I’ve wrapped up the calibration marker missions. So, what now?

This is a shot in D’ni Rezeero, heading back to the emitter from the spot where you get your marker missions. The bottom circle with the dot in the center looks just like the calibration markers. It’s blinking here, and so not fully lit. The top one isn’t lit at all, but it looks like it will be once the graph is full. To me, it doesn’t look like the graph has gone up since the calibration missions began, but it’s hard to be sure. Also, there are two more doors there, marked with the Great Zero symbol instead of the KI symbol. Those doors still won’t open.

My KI now gives me my position inside of the Cavern, in the same three-part coordinate system that the markers reported when they were collected. But, I was wrong in my guess that the Nexus links would give their link locations after the calibration. They still show up as three sets of zeros. I knew that the machine had been calibrated already, but I think I still expected a bit more when I completed this. I wonder what uses the coordinate system will have. Like they said in the Cavern Today podcast, there’s nothing in the Cavern or in the Ages that doesn’t end up having a use.

So, now I have a choice. Yeesha said to follow the Path of the Shell next, but I’ve done all that I can for that, until the DRC releases more. There are two other Paths that the DRC have released, both with Bahro caves and Bahro stones. I can’t imagine that the DRC want us following these paths, but Yeesha said to look for the shell, not the spiral from the group Path, nor the mark from the Pod Ages. In the mean time, I could try to see if the Relayers are still around, and maybe hook up with them. I’ve also heard that there’s something related to the Bahro in the scarred Age, Minkata.

Monday
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When I got here, I told my parents that if I started shaking, it was because I didn’t have an internet connection. Not that I’m an addict, or anything. :) I’m in Roscommon, MI, in a house on Higgins Lake. It’s not really rustic. It’s got electricity, running water, a stove, washer and dryer, and even a dishwasher. I’ve just made a cup of instant cappuccino. It’s got cable TV, a VCR, and a DVD player. It doesn’t have an internet connection, and I don’t have a car. and dropped me off earlier today. This will be good for me. Let me get the online nerdery out of my system first, then.

Chatting with clued me in to a bunch of Relto pages that I had missed, even though I had been through their Ages. I picked up some grass and a bench from Eder Delin, some rock islands from my Bevin, and these funky trees from Er’cana. I’ve been running a lot of the marker missions for the Great Zero Calibration, and that has been a bit of a challenge. Two things have inhibited my progress: 1)The game keeps crashing. No matter what video driver I use, the game crashes. It does seem to crash less when my laptop isn’t plugged in to power, so I can only think that there is a heat-related video card issue. 2) Jumping for beacons. It took me a ridiculous amount of jump attempts and some conversation, but I have discovered that it is much easier to walk off of the edge closest to the beacon than it is to long-jump at the beacon. I’m about halfway done with the calibration marker hunts, and I intend on finishing them. Also, I wonder if I should be posting these in the URU Live forums. Frequenting a game’s forums is a whole new level of addiction, and I’m not sure that I want to make that step. Then again, how many people are really reading this here?

We’ve spent the day grilling, chilling outside, watching both water and fire… it’s been quite relaxing. will be coming back late tomorrow night, which will be cool. I would bet on some Apples to Apples. I’m here until Thursday, so we’ll see if any more thoughts bubble to the surface between now and then.
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Thursday – Horoscope
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Don’t cross a bridge until you come to it,” advises the old adage. But is that really a good idea? The fact is that the world belongs to people who have crossed bridges in their imaginations long before those bridges existed. Let that be your guiding thought in the coming weeks, Taurus. Start visualizing, contemplating, and building in your mind’s eye a certain bridge you want to make abundant use of in 2008.

When I was exploring the city, I wasn’t exploring it randomly. I was collecting beacons.

In my neighborhood, I had come across the link to the Great Zero antechamber, here. Inside was a DRC notebook that gave a short (and really unhelpful) explination for what the Great Zero machine is, and how to get it working again. The first step was to use the KI machine pictured here to modify your KI. Once that was done, beacons would then be visible to you when you were near them. They would even make a soft beeping sound. You had to collect fifteen of these throughout the D’ni cavern, and then return here to load that data into the Great Zero. Once that was done, your KI allowed you access to the main chamber of the Great Zero machine. You can see the blue crystal vaguely through the window.

