To this day one of the best game series I have ever played.

Ah, I was just looking for some videos about Myst, and this is exactly what I wanted! Great job, looking forward to later videos! *puts on nerd glasses* A little more detail about what happened on Age 37, for anyone who is interested: Gehn altered the Age 37 book to get rid of the white mist, and then when his changes screwed up the world he basically just went back and deleted what he'd written. So when Atrus goes back to Age 37, it at first appears like everything is fine and Gehn really did fix the problem. But then Atrus runs into a friend there, and he realizes that the guy has no clue who he is and also no longer speaks D'ni; also, all the buildings that had been built specifically for Gehn are gone. What this means is that Atrus linked into a new parallel version of Age 37, one which he & Gehn had never visited before -- meaning that the "original" Age 37 with all the people they knew was still out there, still messed up, and there was no way to get back to it. Gehn's act of "deleting" something he'd written didn't fix the age, it only broke the original link and set up a new link to a different, almost identical universe. Basically, Gehn pulled a Rick & Morty, jumping to a parallel universe version of Age 37 once the original version became too messed up to fix. Though of course, unlike Rick, Gehn did this on accident because he doesn't know what he's doing. Anyway, this whole incident is important in the story because it finally confirms to Atrus that the books don't create worlds but rather link to pre-existing universes, which kinda pokes a big hole in his dad's whole "WE ARE GODS!!!" ideology. *takes off nerd glasses and flies off into the night*

Would love to see lore videos on individual Ages like Channelwood for instance explaining the background history and speculation theories etc. Also periods in D'ni history and various theories on the lore like the prophecies and the other Ages of the Ronay.

Myst would have to be the most intriguing series i have ever played. Such brilliant production.

After all the interest you got on the great Myst subreddit, it’s brilliant to see your project come to fruition. Can’t wait to see what comes next, well done man!

Just found the video and I need to say, Thank you. I grew up reading the books and playing the games and just seeing this, makes me want to play the games again.

I just started Myst 4 and it's great to find a so well explained lore video uploaded a day ago, for a 20 years old saga. Good job!

This was a great summary of the backstory for those who haven't read The Book of Atrus yet. This will be a handy resource, I'm sure! Thanks for sharing.

I read The Book of Atrus back in the day after playing Myst and Riven and loved it. This video is a great breakdown of the story and, most importantly, it’s ending and how it leads into the Myst games. I particularly appreciated the choice visuals from the games the video’s creator used to illustrate the story. Very well done!

@3:16 hmm, I've heard it explained a bit differently. The way I've heard it was that the Descriptive books (that create the world) and the linking books were two entirely different things. Changes to a word can not be made while inside the world and can only be made from outside by carefully writing them into the descriptive book. There is only one descriptive book for any given age and given their importance are generally kept somewhere safe. Linking books on the other hand don't have to describe the entire world as that part has already been done in the descriptive book so the Linking books only have to describe the local area that serves as the destination for the link. An age can have any number of linking books written for it and those are the books you generally find out in the open for the purposes of transportation to those other worlds or Ages as they're called. And since the linking book doesn't travel with you when you link you have to bring a linking book that links back to your world of origin with you otherwise you'd be stuck in that world you linked to with no way back if there isn't already a linking book there. For example. The red and blue books that Atrus destroyed at the end of Myst were just linking books not the descriptive books for those ages. That's why his sons didn't actually die. Destroying a linking book doesn't destroy the world it linked to. Tearing pages out was just a way of making sure no one else could accidently free them by linking in since those ages were written to only allow one occupant at a time to serve as a prison.

This is awesome! As someone who grew up playing riven and myst, I appreciate the time you took to go into the lore here. Shorah!

Thank you!!! I've played Myst literally many many years ago and I missed that entire series.

This is absolutely rad and you're doing a great job. Thank you and please don't stop.

I just started reading the book of Atrus...and I almost cried when his cat died :'( It's not even a key moment in the book...but it was like...Chapter 2, and I was almost in tears lol

by the way, i've been wanting a video like this forever, the worldbuilding is INCREDIBLE in this series, it needs a film series treatment

hey this is super good i can’t wait to see more

Thank you thank you for the explanation! I've been so curious about the series.

When I saw the in-game cursor on the screen at around 8:07 I can't even pretend that I didn't click my mouse button. These games inhabit a large part of my brain.

Oh this brings back memories. I loved playing these games. I really immersed myself in the experience 😊

Awesome work, loved the video.

"If I MYST anything" lololololol

Great video! Thanks.

Seeing these images.. I can hear my hard drive spinning up in my old gateway ...when mice use to click loudly

Excellent

Awesome stuff!

God i love retrospectives and deep dives. I simple wouldn't play Myst since its not my type of gameplay but love to hear about it since plenty people talked so highly of it.

