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  • September 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 197th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the chatlog!

    Contents

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September is “Time”. Entries for the “Friendship” prompt for August were from Vanta, Kh’reestrefah, Floydman, and Talashar.

    OpenUru

    ☛ If you were having issues linking to the Ae’gura Messengers Pub, you should now be able to get there without needing to lower your textures slider to half. Make sure to get any Mysterium shirts you’re still missing, before the Mysterium wing closes until next year!

    ☛ A new, temporary linking book has been added to Chiso Preniv in Minkata Alpha: the Rigilahs Pod by Ametist! It’s another entry from the 2025 Rapid Age Development Contest coming to MOULa, after Jalargura by Semjay.

    ☛ New signage is also being tested in Chiso Preniv: most of the standing signs are being replaced by engraved metal plates on the shelves, and on the remaining standing signs the handwritten text is being replaced with a typewritten one for legibility reasons. Korov’ev, Semjay and Dpogue contributed to the design, while Calum Traveler is doing all the modelling work.

    When the new signage will make its way to MOULa, the plan is to initially have it deployed only to e.g. Mir-o-Bot’s Chiso Preniv (@32319, PM “to Chiso” to get teleported there), so that people will be able to compare and contrast them, and pick which one they like more.

    ☛ Along with Descent, Calum Traveler has also started to work on the second Kirel rebuild in Blender, or Kirel 3. Importing and rewiring existing Ages and locations like Kirel is necessary to fix bugs and improve visuals.

    Down the line, a game room is planned to be opened in the area between the Ahyoheek plaza and the bridge, first in Kirel, then at some point in the neighborhoods. In particular, the room will include an additional Ahyoheek table.

    ☛ More testers are needed in Minkata Prime and Alpha, with older computers and Windows versions (or even Linux/MacOS). The bug in the Messengers Pub wasn’t caught partly because there were no testers available with the kind of computer configuration that was affected by it. More info on the OpenUru’s web page and Discord server.

    ☞ For a list of Ages currently in the works, check the “Explorers Restoration Projects” page on the Archivists’ wiki. Ages that may be added to Minkata Alpha sometime in the near future are Pod 12 and Rei’schu Apartment.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Skyisblu’s Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium”, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Ereshkigal is on holiday until the 19, so there won’t be a story session for the first two weeks of this month. Every Saturday, she hosts an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel’s classical music program will be on Monday 21 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome, regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted by Korov’ev every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream.

    In the Open Cave this month they will undertake the Fifth Journey, first in Er’cana then in Ahnonay.

    In Deep Island they will visit quite a few Ages: first Ahrkane by Ekimmai, with a small but intensive set of puzzles, along with Cass and Fahets by Tweek, which will be significantly expanded for their eventual MOUL release. Then a few beaches: T’vel (sunny and stormy) by Race, Ahreeuhtahv by Cherish & Race (in its Restoration version by Tikibear), and the eveocative Llantern by Nye Sigismund.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check the calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Two student are taking the classes.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (@80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Tuesday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (@27527) or Mimi Bot (@71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently telling “Jae’s Journey”, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2009; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know she is inivited to hear her story performed live! Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held every Saturday in Tsahno’s Hood, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (@58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    August ended with the CavFunding at 122% (CavCon 4.2) and the reserve at 570%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 3 (Leevot 16) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Summer Festival 2026 (update)

    Summer Festival 2026 (update)

    This year’s Summer Festival will be held from monday August 24 – sunday August 30. It will offer a variety of events, like music shows, contests, quizzes, markergames and a themed Fan Age Tour. See the schedule for all the events going on this week:

    Summer Festival 2026 Schedule (pdf)

    Feel free to contact PodHopper for more info about the Summer festival.
    ( Moula # 7116825 or Discord # podhopper )

  • Summer Festival 2026

    Summer Festival 2026

    This year’s Summer Festival will be held from monday August 24 – sunday August 30. It will showcase a variety of music events, contests, a music quiz and a markergame.

    Most events require no signing up in advance, but the wall game does. So please contact Prad or me for info about and enlisting to the wall game.

    Feel free to contact me for more info or requests regarding the Summer festival.

    PodHopper ( KI # 7116825 )

  • August 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 196th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the chatlog!

    Contents

    Mysterium

    ☛ Cyan posted a recap of their presentation for Mysterium. The main topic was a slideshow of cancelled projects and ideas, most notably Anglerfish. They also showed a teaser for their current project, Mudfish. For more details, check our dedicated Mysterium post!

    ☛ Another interesting project shown during the presentation was a model of the whole Cavern being done in Unreal. While it’s not meant for release, it may come handy as reference for future projects in the D’niverse.

    ☛ During Cyan’s panel the location for next year’s Mysterium was announced: Spokane, WA. It will be Cyan’s 40th birthday and Riven’s 30th birthday!

    ☛ Many panels were streamed on the convention’s official Twitch channel and will later be exported to their YouTube channel.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Friendship”. Entries for the “Haven” prompt for July were from Vanta and from Talashar.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler and Murry also hosted the Descent Restoration panel, in which Calum gave a demo of the latest development build of the location, fruit of the collaboration with Tweek, Ametist, Ehren, TikiBear, Semjay and Maurus.

    ☛ Korman 0.18 is almost ready for release, and Calum has been testing the Descent build file to ensure it’s compatible.

    ☛ Some people are experiencing issues with the Ae’gura Messengers Pub, due to unexpected troubles with low VRAM and texture sizes. A hotfix should go live very soon to fix the issue.

    ☛ Ages still in the pipeline, with no set deadline yet: – phases 3 and beyond of Descent; – Pod 12, needs some more work and retexturing; – Reischu Apt is waiting for the final background music; – Overflow Station is on hold while Calum Traveler is completing other projects; – Mahrn Gestoy needs more testing and updating.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK is back and will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Non-human characters in games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium”, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel’s classical music program will be on Monday 17 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura. The theme will be “Cool Classics”.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome, regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted by Korov’ev every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream.

    In Deep Island, this month they will visit quite a few Ages: the works of Jamey (Tsoidahl Sheegahtee, Writers’ Niche, Crater Concept, Vogokh Oglahn); a few Ahra Pahts shells they missed (#336, #126, #111), along with Pakin and Spiro; and will conclude the month in Hayal & Ria.

    In the Open Cave, they will visit the two missing pods, Payiferen and Tetsonot, along with the recently released Pod 56; then they will look for kivas in Minkata, the Fourth Journey.

    ☛ PodHopper is planning to hold the Summerfest on August 24–30. Currently they have four events pinned down: an explorer memorial, a music quiz, a Wall competition and a cone race. A few other events needs to be confirmed. Participants are asked to sign up early for competitions, to help planning and make sure there are enough people to actually hold them.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check the calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Two student are taking the classes.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Tuesday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently retelling the first two human restorations of the Cavern. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held every Saturday in Tsahno’s Hood, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ August 1 was the anniversary of The Open Cave, 16 years for the PotS version and 15 for the MOUL one. The occasion was celebrated with an over 9 hours, non-stop music and fireworks event in the City of Dimensions.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    June ended with the CavFunding at 45% (CavCon 2.5) and the reserve at 591%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 5 (Leetahr 23) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Mysterium 2026

    Mysterium 2026

    The XXVII Mysterium was held in Portland, OR, on July 24–26, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

    Belford wrote a two-part summary in his blog, giving his perspective mainly on Cyan’s panel.

    Friday started with the Opening Announcements, with a few words and reminders from the convention chairs.

    ☛ In the A New Age of Myst Tabletop Gaming (link TBA) panel, Kefrith introduced four new homemade tabletop games themed around the Myst franchise. Three are custom re-themed versions of existing card and board games, while the fourth is a brand new design.

    ☛ In the Gehn’s Grab Bag (link TBA), attendees took game pieces, cards, instructions, and like Gehn made games with no written rules.

    ☛ Twice during the convention, Curator played the 2024 Mysterium Marker Missions (link TBA) on stream (which you can get via Mir-o-Bot).

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In the voluntary event Achenar’s Journey, people were randomly grouped and assigned a puzzle packet to solve. Annacat explored the music of the Myst series through dance and creative movement, teaching a simple short choreography. She also guided attendees through warmup and cooldown exercises each morning and evening. In the bring-your-own craft project Wharkin’ Hard ’n Hardly Wharkin’ event, attendees brought sketchbooks, knitting, crochet, drawing tablets, embroidery, quilling and such.

    Saturday started with the Creature Feature (link TBA) game: the cerpatee went extinct, Haven needs a new apex predator and it was up to the players to design one, either in teams or individually, using randomly selected Earth animals to create a creature that can fix Haven’s ecosystem.

    ☛ In the Restoration of The Great Shaft (link TBA) panel, Murry and Calum Traveler showcased the upcoming Descent location (thanks to the hard work of Calum, Tweek, Ametist, Ehren, TikiBear, Semjay and Maurus) and detailed some of the unique challenges in building it while keeping continuity with previous, often inconsistent depictions in DIRT, the novels, Myst V and Uru Live itself.

    Besides the familiar access from the Eder Tomahn, it will also be possible to enter from the Cleft area to the caldera, with a newly installed elevator platform. The location will have brand new music by Semjay and Maurus, mixed with the existing one. The tunnels have been extended compared to Myst V, to match the novels and to fix a geometric issue with the top of the Shaft, that would otherwise protrude above ground level.

    All the sections up (well, down) to the elevator platform are functional and roughly familiar if you played Myst V. There are plans for the sections beyond that, including the Bug Cave from the Intangibles assets; Semjay is working on this part.

    There is no planned released date, but Descent will be split in phases: phase 1 and 2 are the tunnels and the Shaft, phase 3 is the Bug Cave. Initially Descent will be released as a public instance, possibly with all puzzles already solved. For the future, they’re planning on a private instance that will be reached from Rainy Cleft, climbing up the volcano to the caldera.

    ☛ In the Myst Documentary (link TBA) panel, Philip Shane gave a few updates on the status and the many difficulties of the Myst Documentary. He was joined by collaborators Randy Woods (writer), David Van Taylor (consulting producer), Joshua Reinstein (editing, history cataloging), Ben Reichman (editing), John Clark, Hollister Starrett (music), Elana Bogdan (web design), and Khatie Postma (community manager). He showed various completed scenes: building Cyan’s office, outtakes from the Making of Riven footage, Rand and Robyn discussing puzzles for Myst, and the preparations for Obduction’s launch. Apparently there was a plan for a Coke–Myst Online co-branded ad.

    ☛ In the Cosplay Contest (link TBA), participant competed for the best interpretation of Achenar in Haven.

    ☛ In the Trial of Daddy Atrus (link TBA) panel, the Giant Bomb crew put Atrus on trial to decide if he’s guilty of being a bad father, and how much he’s to blame for their atrocities.

    ☛ In the Flimsiest Page (link TBA) panel, a parody of The Weakest Link, participants tried to impress everyone with their knowledge of Myst lore, often embarrassing themselves for getting it completly wrong.

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In the Guildmaster event, Taerun assigned the participants a variety of unique tasks to complete.

    Sunday started with the What Would Achenar Build? (link TBA) game, in which participants were split into groups, given a random pile of things, and given a task to build. Then each group presented their creation, to be judged based on creativity, best looking, and so on.

    ☛ In Cyan’ State of the Union panel (possibly the first in-person report not held in Spokane), Hannah Gamiel and Eric A. Anderson gave a few updates on Cyan’s activities in the last two years. The talk is also summarized on Cyan’s website.

    They started with a brief recap of the last two years: Riven’s many awards, the addition of Rime to Myst, the layoffs, the console ports of Firmament, Myst and Riven, the re-release of the novel trilogy ebook, updates for their classic games and Steam Deck verification, Steam bundles with Blue Prince, Outer Wilds and other games. Obduction was developed with early version of UE4, so further updates and ports are difficult; updating to a more recent release will take work and would lose support of certain features. Spyder is back, and posted recently on Cyan’s Discord, hinting about a link to an ARG teaser page.

    The main course was a presentation called “Paths Not (yet) Taken: Scraps from Cyan’s Development Past”, in which they showed concept art and prototype shots from various cancelled projects:

    • Latus (2004): one of the most known projects, it was an experiment in linear narrative, an episodic spy series with many interwoven storylines;
    • Obduction v.1 (2005): “Myst meets Halo”, Cyan at some point wanted to try making a shooter-style game with narrative twists. Over time the idea morphed into a game about a farmer trying to rescue his dog, who was abducted by aliens; then a scenario of a televised intergalactic game show where aliens would kidnap humans to compete for prizes. The Obduction that was released only kept a few ideas from the original concept;
    • DiSC v.1 (2006): the Cyan crew used to really be into disc golf, and actually started working on a disc golf game for the Wii, with powerups and wacky environments;
    • Lift/Lyft (2007): a game about flight and exploration, in a massive world with floating islands, alternating between third-person exploration on the ground and first-person flying combat;
    • Origami (2007): a much smaller, top-down action game about fighting paper monsters. Both Lift and Origami used Plasma 3.0, only used in Hex Isle;
    • Latus v.2 (2010): the second attempt was a timeline game in a 3D world, in which you could move along the timeline, seeing the ripple effects of small changes, opening new locations and new options as you progressed, exponentially expanding the possibile branches;
    • Goldfish (2011): “a love letter to the D’ni Cavern”, it was a game set in D’ni but not about Atrus. Some concepts and ideas were reworked for Obduction and Firmament;
    • DiSC v.2 (2016): similar to DiSC v.1, but in VR; they even had a prototype, but it didn’t go anywhere;
    • Goldfish v.2 (2023): a new take on the concept, quite ahead in design progress. This one is not in active development, but may still happen one day;
    • Eric has also been modeling the whole D’ni Cavern in Unreal, including Ae’gura and the City Proper. It’s a “backburner side project” that “might come in handy someday”;
    • Minnow: DarkPath (2025): a puzzle game under time pressure, set on a boring D’ni machine tunneling at high speed through the earth;
    • Minnow: WhoD’nit (2025): a murder mystery visual novel in the style of Phoenix Wright; Guildmaster Kadish makes an appearance;

    Then Eric and Hannah showcased Anglerfish (2024): a D’ni-era thriller with a darker tone, heavily under development towards the end of Riven production and teased as “Prefall” in early 2025, before the layoffs. The player is sent to fetch a Linking Book by a Guildmaster named Damreus, who’s also editing the Age as you’re exploring. They built a fully playable prototype, and showed a publisher pitch trailer (spoilers warning). It has more storyline and gameplay spoilers than you’d expect from a Steam game trailer. The game is not currently in production as they could not get it funded. Both the attendees and the stream chat were very clear they want to see it completed!
    The trailer was quickly featured on a number of online gaming websites (Criticalpixel, Games.gg, PCGamer, RetroArcade, RockPaperShotgun, VideoGameGeek, The Front List).