Here, you can see the machine in all of its operational glory. When I got in here, though, the machine was still and silent. I received the information that there were fifteen more beacons to find, and once those were found, you would be let into the next part of the chamber, which channeled the beam (when the machine is working) from outside, into the generator. The machine had to be calibrated before it would function properly, and these beacon searches were part of that calibration. I got the next fifteen, and let myself into the last chamber (pictured below), but did not embark on the last series of calibration beacon searches. I had begun in Teledahn, and was finally ready to embark upon Yeesha’s Path.

When I returned, I had received news through my KI that the Great Zero machine had finally been calibrated, and was now operational. This confused me. When turned around from the spot pictured here, you can see what appears to be a thermometer-like measure of how many people have completed the calibration runs. Both and I figured that the machine would not be calibrated and activated until this was full. Oddly enough, it remains at its low level, despite the machine’s activation. This means that either the DRC has somehow bypassed the proper operation of the machine (odd for an organization hell-bent on safety) or the measurement lights measure something else entirely. OR, we were right about what they measured, and something else will happen once it has been filled. Perhaps it will open the two doors that are still sealed.

In either case, I am now working on finishing the runs. You get a starting point, if you can interpret the picture next to the run button, but I’ve yet to figure out the logic of where to go from there. So, I’m wandering the cavern and the Ages, looking for white, silent beacons that you no longer need to be close to to see.

Now, with less bandwidth suckage! The images look beautiful, even in the lossy .jpg format, so the posts should load faster. Also, a new userpic, though I have to admit, I really do look like Uncle Fester in that picture.

Kadish Tolesa
One of the most serene places in D’ni Ae’gura is the Kadish Gallery. It is filled with beautiful stained glass art, like you see here and below. It’s got this haunting song playing from the moment you enter, and as you stare at the craftsmanship that went into making the art, you cannot help but be in awe at its skill and complexity. I found this place while I was still exploring the city, before I started on Yeesha’s Path. It has a linking book into Master Kadish’s Age, which I explored only halfheartedly. I was still enraptured by the city, and not yet ready to wander through and between Ages. I was, however, surprised to see a book show up on my Relto shelf, with a black viewing panel. I’d returned several times to the Kadish Gallery to soak in its serenity and beauty. When I later began to follow the first Path, I guessed that the gallery would become important.

The D’ni always leave solutions to their puzzles. Even when things break down, they build in ways to get around and through and to solve the intricate puzzles that they’ve created. I can only imagine that they found some joy hiding rewards for those with the tenacity and focus to think like the D’ni thought. Or, for that matter, as the individual D’ni thought. Just like Atrus, Guildmaster Kadish doesn’t include, or exclude, anything that’s not important. Even his serene gallery, filled with beauty as it is, has purpose. It is no coincidence that the linking book to his Age lies there, or that his Age is part of the Path. The solutions to all of the puzzles in his Age lie inside the artwork of his gallery. I’m not certain if it’s an American trait, or a Michigan one, but I notice that we tend to separate beauty and function, art and pragmatism. The D’ni integrate them, over and over, in their city and in the Ages to which they link.

Why had Yeesha sent me to this Age? Why was this one on her Path? The puzzles are extremely challenging, even with the solutions that are provided within the artwork. Decoding them and applying them takes contemplation, sketching or recording, and taxing one’s brainmeats to their limit. Well, for me, anyway. But there were no signs here of mistreatment of the Bahro, like there were in the other three. There were no prisons, no sign of Bahro enslavement, and no results of D’ni pride gone wrong here. That’s what the Path was becoming; a showcase of D’ni ego resulting in their undoing. But what had Guildmaster Kadish done that fit the bill? I didn’t discover the answer to my own question until I reached the end of the convoluted journey through the Age: Guildmaster Kadish’ vault.

The vault was suspended in the center of an enormous cavern by a masterfully engineered system of supports. There was only one path up to the door; any other way was empty space. Inside the vault, I found answers and questions. I discovered what had happened to the Guildmaster when the plague had struck down the D’ni. I discovered that he hoarded treasure beyond counting, rather than sharing it with all. Even in the end, when the D’ni were being forced to give back their very lives for all that they had taken from the Bahro, from the Ages that they had linked to, and from each other, Guildmaster Kadish sought solace in his gathered treasure. If Yeesha had intended to show how the great become pathetic, how the brightest and strongest fall the farthest, she had succeeded. Her methods, however, left quite the bitter taste in my mouth.

