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whackk-kermitt · 1 year ago

Text

Remember Me?

Genre: Oneshot (Female Reader)

Summary: Years after Ragnarok, Kratos finds a familiar face knocking at his door. Turns out he's not the only God who abandoned Greece.

Warnings: Subtle mentions of classic Greek gods and their treatment of women👎. No explicit content, but some suggestive conversation. (also mentions of young Kratos- who was quite the Playboy)

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Spring had come in flush with bright florals and on-and-off rain. The cabin was glowing in the early evening light. Birds and crickets chirping goodnight and hello to each other. The day had been a peaceful one.

Kratos had returned from a hunt, deer meat cooking above the fire. The smell wafted through the small cabin making it feel a little more homely. Kratos spent these days in between Atreus's visits home, mostly alone. Yeah Mimir was there, and he was good company, but there's not much they had to say to each other now a days.

Kratos was finally enjoying his retirement from Godhood without death, pain, and struggle around every corner. But these mundane days are starting to way on him. Nothing to do except hunt, built, and intend to the land. He very rarely ventured farther than Midgard, or the realm between realms. His days of adventure were over. He couldn’t help but admit to himself that he did feel quite lonely; having no one to enjoy these moments with.

Yes, it was peaceful, but peace is often an illusion.

Atreus would stop in every month or two and stay a while. They'd catch up and he'd rant to his father about the places he's been and the people he's met. Every now and then, when Kratos wasn't ready to say goodbye yet, he'd come up with something he needed to do, so Atreus would tag along.

But a simple knock at the cabin door made both him and Mimir- who sat on his perch in front of a book- perk up. It was not but a few days ago Atrues departed for another journey, so it wasn't him- and he would not knock anyway. Freya? No, she's busy in Vanaheim. The dwarves do not come to visit him, so not them.

Kratos grunted to himself, standing from the table and approaching the door. He hesitated only a second before pulling it open.

It would be out of character for him to gasp, but he almost did. Before him was a face he had not seen in a long time. A face he had thought he never would see again- someone who he had believed had died.

“Well I be damned, it is you.” She smiled.

“Y/n.” He said plainly.

“Kratos.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, taking in each other’s appearance. it had been years, and both their ages have begun to show. More his than hers, he'd noticed. The years have been kind to her.

“Aren't you gonna invite me in?”

“No.” She may have been an old friend, but she was still a goddess, and nothing good comes from a God knocking at your door. “What do you want?”

“Simply to see you.” She shrugged. Her eyes were bright and her body was relaxed. “I heard your name mentioned in a village by the lake. Had to see for myself if it was truly you.”

“Why?”

“Why so abrasive, Kray? Been to long for you to trust me still?”

Yes, but he couldn't say that to her face. It felt wrong. They had… history.

At his silence, she sighed, “I will leave if it's what you wish. I just missed you old friend.”

Before she turned she fought a glimpse of his lips hesitating, she waited to give him time to find the words. He sighed long and deep.

“I thought you had fallen with Olympus.” It was not a question, or him digging for an explanation. He sounded so tiered, and his eyes seamed so mournful. He was voicing how he had hurt when they parted, a hurt she knew all to well.

“Same here.” Here eyes cast downward for a moment. “It is why when I heard your name, I- I had to see.”

Her eyes were always so easy to read.

He stood aside and she looked surprised for a moment that he had changed his mind so quickly. This was new for him, and she won't complain.

Smiling softly she entered the home.

“Well hello there, Las.” Mimir greeted with admiring eyes. Kratos warned him with a glare. “Off the table then?”

“Kratos,” She began with a sly chuckle. “I'm beginning to think that you have a thing for severed heads.”

Mimir gave an offended gasp. “Brother, there was another? I thought we had something special.” He joked but he was genuinely curious as to what the pretty lady had meant. The questioning look he gave her said it all.

“Medusa,” Y/n stated, a sad look briefing her features. “A tale for another time, uh…”

“Mimir.” He supplied.

“Y/n.” She introduced with and alluring smile.

Kratos motioned her to follow him around to the table. She sat as he prepared cups and cutlery for dinner.

“What are you doing here?”

She read between the lines, similar question as before but with a different meaning.

“After the fall of Olympus, there were no more burdens chaining me to Greece.” She paused, remembering something unpleasant. “I traveled away, similar to the way you did, I presume. I found myself in a world called Egypt. It was fun. Chaotic and full of interesting people. Yet it never felt like I could build a home there. After a few years, I grew bored and began traveling again. Eventually, I found myself here in Midgard, and you know the rest.”

He hummed listening to her talk. Her voice was the same as he remembered. Even and calm, almost like a song every time she spoke. As far as he knew, her words were the only ones he heard during his time in Greece, that never came around to be lies. Anytime she had spoken to him before, she had always been honest if she was unsure about anything. She had never lead him astray, and it was the only reason he had ever trusted her in the first place.

But if he was being honest with himself, trust had little to do with allowing her into his home.

“Any you?” She eyed the room. Taking note of all the years of life spent here, and presumably not just by Kratos. “You have family?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “My son Atreus, and the head.”

“Oi, brother.”

“And Mimir.” He corrected himself. Y/n chuckled at that.

“And his mother?” She asked softly, unsure if she still had the right to ask personal questions such as those. She had already come to the conclusion that the mother had passed, looking around the state of the home. There was evidence of a woman, but not for a long while.

“Dead,” He said simply. “She fell ill, nearly ten years ago now.”

“My condolences.” She bowed her head.

Kratos placed a plate of seasoned meat before her with a cup of water before serving himself and joining her at the table. She chuckled at his newly found ability to cook. She would not comment on it at the time.

As they began to eat, they indulged in comfortable conversation. It had been a long time since Kratos had been around someone who knew him. Truly knew him. Not just the stories and prophecies he's been tangled up in. It felt nice to have someone's eyes on him. He had felt before, and again now, that she had been a true ally to him. Y/n had never cared for the God of War, nor the rumors and stories amongst the residents of Greece about him. She had only ever spoken to him as Kratos. Talking to her awakened feelings in him that he feared died with Faye. A feeling of comfort in being seen.

She asked some questions about his life, and where it had taken him since they parted. He talked briefly about Faye and his journey with Atreus after her passing. He told her of Ragnarok. And she commented on how he'd always found himself in trouble with other gods.

While they ate and caught up mainly him talking about Atreus- his eyes had a life of there own, not shying away from admiring her. She had not changed much. Something Krotos noted was her laugh lines; she's had a happier life since abandoning Greece. Much has happened, but he can honestly say the same for himself. He was happy she found some joy somewhere.

“And what of you?” He turned the conversation away from himself. “Did you ever marry?”

