Wingrovism

A wingrovism (or wingroveism) is a misleading or entirely inaccurate passage in one of the Myst novels. The term has been coined after the last name of the books' editor, David Wingrove, who allegedly inserted such passages in an effort to make the books more appealing to a broader audience to the genre as a whole, rather than fans of the Myst Universe in particular.

Some known Wingrovisms

Cleft location

In some cases, wingrovisms have actually served to confuse fans in an arguably beneficial manner, in heightening the intrigue – perhaps even deliberately so. For example, based on the books' descriptions, most had assumed the Cleft (and therefore, the Lodge, the volcano as well as the D'ni caverns) to reside in the Middle East (i.e., in the north east of Africa, or the south west of Asia), when in fact Uru's rendition of the Cleft revealed it to be in a county of the United States, in North America.

Requirements for writing a Linking Book

The novels insinuate that, in order to write a Linking Book, knowledge of the Age's Descriptive Book is required. In fact, the only requirement is for the linking book to be written at the location it is meant to point to.

Cavern description

Features of the Cavern, such as the stalagmite in the middle of Tokotah Courtyard and the Arch of Kerath are described as larger and taller than they appear in Uru. The Arc of Kerath is also depicted with a different shape.

D'ni language

In The Book of Ti'ana, a character uses the interrogative particle: "thoe kenem?" ("how are you?"); this is believed to actually be a variant spelling of "dho".