Backstage: D'ni / Terokh Jerooth
Jun 4, 2015 16:47:22 GMT
Post by Ahrotahn on Jun 4, 2015 16:47:22 GMT
Ahrotahn (Myst Online username Lena) is from the Age (world) of D'ni (also known as Earth), capital of the former D'ni empire, in the world-cluster Terokh Jerooth, from the game Myst Online: Uru Live.
The Art of Writing consists of creating magic books that allow travel to other worlds. These come in two types: Descriptive Books, which create worlds corresponding to the descriptions in their text, and Linking Books, which connect to the world and location where they were written. Both types of Books require special materials and a specific magical language. Linking Books are substantially easier to create. A given Book, of either type, always links to a single location; the destination of a Descriptive Book depends on the features described in the text.
To travel through a Book, you touch the "linking panel", which resembles a moving illustration. What comes with you is governed by the "one-step rule": anything that would move with you if you took one step in an arbitrary direction. The exception is the Book that you're linking through, which stays behind even if you're holding it in your hand. (You can still carry other Books through the link, just not the one you're actively using.)
It's not possible to link within the same world; touching a linking panel from within the Book's world does nothing.
The destination of a Linking Book is always stationary relative to the destination of that world's Descriptive Book. Linking to a world that has no Descriptive Book may be impossible or unwise.
Most people believe that Descriptive Books do not create worlds, but rather connect to pre-existing ones. The idea that Writing creates worlds is associated with the belief that the Writer is therefore entitled to be worshiped and obeyed by the natives. A large minority is uncertain, and a somewhat smaller minority believes that Writing creates worlds. This last view is the correct one.
A newly created world comes with a complete backstory; for example, Earth was Written less than ten thousand years ago, but still had dinosaurs and the Big Bang and so forth.
Adding details to a Descriptive Book will add those details into the world, but removing phrases from the Descriptive Book will delete the world and create a new one. Adding details technically works by retcon; the modified world is such that the change had always been going to happen. This is attested in a few surviving journals but has not yet been replicated by contemporary humans.
Contradictions in the text of a Descriptive Book result in progressive dimensional instability.
The Myst games refer to worlds as "Ages". Mother Starlight is translating this for convenience.
The D'ni empire was founded by a minority group of the refugees from the world Garternay, whose sun was old and dying. (The majority went to the world Terahnee.) The world of D'ni/Earth was Written by their leader, Ri'neref. They founded the city of D'ni in a cavern located a few miles under New Mexico, and treated other worlds in an imperialistic fashion, an attitude which extended to the few natives of Earth who ever found the Cavern. At some point, they also enslaved the Bahro, a species with a hard carapace, a vaguely humanoid body plan, and poorly-understood-by-humans abilities including the ability to travel between worlds at will. The D'ni empire was eventually destroyed by a bioterrorist attack by a pair of D'ni individuals named Veovis and A'gaeris. The survivors of D'ni have attempted to start over again in the world Releeshahn, and have little or no contact with Earth.
The natives of Garternay, and therefore the D'ni, are basically human (even being interfertile with humans) but about 50% taller on average. The D'ni widely believed that outworlders (those not of Garternay/D'ni blood) were incapable of practicing the Art, but this was incorrect. ("Ahrotahn" is the D'ni word for "outworlder".)
D'ni technology accomplished some things of interest:
Earth-native humans are in the process of exploring the Cavern and the ruins of D'ni. The earlier Myst games exist, and were commissioned by an Earth-human archaeological group (the D'ni Restoration Council, or DRC) to raise awareness and money to support their work. The DRC are currently out of funding.
Yeesha is magic.
She believes herself to be a prophesied savior. She is capable of doing things with the Art that no one else can.
Ahrotahn herself started as a generic-ish explorer, but may develop more of a personality through play.
Her thinking is somewhat skewed by the fact that her life has tended to work like an adventure game with Puzzles and Clues.
With OTC's help, she is now a masochist. She is also beginning to realize that she would enjoy being a bondage bottom; this was latently true already, and was made apparent, rather than caused, as a side effect of the masochism.
D'ni words and phrases:
ahrotahn: outworlder
lehnah: journey (something Yeesha likes to talk about)
yeesha: laughter
uru: gathering
bahro: beast-person
Terokh Jerooth: Tree of Possibility (the Great Tree of Possibilities in Garternay/D'ni/Terahnee mythology, whose leaves are worlds)
Garternay: Root of the Great Tree
Terahnee: New Tree
D'ni: New Again
Releeshahn: The Whole
Relto: The High Place
Played by lambdabeta/sonatagreen.
The Art of Writing consists of creating magic books that allow travel to other worlds. These come in two types: Descriptive Books, which create worlds corresponding to the descriptions in their text, and Linking Books, which connect to the world and location where they were written. Both types of Books require special materials and a specific magical language. Linking Books are substantially easier to create. A given Book, of either type, always links to a single location; the destination of a Descriptive Book depends on the features described in the text.
To travel through a Book, you touch the "linking panel", which resembles a moving illustration. What comes with you is governed by the "one-step rule": anything that would move with you if you took one step in an arbitrary direction. The exception is the Book that you're linking through, which stays behind even if you're holding it in your hand. (You can still carry other Books through the link, just not the one you're actively using.)
