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!

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. MOULa Anniversary
2. Cavern Tours
3. A new era in D’ni
4. Fan Ages Touring Club
5. Cyan news
6. Mysterium news

MOULa Anniversary

Minasunda gave an outline of the MOULa 11th anniversary celebrations:

Monday 8

12 KIT: Opening Ceremony, in Chiso, hosted by Ghaelen.

13 KIT: Fashion Show Award, in Mir-o-Bot’s Chiso, hosted by Minasunda (Mir-o-Bot’s Chiso was picked to present the models in a better light, but it will not be a magic event; anyone who wish to be a model, please get in contact with Minasunda).

Tuesday 9

13 KIT: Relaxing Session, in PodHopper’s Hood, hosted by PodHopper.

Wednesday 10

13 KIT: Girastock, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira, live concert by Fil.

Thursday 11

13 KIT: Country Dance Evening, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft, hosted by Eternal Seeker (“forced dance” can happen from time to time, if all those present agree; selective coordinated dancing is not possible yet).

15 KIT: Eddie Competition, in PodHopper’s Hood, hosted by PodHopper (who will move Eddie fastest on a set route through the Hood?).

Friday 12

12 KIT: Math Class, in the conference room of the New Messengers Pub, hosted by Shokhootahn Rehn.

15 KIT: Door Run Contest, in Nosila’s Hood, hosted by Nosila (volunteers are needed!).

Saturday 13

11 KIT: Cavern Tour, meeting point in the Cavern Tour Hood, hosted by Larry.

13 KIT: Nulp Dance Show, in Mir-o-Bot’s Jalak, hosted by Minasunda and the Nulp Dance Group (it is advised to arrive in time before the show starts: the link-in point is on the stage, so the age will have to be closed as soon as the show starts).

14 KIT: Story Night Europe, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kadish, hosted by r’Tayrtahn.

16 KIT: Karaoke Night, in the New Messengers Pub, hosted by DonahooDJ.

Sunday 14

9:30 KIT: Explorer Memorial, in Veelay Tsahvahn, hosted by Ghaelen.

11 KIT: Fan Age Tour, in Deep Island Shard, hosted by Korov’ev.

13 KIT: Radio Free D’ni Show, Ae’gura Plaza, hosted by the RFD Team.

For discussions, or if you wish to organise an event (e.g. a door run, a music event, etc.), there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Minasunda will try to make videos of as many events as possible for those who cannot be there at those times, but being busy with managing the events, she will not be able to stream live – volunteers are needed!

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 13 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 was back with news about the restoration of new Ages for the Cavern. There have been little news since the big opening last year, the restoration group have been working very hard on various projects.

Hopefully their next age openings will be part of what they call the Legacy Collection, which will include well-known locations like Tre’bivdil, Serene and the Vothol Gallery. They have been available to the public for quite some time in some form or another, but are planned to receive a new, formal opening within the next few months.

Keith Lord has also been keeping busy with further restoring Fehnir’s House, amongst many of his other projects.

A new Cavern location is also planned to be released soon. Located on one of the islands on the lake, it appears to have been a central location outside of Ae’gura for all major and minor Guilds to meet. The main auditorium, with its large stage and ample seating, could certainly be used for events such as dances, light shows, or anything else our industrious explorers may come up with! Surrounding the auditorium off the sides are several lounge areas for more private meetings, discussion and relaxation. They also each offer a lovely view of the cavern and the lake.

They have also been cleaning up and continuing minor repairs to the already released ages. More festive decorations on a more regular basis are planned for the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub. Appropriately, it should ‘go green’ in time for Saint Patrick’s Day.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page. To keep updated on Tweek’s 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 visited Relativity by Karkadann, Tachzusamm and others; R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Wamduskasapa, Tachzusamm and Dustin; Hallway, Matte, ReGahlpo by Ametist & Corvus; Somewhere by Denost.

For February, the plan is to visit Iceworld by Denost, the sequel (and separate part of the same age) to Somewhere; then it will be the four levels of Elodea by Dulcamara, which will likely keep the adventurers busy for the whole month.