Er’cana
Why am I chasing after the Path of the Shell, if Yeesha’s methods (and yes, her arrogance as well) rubbed me the wrong way? Why, when she thinks that she is the Grower, just like Guildmaster Kadish did? Yeesha’s message is true, and is not a mistake that the D’ni are alone in making. Entitlement brought on by pride or ego is a plague among our own society. She has learned new ways of writing, she has broken all of the D’ni writing rules, and done it successfully. She has learned from the Bahro. I would learn these things. The Tehranee book was not written in D’ni, according to the novel. That means that the D’ni language is not the only one that can be used to write links to Ages. The Bahro link without books full of descriptions. They create links on stone tablets, and can link with will alone. She understands the intricacies of a world, a universe, a multiverse, in ways that I can only dream of. Retracing her steps feels right.

I’ve completed the first step of three on the next Path. Each of the stones on the bottom carries the hand print that came with the first four Ages. The next stone up carries a spiral. It comes from a cooperative puzzle-solving excursion into one of the garden Ages. I got it early on, exploring with others, before I had even visited Teledahn. Now, I wonder. The topmost stone bears the symbol of the shell, and represents Er’cana. Other explorers have wondered in their blogs about whether it’s right to take those stones before Yeesha guides us there. She handed us the symbol of the shell after we took what we were given, and then returned it. The end must now connect to the beginning. The DRC has released the garden Ages for us to explore and enjoy, but what damage does taking these stones do? From what I’ve gathered, Yeesha and the DRC have been at odds since the explorers began to arrive. What are we taking from the Bahro when we take the spiral stones from the garden Ages?

For that matter, what lesson are we learning on the Path of the Shell? Er’cana provides us a way to bring the algae in the great lake back to its former health, and through that, brightness. The hope is that its cycle of night and day will return, and the cavern will be properly lit. Are we now to focus on the good that we can do? Now that we have acknowledged the horrific pitfalls of undeserved pride, are we to attempt to be positive? Are we to attempt to make D’ni our home? When I had found and touched all of the shell tapestries, the hologram completed. I walked through it, because, you know, it’s a hologram. How can you NOT walk through a hologram? Anyway, it linked me to a place much like where the pillars were on the first Path, and where the stones for the garden Ages are. There was a shell symbol carved into the wall, and I pressed it, which sent the stone to my Relto. But, there was no speech, and no guidance from Yeesha. Where are the other linking books to the two other Ages in this Path? What now?

I’ve got so much to share, but I’ve had a hard time finding the words. This may be rebellion against the self-imposed daily writing routine, in which case it would be ridiculous. As it happens, I’ve got an old story to tell, and a new one. So, take your pick, or read both. :) As always, click on the pics to embiggen.

Eder Kemo and Eder Gira
Eder Kemo is a garden Age. According to some of the translated histories, it was created for a king that was particularly full of himself. When it was discovered that the Age was inhabited by the Bahro, the King flipped his lid and had the Age -changed- to remove them. This flies in the face of one of the primary rules, when it comes to the D’ni skill for writing links to Ages. The garden Age of Eder Kemo survives, but is small and contained. It has minute-long thunderstorms that sweep through, giving water to the gardens. It has strange, light-giving fireflies that seem to have no physical form whatsoever. Little light creatures that are very curious, but hate water or quick movement. The Age is, for lack of a better word, absolutely stunning.

At the end of the stone path that winds through the Age, there is a Linking book to Eder Gira. This Age, as seen in the pics, seems to be made of red rock. There are steam vents that spew forth pressure from the lava flows below your feet. There is some water, as well. After a bit of exploring, you can see that the entire Age isn’t this way. Off in the distance are magnificent towers of stone that seem to have holes in them. They reminded me of skyscrapers, honestly. These must be the places of the Bahro, which were expunged from Eder Kemo. I can’t imagine what damage was done to the far off city and its inhabitants when their world, their home, was ripped asunder for the pleasure of a king from another land. I learned all of this from a research notebook in Eder Kemo, and it stuck with me as I built makeshift bridges and lit dark caverns in Eder Gira. I was liking the D’ni less and less as I progressed through Yeesha’s path, and I asked myself if this was purposeful. Was she showing me the very worst of what the D’ni had to offer, while showing me the very best of what they had created?

