Book Assembly Island: Dormant Volcano or Meteor Crater?

[Vector Cramp]

Greetings all,

While researching the Riven islands, I find that there's conflicting information on whether the island's formation is caused by it being a dormant, partially exposed, underwater volcano or that it is the location of a meteor impact.

Does anyone know if there is an official word on which theory is correct?

[Allatwan18]

While I havent' heard any official word on this, I think it is a very well educated guess that it is the result of dormant volcanic activity. Given the topography of islands in general this seems to be a good guess. Also considering the general instability of the Riven islands (you can see/hear lava on Jungle island) would seem to back this up as well. I suppose it's not entirely inconceivable that a meteor impact was the cause, but I'm just leaning towards volcanic activity. Might be there is official word somewhere that I don't know about.

[Ainia]

Shorah Vector Cramp,

I am not aware of anything authoritative either regarding Riven and meteors. However, I suppose it's not inconceivable that both could be true. In Atrus's Selenitic journal, he describes how the Age was showered with meteors which then led to a period of volcanic instability. So Riven may not be an either/or situation at all...

[LuigiHann]

Gehn probably doesn't know

[numinous]

I think it's safe to assume that it is just a dormant volcano. The reason for this is the lake water. This colouring can only occur (as far as I'm aware, though I'm not even close to an expert) in volcanic lakes. I've got a small section on it at my Riven Illuminated site (there's a link in my signature if you're interested). If you google Keli Mutu you'll see some pics that greatly resemble the lake in riven.