to her own pride.}}

* [[Smug Snake]]: {{spoiler|Sirrus}}

* [[Solve the Soup Cans]]: The [[Justified Trope|justification]] comes in the form of paranoid characters throwing deliberately contrived obstacles in each other's paths.

* [[Space Amish]]: the D'ni, at least compared with the Terahnee.

* [[Steampunk]] - Big machines rife with pipes, gears, and valves often serve as primary puzzle elements in ages, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xclfcdMQvu0 especially Riven]. Atrus especially seemed able to crank out huge volumes of wacky machinery using nineteenth-century parts and a little [[Sufficiently Advanced Technology]].

** The upper part of the central tower in J'nanin appears to be fixed in place with ''bed-sized screws''.

* [[Themed Cursor]]: Your hand.

* [[Tree-Top Town]]

** ''Myst'': The upper levels of the Channelwood Age.

* [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]: Non-time-travel variant; Gehn isn't a particularly good linking author, so the quantum-uncertainty thing the linking books have going on makes the Ages he links to dangerously unstable. Atrus is much better at writing linking books than his father, and reckons he can use those same quantum-uncertainty shenanigans to salvage Gehn's Ages, or even undo the damage Gehn caused; but it's a very time-sensitive endeavor because Ages don't stop deteriorating just because you're not in them, and some are beyond saving already.

* [[Villains Out Shopping]]: The supplemental booklet for the soundtrack contains extra pages from Gehn's journal where he discusses some of his hobbies.

=== Tropes found in ''Exile'' ===

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Another reason why you shouldn't anger Saavedro.

* [[Follow the Plotted Line]]: The lack of any obvious goal in Edanna, combined with its confusing layout, brings this trope into play. As a result, you find yourself simply solving all the puzzles that present themselves to you, without ever knowing why. In case you're curious, what you're trying to do is {{spoiler|free the Grossamary bird from the giant flytrap, then call it from a cage in the swamp to have it come pick you up and take you to the location of the symbol}}.

* [[I Lied]]: Saavedro offers to return Releeshahn to the player freely at the end of Myst III when it turns out he can't return home without help. {{spoiler|If you take up his offer directly, he gleefully tosses the book into an abyss and scampers off home.}}

* [[It's Personal]]: Saavedro's motive

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Once you finally manage to turn the tables on Saavedro.

** [[Big No]]

* [[What the Hell, Player?]]: If you decide to {{spoiler|leave Saavedro trapped}} at the end of the game, Atrus calls you out on it in the epilogue. The official hint guide also gets in on it.

{{quote| Q: "I {{spoiler|trapped Saavedro and he gave me the book}}. Can I go now?"<br />