Er’cana
A new portion of D’ni Ae’gura was opened up last week. It’s the previous home, or study, or gallery… or something, of a prophetic D’Ni called the Watcher. I haven’t really poked around there much. In fact, I was just kind of tooling around in there, found a linking book, and popped into Er’cana. After wandering around a bit, I found the green round tapestry, with the shell-like symbol in the pic on the left. I immediately flipped my lid. When I finished Yeesha’s Path, she said that with a new Path came a new purpose. The end (of the spiral in the hand print) was connected to the beginning. This made a design exactly like the shell image there. And, like the hand prints, this glowed when I pressed it. I was a bit confused, though, because the whole thing glowed, unlike the hand print. When you pressed the hand print tapestries, more would glow as you found more tapestries.

I turned and started scouring the Age for more green shell tapestries. I found a few more, and then found this image, floating above the ground, as if it were created by one of the D’ni imagers. It flickers, just like one. As I found more tapestries, this image becomes more complete. When all the tapestries are touched, my guess is that it will look like the shell pattern on the tapestries. I am guessing that there will be a message of some sort, or perhaps a linking book to another age with these shells. In my Relto, there are still two spots next to the book for Er’cana. There has also been mention of putting pellets made with different recipes (?) into the big lake in D’ni Ae’gura to aid the algae there in healing, and becoming brighter. Knowing the D’ni, there would be some sort of machine or complex that would have been built to make these things.

Found it. I was able to get the train near the first picture running, and have now moved through most of the complex. Someone seems to have been here before me, though. There are torn fences that are cut, not torn, open. All of the power was switched off; it hasn’t run out over time. I’m actually in what seems to be the last room, solving the last challenge. I’m definitely cursing the DRC and their placing of caution pylons that can’t be gotten around or jumped over. Safety, I’m not so sure. Perhaps they just don’t want me to get to what’s over there. It’s just a matter of playing with things, and then I’ll be up and over. I know there’s a logic to it. There’s always a logic behind the Ages and their puzzles. I just have to get into the head space.

Yeesha’s path is comprised of four Ages. I picked the first one at random, and like the Bevins, the Relto, and D’ni Ae’gura before them, I was taken aback by this Age’s beauty.

The sun moves very fast through the sky in Teledahn. Or, rather, if what we understand about space and solar systems is correct, Teledahn spins on its axis very, very fast. The sun streaks through the sky, and you can track it from one horizon to the next, and then night falls. There are metal bridges over the swampy bay between – I kid you not – mushrooms the size of trees. I think that would have a fit. There’s machinery there, too. Great big machines that are driven by the threaded poles that you can see here. Of course, starting the machinery back up is a challenge in and of itself. According to the journals and translations that are available to read, this Age was originally farmed for its mushrooms. The D’ni considered them a delicacy, and a chef was among the keepers of Teledahn. The machinery had been added to make the harvesting of the mushrooms easier, and more efficient.

Here is the office of the DRC Restoration Engineer that was in charge of Teledahn. This is where the mystery of the Age, and its hidden use, starts to come forward. The ResEng was hit pretty hard by the politics in the DRC, and had even had contact with some returning D’ni. He had a thing for football, too. I guess it takes all kinds. Anyway, there are some interesting bits here in his office, but you don’t even get the juicy stuff until you get to his office back in Ae’gura (below). There, you find out about the DRC asking him to construct a weapon in the Age, as well as some hints about a second purpose for Teledahn, in the areas that the DRC hasn’t yet explored.

In the hut where you link in, there is a grate in the floor. Finding this involved looking for something hidden in plain view, and boy, I shook my first at the D’ni when I figured it out. That was nothing compared to what I felt when I ventured down there. There were markings that anthropologists back home might call primitive in those tunnels. My preconceptions agreed with this… they looked like tribal drawings of people. People in chains. A D’ni prison? A prison for those “others” that the D’ni found already inhabiting their Ages? No, this was a prison for the Least, for the Bahro. One of Teledahn’s owners had trafficked in slaves, and it made me sick. Their arrogance had become just like their relatives in Tehranee, and they had fallen from their purpose in moving to D’ni Ae’gura in the first place.

