Is there a specific reason that the D'ni live so long? why are they living for like 400 years?

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"To a well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure"

Remember that the D'ni are aliens. It's seems fine to live 400 years.

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Previously known as "The stranger"

Isn't the question you should be really asking, "Why do humans only live 100 year or so at best?"

My cat is only going to live 15 years, 20 maybe. But sea turtles can live up to 300 years. Yet we're all built on the same underlying technology.

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As Long as there is MORE, I will explore.
And as long as my Relto shelf is unfilled, I will build.

I was under the impression that they too were human, but escaped from all the slavery, sin, and war on the surface by living underground. In the book of Ti'ana, don't they talk about "re-establishing" communication with the surface, thus implying they've been to the surface before and cut themselves off?

If that is the case, then it makes since why the D'ni would have longer lifespans. In biblical times, people lived for several hundred years, and it's slowly decreased to around 100. Asumeing such, they must have missed whatever shortened the human lifespan, whether it be disease, or something else.

Kade333 wrote:

I was under the impression that they too were human, but escaped from all the slavery, sin, and war on the surface by living underground. In the book of Ti'ana, don't they talk about "re-establishing" communication with the surface, thus implying they've been to the surface before and cut themselves off?

If that is the case, then it makes since why the D'ni would have longer lifespans. In biblical times, people lived for several hundred years, and it's slowly decreased to around 100. Asumeing such, they must have missed whatever shortened the human lifespan, whether it be disease, or something else.

Unlikely. The D'ni were descendants of the Ronay, who lived in an Age called Garternay. Due to a schism in opinions on several matters, as well as the imminent destruction of the planet the Ronay lived on, the D'ni fled to Earth/D'ni. The "re-establishing" might refer to previous connections with the surface (it is stated that they had ventilation shafts - built way back when they first established the cavern - to the Surface, and they might have had more connections).

So did they write a link to Earth or something then? Because that doesn't really make sence, because if someone found the main book, they could make changes in it (Line Ghen did with one of his ages in The book of Atrus) and cause mass chaos. It doesn't make sence that they'd come from another Age, and decide to settle on Earth. They could just write another one and not have to live underground.

Kade333 wrote:

So did they write a link to Earth or something then? Because that doesn't really make sence, because if someone found the main book, they could make changes in it (Like Ghen did with one of his ages in The book of Atrus) and cause mass chaos. It doesn't make sence that they'd come from another Age, and decide to settle on Earth. They could just write another one and not have to live underground.

The descriptive book tampering would definitely be a concern, but they might have some securities against that (or not... ).

The cavern choice was deliberate - it was a secure and stable location that was intended to keep them humble and simple, not just forming corrupt garden lands to live in (didn't fully work).

Kade333 wrote:

So did they write a link to Earth or something then? Because that doesn't really make sence, because if someone found the main book, they could make changes in it (Line Ghen did with one of his ages in The book of Atrus) and cause mass chaos. It doesn't make sence that they'd come from another Age, and decide to settle on Earth. They could just write another one and not have to live underground.

Yes, yes they did write a book to Earth. It's apparently someplace very safe. Also, theories abound that Yeesha has actually found the Earth book, considering the way she made it rain in the Cleft at the end of the Journey. But she's just weird.

As to living underground, the D'ni are descendants of a handful of Ronay who followed the teachings of some dude called Ri'neref. They were, as a group, very concerned that the power of the Art would make them too proud, like the people on Terahnee. The whole idea of living in the cave was to restrict themselves to a humble, simple life, free of temptations to abuse the Art, kind of like how the Amish refuse to use technology because they fear it could lead to temptation. Obviously, the plan didn't work so well for the D'ni, since later generations apparently had few qualms about setting themselves up like gods and treating non-D'ni people like dirt.

Thanks. That kinna makes sence. and, senec two people said practically the same thing, I'm more re-assured. O_o It's weird to think there's an Earth Descriptive Book out there...

Kade333 wrote:

Thanks. That kinna makes sence. and, senec two people said practically the same thing, I'm more re-assured. O_o It's weird to think there's an Earth Descriptive Book out there...

Yeah, it's just a little creepy. As a descriptive book, it can't be taken into the world it describes, so that means that it isn't something the D'ni could keep safe here on Earth. It has to be somewhere else. I have a theory that, given its importance, someone or something out there actively protects it. Like an old, secret order of Ri'neref's followers or something. Like that Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword in Indiana Jones. But that's just theory.

It could also be as simple that the earth descriptive book is protected similarly as the gaternay book was. If the escape to d'ni was planned in such a way that all who were from ronay fled into their books, whose to say that if the descriptive books kept there were safe or destroyed, more to the point, would it matter to those already there. For instance, in BoA, when Ghen destroys the world with removal mark and Atrus links back to it, he only sees a link to a world where he had never been, BUT, thats not to say that the world he had been to doesnt exist anymore, only that the link it is no gone. Since he described the books as link to worlds in time which are already there, if the ppl on D'ni were already there when the descriptive book was destroyed, that doesnt mean that that world is necessarily destroyed, only that there is no link back to it the way the person outside of the book saw it. BECAUSE, the world was already there. The descriptive book didnt create the world, just established a hard link to a world that already existed. Now linking books instead of descriptive books would no longer function, because linking books only connect to the descriptive book; if the descriptive book is destroyed, hence the linking books for it would cease to function. But descriptive books dont create, they ONLY link to somewhere already there. So while the chance for an Earth book to exist and be tampered with is a possibility, would the change have an effect on us or a similar us. Personally I feel that the earth book is either protected far from the hands of intervention or that it was destroyed only after ppl had linked to it. that way no other link could be re-established to the same point and time to which the original writer had conceived. protecting the land from interference of those who may have remained in ronay.

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

True, if the book is changed to become too different from the place it describes, it will no longer describe that place. But until it reaches that point, changes to the original descriptive book can and do affect the described world. Someone finding and editing the Earth book just enough that, say, the sea levels dropped a few feet, could cause fairly rampant problems.

We know that the Earth descriptive book has not been destroyed because books linking back to Earth still work. If a descriptive book is burned, you're right that the world it describes would not necessarily be affected, but that destruction also disables any and all linking books connected to it. Somehow, the linking books are dependent on the existence of the descriptive book.

I always thought Earth had Terahnee's Descriptive Book and vice versa... That seems to me the safest way..

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Thelonius "Prof" Higginsbottom

member of the Guild of Calamitous Intent

"I invented the term the Bevin Generation do I get a spot in Mystlore?"

Personally I think the original book of earth is gone. it was left behind when they left the original world.

If you think about it. there was no point of taking the book of earth with them or protecting it. Since when their world was destroyed so would the book and the link to earth. Most of the writers of that era knew destroying the book wouldn't destroy the world just the link.

Also if I remember reading somewhere that the dni were kinda isolationist type and didn't want anything to do with the other survivors of their world, it was the reason they went to earth instead of where the rest went.

that just makes since to me.

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According to the Book of T'Anna, the descriptive book was still in existence at the time of the fall of D'ni. It makes a passing reference to top D'ni officials having read the Book of Earth. This suggests that Earth's descriptive book is still locked in a vault somewhere in the Guild Hall. I suppose it's possible the DRC managed to recover it, but it's just as likely it remains in its secure location to this day.

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As Long as there is MORE, I will explore.
And as long as my Relto shelf is unfilled, I will build.