Cyan news

• Firmament has now an expected delivery date of late 2022. The story Cyan plans to tell is bigger than what they had in mind, which required a bit of going back to the drawing board.
• A new team member was hired: Abner Coimbre, as senior engineer, to help with customizing the game engine, porting efforts and VR programming.
• Creative Director Eric A. Anderson posted a tech video about hiding imperfections in models.
• No release date for other platforms for Myst VR has been announced yet. The Quest version should get a few bug fixes soon.
• Jeff Dunham (of “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” fame) posted a video of himself experiencing the new game.

Mysterium news

Mysterium 2021 is scheduled for July 16–18 in Washington, D.C.

Hotel room booking is now available for the Westin Alexandria Old Town hotel. Rooms are available for $100/night with included wireless internet and discounted parking.

Bids for the Mysterium 2022 location are also open and will be accepted through 1st April.

Rollover registration emails were sent in early December. For questions or unreceived emails, feel free to contact the Triumvirate.

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

January ended with the CavFunding at 91% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 122%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 39,294 (⇑493), with 1489 unique visits. Very slightly under, but still pretty steady.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 6 (Leevotahr 23) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Contents

1. MOULa Anniversary
2. Cavern Tours
3. Rel.to
4. OpenUru
5. Fan Ages Touring Club

MOULa Anniversary

Minasunda thanked Mirphak and Yoda for the special effects and Eternal Seeker for the music they provided for the Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.

She then announced the preparations for MOULa’s 11th anniversary on February 8–14.The NULP Dance Show is almost ready and will be on Saturday 13 at 13:00 KIT, after the Cavern Tour.

A Fashion Show should take place on February 8 at 13:30 KIT in Chiso Preniv. If you are interested, or wish to organise an event (e.g. a door run, a music event, etc.) please contact Minasunda on Discord (on the #anniversary-planning channel), Facebook or via KImail (#5667000).

Organisers from the Americas, Asia and Oceania are especially needed: many of the organisers are based in Europe, so the events are set at times that work for them. Weekend days are usually picked, as people are more likely to have free time, but it is becoming more and more difficult to find a free slot since weekends are already filled with recurring events.

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n announced the first Cavern Tour of 2021, which will be held on Saturday 9 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood and headed to Gahreesen.

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!

Rel.to

Marten gave a reminder that Rel.to, the browsable index and URL shortener service for the Myst and Cyan community, is finally back after five years of hiatus and can again be updated.

Marten has already updated a lot of entries, but there are more entries than a single person could realistically check, so if you have suggestion for updates or new entries, you can post them in the #messengers-pub channel of the Cyan Chat Discord server.

Please be specific about how an entry should be corrected or changed: specifically, broken links can updated, archived for historical record if a Wayback Machine copy is available, or removed if no longer relevant/irretrievable.

OpenUru

Rarified gave an update on the status of the fan Age pipeline for MOULa. He is almost done with the cleanup work to the infrastructure and organisation of what is delivered to Cyan.

The last Minkata client built from the old code should be out soon. Posts on the OU Discord and forums will ask for testers to check that it works as expected (most changes are behind-the-curtain). A few addition to Doobes’ ages will be also packaged.

Further work will be spent bringing the Guild of Writers’ H’uru client base into 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 Eder Taygahn and Yedahna by Zuri and Stranger, Turtle Isle by DenDwaler, DRA Office & Adrael by the Adrael Team, and Lohdehvis by Takku Petreya.

For January, the plan is to visit Relativity by Karkadann, Tachzusamm and others, R’oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Wamduskasapa, Tachzusamm and Dustin, Somewhere by Denost (which will likely take more than one session), and three ages by Ametist & Corvus: Hallway, Matte, ReGahlpo.

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

December ended with the CavFunding at 110% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 128%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 38,801 (⇑527), with 1543 unique visits. Donations on par, and reserves are good.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 6 (Leevosahn 29) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Contents

1. 1. The Lost Art
   2. Christmas Show
   3. Blue Monday
   4. D’ni Language Classes
   5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
   6. A new era in D’ni
   7. Fan Ages Touring Club

The Lost Art

Korov’ev mentioned that, right after the AGM, Mystitech Productions was releasing episode 11 of their The Lost Art machinima: ‘Transmigrations’.

