Myst Facts and Speculation

This page is arguably the most important. Unlike the rest of the site, it is not for newbies. It is for those who wish to get the most out of Myst - by pointing out things you may not know, and drawing information from all the Myst sources - the games (including the rarely-read journals), the novels, the websites, and some of the special chats with the designers.

Thus this section is handed down a CLASS RED SPOILER WARNING!
I take every liberty here to discuss anything necessary, including full spoilers to all of the Myst and Uru games and books.

In case you're wondering, yes this is the part where we start to get like the nerds on The Simpsons who can speak fluent Klingon. (Well, no I can't speak D'ni personally but I believe there are those who can.) The point is, yes, I will be discussing minute details which won't concern any but the truest of Myst fans. (Or "The Called" as we like to be known.)

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the forums, with many new players arriving to play Myst IV, in which players are asking things or making assumptions without having all the information. This page is for them!

I have made every attempt to back up all of the "facts" with sources from the games, novels or websites, providing links if possible. Firstly, I'd like to thank the D'ni Desk Reference, for providing a lot of journal transcripts I refer to.

All speculation is marked with the "speculation" background and colours (as seen here) - and is derived either from my personal musings, or opinions found on the forums.

If you find any official proof for speculation, or anything that officially disproves anything on this page, please contact me so I can set it straight.

A note: If possible, I will quote Richard A. Watson, a Cyan employee known to most as RAWA. His job is the "D'ni Historian." He is the keeper of the book, and the one who answers all the questions about the Myst universe in general. Anything he says on D'ni is law, and no argument shall henceforth be entered into! This page, courtesy D'ni Desk Reference, provides links to some of RAWA's most important letters.

Also, I've made numerous references to the Myst novels. In case you aren't aware, three novels were published: Myst: The Book of Atrus (1995), Myst: The Book of Ti'ana (1996) and Myst: The Book of D'ni (1997). They are brilliant reading in their own right. (I've heard good reports from people who read the books without playing the games!) But they also provide much-needed information about the universe. They are often abbreviated to BOA, BOT and BOD.

Table of Contents

Who Made The Games?
The Art of Writing
D'ni Numerals
D'ni Writing
Earth, D'ni, The Cleft and Tomahna
How do you pronounce "D'ni"?

Who Made The Games?

Its surprising how often people have misconceptions about who made the games. There are now 6 Myst games, all created and published by various different companies, so its easy to get lost. Here are the answers.

Myst, Riven, realMyst and the Uru saga were developed by Cyan Worlds. (the creators and owners of the Myst franchise)
Myst III: Exile was developed by Presto Studios.
Myst IV: Revelation was developed in-house by Ubisoft Montreal Studios, by a group known as "Team Revelation." Adding to the confusion is the Cyan logo which appears at the start. However this is merely a token. Cyan did not make this game.

Myst, Riven and Myst Masterpiece were published by Brøderbund (the latter two under the name "Red Orb", a division of Brøderbund)
realMyst was published by Mattel Interactive. (Apparently it was purchased by Ubisoft shortly after, so they may have had a hand in the publishing).
Myst III: Exile, Uru and Myst IV: Revelation were published by Ubisoft.

The current situation is this: Cyan Worlds still owns the rights to the Myst franchise, and are developing the next game. Ubisoft presently holds publishing rights to all Myst games, past and present. For example, Ubisoft have now republished the original three games in "10th Anniversary" packaging, using their own logos in the game intros.

Source: Game packaging and credits

The Art of Writing

The basic premise behind Myst is that the ancient race of the D'ni were able to create Linking Books to ... any place they could describe in words. They would Write in a special book, with special ink, a description of the place, or "Age", and after done Writing it, were able to "link" to that Age - to actually transport themselves to that place, through the book.

This intriguing device, upon further thought, is really the ultimate tool for game creators - an excuse to come up with anything they can imagine. Because anything the game creators could imagine, could be Written and could exist in an Age. It is also a wonderful gameplay device - since most of the Myst games are structured around the player linking to all sorts of different Ages. The fact that they are books also gives the game an overall intellectual feel.