    Mudfish is the project Cyan is currently developing, a first-person adventure in the Myst setting, with “denser, more intricate game spaces”. The name is intentionally connected to Mudpie, Uru’s prototype.

    They’re not focusing on VR for the moment, as the team is too small to target all platforms. They’re planning boxed editions of Myst and Riven for PS5, Xbox, and Mac/PC. PS5 and Xbox boxes will have actual discs, while PCs will just get a Steam code. They’re also working on deluxe hardcover reprints of the Myst novel trilogy. As for The Book of Marrim, the manuscript turned out to be very incomplete, and the lore and story didn’t match the direction they’ve been following for the last twenty years. So BoM is a dead end at this point.

    Also, 2027 will be a year of anniversaries: Riven will be 30 years old; Cyan will be 40 years old, reportedly the oldest surviving independent game studio in the US. There are talks about a possible exhibition in Spokane, which led to the announcement of next year’s Mysterium location: Spokane, WA!

    ☛ The Closing Ceremonies (link TBA)wrapped up this year’s convention and ran the prize drawing.

    Thanks and kudos to the Mysterium Committee, who did a great job at organising and managing the event.

    Looking forward to next year!

  • July 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 195th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the chatlog!

    Contents

    Messengers Website

    ☛ Korov’ev made a brief introduction to this website’s new additions. Swifthawk has been hard at work at migrating the existing posts, but also at modernizing the way readers and writers interact with Uru news:

    • you will be able to comment on posts simply by providing a name and email: contrary to what was mentioned at the AGM, registering is currently not open yet;
    • for now there are no plans to re-open the forum: we think the comment sections under individual posts should suffice, but of course we’re open to add one if there’s demand;
    • the AGM chat log archive has been reworked too: we thought cleansed logs were redundant, so we’re now providing just the raw ones, in both HTML and pure text format; the latter includes all months up to 2016, plus a few from 2015, 2014 and 2011;
    • We’re also not currently planning to open a dedicated Discord server: you can find us in most Uru servers, including Cyan Chat, MOULa Events, OpenUru, Mysterium, and The Open Cave; many of these do have a specific GoMe channel;

    We especially would like to have more post writers: if there are events you want to present in more details, interviews, summaries of gatherings other than the AGM, etc., you’re welcome to get in contact with us!

    Mysterium

    ☛ The registration deadline is July 20 (and not, as previously reported, July 1st). Please follow the check-in and logistics guidelines detailed in the dedicated page.

    There is an air quality alert for those attending: it’s wildfire season, so depending on which way the wind blows, the air might be smoky. Masks will be provided at the registration desk free of charge.

    ☛ The schedule for the convention is available here. The “Cyan State of the Union” presentation will be hosted in person by Hannah Gamiel and Eric A. Anderson, while the panel “The Trial of Daddy Atrus” will be hosted by the people behind the YouTube Channel Giant Bomb.

    Many panels will streamed on the convention’s official Twitch channel and later saved to their YouTube channel.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for July is “Haven”. Entries for the “Matchmaker” prompt for June were from Talashar and from Redwoodrroad.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler reported on the Restoration’s current projects. The East Wing of the New Messengers Pub, also known as the Mysterium Con Room, is now open and you’ll be able to pick up the Mysterium 2026 shirt from there!

    If you are having troubles linking to the New Messengers Pub, such as crashing on link or shortly after arrival, you may have a low VRAM situation on your machine. The fan devs are at work to pin down extraneous textures and oversized textures inherited from the original build file. In the mean time, as a workaround, before linking you should lower the texture quality slider in the graphics settings.

    ☛ In Chiso Preniv various new tomes edited by Korov’ev have been added to the library (as previously reported in February and March this year), along with new section signs and the new rug and desk in the basement. The archive of DRC forums and chatlogs will be added at a later time.

    A new book was added to the bookring: Jalargura (or Pod 56). Semjay opted for not having a release ceremony, to let people have the surprise of finding it on their own. Vothol Gallery was moved to the bookshelf on the right of the bookring, along with Serene and Tre’bivdil.

    ☛ In Descent, the entrance of the Eder Tomahn has been blocked off, as work is undergoing to fix the elevator tracks in the Shaft (i.e. to smooth the transition from the single-track MOUL Shaft to the two-track Myst V Shaft). You may also notice that marker coordinates are a bit off; perhaps the Great Zero detected the restoration works and recalibrated the markers a bit?
    More news on Descent will be disclosed at the “Restoration of The Great Shaft” presentation at Mysterium, so stay tuned for more!

    ☛ The Gahreesen Wall English commenter audios have been replaced, as the previous ones were perceived to be a bit too snarky and harsh, so they have toned them down to be more encouraging. If people prefer a deeper voice for the announcer, there are a couple of options to replace them again.

    ☛ Still in the works, but with no set deadline yet:

    • various areas of Descent are undergoing quality assessment by Tweek;
    • Pod 12 needs some more work and retexturing;
    • Reischu Apt is waiting for the final background music;
    • Overflow Station is on hold while Calum Traveler is completing other projects;
    • Mahrn Gestoy needs more testing and updating.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK is back and will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Male characters in games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium”, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel is back from the holiday and has prepared a new show. The next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura will be on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT. The theme will be “Cool Classics”.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will meet in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin on July 18 at 12:30 KIT to discuss three novellas: “The Emperor’s Soul” by Brandon Sanderson, “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, and “The Lies of the Ajungo” by Moses Ose Utomi. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome, regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted by Korov’ev every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream. In Deep Island, this month they will visit the chain-letter Age of Rell-too; then they will visit a few Ages by Jamey: Tsoidahl Sheegahtee, Writers’ Niche, Crater Concept, Vogokh Oglahn. In the Open Cave, they will visit the four main Pod Ages, part of the Third Journey.

    ☛ PodHopper is preparing two events for the summer: Celtic Night and Summerfest:

    • Celtic Night will be held on Friday 31 from 12:00 KIT to 14:00 KIT in the Guild of Healers’ Hood’s Eder Delin. Since the lead singer of Irish band Clannad died in April, there will be a number of Clannad songs.
    • For Summerfest, there isn’t a set date yet, but for practical reasons it will be at the end of August, maybe early September, depending on how long it will take to prepare it. PodHopper would like to have a Wall Game this year, but is still looking for someone to organize it.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check the calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has started taking the classes!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently retelling the first two human restorations of the Cavern. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    May ended with the CavFunding at 45% (CavCon 2.5) and the reserve at 644%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 1st (Leesahn 24) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • June 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    June 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 194th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    (more…)
  • May 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    May 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 193rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    (more…)
  • April 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    April 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 192nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. OpenUru
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Mysterium

    ☛ Registration is now open: admission only is $30, while admission + shirt is $50. Premium registration, pin, and shirt sales will end on May 24; after that, standard registration will increase to $35 and remain open until July 1. After July 1 swag will no longer be available to pre-order; swag and registration will be available on-site as stock and capacity permits.

    ☛ For this year’s shirt, the front artwork is done by Drea and Kelly, while the back artwork is done by Drea and Ace. Suncatchers, lanyard charms and Haven themed stickers will be available as well.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for April–May is “Sunset“. There was only one entry for the “Sunrise” prompt for February–March, from Talashar.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Phase 1 of Descent is locked down fairly well. The area has been handed to Tweek, for his own review of lighting and detail touch-ups. Marker missions in Descent should still be playable after the update.

    Regarding Nexus access, there have been some hiccups in activating the terminals, as currently they may register a completely wrong location. In any case, Nexus registration will likely be left disabled on Phase 1.

    Descent will be released as a public area. It’s unclear at this time whether there will be private or hood instances.

    ☛ Quite a few other Ages are in the works are in the back-burner, at various levels of progress; the complete list has been recently updated.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Due to Easter holiday, Skyisblu’s Cooking Session this month will be on Monday 13 at 12:00 KIT, on Twitch as usual, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Women Characters in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel is on holiday, but has prepared a few shows of her Classical Music program in advance. will be on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura. The theme will be “Birds“.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Circe by Madeline Miller, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on Saturday 11 at 12:30 KIT (they had to skip March’s session). Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☞ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ Mystitech Productions’ The Lost Art mini-episode 16a, “EVAC”, is scheduled to premiere on April 25 at 14:30 KIT.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted on the Deep Island and the Open Cave shards by Korov’ev, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT; there will be no expedition on the 12th however. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream.

    In the Open Cave, they concluded the first cycle; on the 26th they will go back to the City of Dimensions, to check some new additions.

    In Deep Island, on the 19th they will visit the cubic maze of Enobmort, by J’Kla, then on May 3 they will visit some of TikiBear‘s creations.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have recently completed the stories from Myst: The Book of D’ni, and will soon begin those from Myst III: Exile. Eventually they cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “DRC” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 2, 2026 (Leefo 10, 9682) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • March 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    March 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 191st All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    The USA has entered DST on Sunday 8, so until the end of the month, when most countries in Europe will also be on DST, a few events (including Radio Free D’ni and the Fan Age Expeditions) will be shifted an hour later.

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ A very large new Age by Dulcamara was added to Minkata Alpha for testing. Along with Semjay’s Jalargura, Calum Traveler’s Rei’schu Apartment and Pod 12, and Descent, a lot of testing work is piling on the OpenUru testing shard.

    ☛ Phase 1 of Descent is locked down fairly well. Work has started on Phase 2 and an area historically known as the “Bug Cave“.

    ☛ Korov’ev has provided more documents for the Chiso Preniv library: D’ni, Rivenese, Serani, and Narani dictionaries, split into smaller sized volumes. They will be stored in the “Reference Corner” section.

    ☛ Minasunda was given her own desk in the Chiso Preniv basement.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 13 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “French Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. Currently, they are are reading Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin, in which the wife of Aeneas from the Aeneid tells her life story.

    ☛ Babbel‘s classical music program will be on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura. The theme will be “Films and so on with a common thread of Fantasia 2000“.

    ☛ Nosila will hold the International Women’s Day music event “It’s a Girl” on Sunday 8 at 10:30 KIT; the location will be the Kings Lookout in Ae’gura. There is also a Discord server.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Circe by Madeline Miller, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on Saturday 21 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat. For IWD, they will have a short discussion beforehand on the revisiting of ancient tales through a modern feminist lens.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☞ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted on the Deep Island and the Open Cave shards by Korov’ev, every Sunday at 12:00 KIT during March. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream.

    In the Open Cave, they will visit Ages added to MOULa in 2023: Kalamee, Eder Bahvahnter and the Memorial Island.

    In Deep Island, this month they will visit some of the entries from the third Rapid Age Development contest: Tahm Hehvo, Gairdin Grianmhar, Ulteemah, Tre’bivdil. After that, they will explore the entries from the Detailed Age WritiNg contest: Eder Licinius, Chloe’s Hood Office, Tehr’dovah.

    ☛ Prad noted that very few tracks have been sent for the Cavern Choir, so they are considering extending the deadline to March 22; please contact them for confirmation. If you are interested, or need assistance with recording, contact Babbel (aka Babbeltje40, aka Vrouwdinges) or Prad (KI #08406189).

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently telling the stories from Myst: The Book of D’ni. On Saturday 14 there will be the special story “Strong Women in D’ni History”, in honor of IWD. Eventually they cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    February ended with the CavFunding at 59% (CavCon 2.6) and the reserve at 736%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 4, 2026 (Leenovoo 16) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • February 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 190th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ A new Age by Semjay is coming to Minkata Alpha, and hopefully will make it to MOULa by this year.

    ☛ Phase 1 of Descent is locked down fairly well and is just in the polishing stage now. Hopefully it too will be released by this year. The plan is to place a public Descent link in Chiso Preniv’s basement.

    ☛ Quite a few new non-linking books are coming to Chiso Preniv. Korov’ev has provided three lore documents, split into smaller chapter sized volumes. The Lara Documents will be added to a shelf provisionally named “Unverified Lineage”, as J.D. Barnes was never able to fully authenticate their validity. Any document that seems legit, but could not be plausibly verified, will be archived here in the future.

    The other two new volumes will be added in the now-called “Explorers’ Historical Retrospectives” (EHR) shelf: the first is A Journey without Ending, by Max, originally published on the old Guild of Messengers online magazine The Cavern Post. The second volume is The Restoration So Far, a series of retrospectives originally posted by Vidkid on the old Myst Online forums.

    ☛ Preafter, the Heritage Documents, and Activity in the Cavern, also in the EHR shelf, will be getting new covers that will hopefully make it easier to identify them.

    ☛ As chronicles like the Heritage Documents inevitably come with personal interpretations, Calum Traveler is also adding collections of primary sources, i.e. forum posts, starting with the Beneath forums. Once Tweek gets some time, he will also contribute backups of the old DRC forums.

