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=== | ||
When the main island of Riven broke apart, bridges were built to connect the new islands. (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> However, the islands continued to drift and so the bridges kept breaking and had to be repaired. Gehn's solution was to replace the bridges with a [[maglev]] system. The maglev was a tram-like vehicle which ran suspended from a pair of metal cables which it levitated over. The cables were flexible and could be replaced and expanded more easily than the bridges. By the time of Riven's collapse, only the bridge connecting [[Temple Island]] to [[Book Assembly Island]] remained, as these two islands hadn't drifted as far from each other. | When the main island of Riven broke apart, bridges were built to connect the new islands. (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> However, the islands continued to drift and so the bridges kept breaking and had to be repaired. Gehn's solution was to replace the bridges with a [[maglev]] system. The maglev was a tram-like vehicle which ran suspended from a pair of metal cables which it levitated over. The cables were flexible and could be replaced and expanded more easily than the bridges. By the time of Riven's collapse, only the bridge connecting [[Temple Island]] to [[Book Assembly Island]] remained, as these two islands hadn't drifted as far from each other. | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
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[[Gehn]] grew up during the [[fall of D'ni]] and spent his adult life obsessed with the idea of reviving the culture and traditions of his people. With no [[D'ni (race)|D'ni people]] to teach him, Gehn was left with a twisted idea of what D'ni culture meant. Gehn's method of Writing involved copying and pasting from other [[book]]s, which resulted in [[Age]]s that were unstable. He believed that the Ages written in Descriptive Books were Created by the writer, which made the writer God, and that he therefore had the authority to do whatever he wanted with his own Ages and their inhabitants. | [[Gehn]] grew up during the [[fall of D'ni]] and spent his adult life obsessed with the idea of reviving the culture and traditions of his people. With no [[D'ni (race)|D'ni people]] to teach him, Gehn was left with a twisted idea of what D'ni culture meant. Gehn's method of Writing involved copying and pasting from other [[book]]s, which resulted in [[Age]]s that were unstable. He believed that the Ages written in Descriptive Books were Created by the writer, which made the writer God, and that he therefore had the authority to do whatever he wanted with his own Ages and their inhabitants. | ||
Several of Gehn's ages such as Riven and his [[Age 37|Thirty-seventh Age]] served as training grounds for Gehn to teach non D'ni the [[Art]]. Prior to his imprisonment on Riven, Gehn had already established a skeleton of a '[[Guild of Writers]]', teaching [[Rivenese]] natives how to write in [[D'ni language|D'ni]], and construct Ages. His most notable student was [[Catherine]], who quickly excelled beyond what Gehn could teach her. | |||
===The Battle at the Fissure=== | ===The Battle at the Fissure=== | ||
During the battle with his son [[Atrus]], Catherine wrote [[Riven daggers|five giant daggers]] into the Age in order to create enough chaos for Atrus to safely escape. The daggers would remain until Riven's final days, and one of them became [[Moiety dagger|the symbol]] of resistance against Gehn. As a consequence of the changes Catherine made to the Riven Descriptive Book, the [[Star Fissure]] appeared on what later became [[Temple Island]]. The Star Fissure was a rift between Ages, and likely was a manifestation of Riven's instabilities. Atrus successfully trapped Gehn on Riven by flinging the last linking book on the island into the fissure. The Age of Riven was always unstable and doomed to die, but the Star Fissure hastened the Age's inevitable collapse. | |||
===Gehn's Banishment=== | ===Gehn's Banishment=== | ||
Once trapped on Riven, Gehn took his place as God of the Rivenese people. He reshaped the Age to his own ends | Once trapped on Riven, Gehn took his place as God of the Rivenese people. He reshaped the Age to his own ends. Gehn spent many years re-creating the Art, and mobilizing Riven's resources to create [[book]]s and [[ink]]. He ruled the Age by way of terror and brute force, but a group of Rivenese who had witnessed the battle at the Fissure formed a group called the [[Moiety]] to fight back. Thus, the Rivenese people became divided into those who followed Gehn, and those who resisted. | ||
===The Collapse of Riven=== | ===The Collapse of Riven=== | ||
Riven was doomed to collapse before Gehn ever set foot on it, because the Descriptive Book contained too many contradictions. 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> Riven's moon had an orbit low enough that great tides would eventually drown the island. Ultimately the moon would collide with the planet. Atrus wrote corrections into the Descriptive Book which corrected the most severe flaws temporarily, but his fixes began to fail around the time of Catherine's return to Riven. | Riven was doomed to collapse before Gehn ever set foot on it, because the Descriptive Book contained too many contradictions. 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> Riven's moon had an orbit low enough that great tides would eventually drown the island. Ultimately the moon would collide with the planet. Atrus wrote corrections into the Descriptive Book which corrected the most severe flaws temporarily, but his fixes began to fail around the time of Catherine's return to Riven. | ||
The [[Star Fissure]] accelerated the age's collapse. In its final years, the island split into five separate islands and began drifting further and further apart. The final demise of Riven came when the Star Fissure was re-opened. The entire age | The [[Star Fissure]] accelerated the age's collapse. In its final years, the island split into five separate islands and began drifting further and further apart. The final demise of Riven came when the Star Fissure was re-opened. The entire age collapsed into the void between ages, although parts of Riven eventually made their way to [[Earth]], and can be found near the [[Cleft]]. Catherine succeeded in relocating the people of Riven to [[Tay]] before the collapse. | ||
==External links== | ==External links== |