Hi, everyone. I've been a Myst fan for a while (since 2006). However, I've only completed Myst (and realMyst), Riven, and Myst III Exile. I've also read all three novels. (I've owned all the games for some time but have never gotten around to playing them or Myst Online. So my knowledge of Myst canon is all pre Uru. I am planning on going back and going through the entire series, as well as getting involved in Uru Live, and the canon is getting confusing.


Myst 1-4 and the novels are all very easy to understand in terms of canon. But Uru seems to change the way many things are viewed, and Myst V seems to be in line with these changes. Myst Online seems almost to just be Uru with Multiplayer.

So here are my questions:

1. Is the universe of Uru/Myst Online the same as the previous 4 (or 5 if End of Ages is not part of the uru universe) games and books, or are all of those counted as actual games "in universe". While some things i've seen would indicate Uru is indeed in another "canon universe" than the main Myst series, it seems to lead into/set up things in Myst 5. This is where things get confusing. Can the Myst/Uru games be completed chronologically, or do you need to split up the Myst games from the Uru ones.

2. I've heard that the "stranger" in Myst 5 is actually Richard Watson from Uru. Does anything in Myst Online confirm this? By extension, does anything in Uru/Myst Online heavily reference things in any of the previous games?

3. Can someone explain Myst Online's place in all of this? Does it replace Uru completely (as in I should just go right to Myst Online) or does it take place after Myst 5?

4. Is Myst 5 more focused on the Uru plot, or is it actually a good end to the whole Myst/Uru series?

5. Anything else important I should know regarding the Myst canon, what order I should play them, and Myst Online would be helpful.

Anybody who could explain how the Myst canon fits together in light of Myst Online would be very helpful to me. Thanks so much!

1.Is the universe of Uru/Myst Online the same as the previous 4 (or 5 if End of Ages is not part of the uru universe) games and books, or are all of those counted as actual games "in universe". While some things i've seen would indicate Uru is indeed in another "canon universe" than the main Myst series, it seems to lead into/set up things in Myst 5. This is where things get confusing. Can the Myst/Uru games be completed chronologically, or do you need to split up the Myst games from the Uru ones.

All books and games are part of the same universe, same canon for all of them. However, Myst, Riven, Exile and Revelations mostly focus on the intimate story you already know about Atrus' family while URU and EoA adress much broader issues like the downfall, the D'ni, DRC, restoration, etc. So the thing to understand is the timeline:

Myst > Riven > EXile > Revelations > URU CC > End of Ages

The main branch of Atrus' family story is wrapped up in Revelations, URU CC happens later, and there's an imoptant key element bridging the two (i won't go over this in detail so not to spoil URU and EoA for you) , but the focus deffinitely shifts from an intimate story mostly about a family to something much bigger and wider in scope

Myst online has to be ftractured in two: The events portrayed in URU CC, so the stuff that happened right before the plot of Myst V, and the present day goings, so the stuff happening right now, after Myst V.

2.I've heard that the "stranger" in Myst 5 is actually Richard Watson from Uru. Does anything in Myst Online confirm this? By extension, does anything in Uru/Myst Online heavily reference things in any of the previous games?

Nothing in URU CC or EoA confirms this 100%, the "stranger" in Myst V can be either perceived as the same PC, the 'explorer' from URU (but definitely not the same "stranger" from Myst<-->Revelations), or DR. Watson. Things within both games do point to Dr. Watson. However, i'm under the impression that in the current iteration of Myst Online it was confirmed somwhow that the "stranger" in EoA was in fact Dr. Watson (i'm avoiding spoilers again otherwise i'd be more specific about this).

The lore is very intricated so in any game/book you'll find references to people/places/events in other games/books. I'm not sure about 'heavily' though, i'd have to check my notes. For me URU CC is definitely the traeasure trove of the series in terms of lore and backstory though.

3. Can someone explain Myst Online's place in all of this? Does it replace Uru completely (as in I should just go right to Myst Online) or does it take place after Myst 5?

I guess you can look at it this way

URU CC ( so basically the content from the original Myst Online) > Myst V > present day goings ons in Myst Online. It doesn't replace it, if anything it adds to it a bit depending on what kind of content, if any, was now introduced.

For me the best way to go probably is to play URU CC followed by Myst V and then checking out Myst Online, even because Myst Online is more geared towards player interaction with other players than necessarily with greatly expanding story or, god forbid, retcons. Off course, this means that you'd be facing a big overlap in terms of content when going into Myst Online since you had already been exposed to the lion's share of that content in URU CC.

4. Is Myst 5 more focused on the Uru plot, or is it actually a good end to the whole Myst/Uru series?

Tha kind boils down to personall opinion. I think Myst V wraps up one of the main issues brought forward in URU quite nicey but falls short when it comes to offering a proper ending to the Myst/URU series as a whole.