“No,” She laughed shaking her head slowly. “No man ever worth my hand.” A sad look in her eyes for only a moment. If he had not been staring so intently he would have missed it.

“You had many options before..”

“None who were worth my hand.” She stated again. “Or at least none who were worthy and willing.”

This he did not quite understand. She was as intelligent as she was graceful in her beauty. A humble and modest woman. She was the most sought-after for marriage in all the time he knew her. He had figured it was why he had never been able to pursue her more than idle flirting. She was above him, worthy of more.

She laughed slyly at his eyes moving over her, confusion written on his face.

“That is way, Kratos.” Her head shook. “Few men has ever looked past my body, so few men were worthy.”

“Hmm.” He nodded. Kratos was guilty of this. He knew it. All his years, encountering her by chance and seeking her out for aid in his quests for revenge, they had flirted and bantered, but that was it. He had gotten to know her without ever asking questions or listening.

He was ashamed of the man he used to be, a womanizer. She had always worn loose-fitted gowns, but he had still seen glimpses of her figure through it. He'd flirt and she’d flirt back, but she'd never let him touch her. Never let him have her the way he wanted to. Her eyes would always make him feel like she wanted him to, but her words always told him no. She'd often leave him with an itch he'd let any other willing women scratch. Because he would not cross the line so many other gods did. But all the same, he had once treated many women as throw-away fun.

He is glad she never swayed from her standards and belittled herself for a man. It was respectable and dangerous considering the men of Olympus.

She would've made a fine wife if he had the maturity then to recognize it.

“I am sorry.” It came out more pitiful and emotional than expected. He regretted the things he'd elude to with her back then.

“For what?” She asked stunned by a sudden apology.

“Not seeing past your beauty.” He chose his words carefully. if she was planning to settle in Midgard, it would be nice to have an old friend to talk to. offending her was the last thing he wanted to do.

“But you did.” She smiled. “You were just not willing.”

“I was not.” He refused. He couldn't believe anyone would see that version of himself as worthy of women like her. He had had trouble believing Faye would see him as worthy once he opened up to her about his past, once she knew the kind of man he was once. So surely not a woman who had seen it firsthand could truthfully say he was- then or now.

“It is a shame you do not see you as I do, Kratos.” She sighed deeply. “Sure, you were a man led by emotion and hormones,” Pausing to chuckle. “But you treated me kindly and fairly. You never hurt me.”

“Aww.” Mimir sighed happily.

Kratos groaned eyeing the back of his head. Y/n laughed nervously, forgetting someone else was in the house. She did not mean to get that personal in front of a stranger.

“Sorry, ignore me! I'll be reading.”

“Anyway.” She stood grabbing the empty plates.

Kratos stood taking them from her hands, making her frown.

“You cooked.” She demanded.

“You are a guest.” He retorted, taking them to wash. She smiled at his back, enjoying being in his company again. He smiled ever so slightly for the same reasons.

“What will you do now?”

“Oh,” She thought, looking up to envision her coming answer. “Likely travel a bit, find a cozy place to settle for a while.”

Kratos hummed turning back to her, watching as she leaned against the table. His eyes took in all of her. Her body was covered in a gown and light armor. Boots and straps fitted by no blacksmith or tailor known to these realms. The colors complemented her skin and hair fairly. She seemed to be traveling light. Her gear would not aid her well in traversing these realms.

“You're staring again.” She mused.

“You travel light, it will not do you good in these parts.” He explained. He did not want her to conclude that he was the same man driven by lust, as that was not the case anymore. “Before you go far I will introduce you to the dwarves.”

“Dwarfs?”

“Blacksmiths- good ones.” He nodded. “They will fit you with what you’ll need.”

“Thank you Kratos,” She smiled to him sweetly. “But I do not see myself going far.”

“Good.” He smiled back ever so slightly.

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Not proofread.

•Kermitts Masterlist•

#god of war ragnarok #gow x reader #gow #gow ragnarok #kratos #kratos x reader #kratosxreader

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bethanythebogwitch · 28 days ago

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The story of Myst

Myst is a series of adventure games starting with 1993's Myst. The series consists of games and novels that are, in chronological order, Myst: the Book of Ti'ana, Myst: the Book of Atrus, Myst, Riven: the Sequel to Myst, Myst: the Book of D'ni, Myst IV: Revelations, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (with expansion packs To D'ni and Path of the Shell), Myst V: End of Ages, and Myst Online: Uru Live. The series tells the story of the D'ni, a civilization possessing the power to travel to other worlds through writing special books, and of the family of Atrus, a D'ni man who helps rebuild the civilization. This post will be on the general backstory and worldbuilding of the series. I'll do a follow-up post showcasing some of the interesting worlds.

Worth noting is that the Myst 1-4 and the novels are presented as games fictionalizing real events in the setting of Uru. This was done to explain discrepancies between the lore on how writing and books work between the games and to state that the worlds visited in the earlier games are reduced considerably to fit on 1990s games.

In ancient times, there was a world called Garternay, which orbited a red star. It was home to a human-like people called the Ronay. The name Ronay means "people of the root" while Garternay means "root of the great tree", both of which reference the Ronay's view of the nature of reality, which followed the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Every possibility exists in some universe and every time a new event happens with multiple possible outcomes, the universe will branch into new universes, each of which will contain one possible outcome of the event. The Ronay viewed reality as the Great Tree of Possibilities, a metaphorical depiction of the branching nature of reality. They also believed the tree was planted by the god Yahvo, the Maker. What made the Ronay unique was they developed the ability to travel between the worlds, known as Ages, of the Great Tree. This was done through the craft known as the Art of Writing. By writing books describing Ages, the Ronay could travel to those ages.

The Art of Writing is central to the Myst series. It must be done with books made of a special paper, using special ink, and written in a special language. There are two types of books: descriptive books and linking books. Each age only has 1 descriptive books and an unlimited number of linking books. The descriptive book must be written first and describes the Age the writer desires to reach in extensive detail. Care must be taken to not write contradictory elements into the book, as they can lead to unstable and self-destructive Ages. Once the book is written, it will connect to an Age that most closely matches the written description. Even if two descriptive books are written that are exact copies of each other, they will not connect to the same Age, but to two separate but seemingly identical Ages. If a descriptive book is destroyed the link to its described Age is permanently lost. It is important to remember that writing descriptive books does not create Ages, it just links to Ages that already exist. The act of traveling between Ages is called linking. Every book contains a linking panel which is an image of the Age it links to. Touching this panel causes the person who did it to vanish and reappear in the other Age. There is a void between the ages that you momentarily inhabit while linking and appears as nothing but blackness (in real life, this is the games' loading screen). Once a descriptive book is written, additional linking books can be written that link to the same age. These books are smaller and refer to key passages of text in the descriptive book to make their link. If a linking book is written in the age it links to, it will link to the spot it is completed in. Otherwise, it will link to the same location as the descriptive book. It is not possible to link to the age you are currently in, but you can link somewhere else and then link back to a different location as long as you have access to the appropriate books. When linking, the book you use stays behind. When linking to a new age, always bring along a book back home or you will be trapped. Once a descriptive book is written, it can be modified, which can actually alter the age it links to. These changes must be subtle and not contradict earlier passages or the link will swap to a new age that fits the description better. If a descriptive book is destroyed, all its associated linking books will also cease to function. Sufficient damage to an age can also cause its books to stop functioning.

