The great Guild of Cartographers of Uru was formed as a hobby in the LIVE era, November 2003 to February 2004. The initial impetus for forming was from Pa'trick The Futographer. He eventually was informally elected as the Guild's first Grand Master.

The motivation or need for the Guild came from the enormous area the D'ni Ages cover. Uru LIVE created a new experience for explorers of Myst ages. In LIVE we were walking with and talking to other explorers in The Cavern as we shared our finds. Explorers attempting to describe locations and travel routes were finding it difficult to accurately describe places. While we could point and actually escort people to places it was troublesome. Many names for locations were simply names of convenience taken from whatever an individual explorer found unique about a location. Needless to say, there was little if any consistency and confusion was abundant. Many names were applied to the same place and some names to different places. Confusion rained.

The D'ni, of course, had names for places, cities, and buildings just as we do today. The Guild of Linguists was translating those names and many became available but remained unknown to new explorers. The Guild of Researchers was attempting to recover place and building names, among other heroic efforts. The Cartographers began applying available names to maps and publishing them in an attempt to simplify describing locations and to reduce confusion. But, in many cases the guild simply choose what they thought was the best name.

It was and is not the Guild's intention to reveal secrets that may spoil the adventurers' experience of D'ni. The basic goal is to improve communication among explorers. To quote the Founding Grand Master, all hail:

"I think we have all agreed here that we don't want the Journey Clothes on our maps. We don't want our maps to be spoilers, but a way to appreciate the online experience more as well as to help others get a larger view of the exploration as well as to help them communicate about the ages." - Jan 20 2004, 05:14 PM

So, Guild's maps do not show the location of Journey Cloths or Barho Stones. Other explorers have made maps marked with such things. Those can be found else where. When included in maps for display here, they are marked as spoilers. Of course explorers mark their personal copies of maps.

The historic meeting place of the Guild is the URU Obsession Form: HERE

The History of the beginnings of the guild can be read about in the forum. As well as the public goings on of the guild. However it is the Guild of Archivists that maintains a formal history of the guilds and other aspects of the Myst stories. See the Cartographers history HERE and here for the Restored Guild of Cartographers

Also, the Myst Community has a good page on the guilds and some of their D'ni Era history and titles (18 major guilds and ? minor guilds) Myst Community

The original web site by Ricka for the Guild is HERE

The 2007 web site for the Guild, UruMaps.com, is gone.

Contact Guild Master Nalates concerning this web site

Below is a history of Uru or Myst: Ages Beyond Myst, The Cavern's initial opening to the world (2003-04), the cavern's first closure and sealing of the entrances, the efforts of explorers to remove the seals, their success with Until Uru and finally the re-opening via D'mala and then a new era of exploration via GameTap Uru starting in February 2007 to April 2008. Now the Myst Online: Restoration Experiment begins July 2008.

From 2003 on, access to the cavern was and is by permission of the Lords of the Cyan Worlds. In 2003-2004 Cyan Worlds worked with Ubisoft to provide access to the cavern. When Ubisoft decided that they could no longer afford to supply the means for explorers to reach the Cavern is was sealed and the beginning of a legend about a Game that Would Not Die began. Periods of exploration and access as well as times when the Cavern was sealed and inaccessible followed; Until Uru, D'mala, Myst Online: Uru Live and now Myst Online: Restoration Experiment.

Many Uru explorers were deeply involved and enjoying exploring and digging out the secrets of Uru Live 2004 (Sometimes called Prologue). Uru provided an experience in a world now without war and killing. Beautiful ages (worlds) with enigmatic puzzles awaited brave explorers. Parents felt it a safe place for their children. There was really nothing else like it. The closing of the online cavern (early 2004) created considerable disappointment, anger, speculation and frustration. Old threads in Uru Obsession forums reveal the intensity with which teeth were gnashed, the rivers of tears shed and the burning anger of explorers at being locked out of the caverns. To help new explorers just finding the caverns in 2004 to better understand why the carven was closed I have taken Bill Slease's (Content Director, Cyan Worlds, Inc.) online responses to questions and placed them in a PDF, which you can see here: CyanBill.pdf (76k)

While I and many others were incredibly disappointed at Uru Live's closing, I do not subscribe to rumors of UBI's or Cyan's incompetence, malevolence or disregard for explorers. As best I can tell this simply was a matter of a plan not working, bad timing and creative people failing to get it right on a first try, which is normal for human endeavor. So, a time came for the early explorers to give up their anguish and hope of the Cavern ever reopening. To quote CyanBill regarding the possibility of saving the online game, "Repeat after me: There is no hope. There is no hope. There is no hope."

Throughout 2004 the Single player game continued and parts were added (Expansion Pack, Path of the Shell, Complete Chronicles). The Cartographers Guild continued after the closing and most fans still loved the Myst series of games. Explorers mourned the closing of the cavern. Many grieved and finally came to Peace...

