Contents

1. Mysterium news
2. Events in the Cavern
3. A new era in D’ni
4. The Fall of D’ni Memorial
5. D’ni Language Classes
6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
7. Cavern Tours
8. Fan Ages Touring Club
9. Miscellanea

Mysterium news

Calum Traveler reported some quick news about the convention:

• early bird registration is available until May 15 at two different rates: Standard ($25) will provide admission to the event and any swag, such as pins; Premium ($40) includes everything from Standard as well as a Mysterium 2022 T-shirt;
• the T-shirt design has not been chosen yet; if you are planning to submit a design (submissions are open until February 20), the Committee recommend holding off on registering, since your shirt will be free if your design is selected;
• if you submitted an entry for the Writing & Artwork table for 2020 or 2021, you will need to re-submit it for this year;
• attendees will likely be required to be up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations (the CDC’s definition of fully vaccinated); staff will provide more details on how to provide proof at a later time.

Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced the start of MOULa’s XII anniversary week, on February 6, starting with Ghaelen’s opening ceremony. Special events are already planned, in addition to the regular ones, including a fantastic Nulp Dance Show in Gahreesen.

More details will be announced at the February AGM. A preliminary schedule was posted in the #anniversary-planning channel of the MOULa Event Discord server.

If you need help with organising an event (not only for the festivities), or just want to spread the word about it, you can join a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

A new era in D’ni

Doobes announced he started working on the Myst V Ages: Tahgira, Todelmer, Noloben, Laki’ahn, and Direbo, which were originally meant for MOUL. He came up with a hopefully viable path to bypass the bahro magic and use traditional linking methods, to see all the sights and allow completion of the puzzles. The events of Myst V may be alluded to, but only lightly, so any spoiler should be minor.

All this of course will hinge on Cyan’s approval; they will have an opportunity to see the converted content and give their thoughts. Descent will take a back seat for the time being, until the Myst V Ages are complete.

Doobes also mentioned that the entries for Grandbad and Battlebotsboy, who sadly passed away at the end of 2021, will soon be added to the Veelay Tsahvahn journals, after some testing on the Minkata shard.

Finally, he noted that, with the next MOULa update, Tiam hopefully will be given a linking panel in the Nexus, which will allow linking to Tiam via the Nexus and also allow for KI invites to work. For now, explorers will need to use the Share feature in the linking book in Chiso Preniv.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

The Fall of D’ni Memorial

Christopher Therburg announced his Fall of D’ni Memorial project has been moved from its original planned location in the Kings Lookout to a separate small island in the Cavern, the reason being that some believes that Ae’gura is not the right place for it.

The island is a small stalagmite that naturally fractured sometime after the Fall of D’ni; the remains of the upper part, partly underwater, can still be seen. It will be accessed via a boat ride, and there will also be a Nexus terminal.

The Memorial is currently scheduled to be unveiled on the date of the Fall, Leesahn 8, or July 12. Updates will posted on the Beneath IC forums.

D’ni Language Classes

R’Tayrtahn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night Europe is starting from the beginning: the D’ni creation myth.

Original Story Night is continuing the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour.

R’Tayrtahn has restarted upload recordings of the Nights to his YouTube channel, and is in the process of uploading the backlog of videos from previous sessions. Be careful if you PM r’Tay, as messages will be visible in the videos

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour wad held on Saturday 8 at 11:00 KIT (just before the Meeting), starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, uses his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream is simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is often employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

In December they visited some fairly complex ages like Jo’nae, Jo’nae Hood, Takla Ma’kan, and investigated the mysteries of Sonavio.

In January, the plan is to visit the entries of the first Rapid Age Development contest: Abysos, a couple of Ahra Pahts shells and Zephyr Cove; then a few assorted ages like Aerie, TINA, Kahntinoy, Fena Barel (a summary of fan-run ‘episodes’ held in 2008); and conclude the month with a few works by Nadnerb and by Andy Legate.

Miscellanea

• Minasunda filmed and edited a lovely year end wrap up video for 2021; Calum Traveler also made a video, with more focus on places.
• A new Age was released in December: Tiam, by Ametist (more info in the dedicated post). New clothing items have also been added: some are immediately available in the Relto wardrobe, others can be found in thematically appropriate locations. There are some unexpected render issues that are being worked on. Note that the second backpack was released by mistake, and may have removed Zandi’s shirt and the field vest; these can be re-collected in their original locations.
• A story book by Jules Lavisham was also released in Chiso Preniv: “The Painter”. The “Heritage Documents” and “Activity in the Cavern” books have been moved to a different shelf, grouped together, and given numbers on the spines for easier picking up of the correct volume.
• Serene now has the snow storms from the original version, and a ‘special guest’ during the festivities
• The Kirel podium has been enabled: the plan is to get new audio recordings out once every quarter to serve as a recap of recent events. For now there are two tracks: one covering the last few months of activity, recorded by Tyion, and a historical recording from Dr. Watson.
• Initial testing for reactivating the Gahreesen Wall have begun; more info will be revealed Soon.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

December ended with the CavFunding at 205% (CavCon 4.10) and the reserve at 546%, with 25% extra expenses. Population was at 42,976 (⇑426), with 1588 unique visits. Unbelievable month for donations and updates: two donations accounted for more than 50% of the total amount; the number of new accounts added per month also nearly doubled.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 5 (Leevosahn 28) at 13:00 KIT.

