Linking Book "rules"

[boblishman]

Ok guys, I just want to ask a quick question. Some of you will have visited my Age, Sonavio ... and whilst most of the comments I have received have been very positive, one thing keep cropping up that I just don't understand...

In case someone is reading this has not played in Sonavio, I'm going to put it in a spoiler tag so as to not spoil their intial visit ...

Show Spoiler

Sonavio is a fan created age. It has NO D'ni content, references, language, or indeed anything to connect it with The Myst/Uru canon. It is an Age owned (well, controlled) by The Company and used to have native inhabitants who have now left. Your goal is to find that escape route and eventually link to their new home (- my next Age project)

OK ... in the Age there is a linking book ... this book links to an (initially) inaccessible area of Sonavio. It states quite clearly in the linking book that this is a "special issue" linking book ... that it is owned by The Company and was issued to one of its staff ... and it is obvious that it has subsequently been "lost" by one of it's employees who was working in Sonavio. You must use this linking book to access the initially inaccessible area (and open it up) to find the clues needed in order to solve the "final" puzzle.

Now, I keep getting the comment "you will have to change the linking book because it breaks the linking rules" in various forums and threads.

What I want to know is ... WHY... ?

Now, I am NOT a Myst/Uru/MOUL fanatic (I am obviously a fan, just not fanatical enought to have read any of the books and every single post ever put on all of the forums, websites and blogs written by the REAL fanatics) ... but I just don't understand why this book "breaks the rules" ... and indeed who wrote the "linking rules", and even exactly what they are supposed to be and why they "apply" to Fan Created Ages that do not contain any reference to the D'Ni ...


Furthermore, there are more than one linking books to the same Bevin in MOUL (your Neighbourhood) so please don't say there can only be ONE linking book for an Age ... because we all have copies of the same book who belong to the same Bevin ...

I just realy want to find out a LOGICAL reason as to WHY I am supposedly "breaking the rules" ...

[diafero]

I think this refers to the book linking within an age, which (according to the D'ni linking rules I don't know who wrote down - but it's canon) is not possible. Yes, it was done in MOUL, and people complained about it, but it's supposed not to be possible. I don't have a problem with it though.

[Nadnerb]

People will say this breaks the rules because the book links to another area within the same age. This is not supposed to be possible, according to the D'ni linking rules, laid out by RAWA at some point, (I forget where) which are what fan ages are supposed to follow, if I read "no yeesha/linking magic" correctly. Books generally only become functional when they are outside of the age that they link to. Relto breaks this rule, and a couple of carelessly placed books in MOUL break this rule, though they had a Yeesha mandala on them, making it questionable.... As for "no reference to the D'ni or any Myst canon", a book is a reference to the Myst canon, and as such, it must follow the rules of that canon.

[katreeny]

I'd say at a guess that "the rules" apply to D'ni linking books and Ages developed from that. I don't recall there being anything about linking books being devised by other sources - which would, of course, use different rules.

For that matter, the D'ni rules would quite possibly not apply to anything created by their predecessors, which we might or might not find. The D'ni were a subset of their home culture, as I recall. So there's no reason some other culture hasn't figured out different ways to link.

Katreeny

[boblishman]

but that's precisely my point ... Sonavio is NOT an Age written by the D'ni ... and has NO canon connections whatsoever ... just because the D'ni couldn't link within Ages doesn't mean the writer(s) of Sonavio can't . This is not a D'ni Age ...

for those who have been there and read it ... open the spoiler ...

Show Spoiler

(in fact, if you read the underground Journal (that explains what has happened on Sonavio), it is more like a "Geroge Bush" Age with it's talk of invasion, torture and steaing of natural resources ... )

[Nadnerb]

Since there were two posts between me and my edit:

As for "no reference to the D'ni or any Myst canon", a book is a reference to the Myst canon, and as such, it must follow the rules of that canon. Someone had to learn to write them somewhere.

The way I (and I assume many others) read it is that the rules of linking are actual physical restrictions on what books can and cannot do, which are not changed by what age they are in, or where they were written. It is assumed that the only reason Yeesha could apparently bend/break some of these rules was because she was a ridiculous/prodigal artist and either found some loopholes in the book writing methods or had direct help from the bahro (who don't need books to link)

[Justintime9]

I really like sonavio, it's one of my favorite player created ages... however, I did notice the linkingbook contradiction. I think the best way to solve your problem would be to create some sort of linking chamber or something, (the only way what you're doing with the linkingbook would be possible.)

[Trylon]

(Me speaking IC)
The way I understand it, the book's "BIOS" prevents it from linking into the same age.
Yeesha probably overrides this because she found a way to write an override "BIOS" into a book.
It's safe to assume that such writing is very low-level (think "Assembler") and as such will probably need a large understanding of the inner workings of books.
The way I see it we can probably hack this functionality together based on the Relto book, but that will take quite some time.

(Me speaking OOC)
You can solve your problem story-wise with the following construct:

The book itself doesn't actually link you into the same Age, but instead links you to another unnamed Age. In that Age, there is a book positioned in such a way that upon linking in you immediately touch that book, and link back to your original age.

[D'Lanor]

You could use an intermediate nexus age. If you make that a sub age of Sonavio that nexus will not show up under Personal Ages. At least not in a server controlled environment such as MORE. This would keep your age self contained.

[Kierra]

My Ages have no connection to the D'ni storyline as well, and I'm operating under the assumption that in all the universes, realities and dimensions, the D'ni couldn't possibly be the only beings that discovered the Art of Writing.

Therefore whatever loophole Yeesha found, is findable also. Maybe even commonplace.

Just be sure to point that out somewhere along the way for the D'ni nitpickers.

At least, that's what I intend on doing.

~Kia