Feb 8, 2010 - MOUL reopened for play, agin. Free!

See the Mystonline Play page.

 

Uru 's Guild of Cartographers

 

GoC SealThe 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.

KadishThe D'ni, of course, had maps, 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.

 

 
 

Guild of Cartographers of Uru

 
   

The historic meeting place of the Guild was the URU Obsession (UO) Form until it closed in 2011.

The History of the beginnings of the guild were contained in the OU 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. The archive is here. See the Cartographers history there for the Restored Guild of Cartographers

I downloaded many of the pages from UO before its closing. I have yet to put them in a readable format and post them.

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 many minor guilds) Myst Community

The original web site was made by Ricka for the Guild. It is now gone, around 2010 I think.

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

Contact Guild Master Nalates concerning this web site

 

 
 

Myst Online: Restoration Experiment (MO:RE) - 2008 - OOC

 
   

Below is a In Character (IC) history of Uru or Myst: Ages Beyond Myst. This section is the Out of Character(OOC) history and status.

The Cavern's initial opening to the world was in 2003 and ran until the Cavern's first closure and sealing of the entrances in 2004. Fan efforts to reopen the game resulted in Until Uru. An era of fan run servers. Eventually the Cavern re-opened via D'mala and then via GameTap starting in February 2007. This incarnation was known as Myst Online: Uru Live and it ran to April 2008. Next the Myst Online: Restoration Experiment (MO:RE) was planned for July 2008 but was postponed and eventually abandoned.

In 2003-2004 Cyan Worlds worked with Ubisoft to provide access to the Cavern. When Ubisoft decided that they could no longer afford to develop and run the game it is was closed and the beginning of a legend about a Game that Would Not Die started. Periods of exploration and access as well as times when the Cavern was inaccessible followed; Until Uru, D'mala, Myst Online: Uru Live (MO:UL), Myst Online: Restoration Experiment (MO:RE) and now Myst Online: Open Source (MO:OS) and now (12/09) often called Myst Online: Open Uru (MOOU or just OU) are all incarnations of the game.

 

 
 

Myst Online: Open Source (MO:OS) - 2009-10

 
   

Due to an economic down turn plans for the Restoration Experiment were abandoned. The Restoration Experiement was to be a Cyan run Uru Live to which fans would be adding fan created content. Cyan Worlds worked to get all the rights from GameTap released after the game closing in 2008 and they succeeded. Cyan Worlds decidedin late 2008 they could affort the time or money to open MO:RE and would instead release the game as open source. They planned to do this by early Spring 2009. Obvioulsy that date was missed.

The Myst Online: Uru Live game was built using various proprietary software. To release the game as open source those proprietary parts needed to be removed Cyan Worlds took on other projects and has not gotten around to removing those components. As I write it this in early winter 2009 the open source code and licenses have not been released.

There are fans building ages in anticipation of the coming open source release. One can visit those fan ages using a copy of Path of The Shell or Complete Chronicles. To learn how to download (free) and visit those fan created ages visit the Guild of Writers.

 
       
 

2004 - The End of URU Live - Reasons from Cyan Worlds - OOC

 
   

Ahnonay Spheres
Many Uru explorers were deeply involved and enjoying exploring and digging out the secrets of Uru Live in 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 Cavern.

To help new explorers just finding the Cavern 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...

 

 
 

2004 - Uru LIVE and the Re-Birth of Uru LIVE as Un'tìl Uru

 
 

The Dark Time of Uru - IC

 
   

Bevin

When access to the Cavern 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. Whether the mystical character known as Yeesha had some ability to reach across time or the Barho, mysterious creatures, to call explorers to the Cavern we may never know. Whatever the case, those called found ways into the Cavern.

Explorers were pouring into the Cavern. Many were young, all were inexperienced. The size and complexity of the Cavern was enormous. The danger from old colossally powerful machines which long lacked proper care 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 Cavern, there would be voices 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 Cavern 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 Cavern. 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 calling to them. 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 Cavern. Eventually, it was the DRC that sealed the Cavern. A dark time for all the called explorers.

 

 
 

Explorers in Isolation - IC

 
   

Even with the apparent loss of all hope, a small band of hardened and determined explorers in love with the Cavern 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 tools and hidden ways into the Cavern, there were still never any explorers seen there. Many single explorers found their way to the Cavern and swore they were there while others said they were too. 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.

 

 
 

The Unification - IC

 
   

Ae'guraIn 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 Cavern was as great as their love and loyalty. So, while the secrets taken were about to be put to use to return bands of explorers to the Cavern 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 engines that allowed unified access to the D'ni ages. 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 Cavern 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 small bands of explorers roamed the Cavern.

 

 
 

New Efforts - IC

 
   

All was not complete nor was all glorious.

The Lords of Cyan were exhausted by the original research and efforts to enter the Cavern. The energies needed to transport thousands of adventurous soles to D’ni ages 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 wanting to return to D’ni, certainly listened to no one voice. They built their own ways into D’ni as the Lords of Cyan did in the beginning.

NalatesThe politics of 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 Cavern has changed is a story in itself, may be later I’ll go there.

