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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:14 pm
Posts: 4250
Location: Digging around in the dusty archives, uncovering Uru history.
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Theories About Why Cyan Set The Cleft In New Mexico
It could have been something as simple as the fact that the Miller brothers grew up there and the idea that you should write about what you know best, but RAWA leads us to believe that there's much more to it than that. There's something about New Mexico in general and Eddy County specifically that made it the perfect setting for The Cleft and the D'ni Cavern.
For Eddy County, it was probably the existence of several extensive cavern systems including the famous Carlsbad Cavern, but also so many more that it leaves open the possibility that the D'ni cavern could have easily gone undiscovered or at least undocumented.
[Reveal] Spoiler: Eddy County Caves & Caverns
Carlsbad Caverns National Park CAVE History Update Newsletter - In the section on Discovery of the Cavern, various sources are cited in an attempt to determine who first discovered the cavern and [Reveal] Spoiler: this interesting tidbit appears on page 4: Brad McGraw, Park Guide wrote: Source: Personal Interview
Person interviewed: Mrs. R.E. Miller of Hammond, Indiana
Interviewed by: Brad McGraw, Park Guide
Date: July 27, 1946
On July 25, 1946, Mr. & Mrs. R. E. Miller of Hammond Indiana went through the caverns. During that trip it was discovered that Mrs. Miller’s aunt, Miss Chloe Williamson, Route #3, Valparaiso, Indiana, visited Carlsbad Caverns, and took a trip through them, when she was a girl of 16, in the year 1901... The trip to the cave was made from a nearby ranch, on burros.
Maybe there's something useful to be found in the The Official Eddy County, New Mexico About Us Page or the Wiki page for Eddy County, New Mexico.Myst and Uru are mentioned in the Wiki page for Eddy County, New Mexico under Eddy County in popular culture: Within the Myst and Uru series of computer games, Eddy County is the fictional location of The Cleft, a fissure near a dormant volcano leading down to the large D'ni Cavern. This is most likely a reference to the aforementioned Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
I don’t know where in New Mexico the Millers lived, but in 1895, there was a town of Miller in Eddy County.
But, there seems to be more about New Mexico in general that inspired and/or lends itself to the story of the D'ni.
Did the real life Zandi affect the choice of location? We know that the real Jeff Zandi was a friend of the Miller brothers and that they played Dungeons & Dragons together. So, did Zandi grow up in New Mexico and is there a family history there?
date unknown: DRC site forum post by Morningstar: Jeff Zandi plays card games? with links to other sites about the real Jeff Zandi. Unfortunately, this link is temporarily (*crossfingers*) unavailable while the DRC site is down.
Was Elias Zandi's keen interest in Native American artifacts meant to imply a link between the D'ni and the local tribes?
Is it because of the large Native American population (22 tribes) and that their culture, history, stories and myths could be used to explain and reinforce much of the D'ni story?
"When the world was new, the ancient people and the ancient creatures did not live on the top of the earth. They lived under it. All was darkness, all was blackness, above the earth as well as below it." - How the Hopi Indians Reached Their World
"Native Americans followed the movements of the celestial markers - much as we do today. They called it Star Knowledge. Beyond the land where they lived, was the sky, and that beyond were dimensional portals or sky holes." - Hopi - Crystalinks
All of the cloth/Bahro/portal symbols seem to be based on native american glyphs which represent constellations.
See the shell (path of the shell symbol) in the sky.
[Reveal] Spoiler: The Hopi legend of the Ant People could be the basis for the Bahro.
The Navajo are known as the "Diné" meaning “The People” or “Children of the Holy People,” but this appears to be a coincidence since we know the origins of the word, "D'ni" came from "Dunny" in a story written by Robyn Miller before Myst was created. [Reveal] Spoiler: Robyn Miller tells the story of the word, "Dunny" on his blog Tinselman (scroll down a bit) and in a Reddit AMA: I am Robyn Miller cocreator of Myst and Riven. AMA!Robin Miller wrote: I had partially written an earlier novel with a lot of concepts that made their way into the book. For example, it was about a young boy, living in a desolate local with his grandfather, in a shack. He discovers an entrance to a cave, beneath the shack and he (and his grandfather) begin to travel downward. The boy discovers "Dunny"... an underground kingdom, though in this story, the kingdom is still thriving.
[Reveal] Spoiler: Another interesting coincidence. DRC site post, date unknown: Morningstar wrote: At the D'ni Guild Forums, Sir Charles has posted some interesting things about a real John Loftin who studies Hopi culture. It's interesting how "the tribe originated from a world below the surface of the Earth. Apparently they lived in this underground world, after they had lived in another world that became uninhabitable. They moved into the world beneath the southwest, and after a time part of them climbed out of the caverns and into the surface world." Sorry if this is old news for some of you.  http://www.cyanworlds.com/cgi-bin/ubb-c ... 085#000003 - unfortunately, the link is broken, but I found Religion & Hopi Life by John D. Loftin and some of the book text.
Is there any relation to the Clovis culture (named for a site near Clovis, NM), believed to be America's first human population and ancestors of later native Americans?
[Reveal] Spoiler: Clovis Culture & the Burnet Cave in Eddy County, NM "Available genetic data shows that the Clovis people are the direct ancestors of roughly 80% of all living Native American populations, with the remainder having entered afterwards." - Clovis Culture Wiki article."The first Clovis point found in the modern era was excavated in situ at Burnet Cave, NM five feet, seven inches below ground surface on the edge of a hearth with burnt bison and musk-ox bones in August 1931." "Burnet Cave (also known as Rocky Arroyo Cave of Wetmore) is an important archaeological and paleontological site located in Eddy County, New Mexico." - Burnet Cave Wiki Article
Other Possible Sources of Information
New Mexico Digital Collections
Guild of Researchers Investigating D'ni (G.R.I.D.) Research page (Original site on Angelfire with annoying ads) (Wayback Machine version)
Mar 20 2004 DPWR forum discussion: "The Cleft... where is it?, Uru vs. BoA/BoT"
June 21, 2006 - Bob Hoff's Carlsbad Caverns History Blog: Who Discovered Carlsbad Caverns? by CACA Park Naturalist Neal Bullington, May 1968
Jul 19, 2009 - MOUL forum thread: Ancestral Pueblo and D'ni
February 23, 2008 - The Puzzlers gave a presentation in the cavern, "We the D'ni" which proved it was possible that "the called" were descendants of the D'ni. They utilized the D'ni - Earth Timeline for many of the points.
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I find the John Loftin connection most remarkable!
- Minkata 
Yes, it surfaced and forced me to clean out part of the "treasure chest" (bookmarks & notes) so it wouldn't interfere with a current project.