Just throwing this out there.
But one thinh I came to understand from the earlier Myst days was that a linking book was set to take you to a desired location, pre-set by the book itself.
This was then expanded on with journey cloths whereby one could link to a set number of locations dependant on which point was 'activated' before linking back into an age.

So, is there any other means of being taken to an age, apart from using a book?
Or
Would there be a way to change where a book could link you to without the use of journey cloths previously within the age, or re-writing the book itself?

Tricky I know, but curious to find out!

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The Book of Ziana: - A fan based Myst novel.

An interesting thought. A wild scenario that comes to mind: You could get yourself kidnapped by a bahro! You'd just have no control over where he links you to.

Force linking comes to mind, of which both Bahro and Yeesha are capable of. You can also grab a piece of Bahro skin and use that to link, if you are an Esher-wannabe.

Then there is the Star Fissure.

Books, Cloths, & Stones...the Bahro, the Fissure, & Spontaneous Linking... We've seen quite a lot of Linking-types. Some would complain that Cyan has over-used "Bahro/Yeesha Magic" as a "Deus Ex Machina", all-purpose workaround, or "cheat", but I think it illustrates an interesting concept:

It would be hard to believe that the ability to travel between Quantum Realities would be solely vested in Ink & Paper. It seems much more likely that such an ability exists apart from any physical media, & can merely be applied to one. So if it can be applied to Ink & Paper, why not Cloth, Stone, or even Creatures?

But then 2 questions arise: 1st, why Books? The Ronay needed Ink, Paper, & Books, because they needed to describe the Age they wanted to Link to---without an innate Linking ability like the Bahro (which we still don't understand very well), they needed a more physical way to control where they linked to.

2nd, why only Books? The answer is Security. Think of what it would be like if any object could be used to Link---Books, Cloths, Stones, Creatures, Tools, Clothes, Plants, Chairs, Food, etc.---such a system would be virtually impossible to control & monitor, & would make it incredibly easy to commit crimes via Linking Technology. A uniform system of only Linking Books makes it much easier to know how someone Linked away.

The same goes for some of the other "Rules" of Linking: The Book staying where it is, only 1 Linking Panel per Book, etc. A Linking Book that goes with you would be invaluable in crime, & multiple Linking Panels would make it much harder to find out where a criminal Linked to.

All the various Ronay/D'ni "Rules" of Linking were probably implemented very early on, for very good purposes. But after strictly adhering to these Rules for so long, they became "barriers held as absolutes for millennia", as Yeesha put it. Doing things any other way was against the Rules, they stopped even teaching how it could be done otherwise, & eventually they came to forget that there was any other way it could be done.

Thoughts?

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".rezuhnuh voohee tsahnril robotesh gelenij"
"The ending can never truly be written."

K'laamas probably has most of it right. "What is possible" with any technology often differs wildly from "what we know works." I feel that linking books probably required specific paper and inks in order to create a specific, linking-compatible formula, but that doesn't mean that another workable formula couldn't be found using other materials.

The question arises, then, are you willing to put yourself at risk to experiment with different methods? Let's say you paint what you hope is a linking mural on a wall, using special bricks for the wall and special paints. First, how many of the infinite combinations of bricks, paints, and paintings are you going to go through before it does anything at all other than look pretty? Second, what if it does do something, just not what you expect? You could be linked and have absolutely no control over where you end up.

I have a feeling that once the Ronay found a formula that worked, they stuck with it, for those reasons.

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Some really good points coming out here, and a lot of truth behind them.
The paper and ink factor is solid, and the example on the mural with the paints gives a good rebutle on that.

I'd actually forgotten about the stones But yes, the stones were a form of linking, though I wonder how they worked.... I know they are Bahro stones, but no real insight is given on those, atleast not from what I have read.

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The Book of Ziana: - A fan based Myst novel.

There are two varieties of linking stones in the lore: the "bahro stones" that we explorers find, which appear to be stones with a bit of woven tapestry affixed to the surface, and the tablet stands found in Myst 5 and apparently used by Dr. Watson.

Bahro stones have a bit of coarsely woven cloth stuck to them that has apparently been either woven or dyed in such a way as to create a linking panel similar to those found in linking books. They are fairly crudely constructed, but they work. The assumption is that the bahro make and place these to help us get around. Obviously, either the bahro have discovered a weaving-based formula for linking, or they have somehow imbued these scraps of tapestry and stones with their own natural linking ability. It's also entirely likely that Yeesha is the one that pioneered this woven formula for linking, especially given the linking panels' similarity to those found in books, and the bahro simply place the stones for her.

The tablets and the pillars they rest on in Myst 5 are pretty obviously a uniquely bahro creation. They are covered in intricate carvings, are likely made out of a very specific type of stone, and are, at the very least, capable of linking a person within an age. It may be that the objects have little or no power themselves, and that the highly observant and incredibly stealthy bahro simply watch what a user does and transport him themselves. Since we only have the game experience and Dr. Watson's observations, and no actual examples available for testing by explorers, we'll probably never know a great deal about these linking objects.

The only other non-book examples explorers have observed are the Journey tapestries. Again, either the bahro or Yeesha must have pioneered a sort of woven linking formula that we don't quite understand. Obviously, they do not work the same way traditional linking books work, as there is some sort of connection between the last tapestry a person touched in an Age, and the tapestry "bookmark" placed in that Age's linking book in Relto. It is difficult for us to analyze these scraps of tapestry when we know so little about the mechanics of linking in the first place.

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Another form of linking does come to mind using stone, which is shown in Minkata.
Going from Night to Day within the one age.

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The Book of Ziana: - A fan based Myst novel.

Dan K wrote:

Another form of linking does come to mind using stone, which is shown in Minkata.
Going from Night to Day within the one age.

True, although I've long wondered something about the Minkata stones: When the D'ni used the Age for training Cartographers, did the apprentice Cartographers use those stones to complete the course, or was that something that the bahro and Yeesha have added since the fall?

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Here's something I've been wondering about: How exactly can we link using the book Yeesha presents us with at the end of the Journey? It's just a projection from the imager, therefore not event physically there. Is it possible that one can link with just a picture of a linking panel (somewhat redundant, but you know what I mean)?
Then again, it's Yeesha. She can do whatever she wants. (she hacks)

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Get me out of this cavern or I'll cave in.
-Owl City

It isnt the first time and imager was used as a linking book though. Remember in the original Myst, the Selentic Age was accessed via an imager on the ship. So Yeesha's imager is holographic instead of the traditional "tubed" 2d version. Who knows, it may be by accessing the Relto link that we acquire the book as we are linked to our Relto. The URU:CC I think does a little better job at explaining the acquisition of the Relto book, BUT, being MOULa, this is just something that for now we have to accept as being possible.

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If you are not part of the solution, then you are a gas.