The plot in Myst V takes place immediately after the events of URU CC and the plot follows and wraps up one of URU's plot main threads.

5. Anything else important I should know regarding the Myst canon, what order I should play them, and Myst Online would be helpful.

Myst > Riven > EXile > Revelations > URU CC > End of Ages > Myst Online

That's ^^^^ the order i'd go with. If you want to factor in the books,

The Book of Ti'ana > The Book of Atrus > Myst > Riven > The Book of D'ni > Exile > Revelations > URU CC > EoA > Myst Online

Thanks so much! This helped me a bunch!

I'm not going to put it in Pharagraphs like Namur did, even though it was put professionally and well put. There are a few correction I would like to make even though I have been a lot closer and have paid more particurly closer to the game so bare on what they are:

1. Whatever was said about in the first question was anwsered in a correct statement, all books and games are in fact of the same universe. Cyan made sure that no books and games are a different type of universe from all together. Of course from one of there other games like "Manhole" would be a completely different universe.

2. When this question was answered for you about if the stranger was Watson, was answered partly true, you would not know one hundred percent who the stranger is. During the game when the stranger came to Myst, (it was quite simple that you had to do some calculations) that the stranger had to be in his or hers mid-twenties. Then later in Myst V, your still acting on the same stranger, but he or she have gotten older and is still able to travel. Don't look at the stranger as someone else, put the stranger as yourself in the game, that was the idea Cyan had in mind when they made the game, it was you that came to Myst, not anyone else. :)

3. I give credit on how it was explained to you on your third question. If you haven't played the other Myst games after Myst III/Exile, then I shouldn't spoil you how those games goes, but I will say that right after Myst V/End of Ages, that Uru live comes into play, you get to explore what was left behind, imagine yourself as other explorers traveling in the dephs of the Cavern as you are free to explore of the remains (Since I do play Urulive myself).

4. As it is said from the begining of the game of Myst before you started your play, Atrus has said "The ending will truly never be written"; in the passage on the third question I have said about Uru live, is the same basics as it is for this question. Uru live is suppose to carry on what was left off from Myst V. Myst V was the last game Cyan had made, but Uru live is suppose to continue your quest where you make friends and make your own adventures. They also have something called "Deep Island shard" where you can store your built ages at. Where you can build your ages...... ask someone on Myst.com and go to the fourms about that, they can help you with that.

5. There is nothing more to let you know about. By game stories to play in order: Myst or realMyst(its up to you which one to play, both of them are the same game, but different graphics), Riven, Exile, Revelation, Uru Complete Chronicle, Myst V and Uru live.
Books with game stories: Book of Ti'ana, Book of Atrus, Myst or realMyst, Riven, The Book of D'ni, Exile, Revelation, Uru Complete Chronicle, Myst V and Uru live.

I hope this updated info. helped out for you and have fun playing the Myst series :D

You're welcome, enjoy URU and Myst V ;) The Stranger reaches D'ni, during the events on Myst, in 9462 DE (1806 AD).

The call to the Cleft, URU, happens in 2004 AD (9660 DE).

End of Ages takes place in 2005 AD (9661 DE).

The time span between Myst and URU is ~198 years, between Myst and End of Ages ~199 years. Atrus', and Yeesha's, longevity can be explained by virtue of them being partly D'ni (D'ni life expectancy is around 325 years). The "stranger" however is human with the same life expectancy as ours. Sorry.

Thanks for explaining stuff, both of you guys! Thanks for explaining stuff, you guys!

Yeah, this is what I had thought. Kinda disappointing, as that "being you/mysterious background" really made the playing original myst special. I've actually seen people come up with elaborate fan theories on how to you could go back in time, do 1-4, somehow be brought forward in time, do Myst 5, and be the same guy throughout, but that's really reaching for things.

I'll probably just keep playing the games as "myself" (I mean, that's what we always do with all games, really, no matter how much we pretend to be the character) and sort out who's who later.

While I'm thinking about it, though, I thought of something: Does anyone else rather than The Stranger and Atrus' original Myst Book fall through the Star Fissure all the way into New Mexico? And is it confirmed that the star fissure linked to the same "time" on Earth as it did on Riven? You'd think if Time was the same between the two of them that someone would have collected the Whark Bones and the giant dagger in the 200 years that seperated Riven from Uru. Assuming both answers are no, I don't see why the Star Fissure could link 1800's Riven to 20th Century Earth. The Stranger (AKA You or I) could have found the book in the 20th century, and when we linked to Myst we ended up in the 1800's.

