I posted a link to the blog of an old Cyan designer (Thom Schillinger) to prove a point in another thread and I only just now realized that he recently updated it with never-before-seen images of Venalem!


Just wanted to point this out for anybody who hasn't seen it.

http://3dconceptualdesigner.blogspot.com/2011/08/project-review-cyan-worlds-uru-part-vi.html

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Nice catch!
It great to see all this new Uru stuff after all these years.. Although it's also a bit sad to se what *could* have been if.... etc.
The Venalem Age would have been such a great fit in the Uru universe: harvesting materials for Ink. Wonder where that would have led us story-wise...
I know it's not exactly original in the Uru/Myst universe, but the association of wild landscapes with beautiful mechanical contraptions is still very effective...

[edit]
aww.. I was about to leave a word on his blog to thank him for all the pics and infos he published, but I don't have an account on any of the sites his blog comment system require to leave a comment. :/ Could anybody with an account on Google/LiveJournal/Wordpress/Typepad/AIM do that? That man has published 6 articles full of stuff and only got 1 comment.

Wonderful find!

With these new pieces of informtation, I think we now have a very fine understanding of the mechanics of Venalem:

The age is a hollow iceberg floating in an arctic ocean. There are pockets of water inside this iceberg, whereupon grow some giant vegetable pods which contain a substance used to make Ink (the chemical process which generates this substance must require some pretty low temperatures, otherwise I'm sure the D'ni would have written a more mild harvest age. I wonder, though, didn't Gehn mention that Ink was made from beetles? Oh, I digress...).

Scuba divers cut the pods from the plants; then, the pods probably floated to the surface and were snatched by this "Hourglass Harvester" (beautiful name, by the way). It appears that, once a pod has been ensared, the "hourglass" rotates so that a second pod can be caught. The harvester floats on the water thanks to two balloons attached at the sides, which also could provide light at night (hinting that this Age might have a day/night cycle).

It is unclear whether the ink extraction process happened on the pod itself or on some "land" facility (there are structures built into the ice); but the empty pods weren't discarded, but rather reutilized to make living quarters and such for the harvesting crew (it appears that the workers lived in the Age, at least for some periods of time).

The Age probably also involved some sort of gameplay with the "sea cows", animals depicted in previously seen concept art and which are said to have a nest in the iceberg (perhaps in the underwater cave seen in the side view of the Age?)

Woah! Shiny!! Super Sweet Find

Pod construction was apparently big business in D'ni. i suppose they served as sort of prefab structures, such as would be used to colonize mars should that ever occur. though many of them seem built for special purpose. Pods show up everywhere.

Does anyone have any idea as to how the "scissor framework" can "simulate Sun and Moon cycles? Are the artificial lights embedded into the inside surface of the rings? Dunno, this one caption got me a bit confused.

>>JP<< wrote:

Does anyone have any idea as to how the "scissor framework" can "simulate Sun and Moon cycles? Are the artificial lights embedded into the inside surface of the rings? Dunno, this one caption got me a bit confused.

Not sure how it all works, but it looks to me like it dips them into the water and back. The whole center section rotates while the pontoons keep stationary. So I was thinking maybe that rotation is what it's referencing. Otherwise it must just be some kind of lighting in the interior of those rings.

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It seems to me the process goes as follows:

The diver cuts off the bulb and then floats it to the surface. It is placed into the bottom part of the Harvester which then rotates 180 degrees, lifting it up onto the surface. The bulb is then hollowed out (or perhaps it's hollow to begin with?) At any rate, girders and platforms are installed inside and workers scrape off the substance used in the process of ink-making from the inside surface of the bulb. A second bulb is prepped for harvesting at the bottom of the harvester while the top one is being excavated. Once the top bulb has been completely depleted it is moved off the harvester to a nearby location and the harvester rotates the empty spot back down, with the new bulb from the bottom prepped and ready to be excavated. This process can continue as an assembly line for as long as there is space to keep the empty buds. For maximum efficiency it would be prudent to replant the old buds if they're like pineapples.. and then new could grow from old, provided the ink-making material isn't required for the propagation of the plants...


The scissor framework seems to me as a means of lighting the inside of the bulb. Workers would probably spend months or maybe years excavating a single bulb and if they spend all that time within it, I imagine it would be very dark. If lights were on the inside of the rings they could shine into the bulb (provided it's translucent) and simulate a day/night cycle for the workers who presumably never leave the bulb for months at a time.

The fact that artificial light is required leads me to believe that the entire Age of Venalem is dark all the time. Possibly it rotates like our moon with one side always in darkness or maybe it has no parent star at all.. which could explain the extreme cold.

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It could just be polar, with many months between sunset and sunrise.

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Wow, those colours, that would definitely be an age for me... Sad we never got to see it/them...

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OoC, the mechanism of double rotation irresistibly reminds Ahnonay.

model design

Oooooh nice find The concept art and designs are very interesting.

Thx for pointing to this.
I have immediately rebuilded it in Blender.


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Awesome, denDwaler, you're a genius!!! ... So, where do we go from here? ...

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Yes, awesome denDwaler!

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very nice ! cannot wait what comes up next ...it fits!