Uru Blogs

We’ve been restoring and developing Ages and areas for a great many years now, and to finally have something released to the public (internal release to members of The Third Path doesn’t count) feels great.

Tochoortahv was finally released to the public today. The plans for the Imager in the Age have fallen through for now, Sophie and her team tried to get it sorted out but it seems it will take a lot longer than expected and neither of us wanted to delay the release any more than it already had.

There is enough there to give people a decent step up for learning to Write anyway, between the books and the Linking books there to provide examples.

Decided to put the Ri’neref painting up in the Age to take the place of the Imager, seemed to make sense to me giving how Ri’neref was considered to be one of the best D’ni writers.

To the Age has been released, for those of you who would like to obtain a Linking Book, you can order one through our Order page

We’ve also moved the forums over to Beneath once again (we apologize for the forums shifting around so much) so that explorers can report any issues that may arise, a sepecific topic has been set up for Tochoortahv which can be found here: Tochoortahv Topic.

Headed into Ae’gura on Monday, I have been doing some simple studies on D’ni architecture for future Age restoration & development projects. As we were routing through the museum we discovered a portrait of King Ri’neref.
We couldn’t locate any documentation on who it was painted by, it had some minor damage to the frame and canvas, and some of the paint hadn’t Aged as well as later paintings we have found (perhaps paint mixtures improved as time went on).
I had it moved over to the room above the D’ni Jazz Club Pub that I have been using as a makeshift office for now so that I could work on improving the quality of it somewhat.

Finished up the work late lastnight, took a while for it to dry out (some area’s still need drying), but for the most part it’s almost ready to hang, not sure whether to put it up in the museum to replace the broken painting there or store it for hanging elsewhere.

It’s a shame the DRC didn’t release more information about D’ni art.

This message is for Ghaelen D’Lareh. Ms. D’Lareh, this is Troiana at Dr. Rugalin’s office. I’m calling to remind you of your appointment tomorrow at 1:45pm. Please remember to avoid eating, smoking, or drinking coffee or alcohol for twelve hours before your appointment. If you cannot make this appointment, please call us at least twenty-four hours in advance.

Patience is a virtue. Whoever wrote that never had to wait and wait I would suspect. Patience is ok when you know or even have a chance of something at the end. Say like trout fishing in a lake full of live food. Dryfly just won’t cut it but you try anyway as there is the possibility of a catch.
Ok I can still get to Relto and all the ages that I have already been to but to be alone forever. No, I would pack it all in first, burn my Relto book and be done with it. Yeah right!
But the longer things drag on the worse it is going to get. Apathy for the restoration is rife. Mind you I would imagine the restoration of D’ni is well good and buried. I hope I am wrong. I truly believe there are plenty more like minded people out there that have no idea D’ni exists. Ok I don’t want to see graffiti anywhere but it needs more publicity. We need to force some change. Force who though, who is stopping the instancing really? - The Bahro, Yeesha or the DRC with some technology found on some far off land and if so for what purpose? It is all a mystery. We need a change in the status quo. No not five band members.
Breathe....Szark......breathe...........

Back to reality for a moment: Trying to figure out how to write a descriptive linking book is proving to be a great challenge. Not for the faint hearted. I see it as a lucky dip. You make sure you don’t have any contradictions and obviously stable but at the end of the day where you link to is totally arbitrary. Also what you write is not always what you see. I will definitely have to dust off that maintainer’s suit I obtained sometime back, can’t be too careful.

Another month another paper! It is getting harder and harder to find news. Yes I see a lot of ages being written but until they are finished, so we can have a gander, we can’t review much. Mind you we haven’t reviewed any ages at all. We were hoping that the GoMa would make their findings public and give us their reviews. It would have also been great to get an explorer’s point-of-view when they finally get the linking book. It would have to be an honest review and not a pat on the head for the writer though.

Not much news coming from the DRC either in fact they have been more quiet than normal, if that is possible. Only joking guys.

Apart from the paper and news feed my guild work is nonexistent. Actually I don’t think anyone is doing any guild work at all when I come to think about it. Mind you I suppose there is not much to do.

In the mean time I have some experiments to finish up in Fens and some more domestic duties to take care off. Now where did I put that hydraulic excavator?

My previous piece titled “The Fallen Lord” had inadvertently spawned a series of paintings which I decided to call “Harbingers”. I have finally finished the second in the series of four which is called The Story Teller.

Whilst I don’t really blame Ti’ana for the fall of D’ni, the Harbingers series depicts those who had significant impact on the events that transpired.

Turned out a little more morbid/darker than I had expected.

I’m still patiently awaiting the re-opening of The Cavern. No one seems to have heard a word from any of the remaining DRC members, they’ve been gone for a while. As the wait continues, I’msimply relaxing in my home in California. I frequently check out websites to see if there’s any news regarding the Cavern’s opening, yet I just see mostly old news. I also have no way of going to the cavern alone, no linking books, no transportation to New Mexico, nothing. I lost my Relto book I believe the last few weeks of the Cavern’s public opening. There’s of course, plenty of others with access to the Cavern still via Relto, I must find a way to go back though.

But I know we’ll be back soon, it’s just a matter of when exactly.

I’m still waiting.

Delayed my trip back down by a day seeming we had a lot of stuff to move on the surface.

First thing I did upon arriving in Tehren was to stop by Tochoortahv and see how the work was progressing. I must admit I was astonished in what had happened in a few days, the room is completely finished. We still have a few things to bring in, all the documentation we have is being assembled and is almost ready to go, Sophie’s had some issues with the imager which has delayed it slightly. But the 3 Ages; Tailehn, Orth and Artas are ready and waiting for the Book pedestals to be brought into the Age so they can be placed upon them.

