CYAN Forums

Gehn ruled over Riven for 30 years, give or take. This is enough for a ‘Gehnjugend’ to grow up and have children. According to Katran, all villagers had been relocated to Tay, which means that those faithful to Gehn were relocated too. What happened to them? Did they really just accept Gehn’s demise? According to Myst 4, a few years later Tay was still safe enough for Katran to take Yeesha to recover from her kidnapping.

Maybe there was a civil war that Katran conveniently ignored. Maybe they were ‘rieducated’ by the Moiety. Maybe they just waited, making acolytes in secret, until the time was right...

Hmmm, this gives me some interesting fodder for my Tay fic here: Watson's Moeity Journal

Imagine if these loyalists infiltrated Moeity society for years, building up a cult like satanism... secretly opposed to the dominant religion and culture. Maybe with the extended contact with the D'ni, Moeity society has gradually adopted a culture of books like the D'ni, but perhaps such a cult would see the prospects of the Art as too tempting... the temptation to turn Tay into an empire like ancient D'ni or Terahnee. They would only need control.

Here is the Map of Tay that I envisioned with a lengthy description of my ideas for the age.

I don't know. If your god is evil, and is proclaimed dead, do you celebrate or avenge his death? Not really sure how to answer that, although the cynic in me would believe that they would avenge his death, despite how terrible a ruler he was.

I think I may have to put the Myst Reader on my list of books to read, and go back and see how the Riven people treated Ghen. Did they really worship him? Or was it simply out of fear?

Worship, fear, but also the likelihood that being chosen (or having your child chosen) as Gehn’s militia meant better living conditions. Maybe the older Rivenese still mistrusted him, but what about the kids he indoctrinated?

Some more ideas: Gehn’s militia was easily recognizable by the uniform, or its member were well known, so the Moiety possibly stopped them from linking to Tay. It might also be that one of them remained behind to ensure the destruction the crystal.

Gehn probably had a contingency plan in case he was incapacitated, say not showing up on Age 233 or the Sanctuary. Depending on how quickly his guards reacted, the relocation to Tay might have been more bloody than Katran states.

Gehn might also have been actually aware of what was going on around the prison, but played dumb to avoid alarming the Moiety. Keeping an eye on the entrance wouldn’t have been that difficult.

The linking process seems to materialize a person in the nearest empty space, so two people linking to Age 233 (it’s easy to bypass the dome code with two people, unless there’s some other trap in there) could have been able to unlock the cage. Of course, the Moiety was unlikely to know what the link-in point of Age 233 looked like.

WMG about Cho: despite his apparent clumsiness, Gehn still kept him around. Perhaps he saved him when he was a child; then he proved not quite bright, but willing to work, so he kept him and after a while he became almost like an adopted child.
The bad ending? It never happened