Christmas Show

Minasunda announced the Christmas Show, on December 19 at 13:00 KIT, in K’veer. The Nulp Dance Group will present the “Snow White” dance. The performers will move through the entire room, but the main part will take place in the area around Atrus’ table, the area to the right of it and on the area in the centre.

Minasunda will post a photo showing the best place for the audience on her Facebook group and the MOULa Event Discord server. If you will stay in that area, and optionally PM “float 10” to Mir-o-Bot, you should have a good view of the show without getting in the way of the performers!

Unfortunately, at the Halloween show a griefer kept linking some of the dancers and at least one of the viewers away using an internal client. This obviously interrupted the show and caused crashes for the bot and Magic Yoda, who could not continue his performance.

Therefore the Christmas Show will be invitation only to offer troublemakers less opportunities to interfere, or a chance at identifying them if they ‘invite’ themselves. Invites will be sent up to an hour before the shows.

Two other shows are in preparation: one for the XI anniversary of MOULa in Jalak, and one for Mother Earth Day in Water Ahnonay. These are very complex, require precision, and many hours of work go in it. Advance registration will be necessary for these upcoming shows too.

If you are interested in joining the Nulp Dance Group, please contact Minasunda. Videos of the 13 previous shows are available at Minasunda’s Youtube channel.

Blue Monday

Nosila will stream a Blues-themed program in the renovated Messengers Pub on Monday 9 at 13:00 KIT.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

He is still putting things away after his move. He is, however, accepting daytime students on a limited basis; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Night time classes, however, are unaffected. Four students are currently taking the classes.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night – Europe is one story behind original Story Night. He just finished the story of The Fall as told in Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. Next up is Myst: The Book of Atrus.

R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.

A new era in D’ni

Patrick was back with some news about the restoration of new Ages for the Cavern. After a well-deserved break after the release of Chiso Preniv, Veelay Tsahvahn and the Ae’gura Messengers’ Pub back in August, the team is back with more!

The first of the new batch is called The Vale. They actually found two names for the Age, one in D’ni and the other in an entirely new language they are working to decipher, and it is unclear which one is the proper name or even if they are the same name. It is not Klingon, however! There is also a mixing of these two cultures’ architecture and machinery, an unusual blending given the somewhat xenophobic undertones D’ni culture had throughout its history.

They also made great strides in restoring another neighbourhood in D’ni called Kotsahvosahn, roughly translated to “eighth gateway”. This may be because it has the trademark “valve” doors that lead into a series of tunnels branching out of the Cavern into the rock, which includes the path to the surface. The hood was used as a waystation for the Guild of Messengers.

The new Ages will most likely be made accessible via new books in Chiso. But that is not all!

The team has also been looking into repairing the Great Shaft itself. Heavy seismic activity from around 2005 rendered most of it impassible, but they have been carefully proceeding into the damaged areas to see if it is possible to fix the worst parts.

They will need to consult with the DRC on the best methods to proceed, however. Depending on the circumstances, it may not be possible to reopen it fully.

Patrick also mentioned how invigorating it was to see people filling the new Ages. There are plans to add some decorations in the Pub for special occasions, and a beach ball for added fun.

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 visited Ahreeuhtav by Cherish, Spiro by Jman, went back to Sprite Gallery by TikiBear for Halloween, investigated the Devokan Trust, and visited Justintime’s Ages.

For November, the plan is to start with the Hui fun park, including Hui Lab, then the 2010 D’ni Location (Creation) Contest Ages (including Vothol), a set of Ages from Ametist’s students, and giant board games Ages.

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

October ended with the CavFunding at 109% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 130%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 37,756 (⇑869), with 1980 unique visits. Steady numbers for donations, and increased activity!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 5 (Leevobro 8) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Contents

1. Cavern Tours
2. Korman update released
3. State of Minkata
4. Fan Ages Touring Club
5. D’ni Language Classes
6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
7. Cyan news
8. Mysterium news

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to recap the seventh Cavern Tour of 2020, that took place right before the Meeting. The next one will be either on Saturday 1 or 8 (the latter date would be during Mysterium) at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. Stay tuned for the definitive date!

The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.

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 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!