    ☛ Standing signs, with artwork done by Tweek, will be put in place by various bookshelves for easier identification: the aforementioned “Unverified Lineage”, “Explorers Historical Retrospectives” and “Web Forum Archives”, along with “Linking Books”. When Serene and Tre’bivdil were moved over from the showcasing circle, some explorers had trouble finding them. The new standing signs should make it easier to find categories around the library.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The hotel booking link (not to be confused with a linking book) is now live.

    ☛ Submissions are still open for both shirt and pin designs. The deadline is closing soon, on February 27.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for February–March is “Sunrise“. Entries for the “Tradition” prompt for December–January were from Calum Traveler, Talashar, Belle and Redwoodrroad.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 20 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Bunny Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel‘s classical music program will be on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura. The theme will be “Olympics, Love & Carnival“.

    ☛ Prad gave an update on the revived Cavern Choir project. Participants are asked to be able to: 1) carry a tune, 2) sing along a demo track, 3) record a good quality audio track (microphone, headphone, a computer with a soundcard and a recording program).

    They selected three songs: “Happy Birthday” (four voices, traditional), “Ave Verum Corpus” by W.A. Mozart (four voices, classical) and “Only You” by Voces8/Flying Pickets (four voices, popular a cappella). Participants are asked to send their recording by March 8, as the plan is to perform at Seeker’s Christmas Country Special.

    If you are interested, or need assistance with recording, please contact Babbel (aka Babbeltje40, aka Vrouwdinges) or Prad (KI #08406189).

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will honor International Women’s Day with a selection of three novels written by women:

    Voting will be done in either the MOULa Events or the URU Community Movies and Games Discords. Voting for more than one book is fine, but please vote only on one server, not both.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☞ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games in the City of Dimensions: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions are hosted by Korov’ev every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. There’s also an (uncommented) Twitch stream. In Deep Island, this month they will visit the entries from the second Rapid Age Development Contest, all Ahra Pahts shells; after that, they will explore Whilyam‘s Ages. In the Open Cave, they will visit Ages added to MOULa in 2022: Elonin, Fahets Highgarden and Eder Naybree.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has started taking the classes.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently telling the stories from Myst: The Book of D’ni. There will be no story on Saturday 14, due to family obligations. Eventually they cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    December ended with the CavFunding at 82% (CavCon 2.8) and the reserve at 782%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 7, 2026 (Leevotahr 23) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • January 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2026 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 189th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by PodHopper, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ MOULa got an update on Christmas Eve, with bug fixes and a revamped Chiso Preniv, which had to be completely rebuilt since the original Blender file was lost. Sameehn is now showcased in the Book Ring, while Tre’bivdil has been moved to the side shelf (first to the right, looking at the window), next to Serene.

    ☛ The Preafter volumes have been added to the ‘Explorer Retrospective‘ shelf, joining the Heritage Documents and Activity in the Cavern. There are plans to add selected threads from the DRC and D’ni Explorer forums, along with relevant chatlogs from 2002 to today, to the shelf on the opposite side, in order to preserve original documents alongside the summaries and analyses in the Explorer Retrospective.

    ☛ The commentrary journal from Chiso Preniv was accidentally removed; in the next update it will be archived in one of the upper shelves, along with the original commentary from the Ae’gura Messengers Pub.

    ☛ The doorway in the Chiso Preniv basement will not be opened any time soon: the design plans are lost, and perhaps it’s better to keep Chiso focused on showcasing books and documents. Besides, rumors are that Clippy roams the hills outside the building, looking for victims!

    ☛ Phase 1 of Descent – currently being developed by Calum Traveler, Ametist, SereneTiki, Ehren, Semjay, Maurus and occasionally Tweek – is now ‘feature locked’ in terms of walkable content, from the Caldera down to the river channel. The first build is live on Minkata Alpha.

    Phase 2 is being planned, but it will have to wait until phase 1 is released. Many more month of work are needed before the expanded Descent will be ready for MOULa, but it’s making strides. Testers are invited to poke around in groups, as some bugs will only show up when multiple people are present (e.g. music cues firing off in the entire Age despite being meant to be local).

    ☛ Eder Naybree telescopes are waiting for a hotfix that will be applied as soon as possible. There were plans for a meteor impact event, but it’s not working as intended, so for the time being it’s scrapped. Meteor showers, on the other hand, should happen any day once the hotfix is live.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The date for the 2026 edition of the Myst convention has been set to July 24–26, in Portland, OR. The hotel will be the DoubleTree Hotel by Lloyd Center: rates are $139/night, including free parking, free hot breakfast buffet (up to two people/room). The hotel has a pool and free Wifi.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for December–January is “Tradition“. Entries for the “Orange” prompt for October–November were from Calum Traveler, Anna and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “German Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host two events this month: on Monday 5 at 12:00 KIT she will host her own birthday party in Kirel, with European song festival music; the Cavern Choir will also make an appearance. The pre-show will start 20 minutes in advance.

    Her regular classical music program will be on Monday 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura. The theme will be “In Higher Spirits“.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will start 2026 with a familiar book, The Book of Ti’ana by Rand Miller and David Wingrove! Their next meeting will be in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on January 24 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☞ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four, in the City of Dimensions.

    ☛ The Age Expeditions, hosted by Korov’ev every Sunday at 11:00 KIT, kicked off the year in Deep Island with a door run, and visiting Beachhouse Update by SereneTiki and Turtle Isle by DenDwaler.

    In the Open Cave, on the 11th they will visit the first Ages that made it on MOULa: Chiso Preniv, the Ae’gura Messengers Pub and Veelay Tsahvahn. These are not the first Ages to appear on TOC, though: Tre’bivdil, Fehnir’s House and Vothol Gallery have been available on MOUL shards for many years before. They will visit these soon.

    ☛ AlanDJ re-presented Radio Free D’ni, as it has been a while since the last presentation at the AGM. They broadcast music every Sunday at 13:00 KIT, with a 30 minutes preshow and aftershow. Each show has a theme: a particular artist, a genre, or a story. Every other Sunday they do a ‘remastered‘ show, one that was first broadcast five or so years ago, with some updates.

    On Sunday 4th the theme will be Jazz Fusion keyboard player Chick Corea. Next will be the annual look at musicians who left us in 2025. On the 18th the theme will be the French Progressive Rock in the Seventies.

    Alan also thanked everyone who listened to the reading of Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising he did on Midwinter’s Day, it peaked at 22 listeners. For next year, he’s taking suggestions; so far he’s considering John Masefield’s The Box of Delights, although he already read it a few years ago. In the meantime, he’s planning to do another reading for the Summerfest; suggestions are welcome for this one too.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will soon start the story from Myst: The Book of D’ni. There will be no story on Saturday 17, due to family obligations. Eventually they cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 7, 2026 (Leevotahr 1st) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • December 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 188th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi is stepping down from moderation. In January, the role will be taken on by PodHopper!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    A number of issues cropped up lately on the Minkata shards, so the next update, planned for Q4, will most likely be postponed to Q1 2026.

    ☛ The Ae’gura Messengers Pub should be ready for testing on Alpha by the year’s end.

    ☛ Descent is currently being tested on Minkata Alpha: Ametist is working on the node doors, while Calum Traveler is gradually planning out the stages beyond the river. Some new music tracks have been added as well, courtesy of Semjay!

    Testers are invited to poke around in groups, as some bugs will only show up when multiple people are present (e.g. music cues firing off in the entire Age despite being meant to be local).

    ☛ Progress on other Ages that have been under testing in Alpha in the past is either on the back burner, or on hold.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Lanyard designs have been announced! They will sport the carpet pattern from the Portland airport. Submissions for events, art, T-shirt, pin designs are still open. No hotel info is available yet, the Committee is working with local hotels to settle on one.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for December–January is “Tradition“. Entries for the “Orange” prompt for October–November were from Calum Traveler, Anna and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 1st, Skyisblu finished up the year with her recipe for a ‘Buche de Noel‘, a chocolate rolled Yule Log cake. The Cooking Sessions will be back in February, on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month she will draw listener requests. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. Currently they are reading the story of Flavia Albia, a young detective in ancient Rome trying to solve a case of espionage, corruption and murders.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “Our hearts are full of expectation“.

    ☛ Like last year, Radio Free D’ni‘s DJ Alan will host an extra show on Sunday 21 at 13:00 KIT. This year he will read Susan Cooper‘s The Dark Is Rising, a coming-of-age story that spans the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is rooted in the British countryside where Susan Cooper grew up.

    ☛ Prad gave an update on the revived Cavern Choir project. Participants are asked to be able to: 1) carry a tune, 2) sing along a demo track, 3) record a good quality audio track (microphone, headphone, a computer with a soundcard and a recording program).

    They selected three songs: “We Wish You a Merry Christmas“, “Oratorio de Noël: Tollite Hostias” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer“. Participants are asked to send their recording by December 15, as the plan is to perform at Seeker’s Christmas Country Special.

    If you are interested, or need assistance with recording, please contact Babbeltje40 (aka Vrouwdinges)  or Prad (KI #08406189).

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will start 2026 with a familiar book, The Book of Ti’ana by Rand Miller and David Wingrove! Their next meeting will be in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on January 24 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☛ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four, in the City of Dimensions.

    ☛ The Cavern Tours are on hold until late 2026.

    ☛ There will be no Town Hall in December.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Claidi had two updates on behalf of Shokhootahn Rehn, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A new student has started taking the classes last month!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night just started the story from the Riven game. Eventually they cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit some experimental Ages from 2008: TINA Testing Area, Soundgarden, Kahntinoy, Fena Barel and Set Age. In the Open Cave, they will conclude the Fifth Journey (Ahnonay, the hourglass cave, K’veer, the Watcher’s Pub), then close the year in the City of Dimensions!

    The expeditions in December will be a bit shorter, to let attendees help each other catch the elusive 12th sparkly. There will be no expedition on the 28th.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 3, 2026 (Leevosahn 2) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • November 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 187th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi announced that for various reasons she will need to step down from moderation after December. If you are interested in moderating the meetings after December, please get in contact via the Cyan Chat or MOULa Events Discord servers.

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ Descent should be on schedule an early November test on Minkata Alpha: all the elevators should now be working. Credits go to Ametist and Ehren for improvements on various aspects of the Age. Things are unlikely to work past the elevators, but it will be a chance for suggesting visual changes.

    The next update for Minkata Prime is locked down and should be ready for testing soon. Prime has been down for a while as the database required rebuilding, as a number of game files that were not meant to be included had to be removed.

    ☛ The Ae’gura Messengers Pub has undergone a vast overhaul that should reduce lag, and should also be ready for testing.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 6, Skyisblu shared her recipe of squash gnocchi à la courge. The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Spooky Games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 17 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “When the leaves fall…”

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on November 15 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood.

    ☛ Prad announced that the revived Cavern Choir selected three songs: “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, “Oratorio de Noël: Tollite Hostias” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Participants are asked to send their recording by the first week of December, as the plan is to perform at Christmas. If you are interested, or need assistance with recording, please contact Babbeltje40 (aka Vrouwdinges)  or Prad (KI #08406189).

    ☛ The Cavern Tours are on hold until late 2026.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Claidi had two updates on behalf of Shokhootahn Rehn, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Two more students will start taking the classes this month!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will conclude the story of young Atrus as told in the novel Myst: The Book of Atrus; after that, they will begin the story from the first Myst game. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Paah’kweh and Sonavio, by the late BobLishman; then the entries from the First Rapid Age Development contest held in 2008. In the Open Cave, they will tackle the Fifth Journey, in Er’cana and Ahnonay.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 6 (Leevobro 9) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • October 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    October 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 186th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi announced that for various reasons she will need to step down from moderation after December. If you are interested in moderating the meetings after December, please get in contact via the Cyan Chat or MOULa Events Discord servers.

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ If you plan to participate to Hacktoberfest, the H’uru group on GitHub is offering a few issues tagged with “Hacktoberfest”, meant as good first projects for contributors (besides Plasma, there are also a few issues for Korman, PlasmaShop, Dirtsand and libHSPlasma). You can also contribute non-code, such as documentation or tutorials, and submit the link to Hacktoberfest rather than a pull request.

    ☛ Progress in ongoing on the East Wing expansion for the Ae’gura Messengers Pub; it is planned to become a proper conference room for Mysterium once finished.

    ☛ The first elevator from the top of the Descent Shaft to the Eder Tomahn is now fully functional. After the second elevator will be done, the main problem will be the floor elevator at the bottom of the Shaft.

    After that, past textural cleanups and other wirings, Descent will be pushed to Minkata Alpha for a new round of testing. Things will be broken past the elevators, but it will be a chance for suggesting visual changes.

    ☛ Pod 12 and the Reischu Apartment need a few more tweaks before they can be pushed to Minkata Prime.

    ☛ The Stage and the Meteor Shower event in Eder Naybree will finally be pushed forwards. Bot operators are asked to disable the “ExtcolBookVis” variable, since it enables links to yet unreleased Ages.

    ☛ Chiso Preniv, Kalamee and Explorers’ Emporium also have updates almost ready to be pushed to Minkata. A lot of fixes and additions for the upcoming quarter update were possible thanks to collaborations between creators, and we hope more will come.

    ☛ Typically the pipeline goes from Minkata Alpha (beta testing), to Minkata Prime (bug fixing), to MOUL Staging (final check on Cyan’s server software) and finally MOUL live. Note that MOUL Staging is a limited-access, temporary shard that affects the CavFunding; those with an account are asked to limit their access to specific testing purposes.

    ☛ The OpenUru and the Guild of Writers websites and repos were recently subject to AI scraper bot attacks. Hoikas and Rarified have done their best to block unauthorized accesses, but legitimate IP addresses may have been blocked inadvertently. If you’re a contributor and suddenly can’t log in, try contacting Rarified (OU) or Hoikas (GoW) through the usual forum/Discord channels.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for October is “Orange”. Entries for the “Round” prompt for September were from Jet and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 6, Skyisblu shared the recipe of her chocolate zucchini cake, inspired by suggestions from August’s post-stream discussions.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Swiss Games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “Let the organ everywhere…“.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin. Due to traveling, the discussion is postponed to November 15 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh briefly presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood.