The role of Moderator is currently vacant; if anyone would like to take the role, it is your chance to step up

Until then!

Originally made available on May 31, 2020, Tiam is an age that was created for a family to relax and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine; there you will be able to unlock and discover how this family spent their time there.

Note than unlike the other Ages available in Chiso Preniv, Tiam is a personal instance. However visiting it will not save a link in your Nexus. This will be fixed in the future; in the meantime, you will need to always go through Chiso Preniv, using the share panel if you wish to visit Tiam with friends.

All the doors will close when you link out, but you will need to reenter the code only for the first one. The ball is just for fun

CalumTraveler dedicated a post to the event in his blog, along with the full chatlog, and filmed it (pre-show, release). Minasunda made a video summary. Jalind also posted a film of the event. Korov’ev streamed the event (recording of the ceremony, plus a walkthough – spoiler warning for the latter, of course).

Massively Overpowered dedicated a post to the event.

A new Age

The most anticipated addition is probably the Age of Tiam, designed by Ametist. As announced by a post on Cyan’s own Twitter channel, an opening ceremony will be held at the Chiso Preniv library on Monday December 20, 2021 at 13:00 KIT: there will be a short presentation and the new linking book will be made available.

Tiam is an Age that was created for a family to relax and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine; there, you will be able to unlock and discover how this family spent their time there. To get there, the direction is going to the Nexus, then the Watcher’ Pub, then to Chiso Preniv using the book in an alcove.

It will be a good idea to have the client fully updated before the ceremony; to do so, one way is to open the game’s folder and delete TOS.txt; this will enforce a re-check of all the game files.

New clothing

Next, if you visit your wardrobe you will find some new items have been added, including some that have been available in the offline game for years. Some of the additions are rewards for completing the Journeys, while others require visiting logically related places

A special note about the second backpack: it was enabled by accident, as it has a visual bug that was still being worked on; if you have it and lost the old one, you can re-acquire it where you first got it.

Serene

The snowfall is back, and an indigenous ‘person’ has appeared for the holiday season Both are original to Andy Legate’s design: the snowfall (a type of particle system) could not be handled by the Guild of Writers’ Age building tool Korman until recently, and the ‘indigenous’ was hidden in the Age files.

A bit of code makes the latter appear automatically in the PotS version, but on MOULa the code interferes with multiplay and can have the opposite effect of hiding it, so the code was disabled.

A journal that actually gives some background about the Age has replaced the previous one, hidden somewhere close to the gazebo.

Graphics and sound improvements

The Kirel podium has been given a new recording. More may come in the future! A story book (not a Linking Book) has been added to Chiso Preniv, while the Heritage Document and Activity in the Cavern have been moved to another shelf, close together. Various improvements to textures were made in Baron City Office, Teledahn, K’veer, Chiso Preniv and more.

A note on bugs

When an update, especially one as large as this one, hits MOULa it is almost inevitable that unexpected bugs will show up; for all the testing that can be done, Minkata never sees as many concurrent players as the official server, and not all issues can be catched. No addition from Cyan is to be expected for the foreseeable future, apart from server updates, so all improvements and additions will come from fan developers, who dedicate their limited free time to at least try to let MOULa be the best it could potentially be.

So the best way to deal with bugs is to have patience and report them, mentioning where you were and what you were doing, be it on Cyan’s Discord, OpenUru’s Discord or OpenUru forums. If you fancy contributing your work and/or helping with bug fixing, those places are also excellent starting points to be part of the Restoration Team

Contents

1. Events in the Cavern
2. Door Run Competition
3. The Fall of D’ni Memorial
4. Minkata
5. Cavern Tours
6. Fan Ages Touring Club
7. D’ni Language Classes
8. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
9. Miscellanea

Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced a few events for the coming festivities:

