A Myst-ish picture

[Branan]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is already floating around the Uru community somewhere, but I just found it

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100519.html

[Robert The Rebuilder]

That is an amazing picture!

I looked at the PDF about the Great Gallery drawings, and it is remarkable how similar the various 'bahroglyph' paintings in URU are to these ancient drawings. They just had to be the source of the Cyan artists' inspiration.

[Jojon]

Koyaanisqatsi. :)

[Darien]

Here's a gallery by the same photographer. Great stuff.
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/bretwebsterimages/gallery/High-Lights/G0000farWXLndXv4/

[Cernunnos]

Koyaanisqatsi.

Loved that movie. Made my head hurt so much.

I looked at the PDF about the Great Gallery drawings, and it is remarkable how similar the various 'bahroglyph' paintings in URU are to these ancient drawings. They just had to be the source of the Cyan artists' inspiration.

I'm almost positive it was intentional. The allusions to Puebloan culture in the Myst world are extensive. They even imply that the Puebloans and the D'ni are distantly related in the books, if I remember correctly.

[ddb174]

Certainly not in the books! In the books, the Cleft is located in either Arabia or Northern Africa. Ah, the golden era of Myst...

But on the old Uru website they suggested that, yes.

[diafero]

In the books, the Cleft is located in either Arabia or Northern Africa

Where do the books make any reference to where the cleft is? I just remember "desert" and "volcano", which could be about everywhere...

[Aloys]

In BoA there are characters in the desert speaking Arabic; there are also references to camels IIRC. (not sure about that)

[ddb174]

Yes, the books are very clear on where it is. Cyan later changed it, I suspect because of Sept 11. But they are quick to purposefully conflict with previous canon, so it's not that surprising.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

In the books, the Cleft is located in either Arabia or Northern Africa

Where do the books make any reference to where the cleft is? I just remember "desert" and "volcano", which could be about everywhere...

There are camels, traders speaking Arabic, the city of Tadjinar, etc. It's pretty clear that the Cleft, in the books, was located somewhere in the old World (North Africa, Near and Middle Easts).

Rawa explains here http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=328378#328378 that this was the original intention, but in the process of having the books written, the generic desert setting that it was set in (intended in the long run to be New Mexico) was made more detailed by David Wingrove (to add flavor, and probably especially for the scenes with Anna going to the market). He chose to flavor it as Middle Eastern/North African in style, probably because that is an exotic and mysterious kind of setting, making for interesting reading.