Korman update released

Version 0.10 of the Guild of Writers Age creation plugin Korman has been released, with a slew of updates and fixes! In particular, it adds the ability to print dynamic decals, various templates (e.g. linking books), the ability to export the Age and launch Uru directly into the Age from Blender, adds a simplified linking book modifier, and fixes for at least 24 bugs. The release also celebrates the day the first version was released in 2015.

State of Minkata

Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard. There is a persistent bug still present – a crash during activities such as seeking markers – he is trying to ger rid of, and a few others that should not have as much of an impact on gameplay.

It has been noted that those issues are not present in fan shards like Gehn. Rarified said the reason is the initially different goals of OpenUru, that was keeping the client closer to the one in use on MOULa. Now that those differences are being ported to MOULa, OpenUru needs to bring in almost ten years of updates from the H’uru client.

On the topic of fan Ages, Rarified stated that the ones on Minkata are ready to be released on MOULa, possibly before August. How they will be released, whether there will be an IC event with DRC members, and how the fan Library will be accessible – currently on Minkata it is a new alcove in the Watcher’s Pub – is still to be decided and agreed upon with Cyan. Rarified said the preferred place to discuss is the OpenUru forum. In any case, it is important that such discussions are kept going and not let unanswered.

Along with fan Ages, modifications to Cyan’s Ages themselves were mentioned, now that they are allowed. The most common are fixes to collisions and improvements to textures. Altered assets will probably be treated the same way as fan Ages.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. In July, the Touring Club will visit Semjay’s new Age, Tovaht!

Then, it will be the turn of Jamey’s Ages, like Tsoidahl Sheegahtee; after that it will be more Ages from early 2009, like Terrati Lab, Hayal, The Maze, Wianeroy, and Soundgarden. A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki.

After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.

One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.

Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

D’ni Language Classes

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

He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected. One more student is working on the final exam.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They will be finishing the story arc of the D’ni kings, and learn about the years between king Kerath’s death and the start of the story of the Fall.

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

June ended with a CavFunding of 54% (Cavcon 1.5), a population of 35,478 explorers, and 1210 unique visits. There was no rollover from the last month, so the reserve is now empty. According to Chogon, if every explorer who was online last month donated $1, the Cavern would be funded for over a month.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 1 (Leetahr 1, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Mother Earth Day & the D’ni new Year

Minasunda was first, to announce three events for late April:

• Saturday 18, 13:00 KIT, Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira – Nulp Dance Show “Mother Earth” (stream);
• Tuesday 21, 13:00 KIT, Magic Greet Tree Pub – D’ni New Year 9676 light show by Yoda (stream);
• Wednesday 22, 13:00 KIT, Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira – Mother Earth Day Dance Party (stream).

The stage for the Nulp Dance Show will be the water pool in front of the waterfall: please stay on land so as to not disrupt the show.

The Nulp Dance Show will also commemorate the victims of the COVID-19 crisis. Minasunda is collecting KI numbers of explorers who would like to participate: you can send the KI number of the avatar you want to participate with in a KImail (#5667000) or a PM on Facebook or Discord.

To get to the locations, you will need to PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319). To keep up to date with these events, check the Facebook group and the Discord server (or our calendar).

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the fourth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 11 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.

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 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!

Radio Free D’ni Remastered

Korov’ev next announced the launch of Radio Free D’ni’s second show, RFD Remastered: on alternate Sundays starting on April 5, they will broadcast reruns of older episodes with new commentary. The new series will run experimentally two hours later than the regular show, at 14:30 KIT.

Music To Make You Smile

On Monday 6 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will play some happy music; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.

State of Minkata

Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard.

January and February had good progress on Minkata-alpha, until he bumped into an Age loading issue with the client. Then March happened, and most of it was diverted to non-Uru stuff.

It will take him a few days to get back up to speed with the deep debugging he needs to do to diagnose the age issue, but that is now at the top of the todo list. So there should soon be some more testing to do in Minkata-alpha.

Rarified also mentioned that he pulled a fix for the Windows 10 mouse bug from the GoW/H’uru source code, to be included in the Minkata pipeline; but he wants to concentrate on the fan Age issue first.

To keep up-to-date, check the OpenUru Discord channel.