• on December 17 at 13:00 KIT there will be a Christmas Show by the Nulp Dance Group, in Serene: to get there, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319). The link-in platform will be the stage, so please leave the platform as soon as you arrive. Pictures will be published on Facebook and Discord. Seeker will provide the music stream, that will start at about 12:30 KIT and continue until around 15:00 KIT.
• on December 18 at 11:30 KIT there will be a Door Run Competition; the meeting point is in Nosi La’s Hood. If you have any questions, you can contact her on Discord (Nosila#5296) or in the Cavern (#9902277).
• on December 24 at 13:00 KIT there will be a Magic Christmas Show by Yoda, in a surprise location: to get there, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot. Seeker will provide the music stream.
• on December 31 at 13:00 KIT there will be a Magic New Year’s Eve Show by Yoda, in Magic Kadish Tolesa: to get there, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot. The fireworks will start at 16:00 KI! Seeker will provide the music stream, that will start at 12:45:54 KIT and continue until after 18:00 KIT.
• Like every years, there is an Uru advent calendar: PM “sendme 8833282” to Mir-o-Bot to get a marker game (you will need to have completed the red and green marker missions). With the marker game you can find 24 numbers hidden all around Ae’gura. In each of these numbers there are two YouTube links, one in English and one in German, filmed in MOULa and Deep Island by Minasunda, Mabe and Eternal Seeker.

Next February will be the 12th anniversary of MOULa. The Nulp Dance Group is already working on a show, but if anyone has ideas for the occasion, let Mina know!

If you need help with organising an event (not only for the festivities), or just want to spread the word about it, you can join a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Door Run Competition

PodHopper talked about the Door Run, which will involve teams of 5 players (including the Caller), each running in a different Delin (to avoid bugs). There will also be an oppportunity for teams of 2 if people feel brave enough.

PodHopper also announced his ‘Spiral Door Simulator’, an online tool for learning the symbols on the Garden Age doors and a training tool for those who want to know how to do a Door Run. It has a help section containing information about the tool itself, as well as information and tips about what to do during a Door Run.

The simulator combines 2 independent projects: PodHopper’s own about learning how exactly the timing on the Spiral Door works, and Mabe’s Jalak project that led to Mabe’s Rebus event a few months ago. The pictures from Mabe’s Rebus are the reward for opening the Spiral Door in the simulator.

The Fall of D’ni Memorial

Christopher Therburg announced his Fall of D’ni Memorial project, to erect a memorial that fits the style of the D’ni City, in a visible location, to honor the D’ni who died at the hands of Veovis and A’gaeris.

The plan is to place the memorial at the Kings Lookout, between the Palace and the stairs to the Canyon Mall. There will be a few benches, with vases as decorations, and there will also be a book to summarize the events of the Fall of D’ni.

The Memorial is currently scheduled to be unveiled on the date of the Fall, Leesahn 8, or July 12. Updates will posted on the Beneath IC forums.

Minkata

Rarified gave the quarterly update about the open source client and content development. They are coming to the conclusion of the cycle: the upcoming update is intended to emphasize content and fixes; it is a big one that touches existing areas in D’ni as well as something new.

Testing is still undergoing on the Minkata shard. Almost all of the changes have been assembled; after that, only fixes to the updates will appear on Minkata. A list of fixes and changes is available on the OpenUru forums. The hope is to deliver the updates to Cyan in a couple of weeks; then, after a period on the Cyan beta server for a last check, it will be released to the public.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Minkata shard; Rarified thanked all the volunteers and contributors who over the years have gone through ups, downs, and a lot of strong feelings to get where we are now.

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 11 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is often employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

In November they visited the rest of the early Ages made available at the end of 2005: Second Age of Dustin, Kato’s Lab, Setal Gahmarin, Vaiskor Area 1 & 2, Terrati Lab. Then they skated in Pre-Swaltu, explored Tyndior, Prad, the Maze, and outlined the concept behind the Ahra Pahts project. Finally they explored the buildings in Janga, and found their way to its nighttime version, Janga Lela.

In December, the plan is to explore some more complex Ages, like Jo’nae and Jo’nae Hood, Takla Ma’kan, and uncover the secrets of The Company, in Sonavio. They may even manage to visit the entries of the first Rapid Age Development contest.

D’ni Language Classes

R’Tayrtahn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night Europe is starting the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour, visiting all the ages that contain bahro glyphs; some have explanations while others just generate more questions. The first part of the Tour will start in Mir-o-Bot’s Hood (#32319). The tour will take three parts until December 18; after that, SNE will be on hiatus until after the holidays, returning on January 8, 2022.

Original Story Night is continuing with the fan fiction written by Janai, originally posted on the MOUL forums back in 2009. The bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour will begin on December 18.