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

Explorers found parts of the Cavern never visited by any previous explorers. Others were practicing and learning the skill of writing ages. With Cyan's secrets built into Kagi Keys, hope lived explorer might discover the secrets of accessing the D'ni Cavern.

 

 
 

2006 - D'mala - IC/OOC

 
   

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 the 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: Guild of Greeter's

 

 
 

2007 - Myst Online: Uru LIVE (MOUL) - IC/OOC

 
   

May 2006 - Hope returned as the Lords of the Cyan Worlds promised to open the Cavern again. One engine was started, called D'mala, and larger bands of explorers returned to the Cavern.

February 15, 2007 - The Lords of Cyan and the GameTap guardians reopened the Cavern to explorers.

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 portal was closed as were the various independent portals know as Un'til Uru shards.

Only one portal remained. The Lords and the Guardians controlled it. The portal transported people to a unified world of D'ni ages. Explorers once again roamed the Cavern in large groups.

 

 
 

2007 - New Uru Ages Found

 
   

Minkata Clue

Guild Public Area (Pub)Exploration proceeded! New ages, animals,and maps were found and explored. People raced through the Cavern once again.

The new ages found; Dereno, Eder Delin, Jalak, and others.

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

 

 
 

2008 - The End? - IC

 
   

The ending is not yet written... The guardians and The Lords of Cyan said the Cavern would close in April 2008. It did. For a time Guadians allowed all who wanted to see Uru to visit for free. In the end, finally, the Cavern was once again closed.

The explorers had been warned an ending was coming. They were encouraged to abandon the Cavern and D'ni ages and find a home. Many explorers found the advice confusing. Were the Barho revolting? Were Yeesha's followers planning something? Many questions were in the explorers' minds.

4/21/08 - Things evolve... The Lords of Cyan and Guardians were working out what would work for both of them. In the mean time explorers were preparing for exploring on their own once again as single explorers. ( See this thread: GoW Thread )

 

 
 

2008 - Myst Online: Restoration Experiment (MOUL) - IC

 
   

July 2008 - The Lords of Cyan have regained complete control of the Cavern. The agreements made with the Guardians to provide access to the Cavern have been resolved and the Lord's obligations fulfilled. The Lord's begain 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

All Guild of Cartographers members are asked to check in with the Guild here: UO Check In Thread - site closed 2011.

Those wanting to join the Guild are asked to join here: UO Join II Thread - site closed. See Guild Members page for more information.

 

 
 

2009 - Myst Online: Open Source (MOOS) or Open Uru (MOOU)

 
   

Early 2009 word came from the Lords of Cyan that it would not be possible for them to open the Cavern. The Lords saw no way that they would ever be able to open the Cavern. Perhaps knowing the explorers would never give up trying to get into the D'ni ages the Lord's decided to release all their secrets. The explorers would have all the science the Lords had discovered. The engines that unified the D'ni ages would be released to the explorers.

Time has passed and explorers have not yet received the promised secrets. Problems have come as the Lords seem distracted by a new world of magic. The race of Cyan peoples seems all consumed by this new world. Word has leaked that not all the tools were the Lords' tools to give to explorers. The Lords much like Kadish had their secrets within secrets. A separation process needed to be completed assure that the secrets of others were kept secret.

Explorers were again restless. Some were building new engines to transport explorers to the Cavern. These were based on the old engines previous developed, but now improved. Other started on completely new engines. Risks were involved and not all the engines were in sync. So, explorers are again fragmented in to various dimensions and have difficulting finding their friends in the Cavern. Being protective and fearful of problems with the Lords of Cyan the engines were kept secret and thus hard to find.

Other explorers were not risking traveling by means of the new engines and waited for the Lords to release their secrets. Still, many explorers visited the Cavern on their own as solo explorers.

Others took the encouragement to find a home seriously. They traveled to other worlds and dimensions and made homes just as immigrants of all ages have through history. Only the Guild of Maintainers can be easily found across the various worlds with branch offices in many worlds and dimensions.

Many explorers have enlisted in the Guild Wars.

Others have settled in Devokan and Eder D'Uru in Second Life, about 600 explorers can be found there.

All explorers still wait for word from the Lords of Cyan. Discussions

 
 

2010 - 2014

 
   


Eventually I'll get around to writing the story for these years... Suffice to say for now, the explorers are still waiting in many ways. There are new engines nearing completion. Some are being run and providing access to the Carvern. They are not yet unified. So, as in the Until Uru years you must know which engine your friends are using to end up in the same world.

I mostlly play in Second Life with the Uru community there, where there are about 700 of us and about 250+ are active. I blog about events in SL and the Myst world. The Myst section of my blog is here: Myst Uru.

 

 
 

2015

 
   


This year some new content is finally being added to MOULa. It is a slow process.

Content is being added to the private servers at a faster rate. You can get information about those private shards at GoW. Also, look through my links page.

Now that OpenSim and Second Life allow importing Blender made models, some are taking their ages to those virtual worlds. You pretty much have to be in the circle of Myst-Uru fans & friends in those worlds to know what is going on. Things change quickly. So, I'm not going to try and keep up here, at least not this year.

 
       
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