Finally got around to adding a project page for the Age yesterday which can be found here: Tochoortahv Project Page

I think the Age is almost ready for Phase 5, might hand out a few links to some folks in the Cavern like Whil and all, before initiating a wider release.

Will have to have a meeting with the others before doing that, see if they’d rather everything be in place before limited release or to hand out books as it is currently.

Despite the fact that I've been busy for quite a while I am pleased to state that I have made a good amount of progress on the project. I don't feel like giving too much of the nature of the project away but I can say that I have finished first few pages after the intro. If anyone is actually reading this blog then wish me luck.

Jevasi

Returned to the surface earlier this week, we’ve been working on moving house and after things being dragged out we finally got the house and have been working at moving in whilst the kids are away.

Will be taking a quick trip back down to the Cavern tomorrow to just check over some of the projects that are in the works.

Hopefully by the weekend most of the moving will be done and I can return to the cavern for an extended time period.

Wow! Is it been that long? Home life has kept me busy. Spring is always a busy time in the garden. Maintaining a house, need I say more?

Life is heading in another direction, no longer interested in Guild affairs, just in the news-flow and newspaper, has released some self imposed stress. I have now started the long process of deciphering and learning the ancient D’ni art of writing descriptive linking books. I have been drawn into the possibilities, well in the fact that they are endless. I am not that that good with languages, ok absolutely terrible but concepts and logic is another matter. So maybe I have a chance in writing a stable link to a stable age. This is where I feel patience will pay off. Gehn shows how it shouldn’t be done. So I must approach this with caution, learn as much as I can to start off with. Once I feel I have enough information I will start writing my first descriptive linking book. I see this is going to be the biggest challenge to date, soil composition, air quality, dynamic forces and so on to learn about. At least I have a rudimentary understanding on how our planet works. Which I suppose is a good place to start; I wouldn’t want to have a non-breathable atmosphere. But I will be relying on my guild siblings, yes the Guild of Writers over the coming months, years. Recently I meet a writer that just lives a few hours from me. I won’t mention his name as I may have to kidnap him to relieve him of his valuable knowledge. He is safe for a couple of weeks as he has just left the country, but “he’ll be back”. Mawhahahahaha

...........only joking Bob.

I feel my spirits lifting as I encroach into this new tangent of D’ni history, maybe I find something interesting or maybe something interesting finds me. I feel life may never be the same, on the side of good that is. Always looking forward and never behind but always remembering what has come to pass, lest we forget the mistakes of the past.

More and more explorers are turning to The Art, hoping to craft their own Linking Books, others are looking for the resources to learn how to Write.

It’s a long process, even more so for those who had to scour the ruins of D’ni looking for information, piecing together fragments of documents and, at times, just guessing what certain Garohevtee do.

It’s a topic that comes up frequently in the TTP meetings. It was in one of these meetings that Keira raised an interesting concept, a location with documentation and help for learning how to Write. She suggested a place where people could come and find documents on how to start out with Age writing, guiding them through what we know (sketchy at best) about the Garohevtee, there they could see examples or lesson Ages.
Sophie suggested perhaps having recordings there that people could watch and listen to that could also help explain the concepts listed in the documents.

An excellent idea.

We spent the afternoon discussing it, it would only need to be a small location. It was an unamanous vote, all 5 of us wanted to go ahead with it so Keira and Sophie have set up preparations for the project to go ahead.

I have been pursuing a particularly interesting lead for about a week now and am proud to say that it has finally panned out. After numerous persistent attempts I finally managed to get in contact with the operations leader of my new benefactors and, after a brief conversation, was able to get permission to work in collaboration with them on an interesting albiet nonprofit task. I will be cataloging the story of their previous experiences in the cavern in comic format, don't think I could have asked for a better job. Not to mention the fact that when I do get back to the cavern I should have some nice connections.

Jevasi

Today while I was having some photos taken in preparation for graduation I learned that my eyes seem to be more sensitive to light then normal. Of course the reason for this is really quite mundane, nothing as extravagant as me being a descendant of the D'ni, it's simply the fact that for the past two years I've been wearing glasses with Transitions lenses. They seem to have been preventing my eyes from experiencing direct sunlight keeping me seeing in dim conditions.
Also if anyone's interested here is one of the few pictures taken without the aforementioned glasses.Jevasi

What an arduous time this past year has been.
Thinking back it seemed like a veritable eternity since we had to leave the cavern when the DRC lost its funding. I remember how difficult it felt leaving behind all that I had experienced in D'ni; the people, the ages, and the things I learned, Just to return to a "normal" life on the surface. It was like I had lost an essential part of who I am and, despite my best attempts to move on with my life, I still cant help feeling that I'm missing something big.
However now things are changing, nothing solid or concrete though just rumors and rumblings of things going on beneath the surface. Hints that our exodus may soon be over and of a return to our cavern home.
Yet sometimes I consider myself a fool for putting such stock in such inconsequential rumors and hopes. If a man is told of a magic portal beneath a bridge it is more likely that he will end up neck deep in ice cold water then in a magical land. Despite what logic has to say though, I feel the need to return to D'ni.
I believe that I am truly feeling the call.

Jevasi

I've done as much editing the format of this blog as I likely ever will, and it looks really nice if I do say so myself. It feels good to have this part of the work out of the way.

Jevasi

Well despite numerous challenges I finally got this blog up and running. Strange that it took me this long considering that I'm usually tech savvy, still not sure about the theme though.

Jevasi

Cyan Worlds released Myst, the game that awakened the call in me and eventually led me to D’ni, for the iPhone and the iPod touch! So I can play Myst wherever I want, and what better place there is to play Myst than Myst Island itself?

Hopefully more people will feel the call and find their way to D’ni…

The cavern is still empty for the most part… I saw that Whilyam planned to give explorers access to the outside of his office. That will be interesting.