Citation :Gehn, mon grand-père, mon héritage,
ce monstre qui se prenait pour un dieu,
fut emprisonné une fois encore.
Peut-être dirige-t-il cet endroit désolé, vide et mort,
déchiré ("riven") par la fierté et l'amertume de son propre coeur.

Mais il est plus vraisemblablement dans un endroit désolé, vide et mort,
où l'on pleure.
J'espère qu'il est malheureux.
Je ne peux pas pardonner ce qu'il a fait.
Cela ronge mon coeur.
Je le hais, parce que j'ai les mêmes désirs.

Citation :la première est difficile à interpréter :
-on ne voit pas bien, malgré le jeu de mots, comment il pourrait s'agir de Riven, puisque l'Age n'existe plus
-s'il s'agit du faux K'Veer, peut-on dire que Gehn dirige cet endroit ?
la deuxième fait penser à une sorte d'enfer, Gehn serait alors mort...

Citation :Perhaps he still rules that desolate, empty, and dead place, (... )
But more likely he is in a desolate, empty, dead place,

Citation :Un livre-prison.
Il y a de nombreuses années, lors d'une chasse au cœur des ruines de D’ni, je suis tombé sur la formule pour un type de livre tout à fait inhabituel.
Hélas, mon père ayant alors l'habitude de confisquer mes découvertes, je me vis forcé de l'abandonner. Mais, des années plus tard, alors que je tentais de protéger les mondes vulnérables liés aux livres de ma bibliothèque, c'est avec joie que je me suis rendu compte que je souvenais de la majorité de la formule et après quelques essais, je parvins à créer l'un de ces volumes.
Il s'agit en fait d'un procédé assez simple : en modifiant légèrement certaines lignes du texte, la connexion normale d'un livre de liaison peut être partiellement endommagée, de façon à ce que quiconque essayant d'utiliser le livre se retrouve prisonnier du vide sombre de la liaison jusqu'à ce que quelqu'un d'autre utilise le livre et se retrouve prisonnier, libérant ainsi la première personne.

Citation :I want to start by pointing out that Myst/Riven are Cyan's attempt at recreating some of the events in the life of Atrus in a semi-non-linear medium (i.e. a game).
Since it's a game where the player can do things that didn't happen in the account of Atrus' life,
we've got to take some artistic license with his story - like the "losing" endings of Myst and Riven (... )


Q. What happened to the red and blue books at the end of Myst?

A. Atrus tried to ensure that the boys would not be able to escape the Ages they were in.
In Myst this is shown by the scorch marks where the Books used to be.
The historical accounts are not specific as to how he ensured their captivity.
Very little artistic license taken here - burning the Books seems a very reasonable, logical way of showing this.


Q. Does destroying the Book destroy the one occupying it (aka Did Atrus kill his sons?)?

A1. (game answer) - Clearly, from the evidence given in the game, the answer is no.
Burning the Book, in essence, isn't much different than tearing pages out of it - either one "breaks" the Book.
The boys were obviously alive when the Books were missing pages.
The main difference is that a burned Book is more difficult to put back together.

A2. (historical answer) - The boys would be unaffected by the destruction of the Books,
except that it would make it rather difficult for them ever to be rescued.


Q. Are they in some kind of void/suspended animation?

A1. (game answer) - From the evidence in the game, no.
They are aware of the passage of time.
And since they're still alive after all this time, they must have access to food/water/air/etc.

A2. (historical answer) - They were in complete Ages (and probably pretty nice ones, I would guess, if the panels were to show an Age that people like the boys would be so anxious to go to.)
They just had no way out of them.


Q. If the red and blue Books were ordinary Linking Books but leading to "Prison Ages",
why do you switch places with the brothers when the Book is complete?

A. - A whole boatload of Artistic License.
Completing the book is the player's way of saying "I want to free this brother."
And we simplified that to its most basic elements - you're stuck in the Prison Age; he's out.


You want the complicated, more historically accurate way to free a brother?

1) complete the book so you can go to the Age he's trapped in
2) you'll have to find a spare Myst Linking Book somewhere or neither of you are coming back.
This complicates the interface, and changes the game if you can carry a Myst Linking Book around with you the whole game that you can use at any time.
3a) go to the prison Age without a Linking Book - the brother and you are trapped together forever, or as long as the brother lets you live (how long do you think that will be?)
3b) Bring a Linking Book.
The brother bops you on the head and links out,
damaging the Book in the process so you can't follow him.
4) You're stuck in the Prison Age; he's out.
We've had to do a lot more filming, modeling, rendering, changing the interface, etc.
to essentially get the same ending as Myst already shows.