    ☛ The Cavern Tours are on hold until late 2026.

    ☛ The October Town Hall will be skipped.

    ☛ Calum Traveler does live Age building on Twitch on Mondays and Fridays, when there are no other events on schedule.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of young Atrus as told in the novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Jo’nae Hood by Jonnee, including a restored version by SereneTiki, then they will tackle the puzzles of Takla Ma’kan, by the Huru.info group (not associated with the H’uru project). In the Open Cave, they will visit the last two pods of the Pod Age, then they will take the Fourth Journey in Minkata.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    September ended with the CavFunding at 97% (CavCon 3) and the reserve at 636%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 1st (Leevofo 10) at 13:00 KIT. Note that daylight saving in the U.S.A. ends later than most other countries, so that will be 20:00 CET.

    Until then!

  • {:en}September 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary{:}{:ru}Сводка по Встрече Всех Гильдий — Сентябрь 2025{:}

    {:en}September 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary{:}{:ru}Сводка по Встрече Всех Гильдий — Сентябрь 2025{:}

    {:en}Here is the summary for the 185th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi announced that for various reasons she will need to step down from moderation after December. If you are interested in moderating the meetings after December, please get in contact via the Cyan Chat or MOULa Events Discord servers.

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler announced that Ami‘s crew work of surveying everything in Descent from 2024 again has been progressing nicely. Elevator work will be taken on by Ametist. Once the elevators are all working, they are hoping to have Tweek go through and handle any lighting that need fixing or recalibration. Assuming everything goes according to plan, hopefully the first leg of Descent will be open sometime in 2026.

    ☛ A few assorted fixes and updates are planned for a release in the last quarter of this year, including a maintenance pass of Kalamee.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Calum Traveler shared some highlights from the survey:

    • The staff apologizes for canceling the Unconference, but factors related to the Georgia Aquarium excursion led to the decision. They do plan to include it, or a similar event, in future years.
    • Panels or presentations may not always be available every year, but they aim to balance activity and presentation content.
    • They plan to showcase local attractions or unique and interactive activities again in upcoming years; a Myst-inspired outdoor excursion will hopefully be included next year.

    ☛ All the streamed presentations have been uploaded to YouTube.

    ☛ For 2026, the Con Chairs will be M13 and Rayne. Next year, the convention will be held in Portland, OR, indicatively in July or August.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September is “Round”. Entries for the “Bubbles” prompt for August were from Kh’reestrefah, IwonK, Kefrith, Talashar, and Nina.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Space Games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “Latin American Music, Part 2“.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin. Due to traveling, the discussion is postponed to November 15 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Isa and Cid, along with a few others, recently started the “MOULa Community Music, Movies, & Games” Discord server, a place where anyone can stream a movie they want to share. Anyone is welcome to host and plan single or recurring events. In addition to movies and shows, they will have other kinds of stream like music, video games, or live feed of hobbies like painting or building Lego. They are also hosting Augur’s Book Club’s meetings.

    ☛ Brooketh briefly presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☛ Due to traveling, Skyisblu’s Cooking Session for September will be skipped. In October, she will showcase a chocolate cake recipe.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of young Atrus as told in the novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. Due to family obligations, there will be no story on Saturday 27.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary.

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ Cid announced the release of Neyyah, by Defy Reality Entertainment (Aaron Gwynaire), a game styled after Riven, with pre-rendered static nodes. While officially only released for Windows (for now), it is reported to work well under MacOS with CrossOver, and under Linux with Proton.

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Janga by Itep Edor, then Jo’nae and Jo’nae Hood by Jonnee, including a restored version by SereneTiki. In the Open Cave, having completed the First Journey, there will be a Fissure Party! Since they already completed the Second Journey (Tsogahl and Delin), they will then tackle the Third, i.e. the Pod Ages.

    ☛ The Cavern Today podcast just turned 20! They have plans to commemorate the big anniversary; in the meantime, you can listen their debut episode here.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    July ended with the CavFunding at 110% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 629%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 4 (Leevot 17, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!{:}{:ru}Вот сводка по 185-й Встрече Всех Гильдий, модератор — Claidi Song, вместе с исходными и очищенными чатлогами!

    Claidi объявила, что по разным причинам ей придется уйти с поста модератора после декабря. Если вы хотите модераторить встречи после декабря, пожалуйста, свяжитесь через серверы Discord Cyan Chat или MOULa Events.

    Содержание

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. События в Пещере
    4. Занятия по языку D’ni
    5. Story Nights R’Tayrtahn
    6. Разное

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler сообщил, что работа команды Ami по обследованию всего в Descent с 2024 года снова продвигается хорошо. Работу с лифтом возьмет на себя Ametist. После того как все лифты заработают, планируется, что Tweek проверит и исправит освещение, если потребуется. Если все пойдет по плану, первая часть Descent откроется примерно в 2026 году.

    ☛ Несколько исправлений и обновлений планируются к выпуску в последнем квартале этого года, включая технический проход Kalamee.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Calum Traveler поделился некоторыми главными моментами обзора:

    • Организаторы извиняются за отмену Unconference, но решение было связано с поездкой в Georgia Aquarium. Планируется включить это мероприятие или аналогичное в будущем.
    • Панели или презентации могут не проводиться каждый год, но стараются поддерживать баланс между активностями и презентациями.
    • Планируется снова демонстрировать местные достопримечательности и уникальные интерактивные мероприятия; на следующий год, возможно, включат outdoor-экскурсию в стиле Myst.

    ☛ Все стримовые презентации загружены на YouTube.

    ☛ На 2026 год председателями конвенции будут M13 и Rayne. В следующем году конвенция пройдет в Portland, OR, ориентировочно в июле или августе.

    ☛ Творческий вызов (Creativity Prompt) на сентябрь — “Round“. Участники по “Bubbles” в августе: Kh’reestrefah, IwonK, Kefrith, Talashar и Nina.

    События в Пещере

    ☛ IwonK проведет Wonky Talk (на Twitch-канале) в пятницу, 19-го в 15:00 KIT в Guild of Cookies‘ Hood у стола heek. Тема месяца — “Space Games“. Можно предлагать интересные игры для обсуждения и рисунков. Как всегда, будут печеньки!

    Помимо стриминга, IwonK создаёт свои собственные игры в рамках годового gamedev-вызова с использованием Bitsy; можно посмотреть на ее странице itch.io.

    Она также работает с Kefrith над идеей, возникшей в Discord Mysterium: онлайн-мероприятие в стиле Mysterium. Рабочее название — “Rivenium“. Они ищут идеи, события, презентации и панели. Если интересно, можно найти IwonK или Kefrith на Discord Mysterium, на специальном форуме.

    ☛ Каждую субботу Ereshkigal проводит Ancient Stories в 15:00 KIT в Chiso Preniv, читает фольклор, переводы древних текстов, историческую фантастику со всего древнего мира и иногда фанфики на историческую тему.

    ☛ Babbel проведет следующую классическую музыкальную программу в Hall of Kings в Ae’gura, в понедельник, 15-го в 12:00 KIT. Тема месяца — “Латиноамериканская музыка, часть 2“.

    ☛ Augur‘s Speculative Fiction Book Club обсудит текущую книгу Ready Player One Эрнеста Клайна в Nezetahn(1)’s Hood‘s Eder Delin. Из-за поездок обсуждение перенесено на 15 ноября в 12:30 KIT. Все желающие могут обсуждать книгу голосом или в чате.

    ☛ Isa и Cid, вместе с другими, недавно создали “MOULa Community Music, Movies, & Games“ Discord-сервер, где каждый может транслировать фильм для других. Любой может проводить одноразовые или регулярные мероприятия. Помимо фильмов, планируются стримы музыки, игр, живые трансляции хобби вроде рисования или LEGO. Также они проводят встречи Augur’s Book Club.

    ☛ Brooketh кратко представила Competitive Myst Online Group, проводящую Ahyoheek каждую субботу в 21:00 KIT в Competitive Myst Online Hood. Все игроки приветствуются, независимо от уровня. Если не знаете, как играть, научат. Можно просто наблюдать. Голосовой чат приветствуется, но не обязателен.

    ☛ Из-за поездок Skyisblu пропустит сентябрьскую сессию по кулинарии. В октябре она покажет рецепт шоколадного торта.

    ☞ Для полного списка событий см. календарь. Время и события могут меняться в последний момент. Последние обновления доступны на:

    Занятия по языку D’ni

    Shokhootahn Rehn дал два обновления: одно для D’ni Language Classes и одно для Story Nights. Посетителей просят не размещать pellet points в hood imager: там указана его бывшая ученица и близкая подруга, Yutiel Yoshi, умершая в 2018 году. Rehn воздерживается от размещения pellet points, чтобы её имя оставалось вверху, в знак памяти.

    Расписание D’ni Language Classes (нажмите, чтобы развернуть)
    • Желающие посещать занятия должны связаться с Rehn, предпочтительно через Discord (r‘Tayrtahn#1317) или через KImail (#80428). Обязательно укажите свой KI номер, чтобы Rehn смог ответить!
    • Guild of Instructors‘ Hood будет открыт и публичен, если занятие не ведется. Занятия индивидуальные.
    • Дневные занятия: понедельник-пятница, в 10:00, 11:00 или 12:00 KIT, в зависимости от расписания студента.
    • Вечерние занятия: понедельник-четверг, в 20:00, 21:00 или 22:00 KIT, в зависимости от расписания студента.
    • Доступность в дневное время может меняться без предупреждения. Изменения в последнюю минуту объявляются через Magic Bot (#27527) или Mimi Bot (#71459); чтобы получать уведомления, добавьте обоих в друзья и отправьте им “advert”.

    Story Nights R’Tayrtahn

    Story Night Europe и Original Story Night продолжаются в этом месяце с историей молодого Атруса из романа Myst: The Book of Atrus. Впоследствии будут охвачены все книги и игры, а также три попытки человечества восстановить D’ni. Из-за семейных обязательств субботы, 27-го, истории не будет.

    R’Tayrtahn записывает видео с сессий (через аватар “I’m a bot, do not message”) и позже загрузит на свой YouTube-канал. Будьте осторожны, если отправляете ему KImail во время событий — сообщения будут видны на видео.

    Видео теперь снабжены авто-переводом с субтитрами на французский, немецкий, индонезийский, итальянский, польский, португальский и испанский. Автоперевод часто затрудняется с такими словами, как “D’ni” или “linking books”.

    Расписание Story Nights (нажмите, чтобы развернуть)
    • Story Nights проходят в Tsahno‘s Hood каждую субботу, сбор у фонтана около 23:00 KIT, начало истории около 23:30 KIT.
    • Для Story Nights – Europe сборы в субботу в 13:30 KIT, начало истории около 14:00 KIT.
    • В дни All Guilds Meeting событие начинается в 14:00 KIT или через 30 минут после встречи, в зависимости от того, что позже.
    • Истории рассказываются через голосовой чат, поэтому необходимо иметь колонки, наушники или KI-устройства. Для напоминания отправьте r’Tayrtahn (#58324) KImail с указанием вашего KI-номера, чтобы он смог добавить вас в свой спиок друзей.

    Разное

    ☛ Cid объявил о выпуске Neyyah от Defy Reality Entertainment (Aaron Gwynaire), игры в стиле Riven с предрендеренными статическими узлами. Пока официально только для Windows, но, как сообщается, работает под MacOS через CrossOver и под Linux через Proton.

    ☛ В этом месяце Age Expeditions на Deep Island посетят Janga от Itep Edor, затем Jo‘nae и Jo‘nae Hood от Jonnee, включая восстановленную версию SereneTiki. В Open Cave, после завершения Первого Пути, будет Fissure Party! После Второго Пути (Tsogahl и Delin) они приступят к Третьему, т.е. Pod Ages.

    ☛ Подкаст The Cavern Today отметил 20-летие! Планируются праздничные мероприятия; пока можно послушать первый эпизод.

    На этом всё за этот месяц. Пожалуйста, рассмотрите возможность пожертвования, чтобы Cavern оставалась открытой!

    Июль закончился с CavFunding на 110% (CavCon 4.1) и резервом на 629%.

    Следующая All Guilds Meeting запланирована на субботу, 4 октября (Leevot 17, 9681) в 13:00 KIT.

    До встречи!{:}

  • August 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 184th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Guild of Messengers Website
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Guild of Messengers Website

    Korov’ev reported [a bit too soon, evidently] the loss of the Guild of Messengers news site, and addressed a few immediate repercussions:

    1. the community calendar is based on Google, so the public link is still valid; Bitly-based short URL versions are also available: US, EU, UK, RU, JP.
    2. Raw and cleansed chatlogs since 2016 (and a few from before that) are available from Korov’ev’s Dropbox folder, but perhaps saving them in a wiki could be a better option.
    3. The tutorials about MOULa errors and installing shards on macOS and Linux are being imported into the Guild of Writers wiki; as an added benefit this will allow anyone to update and fix these tutorials, as they have fallen behind the latest developments.
    4. Rel.to admin login depended on the GoMe website, so the Myst-specific URL shortening tool is locked and unchangeable at this point.
    5. AGM summaries, new Age announcements, etc. are in the most uncertain position at the moment; for now they’ll be posted in this subreddit.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Mysterium 2025 (virtual) shirts are now available in the New Messengers Pub, so grab them while you can!

