I've decided to post this here as sort of a "story starter". This is a story I worked on as part of Subterranian Restorations, thinly linked to what they were working on at the time. However, nothing really came of my parts of the story with SR, so I've taken out any connection it had with their work (to avoid spoiling anything they'll use) and reposted it here if anybody'd like to read a crazy history about a writer named Kahgehn. It is closely interlinked with D'ni history but alters nothing about any Cyan material, it merely states it all as contemporary fact.
Kahgehn was born in 5592 under King Adesh and was educated as a member of the Guild of Writers. He was an exceedingly talented writer with the special talent of writing Ages that would produce and sustain civilizations. This was simply something that happened in his writings; it seemed that his systems were simply naturally balanced, and when he linked to his Ages he would always find a society, even when he never made mention of any life at all. A wonderful and useful talent that would have brought him to high ranks in other times, this became instead an unfortunate skill to harbor. Eighteen years before Kahgehn's birth, the prophet Gish had begun to preach about Yahvo's teachings, and more specifically, those teachings that spoke out against interaction with outsiders. The public, enraptured with the prophet's words, had no desire to hear of the bright young writer and his skill in writing books that would link to civilized Ages.
Therefore, Kahgehn worked mostly in solitude, behind the scenes of the Guild of Writers. There were many entrepreneurs and tradesmen that were interested in new civilized Ages, despite the prevailing attitude of the time. He was allowed to write but never to speak publicly about his Ages, nor really about his opinion on anything. This was probably for the best, as Kahgehn's writings reveal a strong, impassioned mind who had half a mind to disregard the public and say what he felt needed to be said. If he had, he most probably would have been killed. The times set the people against their King, and in fact, Gish was killed by the Relyimah in 5675, and Adesh himself was killed twenty-six years later.
When King Lanaren came into power, he promised to rid the D'ni of any outsider involvement. Although it is speculated that this may have been mostly to keep the various religious factions happy, he did order the Major Guilds to work on replacing all Ages that required outsider involvement. Time after time, Kahgehn was told to write Ages that would fulfill the same functions as other Ages, but without an outside force as a factor. Time after time, inspectors would link to his Ages and find a civilization. It is not certain if Kahgehn was openly defying the Guild or if he honestly could not stop his Ages from becoming a culture's home. Either way, the Guildmaster came to the conclusion that Kahgehn was a rebel and a traitor.
While we are not certain if such a thing had ever occured before, we do know that in 5719, Kahgehn was ordered to write his own Death Age. It seems many of the Guild had become jealous of his talent and wanted above all things to see him write an Age that could not sustain life, and have him link to it. The irony of the situation did not escape Kahgehn, who wrote about it later in a rather darkly humorous tone. Kahgehn wrote an Age he called Shootsano, a contraction of the words for "Eternal Death". The Age had no breathable air; its atmosphere was thick, dark, and heavily poisonous. He had apparently planned on giving a grand final speech before he linked to his doom, but his opponents interrupted him and forced his hand onto the Linking Book prematurely.
However, something nobody expected had happened: a civilization, complete with their own language, history, and culture, had emerged on Shootsano. They had developed technology to purify the atmosphere, which they claimed had not always been poisonous. They saved Kahgehn when he linked in, giving him one of their breathing apparatuses and welcoming him into their civilization. It seems that Kahgehn, up until this point, had mostly believed his Ages were sustaining life because he had been intentionally defiant. But now he was not so sure.
When Kahgehn first linked to Shootsano he was only 127 years old. It took him many years (we do not know exactly how many; Kahgehn's writings simply stress it was a long time), but he managed to find a way to replicate the D'ni technology enough to write a Linking Book to an Age that would provide better materials for writing. He wrote a new Age for the people of Shootsano and made it his home, but was never able to make it back to D'ni, as his people merely assumed Shootsano was a Death Age and nobody would link to such a place.
The idea with SR was that one of our characters was going to become possessed with the idea that a civilization did indeed arise on Shootsano, that Kahgehn really was talented enough to have civilizations form in any Age he created. That character would eventually link to Shootsano despite everyone's advice to the contrary. He then found his way to Kahgehn's eventual home Age and discovered his writings, which is why we know all this.
If people like it, I think it might be a nice base for a few Ages linked by a common storyline and puzzles.
Guild of Writers
If the Maintainers/Astronomy guys get Andy and Montgomery, it's only fair that the Writers get one of our members too! (Meaning besides me 
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