Fan Age Touring Club

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

• On March 29 the club visited Takla Ma’kan: it was a mighty run through the puzzles and they still did not manage to see all of it.
• On April 5 they will be visiting Jo’nae, by Jonnee, and possibly go back to see that last part of Takla they missed.
• April 12 will continue with Jo’nae Hood; the week after that, it will be the turn of a few Ages by Nadnerb.

After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”).

One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.

Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

Cyan news

• March ended with an excellent CavFunding of 175%. There was a very large donation, but also a 30% increase in the server costs because of the greater data transfer cost (from lots of new explorers!) and SMS text message costs (also from lots of new explorers!).
• Greydragon recently traveled to Boston with Numinous Games to show AREA MAN LIVES at PAX East. A post-show interview with the team about the game and their experience at PAX East was posted on the Cyan website.
• In these times of COVID-19, the Cyantists decided to show off some of their home workspaces.
• Obduction is coming to the Xbox: it will be available on April 10, but you can get a 20% discount if you pre-order it prior to launch.
• They also added a bunch of new Obduction items to the Cyan store: everything is currently 20% off.
• Firmament is still making progress! Cyan wished to give more behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the game, which has been kind of difficult this last month. They have some ideas, and they will share them in the coming weeks.

Explorers memorial

In what has become a grim tradition, Korov’ev had to report the passing of yet another explorer: Daniel Dea “Watashi” Grindle, founder of the URU Skydivers group – in its original meaning of jumping from high spots – and host of the Watashi’s Gira webradio.

Addendum: D’ni Language Classes

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

He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in the spring. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.

There are currently three students taking the classes: one is set to take lesson 4, one for lesson 6, and one working on their final exam.

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at roughly the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next weeks.

And that was it for this month.

March ended with a CavFunding of 175%, a population of 33,640 explorers, and 1754 unique visits.

Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 2, 2020 (Leefo 10, 9676) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

In the opening ceremony, Ghaelen D’Lareh retold the last minutes of the closure of Prologue, back on February 9, 2004, and the first days of MOULa’s reopening on February 8, 2010.

In the Door Run competition, team A was the winner (2′45″), followed by team B (3′06″) and team C (3′38″). Team A included ghoul (caller), Ro”Jethhe, Malim Praedari, Boywhith, Jet Blast, allie page, Rhys, maree. Team B included Kneb (caller), etelka, Sleeper Jan, Mak Raves, Adrian Green, ondine, Boris, aqua. Team C included Susa’n (caller), thoekenem, Maleficent, EthanEver, PodHopper, Mevvah, angelmyst, Umo.

Each team suffered from setbacks: team A suffered from a lag spike at the very last symbol; team B suffered interference from a mean person/people; team C had little practice, the most substitutes, and a position swap.

On Saturday, for the Cavern Tour, for the first time Larry LeDeay streamed the event through his Twitch channel. Despite technical difficulties for a few attendees, the new format was on the whole a success. The stream is not meant to replace actually being there, but will allow showing extra materials that would otherwise not be possible.

The NULP Dance Show (featuring Aeonihya, Calisia, Claidi Song, Lu*, Mabe, Roland, Eternal Seeker, Willy, tsuno) was, as always, excellent and perfectly color-coordinated. The music was provided by Piboc, who was present at the show.

For the Story Night Special, in the Baron’s office, r’Tayrtahn recounted Douglas Sharper’s experience with the restoration, and the rising tension that led to the bahro incident.

On Sunday, in the Fashion Show competition, five contestants won the votes of the public: Ondine was 1st, with 32 %; Kamikatze, Claidi Song and Mabe were 2nd ex aequo, with 16 %; Aristocat was 3rd, with 8 %.

For the Explorer Memorial, Ghaelen read the names of the explorers we lost along the way; 2019 was a particularly hard year, with the loss of Tai’lahr. Korov’ev took the occasion to remind everyone that he took charge of keeping the OpenUru page updated, so if you know of names that are missing, please contact him.

Closing the weekend, of course, Yoda performed a Magic Show on the cliff in Kadish Tolesa, followed by a dance party in the Pyramid.

A big thank you to the organisers: Minasunda, Eternal Seeker, PodHopper, Larry, Fil, Donahoo, the participants at the contests, and to all the explorers, in the Cavern or on the Surface, who keep making Uru the unique place it is.

