the Myst novels

The third Myst novel, the Book of D'Ni, jumps forward in the story grand. This novel is the end of the story grand, its events taking place after both Myst and Riven. In it Atrus and Catherine return to D'Ni to rebuild the old culture. The return to the grand cavern and begin searching for linking books to the old ages of D'Ni and searching for survivors. There are two oblique references to the stories in the games (enough to note them, but not give anything away). Atrus remembers his sons, but that is all that is mentioned, and he also remembers how he was captured by Gehn and held captive. These references allude to the fact that he has successfully moved through those portions of his life (meaning that you the reader have successfully won the games as it were and that you're getting an abstract biographical reference within the narrative). We then follow Atrus as he begins to slowly discover survivors in the old ages, there are many ages that are empty of life or they find skeletal remains, but eventually, they do begin to find worlds inhabited by old D'ni and their offspring. Atrus meets with these people and asks them to return to D'Ni to help rebuild the old culture. Many accept his request and the task before the group is to slowly piece back together the spaces and rituals of the D'Ni culture.

They soon discover a hidden chamber that was sealed beneath a floor and then sealed off in sections with ancient books in an ancient script. Atrus, ever careful and patient, slowly makes sure everything is safe and moves forward with the exploration of the new chambers and the books therein. Many of the D'Ni mention the old legends of the Great King and how this must be from his reign, which has long been lost to the ages. Some express suspicion that if their ancestors saw fit to seal all of this away, then all of it was best left be. In the end, Atrus decides to explore and see what he can learn from all of this. After slowly deciphering the old script, they all decide to try to link to one of these ancient ages. Atrus goes and finds more sealed off chambers, and after much careful testing, they break the seals in this age and begin to explore this ancient world.

At first it seems to be a dead world, long since faded, but as they explore, they find a huge cliff and on the other side, they see a beautiful and abundant world with large buildings in the distance, a world of wonders before their eyes. They lower themselves down the cliff and carefully begin to go towards the nearest building. Eventually they run into a man on a boat. He asks them if he see them? After this odd question, Atrus introduces himself as from D'Ni. The stranger asks if it's Ro'D'Ni and Atrus agrees, and the man welcomes them to his world.

It turns out that they are in a world called Terahnee. They are welcomed in by the Ro’Jethhe family and their presence causes quite a stir. The local governor and then the King of all of Terahnee take interest in Atrus and company. While they visit and slowly get in more and more formal circles, they are exposed to an unbelievably opulent and abundant culture. Everything is picture perfect and beautiful beyond description, the art and ideas are superlative, everyone seems intelligent and considerate. It begins to seem to good to be true for Atrus, Catherine and company. Even with this sense, they cannot seemto find any faults with this culture. Everything seems peacefully perfect. They attend dinners with the Governor and through him receive invitations from the King, so preparations are made for the journey to the King. Atrus sends one of the group back to D’Ni to let the rest know what is happening, and they begin to travel across this rich land.

On their travels, they stop at the Governor’s mansion and play a game in a moving maze. One would enter a room and have thirty seconds to decide which exit to choose before being trapped in the room, and the hitch is the rooms moved up and down and around, so you had to be physically and mentally quick to make it through the maze. They then travel on and meet the King, where they are greeted like royalty, and Atrus and Catherine decide to ask if all of D’Ni can stay in Terahnee. The King agrees to the request, so they prepare to return to the linking book and bring everyone here. On the way back they finally discover the dirty secret of Terahnee. Atrus gets into a riddle game with one of the locals about those who are seen and those who are unseen. It slowly dawns on Atrus and company that the unseen are slaves with no rights whatsoever. Both Terahnee and D’Ni write linking books, and it is made apparent that the Terahnee consider anyone from these other worlds to be unseen and salves to treat as they see fit. And once the Terahnee discover that Atrus and company are from other worlds, they hold them captive. During this captivity, one Terahnee, Eedrah, comes to Atrus and takes him belowground to the intricate caverns where the unseen live and perform their duties. Atrus gets introduced to Hersha, the leader of the unseen, and sees how poorly they are treated by the Terahnee. He decides that instead of fleeing and trying to escape, he will stay and try to help change the Terahnee culture.

But before he can, a plague starts spreading across the land. It kills people quickly and some survive. Many of the slaves survive because they have been inoculated, but most of the Terahnee die. Atrus and the D'Ni try to find a cure and soon discover that the plague was caused by a bacteria brought with the D'Ni, harmless to them, but devastating to the Terahnee. Much is made of past prophecies and how they are finally coming true. Atrus resists this idea as unscientific. At the same time, the slaves begin an active revolt. They start to organize and kill their masters. Atrus, with the help of Eedrah and Hersha, tries to moderate the revolt and temper the angers so that they can have less killing and more constructive rebuilding of the culture. Some go along with the more peaceful solutions, others splinter off, intent on killing and exacting revenge. Atrus writes up a new code of law and begins to try and help the slaves start a new culture and society. Some of the Teranhee bring an army from other ages to put down the revolt. Atrus helps organize the slaves around those who were most angry, letting their anger help secure the revolution, but these slaves turn on Atrus, trying to start a counter revolution. It fails internally as the leader is killed and thus the energy behind the counter revolution dies.

Atrus then sets about writing two new ages, one for the slaves to rebuild their lives, and one for the D'Ni to build theirs anew. They seal all the old books away again, severing the links between the worlds. And the two new cultures are set to begin their new growth. The book ends with Catherine talking of the prophecies and how they did come true, and how those who wrote them wrote magically like the D'Ni and the Teranhee wrote the physical ages, but these prophecies were written for the ages and across the ages, showing how the wrongs would be set right by Atrus and his actions, and so the story grand of Myst ends with a new start in a new world.