Linking rules for D'Nay (and Explorer Ages in general)

[Trylon]

Ok, as someone (I'm bad at names from the top of my head) suggested that we'd need to set up linking rules for D'Nay, I think a new thread for it is a good thing to go.

I'll start with something:

• Linking is only able from books in the start, as time progresses, machines/computer screens that provide a link may be available, but not primarily
• Descriptive books contain both the description of the age, and an initial link
• Linking books are available in two flavours:
  
  • Reference linking books refer to a descriptive book, through certain special phrases that are similar. They do not need to be written in the age itself. A special offset (link in point) in the target age may be written, but this is very tricky and error-prone. If written in the target age itself, they will link to the place in which the linking book is written. If the descriptive book changes or is destroyed, these books will fail to function, or follow the descriptive book's link.
  • Direct point linking books are not bound to a descriptive book, but are written in the age they link too, and link to the spot in which they are written. If the descriptive book for the age is changed, it does not affect the link these books make, as they have no reference to the descriptive book.
• No linking "Magic"! - Linking zones, spirals, etc are off-limits, unless properly explained.
• Certain ages may have natural objects that have linking (or link enhancing) properties of some kind. (Like the Rime stones, or Katran's panel enhancement stones)
• Some books may need to be powered, like Gehns

Comments please...

[Zander]

That looks all good to me. In story mechanics terms I like the idea of some books needing to be powered, as long as we can avoid, as far as possible, committing to some "techie-trick" explanation of linking itself.

[Trylon]

Personally, I like the idea of the Linking books being biological in nature rather than technical, so I won't be promoting "techie tricks"

[BladeLakem]

(once again I am running under the assumption this is a 'default' setting as opposed to an absolute 'canon')

Well, I like to think of the D'ni linking technology as a sort of high-level coding method. It works well, but it has constraints inherent in it's design. The new Guild of Writers is, in many ways, constructing their own method based on the D'ni Art (a sort of Art++). It'll have different strengths and weaknesses.

The 'linking magic' is more like writing in machine code. Yeesha can do things others can't because she understands how the 'drivers' work and can bang on the hardware directly. It's just Sufficiently Advanced Technology(tm). But definitely beyond us right now.

In fact, I think some of the computer metaphors work very well to describe the Art.

[Owehn]

* Reference linking books refer to a descriptive book, through certain special phrases that are similar. They do not need to be written in the age itself. A special offset (link in point) in the target age may be written, but this is very tricky and error-prone. If written in the target age itself, they will link to the place in which the linking book is written. If the descriptive book changes or is destroyed, these books will fail to function, or follow the descriptive book's link.
* Direct point linking books are not bound to a descriptive book, but are written in the age they link too, and link to the spot in which they are written. If the descriptive book for the age is changed, it does not affect the link these books make, as they have no reference to the descriptive book.

These two rules don't fit with what Cyan has told us about linking books. All linking books must be written in the place where they link to, and if the descriptive book to an Age is destroyed all the linking books to that Age cease to function as well. There's actually a discussion on this very topic in the DRC forums.

To make sure the guidelines we end up with are compatible with Cyan's vision of linking rules, I'd recommend reading:
The DRC linking information
RAWA's 1997 letters to the Lyst on linking (and following years).

[Trylon]

I already knew that Owehn.
However, these slight modfications actually fit more closely with the books, games and history than the "official" rules, posted by RAWA a quite a while back.
Beyond that, Cyan has already broken all of their linking rules with Yeesha, so we may as well take the opportunity to put in a slight modification of our own to have them make more sense.
(e.g. these rules allow for Ronay to link back to garternay without garternay having a descriptive book and allows for Atrus to write small maintainer-suit-linkin linking books to dangerous ages [book of D'Ni])

[Floydman]

I already knew that Owehn.
However, these slight modfications actually fit more closely with the books, games and history than the "official" rules, posted by RAWA a quite a while back.
Beyond that, Cyan has already broken all of their linking rules with Yeesha, so we may as well take the opportunity to put in a slight modification of our own to have them make more sense.
(e.g. these rules allow for Ronay to link back to garternay without garternay having a descriptive book and allows for Atrus to write small maintainer-suit-linkin linking books to dangerous ages [book of D'Ni])

1) Yeesha is the Grower; we should not be able to do everything she can do.