Needless to say, the Art of Writing worlds out of words is non-trivial, and countless discussions, both on the forums and with the game designers (not to mention between the various in-game and in-novel characters) have arisen. Nobody is 100% clear on the in-depth mechanics of the Art (save maybe RAWA!). But this discussion is an attempt at the most complete explanations possible.

Stepping back through history, it seems, like many things, that Cyan themselves were not always clear on the details. We were first introduced to Linking Books in the manual of Myst:

You have just stumbled upon a most intriguing book, a book titled Myst. You have no idea where it came from, who wrote it, or how old it it. Reading through its pages provides you with only a superbly crafted description of an island world. But it's just a book, isn't it?

As you reach the end of the book, you lay your hand on a page. Suddenly your own world dissolves into blackness, replaced with the island world the pages described. Now you're here, wherever here is, with no option but to explore...

Later, we learned that the books were all written in an ancient language of the D'ni. Yet this description seems to imply that the book is written in English (since you are supposed to be "you" - a human, not a D'ni). It is also made quite clear in all other sources that the "linking panel" is on the front or second page, not the last page. This second change was corrected in realMyst. I present the new second paragraph from the realMyst manual:

As you open the book, you are startled by a picture of an island. The picture seems a little too real; in fact, the picture seems to be moving. In disbelief, you place your hand on the picture. Suddenly...your own world dissolves into blackness, replaced with the island world the pages described. Now you're here, wherever here is, with no option but to explore...

Also interesting to note is that the Myst manual never mentioned the linking panel or flyby. These are a separate topic of their own, discussed elsewhere on this page.

Firstly, on the issue of the "player" being Human or D'ni, RAWA gave on July 19, 2001, a definitive answer (responding to "I thought everyone was D'ni"):

I don't know what to say to that one. The journals in Myst and Riven seem pretty clear on this to me. Admittedly that's easy for me to see from this side of things. But the Book of Atrus, imo, is _really_ clear that the D'ni are out of the story during the time of Myst and Riven.

The following things are made quite clear by all sources:

• The language used to describe all known books is D'ni - a special form of D'ni which is more structured and descriptive than usual everyday D'ni. However there has been some speculation (by characters) as to whether another language such as English could be used to Write with.
• It is, however, clear that (contrary to the old beliefs) one does not have to be D'ni blood to Write. Clearly, Anna, Catherine, and the rest of the impure-blooded family (Gehn, Atrus, Yeesha) were able to Write.
• The books must be made from special paper. In D'ni times, an entire guild (The Guild of Book-makers) was devoted to producing the special paper and making it into books.
• The books must be written using a special ink. Again, another guild (The Guild of Ink-makers) was devoted to this sacred task.
• Each Age was written only once in a huge book known as the "Descriptive Book". These books are rarely seen in the games (the only one which is definitely a Descriptive Book is the Riven book, seen in K'veer at the end of Myst and start of Riven.) This book contained all the phrases to make up the Age.
• Numerous smaller "Linking Books" could then be created, which linked "through" the Descriptive Book. These are the books we use in the games. Linking Books contained only key phrases, used to bind the book to the original Descriptive Book. Unlike the Desc. Books, Linking Books must be written in the Age and location to which they are intended to link. If the Descriptive Book was destroyed, all Linking Books to that Age would cease to function.
• All Ages are unique. If you wrote a new Descriptive Book that was exactly the same as another one, it would link to a slightly different (yet familiar) Age. The key difference would be if person A linked through one book, and person B linked through the other, they could not meet in the Age.
• Although anything you are wearing or carrying comes with you when you link, the linking book through which you linked never does. It always remains behind, so that others can follow. (Note: Yeesha seems to have broken this rule with Relto, but the explanation for this is that she is extremely powerful.)
• No book can link to an Age from within that Age. Thats a rule. (Although we've never seen any actual tests done. Conversely, we've certainly never been able to do it, until Uru.) This explains why Gehn had to have all his Riven books in another Age, and not on Riven itself. (Note: Again, Yeesha managed to break this rule with Relto (and several other links in the game). Once again, the excuse is she is extremely powerful.)
• You can make subtle changes to an Age by crossing out or adding phrases to the original Descriptive Book. This actually modifies the Age itself. However, too drastic changes would cause the "target Age" to be changed. The link to the original would be lost forever, and the new Age would take its place.