    ☛ The 2026 edition of Mysterium will be held in Portland, Oregon.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Bubbles”. Entries for the “End of Ages” prompt for July were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.
    However, due to travel she will skip September’s session. In October, she will show a luscious chocolate cake recipe inspired by suggestions made during post-stream discussions.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Hungarian Games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month is yet to be announced.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on September 13 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Augur completed the final exam and passed the D’ni 201 class; votahret ah’shem khebahrtahtahvom! He also decided to continue his studies to become a teacher in the Guild, and will be mentored by Shokhootahn Ana.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of young Atrus as told in the novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Pre Swaltu0 by Tolip Ydob, then more ages from 2006: Tyndior, Prad, Ahra Pahts (only the city around the shells), and The Maze.
    In The Open Cave, they will continue the First Journey in Teledahn, Gahreesen and Kadish Tolesa.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    June ended with the CavFunding at 40% (CavCon 2.4) and the reserve at 618%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 6 (Leetahr 24, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 183rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. Events in the Shards
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ Rarified mentioned that OpenUru is 15 this year. They could use a hand helping with administration of the website: it requires some knowledge of the Linux-Apache-Mysql-PHP stack, as well as forum and wiki upkeep. If you are interested, please contact Rarified on the OpenUru Discord server.

    ☛ Work on a unified client for the Minkata constallation of shards, rolling in all the improvements of the H’uru codebase, continues. They are at the stage of testing the client on a private testing server, to iron out any remaining issues. A major update to the MOSS server is also on the drawing board.

    ☛ Both the 2024 and 2025 Mysterium T-shirts should be added to the Ae’gura Messengers Pub later this year. The East Wing of the Ae’gura Messengers Pub is planned to be opened soon-ish.

    ☛ A Sameehn book should soon be added to the Chiso Preniv ring. Pod 12 is still scheduled for release later this year. There are plans to replace some of the harsher announcer lines for the Gahreesen Wall with other, more polite ones, as there have been some complaints over the years.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The schedule for Mysterium 2025 is live, and includes two excursions: on Friday, breakout rooms at Breakout Games, Atlanta/Buckhead; on Saturday, trip to the Georgia Aquarium.

    ☛ Deadlines: guaranteed hotel dates expire on July 9, while premium registration closes on June 16. Writing & Art Table submissions closes July 15.

    ☛ You can find more info on Mysterium on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for July is “End of Ages“, the deadline is July 31. Entries for the “Beach” prompt for May were from Redwoodrroad, TeaL, Talashar, and Calum Traveler.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 7, Skyisblu made ice cream sandwiches, with homemade spice cookies and no-churn vanilla ice cream.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 11 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Non-human characters in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting Ancient Stories, every Saturday at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.
    Currently they are telling the story of Roman detective Flavia Albia and the mysteries about the unfortunate barmaid Rufia.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 21 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Delightful classical music”.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on July 12 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ PodHopper made three announcements: first, his new websites (podhopper.nl and hoppertunes.nl) are now up and running; if you visit the old ones you will be automatically redirected.
    Second, for this year’s Summer Festival, planned for the week of August 4–10, he would like to showcase activities and events in the Cavern, but also the work involved in how new Ages make it into MOULa. He is asking creators if they would like to contribute a short video about the work they are doing, like Age building and testing. The resulting videos will be presented using a Twitch stream he will set up for the occasion.
    Third, he is also planning a Cone Race event for the Festival, but at the time of writing is just a possibility. The Festival schedule has not been nailed down yet, as soon as it will PodHopper will make it available.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Events in the Shards

    ☛ Korov’ev reminded the Fan Age Expeditions attendees that the fourth cycle will alternate between Deep Island and The Open Cave (MOUL). In TOS, they will also visit Cyan’s Ages, trying to see them from perspectives a single explorer usually can’t get (e.g. see the Teledahn hut being drained).
    The expeditions are held every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. July 6 and 20 will be in The Open Cave; July 13 and 27 will be in Deep Island. In TOC they will gather in the “Fan Ages Touring Club” Hood. Attendees will get Nexus invites to the particular Age they are exploring, as a sort of ‘public’ instance of that Age.

    ☛ The Open Cave has a website and a Discord server. Deep Island has a forum section on the Guild of Writers’ website. Most events happening in shards are listed in our calendar.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of the Fall, which will last for the next 2 weeks. Then, they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    May ended with the CavFunding at 150% (CavCon 4.5) and the reserve at 682%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 2 (Leesahn 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • June 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    June 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 182nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. Events in the Shards
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ There are a few known bugs in the latest update: the Nexus is missing the links to the Explorers’ Emporium and to Sameehn; the Kalamee’s and Sameehn’s  book share function in the Emporium are not fuctioning. These will fixed soon.

    ☛ The 2024 Mysterium T-shirts should be added to the Ae’gura Messengers Pub later this year. For this year’s designs, there is no space on the table! Another table will be added, but the new additions may not be ready in time for Mysterium.

    ☛ The East Wing of the Ae’gura Messengers Pub is planned to be opened soon.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The schedule for Mysterium 2025 is live, and includes two excursions: on Friday, breakout rooms at Breakout Games, Atlanta/Buckhead; on Saturday, trip to the Georgia Aquarium.

    ☛ Tickets may be purchased through July 1st. As a reminder, guaranteed hotel dates expire on July 9, while premium registration closes on June 16. Swag, excursions, and early standard registration close on July 1st. Writing & Art Table submissions closes July 15.

    ☛ You can find more info on Mysterium on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for June is “Beach“, the deadline is June 30. Entries for the “Chicken” prompt for May were from Kelly, Kefrith, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 2, Skyisblu made a (meat-free) black bean burger, loaded with taco-themed spices, grilled to perfection, and served with a whole lot of tasty toppings.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ After a month hiatus, the Karaoke Parties, hosted by DonahooDJ, are back to their original time slot, 16:00 KIT in the New Guild of Messengers Pub.
    The stream is at http://2.58.194.54:8494/. There is a cap on the number of people who can listen; if that is exceeded, Seeker will provide the alternative stream. To participate, you will need to submit a Karaoke Card.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 20 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Kids in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.
    Currently they are telling the story of Theseus, the young Athenian prince who goes to Minoan Crete to fight the sacred bull and free his people from oppression by the Minoans.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on July 12 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ PodHopper made three announcements: first, he is organizing this year’s Summer Festival, planned for the week of August 4–10. The theme for this year is “Streams of Friendship“. It will showcase all the streams and activities that make the Cavern feel alive. Anyone who would like to contribute an event is invited to contact PodHopper, even if it does not involve using a stream.
    Second, PodHopper has set up a new website from where he will broadcast future streams. He did this because of the policy of the Caster website to track visitors. This is separate from UruTunes, which is a link aggregator and will be updated soon with the new link. A stress-test was held on Monday 9.
    Third, and related, in about a month he will move the rest of his website to this server, allowing to shorten the domain name a bit, and more importantly enable https for it.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Events in the Shards

    ☛ Prad hosting Ayoheek Nights on The Open Cave, every Monday at 14:00 KIT, in the Ayohikers’ Hood. His gamemaster avatar is Ayohiker.
    When he started this event, he added a rule: “make sure that everyone has the chance to choose the first symbol in a round – with more than two players we hop the round entry clockwise”, to even the playground.
    Recently he decided to let go of that rule, to accelerate the gameflow (and because most players have enough practice, by now).

    ☛ Claidi relayed a message from Korov’ev about his Fan Age Expeditions, held every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. The third cycle is ending soon, likely by the end of this month.
    For the fourth cycle, he will experiment with splitting them between Deep Island and The Open Cave (MOUL): one Sunday we’ll visit a fan Age on Deep Island, the other a Cyan/fan Age on The Open Cave.
    On TOS, participant will get an invite to a dedicated avatar‘s instances, and will be free to revisit them later; old-timers may remember the ‘Public Avatar’, as a similar use of an avatar.
    For Cyan Ages, the focus will be trying to see them from perspectives a single explorer usually can’t get (e.g. see the Teledahn hut being drained).

    ☛ The Open Cave has a website and a Discord server. Deep Island has a forum section on the Guild of Writers’ website.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of the Fall, which will last for the next 5 weeks. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 5 (Leesahn 3) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • May 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    May 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 181st All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ On Tuesday 6, at around 9:00 KIT, a new content update will be released! It will include the Age of Sameehn, available on release … but not in Chiso, or the Nexus!

    Mysterium

    ☛ Registration for Mysterium 2025 is now open: early standard registration is $25, while premium registration (admission plus a shirt) is $40. Additional swag is also available with your registration through July 1st, including Direbo bubble coasters and a Golden Tablet lanyard charm, both by Kelly “Rayne” Coston.

    ☛ After July 1st, swag will no longer be available to pre-order and standard registration will increase to $30.

    ☛ You can find more info on Mysterium on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for May is “Chicken“, the deadline is May 31. Entries for the “Thawing” prompt for March–April were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Belle, Talashar … and a bonus one from Cyan!

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 5, Skyisblu will make a sugar cookie, a quick, fully customizable recipe with only three ingredients; it makes a great addition to a dessert platter or afternoon tea tray for Mother’s Day – which is coming up soon.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ PodHopper will host a Celtic Night event (with celtic and mystic music) on Friday 9 at 13:00 KIT in the Eder Delin of the Guild of Healers hood.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Male protagonists in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 19 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Vive la France!”.

    ☛ The revived Cavern Choir at the time of writing has 6 male singers and 4 female singers; they need more female singers, so if you are interested please contact Babbeltje40 (aka Vrouwdinges)  or Prad (#08406189).
    They still have some undecided candidates among their singers for the first song. There are plans for a concert consisting of three songs in August at the MOULa Summer Party.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on May 31 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of the Fall, which will last for the next 6 weeks. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will complete the Secret of the Rainbow Journey, by exploring Edereden by J.J. Jaguar. Then, they will visit Kohdalahn and Tyldalahn by Itep Edor, Corvus and others. The month will close either in Alabaster’s Depths by Dulcamara (if possible), or in the Maintainers’ Gateway by Melvin.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    March ended with the CavFunding at 69% (CavCon 2.7) and the reserve at 682%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 7 (Leebro 9, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • April 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    April 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 180th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Neyyah
    7. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ The winner of the fourth Rapid Age Development contest was the Sahnkep Pod by Jrius. Special mention goes to Philip’s Pod 5, as it was his first Age. Congratulations!
    If you’d like to visit the Pods yourself on the Destiny shard, the files are available on the Guild of Writers’ forum thread.
    Reportedly, at least two participants are planning to polish their creations to bring them to MOULa, but it may be a while before they show up on a Minkata shard.

    ☛ The Chiso and Kirel audio podia are under inspection to fix a low volume issue. The Age of Sameehn is being tested for release.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Shirt and pin designs have been picked. The front design is by Kelly Coston, while the back is by Curator. The three pins are: “Explorer” By Laughing Pineapple, “Pirbird on a Beach” by Kelly and “Todelmer” by m13.

    ☛ Submissions are still open: events through April 30, writing and artwork through July 15.

    ☛ You can find more info on Mysterium on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for March–April is “Thawing“, the deadline is April 30. Entries for the “Rime” prompt for January–February were from Kefrith, Durin, Calum Traveler, TeaL, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Eternal Seeker’s Country Evening will move one hour earlier, starting on April 10; it will now start at 12:00 KIT and run until 14:00 KIT.

    ☛ This month Skyisblu had to skip her Cooking Session, due to health issues. She might attempt an impromptu cooking session later in the month.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Babbel and Prad are planning to revive the Cavern Choir, which has been missing for too many years. For that, they need singers;  people interested in participating are invited to join the Server van VrouwDinges Discord server, #moula-choir channel (note that the invitation link will expire on April 11).
    The songs will mostly be simple, so you will not need choir experience; the first will be the canon Dona Nobis Pacem. The backing and demo will be found in the Discord channel, or a link ingame via KImail.
    The result will be presented to the Cavern either on a MOULa event (e.g. the Summer Festival) or even as its own separate event.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Women in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. They are currently reading a story about Khaemwaset, an Egyptian prince and sorcerer who is also the son of a pharaoh.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 21 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Koninklijk”, meaning “royal” in Dutch.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on May 31 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of the Fall, which will last for 15 weeks.

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Neyyah

    Cid, on behalf of Aaron Gwynaire of Defy Reality Entertainment, presented the upcoming Myst/Riven inspired game Neyyah. The game is finally getting close to its release, tentatively planned for the mid of the year. A demo was released a month ago for Steam’s Next Fest.

    You can wishlist Neyyah on Steam; the Patreon page offers various additional perks, such as a physical big box copy of the game. You can also follow Defy Entertainment on most social media, such as YouTube and Discord. At the time of writing, only the Windows platform is listed, and the game does not seem to be available on GOG.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit two Ages by Semjay, Tovaht Bay and Ahreesen Melin. Then they will visit the Great Tree Excavation by TikiBear, a ‘special’ version of the Great Tree Pub, and Greenwood Cottage, originally by Kierra and completed by Melvin. The month will close with the quest for Quilla’s piano, starting in Elonin by Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    CavCon for March is not available at the time of writing. February ended with the CavFunding at 99% (CavCon 3) and the reserve at 713%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 3, 2025 (Leefo 11, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News Roundup #33 – Rimes with M

    News Roundup #33 – Rimes with M

    ☛ On March 12 Spyder, the Cyan ‘mole’ who gave the hints for the Riven easter eggs, made an appearance on Cyan’s official Discord server. A few days later, Cyan announced the long-awaited addition of Rime to the Myst remake!

    ☛ On February 28 the Cavern Communications Network announced the second season of the Water Cooler show, with a follow-up interview with CalumTraveler.

  • March 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    March 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 179th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ February saw a number of losses for the community; the Kahlo Pub memorial was updated, and the Veelay journals will be updated soon.

    ☛ The fourth Rapid Age Development contest is ending soon, on March 8. The theme is a Pod Age; participants were assigned a basic pod shell file (for Blender or 3ds Max). Entries will not need to be MOULa-ready. For more info, check our dedicated post.