Many of the D’ni accomplishments felt tarnished to me now. I had no way of knowing which or how many were built upon the backs and labor of slaves. They had never been mentioned in any of the books or games about Atrus and his family, and he had blanched at use of human slavery when he discovered Tehranee. Did he even know about the Bahro? Did Gehn know, and not tell him? Or had the knowledge died with Aitrus, Anna’s husband? There was no way to know. I had always thought that the D’ni were just exceptional builders… exceptional stonemasons… exceptional writers. How much credit should go to the Bahro, instead? I had to know more. My urge to explore was still there, but for an entirely different reason. I had to find out if the D’ni civilization was even worth all of the work put into its restoration.

After discovering Yeesha’s message in New Mexico, I was presented with the opportunity to continue on her path right away, or to head into the Neighborhood, or into the City itself. After having read the books, I was seized with the need to explore.

The city was by no means full, but there were enough people running about to make me feel as though I was part of a community. Just as many people stopped to great me with the D’ni word of peace as hurried by on some errand or mission to solve a puzzle left behind by the creators of this ancient place. The entire city lies miles underground, in a cavern that dwarfs the Grand Canyon. Every single building has been carved out of and built into the sides of the living stone, as they say. A dull light comes from algae that live in the great lake (that’s high praise, coming from a Michigander), but is supplemented by lights that the D’Ni Restoration Council has either brought in or got to work again. Stairways wind and climb and fall in seeming randomness, but like the puzzles, a certain pattern, like an artistic logic, shows itself. It doesn’t take long for the city to feel natural.

There are two links into the city that you have access to right off the bat. If you don’t yet have your KI, you can use the linking stone left in your Neighborhood by the Bahro. The stone takes you to the city, but it takes you to a different city. A possibility of the city that is not shared by most. In fact, you will only see your Neighbors in that city. The other link comes from the Nexus, which you need a KI to access. You can get to the Nexus from your Neighborhood, but you can’t access the machine without a KI. The Nexus link brings you to the “actual” city, at the docks. There’s a stairway here, like everywhere else. If you walk a ways up it, turn around, and take a picture with your KI, it’s likely to look like this. When I turned around, and gazed out over the lake that I had read about… the city that Gehn had brought young Atrus to… the city that had been undone by the very concept that the D’ni might not be the only people capable of thinking and morality and… that others could Write.

I should have been prepared for this, after seeing the Cleft, and the water, and the blue flowers. I should have been able to steel myself against the romance of these ruins; the tragedy of D’ni Ae’gura. Hell, I’m the guy who fell in love with Detroit. But, here I was, running into people that felt just as I did. Here I was, unable to resist or satiate the desire to explore this place, and to discover its puzzles and its culture.

Here I am, in front of the Library. The great storehouse of linking books. It’s at one of the furthest points out from the docks… at least, one of the furthest points out that the DRC has cleared as being “safe”. It’s surrounded by a wide courtyard, some of which has broken off and fallen into the lake. There’s a nexus pedestal off to the left, with a DRC tent next to it. Within the Library, all of the books are gone, or are hidden behind the DRC barriers. I’m not happy that they’ve hoarded them, but I wouldn’t want to link my way into an Age that’s nothing but desert or all ocean, or whatever. They aren’t the Guild of Maintainers, but I think that the DRC is doing what they can with what they have.

There are things that we can do to help. We may not be able to clear areas, or “officially” help with translation, exploration, etc. But then there’s the Great Zero. As far as anyone can tell, it uses the KI to deal with multi-dimensional positioning. Like, more than three dimensions. It may be related to the KI’s ability to transmit communication across Ages (which, according to popular theory, would have to pierce space, time, and dimensional barriers). I recently gained access to the Great Zero’s calibration room, but I decided to finish Yeesha’s journey before I started on that. More on that when I get to it.

When looking for the markers to gain access to the calibration room, I came across this abandoned bar. There are broken imagers, like the one on my Relto and in the neighborhoods. There appear to be gaming tables in an adjoining room. As far as I can tell, it was a bar. The D’ni would gather here, I think, for recreation and libation. It made me sad to stand there, surrounded by the broken ghosts of the past. I have to admit that the sadness was overcome by that same urge to explore… there are other rooms beyond this one, blocked off by rubble or doors that refuse to open. I check back every once in a while to see if anything has been opened or cleared since.