There is, however, a great deal of uncertainty governing the Art. Many of player's questions have been answered over the years by RAWA.

It seems that Linking stems from some variation of Quantum Mechanics. Obviously Linking and QM that Physicists use have some very major differences. Basic details are there.

"The branches of the Great Tree grow without end, yet the Maker knows them all"
- D'ni Guild site

Atrus always talked about the "Great Tree of Possibilities" - a huge system of events, in which every possibility is accounted for. One can imagine the stems of the Great Tree - if two Ages have any similarities, then they are joined at that point on the Tree. Any differences they have are where the branching begins. One can see that all Ages appear somewhere on the Great Tree. As discussed above, minor changes to an Age actually change it, while major changes "shift the link" back down a branch of the Tree and up a new one, to a slightly different Age.

RAWA's own explanation (dated Nov 14, 1997):

In the 'infinity' of the 'Tree of Possibilites' there are countless worlds to match any description you can write. There is a chaotic element in how the Book selects which of those many worlds it will link to, which even the D'ni never were able to compensate for

Relating to the "changes to the book" speculation, he wrote (May 31, 2002):

Changes to the Descriptive Book. I'm not sure how to state more clearly how it works without going off on a few dozen tangents. It's possible to make changes that will force the Book to link to another Age entirely. It's possible to make changes that further define the Age without linking to a different Age, etc. Very tricky stuff.

Where and when exactly are the Ages? Atrus spent years looking at the stars to try and find an answer. It seems that Ages may be in the same "universe" as each other, just potentially billions of miles away. Furthermore, they could be at any time. This raised the question that it may be possible to write a link to an Age that is the same Age, only at a different time. (Of couse this is near-impossible due to explanations above). RAWA wrote (on July 11, 2001):

There isn't anything that says linking to the same Age at a different time is impossible in the "it _cannot_ happen" sense of the word, but it is so extremely unlikely that it for all intents and purposes it is considered impossible in the "it _does not_ happen" sense of the word.

It's the same reason that it is "impossible" to write two Descriptive Books (not Linking Books) to the same Age (even ignoring whether it's the same time or earlier time, etc.), even if you write the exact same words in both Books.

On the discussion above about Yeesha's Relto book breaking two rules (You can't take a book with you and you can't link to an Age you're in.) - This was written in-character by "Dr. Watson" who is technically not RAWA (December 11, 2002):

Unbelievable I spoke with one of the Uru explorers yesterday. I personally watched him use the mysterious Book. The Book did not remain behind. It indeed went with him. Frankly, I had really expected this to be some kind of hoax.

We have never found a D'ni Book that can do this. It obviously would have been useful enough that one would think that the D'ni would have figured out how to do it long ago if it were possible, but none of their Books can do this.

And that's not the only D'ni rule that this Book breaks. You are not going to believe this one, Vic. Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, the explorer came back shortly after, and offered to let me see the Age it links to. I was hesitant, since we know so little about this Book, but I agreed.

The Book links to a small island, only it's not surrounded by water, it's surrounded by clouds. There is only one small building and a few small trees.

My host had another surprise for me. As I watched, he used his Book again and re-appeared at the link-in spot on the other side of the island. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. He was able to link within an Age. No D'ni Books can do that either.

And now, the Age-Old question: Are we creating Ages by Writing them, or merely linking to them?

This question goes down to the epic struggle between father and son. Clearly, Gehn believed he was a God, who had created Riven and the other Ages. He believed he had created all the people, and given them life, and memories. Atrus believed that the Ages existed beforehand, and Gehn had simply linked to them.

