Editing Riven
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{{for|the game by Cyan|Riven (game)}} | {{for|the game by Cyan|Riven (game)}} | ||
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| name = Riven | | name = Riven | ||
| image = Riven-village.jpg | | image = Riven-village.jpg | ||
| author = [[Gehn]] | | author = [[Gehn]] | ||
| connections = | | connections = [[Age 233]], [[Tay]], the [[Cleft]] | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''Riven''' was the fifth [[Age]] written by [[Gehn]]. | '''Riven''' was the fifth [[Age]] written by [[Gehn]]. Like his other ages, he did not name the age and generally referred to it by number: Age 5. Despite Gehn's sloppiness as a Writer, Riven was probably one of the more stable Ages he wrote. Gehn was unusually devoted to this Age and its well-being, in contrast to his callous disregard for his other Ages and their inhabitants. This may have been because Gehn maintained a number of very powerful misconceptions about the power of the number five, especially as it pertained to [[D'ni (race)|D'ni]] culture. Nonetheless, every Age Gehn wrote had fatal flaws in their writing, leaving them ultimately unstable, and Riven was no exception. Despite appearing stable, Riven was actually in a steady state of decline. Gehn had attempted to convince his son [[Atrus]] to fix the Age's instabilities for him, but ultimately his plan backfired. Atrus managed to trap Gehn there for 33 years, keeping him from writing and affecting more Ages. | ||
Riven's inhabitants ended up splitting two factions: those who followed Gehn and those in rebellion against him, the [[Moiety]]. Atrus wrote several improvements into the Age, but it was only a matter of time before Riven collapsed completely. Riven's total and utter collapse happened after an unnamed friend of Atrus's had trapped Gehn and freed Atrus's wife [[Catherine]], who had been trapped there. After all of the villagers had been safely moved to [[Tay]], Atrus's friend opened the [[Star Fissure]], which signaled Atrus but also triggered Riven's final collapse. Riven's dead [[Descriptive Book]] was kept in Atrus' study in [[Tomahna]] until the return of [[Saavedro]]; after the fire in the study, its condition and whereabouts are unknown. | |||
==Appearance== | ==Appearance== | ||
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[[File:Riven_islands_catherine.jpg|thumb|Sketch of four of the five Riven islands from [[Catherine]]'s journal.]] | [[File:Riven_islands_catherine.jpg|thumb|Sketch of four of the five Riven islands from [[Catherine]]'s journal.]] | ||
[[File:Survey_island_schematic.png|thumb|A schematic map of the five islands. Clockwise from the upper left, Book Assembly Island, Temple Island, Prison Island, Jungle Island, Survey Island.]] | [[File:Survey_island_schematic.png|thumb|A schematic map of the five islands. Clockwise from the upper left, Book Assembly Island, Temple Island, Prison Island, Jungle Island, Survey Island.]] | ||
'''[[Temple Island]]''' was the site of | '''[[Temple Island]]''' was the site of Gehn's Temple, and contained the original link-in point for Riven. The most prominent feature on this island however was the [[Golden Dome]], which generated power for Gehn's faulty [[book|linking books]]. Temple Island was the site of the final battle between [[Atrus]] and [[Gehn]], and was where the [[Star Fissure]] could be found. The Rivenese villagers called the island ''Allapo'' or "water pool", and to the Moiety called it ''Allatwan'' or "pool of stars") | ||
'''[[Jungle Island]]''' was the one island that belonged to the Rivenese population after Gehn claimed the other islands for himself. The Rivenese village was located around a lake, along with a schoolhouse and a gallows that Gehn used to exert his power over the villagers. Also on the island was a lush jungle, and a sandy lagoon. | '''[[Jungle Island]]''' was the one island that belonged to the Rivenese population after Gehn claimed the other islands for himself. The Rivenese village was located around a lake, along with a schoolhouse and a gallows that Gehn used to exert his power over the villagers. Also on the island was a lush jungle, and a sandy lagoon. | ||
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===Animal life=== | ===Animal life=== | ||
[[File:Riven animal symbols.png|thumb|Moiety animal symbols]] | [[File:Riven animal symbols.png|thumb|Moiety animal symbols]] | ||