It's not possible to link within the same world; touching a linking panel from within the Book's world does nothing.
The destination of a Linking Book is always stationary relative to the destination of that world's Descriptive Book. Linking to a world that has no Descriptive Book may be impossible or unwise.
Most people believe that Descriptive Books do not create worlds, but rather connect to pre-existing ones. The idea that Writing creates worlds is associated with the belief that the Writer is therefore entitled to be worshiped and obeyed by the natives. A large minority is uncertain, and a somewhat smaller minority believes that Writing creates worlds. This last view is the correct one.
A newly created world comes with a complete backstory; for example, Earth was Written less than ten thousand years ago, but still had dinosaurs and the Big Bang and so forth.
Adding details to a Descriptive Book will add those details into the world, but removing phrases from the Descriptive Book will delete the world and create a new one. Adding details technically works by retcon; the modified world is such that the change had always been going to happen. This is attested in a few surviving journals but has not yet been replicated by contemporary humans.
Contradictions in the text of a Descriptive Book result in progressive dimensional instability.
The Myst games refer to worlds as "Ages". Mother Starlight is translating this for convenience.
The D'ni empire was founded by a minority group of the refugees from the world Garternay, whose sun was old and dying. (The majority went to the world Terahnee.) The world of D'ni/Earth was Written by their leader, Ri'neref. They founded the city of D'ni in a cavern located a few miles under New Mexico, and treated other worlds in an imperialistic fashion, an attitude which extended to the few natives of Earth who ever found the Cavern. At some point, they also enslaved the Bahro, a species with a hard carapace, a vaguely humanoid body plan, and poorly-understood-by-humans abilities including the ability to travel between worlds at will. The D'ni empire was eventually destroyed by a bioterrorist attack by a pair of D'ni individuals named Veovis and A'gaeris. The survivors of D'ni have attempted to start over again in the world Releeshahn, and have little or no contact with Earth.
The natives of Garternay, and therefore the D'ni, are basically human (even being interfertile with humans) but about 50% taller on average. The D'ni widely believed that outworlders (those not of Garternay/D'ni blood) were incapable of practicing the Art, but this was incorrect. ("Ahrotahn" is the D'ni word for "outworlder".)
D'ni technology accomplished some things of interest:
- The materials nara and deretheni, synthetically compressed stone, are very strong building materials, including possessing significant shear strength even though most types of stone have very poor shear strength.
- Stonecutting machines, varying in size between "bigass power tools" and "large construction equipment"
- Very effective environment suits made of deretheni, used for initial exploration of new worlds. The heavy suit does not allow the user to move (except to touch the linking panel of a Book mounted inside the suit), but will enable the wearer to survive for several seconds inside a nova. The light suit is mobile enough to run and jump in, and offers reasonably comprehensive protection against most plausible hazards.
- The Great Zero is a neutrino beacon that enables the KI to provide GPS functionality even underground.
- Holographic image projectors ("imagers"). The projected images are obviously holograms rather than the real thing.
- The KI is a wrist-mounted communication device that connects to a cross-world network called the Lattice. Presumably this only works in worlds where Lattice nodes have been installed.
Earth-native humans are in the process of exploring the Cavern and the ruins of D'ni. The earlier Myst games exist, and were commissioned by an Earth-human archaeological group (the D'ni Restoration Council, or DRC) to raise awareness and money to support their work. The DRC are currently out of funding.
Yeesha is magic.
She believes herself to be a prophesied savior. She is capable of doing things with the Art that no one else can.
- She wrote Relto, whose Book can travel with you when you link through it, contrary to the usual rules. You can also use it from within Relto.
- There are also loose pages which can be inserted into a Relto book to add features to the corresponding instance.
- She can control instancing. (She may or may not be responsible for the fact that instancing is a thing.)
- She can create links to moving destinations.
- She can manipulate time.
She also caused many Earth-native humans to feel an urge to travel to the Cavern. These "Called" have Relto books (each of which links to a distinct instance), and are able to find their way to the Cavern even if they previously had no knowledge of any of this.
She is currently busy preventing the recently freed Bahro from attacking humans or D'ni.
Ahrotahn herself started as a generic-ish explorer, but may develop more of a personality through play.
Her thinking is somewhat skewed by the fact that her life has tended to work like an adventure game with Puzzles and Clues.
With OTC's help, she is now a masochist. She is also beginning to realize that she would enjoy being a bondage bottom; this was latently true already, and was made apparent, rather than caused, as a side effect of the masochism.
D'ni words and phrases:
ahrotahn: outworlder
lehnah: journey (something Yeesha likes to talk about)
yeesha: laughter
uru: gathering
bahro: beast-person
Terokh Jerooth: Tree of Possibility (the Great Tree of Possibilities in Garternay/D'ni/Terahnee mythology, whose leaves are worlds)
Garternay: Root of the Great Tree
Terahnee: New Tree
D'ni: New Again
Releeshahn: The Whole
Relto: The High Place
Played by lambdabeta/sonatagreen.
