Editing What is MYST? (section)

==Lore==

===What's up with the magic books?===
The books in the games, called Linking Books, take you to different worlds/universes (called Ages). The ability to create these books is called the Art. Writing a book to access a new Age is often just called 'writing an Age'.

===What happens when you link?===
When you touch the open page of a Linking book, you fade out of this reality and are transported to a specific place in the Age. The book you used remains behind.

===How do you get back?===
You use a book that links back to where you came from. So you either bring a book, or hope there's one there to use. Otherwise, you are stuck.

===Do Writers create these worlds when they write them?===
The canonical answer is that the Ages already exist and the books just create links to them (hence Linking Books). This is a big point of contention amongst characters in the setting however, and often affects how people treat the Ages and the people in them.

===How does the Art work?===
The Art requires special Books that must be made with special paper and special ink. A Writer uses symbols called ''gahrohevtee'' (great words) to describe the Age they want to go to. The book then links to an Age that matches the description. Since no universe can be described in complete detail, there are many possible Ages (quantum realities/parallel universes) that may match the description - one is 'chosen' randomly when the book is first used. 

There are two types of Books: Descriptive Books and Linking Books. Descriptive Books make the first link to an Age and define the link - you can use it to then link to the Age. Linking Books are just Books that take you to an Age after it has been linked to. 

Linking Books are smaller than Descriptive Books, and just link back to the place where the book was written. They are connected in some way to the Descriptive Book for the Age, however. If the Descriptive Book is destroyed, all Linking Books to the Age stop working. So, destroying the Descriptive Book makes an Age inaccessible.

===Is the Art the only way to link?===
That's a very long story. You'll need to read the books or play the games.

===What is D'ni?===
D'ni is a place and a people. The [[D'ni (people)|D'ni]] are an ancient civilization that used the Art to access places for resources and exploitation; their civilization fell 200 - 300 years ago. Atrus is a descendant of the D'ni. 

[[D'ni]] is also a place, the city the D'ni lived in—built in a gigantic underground cavern—that exists miles beneath the New Mexico desert (Eddy County, to be specific).

===How do you pronounce the name D'ni?===
The official way is close to dih-NEE or duh-NEE. The earlier games use DUH-nee, however.

===What are the Unexplored Branches?===
[[GoArch:Unexplored Branches|Unexplored Branches]] (UB) is the extended universe of the ''Myst'' franchise. This section of lore is considered less canonical than lore in the games and books. Things that are considered UB lore include: lore released in Unwritten supplements, unused lore released to fans by Cyan, and fan content added to the primary MOULa server.