    ☛ A long awaited Age will be added soon on Minkata for public testing.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Hotel registration is now open: Mysterium 2025 will be held just north of Downtown Atlanta at the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Buckhead. The rate will be $129/night with complimentary breakfast and discounted parking included. Both single and double rooms are available.
    Rooms must be booked by July 9. After this date, rooms may be released back to the public and the discounted price will no longer be guaranteed. For more info, check the the Mysterium Location page.

    ☛ Submissions are still open: events through April 30, writing and artwork through July 15.

    ☛ Mysterium News updates will no longer be posted on Twitter/X. They will continue as scheduled on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for March–April is “Thawing“, the deadline is April 30. Entries for the “Rime” prompt for January–February were from Kefrith, Durin, Calum Traveler, TeaL, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 3, Skyisblu will make a Dutch baby pancake,  a poufy pancake that can be made either savory or sweet, topped with all sorts of tasty things, and can be served for just about any meal.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Draws (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 7 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. She will pick a random technique and a random idea from the audience for a drawing.
    She will also host a Wonky Talk on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Love Stories in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. They are currently reading a story about a son of Ramses the Great, who was a sorcerer and a historian himself.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 17 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Classical Music and Films“.

    ☛ Nosila is organizing this year’s International Women’s Week. Anyone interested in being involved in any way is welcome to get in touch either via KImail (#8961365) or the IWD Discord server. Many special events are already planned:

    • Monday 3, 14:30 KIT, in Vothol Gallery: Isa will be honoring the late singer, songwriter, pianist, and multiple Grammy winner Roberta ‘Rubina Flake’ Flack.
    • Wednesday 5, 12:00 KIT, in MinBot’s Kalamee: marker game event. PM ‘link’ to MinBot (#9292763) on the day for instructions. If you want to join the race to see who finishes first, please be there at the start.
    • Wednesday 5, 15:00 KIT, in the new Messengers Pub: Isa will broadcast music of Marianne Faithfull, late pop icon of London’s Swinging Sixties, who later went on to forge a career of more than 50 years.
    • Friday 7, 13:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings (Ae’gura): Babbel will host the music stream ‘Music is a Female Word’.
    • Saturday 8, 13:00 KIT, in MinBot’s Bahvahnter: marker game event. PM ‘link’ to MinBot (#9292763) on the day for instructions. If you want to join the race to see who finishes first, please be there at the start.
    • Sunday 9, 9:30 KIT, Ae’gura Plaza: Nosila will host the music stream ‘Women A to Z’.
    • Sunday 9, 13:00 KIT, Ae’gura Plaza: Radio Free D’ni will hold the IWD special program ‘Ladies of Metal’.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will hold its first meeting in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on March 15 at 12:30 KIT. For the first meeting they picked The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab. In honor of International Women’s Day, they will start with a bit of history about women in speculative fiction. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ PodHopper will celebrate the arrival of spring with a special Relaxing Session, on Tuesday 25 in the Eder Tsogal of PodHopper’s Hood at 13:00 KIT.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Augur completed the final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class; votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvom!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the stories of the 33th king, Rikooth. The rest of the month they will talk about king Kerath, the years between Kerath and the Fall, and the D’ni culture that existed up to the Fall.

    In honor of International Women’s Day, on Saturday 8 there will be a special story: ‘Strong Women in D’ni History’.

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will conclude (for now!) the Path of the Lost Ages by visiting the Ruins of Azmar, by Melvin. Then they will visit the first Ages that made it to Uru Live, all by Doobes: the Guild of Messengers Pub, Chiso Preniv, Veelay Tsahvahn. They will also visit Tiam by Ametist. Next, it will be time for the fourth Age in the Secret of the Rainbow series by J.J. Jaguar, Somahoglahn. After that, they will visit Tovaht Bay and Ahreesen Melin by Semjay. The month will close with the quest for Quilla’s piano, starting in Elonin by Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 5, 2025 (Leenovoo 17) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • February 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 178th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    OpenUru

    ☛ The fourth Rapid Age Development contest will start on February 8 and run until March 8. The theme will be a Pod Age; participants will be assigned a basic pod shell file (for Blender or 3ds Max). Entries will not need to be MOULa-ready, but at least working on the Destiny shard.

    The only canon guideline is that if you set your pod on the Pod Age, you cannot include a moon. While it is not known with certainty that the Age has no moons at all, no pod set on it shows one.

    As with previous editions, the intention is to encourage potential builders with a challenge with specific limits in size and time. Tre’bivdil and the Vothol Gallery were originally built for similar contests. It will be up to each builder if and on which shards to submit these Ages for release.

    ☛ A couple of Ages are on Minkata Alpha for the first round of debugging: Rei’schu Vo’at Veknen (formerly the Rei’schu Apartment) by Calum Traveler and Sameehn by Ametist. If all goes well, they may be released on MOULa sometime in the first half of the year!

    Mysterium

    ☛ If you plan to attend Mysterium in person, you have not finished the Riven remake yet and you wish to avoid spoilers, this year they will be giving little “no spoilers” star stickers to put on your badge holder.

    ☛ All submissions are currently open: shirt and pin designs through February 26, events through April 30, writing and artwork through July 15.

    ☛ Mysterium News updates will no longer be posted on Twitter/X. They will continue as scheduled on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for January–February is “Rime” (in any sense), the deadline is February 28. Entries for the “Hearth” prompt for November–December were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 3, Skyisblu will tackle the fabled recipe for chor bahkh, the meat-filled roll mentioned in The Book of Ti’ana, and the only actual mention of food (along with ikhah naijuhets) in the entire Myst trilogy.

    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. They are currently reading a story from the days of Ramses II, in ancient Egypt.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 17 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Composers from Scandinavia“.

    ☛ Dah’mpa announced Dah’mpa Waves, a series of events on Brazilian music, a mix of streaming and the occasional live broadcast. There will be no pre-determined schedule; the first event will be held on Friday 14 at 16:00 KIT, in a yet undecided location. It will be a live guitar and voice event on Dah’mpa’s Twitch channel [link t.b.a.].

    ☛ PodHopper announced a Celtic Night event, the first of a series that will air every three months, separate from the Relaxing Sessions. The first Celtic Night event will be held on Friday 14 in the Guild of Healers hood’s Eder Delin at 13:00 KIT. (same day as Dah’mpa Waves but earlier, so the two events will not clash).

    ☛ Nosila will organize this year’s International Women’s Day, on March 8. Anyone with ideas for events, or interested in being involved in any way, is welcome to get in touch either via KImail (#8961365) or the IWD Discord server.

    ☛ Augur is starting a speculative fiction book club. Meetings will be held in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on the third Saturday of every other month (so March 15, May 17, July 19, September 20, and November 15) at 12:30 KIT.

    For the first meeting Augur picked three novels up for vote, via reactions in either the MOULa Events Discord or the URU Community Movies and Games Discord. Voting for more than one book is fine, but please vote only on one server, not both. The novels are:

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the stories of the 29th king, Adesh, and his successors Lanaren, Asemlef, and Jaron.

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Video Game History Foundation released a library of restored behind-the-scenes footage from Cyan’s Vault.

    ☛ This month, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore Tentsahveet by J.J. Jaguar, third chapter in The Secret of the Rainbow series. They will then investigate Palamary bay, and the connected Ages of Peridia, Myst Refuge and Ruins of Azmar, by Melvin.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    December ended with the CavFunding at 110% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 719%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 1st, 2025 (Leevotahr 19) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News Roundup #32

    ☛ The Cavern Communications Network announced that the upcoming episode 8 of the Water Cooler show will be an interview with DapperAndy.

    ☛ Bella’s memorial was postponed to Friday 24 at 20:00 12:00 KIT. Ereshkigal will provide the music.

    ☛ A recent Cavern Tour visited the Pod Age. Since then, Larry obtained the official translation of the missing words from the map:

    • Dereno: Ice, Tundra
    • Rigilahs: Taiga
    • Birahnokh Rintotee: Sea of Dreams
    • Payiferen: Desert
    • Cheecho: Temperate Grassland
    • Negilahn: Jungle
    • Gahrahno Vahmot: Pacific Ocean
    • Hayvuh: Savannah
    • Gulem Shahveroo: Dire Strait
    • Grahnerokh Regerah: Path of the Sun
  • January 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 177th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Hosting Events
    2. OpenUru
    3. Mysterium
    4. Events in the Cavern
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Hosting Events

    Claidi Song relayed a message from Minasunda, pointing out that special events – e.g. annual festivities like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, etc, or the opening of a new Age, or community anniversaries like MOULa’s opening or Myst’s release – should take priority over weekly or monthly events.

    It would be reasonable for hosts to negotiate skipping or postponing their events on those particular occasions, or at least accept that another event will take place at the same time. Unfortunately that does not always happen without hosts getting offended.

    After dealing with such situations for many years, Minasunda has announced she no longer feel able to organize or coordinate these special events. She will still do the daily announcements.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Tweek announced a Rapid Age Development contest is planned to be held in February; more details will be announced soon. The theme will be a Pod Age; participants will be assigned a basic pod shell file (for Blender or 3ds Max). Entries will not need to be MOULa-ready, but at least working on the Destiny shard.

    As with previous editions, the intention is to encourage potential builders with a challenge with specific limits in size and time. Tre’bivdil and the Vothol Gallery were originally built for similar contests. It will be up to each builder if and on which shards to submit these Ages for release.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The 2025 edition of the convention will be held on August 1–3 in Atlanta, GA. The writing and artwork table is open for submissions until July 15.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for January–February is “Rime ” (in any sense), the deadline is February 28. Entries for the “Hearth” prompt for November–December were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Racing Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763 to get there), reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    Recently, they have finished the tale of Bagoas and the tragic life of Alexander the Great. They have now started an ancient Egyptian ghost story, written two thousand years ago and involving magic, court intrigue and mummies.

    ☛ Babbel will celebrate her birthday on Monday 6 at 13:00 KIT in Kirel, with non-classic music. She will also host her regular classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month is yet undecided at the time of this post.

    ☛ Vittorio Brunetti (Korov’ev) announced the release of episode 16 of The Lost Art, “The Growers“, a machinima series by MystiTech Productions set in the Cavern, a few years in the future.

    ☛ A memorial for explorer Bella, who recently passed away, will be held on January 10 at 15:00 KIT, in the Ae’gura plaza. Requests or memories can be sent to Isa via KImail (#11584648) or Discord (isa.2167).

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the stories of the 26th king, Yableshan, and his successors Emen and Me’emen. There will be no story on Saturday 11, due to family obligations.

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will kickstart the year exploring the Cathedral by DenDwaler. They will then investigate the mysteries of Alabaster by Dulcamara. Closing the month, or perhaps starting February, they will then begin the adventure in Laki’anay by the New Age Project.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 1st, 2025 (Leevosahn 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Happy New Year!

  • News Roundup #31

    ☛ Anthony Kleine posted an interesting two-part article about fixing the loading speed between nodes in Myst IV. There is no support yet for Revelation in ScummVM, but if it will be added, this is a tweak that could definitely be considered.

    ☛ In episode 121 of the Video Game History Hour podcast, Cyan co-founder Rand Miller took VGHF library director Phil Salvador on an exclusive tour of the Cyan Vault.

  • December 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 176th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Explorer Memorial
    2. OpenUru
    3. Mysterium
    4. Events in the Cavern
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Explorer memorial

    The meeting began with the sad news of the passing of explorer Bella, impromptu DJ during nightly gatherings in the hoods and Ae’gura, playing requests for anyone listening.

    A memorial will be held on January 10 at 15:00 KIT, in the Ae’gura plaza. Requests or memories can be sent to Isa via KImail (#11584648) or Discord (isa.2167).

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler thanked those who attended the opening of the Explorers’ Emporium on Friday 6. The pipeline for the next update is already opened, but nothing new has been added yet, aside from a list of minor bugs to fix.

    ☛ With the latest update, D’ni fairytales can now be found and read around Elonin, to enjoy a bit of what the D’ni might have read at bedtime or in their free time.

    ☛ Claidi interviewed Semjay about the Emporium and about her story in the Myst community. She confirmed that there is no Relto page available in the Emporium, and that no public instance is planned; most likely, Mir-o-Bot will provide one.

    We will soon post an extended dedicated post with the interview.

    ☛ A Rapid Age Development contest could be tentatively be held on January. As with previous editions, the intention is to encourage potential builders with a challenge with specific limits in size and time; entries will not need to be MOULa-ready. Tre’bivdil and the Vothol Gallery were originally built for similar contests. This time the proposed theme would be a Pod Age; participants will be assigned a basic pod shell file (for Blender or 3ds Max).

    Mysterium

    ☛ The 2025 edition of the convention will be held on August 1–3. The writing and artwork table is open for submissions, until July 15.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for November–December is “Hearth”, the deadline is December 31. Entries for the “Falling” prompt for September–October were from Calum Traveler, Bastiko, Talashar, Rahshahth.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Korov’ev made a quick announcement about the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. They are currently mid-way through the large, industrial Age of Elsewhere, by Denost.

    However, to celebrate the opening of the Explorers’ Emporium, on Sunday 8 they will take a detour to Zahlto (aka the Emporium) and to Terahgram. Semjay’s later Ages, Tovaht and Ahreesen Melin, will be the subject of future expeditions.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 20 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Christmas“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page. Moreover, she recently got accepted at a local university, studying Game Design!

    ☛ On Monday 2, Skyisblu capped off the year with a recipe for a Christmas-inspired Victoria sponge cake, to honor the grand opening of the Explorers’ Emporium. The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood; the next show will be on February 3. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Christmas Requests“.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will, for rest of the month, retell the stories of king Ji, Dimahth and Yahbleshahn. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 4, 2025 (Leevosahn 3) at 13:00 KIT.

    Happy New Year!