The symbols on the | The symbols on the standing stones used to access [[Tay]] suggest that Riven was host to a wide array of creatures. However, only a few of these have been seen. It's likely that many of these animals had gone extinct by the time of Riven's collapse. | ||
The [[Wahrk]] was a large fish that held a great importance to the Rivenese. Before the arrival of Gehn, they respected and feared the Wahrk, as it was the most powerful force they knew. Gehn took advantage of their reverence for the fish by co-opting its likeness to use as an instrument of terror. | The [[Wahrk]] was a large fish that held a great importance to the Rivenese. Before the arrival of Gehn, they respected and feared the Wahrk, as it was the most powerful force they knew. Gehn took advantage of their reverence for the fish by co-opting its likeness to use as an instrument of terror. | ||
The Rivenese subsisted mainly on fish, and meat from [[Sunner]]s, an aquatic mammal that | The Rivenese subsisted mainly on fish, and meat from [[Sunner]]s, an aquatic mammal that were hunted nearly to extinction. [[Ytram]]s were poisonous frogs that the Moiety used to make poison darts. [[Scarab]] beetles could be found in the jungle, and were likely similar to beetles found in other D'ni ages, as they were an ingredient of the [[ink]] used to write [[book]]s. | ||
===Water=== | ===Water=== | ||
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===Transportation=== | ===Transportation=== | ||
The original composition of the Age allowed inhabitants to merely cross the entire big island merely by foot. Later, as the five segments started drifting away from each other, in to their own smaller islands, connecting bridges were created (most notably the [[East Path]]),<ref>RAWA, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130619011851/http://cho.cyan.com/RAWA/eastpath/eastpath.html What happened to the East Path?]", The Pages of RAWA, accessed on December 1, 2019.</ref> but as the drifting continued became clear that a more flexible means was necessitated. | |||
This led to the construction of the [[maglev]] system, a set of trams and stations, with only cabling (which was flexible, and easily replaceable) needed for connection. | |||
== | ==Gehn's influence== | ||
[[ | Having grown up during the [[fall of D'ni]], Gehn was obsessed with the concept of reviving its traditions and practices no matter the cost. Because of this, several of Gehn's ages, including his [[Age 37|Thirty-Seventh Age]] and Riven, were used as training grounds to teach book-worlders the [[Regestoy|Art]]. Gehn had already established the skeleton of a '[[Guild of Writers]]' on Riven, teaching Rivenese natives (most notably [[Catherine]]) how to write in [[D'ni language|D'ni]] and construct Ages of their own. | ||
During the battle with Atrus, Catherine wrote [[Riven daggers|five giant daggers]] into the Age which fell on the island and remained ever since (one fell on Gehn's temple). The shape of the one found near the [[Star Fissure]] was adopted by the Moiety as their symbol. Other daggers could be found in the Jungle and the Plateau Island. Upon being banished to Riven by his own son, Gehn proceeded to take his place as a god amongst the Rivenese people and began shaping and constructing the age to his own liking. While he was successful in achieving a position of godly power, he managed it only by way of terror and brute force. Petroglyphs and inscriptions around the age give evidence of this. | |||
===Riven's collapse=== | |||
Among the numerous instabilities of Riven were "the structure of the tectonic plates beneath the planet's crust, the type and strength of the oceanic currents, fluctuations in gravitational fields, and the composition of the crust..."<ref>[[Book of Atrus]], chapter 21, paperback edition p. 352–353</ref> The world's moon was also in a low enough orbit that great tides would eventually drown the island, and in the long run the two bodies would collide. The most severe flaws were corrected by Atrus temporarily, but his fixes began to fail around the time of Catherine's return and captivity. | |||
The final demise of Riven came about upon the reopening of the star fissure. Atrus had been keeping the Age together with his writing and let it die when the people of Riven were evacuated to [[Tay]]. The Age began to collapse at last, exacerbated by the fissure's pull. | |||
Remnants of Riven can be found near the [[Cleft]], having fallen through the Star Fissure. | |||
==External links== | ==External links== |