However, the more you read on the subject, the more it becomes clear that Atrus was right. RAWA himself wrote (Sept 17, 1997):

The D'ni histories indicate that the D'ni did not believe that they were creating the Ages they linked to. They seemed to understand that the Ages already existed, and that they were merely creating the _links_to these Ages. This is Atrus' view as well.

Gehn, on the other hand, wants to control the Ages he has made, and uses the power of the Books to intimidate the inhabitants of those worlds. He believes he has the power to create, and therefore the right to do what he wishes with the Ages (and the inhabitants).

The argument has no clear answer. One important thing to consider is, do we want to think that we were "created" by a D'ni writer, or just linked to? Because we know that the D'ni did not always live on Earth. Ri'neref, the Writer of D'ni, lived on the original homeland of Garternay. He wrote Earth himself, linking his people to the underground cavern. If Gehn's theory is correct, then we, too, are "creations" of the Art. Kinda humbling, isn't it?

I'm going to close with a huge slab written by RAWA on Sept 17, 1997, relating to everything I've discussed. It does cover Quantum theory and the Art. But remember that RAWA's letters, and this conversation, have only scratched the surface of the intricacies of the Art.

The question relates to making changes to an Age without actually shifting the link (specifically as to how Anna and Catherine were able to change Riven, writing in daggers and so forth):

This is the most complicated and confusing aspect of The Art. In order to gain a deeper knowledge of the workings of the Books, we'll need a working knowledge of quantum mechanics.

!! WARNING 11 - GREAT, BIG, HEAVY, COMPLICATED EXPLANATION - !! WARNING !!

Many of the interpretations of quantum theory say that until a state of matter is observed, it exists in many states simultaneously - it creates a bizarre "probability wave" that contains all of the possible states of that matter. Therefore, as was proposed in Schrodinger's famous cat analogy, bizarre things happen on the quantum level that allow things like Schrodinger's cat to be both alive and dead at the same time, until one of the states is observed, locking it in a single state, and collapsing the "probability wave."

What the D'ni seem to have concluded (proved?), is that those waves don't actually cease to exist altogether, instead each possibility continues to exist in an alternate quantum reality (read "parallel universe"), until a state is observed in that quantum reality, and the possibilities not observed in that quantum reality continue to exist in still another, and so on ad infinitum. This makes the universe infinitely complex, with every possible quantum combination since the creation of the universe existing in a quantum reality somehere (even the "unstable Ages"). The Books somehow allow observation of (thus the locking of) and travel to those quantum realities.

So, you can make "unobserved" changes (probabilities that haven't been locked down by description in the Book, or by physical observation in the Age itself) without forcing the Book to link to a new quantum reality.

This is why being careful of contradictions is so important. The problem with contradictions is that the Book attemps to link to a quantum reality that matches a contradictory description, and the closest thing it can find is usually fairly unstable.

I could write for days and still not do this subject justice, but that's the best I can do right now. Hope it helps explain it a bit. Oh, and I see that hand in the back. "What about the changes to Riven? You still haven't answered that."

The changes made to Riven near the end of the Book of Atrus (pg 268 in the hardcover edition), were a collaboration between Anna and Catherine. Anna's main contribution was probably keeping the Book free of contradictions. Catherine's intuitive (but D'ni rule-breaking) style was so bizarre that earlier Atrus had claimed that her Books wouldn't even work - yet they did.

The daggers which mysteriously appeared around the island, and the lava filled fissures were made possible by her odd style - which I cannot explain. And although Catherine and Anna intended for the lava filled fissures as part of their plan to rescue Atrus while still leaving Gehn trapped in his Fifth Age, the Star Filled Fissure was not intentional or anticipated.

To me, it remains the most mysterious object in all the D'ni histories.

And the Star Fissure will be covered on this page elsewhere.

Source: Myst, realMyst, Uru, Letters by RAWA

D'ni Numerals

The D'ni's counting system was introduced first in the game Riven through a clever puzzle. As part of the game, you had to figure out how the counting system worked. You also needed these numbers in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst to solve at least one puzzle, but if you hadn't already figured it out, it was easier to figure out in that game.