The Ronay initially believed they were linking to existing ages when they wrote their books, but eventually, a new belief took hold that they were actually gods creating worlds. This led the Ronay to pride and decadence and they began abusing the people in their Ages. Eventually, Ronay scientists realized that their sun was dying and Garternay would soon become uninhabitable. The majority of the Ronay chose to move to a paradise world named Terahnee, but some splinter groups moved to other Ages instead. Once of these splinter groups was led by a man named Ri'neref, who still believed in the old ways and sought to lead his people to a world of hardship to keep them humble. He wrote an age called D'ni ("new beginning") that was a great underground cavern centered around a lake. The lake was inhabited by bioluminescent algae which would glow orange on and off in a 30-hour cycle, mimicking day and night. Life there would be hard and the D'ni people would need to rely on other Ages to grow their food, which Ri'neref hoped would keep them humble. While the D'ni connected their cavern to the surface using fans to bring in fresh air, they never traveled to the surface and never knew if there were people living up there or not. In fact, D'ni was located on Earth, in a cavern beneath the desert in what would eventually become the American state of New Mexico.

At some point in their history, the D'ni encountered a species they called Bahro ("the least"). The Bahro had natural abilities to link to other Ages as well as abilities the D'ni did not, such as linking through time, linking between spots on the same age, and altering Ages in bizarre ways. Through methods that have been lost to history, the D'ni used a golden tablet to enslave the Bahro, using their abilities to enhance the Art, though it appears that the majority of the D'ni people did not know of the existence of the Bahro and slavery remained illegal throughout most of D'ni history. For millennia, the Bahro suffered at the hands of the D'ni.

Eventually, D'ni did begin to undergo a similar rise in pride that the Ronay did, though they never did reach the same levels of depravity as the Ronay. D'ni started out as a kingdom, though eventually the monarchy was dissolved and a system of guilds took over governance. The D'ni gradually began to abuse the Art and the people of the Ages they wrote. Eventually, a project was began to contact the surface. A great shaft would be drilled leading to the surface, but bears of an invasion by surface people (sparked by a war the D'ni had with the inhabitants of one Age) led to the project being cancelled when it was almost complete. However, the shaft had drilled high enough to connect with underground tunnels and lava tubes that led to the surface and they were eventually found.

In the early 1700s, a girl named Anna, the daughter of a trader, became lost in the lava tubes and eventually found her way to the great shaft. Following it downward, she was discovered by the D'ni and imprisoned while the council of guilds, driven by fear of outsiders, decided what to do with her. She was taken in by a man named Aitrus, guildmaster of the guild of surveyors and one of the main backers of the great shaft project. The two bonded over their shared curiosity and love of learning. Aitrus taught Anna the D'ni language and gave her a D'ni name, Ti'ana, meaning "dreamer". He was able to secure her release, though the guild council decided she would not permitted to return to the surface. Aitrus and Ti'ana eventually fell in love and married each other, a move that caused controversy in the more conservative citizens of D'ni. One of these citizens was Veovis, a friend of Aitrus who gradually grew more and more resentful of Ti'ana's growing influence on D'ni politics. Veovis befriended A'gaeris, a fanatical D'ni supremacist who believed that Ti'ana's presence had polluted D'ni purity. The last straw for them was the birth of Aitrus and Ti'ana's son Gehn and his admittance to the guild of writers, the guild responsible for writing descriptive and linking books. They launched a terrorist attack, using the cavern's ventilation system to spread a plague throughout D'ni. The majority of the D'ni died that night, with survivors fleeing to various other Ages. Ti'ana and Gehn escaped to the surface while Aitrus died to keep Veovis from killing them. The two settled in a small rift in the ground called the cleft.

Gehn grew up resenting Ti'ana, blaming her for the death of his father and destruction of D'ni. He would beet and marry a woman from a local tribe, but when she died giving birth to their son, Gehn left without a word and returned to D'ni, not even bothering to name his child. Ti'ana named her grandson Atrus, after her husband and raised him to be a curious child well-versed in the ways of science. When Atrus was 14, in the year 1773, Gehn returned and took his son into D'ni, intending to teach him the Art. Ti'ana believed her son would not allow Atrus to visit her as promised and secretly followed the two to the cavern. Gehn's education in the Art had barely begun when the fall happened. He came to fully believe the D'ni were gods creating world with their writing and he enslaved the people of his ages and forced them to worship him. His approach to writing was also fundamentally flawed. He merely copied phrases from other descriptive books with no care how they worked together, leading to unstable Ages. Atrus applied his scientific method to the Art and quickly became a better writer than Gehn, leading to tension between the two. After Gehn's attempted modifications to one of his Ages led to an environmental disaster and Gehn leaving the inhabitants to starve, he and Atrus got into a fight that led to Gehn imprisoning Atrus in a room in a D'ni mansion called K'veer, with the only way out being a descriptive book.

The book led to Gehn's fifth Age (Gehn never named his Ages, only numbering them), known to the natives as Riven. Atrus was saved from drowning by a native girl named Katran, through Atrus was unable to properly pronounce her name and called her Catherine, which eventually stuck. Atrus realized that Gehn planned to rebuild D'ni society (or rather his perverted version of it) in Riven, with Catherine having learned the Art from him, though like Atrus, Catherine's skill at the Art quickly surpassed Gehn's. Catherine also didn't have the scientific background that Atrus and Gehn did and she secretly wrote an Age called the Torus, which defied every scientific principle that Atrus knew, yet somehow remained stable. Atrus realized that Riven had the same problems with stability as all of Gehn's ages and he wanted to force Atrus to fix them. Atrus instead began to plan with Catherine and Catherine met and began scheming with Ti'ana. They came up with a plan to strand Gehn on Riven by destroying all the linking books out. Catherine and Ti'ana also worked together to write a new age, Myst, that they could all live on. Catherine also edited the Riven descriptive book. On the day the plan to trap Gehn was sprung, Catherine's changes took effect. The single island of Riven split into five and a great fissure opened on one of them. However, instead of leading to the underground, this fissure seemed to lead to space and was known as the star fissure. The star fissure appears to be an opening to the space between Ages. With the only linking book out of Riven being the Myst book, Catherine and Ti'ana escaped to Myst, leaving Atrus with Gehn. Cornered, Atrus leapt into the star fissure while linking to Myst, leaving the Myst book to fall into the fissure and trapping Gehn.

