Moons

[I.Brattin]

I am wondering something. This question is more about canon I guess. K we have a link to an age right, and with the use of linking books we can have a link to any point in an age. But that linking book has to be written in the place were linking too.

Now my question is this can we then link to the moon of said age?

[Barbossa]

since it is orbiting the planet/age itself, rather then the age orbiting it, I'd like to think that you could link to the moon(s) of the age.

[Gorobay]

I.Brattin: I believe it would not be possible in the canon, unless you have some way of getting to the moon first.

Barbossa: Since an age is a universe, it is meaningless to speak of whether it orbits something or vice versa.

[Sifr]

According to Mystlore, there are two kinds of Linking Books.

The first kind of linking book requires the Writer to describe the area in which they are present in order to create a Link into the Age. This is the result of the D'ni having little control over there initial Linking Point, ie. the point in which the Age is entered via the Descriptive Book. These Linking Books were to help the Writer enter in a more controlled manner and a place of their choosing. According to RAWA the Writer need not know the original Descriptive Book in order for this link to work, just so long as the area of the age they are creating the Link to is described properly. Conversely, if the area changed significantly, the Link would no longer work.

The second kind were a refinement of the technique, and used phrases from the Descriptive Book in order to create the link. These could be written to points inside the Age, while the Writer was outside of it. These were first used by the Maintainers in their suits in order to safely inspect new Ages, and was later used by Atrus in Spire and Haven. If you recall from Myst IV, when they wrote the Visiting Pods into Haven and Spire, they did so from Tomahna, where they also wrote the Link. This makes sense, since they would not risk entering the Age before then and the whole point was to speak to their Sons in a secure manner.

So...

In order to answer your question. Canonically, it is possible for someone to write a Link to a Moon of an Age from outside the Age itself.

Its also possible to Link in to a moving object, as the whole Gahreesen Prison Links work in this way.

--Sifr

[I.Brattin]

Thank you everyone for your input.

Sounds like what Sifr described would indeed work. I had been debating tieing two of my ages together. I had wanted to do it as one of them being the moon. This would indeed work I believe. Thank you.

[zib_redlektab]

Its also possible to Link in to a moving object, as the whole Gahreesen Prison Links work in this way.

I could be wrong, but I think I remember reading somewhere that there was some kind of crazy synchronization necessary in order to link into the cells on Gahreesen and not get stuck in a wall. This also would have enabled the D'ni to use one linking book to link into each cell on any given floor, based on when they linked.

It calls into question how specific a linking book has to be, and what the motion of a link-in spot is relative to. Obviously the movement of the planet an age is on is insignificant, but if a linking book is written at the top of a ladder, which is then removed, using the book later would drop the user from 10 feet above the ground, so that location obviously matters. But is the location relative to the planet, or simply the ground? If it were relative to the ground, then the Gahreesen Prison would not require any kind of synchronization, a book written in a specific cell would always link to the ground in that cell.

What does all this mean? Not sure, I'm obviously rambling. But I think that we can draw a conclusion that linking positions are relative to the planet itself, then writing a linking book to a moon wouldn't work, because it would be like writing the link on a ladder (thousands of miles off the ground instead of 10 feet, but the same idea), and when the link is established it would point to empty space above the surface of the age for most of the time, except when the moon's orbit crosses that point again.

Don't quote me on this, though I'm not RAWA, this is just my speculation...

[D'nial]

Yes, there was a timed link system for Gahreesen. Simpson mentions it in the Gahreesen journal in the second fortress.

I would say that writing an initial link to the moon of a planet would work. But there are, now that I think of it, no canon Ages that have links on moons. All we have for sure is Myst V Todelmer, which may or may not have actually been the same way in Uru as in Myst V. Even so, I would tend to think that if a link can compensate for rotation, orbit and tectonic movement of a planet, it could do the same for a moon.

[Sifr]

Its often been pointed out that the night version of Minkata is impossible, technically, since the rotation of the Galaxies that are in the sky are moving in such a way that points to them moving faster than light, or that Minkata is in a bubble that means space-time outside of it is moving faster than what it should be.

The Art can cause many weird things to be possible, I don't think we can discount that it could be used to link to a Moon. I mean, a Moon is just a solid surface that is in an Age as well as any other, so why not?

[Barbossa]

I.Brattin: I believe it would not be possible in the canon, unless you have some way of getting to the moon first.

Barbossa: Since an age is a universe, it is meaningless to speak of whether it orbits something or vice versa.

ah, there you are incorrect, an age is NOT a universe. though similar, they are not it. But yeah, i forgot that to write a linking book you have to be outside the age, and thinking of the location inside it. and since the planets themselves are moving, you could link unto them. However, as stated before, linking into a moving object, independent of the natural movement., such as an elevator, cage.. or other things is difficult, if not impossible outside of timed links. IIRC.

This brings a question to my mind now. What defines exactly what is natural movement and not now> is it anything that is man made, that is out of its boundaries?

If so, is there a way to write an age that has constantly fast moving tectonic plates, so the continents and islands constantly reform themselves? and if so, would you always be able to link in the same spot on the land, if not, does this mean you can only link to it on certain days/times?

[D'nial]

But yeah, i forgot that to write a linking book you have to be outside the age, and thinking of the location inside it.

Not quite. After the Descriptive Book is set up, Linking books are written in the Age, in the location to which you want to link.