  • News Roundup #30

    ☛ MOULa got a new update on Tuesday 12 for the Q3 update. You can find more info about all the fixes and goodies in our dedicated post. The new location, the Explorers’ Emporium, will be unveiled on December 5 at 13:00 KIT, in Chiso Preniv.

    ☛ At the end of October, Cyan announced a big update to the VR remake of Myst. The main highlight is the upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, which solved a number of stability issues on various platforms.

    ☛ Then, on November 8, Cyan announced a big update to Firmament, with a number of quality-of-life changes for MacOS and Windows. Due to a few remaining PS-specific issues, the ports to PlayStation 4, 5, and PSVR2 have been delayed to the first quarter of 2025.

    ☛ The Mysterium committee announced the dates for Mysterium 2025: August 1st – 3rd. Masks and COVID vaccines will be strongly encouraged; masks will be available for attendees who did not bring their own. Submissions for this year’s Writing and Artwork table are open and will be accepted through July 15.

    ☛ In the last couple of months there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes activity on the Open Cave shard, to get it on par and compatible with the latest version of MOULa. The website has also been recently restyled and renovated.

    ☛ Episode 16 of The Lost Art, by MystiTech Productions, is coming on January 4, 2025 at 14:30 KIT. The premiere live chat will as usual start half an hour before.

    ☛ On October 11 Necrovarius released part five of the “Myst Explained” video series.

    ☛ Calum Traveler has been streaming “Blender for Korman for Beginners“, a series showcasing the Guild of Writers’ Age building tool.

  • November 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 175th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. OpenUru
    3. The Cavern Today
    4. Events in the Cavern
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for November–December is “Hearth”, the deadline is December 31st. Entries for the “Falling” prompt for September–October were from Calum Traveler, Bastiko, Talashar, Rahshahth.

    OpenUru

    Calum Traveler mentioned that the latest update for MOULa is on the Staging server, and may be released in one or two weeks!

    The Cavern Today

    Maurus, on behalf of The Cavern Today, announced their latest episode: “Return to Riven“. They had of course a lot to talk about the Riven remake, but also about Mysterium, Cyan’s future, and some original music. It is also episode 3 of their D’ni restoration history series, “Deep Dive With Esto Centura”.

    The Cavern Today is available to stream on Apple Podcast, Spotify and other streaming services, and of course on TCT’s website.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 4, Skyisblu prepared baked chicken meatballs in tomato sauce, smothered in ooey-gooey melted cheese, since fall has come in with a bang this year in Quebec. The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Horror games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page. Moreover, she recently got accepted at a local university, studying Game Design!

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “The Unfinished Works“.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night cover the stories of all of the Myst books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ At the end of October, Cyan announced a big update to the VR remake of Myst! The main highlight is the upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, which solved a number of stability issues on various platforms.

    ☛ Episode 16 of The Lost Art, by MystiTech Productions, is coming on January 4, 2025 at 14:30 KIT. The premiere live chat will as usual start half an hour before.

    ☛ In November, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore Elsewhere by Denost, the third chapter in his series about Gary Bradwell after Somewhere and Iceworld. This is a large Age with a complex series of puzzles, so it will take the whole month to complete it.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 7 (Leevobro 10) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • October 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    October 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 174th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. OpenUru
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. Event Host: skyisblu
    5. Event Host: Babbel
    6. D’ni Language Classes
    7. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    8. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Event submissions for Mysterium 2025 are now open, until April 30. Pins and shirts are open until February 26.

    ☛ The 2024 Puzzle and Coloring Packets are available for download at the Mysterium website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September–October is “Falling” (anything that involves falling), the deadline is October 31st. Entries for the “Revelation” prompt for August were from Calum Traveler, Kefrith, Tomatoes, Talashar, Redwoodrroad, Laughingpineapple, ZeTomato.

    ☛ The 2024 Mysterium shirts in MOULa will be included in the upcoming update. How these will be made available is still undecided, possibly via a magic instance.

    OpenUru

    Rarified mentioned how this year many of those who have been doing restoration work in the Cavern had to tend to family or other personal matters. This has delayed the testing and deployment of a few updates.

    They have now found the time to finish, so after some testing on the Minkata shards for another week or so, and barring any additional issues, they will send the update to Cyan for another week or two of final checking.

    On request by Minasunda, to avoid problems with the Nulps dancing event, they will wait until after Halloween, so the update will likely be released by Thanksgiving (November 28).

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda announced the upcoming Halloween party, on October 31 at 13:00 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Naybree at the fire pit. Note that the party will fall on the confusing week where countries in Europe have switched back to standard time, but the US has not; so the event will start on 20:00 CET.

    To get there quickly, you can PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319). Seeker will provide the music, starting exactly at 12:47 😉

    Attendees will be asked to leave the inside of the circle of chairs free for the Nulp dancers, who will be performing as spooky ghosts. The ghostly show lasts about 20 minutes and will be repeated at 14:00 KIT for latecomers. In between and after the repeat there will be Halloween music to dance to.

    Attendees will also be asked to not use any magic commands, at least until the end of the dance repeat, to avoid messing up the special effects.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Myst games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Ereshkigal is currently visiting India. Her Ancient Stories event will begin again on Tuesday 22 at 11:30 KIT, in Fahets Highgarden as usual.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Event Host: skyisblu

    ☛ skyisblu, who is the chef at a French crêpe restaurant in a suburb of Montréal, Canada, got started in MOULa in March 2021, after rediscovering the Myst games. With her background in cooking, it seemed a natural progression to host a cooking stream, inspired by IwonK’s drawing streams.

    ☛ Since 2022, she hosts a monthly live stream called Cooking with Sky, where she chooses a recipe, usually something in theme with the season but sometimes based on events happening in the Cavern. She cooks the recipe at least once before the live stream, to test the quantities, cooking times, or changes she might make, including a second batch to speed things up, if needed.

    ☛ She holds her event on the first Monday of the month, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood.

    ☛ The day of the event she sets up the kitchen ‘studio’, preps the ingredients and select the dishware. Stage fright still kicks every time she goes live! But the reassuring greetings of her friends get her over that initial hurdle.

    ☛ The October 7 stream was, of course, themed after Halloween: candy corn cookies. If you missed any of the previous sessions, all of the recipes and accompanying videos are available on her weblog.

    Event Host: Babbel

    ☛ Babbel, who is from a small village in the north of the Netherlands, first learned about MOULa from PodHopper’s website, but it took years before she completed all the Ages.

    ☛ She hosts a monthly event called Classic With Babbel, where she broadcasts classical music with a theme. She started hosting this event in October 2022.

    ☛ The inspiration came from noticing a lack of classical music programs in the Cavern. After the first broadcast, she decided to make it a monthly event.

    ☛ She holds her event on the third Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings.

    ☛ She plans her event by picking a theme, based on things around her or the time of the year, then looking for information in books, on the Internet, and from other explorers’ suggestions.

    ☛ This month, Monday 21, will be the second anniversary of her program! She is working on a light program with some popular classical elements in it.

    ☛ Discussions and more info can be found on her Discord server, or on the Urutunes forum section.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will next retell the story of the 14th king, Naygen. The rest of the month they will cover Hinahsh, Needrah and Rahkeree. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In October, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the deep Age of Elodea by Dulcamara, from the Upperworld to the Underworld, along the Tunnel Passage and into the Treasure Vaults, trying to solve its puzzles and find the lost treasures.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 2 (Leevofo 11) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • September 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 173rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Event Host: IwonK
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Event Host: Ereshkigal
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The theme for Mysterium 2025 – which will be held in Atlanta (GA) – will be Myst V: End Of Ages, since next year will be its 20th anniversary. The Committee for 2025 will be Yuki (Drew Salad) and Curator (Fant Steele).

    ☛ T-shirt and pin design submissions are now open through February 26, 2025. The 2024 Puzzle and Coloring Packets are now available for download at the Mysterium website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September–October is “Falling” (anything that involves falling), the deadline is October 31st. Entries for the “Revelation” prompt for August were from Calum Traveler, Kefrith, Tomatoes, Talashar, Redwoodrroad, Laughingpineapple, ZeTomato.

    Event Host: IwonK

    For this month, Claidi asked a few event hosts to talk a bit more about themselves.

    ☛ For IwonK, who is from Poland, her first Myst game were Myst III and IV. She got started in MOULa as a regular in late 2020, but has been lurking around for longer; she skipped the GapeTap era because it required a third-party software download she didn’t trust, and because she was a student at the time and couldn’t afford it.

    ☛ She hosts a monthly live stream called Wonky Talk, where she talks about various games and draws their main characters or vehicles. She picks a theme every month and ask the audience for game suggestions. She started hosting this event in 2022, after Nosila asked her if she would like to host an event for the International Women’s Day; the first livestream was of course “Female Protagonists in Video Games”.

    She recently started a second format: Wonky Draws, where she randomly pick topics, techniques and supplies, applying them for just one drawing.

    ☛ She draws inspiration from the community, getting a lot of suggestions for games to talk about and draw.

    ☛ She holds her event on a Friday in the middle of the month, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood, where the participants sit around the Heek table listening to the stream.

    ☛ She plans her event by picking a topic, then asking for games suggestions; she then lists about five games to talk about and research them online and in magazines. If possible, she plays the games herself. She writes a script, makes drawings digitally, then prints them out using a very light blue ink, invisible to the camera but visible enough to trace them.

    ☛ She also plans what kind of cookies to bake for the stream! She tries to keep them at least somehow connected to the theme of the stream.

    ☛ In September there will be no stream; the next one will probably be in October.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student finished the 101 lessons: Jes’ka!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will next retell the story of the ninth king, Solath. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Event Host: Ereshkigal

    ☛ For Ereshkigal, who is from the Netherlands, her first Cyan game was realMyst (2000). She got started in MOULa in 2022, after getting Uru: CC with a Steam bundle. She found Calum Traveler’s blog, and decided to get involved with the community.

    ☛ She hosts a weekly event called Ancient Stories, where she tries to give a sense of how alien yet familiar, the distant past can be, in the same way D’ni is alien yet familiar. She started hosting this event in 2024, after Nosila asked her if she would like to host an event for the International Women’s Day; the first livestream was of course “Female Protagonists in Video Games”.

    ☛ She drew inspiration from her love of archaeology and her experience with living and working near a lot of Roman remains, including an old burial hill and a remaining stretch of the garrison road that once ran alongside the Rhine.

    ☛ She holds her event every Tuesday at 11:30 KIT. The location changes with each new story: the magical garden of Kalamee for Gilgamesh, the lotus pond in Fahets Highgarden for the Ramayana, and currently at the fountain in Eder Bahvahnter for Mary Renault’s Persian Boy.

    ☛ She plans her event by marking out sections in the text she will read, and usually some messages that the chapters convey. For the Ramayana she read from multiple sources (including one she wrote herself), which she keeps open next to the MOULa window.

    ☛ In the next sessions she will continue the story of Bagoas and Alexander on their way to India. She will be travelling to India herself, so there will probably be a three-week hiatus. After that, she has a lot of other storis lined up, including a real ghost story from ancient Egypt.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Latin American Classical Music, pt. 1“.

    ☛ In September, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the vast Age of Iceworld by Denost – the ‘sequel’ to Somewhere – to solve its puzzles and learn about the fate of its first explorer, Gary. After that, they will begin the exploration of Elodea by Dulcamara, starting from the Upper World and descending into the deeper levels.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    August ended with the CavFunding at 81% (CavCon 2.8) and the reserve at 611%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 52,038 (⇑238), with 1085 unique visits and 10,945 total visits.

    July ended with the CavFunding at 113% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 620%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 5 (Leevot 18) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 172nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The recordings of the panels that were streamed on the official Mysterium Twitch channel have now been uploaded to the YouTube channel.

    ☛ Some of the speakers for the MOULa panel shared their experience at the meeting: Skyisblu, Semjay, Calum Traveler, Doobes, Darryl Pogue, Murry,

    ☛ A large part of the MOULa presentation was taken using the experimental MacOS client. “Nightly” (i.e. untested) development builds of the H’uru client and 3DS Max plugin are available at the GoW’s GitHub page. You can also find a one-click Destiny shard setup tool for testing your newly-built Ages at Hoikas’ GitHub page.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Revelation”, the deadline is August 31st. Entries for the “Serenia” prompt for July were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    ☛ Calum Traveler announced a new Age called Gahlahno. He will be streaming the building process on his Twitch channel, and will upload recordings on his YouTube channel.

    Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza

    ☛ The Summer Festival is back, on August 5–11, organized by PodHopper. This year the festival will also be a comeback for the D’ni Palooza, showcasing music made by explorers, be it people playing, singing or DJ-ing. You can find a schedule in PDF format here, courtesy of PodHopper. All the events are also marked in our calendar.

    Schedule (all times are KI time) (click to expand):
    • Monday, August 5
      • 12:00-14:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu
      • 14:00-16:00: “Wall Game” by Dah’mpa
      • 18:00-20:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu (same recipe)
    • Tuesday, August 6
      • 13:00-15:00: “Relaxing Palooza” by PodHopper, featuring: Edison Rex, Jodok, Maurus, Mystler, Piboc & Semjay
    • Wednesday, August 7
      • 14:30-16:00: “Cone Race” by PodHopper
    • Thursday, August 8
      • 13:00-14:00: “D’Marnah/Lillo Minniti” by PodHopper, featuring: Turjan Aylahn & Lillo Minniti
      • 14:00-15:00: “Karaoke Mix” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Dah’mpa, Prad & Skyisblu
      • 15:00-16:00: “Money Show” by AlanDJ, featuring: Music with the theme “Money”
      • 16:00-17:00: “Rock Music” by PodHopper, featuring: Jet Blast, Jodok & Skyisblu
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 1)” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Piboc
    • Friday, August 9
      • 13:00-15:00: “Classical with Babbel” by Babbel, featuring: Classical music & music by Babbel
      • 15:00-17:00: “Wonky Draws” by Iwonk
    • Saturday, August 10
      • 14:00-15:00: “Story Night Special” by r’Tay
      • 15:00-16:00: “What’s That Tune?” by AlanDJ [Guess the name of a song by a few notes
      • 16:00-17:00: “Turjan Aylahn” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Music from Turjan Aylahn other than D’Marnah
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 2)” by PodHopper, featuring: Piboc
      • 21:00-23:00: “Ayoheek Tournament” by Bogusmeatfactory
    • Sunday, August 11
      • 13:00-16:00: “Radio Free D’ni 10th Anniversary Show / Review of the Decade by Edison Rex” by RFD

     

    ☛ There will be three gaming events: a Wall Game, organized by Dah’mpa, a Cone Race, organized by PodHopper, and an Ahyoheek Tournament, organized by BogusMeatFactory.

