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Devokan Trust

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The Devokan Trust was a complex, vast fan-run IC/OOC story parallel to that of the DRC, with Ages across the Metaverse outside MOUL. There were many characters (e.g. Quinquifid Oddenfen, Dot Macchi) and many areas (e.g. Devokan Island in SL, Devokan hood and Serene in MOUL, Devokan Waysmeet in OSgrid).[1]

The origin of the Trust, whose objective was "researching and restoring what was lost", can be traced to the shutdown of GameTap's Uru Live on April 2008. Soon after, a project called MORE was announced to bring back the Cavern, but by October it was already cancelled[2]. Following Yeesha's word from her last visit: "you must make a home", in June 2009 the beginning of the story, the "Lockhouse code quest", was posted on the Guild of Maintainers' forum, based on Second Life.[3]

The story continued to expand, with a momentary pause when MOULa opened in February 2010, but soon after the story continued, and a few Ages were released for offline play. Other Ages were opened on Kitely, and by 2013 there were regular storytelling gatherings.[4] The last recorded status is from 2015.[5]

Characters

Dot Macchi (IC): present-day member of the Guild of Maintainers. When the Cavern closed she was involved (as part of GoMa mission 'To protect and serve the Community') in supporting explorers' attempts to 'find a way, make a home' in other worlds. This included two areas in There (Camp Bravo and other Ages in Tyr, Eder Devokan in a mountainous area on NW Aurora). She also set up another outpost for GoMa in Second Life, originally on Devokan Island.

Quinquifid "Quin" Oddenfen (IC): steampunk-era scientist, engineer and explorer. A bit of a loner, he turned up at Devokan Island at roughly the same time as Dot to claim Oddenfen Cottage/House, left to him by his late Aunt Elspeth. Elspeth's will mentions certain responsibilities yet to be carried out (e.g. setting up a foundation for researching and restoring 'lost pages').

Elspeth Quintessence (deceased) (IC): a lady explorer of the early steampunk era; lived for years among the cultures and civilisations she discovered. Quin took delivery of her journals, and occasionally drip fed ideas and facts from them.

Paislee Myrtle (IC): an original inhabitant of the village on Devokan Island, from the same era as Quinquifid. Looked after Quin's Aunt Elspeth in her latter years, and remembers some of the stories she told of her past life. (OOC, the main architect behind the Devokan areas).

Nalates Urriah (IC): future-era warrior who enjoyed the peace and serenity of Devokan Island in between battles. Her advanced technology was instrumental in tracing back to the source world (OOC: OSgrid) of the mysterious glowing spheres.

Other present-day Uru explorers involved at various times are: Ametist, Lightkeeper, Fax Paladin, Holli, Artair, DMom, Jim, Andy Legate, Mat, and others.

Places

Many of the following locations, except those for (offline) Uru, are no longer available or moved to other platforms.

Devokan Island(s) (SL): where the story started. Currently destroyed. An island chain, with a medieval/victorian/steampunk rural village on the main island and a tree village to the north (Channelwood-inspired). The mysterious glowing spheres transferred the essence of the tree village to another world before the island chain's home planet was knocked out of orbit by some of Nalates' colleagues so that it fell into its sun.

Devokan Eve and Devokan Keepsafe (Winterfell Reverie, SL): where Paislee, Dot, Jim and Quin have made new homes after Devokan's planet burned up. DMom set up an office for the D'ni Voice in the Keepsafe, meant to facilitate and encourage cross-world explorations.

Devokan hood (Uru Live): former representation in the Cavern.

Devokan Waysmeet (OSgrid): where the essence of the tree village was transferred to and made manifest by the mysterious glowing spheres (exactly how is unknown). The GoMa place was in this region, but (IC) regarded as a separate Age.

Devokan Deepwater (OSgrid): the source of the mysterious glowing spheres, adjacent to Waysmeet. A serene island of ancient ritual, with a small underground cave area.

Devokan Skysong (OSgrid): mountainous island above which Quin had his skylab.

Devokan Touchstone (OSgrid): island adjacent to Skysong, which mirrors the terrain of the original Devokan Island.

Camp Bravo (Uru): GoMa's training ground for aspirant Maintainers.

Ahra Pahts Shell 415 (Uru): the main hub for the Trust's Ages (on Uru). Four journals, by Quin and Dot, cover the story from 2010 to 2011. One building contains a floating globe, while another has a locked mechanism to host linking books to Neolbah, Serene and Skysong.

Skysong (Uru): Quin's skylab, with a journal from his aunt Elspeth.

Serene (Uru/Uru Live): a snowy forest location, permanently changed by Quin's edits to the Descriptive Book.

Neolbah (Uru): the Trust's office in the Cavern, a circular room with a few doors (not all of them accessible) and a corridor to the Cavern (blocked by a rock collapse). A journal by Quin outlines the 2010 events before those in Shell 415.

Eder Tomahn (Uru): a way station along the Great Shaft, with a small pub. An abandoned cellphone holds four recordings from Andy Legate.

The Lost Stonehenge (Uru): not strictly a Trust Age, but a journal notes that the crystals in there have strong similarities with those found in Devokan.

References

  1. Dot, "Devokan: story discussions (IC/OOC)", OpenUru forums, March 4, 2010.
  2. Chogon, "MORE Urulive status - Strange times.", Myst Online forums, October 7, 2008.
  3. Alexstrana, "!!Operation Lockhouse Code!! Possible Spoilers", Guild of Maintainers forums, June 25, 2009. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016.
  4. Danko Whitfield, "The Devokan Trust", Journey To The Center Of The Metaverse, April 4, 2013.
  5. Ainia, "Myst mods for other games", Myst Online forums, June 19, 2015.