Now living on Myst, Atrus, Catherine, and Ti'ana lived together. Atrus and Catherine eventually married and had sons, the elder Sirrus and younger Achenar. Atrus also continued to hone his work with the Art. When Sirrus was 8, Ti'ana died in an accident on one of Catherine's ages. This broke the family. Atrus dealt with his grief by throwing himself into his work. His sons perceived this as rejection and grew resentful and bitter. Atrus did try to teach Sirrus and Achenar the Art, but stopped due to a perceived lack on interest on their part. Neither parent realized when Sirrus and Achenar began abusing Atrus's Ages, setting themselves up as gods to the natives and looting and plundering the worlds before slaughtering the inhabitants. They eventually planned to use a plan from one of Catherine's ages, Serenia, which had the ability to store memories, to steal Atrus's knowledge of the Art and then kill him. In preparation, they realized Atrus was onto their looting of his Ages and made a plan to imprison both parents. They tricked Catherine into returning to Riven and imprisoned Atrus by sending him to K'veer with a sabotaged Myst book that left him trapped. However, before they could finish their plan, the two had a falling out. They each used a linking book Atrus had told them never to use. They believed these books led to more ages to loot, but instead, Atrus had written them as traps for intruders to Myst. Each age, Haven and Spire, looked inhabited, but were in fact devoid of sapient life and of linking books back to Myst. This left any intruders imprisoned, but the ages had food and water to keep them alive. Thus, the sons were trapped, Sirrus in Spire and Achenar in Haven.

The Myst book that Atrus dropped into the star fissure continued to fall and eventually made its way back to Earth, in the desert above the D'ni cavern. In 1806, somebody found the book. This person, known only as the stranger, is the avatar for the player of the first 4 games and all details about them are left obscure so the player can imagine themself in the role. The stranger accidentally linked to Myst and, with no way home, explored the island and its linked Ages. Through exploring the ages, the stranger learned what Sirrus and Achenar had done and linked to K'veer with the supplies Atrus needed to fix his Myst book. Atrus had been working full time on the Riven descriptive book. The flaws in the age due to Gehn's poor writing had been compounded by Catherine's' changes and the Age was on the verge of collapse, kept stable only by Atrus's constant revisions.

Atrus chose to send the stranger through to Riven to rescue Catherine and imprison Gehn in a book that looked like a link back to D'ni, but actually led to a trap. On Riven, the stranger learned that a rebel group of Rivenese called the Moiety had begun opposing Gehn and worshiping Atrus and Catherine. They took Catherine in and she learned that Gehn was trying to make new books. He always wrote the ingredients for making books into his Ages, but he didn't know the actual recipes involved and was forced to experiment. Catherine retrieved one of his failed Descriptive books and made an invention to fix them, thus granting the Moiety access to their own age, Tay. However, Gehn eventually captured Catherine and imprisoned her on the smallest of the Riven islands. He also managed to make working books, though they needed a power source to function, and planned to evacuate Riven to a new age while he worked on a linking book to D'ni, fully willing to abandon the Rivenese to their deaths. The stranger managed to imprison Gehn in the fake linking book and freed Catherine, who evacuated the Rivenese to Tay. All that was left was the stranger alerting Atrus to come rescue Catherine. They did this by reopening the star fissure, the final straw that led to Riven collapsing. Atrus then came to take Catherine back to K'veer and allowed the stranger to fall into the star fissure. His reasoning was that if the Myst book reached the stranger's home through the fissure, the stranger would be returned home by falling into it.

After this, Atrus decided to embark on a restoration of D'ni, but he needed help as the only linking book he had to D'ni led to the sealed room in K'veer. He made a bargain with the natives of an age called Averone to get their help. Once they broke out of K'veer, Atrus started exploring D'ni linking books to look for survivors. After several failed attempts he did eventually find other D'ni survivors, who joined his efforts. With Atrus, the Averonese, and surviving D'ni working together, they made great strides on reconstructing the D'ni. That is until they found a linking book to Terahnee, the age most of the Ronay had fled to. The survivors made contact with the Ronay of Terahnee and found that the Age was a paradise, where nobody wanted for anything. The Ronay were happy to meet their relatives and invited the D'ni survivors to move to the age. Atrus and the survivors planned to accept the offer, but they then found that the utopia of Terahnee was in fact built on the backs of countless slaves. The Ronay considered themselves gods and wrote Ages full of people indoctrinated to slavery who would be worked to death for the Ronay's pleasure. Some members of the D'ni and Averonese joined a slave rebellion, but in the end, the Ronay were brought down by a plague. This disease was a simple stomach bug to the D'ni, but the paradise of Terahnee had no diseases and led to the Ronay having weakened immune systems, making the disease deadly to them. Atrus and the rebuilding effort left back to D'ni as the liberated slaves took control of Terahnee.

In the aftermath of the Terahnee incident, Atrus began to realize that at the end of its history, D'ni was starting to go down the same path the Ronay had. He decided that D'ni should not be rebuilt, it should instead stay in ruins as a memorial to the hubris, greed, and hate that had brought it down. The other D'ni agreed with his plan and Atrus set out to write a new Age for the D'ni to move to. It took him some time to get started, and in the meantime, he traveled to the surface of Earth and built a new home in a river near the cleft, a place he called Tomahna. At some point during this time, he reunited with the stranger and had a new child with Catherine, a daughter named Yeesha. To get inspiration for his new Age, Aturs visited a series of Ages he had written for Sirrus and Achenar. These Ages were intended to teach valuable lessons in how to Write a stable world. After finishing his new age, Releeshahn, Atrus invited the stranger to visit the age with him. However, when the stranger arrived in Tomahna, a mysterious person linked in, stole the Releeshahn descriptive book, and linked away after setting Tomahna on fire. The stranger followed him and found themself in the lesson ages. They discovered that the invader, Saavedro, was a native of the Age Narayan. Narayan was an age of balance, where the people had to live in harmony with nature to survive. Atrus intended it as the last of the lesson ages. It was one of the Ages that Sirrus and Achenar pillaged. They convinced the natives that Atrus had created them and made them suffer in toil, but they could free the Narayani. This led to civil war and when Saavedro tried to track down Sirrus and Achenar, they imprisoned him in the lesson ages. When Atrus visited the lesson ages, he had to leave behind a linking book to Tomahna, which Saavedro used to follow him. In secret, Saavedro learned of how Atrus was writing Releeshahn and misinterpreted this as Atrus being a god able to rewrite worlds. He set up a plan to steal the Releeshahn book to force Atrus to go through the lesson ages and show him the destruction Sirrus and Achenar put Narayan through, with the ultimate goal of forcing Atrus to rewrite Narayan. Even if it had been Atrus instead of the stranger who followed, this would be impossible as the Art cannot rewrite the past. The stranger was able to reveal to Saavedro that the Narayani were not dead as he thought and retrieved the Reeleshahn book in exchange for helping Saavedro reunite with his people