But... not all...

When access to the caverns was first found, those original explorers felt a need to protect the historical remains of D'ni. But, word was spreading fast and more explorers were feeling a call to the cavern that could not be denied. Those called found ways into the caverns. They were pouring in. Many were young, all were inexperienced and the size and complexity of the caverns was enormous and danger from old colossally powerful machines which long lacked proper care and presented a great risk to explorers. Heavens, if explorers were to start dying, and several had already disappeared and some may well have died in the caverns, there would be those voices that would rise forth and call for the sealing of or even the destruction of the Cavern. To the early explorers that would be a tragedy beyond all others. That, at any cost, could not be allowed to happen. A council was formed to control access to the cavern and avert the possible tragedy they foresaw. It became the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC). Soon it was realized the best they could hope for was to control access to the unexplored portions of the caverns until experts could make them safe. The DRC set out in earnest to do that.

The nature of explorers is to be curious. Flaws, cracks and seams in the world were found. Through those adventurous explorers could slip past the control of the council into areas where even the experts had yet to tread. It was glorious and many of that small band of explorers rose to fame as they searched for seams and cracks through which they and others could slip and explore.

Rumors of hidden ways spread through the ranks of explorers. Many spent hours practicing to gain the physical agility needed to force their bodies through these anomalies. There were places one could stand and if they could balance long enough to turn and hurl their body to just the right place, they could land on the other side of barriers and freely explore. In other places one could walk a path hidden in plain sight and by stepping carefully and turning just so one could deify gravity. Amazing anomalies were found in the cavern thrilling explorers.

From those determined explorers came those that were not satisfied with what they could achieve by squeezing through a seam here or a accidental crack there. They took pen to hand and began to tweak the fabric of the world to remove barriers and open closed parts of the caverns. Ways were found to activate parts of the world even the council knew nothing about. It was a thrilling time.

The council, however, realized they were losing all control. The world it self seemed to be failing as unexplored areas and unknown energies seemed to freeze the world and explorers right in their tracks. Some explorers were flashing through the world in seeming time warps with the world frozen in place. Many explorers were like statues, frozen in time. Occasionally they burst forth from their frozen state and zipped across a plaza or down a corridor to disappear out of sight, never seeing a friend standing beside them waiting. Many experienced being frozen in place taking minutes to make one step. Something had to be done.

Disaster!

With a lack of funds to continue the council decided to close the caverns. Eventually, it was the DRC that sealed the Cavern. A dark time for all the called explorers.

Even with the apparent loss of all hope, the small band of hardened and determined explorers in love with the caverns were completely unwilling to give up. They were so audacious that even the common gathering place Uru Obsession could not tolerate them. While not many were banished from Uru Obsession many were silenced and threatened with banishment. There were words that just could not be spoken in a society reverent of the council and the Lords of Cyan. After all, promises had been made and must be kept. So, even in the face of anger, honor had to be maintained and the irreverent silenced.

But, silencing thought and speech is never easy. Many of the Silenced Ones found their way to the irreverent Clockwork Orange BBS. There their words flowed freely and tools were forged and ways found to open the cavern. There thoughts formed and were tested. The secrets of the D'ni were plumbed and mysteries of the world itself revealed.

There was a strange side affect... as word spread of the tools and hidden ways into the caverns, there was still never any explorers seen there. Many single explorers found their way to the caverns and swore they were there while others said they too were there. But all were invisible to each other. The cavern seemed to have spit into an infinite number of universes. Solo exploration could only go so far and was tedious. Bands of explorers were needed. Some thing had to be done and many set forth to accomplish a reuniting of the multiple D'ni universes the cavern seemed split into.

In time it was done. The secrets of how the Lords of Cyan had created a unification of time and space that allowed explorers to travel in bands were revealed. But the massive energies needed remained in the hands of the Lords. They had been the ones to develop the science and they alone held ownership of it and they had the word of the most powerful in all the lands to protect their ownership.

While the explorers had pried the knowledge from D'ni itself, they did not have every secret. The Lords of Cyan had a few hidden secrets left. Also, those so called irreverent explorers, had respect for those that had come before them and nearly to a man they were fond of those from Cyan and felt some level of allegiance. Many were and are loyal to the leaders of the Cyan Worlds. But the desire to be in the caverns was as great as their love or loyalty. So, while the secrets taken were about to be put to use to return bands of explorers to the caverns it was recognized this could start a war. War and battles cost money. Neither side had the funds to fight a prolonged battle so ambassadors were sent to the leaders of the Cyan Words to reach an agreement.

Time passed. Eventually a preliminary agreement was reached. (Mid to late 2004)

The explorers would be allowed to create and operate the engines that unified the D'ni age. The Lords of Cyan would build the last of their secrets into keys, which they would control and issue to explorers. Bands of explorers would return to D'ni.

