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D'ni history)
Note: Fictional details from the Myst franchise follow, and will be treated as facts.
The D'ni (Properly pronounced duh-NEE or deh-NEE; pronounced DUH-nee by Atrus in the games), the most-prominently featured race in the Myst franchise, originated from a world called Garternay, where they were known as the Ronay. Their culture developed its own language and its own numbering system, and they had knowledge of how to access ("link to") alternate worlds ("Ages") through special books; they called this knowledge "the Art of Writing."
The Exodus
Over ten millennia ago, the Ronay discovered that Garternay would soon become uninhabitable. They wrote several Ages to escape its destruction; one of these refugees was the great Ronay Writer Ri'neref, who believed that the Ronay had become too prideful in their mastery of the Art. Most Ronay Linked to the paradise Age of Terahnee, but Ri'neref and his followers fled to an Age Written by Ri'neref. He named it "D'ni" (meaning "New Start" in the Ronay tongue), and the newly founded D'ni people began making it their home.
A growing population made the D'ni learn to adapt quickly, and adapt they did. An early concern was their limited supply of fresh oxygen; they found electricity sources with which to operate gigantic ventilation fans. They later developed advanced mining technologies, carving out new space for their growing population and refining the displaced rock into useful materials.
As the civilization grew, the D'ni cavern settled into two main sections: Ae'gura (The Island) and The City Proper. Ae'gura is the largest island on the cavern lake. It is the center of D'ni, both literally (the basis for D'ni's cylindrical coordinate system, The Great Zero, was founded here) and figuratively (as it was the first place the refugees settled, many major sites of commerce, religion, and state affairs are located here). It is overlooked by the most famous and grandiose D'ni landmark, the giant Arch of Kerath. Human archaeologists originally mistook Ae'gura for the main residential area of D'ni, and grew to call it "The City." However, they discovered later that most D'ni lived in another area, which they now call "The City Proper." The City Proper is located on a steep incline up the sides of the cavern, forming a perimeter to the lake. The City Proper is where the D'ni neighborhoods were located. The neighborhoods were small, compartmentalized residential districts, with their own residences, schoolrooms, auditoriums, entertainment venues, and public transit stations.
The Fall
Over 200 years ago, D'ni was beset with a great catastrophe that led to its fall. Again the D'ni had to escape to other Ages, leaving their great underground city in ruin. (cf. Myst: The Book of Ti'ana)
Modern Re-Discovery and Restoration Efforts
D'ni, The Art, and D'ni's Ages were rediscovered by a human, John "Fightin' Branch" Loftin, in 1987. Loftin's discovery began with a place in New Mexico now known as The Cleft. The Cleft is a large chasm in the side of an inactive volcano. As it is described (and later seen in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst), the Cleft has rooms carved into each side of the cleftwall, with several rope bridges spanning the gap. The caldera of the volcano itself houses the entrance to a long series of tunnels, eventually leading to the D'ni cavern. Catherine's Journals, one of our most important early discoveries, later told us that The Cleft was in fact
Atrus's childhood home (See the Book of Atrus).
Elias Zandi, a friend of Loftin, founded the D'ni Restoration Foundation, with hopes of restoring the D'ni cavern. When he died in 1996, he left his son Jeff the land on which The Cleft is located. The task of restoring D'ni was left with Dr. Richard Watson, who founded the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC). The DRC continued its restoration effort steadfastly, and opened the cavern in November 2003. However, the DRC was quickly losing funding, and in February 2004, three short months after allowing the general public down, the restoration effort was cancelled indefinitely.
While the Myst games and novels are our main sources of knowledge of the D'ni, some events and principles are not portrayed as they "actually" were. For example, we have learned from Cyan that the Prison Books in Myst and Riven are not part of the actual history; rather, they are elements of artistic license, introduced to simplify gameplay.
In the D'ni canon, the games (except Uru) and novels actually exist as fictionalized histories. In Uru, you can even wear Myst and Riven T-shirts. Uru itself, however, takes place in the present day; as such, it is not historical, and therefore its events are part of the D'ni canon.
D'ni Culture
The D'ni culture was, in some ways, far removed from that of humans. Much of what they believed centered around "The Maker" Yahvo. What follows are four aspects of their culture given to us by the game Uru, found in journals within the game.
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