The incident with Saavedro made Atrus and Catherine wonder what had happened to their sons. They wanted to visit them and see if they had reformed, but could not do so without leaving a Tomahna book behind that the son could use to escape if not reformed. Catherine eventually wrote a cage into each prison age around the link-in spot. This way, the two could visit and speak with their sons, while being able to leave a linking book where the son could not reach it. After meeting their sons several times, Atruc invited the stranger back to Tomahna to get their opinion. However, during the meeting, someone set off an explosion and kidnapped Yeesha, forcing the stranger to investigate. Visiting the prison Ages of Haven and Spire revealed that the sons had somehow developed a means to breach the cages. Through investigating, the stranger realized that Achenar had truly reformed and regretted his former actions while Sirrus was still unrepentant. Sirus used natural resources in Spire to breach the cages and kidnap Yeesha, taking her to Serenia. He planned to use the unique properties of that age to replace Yeesha’ mind with his. Then, in Yeesha’s body, he would learn the Art from Atrus, allowing him to write his own Ages to rule. The stranger and Achenar stopped his plan, saving Yeesha, but costing both brothers their lives.

Yeesha grew up and learned the Art, using a unique style that combined Atrus’s adherence to science with Catherine’s more spiritual take. D’ni live vastly longer than humans and Rivenese, allowing Atrus and Yeesha to outlive Catherine and the stranger. Yeesha went to D’ni to learn in the ruins and there she discovered the Bahro and their slavery, which continued even after D’ni fell. She sought to free them and learned she had unusual abilities. Her linking books could break the normal rules and she developed the power to link without books. Her studies led her to a series of prophecies by a D’ni seer of a figure called the Grower, who would rebuild the Great Tree of Possibilities and was marked by powers including linking at will and linking through time. Yeesha came to believe she was the Grower and her duty was to free the Bahro.

Yeesha was not the only person who was exploring the D’ni cavern. In the 1980s, a group of human spelunkers discovered the D’ni cavern. They founded the D’ni Restoration Council (DRC), a group of historians, scientists, and archaeologists who wished to restore the cavern and its linked Ages for study and eventually open them to the public. Rebuilding went well initially, and the DRC published a series of games and novels presenting the public simplified takes on D’ni history and the events with Atrus and the stranger. Tensions began to rise in the DRC based on disagreements on how to proceed with the project. In addition, people from around the world were feeling drawn to the desert of New Mexico for reasons they couldn’t explain. One faction of the DRC started bringing people to the cavern while another wished to keep them out. These disagreements eventually led to the DRC disbanding and restoration being halted, but still more people came to the cavern. They had been brought to the cavern by Yeesha, who had set up a method to help free the Bahro. Each visitor would undergo a journey through five Ages Yeesha intended to teach lessons about the darkness within D’ni. Teledahn, an age used for making delicacies that hid an underground slave-trading ring. Gahreesen, an age used by the guild of maintainers as a fortress, to the point where guarding secrets is a goal in and of itself. Eder Gira and Eder Kemo, a pair of garden Ages whose native population was forced out to allow the D’ni to relax. And Kadish Tolesa, a vault made by a rich guildsman named Kadish to hide his treasure and wealth. By visiting the Ages, the explorers could retrieve pillars and move them into caves in the ceiling of the D’ni cavern. The pillars held parts of the “self” of a Bahro and moving all four to D’ni would free a single Bahro. However, this method was intolerably slow and Yeesha sought a better option.

Another discovery Yeesha made in D’ni was of Kadish, the guildsman who owned Kadish Tolesa. He was a writer who set himself up as the Grower, using his ingenious writing ability to replicate the feats the Grower was said to fulfill. This was all to create a following and hoard wealth. When D’ni fell, he fled to Kadish Tolesa and died alone in his vault. He considered dying with his treasure to be a good death, something that baffled Yeesha. Through studying his actions, Yeesha further reinforced her belief that she was the Grower.

At some point, Yeesha discovered the golden tablet that enslaved the Bahro. Attempting to use the tablet to free the Bahro, she went through a series of trials to claim it, trials which had been set up by an unknown party. She claimed the tablet, but her ambition went too far and in her pride, Yeesha lost access to the tablet. She considered herself a failure and fell into despair and bitterness. Eventually, another person was drawn to D’ni to take the challenge of the tablet. This was Dr. Watson, one of the leaders of the DRC. He was met by Yeesha and another D’ni named Esher. Esher also believed himself to be the Grower and had also taken the trial of the tablet and held it for a while, but was judged unworthy and lost it. He offered to help Dr. Watson through the trials. While visiting the Ages of the trials, Watson learned that Esher had fled the fall of D’ni to Noloben, home of the Bahro. He performed torturous experiments on the Bahro and learned some of their abilities. He considered the Bahro to be lesser beings and wished to command the tablet to use their power for his own purposes. Upon claiming the tablet, Esher and Yeesha both asked for it, but Watson instead dropped it and walked away. Whoever controls the tablet controls the destiny of the Bahro, and by dropping it, Watson allowed the Bahro to claim it, thus finally freeing them all. Yeesha was finally freed of her burden as the Grower and Esher was captured by the Bahro. Watson was taken to Releeshahn and met an elderly Atrus, who said that now that the D’ni’s greatest crime, the enslavement of the Bahro, was undone, the D’ni people could truly begin to heal.

Sometime after that, Watson returned to Earth and helped restart the DRC. Work once again began on restoring the cavern and visitors were allowed in to explore. During the events of the game Myst Online: Uru Live, there was a planned storyline following up on the events of Myst V involving a civil war between the newly-freed Bahro, one faction wishing to coexist with the humans and D’ni and the other angrily lashing out and attacking people in the cavern. However, the game was shut down before this storyline could be seen through.

#Myst #myst game #riven #riven: the sequel to myst #myst iii exile #myst iv revelations #myst v exile #uru #uru ages beyond myst #uru live #lore #worldbuilding #infodump #d'ni #atrus #yeesha #long post

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nateconnolly · 1 year ago

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I made a Patreon lol.