I keep getting struck randomly with the need to take photos. This shot was taken in front of the Library. If you are standing where the last Library pic was taken and turn around in place, this would be close to what you see. The roof of the cavern is so far away, it can’t be seen, and I keep catching myself searching for stars in the “sky” above. There are some places in the city that one could just sit, and stare, and think for hours. If, that is, one could quiet that insistent little voice that demands exploration, puzzle solving, and, well… moving.

Now that I’ve completed the first part of Yeesha’s path, I still find myself drawn to explore the city. I went back to it, after finishing, with the intent of finding the linking books that are around the city, and popping into each respective Age to whet my whistle. And guess what – I got distracted by the shiny. At the edge of the Tokatah Alley, another piece had fallen away. As I poked my way out to the edge, something in the periphery caught my eye. I made my way on the dangerous outcropping – if I fell, I’d just link back to my Relto – until I found it. Bahro linking stone. But what I found… it just added more questions. Always more questions, and never more answers. I wonder if that’s why we keep exploring.

They give us our own library. Our -own- library of linking books, and another that can hold journals.

Let me start over. I have my own Age, called Relto. The story goes that Yeesha, Atrus’ daughter, gave us the linking book to it, and that’s how we come to New Mexico, the Cavern, everything.

As you solve puzzles and learn about the history of the D’ni, your Relto changes to reflect that. Some of these changes come with pages that you find and put in your Relto book, but others come as you follow the path that Yeesha has laid out for you. You can invite others to your Age, as is shown here. This was within the first week that I’d come to the Cavern, and this fellow explorer invited me to her Age, to show me some of the changes that had come with her accomplishments. The pillars signify that she had found all of the palm cloths inside of the four Ages that she left linking books to. The pillars represent the Least, the Bahro. But, you’ve got to walk that path for yourself.

Some things that get added by the Relto pages don’t seem to belong. This imager, for one. This kind of device, this kind of technology, has shown itself throughout the Ages, from Myst to Riven and beyond. This type of imager seems to be fairly standard in the Cavern, but it was not part of my inital Age. As far as I’ve been able to tell, I can upload four to six images from my KI to the imager, which it will then scroll through. I like to upload images of how far I’ve come to my neighborhood’s imager, so that when my neighbors do come online, they can see what I’ve accomplished. Since I finally have a better driver situation worked out (with a third-party set, not endorsed by manufacturer or Microsoft), I was able to be in the cavern and the various Ages for quite some time in the last couple of days.

Once you begin on Yeesha’s journey, your Age begins to change.

You start with one canister, that links to the New Mexico desert. If you’ve played the past games, and especially if you’ve read any of the novels, the spot in New Mexico will wow you. My chest actually tightened when I saw how much care and effort had been put into reproducing the Cleft. After you meet Yeesha, the number of canisters in your Relto changes to four, each with a linking book to an Age. When you finish what you’re supposed to finish, a pillar rises on the canister for that Age, like you see here. I had just finished the first of four, and I was proud enough of it to snap this shot. :)

The pages that can modify your Age are all over the place. In some Ages, they’re obvious, in others they’re put in spots that are purposefully hard to get to, and in others they’re hidden or put into places that you won’t ever find unless you explore more than you puzzle-solve. After a while, you’ll notice that the D’ni are not the only ones that have left behind links. Linking tablets, made and left by the Bahro, are laid carefully throughout the Great City and the Ages. They have a habit of sending you to a dead end. The only way out tends to be the linking book back to your home Age. It can be worth it to stick around for the view… or for the hidden things, like the pages. When I found the one for this dock, my heart skipped a beat. The similarity between my Relto and Myst Island slammed home, and I felt that much more a part of what is going on. If only I could get a ship there, in the clouds, or a linking book back to the Stoneship Age…

I’ve now finished Yeesha’s journey… or, at least, the first one. As she says, the symbol must change… a spiral with the end connected to the center. I’m now on the lookout for that symbol, and I hope to see it soon. I am sad for what was done to the Least, the Bahro, but I am glad for what I’ve been able to do for them. I can now go back to New Mexico and the Cleft. There is rain, which means that there can be growth in the desert.