After the Tour, Story Night will restart from the very beginning, the D’ni story of creation. R’Tayrtahn can once again upload recordings of the Nights to his YouTube channel, and is in the process of uploading the backlog of videos from previous sessions. Be careful if you PM r’Tay, as messages will be visible in the videos

Miscellanea

• A new IC forums for story progression – in the vein of the DRC forums – opened, hosted by Tweek’s Beneath website.
• Cyan has new items in its store, including notebooks that look like the Myst, Haven, and Spire books. Note that at the time of this writing they already sold out, but they will likely come back at some point.
• Mysterium’s second Creative Prompt is “Gift Giving”: it can be related to one of the season’s holidays, or just gifts in general; gifts do not even have to be positive ones. The deadline for this prompt is New Year’s Eve, December 31 at 21:00 KIT.
• Another round of D’ni words will be released this month for Lexember, on Cyan’s Twitter.
• December 10 is the anniversary of the discovery of the Lost Book of Birenni; the 11 is the anniversary of the Minkata Shard; the 22 is the anniversary of Starry Expanse, now an official Cyan project.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

November ended with the CavFunding at 163% (CavCon 4.6) and the reserve at 395%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 42,550 (⇑277), with 1185 unique visits. A very good month with a fan update on the horizon!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 8 (Leevosahn 6) at 13:00 KIT.

The role of Moderator is currently vacant; if anyone would like to take the role, it is your chance to step up

Until then!

Contents

1. Fan Ages Touring Club
2. Mysterium news
3. Deep City Lecture
4. D’ni Language Classes
5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
6. The Waterlogged Relto Book
7. Minkata
8. Miscellanea

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

In October they started a new cycle, visiting the very first ages (at least those still around) released in 2005: First Age of Dustin, Eder Rilteh Inaltahv, Galamay, Atlantis Outpost, Niveerah.

In November, the plan is to visit more of these early ages, then Pre-Swaltu, Janga, and outline the concept behind Ahra Pahts.

Mysterium News

Event submissions are now open: T-shirt designs until February 20, Events until May 22, Writing & Artworks until July 31. There will not be Pins submissions, because the Committee still has those submitted for 2020 and will use those.

They also launched a new section in the Mysterium Discord server called Creativity Prompts: periodically they will post a topic and invite everyone to submit any creative works you can come up with. Music, fanfics, costume designs, etc. are all welcome.

The only requirements are that it must incorporate the posted topic, and somehow be related to Cyan’s games (including Obduction, and Cyan Ventures like Zed).

The inaugural topic is Giving Thanks – not necessarily related to Thanksgiving, any expression of gratitude fits the requirements. The deadline for this Prompt is November 30 at 21:00 KIT.

Deep City Lecture

Former ResEng G.Buddell announced a lecture he and J.D. Barnes will hold on Sunday 7 at 15:00 KIT, to share with the Community some new historical information they have found combing through the DRC archives, about the Mee-Dis War.

The lecture will be streamed on Twitch and on CyanChat, and will be uploaded to the Guild of Archivists’ YouTube channel at a later time. They plan to hold a lecture every couple of weeks, taking a break in December to help with Lexember.

D’ni Language Classes

R’Tayrtahn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. There are now three more instructors in the Guild of Instructors: shokhootahn Ana, shokhootahn Jo, and shokhootahn phoenixRisen.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night has started a special, five-part story of fan fiction written by Janai. After the Meeting, Story Night Europe began chapter 3, while Original Story Night began chapter 1.

Then it will be time for the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour, visiting all the ages that contain bahro glyphs; some have explanations while others just generate more questions.

After that, the Stories will restart from the very beginning, the D’ni story of creation.

The Waterlogged Relto Book

Calum Traveler gave an update on the saga of the waterlogged Relto book, found mangled by the Docks in late October. The book belonged to an explorer named Wayne Todd, who went ‘camping’ in an industrial area of the Cavern. He is fine, but did not tell anyone where he was going.

Wayne discovered a facility that appears to be part of one of the D’ni’s ‘safety measures’ to prevent spikes of overfeeding the lake. The feasibility of restoring this particular facility to functionality is currently being debated.

It was also confirmed that lake water samples taken at the area are matching the composition found at the Docks and elsewhere: oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are becoming more consistent, and the lake algae are definitely beginning to glow in sync.

Tis means that the lake light may begin to cycle again quite soon, possibly around December or January, if explorers continue feeding the lake as consistently as they have been.

Minkata

Rarified gave an update about the OpenUru testing shards. Between bug fixes, client improvements and fan ages testing, they will probably release the next set of changes on MOULa in late November or mid December.

A lot of work is still in the pipeline; during the next month, they will need as many visitors as possible on Minkata to help make sure things are safe for release.

The KI bug is next on the list of bugs being worked on from Cyan’s end, but that too appears to be difficult to debug.