Due to the non-straightforward manner in which they are presented, some confusion arises about the more advanced use of the numerals. First and foremost, these are not "Rivenese" numerals. They are actually D'ni. (Note that the original Brady "Official Riven Strategy Guide" called them "Rivenese" numbers. There is some confusion as to whether they originally were meant to be "Rivenese". No doubt now, (in Uru) they are D'ni numbers.)

Another interesting thing to note is that most of the D'ni characters are derived from the numbers. They have lost their "boxes" and have become much more cursive and elegant. But upon closer inspection, they seem to have been derived from the numbers, which is interesting historically. What is not clear, is why the numbers didn't evolve over time, and are still written as harsh lines inside very rigid boxes.

The D'ni number system itself is a base-25 counting system. The best way to think of this is that we have a base-10 counting system; there are 10 symbols in ours (0-9). In the base-10 system, the "tenth" number (10) begins the next column with a "1" and sets the first column back to "0". People often have difficulty understanding foreign counting systems, but a base-4 system, for example, simply has 4 digits. The base-4 system would go:
0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 32, 33, 100, 101, 102, 103, 110.... etc
The same as our counting system except we skip all numbers past 3.

A base-25 system is the same too, except we add numbers so that there are 25 symbols. The 25th number therefore resets the counting system.

The D'ni system is a little more involved. So you can remember symbols more easily, there is a "base-5" system embedded inside the first 25 symbols. Firstly, the numeral for "zero" is this:

Zero never appeared in any Riven puzzles. (Although I believe it may have been in the game). It appeared first officially in Uru - used as both the symbol for the "Great Zero" location, and also serving as numerous delete buttons within the game. To date it hasn't been used as part of a puzzle.

The first four numbers, 1, 2, 3 and 4 (which I will call the "1-multiple" symbols) are as follows:

That's all the symbols you really have to remember. The numbers 5, 10, 15 and 20 are simply the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, rotated 90 degrees. I will call these the "5-multiple" symbols. So, for example, the famous number 5, used as the symbol for Riven, the Fifth Age, is a D'ni "1" rotated 90 degrees:

All numbers in between are simply the appropriate "5-multiple" and "1-multiple" symbols (which add together) printed on top of one another. So the symbol for 6 is 5 + 1 - a 5 and a 1 on top of each other. 7 is a 5 and a 2. 8 is a 5 and a 3. Etc. Hence, the symbols for 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are as follows:

Following the rule, the number "10" is a "2" rotated 90 degrees, and 11, 12, 13 and 14 are 10 with another "1-multiple" number over the top. Here are 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14:

Of course, the 15 is a 3 rotated, and the 20 is a 4 rotated. Here are the symbols for 15 through 24:

We now have the 25 symbols (0-24) needed for a base-25 system. So now the correct way to write "25" is a 1 and a 0:

Since one puzzle in Riven used codes from 1 to 25, a special "single-digit" system for 25 was needed. So although the "correct" form of 25 is 1-0, it is acceptable to write the following symbol for 25. This is the only number you may use this symbol for. All other numbers must be written properly.

The "shorthand" number 25:

RAWA wrote on the "shorthand" 25:

For mathematical purposes (25 should be written as two digits). In these cases, twenty-five is always represented as two digits ("10"). But the D'ni also has a single symbol for 25 used in other instances (like comparisons, where they judge things on a scale from 1 to 25).

The formula for reading numbers larger than 25 is to take each digit from the right give it an "exponent" number, which is 25 to the power of the column number (so the rightmost digit is the "1s" column (25^0=1), the second from the right is the "25s" column (25^1=25), the third from the right is the "625s" column (25^2=625), etc). Then multiply each column's digit by its exponent number and add them all. Below is a graphical representation:

This number has a 2 in the 625s column, a 3 in the 25s column, and a 9 in the 1s column. Therefore, it equates to (2×625) + (3×25) + (9×1) = 1334.