Here's the free sample post:

THE CREATION MYTH OF KILL 6 BILLION DEMONS

INTRODUCTION

I love fantasy religions. I love it when fictional humans try to understand worlds like Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Tolkein’s Middle Earth through a religious lens—especially because in those books and in many others, the fantasy religions are somewhat true, and somewhat false. It’s really fun to look at a fictional universe through the eyes of a character who might not see things objectively. Religion usually plays a role in that. But, if I’m being honest, a lot of fantasy religions are just Christianity wearing a fun hat. Don’t get me wrong, I am fascinated by Chrisitianity, and I really enjoy a lot of fantasy versions of Christianity. But it’s a great special treat when a fantasy story goes the extra mile and portrays another concept of the divine. That’s one of many reasons that I love the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons. The webcomic’s fictional religion Atru has parallels to Taoism, Gnosticism, Advaita Vedanta, theothanatology, Biblical divine nomenclature, the list goes on. I just threw a lot of big scary words at you, but I promise, this is a beginner level essay. I’ll break everything down into bite-sized pieces. I just wanted to list out some of K6BD’s religious influences to show that they are complicated, and diverse.

This is specifically a essay about the creation narratives. K6BD is an amazing comic—later on, it tackles questions about time, free will, and optimistic nihilism, but I won’t dig into that stuff here. Those things would require their own essays. Here, I’m going to try to explain how the seven-part world came to be. More specifically, I’ll examine the stories that White Chain, Cio, Michael, and the old devil’s tale tell us; then I’ll look at fictional holy texts found in the Concordance.

I’ll also compare and contrast with a lot of real world religion and philosophy. I want to be clear that the creator Abaddon and I have never spoken. I don’t know where he got most of his inspiration. I’m not revealing any information that wasn’t already available, I’m just compiling it and offering my own thoughts. Unless I specifically quote Abaddon, assume that I’m not even talking about his inspirations. I’m drawing parallels because it’s fun, even though it probably won’t give us new insight into how the text was created.

I promise I’m not trying to convert you! I genuinely don’t want to make other people believe the religion that I believe—or any religion at all. I’m just trying to show you how understanding some real world religious and philosophical concepts can deepen your appreciation of K6BD. Obviously, there will be tons of spoilers, so go read the webcomic if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely genius.

Lastly, I want to say I will discuss suicide and murder.

Ok, let’s get started.

PART ONE: THE FIRST AND GREATEST DIVISION

Let There Be No Genesis

White Chain begins the history of the universe with the words, “Let there be no Genesis,” closely echoing the in-universe fictional Psalm I. “For indeed, there was [no Genesis]. God has always existed and has never existed.” As White Chain tells her story, we are shown the god YISUN. This figure is sometimes described with it/its or she/her pronouns, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to follow the example of the fictional Psalm I, and use he/him. I might call him “YISUN” or “God” with a capital G depending on the context.

YISUN was eternal, and the “undisputed master of the entire omniverse.” He predates everything else, and without him, nothing would exist.

YISUN has at least twelve bodies, probably more. Some are smiling, some look mad; some resemble insects or animals; most hold weapons; and all are different colors. The central white body has four arms. Abaddon has said that YISUN’s appearance is directly inspired by the Hindu god Vishvarupa. Hindu gods are frequently depicted with multiple body parts, an artistic tradition that Doris Srinivasan calls “the multiplicity convention.” She explains some of the religious and artistic reasons that many Indian gods have multiple body parts in her book “Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art.” The tradition of Hinduism is long, and diverse, so the multiple limbs in one text can mean something very different from the multiple limbs elsewhere. Srinivasan closely examines a vast expanse of Indian history, and I don’t have time to present all her ideas. I would like to specifically focus on the interpretation that multiple limbs represent the manifestations of a singular godhead.

Srinivasan writes that “Multiple versions of a myth are facilitated by the idea that there exists multiple aspects or manifestations of a godhead.” Think of the difference between Greek and Hindu goddesses. Bruno Snell suggests “that these four women signalize the four aspects of all womanhood,” but Srinivasan qualifies his interpretation. The Olympian women “are not multiple forms of [one] Divine Woman, as is the case in Hinduism.” Artemis and Athena are different people who are both women, plural. Parvati, Sati, and Uma together are Woman, singular. Zeus, Demeter, and Poseidon are gods, plural. Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna are God, singular. That’s not how all Hindus see things, but it is one Hindu perspective that I find especially comparable to K6BD.

Similarly, the multiple bodies are only manifestations of a single God: YISUN. All of his bodies are a single person. In Hinduism, the plurality of the divine can be seen as empowering and liberating. Multiple body parts signify that the god is a well-rounded entity. But Abaddon makes it look like a curse. He turns the artistic convention around. Using the same symbolism and metaphysics, he tells a radically different story. As White Chain says, “Being was only circular.” “YISUN had no equal… It was a wretched life, without meaning or perception. Imagine infinite stories to tell… and nobody to tell them to.” Perfection is lonely. At this point, YISUN is the only thing that exists, and that can’t be fun. All those arms and heads cannot satisfy YISUN’s need for companionship. It’s fascinating to me that when White Chain says YISUN had no one to whom it could tell its stories, Abaddon chose to illustrate multiple heads right next to each other. Even if those heads told each other stories, the speaker and the listener would still be the same person. Dissatisfaction with isolation is why YISUN created the world.

Although not all Hindus follow the school of Advaita Vedanta, in this case, I think it will be helpful to compare and contrast with Advaita. As Ram Shanker Misra writes in “The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo,” “Brahman [ is] perfect, absolute, infinite, need[s] nothing, [and] desir[es] nothing…” Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that [Brahman] wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible.”

But that’s exactly why YISUN created this world. He wants to gain something that he does not have: companionship.The universe is God’s escape from himself. There was no Genesis, but there was “the first and greatest division: division of self”: “God committed holy suicide.”

2. The Divine Suicide

White Chain’s story is similar to Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous claim that “God is dead,” but Nietzsche did not mean God was a real entity that had literally died. He meant that intellectually, it was impossible to continue believing in God, and that all intellectual achievements founded on belief in Him had to be abandoned. Nietzsche’s claim is a famous example of a philosophical school of thought called death of God theology, also called “theothanatology,” which means “the study of God’s death” in Greek.

“Death” can mean a lot of different things in this context. Sometimes it’s metaphorical, sometimes it’s literal, and usually, it’s a very confusing mixture of both.