Hope had existed. Cyan Bill was right and wrong. Uru LIVE as known in 2004 was never expected to exist again. The energies to deliver thousands of explorers to the caverns were gone an no longer available. But, there was hope and the Lords of Cyan are still as mysterious as ever. But for awhile there was Un'til Uru and bands of explorers roamed the caverns once again.

All was not done nor was all glorious.

The Lords of Cyan were exhausted by the original research and efforts to enter the caverns. The energies needed to transport thousands of adventurous soles to D’ni were far more than the Lords imagined and planned for. So, while the ambassadors convinced them to let the explorers themselves run the engines and provide the generators, the Lords were still concerned for the safety of the D’ni world and held back some secrets and control. All of which seemed to fall to a single Lord to oversee.

The Lords of Cyan never allow those not of the Cyan Worlds to participate in their inner counsels. This is as it should be for who likes to be told by outsiders what to do. The explorers that returned hope to D’ni, certainly listened to no one. They built their own way into D’ni as did the Lords of Cyan in the beginning.

The politics of the Cyan Worlds is only speculation throughout the rest of the known universe. So, why the handling and availability of access keys to the D’ni caverns has changed is a story in itself, may be later I’ll go there.

But keys were available in the Years of our Lord 2005 and 2006.

Explorers found parts of the cavern never visited by any previous explorers. Others practiced and learned the skill of writing ages. With Cyan's secrets built into Kagi Keys, Hope once again lived.

In early 2006 the Lords sent a message:

3-13-06 Message:

Hi everyone,
Quick update on the state of the Uru, and a request for your help.

The new D'mala shard is up and running - feels like the cavern has a smidgen of life again. At last count there were well over a thousand invitees and growing. It's been a pleasure to meet and chat with many of you in the cavern. Thanks so much for supporting Uru as we move forward.

We're still moving forward with (all together now) "cautious optimism". The third party that is providing the limited funding for Until Uru is still evaluating the possibility of renewing full blown Uru Live, and the process involves seeing how many people respond to the D'mala shard invitation.

With that in mind I'd like to ask for your help. Until Uru is an unpublicized, grass-roots effort, and as such, the only way that many of the thousands of people who purchased Uru will even know about Until Uru is through word-of-mouth. Now is the time to spread the word. If you know people who have Uru but haven't tried the online aspect of it, please send them an invitation and encourage them to get a taste of it through Until Uru. And if you know Myst fans who haven't tried Uru at all, encourage them to pick up a copy of Complete Chronicles (at Amazon for as little as $4USD) and join the gathering. We do want new people to realize that they're not playing Uru Live, but this would be a great time for them to get a glimpse of what Uru Live will look like.

Anybody who is currently in Until Uru can send invitations. Please take advantage of this free invitation system to get as many people as you can to join the gathering in the cavern. You're the ones who can bring life back to Uru, and the more people you bring back to Uru, the greater chance we can bring Uru back to life. Thanks for your help.

See you in D'ni,
Rand

The Lords of the Cyan Worlds did open an access portal into Cavern. Enough energy was available to transport all that wanted to enter. As the Lords controlled the generators and portals the access keys became less important. Individuals could then invite their friends to D'ni.

See: Cyan Worlds Forum
See: Eat_My_Shortz' Relto!
See: Guild of Greeter's

May 2006 - Hope returned as the Lords of the Cyan Worlds promised to open the cavern again.

February 15, 2007 the Lords of Cyan and the GameTap guardians did reopen the cavern.

http://www.mystonline.com/

The Lords of the Cyan Worlds found new technology capable of generating the energies needed to allow them to again transport large numbers of explorers to the Cavern. Once again the Cavern was open and exploration was under way again. In February 2007 the D'mala shard was closed as were the Un'til Uru shards.

Only two portals remained. The Lords and the Guardians controlled them. These portals transported people to a unified world of D'ni. Explorers once again roamed the cavern in large groups.

Exploration proceeded! New ages, animals,and maps were found and explored. People raced through the caverns once again.

New ages were found; Dereno, Eder Delin, Jalak, and others.

The Guilds' public areas were opened. Shown right is the GoC Pub.

4/21/08 - Things evolve... Cyan and GameTap are working out what will work for both of them. In the mean time there is preparation for playing offline. See this thread: GoW Thread

July 2008 - The Lords of Cyan have gained control of the Cavern and are planning to restore access. A letter of intent was released July 2nd, 2008. A press conference was held on July 3rd, 2008 to announce intentions.

The letter and Road Map presented by Chogon: MOUL Thread

An unedited chat log of the conference is here: MOUL Thread

An edited version (easier to read) is here: GoMa Thread - see 10th post in thread - click SHOW

All Guild of Cartographers members are asked to check in with the Guild here: UO Check In Thread

Those wanting to join the Guild are asked to join here: UO Join II Thread