Reasons that maybe they shouldn't have been given the art:

1. They are too egotistical.
2. Many kings and such have been corrupt.
3. They are a bit racist against other worlds.
4. There are too many punks like Sirrus and Achenar.
5. They are stupid.
6. They live too long.
7. They don't play video games.
8. Yur mom.
9. They aren't mexican.
10. I don't wanna wait 'til I'm 25!

_________________
-Mogwaii-

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

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The Guild Of Slackers: Ruining it for everyone else since 2004

Just a quick note; I mean the Ronay, not really the D'ni.

_________________
-Mogwaii-

Tomala wrote:

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

with any fan content from me, it would not be like this.
when i'm being serious, i make sense.

_________________
-Mogwaii-

My answer to this is somewhat twofold:

1.) From an IC standpoint, I'm not sure existence of the Art itself is ultimately for the greater good. I don't know that the overall net result is more positive than negative. There's the potential for great things, but also for a lot of damage, and sentient-creature-nature being what it is, the negative unsurprisingly seems to win out a lot. I don't think that being linked to is of a benefit to most Ages, especially the populated ones. So I have mixed feelings about the Art.

2.) But the Art exists, for better or worse. That being the case, I think the D'ni probably handled it as well as anyone could have. D'ni society had major faults, but so does any society. I don't think the D'ni necessarily managed things worse than any other group would have. I think that aside from linking to an Age being inherently prone to problems, the D'ni as a group did alright. It was just certain D'ni individuals who really screwed things up.

So...

I'm not sure sentient creatures deserve the Art, or ultimately benefit from having it. However, I don't think the D'ni wielded that power any worse than another group would have. I think it's just an awful lot of power, without a lot of true built-in accountability.

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Temporarily at: http://narayani.proboards.com/index.cgi

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

with any fan content from me, it would not be like this.
when i'm being serious, i make sense.

You may want to clarify, because I don't think you're being serious.

_________________
The Guild Of Slackers: Ruining it for everyone else since 2004

Eh, the D'ni (I'm not sure when the Ronay got it, or how much the other breakaway groups did with it, other than the Terahnee, and whether or not it would have to be given to the Ronay for the D'ni to survive and escape) didn't do too poorly with it, given that they made a somewhat stable civilization around the Art for thousands of years, tried to rule well at least part of the time of that, in some ways, and at least managed to keep the power from being too much a tool of destruction for most of the time (although they didn't manage to keep it from being used to enslave a lot of the time - other races could have been worse at this). They were at least a somewhat slow, solid, and dependable race, which managed to stay safe and build up records and stuff so the Art never got totally removed, while not ruining too many other races and Ages.

We haven't really seen many better options, I'm afraid, in the Myst universe. Humans - well, we have enough records to see what we'd do with it. Then we've seen the Narayani, who lived in an unstable world, even with all their care, and fell into civil war and neglect that almost destroyed them entirely (yes, it was prompted by outside influences, but it wasn't entirely due to that). The Rivenese were broken into splinter groups of superstitious people, including some who were happy with terrifying the rest of the population for a rather futile rebellious action against Gehn, so it wouldn't suggest they are somehow better or great at using resources either. The bahro - eh, there's another civil war and sneaky dealings, and they arguably already have the Art (or wouldn't really be made more powerful with it).

Clearly, the Art should have been given to the Eder Kemo keanulints. They are always patient, even though they've probably been there as long as the D'ni, and has anyone ever seen them be greedy or warlike? Plus, they could really use the added mobility, apparently.

Tomala wrote:

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

with any fan content from me, it would not be like this.
when i'm being serious, i make sense.

You may want to clarify, because I don't think you're being serious.

I'm being serious right now...

_________________
-Mogwaii-

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

with any fan content from me, it would not be like this.
when i'm being serious, i make sense.

You may want to clarify, because I don't think you're being serious.

I'm being serious right now...

Great. Now if I could only figure out what you're trying to say I might be getting somewhere!

_________________
The Guild Of Slackers: Ruining it for everyone else since 2004

Tomala wrote:

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

So that's why some people don't want fan content...

with any fan content from me, it would not be like this.
when i'm being serious, i make sense.

You may want to clarify, because I don't think you're being serious.

I'm being serious right now...

Great. Now if I could only figure out what you're trying to say I might be getting somewhere!

you are always getting somewhere

_________________
-Mogwaii-

Quote:

you are always getting somewhere

And

Quote:

when i'm being serious, i make sense.

I don't think you're being serious enough... Or maybe I need some kind of translator to figure out what you're being serious about.

_________________
The Guild Of Slackers: Ruining it for everyone else since 2004

Tomala wrote:

.

to everyone: pay attention to little conversations like these.

_________________
-Mogwaii-

Is this guy for real?

_________________
Adam "Hoikas" Johnson
Guild of [MESSAGE REDACTED]

Slump Virus wrote:

Tomala wrote:

.

to everyone: pay attention to little conversations like these.

Not only that, but be careful that you try not to suffer serious brain damage when trying to understand what the other person is talking about.

_________________
The Guild Of Slackers: Ruining it for everyone else since 2004

The question of whether the D'ni deserved to be able to use the Art is like asking whether humans deserve the ability to know right and wrong. In either case, there's a lot of good that can be done with what we have, but there are also many ways to abuse our gifts. Given that the Miller bros.' father was a minister, I think that the Art is supposed to function similarly to the story of the Fall, minus the "getting kicked out of Paradise" part--it's the embodiment of morality because the way it's used depends on the ethics of the person using it, and acts like the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The Art is, according to the legends, a gift from Yahvo to the Ronay, so he basically gave them the god-like powers of creation and alteration and left the fate of the universe in their hands, and their moral choices affect what happens.