Nietzsche proposed the death of God as a social claim about humans. He’s talking about what we can believe, what we should do, and what we need to accept. God never really existed, but as religion loses followers and influence, even the idea of God has begun to “die” because it no longer has power over the real world.

“Death” can also mean God exists, but in a way radically different from what people usually mean when they say “God.” The Rabbi and philosopher Richard L. Rubenstein thought God exists as a “ground of being,” but not as a supernatural entity that made a covenant with Abraham. Rubenstein proposed the death of God as an intellectual change in what humans think the word “God” means.

And, finally, “death” can just literally mean “death.” The Protestant theologian Thomas J.J. Altizer wrote “we shall understand the death of God as an historical event: God has died in our time, in

our history, in our existence.” This isn’t a social claim about humans—it’s a metaphysical claim about God.

Death of God theologians usually mean more than one thing when they say God is dead. Nietzsche wasn’t just trying to convince Christians to become atheists; he was also trying to convince many atheists that they disbelieved in God in the wrong way. Altizer had radical thoughts about what human beings are able to believe.

White Chain means that God is dead in the literal sense. She is proposing a metaphysical belief that God, as a historical figure, chose to actually kill himself. White Chain is not rejecting or critiquing religion—she’s asserting that her religion, in which God has died, is fact.

You can see slight parallels to Nietzsche, Rubenstein, Altizer, Hegel, Zizek, and Blake in White Chain’s version of the fictional religion Atru. But there is no better comparison than the king of sad philosophers Philipp Mainlander.

Mainlander was an atheist—but not in the sense that people usually mean when they say “atheist.” Mainlander believed that there was a God at some time, but that time is now over. There isn’t a God anymore. Mainlander is pretty unique among death of God theologians because he explicitly describes God’s death as a suicide. Whittaker explains that Mainlander thought “[a]ll things have their origin in what may be called… the ‘will’ of the absolute being… to annihilate itself.” Essentially, the cause of the universe is God’s suicidal desires.

God was a “real unity,” but his death caused a “collective unity”—that’s the universe where we live now. God had been a total and undivided One, but now the universe is made of distinct parts. God cut himself apart into the pieces of the universe. God created the world by becoming it, and he became the world by dying.

Mainlander said “the knowledge that life is worthless is the flower of all human knowledge.” He thought suicide was desirable, and ultimately, he put his money where his mouth was. The biggest difference between Mainlander and White Chain is that she doesn’t seem to think ordinary people such as herself should follow God’s suicidal example. Even beyond the views of a specific character, the story of Kill 6 Billion Demons reads as an affirmation of life’s beauty and value.

But the webcomic clearly argues that making a better world is a bloody project. So it should come as no surprise that making the world itself involved bloodshed. First and foremost, the blood of God. What’s so interesting to me is that both White Chain and Mainlander equate God’s suicide to the creation of the world. Our life comes from God’s death. Creation and destruction aren’t opposites—they’re different ways of looking at the same process. At the end of Book 2, Allison destroys Mottom’s evil tree and a lot of her palace—but this destruction is also part of the creation of a more just and free world.

So, what did God’s destruction create? What came after YISUN?

3. The Duality of Un and Yis

The destruction of the total unity creates duality. I know that’s a little confusing because YISUN had many faces, but remember that behind all of those faces was one God, and only one. Not anymore. “From division was birthed duality. White Un, Lord of empty and still places, master of all that is not. Black Yis, infinite mother of the rampant flame. Master of all that is''

I cannot avoid comparing the White and Black gods to the Yin and Yang—a spinning black and white symbol usually associated with the religion Taoism. Yin and Yang represent a cosmic duality. Yin is associated with femininity, darkness, passivity, and even numbers, among other things. Yang is associated with masculinity, light, activity, and odd numbers, among other things. Mainstream Taoist philosophy asserts that the universe can be understood through duality. So, why are these pairs important? And why do things get paired together in the first place?

As is written in the foundational Taoist text the Tao Te Ching, “Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other.” What’s so interesting about the pairs is they “create,” “support,” “define,” and “depend on” each other. Black can’t exist without white, and white cannot exist without black.

As the Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts it, “...yinyang is emblematic of valuational equality rooted in the unified, dynamic, and harmonized structure of the cosmos. As such, it has served as a heuristic mechanism for formulating a coherent view of the world…” Essentially, neither of these opposites are “dominant” or “truer.” Choosing one side won’t help you understand the universe because the universe is their partnership. Their equality gives “structure to the cosmos.” That structure is order, not chaos, but it is differentiated. There are two different things: Yin and Yang. They contradict each other, but at the same time, they make the universe. Yin and Yang are a productive paradox.

I’d like to return to the notion that “being and non-being create each other.” At this stage of creation in K6BD, UN and YIS could not exist without each other. Their very existence is the fact that they are not a unity. If there was only one of them, then there wouldn’t have been a division—and they are nothing more than the product of division. Just like how being and non-being create each other, the Master of All That Is and the Master of All That Is Not create each other. YISUN was characterized by his totality—he was the total sum of the omniverse, there was nothing else. After the division, Un and Yis experience otherness. The first otherness in the omniverse. It’s difficult for them to find balance—in fact, they immediately went to war for seven years. At the end of their seven-year war, Un and Yis made love for seven days.

I want to be very clear that this is not a depiction of actual Taoism. Yin and Yang are not gods with faces and minds. Notably, the Tao Te Ching asserts that yin and yang are “older than God.” so make of that what you will. But I think Taoism is thematically relevant to this era. Two opposites have to come into balance with each other. The whole universe is a duality of interconnected forces.

K6BD repeatedly emphasizes the need for community. As Allison says at the end of King of Swords, “I couldn’t have done this without any of you… We make mistakes. We learn from each other. We all still have so much to learn. Once I saw that as a weakness, now I’m certain it’s not. Someone who lives still thinking like that… struggling to do everything themselves… I can’t help but think how alone they must be.”

YISUN had to do everything all by himself, and we saw that Allison was right—isolation was a struggle, even for God. But the struggle is over, and in its place is duality. Partnership. The first community.

These are the first four parts of a fourteen-part critical essay. You can read the rest here.

Bibliography is on the free Patreon post.

#patreon #nate's writing #original post

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justlikeheavenfest · 3 days ago

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register now for access to passes, on sale this friday at 11am PT. May awaits with arms outstretched. 🫶 $49.99 down payment plans available. www.justlikeheavenfest.com

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mangogator · 10 months ago

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hey myst fandom its me! back with some art!

this is a concept that literally will never happen (and only appeals to me) but for a while i’ve been thinking of a myst x sky cotl collab season called season of ages!!! above are a few concept designs for cosmetics can you tell exile is my favorite game in the series

click on the read more to see disorganized ramblings and the uncropped drawing!