In other news

• On the aftermath of the announcement of the official forums closure, Yali announced the revival of RivenGuild. The initiative was greeted with mixed reactions, some rejoicing at seeing the return of one of the most beloved fan hubs, others worrying it will never be the same. Cautious optimism!
• A couple days later than expected, the MOULa and Cyan forums are now read-only. Chogon announced that the previously hidden MOUL beta sections of the forum, including the GameTap Live Rehearsals, have been made visible to everyone.
• On the first day of the anniversary celebrations, Korov’ev suggested the idea of an Ahyoheek tournament, to be held sometime Soon. Not much has yet been planned, but stay tuned if you are interested!
• A new Cyan Venture has been announced: Area Man Lives, from Numinous Games!
• Rel.to is back! At the time of this post, most of the links point to websites that do not exist anymore. In the following days and weeks, each link will be checked, and new ones will be added.

MOULa 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Minasunda was first, with a reminder to register to the three events of the celebrations that require it: the Door Run Quest, the Fashion Show Quest and the Magic Dance.

She also had another important note about the Door Run Quest: occasionally the gate seems broken, some players cannot see the symbols, while others can. After extensive experimenting, the conclusion was that this happens when using an internal client. It is therefore recommended to play with the standard client.

Also, some events are likely to be disrupted by using the bot. Please avoid using an internal client and avoid using magic commands, in order to prevent malfunctions, lag or crashes.

An outline of the celebration events is available on the MOULa forum thread, or in our dedicated post.

Cavern Tour

Among the celebration events there is the second Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 8, 11:00–12:45 KIT, starting in the Cavern Tour’s Hood for a brief orientation. CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the date and answer some questions.

The first tour gathered 43 participants. The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places (but not places like e.g. Kerath’s Arch). 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).

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn is still putting things away and finding homes for everything after his recent move. So there will be no daytime classes until sometime in Spring. Nighttime classes are unaffected.

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next 26 weeks.

Next week’s Story Night – Europe is part of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of MOULa, with a special story of the Restoration. The event will be held in Mir-o-Bot’s Baron’s Office and will start at (or after) 14:30 KIT.

Cyan social media pages

On late January, Cyan announced their decision to retire a bunch of social media pages: Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Facebook; Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Twitter; Myst and Firmament on Instagram.

All the news will from now on come only from their main social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The given rationale is that Cyan has a small team, and an even smaller subset of the team is responsible for PR. Time spent managing social media is time spent not working on game development. So, to avoid stretching their resources, they decided to limit the number of channels they use and monitor.

Fan-managed websites, pages, groups and forums are of course not affected, as Cyan is not directly involved in their management. In this regard, we are aware that Rel.to is not accessible, we are working on it

No news has yet came out about the state of the cavcon, and whether other channels will be set up if and when it will be restored.

Retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums

More controversially, Cyan also announced the retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums. On Tuesday, February 4 the forums will become read only. Registering an account for the forums will also be turned off, which is effective immediately. On Tuesday, June 16, publicly-accessible threads will be archived, and the forum sites will no longer be hosted.

The last point has been poorly worded in the announcement: the content of the forums will still be available in some form, so the history of the community will be preserved, except for hidden threads, or personal messages. Also, the MOULa website itself will still be accessible.

Because of this, users are encouraged to archive any PMs or specific threads they wish to keep personally before the change takes effect. PMs can be exported en masse as table files (by clicking on “Export this view” at the bottom of the PM list), and for single posts it would be a good idea to save the BB code, to keep the formatting for an eventual export to another forum.

Even more controversially, Cyan announced that the replacement of the forums will be the Official Cyan Chat Discord server. Many fans have expressed their objections that Discord is not a suitable replacement for a forum.

OpenUru.org, the Guild of Writers, the Guild of Archivists, the Guild of Messengers, and other fan groups with their own forums will welcome anyone who prefer this time-tested format of discussion.

Events will still be regularly announced on the usual channels, like Facebook groups, Discord, and through the GoMe calendar (which, if you have a Google account, you can add by clicking on “+Google Calendar” at the bottom right of this page).