2) Atrus never wrote Linking Books to dangerous places without being there. He did make many copies of D'ni Linking Books for the various groups to take with them, but I don't remember him writing Linking Books for Ages he had never been to (hint hint: I could be wrong)

[BladeLakem]

Of course, there are numerous examples of the rules of Linking being violated in Uru (linking in the same age, taking a linking book with you, etc.) that it's not unreasonable to think that other rules might be more like guidelines. I suspect that one approach is to specify that some of these changes are due to explorer innovations.

For example, linking books refer to the descriptive book, which creates the link and then holds it. It's a reference. If explorers manage to to devise a 'tunneling' linking book that, instead of referencing the descriptive book to get the lin, copies the link somehow. Then if the descriptive book is destroyed, it still has the link.

Another example, a linking book links to the location it is written. How? It has to absorb some sort of signature from the location when it establishes the link and embed that in the book. Well, maybe one can write the linking book to acquire that information from the descriptive book, thus being able to link to where the descriptive book does. 'offsetting' might be more difficult, however.

Honestly, I think we need a comprehensive theory of linking that fits our tastes and needs. We can refine behavior from there.

So the question becomes, what are our tastes and needs?

My thoughts on our linking model:
* It should be based off of the canon of linking from Myst and Uru when possible (Note that the D'ni rules for the Art are not comprehensive. We have too many counter-examples to that). However we should be free to 'extend' it.
* It should involve books or, at least, writing. That's one of the primary themes of the D'niverse - not linking, but linking books. While other methods are possible, the focus of our Art is in the books
** We can branch out from there if we need to on various questions - the nature of the linking books, the langauge and manner they are written, etc.
* It should allow for panic linking
* It should allow for cross-age communication
* It should allow in some way for linking to different areas of the same age (either directly or by some clever workaround)
* No linking Magic - that is there is the underlying assumption that even the unusual things (linking portals, etc) are not the result of supernatural processes but are logical results of the nature of linking (however they may be far beyond our understanding of linking to duplicate)

[Owehn]

I already knew that Owehn.
However, these slight modfications actually fit more closely with the books, games and history than the "official" rules, posted by RAWA a quite a while back.
Beyond that, Cyan has already broken all of their linking rules with Yeesha, so we may as well take the opportunity to put in a slight modification of our own to have them make more sense.
(e.g. these rules allow for Ronay to link back to garternay without garternay having a descriptive book and allows for Atrus to write small maintainer-suit-linkin linking books to dangerous ages [book of D'Ni])

While the requirement that destroying the descriptive book causes the linking books associated with it to cease functioning is only tangentially relevant (honestly, when has that ever happened?), I really feel like writing a linking book in the place where it links to is an indispensable part of linking theory. With that latter requirement, we get neat ways in which link-in points can account for tectonic shift, navigate the multiverse, and avoid inconsistent histories. Without it, continuity is completely disrupted: Why didn't Gehn just write a linking book back to d'ni while stranded on Riven? (Or another Age for which he would be familiar with the descriptive book.) And if two descriptive books have the same text (but link to different Ages), solely referencing the descriptive book can't be a reliable method for getting the linking book to go to the right place. Sorry, but to me, changing that aspect of canon severely disrupts everything else.

On the other hand, as I mentioned I'm much more at ease with mucking about with what happens when destroying descriptive books. One of my favorite alternatives to established canon would be if destroying a descriptive book caused each existing linking book to link to link to divergent instances of the Age (or subtle variations on that idea). No one has told us in exactly what way linking books are "rendered useless" or "cease to function" when the associated descriptive books are destroyed, and I doubt the DRC conducted that kind of experiment, so there may be some play room for us on that point.

[Nadnerb]

I'll just drop in and say I agree with Owehn, in that linking books must be written in the location that they are intended to link to. Not only does breaking that rule destroy any and all remaining restrictions to linking, (such as the trapping of people in ages) and invalidate stories that are still canon, Uru still has mechanics that imply that this is necessary, such as the rotating fortress in Gahreesen, designed to prevent people from writing links there.

Of course, I don't really go along with the idea of D'nay in general, so I'll just pop out again.