A more famous example follows:

Keen players will recognise this from the cover of the books which linked to Gehn's age in Riven. What number is it? It has a 9 in the 25s column and an 8 in the 1s column. Therefore it is (9×25) + (8×1) = 233. Hence the reason it is known as "Gehn's 233rd Age".

For reference, here are the numbers from 0-25 (including the shorthand 25):

Source: Riven, Uru, Brady's Official Riven Strategy Guide

D'ni Writing

The D'ni language is a complete, complex language. Not only does it have new symbols than we are used to, but it also contains its own words and grammar rules (making it a fully-defined language). Knowledge of the language is not necessary to play the game, and it isn't taught in the games (Myst IV comes close, teaching you the symbols.) However it may be fun to know it and be able to translate the various D'ni writing you see about the place.

The language is too detailed to go into here. Please follow this link to the D'ni Linguistic Fellowship, a site wholly devoted to the D'ni language. (Thanks to mszv for the link.)

Earth, D'ni, The Cleft and Tomahna

I'm going to come right out and say this: Earth, D'ni, The Cleft and Tomahna are all the same Age. This is a hotly debated topic on the forums, but the answer can be proved definitively, as I have done below.

Firstly, let me say that the issue is not obvious. Myst fans have had the various facts relating to these four places slowly revealed over time.

Of course, in Myst, we got to go to a place called "Dunny" at the end. Its name was changed to "D'ni" before the first book, to the relief of the Australian fans. ("Dunny" is Australian slang for "Toilet") At the time, we had no idea of the importance of "Dunny" in the Myst universe. And we certainly had no idea it was on Earth.

Myst: The Book of Atrus (BOA) was the first novel, released in 1995, and gave us most of the answers. It first introduced the concept of "Earth" into the Myst universe - and told us that Atrus had grown up on Earth, in a desert, in a place called "The Cleft" with his grandmother.

Here we come to one of the unfortunate episodes in the development of the Myst story. It seems that David Wingrove, who wrote the books, was told that the Cleft was in "a desert". Unfortunately, he pictured a middle-eastern desert, and so the books give us middle-eastern names like "Tadjinar", "Jaarnindu" and "Amanjira" (Although there are no direct references to the middle-east). Cyan had always pictured the Cleft being in New Mexico, USA. Uru definitively places it in New Mexico, causing a contradiction. However the Uru, and therefore Cyan positioning is considered correct.

RAWA explained this when asked "Did Cyan originally want the cleft to be in New Mexico?"

Short answer: Yes, as far as Cyan is concerned, the Cleft has always been in New Mexico.

Long answer: Our intent was always for it to be in New Mexico, though we had no intentions of revealing its location at that time. In our outlines for the novels, the Cleft was near a non-descript volcano in a non-descript desert. Any "clues" to its location were added by David Wingrove when he fleshed out our outlines.

The Cleft can be explored in Uru and (despite the problem with location) is exactly as described in The Book of Atrus. It is essentially a large fissure-shaped crack in the ground, near a large volcano. In the BOA, Atrus learned that the volcano masked the secret entrance to D'ni. He walked to D'ni on foot (without linking - easily proven by the fact he had never seen a linking book when he arrived in D'ni), proving that The Cleft (In New Mexico, on Earth) is in the same Age as D'ni. This volcano was used as the portal between the cavern and the surface-world by Anna on her way back up to the surface in Myst: The Book of Ti'ana and also by Atrus and Gehn in the BOA.

Want further proof? This quote is from the DRC's own public material:

(Ri'neref) didn't write a link to a luxurious planet. He wrote a link to a large cavern deep underground. He called his Age "D'ni" (New Start).
We call it Earth.

So what about Tomahna? Tomahna was introduced to us in the closing pages of Myst: The Book of D'ni in the following quote:

Atrus and I live quietly on Tomahna, with a new daughter, Yeesha...

(We got information overload during that last page of the BOD... suddenly we had Releeshahn, Tomahna and Yeesha all at once!)