Miscellanea

• A new IC forums for story progression, in the vein of the DRC forums, opened; it is hosted by Tweek’s Beneath website.
• Forecast says Serene will be getting its snowfall again, likely by December.
• November 11 is the Third Feast of the Maker, and the anniversary of Uru ABM; the 17 is
• the anniversary of Prologue; the 22 is the anniversary of the coronation of King Kerath.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

October ended with the CavFunding at 107% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 346%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 42,273 (⇑284), with 1142 unique visits. Donations are back to normal.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 4 (Leevobro 7) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Contents

1. Events in the Cavern
2. Lake pellets
3. Net2 errors
4. From the Surface to D’ni
5. Fan Ages Touring Club
6. D’ni Language Classes
7. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
8. Mysterium news

Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced two upcoming events:

• on Friday 8 at 13:00 KIT Karel will host a party onboard the Argosy, a beautiful ship built by Jaruku; sea shanties will be played on the music stream. The party will be held on the Deep Island shard; to get to Argosy, use the “Puzzle Ages Volume II” book in your Relto and link to Laki’anay. From the link-in point, take the ferry then head to the lighthouse, where you will find the linking book. You can find a video guide here.
• On October 31 at 14:00 KIT there will be a Halloween Party, in Mir-o-Bot’s Teledahn. To get there, PM “to teledahn” or “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319). As this year Halloween is on a Sunday, Radio Free D’ni will take over the music stream. Yoda will provide the creepy ambience with his special effects and the Nulp Dance Group will conjure the ghosts!

Additionally, the Cavern Tour will as usual be held on Saturday 9 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

Lake pellets

Calum Traveler first asked age builders to test new ages on dedicated shards like Destiny or Minkata Alpha.

Next, he mentioned that tests are being held to restart the Cavern lake light cycle. Time to warm up the Er’cana factory ovens! If you plan to contribute pellets, keep in mind that consistency if preferable over quantity.

Net2 errors

Rarified gave an update about the “Net2 error” crashes. A possible fix has been found (there was a transcription error in some code that was adopted from H’uru during the last update). If the testing goes well, it will be handed to Chogon for testing on Staging and ultimately on MOULa.

The Net2 error is particularly insidious to debug, because it originates from the server software; fan shards, including Minkata, use alternatives (MOSS or DirtSand) where the problem does not show up, and only the live MOULa server has a population sizable enough to produce mega-neighborhoods.

The next scheduled MOULa update will happen late November or early December and will focus on (a lot of) fan content.

From the Surface to D’ni

Doobes announced that Descent is nearing the Phase 1 final checks, and Phase 2 will start soon. Once they will be sure the content from Myst V is properly converted, they will start building the rest of the path to D’ni.

All interested age builders are welcome to help with the process, assembling a section of the path that lies past Descent. Calum Traveler already submitted a section between the caldera and the first cave, to make the first locations fit better under the volcano.

Once Phase 2 nears completion, the results will be hosted on Minkata Alpha so that testers can examine and pick it apart. After that will come phase 3, wiring everything so that the entire path will be navigable without spawning.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

Recently, they explored Kohdalan and Tyldalan, by Corvus, Wodan, Itep Edor and other creators; the rest of the month they took the Path of the Lost Ages, by Melvin, starting in Palamary bay.

In October, they will investigate the mysteries of Alabaster’s Depths, by Dulcamara. After that, the main plan is to start again from the very beginning, a few ages from 2005, but they may also dedicate a few weeks to the most popular ones, either guided or free-for-all.

D’ni Language Classes

R’Tayrtahn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Students are taking the classes at various stages of completion.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night has started the stories of the Restoration. After that, there will be a special, five-part story of fan fiction written by Janai, planned to start on October 23; r’Tayrtahn will be assisted by Axenna.

Then it will be time for the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour, visiting all the ages that contain bahro glyphs; some have explanations while others just generate more questions.

After that, the Stories will restart from the very beginning, the D’ni story of creation.

Mysterium news

The date for the XXIII Mysterium in Denver will be August 12–14, 2022. The theme will be Myst III: Exile, celebrating its 21st birthday, with a particular emphasis on Voltaic.

Submissions for t-shirt designs are open. Favoured design will be those incorporating Blucifer, Denver International Airport’s demon horse sculpture.

No announcements are expected at the moment about Starry Expanse. All we know is that the project has not been cancelled.

Rand’s Let’s play was really popular, hopefully he will be up for something similar, along with Robyn. The committee will look into hybrid events held both in-person and online; panels in the future will have short breaks between them.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

September ended with the CavFunding at 58% (CavCon 2.6) and the reserve at 330%, with 24% extra expenses. Population was at 41,989 (⇑340), with 1284 unique visits. Donations were down but reserves are still healthy; the extra expenses were due to the Net2 errors/backend crashes.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 6 (Leevofo 14) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

A new moderator has not been found yet, so this time the meeting had a more anarchic format – and given the Net2 error situation (see below), it was the only way to get the announcements across

Contents

1. 1. Cavern Tours
   2. Net2 errors, and Korman
   3. OpenUru
   4. D’ni Language Classes
   5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
   6. Fan Ages Touring Club
   7. Cyan news

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 11 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube. Due to the Net2 crashes issue, Mir-o-Bot may not be online, and the tour itself may be held entirely on Twitch.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

Net2 errors, and Korman

Doobes explained what is going on with the “Net2 error” crashes. They did not come up on the staging server because it does not have nearly the population that the main MOULa server does. The problem appears to be on the server side, which can only be fixed by Cyan, and is likely related to neighborhoods with too many members. In particular, DRC (67) Bevin has around 1000 members, and anyone in that hood is highly advised to move to a different one. In the meantime, this could be a good time to explore some of the fan maintained shards

He also announced the release of Korman 0.12a, the age building tool by the Guild of Writers. This iteration adds goodies like grass shaders and random sound mods to the mix, as well as a ton of lighting fixes. It also introduces a self-contained platform called Blender for Korman.