I'm not sure how the book would be able to do that. Possibly it has something do with when in time the book linkes to? I remember reading that the authors off D'ni linking books did factor the time when the age existed, although that must be more complicated, based on the fact that time still flows in all the ages and that people aren't writing books as a way of time travel. It also makes me question how exactly the Star Fissure works, which has always been a mystery. I always just saw The Stranger as falling into it and then getting dropped into the Cleft, but maybe it's more complicated. Think about the possability of it working the other way around (things getting sucked from Earth into it) and the fact that it's implied that many ages might link to it, and it becomes harder to prove/disprove anything.

Assuming there was someway that a 20th Century stranger made its way to 1800's Earth, and that Atrus didn't find him to be a lunatic (maybe because of the Dn'i's linking methods, someone claiming they time traveled doesn't sound so insane). Maybe the Stranger didn't even discuss this. I always assumed Atrus would stop by post-Myst-Pre-Riven to try to get a bearing on the situation, but thinking about the fact that if they would have had a long, drawn out conversation ("I come from Earth?" "Oh you mean D'ni! Where we are! We're under the surfact" "Ok I'm going to go now and figure out a way to get back, sorry") then the stranger would be less inclinced to help Atrus, maybe they didn't get a chance to properly talk.

That's all well and good for Myst and Riven, but Exile shows us that (at least post-riven) The Stranger lived on 1800's New Mexico and would meet with Atrus often. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the Star Fissure doesn't have a constant destination and that factors like Time can be affected based on where/when you jump in. Or consider the fact that in-story, D'ni was discovered by 2004, and that obviously hasn't happened yet here in the real world. If you take the fact in Myst that everything that can be imagined is real, and you just have to link to it -- which means that there are millions of different "versions"/alternate dimensions of each age, then maybe the earth that Uru takes place on is actually an alternate universe of the one the Stranger came from, which means that during this event the fissure actually linked to a different age.

Once you accept that, Exile and Revelation are easy because nothing weird time-wise happens. So it ends up being about how the stranger gets from the 1800's to the 2000's. I've read somewhere that Yeesha brought someone forward in time once (or something like that) so maybe the same thing occured? I have only seen the opening for EoA, so I don't know much about how people refer to you. (Although what's the deal with Atrus' letter? Forgetting this whole stranger thing and assuming it's someone from Uru/Dr.Watson/Whoever isn't the Stranger, why would Atrus be writing to this guy/girl in such a casual manner? I guess he can make new friends, but it seems to be someone he's known for a long, long time. And it can't be the actual stranger because of the fact that he'd be dead. And it's definitely a modern letter, so I don't know what's going on there.

That was fun to think about. The Star Fissure is a goldmine for elaborate fan theories.

Really the only thing I would have a hard time believing is the beginning part with the Myst book. I can't understand why the Myst book would be able to link someone 200 years in the past. If you took the Star Fissure to be the complicated thing I describe above, it might make more sense that the Stranger was somehow in the fissure already. Technically, you find the Myst book in a field of stars in the first myst, although I always just thought that was creative effect.

Catherine was trapped on Riven while Atrus worked around the clock in K'veer to delay as much as possible the decaying of the Age beyond breaking point, so had the Stranger, for whatever reason, decided not to help Atrus that would be the end of Catherine since Atrus couldn't write the stabilizing changes into Riven's book and get to Riven to extract Catherine at the same time. Besides, there was no way out of K'veer without a linking book (Atrus blocked off the entry when Gehn trapped him there in Book of Atrus), that's why Sirrus and Achenar chose to trap Atrus there to begin with. So the Stranger, like Atrus, had two possible destinations from K'veer: Myst or Riven (assuming they hadn't with them any of the books from the library on Myst, but those linked to other Ages, none of them linked to Earth, so the only way for the "Stranger" to get home was through the Star Fissure and even that way out was the construct of a good faith assumption made by Atrus that the "Stranger" would travel, or fall, safely through the Star Fissure to Earth like it had happened with Myst's linking book)

After that Atrus and his family relocated to Tomahna, on Earth (just a few miles from the Cleft), wich permanently eliminated the need for linking books in order for the Stranger to reach Atrus, seeing how they were on the same Age, planet Earth, the "Stranger" could simply "walk" there.

Meanwhile i think you'll find this interesting, i found a thread in the MOUL boards about a chat session that took place in 2007 during the MOUL revival where it was officially confirmed that the Playing Character in Myst V was in fact Dr. Watson.

There are loads of spoilers on that thread and likely also in the complete log of the chat session so you decide if it's worth diving in

Clicky

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. I haven't read the Book of Atrus in years.

Thanks for the link.

The whole In character thing bugs me about Uru Live, although I can see why they do it in order to get story across in the MMO. Still, it makes it confusing. For instance, they keep talking about Myst V in character, as well as Cyan. Is there a fictional version of Cyan that's making Myst games? Are these games actually supposed to be Myst 1-4 (implying that those were not the actual experiences of the stranger) or are they fictional games based on the "real" events of the games we played?