Tomahna first appeared as a small Age in Myst III: Exile - the player appeared here to start the adventure and it was quickly attacked by Saavedro, who started a fire and left us the J'nanin book, which we were forced to follow. Tomahna was just two rooms in Exile - and at the start we could look out into an orange barren desert. If that wasn't enough of a hint, the answer came in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst at the very end (during Yeesha's speech, at the Cleft):

And another gift is here. A link to the Cleft, here in Tomahna.

There you go! It's surprising how many people missed this little hint.

In Myst IV: Revelation theres a bit of another hint - at the start, Atrus tells you he'll "have to go to the Cleft to pick up some supplies." While he could be linking there, it is implied that the Cleft is nearby.

And, as MTigerV points, out, there is an amulet "memory" in Myst IV which proves that Tomahna is near the Cleft (look into the telescope, at the moon, and click the amulet). Atrus:

A long time ago, when your great-grandmother Anna first mapped out this desert with her father, she looked up at the sky and used that star to find her way home.

It's important to note, as part of this proof, that nowhere does it ever say that Atrus wrote Tomahna. Looking back, you can see how careful they have been. In the Book of D'ni and in Exile, both of which talk about the "new Ages" - Releeshahn and Tomahna, they always say that Atrus "Wrote Releeshahn" but "lives on Tomahna". Another very subtle hint. And as someone pointed out, in Revelation, Atrus was Wrote the linking chambers into Haven and Spire, but he had to build it by hand in Tomahna because he did not have access to the original descriptive book. (Although there are reasons against this.)

Hence, Earth = D'ni = Tomahna = The Cleft.

Also: I heard that RAWA officially confirmed that Tomahna was on Earth, about 200 miles from The Cleft, during the testing for Uru, but I can't find the direct quote. (If anyone can confirm or deny this please let me know.)

Source: Myst, Myst III: Exile, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Myst IV: Revelation, www.drcsite.org, Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, Myst: The Book of D'ni

How do you pronounce "D'ni"?

This topic is interesting, and the confusion is probably caused by the fact that originally, D'ni was "Dunny". And of course, this was pronounced "DUH-nee". We generally assume that after Myst, Cyan found out that "Dunny" was Australian slang for "Toilet" and promptly changed the spelling to "D'ni" - which most people would pronounce "Deh-NEE".

However, to stay consistent, Riven, realMyst and Exile stuck with the original pronunciation, "DUH-nee". To make things even more confusing, in Uru Rand Miller (Atrus) stuck with "DUH-nee" while the other actors (Rengin Altay as Yeesha, and David Ogden Stiers as Zandi and Watson) changed to "Deh-NEE". In Revelation, Miller and most other characters say "DUH-nee" while I think one of the brothers says "Deh-NEE".

It really seems like now you can say it any way you like. Here's what RAWA had to say on the matter as recently as October 8, 2004 (After the release of Myst IV):

As far as a native D'ni speaker is concerned you're right. "Duh-nee" is not how they'd pronounce it.
Actually, the "'" after a consonant means you basically just pronounce the consonant. Think of it as when I'm trying to help my son sound out a word when he's reading. "dog" - "duh-ah-guh". It's not a long "uh" sound - it's just a tiny, little thing - but the sound is there.
It's not slurred "dnee", and it's not accented "DUH-nee", it's just "d-nee". If anything, the accent would be on the second syllable "d-NEE"
"Dunny", however, is a perfectly acceptable anglicized pronunciation, just as we generally pronounce "Mexico" as "MEKS-ih-co" rather than "Meh-HEE-co", or "Israel" as "IZ-ray-el" rather than "YIS-rah-ayl", "Bruh-zil" for "Bra-sil"), etc., etc.
At least it's closer than "deny", which is how I usually hear it pronounced if someone sees "D'ni" without having seen it spelled "Dunny". :)

So its good to have this all cleared up. Basically he's saying the Uru pronunciation, "Deh-NEE" is correct, "DUH-nee" as Rand Miller likes to say is heavily accented English (possibly explained by the fact Atrus grew up speaking English), and really any way is correct.

Source: news.patchallel.com (check the archives)