Lastly, Doobes announced that Descent is nearing the Phase 1 final checks and will be uploaded in a Github repository soon. Descent is going through a phase system a bit different from the DRC scale, with 1 being “Near identical to Myst V” and 5 being “Final Release for MOULa”.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified announced, after the Q3 update that focused on QoL fixes, the Q4 update for MOULa will focus on fan content, and a lot is planned for it.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Six students are taking the classes at various stages of completion.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night has started the stories of the Restoration. After that, there will be a special, five-part story of fan fiction written by Janai; for that, r’Tayrtahn will be assisted by Axenna. After that will be the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour, visiting all the ages that contain bahro glyphs; some have explanations while others just generate more questions. After that, the Stories will restart from the very beginning, the D’ni story of creation.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

Recently, they explored two ages by by Jhon J. Jaguar, Tentsahveet and the recently released Edereden; then two ages by Semjay, Terahgrahm and Zahlto. Lastly they started Koh-dalan, by Corvus, Wodan, Itep Edor and other creators.

For September, the plan is to finish Koh-dalan; then they will begin the Path of the Lost Ages by Melvin, starting in Palamary bay.

Cyan news

The release of the new Myst for PC/VR was mentioned, which recently got a patch that, among many fixes, officially gives the option to use the old FMV animations (except for the ending, where it was not possible).

The original game’s 28th anniversary is also near, on Friday 24.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

August ended with the CavFunding at 102% (CavCon 4.0) and the reserve at 377%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 41,649 (⇑487), with 1382 unique visits. Another good month of donations with an increase in new accounts, all despite persistent server crashes that started after the last update. Top MOULa devs are hunting for this elusive bug!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 2 (Leevot 15) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Thanks to Chogon who restarted the servers, on his day off too, to let the Meeting continue after a crash.

Contents

1. Events in the Cavern
2. Cavern Tours
3. A new era in D’ni
4. OpenUru
5. Fan Ages Touring Club
6. D’ni Language Classes
7. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
8. Mysterium news
9. Moderation duties

Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced two upcoming events: the first is a Caribbean Night on Friday 13 at 13:00 KIT, with hot music and cool (virtual) drinks, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “to gira” to him, KI# 32319). Eternal Seeker will provide some music.

The second event is the D’ni Day of Dancing on September 3 at 13:00 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Teledahn (PM “to teledahn” to him). Eternal Seeker will again stream some music. The first part of the event will be a show by the Nulp Dance Group, the second part will be dance for everyone.

Mir-o-Bot will use his choreographing magic to make multiple avatars dance; if you do not want to be part of the dance, PM “ignoreme” to him, but note that this will apply to all the bot’s commands; there is also no automatic un-ingnore function, you will need to ask Mirphak or Minasunda.

If you have an idea for an event and need help organising it, there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 14 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood; new info will be shared at this tour! The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Doobes gave an update on the status of Descent, which he is restoring and improving for MOULa. Thanks to a few more additions and fixes from Sirius to the ZLZ Age Importer, he was able to reimport Myst V’s version with more usable animations, which will save considerable time with the animations. Using the DRC phases as model, this is the current plan:

• Phase 1: preliminary conversion of the old content (e.g. Myst V’s versions of Descent, the most ‘complete’ available for easy conversion.
• Phase 2: once the content is fully converted, changes, adjustments, and additions are made to help bring things more in line with canon as well as add new features, including content from the Intangibles (in Descent’s case, the best elements from the Dirt demo, the Uru version, and the Myst V one).
  • This phase is also open to suggestions for not-too-intrusive explorer content, to get the community more involved and to show the Shaft as being well-traveled and with a strong explorer presence.
• Phase 3: wiring. This is going to be tricky as Myst V’s Descent has not been wired for multiplayer before; the hope is that the whole thing can be solvable either alone or together.
• Phase 4: testing. This is when things are good enough for proper testing on the Minkata alpha shard (see next section for more info); arguably the most important phase, as most if not all the bugs and inconsistencies need to be catched before it is sent for inclusion on MOULa.
  • There will likely be an open call for any and all testers who want to go through the entirety of the new Descent to see and break things if they can, so they can be fixed properly; if Cyan sends any request for changes, then those will need to be rechecked once implemented.
• Phase 5: release on MOULa opening the path to D’ni to the general public!