Bug reports should be reported on the recently-reopened Support page, or by sending an email to support[at]cyan[dot]com. MOULa downtime reports will be most quickly received via Discord.

Mysterium

Submissions for art designs are now open. There will be four categories: T-shirt, pins, activity books, writing and artwork table. Deadlines will be staggered through early-to-mid 2020.

• For the T-shirts, the Triumvirate encourages the artists to incorporate contrasts in their designs: Sirrus vs Achenar, Red vs Blue, Haven and Spire, etc. Tying in the host city of Washington, DC is also encouraged. The winning design will be rewarded with a free Mysterium shirt. The deadline is February 16, 2020 (hurry!).
• For the pins, they are once again planning a set of enamel ones. Pin design is an easier and faster process than shirts. The deadline for these is March 15, 2020.
• For the activity books, which are the new thing for 2020, artists can create a coloring book page, a word search, a crossword puzzle, etc. The deadline is April 19, 2020.
• For the writing and artwork table, artists will be able to showcase their Cyan-related artwork or writing. All content must be in by July 31, 2020.

Also, barring any unforeseen issues, registrations should open on March 1. Stay tuned for more info about this year’s hotel and how to book your room, as well as transportation and parking details!

Assorted news

As you probably know by now, the Starry Expanse team is now working with Cyan to complete the Riven remake. In a recent post, the team has outlined how they are dealing with objects that are small and blurry in the original game, but that you will we able to look at up close in VR – specifically, the blue light pole globes in the Mag-Lev dock.

Ars Technica posted an interview with Rand Miller, about the development of Myst and Riven, and how they pushed the limits of the then-new CD technology.

Some time ago, the MYSTAges wiki was put offline. The data has been salvaged, however, and posted on Archive.org by Deledrius. The Guild of Archivists is looking into merging some of the lore info from there into their own wiki.

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

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 7, 2020 (Leevotahr 24) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, a host of events have been planned. Here is the program, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries:

Thursday 6

13:00–14:00 KIT: Opening Ceremony, hosted by Ghaelen, in the Watcher’s Pub (accessible via the Nexus, under City Locations).

14:00–15:00 KIT: Country Evening, hosted by Eternal Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft (send “to cleft” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, KI# 32319). The songs of this event will be sung by: Eternal Seeker, Zen-den-Lupe, Katran, Donahoo, and Maggie.

15:00–16:00 KIT: Gahreesen Dance Party, hosted by Podhopper, in Mir-o-Bot’s Gahreesen (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, and send him “sp 34” to get to the dance floor).

Friday 7

13:00–15:00 KIT: Door Run Quest, hosted by Eternal Seeker (who will start the stream with Kneb’s “Door Run Song”), starting in the NDG Loung Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The competition will then move to a randomly chosen Tsogal. The rules are outlined in the calendar event.

15:00–16:00 KIT: Girastock, hosted by Fil, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (send “to Gira” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot).

Saturday 8

11:00–12:30 KIT: Cavern Tour, hosted by Larry LeDeay, starting in Cavern Tour Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The event will use voice chat. Details in the MO:ULa forum thread.

13:00–14:30 KIT: Nulp Dance Show, hosted by Minasunda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Great Zero (send “to GZ” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). More info in the calendar event.

14:30–15:30 KIT: Story Night Special, hosted by r’Tayrtahn, in Mir-o-Bot’s Sharper’s office (send “to office” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). R’Tayrtahn will tell us about Sharper’s experience with the Restoration. The event will use voice chat.

16:00–18:30 KIT: Karaoke, hosted by DonahooDJ, in Karaoke Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The songs are prerecorded by explorers.

Sunday 9

9:00–11:00 KIT: Fashion Show Quest, hosted by Minasunda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Delin (send “to Delin” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, and “sendme 6438103” for the accompanying marker game). The rules are outlined in the calendar event.

11:00–12:00 KIT: Memorial, hosted by Ghaelen, in Mir-o-Bot’s Ae’gura, in the Kahlo Pub (send “to aegura” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). We will commemorate our explorers and friends who passed away. You can use the commands “kion” or “auraon” for an atmospheric light.

13:00 KIT: Magic Closing Event, hosted by Magic Yoda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kadish Tolesa, inside and around the pyramid (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). More info in the calendar event.