Confusing.

Also, Atrus calling Watson "old friend" in the end of V (That's what I've heard)...what's the deal with that? Did they know eachother? Did Atrus appear in Uru at any point?

Atrus was very old by the end of EoA, his old mind likely thought Watson to be the "Stranger" he once knew.

Yep, there's a fictional Cyan. The folks from the fictional Cyan visit the City and hang out with the DRC folks and from what they see and from what they're told about the Ages they come up with ideas for videogames - the Myst games ;) (you'll stumble across this information during URU CC)

So the games are (real) games, portraying the stranger's experiences, but also lore within the very game universe they depict - awesome!

My interest in games is strictly on the single player aspect, i don't play MOULA (or any other multiplayer component of any game), so i don't know if any new content was brought in. The content of URU CC/ABM+POTS is surely there but beyond that i don't know. I wouldn't bet on any meaningful new content though.

Yeah I'm kind of like that to, I always look at a game as a form of narrative and a way to get away from the real world, and multi-player doesn't offer much in either form. I am planning on playing Myst Online, though: I often play games together with my sister, who loves watching me play single-player games. She's a big fan of certain MMORPGs, and has been trying to get me to play one with her for a while. She's not real into Myst because of the solitary experience, and the games are so slow that they're not very fun to watch, so Myst Online seems like a great game for both of us to play together because it fits all of our needs.

I know you might not know this since you're not playing Myst Online, but if it included Path of the Shell wouldn't Myst Online be the same/take place during the same time as Uru:CC (as in before 5) or is the Uru experience (in-universe, as in the experience of all the explorers) the same even after the events of Myst 5? (and if anyone who is really into Myst Online knows the answer, please tell me)
Thanks for all your help, Namur!

MOULA does seem a good place for you guys to start playing togheter, i'm sure you'll both have fun playing it. I'm very specific about what i look for in games and i find what i look for in SP but i know MP is fun, even more so if shared with friends/relatives.

POTS ia a bit tricky due to it's nature (it was thought off for MP, then after the MP went down in flames it was released as SP content, later on it was added to MOUla), that stretch of the Journey is different in the online and offline versions. I'm not sure how those differences can be accounted for in terms of lore and/or timeline without Cyan's input, it's obvious that this SP/MP "dance" caused a few issues. I guess that, while IC in MOULA now, you can look at POTS as a strecht of the Journey that explorers that came before you took but that explorers taking the Journey now don't (fully) take.

Like i said, the least confusing way for me to think about it in terms of canon and timeline, inspite of the overlap in content, is URU CC > Myst V > MOULA. That's alos why i said i'd stick to that order for gameplay purposes. I guess the real question is, according to Cyan is POTS canon or not ? Only Cyan can answer that. But yeah, input on this from someone who actually plays MOULA and can go into detail about the differences between offline/online POTS and the implications of those differences would be great.

As for the events with Dr. Watson and Myst V, i don't think it matters much whether you go about your Journey in URU/MOULA aware or unaware of those events and Dr. Watson's role in them, the outcome to be had on URU, or MOULA, is mostly one of personall significance to each explorer. Other than a bit of extra insight regarding some of the reading material you'll come across i think that the bit of extra knowledge is mostly irrelevant for your journey, offline or online, regardless off when you chose to take it.

You're welcome. Don't worry about the questions, it's always a pleasure to talk about Myst related stuff ;)

Thanks! Yeah it sounds like the best thing to do is play all of it with an open mind and then sort out everything later.

And yeah, I love talking about Myst! It's a shame too because it's cult status as well as the fact that it hasn't been "active" with new games in a long time means that most people are over it/never heard of it.

A lot of people think a Myst movie is the answer, although I don't really see how it could translate well (I know that for a while there was a plan to adapt The Book of Ti'ana, but if you look at it from a non-Myst fan's perspective the book is kinda poorly written and doesn't offer much of the "real" Myst experience. Of course, Adapting the original Myst would be even harder, so I honestly think this isn't the way to go.

With Cyan's focus on mobile, I was thinking it would be cool to have them do a lower-budget, iphone/ipad/android game that was a side-story to Myst or somehow involved in the universe.

I'd go for something that had more of the star fissure in it, as long as it didn't take all the mystery out of it. I also really liked the sound of their Latus game, although while they were talking about it as if it was revolutionary, it sounded more like just a 3D Journeyman Project to me.

Every fan is desperate for more content i think.

I'm not sure about a movie, it could work or not depending on how it's done. I'd get it regardless though so i hope the folks working on it will be able to finish it.

Personnaly right now i'd settle for another book, be it The Book of Marrim or something else...but i'm not counting on it

(btw, there was a bit missing in my previous post, first pharagraph. It's not very important but i edited it to reflect what i intended to say)