No deadline can be given, as this project will require all the care and regard it needs. Depending on how much lore and modeling work will be required, the path may need to be opened in stages, starting with a little more than the distance down the path as in Myst V, then gradually more and more until one can take the full path down from the surface.

Direbo will also show up, but without the bahro bubbles, just a rest age; there will also be less ‘rest areas’ (eder tomahn-tee), as those in Myst V were only added for gameplay purposes. An alternative mechanism will be worked on to save progress along the trip.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified announced, in the spirit of adhering to a schedule of quarterly updates to send to MOULa and Cyan, that they just completed work on the August update, with a great deal of help from Marten, Adam and other contributors and testers. A non-exhaustive list of fixes in the works is available here. The current plan is to put together the parts to deliver to Cyan’s Staging shard, where they should be given a week of exposure before the final move to MOULa.

Some new visitors to Minkata have remarked on the improvements they have noticed, both to the client as well as specific locations. Community involvement has grown greatly in the past year, with different skills and talents coming together to produce content and fixes for the upcoming release. Testing does not guarantee every release is perfect, but ensures that all the major bugs get catched.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they finished Alabaster by Dulcamara, explored Laki’anay (and connected ages) by the New Age Project, and began working on Tentsahveet by Jhon J. Jaguar.

For August, the plan is to finish Tentsahveet. JJJ just released Edereden, the last age in his series; Korov’ev suggested to wait at least until it is released for offline play before holding an expedition there. Next, they will visit two ages by Semjay, Terahgrahm and Zahlto, to find out what souvenir shop owner Ella Darrington is up to; then either this month or the next they will begin the Path of the Lost Ages by Melvin, starting in Palamary bay.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Jo gave two announcements on behalf of shokhootahn Rehn, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. There have been a number of graduations of late; shokhootahn Rehn would like to personally acknowledge the graduates at the September All Guilds Meeting.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night will soon begin the stories of the first Restoration. These will last for several weeks, followed by Myst V, then the second Restoration, the diaspora and the reopening.

Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news about the convention:

• the location for next year is Denver, precise dates are still to be decided;
• some t-shirts are still available until August 15 on the convention store;
• those who registered should receive a survey in the next few days, which will be useful to plan the next convention;
• more volunteers are always welcome by the Committee, if there’s something you’d like to help with, please contact them.

Moderation duties

Korov’ev closed the meeting by announcing he is stepping down from moderating the AGM. He has been moderator for 5.5 years, reputedly longer than his predecessors; he feels the time has come to pass the torch, and let someone else take the responsability. The next moderator has not been definitely picked yet, so if you feel up to it, this is your chance!

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

July ended with the CavFunding at 197% (CavCon 4.10) and the reserve at 377%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 41,162 (⇑260), with 1334 unique visits. Another great month, with a big donation along the normal ones, and fan devs working hard!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 4 (Leetahr 22) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Saturday started at 18:00 KIT with Rand Miller playing through Myst and giving some insights in the design process. One highlight was the medallion on the planetarium door.

At 19:00, it was time for the discussion rooms, this year held on the Mysterium Discord server, and for the marker missions in MOULa. You can still get them by PMing Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or MinBot (#9292763) the command “sendme 10800192” for the Red markers or “sendme 10801032” for the Blue ones. While you’re there, make sure to grab the Mysterium shirt in your Relto wardrobe, it won’t be available afterward!

Saturday started at 8:30 KIT with a message from the Committee, giving some info on the organisation of this year’s convention.

The first panel was at 9:00, with some members of the Myst IV: Revelation team: Meinert Hansen (Art Director/Sr. Concept Artist), Brian Wrench (Actor – Sirrus) and Geneviève Lord (Producer), discussing how Myst IV evolved in its looks, styles and immersive design.

At 11:00 it was time for the Myst State of the Union panel, with Eric A. Anderson (Creative Director) and Hannah Gamiel (Development Director) presenting Cyan’s newly re-imagined version of Myst before its release for PC/VR and Mac.

At 12:30 the Cyan Dev Team Q&A panel, with Abner Coimbre, Brandon Collins, Hannah Gamiel, Karl Johnson and Josh Van Veldhuizen discussing what it means to be a developer at Cyan and how they adapted to working from home.

At 13:30 the Cyan Art Team Q&A panel, with Eric Anderson, Blake Bjerke, Jeremiah Castro, Autumn Palfenier and Derrick Robinson talking about how the look of a game is established and what inspiration they draw from in designing worlds.

At 15:00 Vincent Weaver presented his Apple II Myst Demake, talking about the challenges involved with getting a fully playable version of Myst working on an 8-bit system from the 1970s, fitting on a reasonable number of floppy disks. To learn more (or try it yourself!), see Vince’s website.