I wish The Book of Marrim will be completed one day...

i had to sub after finding this video, i didn't play them yet i watched a coupe of LT's because i just discovered this series. got me curious about the books since they are nowhere to find. this game has a great story

This video is dope

This was beautifully read. thanks

A major problem with your description here is that you fail to distinguish between Linking Books and Descriptive Books. Linking Books can only link to Ages. They cannot make changes in the Age. Only Descriptive Books can change the Age. Every Age has one and only one Descriptive Book while it may have any number of Linking Books. In order for Atrus to be able to repair Riven on K'Veer, he must have Riven's Descriptive Book. (which probably says "Age 5 by Ghen" on the cover or something like that) One thing which still puzzles me about the Art is what exactly the limitations are on who can make Linking Books to where. It must be possible to make Linking Books to Ages without having direct access to the Descriptive Book of that Age because Ghen writes Linking Books back to Riven from Age 233 despite not having the Descriptive Book of Riven and Atrus writes Linking Books back to D'Ni despite not having the Descriptive Book of D'Ni. I guess a sufficiently advanced practitioner of The Art must somehow be able to write Linking Books back to their current location no matter where they are.

Thanks for this recap. I read the Book of Atrus over a year ago and am just now starting Tiana, so I needed this to remember what happened!!

The plot of the Myst series is extremely implausible, especially how Atrus and his sons supposedly built many of the structures in his ages. Nonetheless, I have respect for the series because if you played Myst and Riven in the 90s/early 2000s, it was a truly haunting and unforgettable experience.

I loved Myst and Riven. Great times in high school.

I think I was 7 or 8 when this came out. I was a heavy reader and it became an obsession until I gave up like 75% into it. This game gave me the foundation for my problem solving skills in life

Thanks much!

Thank you

I am astonished I didn't realize riven was a prequel.

10:15 Catherine steals Riven's Descriptive Book, not Linking Book

Subbed

Thank you thank you thank you!! I know it has been a while but maybe, if you checked back on this, I would dare to ask you (or anyone who is watching this) for a piece of advice: Where could one find good looking, good running versions of the series for the RaspberryPie 4..? Hints would be highly cherished.

I'm a huge Myst/Riven fan who has basic knowledge of the lore and characters, but the pace was a little too quick and hard to follow.

I've played 1 and 4 and I honestly couldn't get past the first island much less the first puzzle even from a young age

Finished the original when it came out Just started the iOS port of realMyst a great port

I think the only thing that could have been explained better was the true nature of "the Art." A pivotal moment in the book of Atrus is when he discovers that Gehn is wrong about the Art, that writers of linking books are not creators of worlds but merely forging links to one of infinitely many preexisting worlds (on other words, anything one *can* write *does* exist somewhere in time and space). Other than that, great explaination!

Any spoilers in the books? Do you recommend playing all the MYST games before reading the MYST trilogy The Book of Atrus, The Book of Ti'ana, The Book of D'ni ?

I have all three of those books! Great read!

I have never play the games but read the first book and part of the second... Now I want to read all of them but I don't know if I should play the games before. What do you recommend?

I already finished most myst games except Revelations although I was at the ending of myst 4 but stop due to marble color puzzle.

There is a point difference between casual and hardcore fans: was it worth making so much lore around the simple idea of books showing readers new worlds? Myst 1 and 3 appeal to people who answer no

The games would find more new fans if the story was told in order and if it was told more visually and less text heavy. But of course that would require to completely restructure the games and who'd want that. It's unfortunate.

After playing through the game for a second time, the first being the OG and the second through the remake, I do still have one thing that confuses me- How is a Linking Book created? Can the book that describes an Age also act as a Linking Book, with a portal in the back or front? And one final, more abstract question, if the original book describing and creating the Age is copied verbatim, does it act as a failsafe for the Age in case the original book is destroyed by a couple of brothers who clearly weren't beaten enough as kids, or does it create a copy of the Age?

More please.

Hey what's that Myst Island render shown at 1:24??

Im trying to play myst on a ps1 emulator its just so slow. Is that normal for the ps1 version? Other games run fast

did you see they're building myst from the ground up?

14:10 I see what you did there...

Why would Ghen imprison Atrus and leave a linking book with him? It makes no sense.

Part2?

I thought Myst was some lame puzzle game, but after learning that it's about being a world crafting god, it sounds a lot more interesting.

You lost me as soon as you started talking about Ghen and the D'ni "creating" Ages. Isn't a major plot point of the first book (and the entire series) that linking books connect to pre-existing worlds?

Sorry I found your video hard to follow because most of the visuals don't match what you're saying throughout.

Played Myst for about 10 minutes as a kid before going back to Doom or whatever. Was always curious what I might have missed. Now I realize it was a pile of poop I missed stepping on.