From: Richard A. Watson
Subject: Re: How Long?
Date: Thursday, November 01, 2001

Tom wrote:

I've always wondered how long Atrus, (and subsequently Sirrus and Achenar) was trapped on K'veer?

There are several answers to this question depending on how you define "trapped in K'veer" (total time from when Gehn locked him in as a teenager until he broke back out in the Book of D'ni, the amount of time he was trapped after the boys tricked him to going there, etc.), but...

I guess the only real reason I'm asking this is because I'm curious to figure out how long Atrus Myst book was falling in that "Starry Expanse" before we the players came upon it. I'm thinking it fell for quite some time.

...knowing the answer to the first question doesn't provide any relevant information for the second question either way.

It may seem from the intro to Myst that the Book was falling for a long time, since as soon as it lands you're allowed to pick it up, but the intro to Myst is artistic, not literal. You (the player) don't actually see the Book land any more than you actually hear Atrus' monologue or see the names in the stars ;).

It's just a behind the scenes look at where the Book came from, a hint that there's a whole lot more to this story than you ever find out in Myst alone, and a foreshadowing to something that will happen much later (i.e. the ending of Riven). From the intro of Myst, there isn't enough information to know how long the Book fell. It could have only fallen for a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few years, etc.

However, since we know the player eventually safely takes that same path later on, it's reasonably safe to assume that the Book probably fell for only a few hours at most, and may have lain undiscovered for decades until someone finally stumbled on it.

:)

RAWA

Richard A. Watson
D'ni Historian
http://www.cyan.com
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