SO its a very loose concept with very scattered ideas so far (and if you are both a sky and myst enjoyer PLEASE feel free to add ideas and also be my friend?????) and im sadly not super well versed in myst lore so this is going to be VERY surface level

a VERY basic concept of the season would be collecting pages across the realms to restore linking books, but this feels kinda boring. i’m also not sure how the spirits would relate to the myst characters, if there even would be spirits? and should each realm have a new area in it that resembles an age in one of the games that gradually get unlocked as the player completes quests? i have no idea!!! idk about yall but i would LOVE to fly around myst island

i know for sure that an ultimate gift/iap cosmetic would be a linking book. what i’m undecided on is if the player would just get one book that would allow them to link to a chosen area (it would be a wearable cosmetic, kinda like the art book), or would completing the season unlock a special place in vault of knowledge that gives the player access to multiple linking books? if it were an iap cosmetic (like all collab seasons have), it could be a linking book to a room of linking books? idk

i really want to be able to pay homage to all of the myst games by incorporating at least one element from each game (ie a whole age, an object in an age, a cosmetic that resembles something a character wears, etc etc). i also really want there to still be a puzzle element , but like. super easy puzzles. people play sky to chill, not be frustrated hdkshsskkh

the spirit guide will be atrus i will not budge on this

tgc and cyan. collab when

#sky cotl #myst #sky children of the light #that sky game #riven #myst exile #that game company #art tag

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meowthiroth · 5 months ago

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been meaning to post these here for AGES now but I keep forgetting to. explodes 💥

but ANYWAYS! i redid the ref art for my Stranger oc from Myst/Riven! and also finally got around to drawing the aged-up version I thought up for him between Myst 3 and 4.

also wrote out a sort of messy bio for him a while ago, which i'll put under the cut since it's kinda long lol

ACE

Basic info

• Born October 7, 1782. He is 24 during the events of Myst & Riven, 33 during Exile and 42 during Revelation.

• He stands about 5’6” (1.6m) and is around 120 lbs. Pretty scrawny and definitely built better for agility than physical power.

• He is transgender and uses he/him pronouns. That caused quite a few problems for him back home, given the social climate at the time. He really doesn’t like to discuss his past or his birth family & will quickly change the subject if asked.

• He's very kind, easygoing and silly, and he loves to help others. But he can also be quite scatterbrained, forgetful, and prone to emotional manipulation.

• While he can be a bit absent-minded at times, he’s actually quite intelligent & quick-thinking, and he excels at problem- and puzzle-solving. He often cracks Atrus’s puzzles within mere minutes, but then can't recall his thought process when asked how he did it.

• Most of his favorite pastimes involve creating and fixing things. For instance, he’s very skilled with a needle & thread, and he makes and mends all of his own clothes. Drawing is another big one for him— his journal contains a lot more doodles in the margins than actual writing.

• He also LOVES animals, especially frogs, reptiles and bugs. He’s good at reading animals' behavioral cues and often has an easier time gaining their trust than most people would.

Early life/childhood

• His birth family were early settlers in the Northwest Territory, moving out west with him in tow when he was just a small child & starting a homestead there. His family consisted of his father, mother, and 3 brothers- 2 older and 1 younger.

• His gender identity caused friction with his family later in his childhood, since they had assumed he was just a tomboyish child and would eventually grow out of it. Obviously, though, he never did.

• His refusal to adhere to his assigned gender eventually escalated to his parents viewing him as hysterical & mentally unwell. Things only continued to get worse as he grew older, which eventually led him to go on the run. He kept a low profile & travelled mostly on his own for years, pressing farther into uncharted territory in an attempt to get as far away from his family as possible, which was how he first stumbled across the Myst linking book.

Life with Atrus & family

• Despite everything Saavedro did at the start of Exile, Ace still finds himself understanding of the man's predicament (perhaps relating the experience to his own upbringing in an abstract sort of way), and he takes it upon himself to help him get home by any means necessary. He often wonders how things worked out for Saavedro after their encounter & genuinely wishes the best for him.

• Slight deviation from canon- After the events of Exile, Ace got so worried about someone else coming after Atrus and his family while he was gone that he insisted on staying with them to help keep an eye on things. He moved in with them in Tomahna and helped out, both with Atrus’s projects and just general home/family things. He sort of took up the role of another older brother figure to Yeesha.

• Over time, he begins to view Atrus & Catherine not just as friends, but sort of as a new, more accepting family. He's definitely slipped up & called them “mom” and “dad” by accident before. SEVERAL times. He was really embarrassed about it at first, although they weren't bothered by it.

• He and Atrus work well together! Although Ace can’t write his own Ages, he often helps test Atrus’s creations and suggests ways he could potentially improve them. His ideas tend to fall somewhere in between Atrus & Catherine in terms of realism- a little wacky but still somewhat grounded in reality. He’s also quick to remind Atrus to take breaks & not get TOO into his work.

• Ace also spends a lot of time back home with Catherine and Yeesha. He does a good job earning his keep by helping around the home, and he and Catherine often like to bounce ideas off of one another. He finds her creativity super impressive, and a favorite pastime of his is to try & draw various creatures and landscapes that she describes.

• Since he lives with the family in between Exile and Revelation, Ace learns about what happened to Atrus’s sons much earlier than in canon, and he often tags along with the family when they visit. Usually he doesn’t go visit the brothers by himself, since he isn’t sure how comfortable Atrus would be with that, but he has offered to deliver things like care packages to them before & he’ll often stop to chat with them for a while.

• Ace has sort of always felt drawn towards Achenar. Despite the older brother's obvious shiftiness, Ace couldn't help but feel bad for him. He'd actually collected every blue page and was going to free him before he was (thankfully) stopped by Atrus. Despite being made aware of the attempted trick, Ace still forgave Achenar pretty quickly after seeing how much he’d changed over the years, and now he's always eager to go visit him with the rest of the family. The two get along surprisingly well & become close friends over time, and Ace will often stay behind to talk to him long after the rest of the family decides to head home from their visits.

• Ace, however, has always gotten bad vibes from Sirrus ever since he first arrived on Myst. He already has a disdain for greedy rich-guy types, and Sirrus always struck Ace as very disingenuous and closed-off, which further limited their ability to connect on an emotional level. Deep down, though, Ace still has a soft spot for Sirrus, and often displays it by teasing him in a playful little-sibling sort of way. While Sirrus generally finds his jokes more annoying than amusing, it clearly isn’t malicious and at least breaks up some of his day-to-day tedium, so he begrudgingly tolerates it.

#my art #myst #myst oc #myst stranger #i have been meaning to post about him in depth for SUCH a long time omg SORRY

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