The Book of Atrus

The Book of Atrus serves as a prequel to the events of the eponymous first game in the Myst series, and introduces both new characters and old characters seen in the games. The book’s protagonist is Atrus. He is raised by his grandmother Anna after his mother dies and his father abandons him. Eventually, Atrus’ father Gehn returns from his explorations of the ruins of the D’ni empire and enlists Atrus to come follow him back to the fallen city. Gehn teaches Atrus the Art, a skill the D’ni used to create special books which allow transport between worlds known as Ages. Atrus is awed by the Art at first, but he is horrified when he witnesses Gehn’s manipulation and dismissive attitude to the inhabitants of the Ages. He also comes to understand Gehn’s selfish, cold cruelty and his own power-hungry nature; Gehn believes that he creates the Ages he writes, instead of creating links to preexisting universes. Gehn destroys Atrus’ first Age, Inception, because it does not follow Gehn’s style of writing. After attempting to escape his father, Gehn traps Atrus in a locked chamber in D’ni, with the only escape to Gehn’s own Age of Riven. On Riven Atrus falls in love with a villager named Catherine.

Catherine and Atrus hatch a plan to trap Gehn on Riven. Gehn is stranded when Atrus and Catherine destroy all linking books on Riven, escaping by using a book Ti’ana wrote for them, leading to the Age of Myst. Atrus drops the Myst linking book into a massive disturbance on Riven known as the Star Fissure; the book falls through the fissure to be picked up by the Stranger in Myst. The closing words of the book are the opening narrative from the video game.

The Book of Ti’ana

The Book of Ti’ana takes place earlier than The Book of Atrus. The first part of the book focuses on life of Atrus’ grandfather Aitrus with his parents Kahlis and Tasera, Aitrus’ meeting with Ti’ana, and the birth of their son Gehn. The book also explains the destruction of the D’ni civilization. Two D’ni, Veovis and A’Gaeris, plot to destroy their civilization, which they believe has been corrupted. Veovis and A’Gaeris create a plague which wipes out many of the D’ni and follows them through the Ages. Veovis is murdered by A’Gaeris for refusing to write an Age where the two of them would have been worshipped as gods, and Aitrus sacrifices himself in order to lure A’Gaeris to an unstable Age, killing them both.

In The Book of D’ni, Atrus opens the crumbled exit of the room in K’veer, where he had been imprisoned by Gehn, and gains access to the rest of D’ni. Atrus and his team set out to find linking books and search for D’ni survivors. Eventually, Atrus and the rest of the D’ni plan on rebuilding the civilization, but this plan is put to a halt when a book leading to a great lost Age called Terahnee is found. Terahnee is a sister Age to D’ni and is populated by descendants of the same ancestors as the D’ni.

The Book of D’ni

At first sight, Terahnee seems like a Utopia. Everyone lives in sumptuous palaces, and nobody goes hungry; in reality, the society is run by slave labor. After writing new Ages, the Terahnee people capture the inhabitants to use as slaves, considering themselves gods over their Ages. The Terahnee people are taught not to ‘see’ the slaves; only the servants interact with the lower orders. The Terahnee are suddenly stricken by a plague the D’ni brought with them; Atrus and his companions help the Age’s slaves recover and create a new society before returning to D’ni and sealing up the path to Terahnee.