As Eleri pointed out at the DRC forums, there is something new on the DRC home page!!!
They updated the "Restoration Timeline", and, apart from the recent events of 2006 (like the election of the Liaisons), it says for 2005:

"Yeesha searches for someone to free the Least".

This leaves some questions still unanswered, though: did she find that "someone"? Were the Bahro freed or not? Is Myst V an account of what "really happened" (speaking IC about the "Uru alternate reality") or just a dream, and Yeesha's plan failed?

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You know how in Myst, Riven, Exile, and Rev, only one of the endings is "historically" correct, i.e. the good ending actually happened? What if instead, it's the bad ending that actually happened in Myst 5! And it happened to everyone Yeesha got to take the journey, which is why she was "searching".

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KI# 45434

Something else to think about: Esher says things like "she has given you the quest... yes, the quest" which makes me think that Myst 5 is based on a real quest, but up to this date (5/17/06) it has not suceeded. However, Myst 5 is just a logical extension of what would happen if you succeed in your quest.

Although the DRC timeline is supposed to be "Real", which means that Myst V is supposed to be an extention to URU PotS. I think that (IC) it's supposed to be that the explorers in the cavern find their way to the Island of K'veer one by one and take the Quest (the reason she recodnises you is becasue she saw you at the end of ABM). Everyone fails until YOU come along and make the right decision. So I think at this time it might be assumed that the Bahro are free, so prehaps we'll see them wondering about until somone turns up and scares them away?

OK. If Myst 5 has already happened, then the earthquakes mean nothing, they were artistic license

However, I think that it is more likely that Myst 5 has not happened yet, and will happen at some future date that is for some reason causing earthquakes in D'ni.

Couldn't the earthquakes just be in relation to being located several miles beneath the earth's surface?

If the earthquakes were purely geographic, we would have seen them in Myst and Uru as well.

We didn't feel them in Uru because tremors every few seconds is pretty disruptive to chat.

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-Whilyam

No, I think that several things could have happened simultaneously, while Myst 5 happened after the original Uru, - something during Myst 5 was obviously causing the earthquakes, only we were too busy helping Yeesha.

But NOW is the time to find out what was/is going on.... after all (quote) "Underground, the vast empire of D'ni limps back to life, even while evil brews in its darkness. Destruction is coming... Find a way... Make a home..."

Uru's expansion packs ended with the DRC having left, and during Myst 5 this fact was yet again confirmed, and that the city is once again sleeping. In the above quote however... "D'ni limps back to life". So Myst 5 is in the past. And I guess that we won't see Yeesha again either, she's at peace in Releeshan now. Although she might visit us, would be nice, I quite liked her.

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By the way, I still think it's a shame that we didn't get to go DOWN the tunnels and shaft toward D'ni, right from the beginning of Uru...and then enter D'ni. I thought that was a shame. It's nice they included the tunnels in Myst5, so that we got to see them at least, but it didn't really make much sense, because when we were at the bottom, the game sort of ended. Would have been nice to have had a decent view of the cavern at least.

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I'm sorry, but I still don't understand why D'ni can't be "limping back to life" after having only had the DRC leave in 2004. Myst 5 could be 50 years from now. I don't see why it can't have been.

I saw Myst 5 story as happening much further after Uru. However, I never felt that the full story of Uru had been told. I'm looking at UruLive as the continuation of TPotS, picking up the story of what has happened afterwards before Myst 5 begins. Since the storyline of Myst 5 has obviously occurred in the future after Uru, hence the changes in Yeesha's attitude towards being the grower and such, its obvious theres a much larger part of the story that was never told between Uru and EoA. This is what I feel will be expounded upon in Uru Live, completing the story more accurately so that it helps to complete the full story of what happened to Yeesha, even if shes not in it, and the events that led to the progression of EoA.

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Well, Moke I believe has said that the events of Myst V will be put into the new Uru, so I'd imagine it did happen.

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-Whilyam

Well I also always saw Myst V as being much further in the future, largely because of Yeesha's apparent age as compared to Uru. And this is probably how they originally intended it to be. However I don't think Cyan will play it that way now.

I think they now intend the events of Myst V to have come a year or so after TPotS. It's much more convenient story-wise to have all past plot elements "cleaned up" before moving on to new Uru Live content. Cyan can easily rationalise any discrepancies (like the state of the Myst Library in Myst V as compared to TPotS) by exploiting the alternate universes/time travel scenario in some way.

So I agree with dsimcott that the earthquakes in Myst V are part of a new plot element which we will see in Uru Live. They may have stuck them in the game as a hint of a new plot line, on the off chance that Uru might one day return. It sounds like something Cyan would do.

Quote:

It's much more convenient story-wise to have all past plot elements "cleaned up" before moving on to new Uru Live content.

This would be my preference, for a couple of reasons. It would feel like a step backwards story-wise to me if we were suddenly pushed back rather than forward along the story timeline. To have Myst V set at some future date limits where the Uru plot can go, plus it would make any Uru plot seem a lot less... well... urgent, as we already have some idea how it might turn out.

Also, I don't like the idea of having to "forget" about a game we played because it's set in the future. Nothing from Myst V could really be brought into discussions, even speculatively, because even if it's one possible future, it's at least equally likely the future will be completely different.

It would make Myst V simultaneously both too constricting and completely irrelevant, which is kind of a weird combination.

I also don't see any real story rationale for it. We've already seen what the Bahro can do, and that they should be freed. I know that's not how Cyan wanted the revelation to happen, and I'm sorry it didn't work out how they wanted, but... it happened that way. It's too late to go back and see it gradually, because we've already seen it. If that isn't the main plot (as I assume it won't be, based on what I just said and what the website says about Uru Live,) then there's no reason that I can see that Myst V actually needs to be in the future.

I would like for Uru Live to be a new start... not a trip to get back to where we already are.

Annacat

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dsimcott wrote:

Would have been nice to have had a decent view of the cavern at least.

There is a good view of the Cavern through the windows of K'veer.

Maratanos wrote:

I'm sorry, but I still don't understand why D'ni can't be "limping back to life" after having only had the DRC leave in 2004. Myst 5 could be 50 years from now. I don't see why it can't have been.

Because Cyan's official DRC site says it was 2005. Hover over the year "2005" on this page:
http://www.drcsite.org/home.shtml

Whilyam wrote:

Well, Moke I believe has said that the events of Myst V will be put into the new Uru, so I'd imagine it did happen.

That right. And he added, of course, that it might not be in the way we expect. He also said we will not get to the Cavern via the Cleft, but it will be necessary to get there later.

subumbra wrote:

So I agree with dsimcott that the earthquakes in Myst V are part of a new plot element which we will see in Uru Live.

Exactly.

Consider these facts:
- An ominous message about "destruction."
- End Of Ages occurs in 2005.
- The Cleft area where we start in the EoA's caldera is rumbling with earthquakes. So is the Great Shaft and K'veer, meaning it's throughout the region which includes the Cavern.
- Moke says we won't be starting in the Cleft but it will be neceesary to get there later.

Put it together and I am predicting a newly active volcano. What's the easiest path for mage flow? The Great Shaft.