At 16:00 Chuck Carter (original Myst Artist) presented his reworking of the Selenitic Age for Unreal Engine 5, which will add some new twists (e.g. the maze ship is now destroyed). The redesign will have original music by Conductor/Composer Lucas Richman. You can follow Chuck on his website, Twitter and Instagram.

Sunday started at 8:30 KIT with a message from the Committee, giving some info and announcing the location of Mysterium 2022, one that will give attendees the true Myst experience

The first panel was at 9:00, with Maxx Hirsch’s honors thesis “Finding Tomahna”, analyzing Myst as a product of American 1990s cultural movements and ideas, considering attitudes towards war, violence, new technology, reading, community, and diversity. You can read the full text here.

At 1o:00 documentary filmmaker Phillip Shane gave an update and a sneak peek of the Myst Documentary, along with his collaborators Elana Bogdan, Will Cavendish, Rachel Kittner, Anais Michel, Katie Postma, Joshua Reinstein and Randy Woods. You can follow and support the development of the documentary on the official website.

At 11:30 the Uru Worldbuilders Panel, with Eric Anderson, Mike Hines, Doug McBride, Steve Ogden and Bill Slease discussed about the original development of Uru, from DIRT and Mudpie up to the GameTap era.

At 12:30 the MOULa Fan Development Panel, with Mark “Chogon” DeForest, Patrick “Doobes” Dulebohn, John “Marten” Johns, Adam “Hoikas” Johnson, Keith “Tweek” Lord, Darryl “dpogue/Paradox” Pogue and Paul “rarified” Richards discussed how fan developers and creators are keeping Uru alive and well, with client bugfixes, QoL improvements and new fan-made ages. To get involved, you can contact the OpenUru team (testing) on Discord, or the H’uru team (developing) on GitHub and IRC.

At 14:00 the Unwritten Update panel with Veronica Hamilton gave some updates on the RPG and its role in Cyan Ventures, discussing the design and how it focuses on non-violent solutions. To learn more, visit the official website.

At 15:00 it was time for Cyan Games Completed Rapidly, a round of speedrunning, with some unusual categories like Myst on the Apple II, and a few races.

At 17:30 it was time for the discussion rooms, with no preset topics, and the Speedrun After Party, in which the speedrunners chatted with the attendees about the runs and racesfrom the panel.

Thanks and kudos to the Mysterium Committee, who did a great job at organising and managing the event.

Looking forward to next year!

Contents

1. Events in the Cavern
2. Cavern Tours
3. A new era in D’ni
4. OpenUru
5. Fan Ages Touring Club
6. Mysterium news

Events in the Cavern

Since Mysterium will be online this year too, the Committee will host a couple of marker missions in the Cavern. The meeting point is Ae’gura Plaza: from around 16:00 KI, Kelly C will be online to share the codes for the games. To get them, PM “sendme [code]” to either Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or MinBot (#9292763). You will need a calibrated KI; you can find a tutorial here.

On Saturday 24 at 11:00 KIT, Nosila will hold a Door Run contest; everyone is welcome!

More events are being planned for the next months: a Caribbean Night with hot music in August, D’ni Day of Dance with a small show by the Nulp Dance Group in September, and a Halloween Party in October. More on those at next Meeting.

If you have an idea for an event and need help organising it, there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 10 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Patrick (aka Doobes) started by announcing the release of Vothol Gallery, by Rustee, which like Tre’bivdil happened stealthily the day before the Meeting. The location in the Cavern is unclear, and it used to house priceless and valuable D’ni artworks.

He then announced the beginning of the to restoration of the Great Shaft and the full path from the surface to D’ni. If all goes well, explorers will be able to start from the surface and work their way down to the Cavern, following the steps of Atrus and his family, although the elevators will also be activated.

As with all these projects, no deadline can be set; it is a huge undertaking and it will take the time it needs. Safety first!

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified mentioned they have about a half dozen new improvements in the pipeline. Marten has been working on cherry picking the most requested, in particular the fixes for many of the problems when avatars are being moved through ‘subworlds’ (elevators, vogondolas, etc). The next scheduled update to MOULa will be in mid-late August.

He also mentioned a panel on Sunday at Mysterium that will present how fan content can get to MOULa.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Alabaster by Dulcamara.

For July, the plan is to finish the visit to Alabaster; after that, it will be time for Laki’anay and related ages, by the New Age Project.

Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news about the convention:

• The schedule of the convention is now available;
• As mentioned, the Committee will host a couple of marker missions in the Cavern, made available through Mir-o-Bot or MinBot.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

June ended with the CavFunding at 135% (CavCon 4.4) and the reserve at 298%, with 30% extra expenses. Population was at 40,902 (⇑542), with 1252 unique visits. New accounts and donations above expenses!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 7 (Leetahr 5) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!