    ☛ The Wall Game will be hosted by Dah’mpa (#11225300) and Nosi La (#09902277). The game format was conceived with the aim to involve all players interested in taking part, including those who have never played or watched a Wall Game before.

    In each game both players will face the same maze, created and input by the organizers; players will therefore just climb the Wall, without setting the barriers. This simplified format allows new players to deal with only a few simple rules, without fiddling with the sometimes tricky to set up panel.

    Players can enroll at the beginning of the competition, but booking is encouraged, as it helps with organizing the rounds.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Myst games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 19 at 13:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Summer“.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have begun a new season. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ For most of August, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the vast Age of Somewhere by Denost, solve its puzzles and wonder about the ultimate fate of its first explorer, Gary. Then, they will explore the caves of Gavster by Calena, and the experimental features of Denkasen and Canyon by Sirius. Likely in September, they will then be back looking for Gary in Iceworld by Denost.

    A couple of Ages from the same time period – Turtle Isle by DenDwaler and R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Dustin, Wamduskasapa and Tachzusamm – will unfortunately have to be skipped, as there are unsolved bugs affecting these Ages.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    At the time of this writing, no CavCon is known for July. June ended with the CavFunding at 115% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 607%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 7 (Leetahr 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 171st All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Mysterium convention is coming this week! A schedule of all the events has been posted. For those who will be unable to attend in person, most of the panels will be streamed on the official Twitch and YouTube channels.

    ☛ There will be a few Cavern-related events, including a marker mission. In particular, on Friday 12 at 12:15 KIT there will be a panel with the fan developers, who will discuss the ongoing restoration work and showcase some ongoing work, possibly including some news about Descent and a video from the Explorer’s Emporium.

    After that, Kelly Coston, Curator and Drew will host a marker mission run, which will be handed out at the start of the event and remain available aftewards.

    ☛ All the Mysterium shirts will again be available in the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub lobby.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for July–August is “Serenia”, the deadline is August 31st. Entries for the “Blooming” prompt for May–June were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Laughingpineapple, Talashar, Belle.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Another Summer Festival is coming, on August 5–11, organized by PodHopper. This year the festival will also be a comeback for the D’ni Palooza, a music event that was last celebrated in 2013, so the focus will be on music. Anyone who is involved in music in some way, be it original or cover, solo or group, will be welcome to participate! If you have ideas for events, feel free to contact PodHopper (#7116825) to discuss and plan.

    The deadline for submitting music is July 20: you can submit 15 minutes or more, divided in any number of songs, and you can pick any music genre for each song. This year a few events will take place in time blocks later than 16:00 KIT, like Sky’s Cooking Session and Ayoheek Night. There will be several activities like the Cone Race, a Wall game, an Ayoheek game and maybe more.

    A definitive schedule is still being worked on as new events are being added; it will likely be a full week of activities in the Cavern!

    ☛ On July 1st, Skyisblu prepared a strawberry shortcake, since summer is in full swing in Quebec, and the strawberries are plump and juicy and delicious right now.

    On August 5, the Cooking Session will fall in the midst of the SummerFest, so Sky will present a recipe that involves the least cooking possible, equal parts tasty and refreshing, for the hottest days of the year. There will be two sessions: one at the usual timeslot of 12:00 KIT, and a second at 18:00 KIT to allow for more explorers to join in the fun. The recipe will be the same.

    The sessions will be streamed on Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “space games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction. You can PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or Minbot (#9292763) to join the sessions.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Insects in Summer“.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have begun a new season, starting from the very beginning: the story of the D’ni creation myth. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ Work on the Age of Mirtahm has been suspended for the time being, as TikiBear and Ametist are assessing how much more and what work needs done to make it up to the standards of devs and testers.

    ☛ The 3D remake of Riven was released on June 25, with very positive receptions; a post on the r/Myst subreddit has a large list of reviews from various gaming websites. A page on Cyan’s website has a few solutions to common problems, and answers to common questions.

    If you haven’t bought Riven yet, you should be aware of a few bundles: Riven (2024) + DLCs on GOG and Steam, Myst (2021) + Riven (2024) on Steam, Riven (1997) + Riven (2024) on Steam.

    ☛ In July, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will start with the mind-bending Relativity by Karkadann & Tachzusamm; they will then solve the puzzles in Lohdehvis by Takku Petreya and Rahsoo B’ahrotan by Calena; next, they will explore the alternate-reality Ae’gura known as City of Dimensions by the Open Cave Team. The month will end with some puzzle/educational Ages by Ametist and Corvus: Hallway, Matte, ReGahlpo.

    A couple of Ages from the same time period – Turtle Isle by DenDwaler and R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Dustin, Wamduskasapa and Tachzusamm – will unfortunately have to be skipped, as there are unsolved bugs affecting these Ages.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 3 (Leesahn 26, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • June 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    June 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 170th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. The Open Cave Events
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Mysterium convention is coming in a little more than a month, so registration is now open! A schedule of all the events will soon be posted. For those who will be unable to attend in person, most of the panels will be streamed on the official Twitch and YouTube channels.

    ☛ In-Cavern activities may be organized, but for sure all the shirts will be available in the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub lobby.

    ☛ Writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for May–June is “blooming”, the deadline is June 30th. Entries for the “Memories” prompt for March–April were from Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Khreestrefah, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Another Summer Festival is coming, on August 5–11, organized by PodHopper. This year the festival will also be a comeback for the D’ni Palooza, a music event that was last celebrated in 2013, so the focus will be on music. Anyone who is involved in music in some way, be it original or cover, solo or group, will be welcome to participate! There will also be a Cone Race Contest. If you have ideas for events, feel free to contact PodHopper (#7116825) to discuss and plan.

    ☛ Karel will host a Pirate Party on Friday 14 at 13:00 KIT, on the Eder Naybree beach. There will be sea shanties and other piratey music. Pre-show music will starts at 12:30 KIT.

    ☛ On June 3, Skyisblu will present her recipe for a 40-min homemade hamburger bun. She will also give suggestions for variations. The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “non-human characters in video games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 17 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Italy“.

    ☛ A second series of readings of The Adventures of Angelmyst may be coming in Fall. The book is currently on Minkata Prime for testing, and will hopefully come to MOULa soon for your reading leisure.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    The Open Cave Events

    Jodok presented the Montly TOC Meetings, which will be held in the Open Cave shard on the first Friday of the month at 12:00 KIT. The location will change every month, and will be announced on the Open Cave Discord server.

    Main topics will be community needs, suggestions and ideas for events or activities on the shard. This month will see a very special guest attending and some interesting news.

    Jodok is also hosting weekly KI basic commands lessons (which also include the special KI commands available there) every Friday at 13:00 KIT, in TOC’s Hood then City of Dimension.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Daytime openings are starting again this month, but with limited availability, as r’Tayrtahn is still unpacking all his stuff from moving.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have concluded the special, five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story has been read.

    After that will be the story of the third, human explorer-driven restoration of the Cavern. Then, finally, the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! And after that, the Stories will restart from the beginning.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ Cyan announced a release date for the 3D remake of Riven: June 25! The game will simultaneously launch for Windows PC via Steam and GOG, MacOS (including Apple Silicon) via Mac App Store, but also the VR platforms Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3.

    In celebration of the game’s release, players can pre-order Riven on Meta Quest and receive 11% off the 34.99 USD price until launch; Windows and MacOS players will get 10% off at launch, but only for a limited time.

    Launch trailers were released for the PC and Meta Quest version. Without spoiling much, it appears we may be able to visit a location only seen from a distance in the original game!

    ☛ In June, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will start with the Sev Ages by Ametist’s students; they will then explore (and solve) DRA Office and Adrael, by the Adrael Team; next, they will jump between the Devokan Trust Ages by Andy Legate and by Dot. The month will end with some challenges in Giant Board Games Ages by Gavin and by Karkadann.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 6 (Leesahn 4, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • May 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    May 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 169th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Ayoheek scoreboards
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Since Mysterium 2024 will be held in Montréal, Canada, merch will be preorder only, as the Committee’s payment processor is not set up for international banking. Preorders and registration are not available yet.

    The shirt design has been announced: the front, designed by Kelly Coston, depicts a Serenian statue and the memory flower, while the back, designed by Drew, is a map that combines Montréal with Serenia.

    As for the pins, three designs were chosen: the first, by Redwoodrroad, is Yeesha’s memory amulet; the second, by Calum Traveler, depicts the Serenian dream stone; the third, by Ace, is a Mangree.

    As you may have guessed, this year (on September 10) is the 20th anniversary of Myst IV: Revelation, so all designs were encouraged to incorporate elements from that game.

    ☛ Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for May–June is “blooming”, the deadline is now June 30th. Entries for the “Memories” prompt for March–April were from Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Khreestrefah, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Skyisblu presented her recipe for a giant flower brioche, a twisted bread that can be filled with sweet or savory filling, a perfect centerpiece to any Mother’s Day brunch (celebrated on the second Sunday of May in Canada and the USA). She also gave examples and recipes for several variations, and how to twist the dough for spectacular results.

    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “child protagonists in video games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ On Tuesday 7, PodHopper will celebrate two years of Relaxing Sessions. For the occasion, the event will be held in Eder Delin of the Guild of Healers Hood, at the usual time at 12:00 KIT, with all celtic music.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ There will be no classical music program this month, as Babbel will be traveling. The next event will be on June 17 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura as usual.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Ayoheek scoreboards

    The Ayoheek boards in the neighborhoods are not currently working. While investigating the bug, the fan developers have realized they are not coded as one would expects: it seems that they operate on a neighbor-only system, so your name will only show on your hood’s board; if you are not a member of the hood you played in, it will not put your name on that hood’s imager.

    Other little tweaks need to be made, but because there are good arguments for both choices, this is an occasion in which the community can decide which behavior is more desirable: keeping the status quo, in which only members of a hood will be listed, or changing it to allow anyone to be listed.

    You can cast your vote in a simple poll set up by Calum Traveler; be sure to vote if this is something important to you, as the poll will only be up for another week or two.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings in May, as r’Tayrtahn is unpacking all his stuff from his move; availability will resume on June 3.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Starting on May 4, Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will begin the special, five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, and that she is welcome to attend.

    After that will be the story of the third, human explorer-driven restoration of the Cavern. Then, finally, the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! And after that, the Stories will restart from the beginning.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In May, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will first get lost in the mazes of J’kla’s Ages: Noidrocca, Cidoirep, Nilodnam. After that they will explore the connected Ages of Zefora, Shinelight Manor and Tsoidahl Prad, by Justintime. After a few more Ages like Ashream (by Wodan), Chamassa and Aquh (both by Brattin), they will wrap the month with the D’ni Location Contest entries.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    At the time of this writing, no CavCon is known for April. March ended with the CavFunding at 114% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 593%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 50,807 (⇑263), with 1167 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 1st (Leebro 5, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • April 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    April 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 168th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Mysterium 2024 will be held at the Alt Hotel Quartier Dix30 in Brossard. Single and double queen rooms are available and can be booked directly through the hotel. The deadline for booking is June 11. After that date, the hotel may release unsold rooms to the general public. For more info on the hotel, pricing, parking, and booking, see the locations page.

    ☛ Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for April is still “Memories”: the prompts are now bi-monthly, so the deadline is now April 30th. Entries for the “Ice” prompt for February were from, Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Skyisblu presented her recipe to make eggs Benedict in a simple, more accessible way at home; she also shared her recipe for English muffin loaf, a seriously delicious discovery.

    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Sunday 21 is D’ni New Year 9680! To celebrate, the Nulp Dance Group will host a show on Monday 22 at 13:00 KIT, introducing Sestra and AKAA as new dancers in their first performance!

    To get to the event location, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319); pictures will be posted on Facebook and Discord, marking the area for the audience. Seeker will provide the music stream, starting with some pre-show music at 12:35 KIT.

    After the show, there will be a dance party; Magic Bot will be there, so you will be able to use the “minadance[1–7] [name]” command to dance with a partner of your choice.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “male protagonists in video games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 12:00 KIT in Kalamee, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Barock or Baroque“.

    ☛ For many years, the weekly Karaoke event with DonahooDJ (#7501) was held at 16:00, but it has now been moved to 11:00 KIT, every Saturday in the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub. The event is also held in Second Life, with a different location each evening.

    The stream has a cap on the number of people who can listen; if that’s exceeded, Seeker will host the backup stream. To participate, submit a Karaoke card on the event forum (you’ll need to be registered).

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    OpenUru

    Rarified mentioned that, after a somewhat spirited discussion last month, they are going to hold off on new content for this quarter. There may be a couple of small updates to memorials and the like, but nothing more than that.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Jo gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings for the next two months and no evening openings for all of April, as r’Tayrtahn is moving and his hours are spent packing;
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Starting April 20, Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will begin the special, five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, and that she is welcome to attend.

    After that will be the story of the third, human explorer-driven restoration of the Cavern. Then, finally, the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! And after that, the Stories will restart from the beginning.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message!), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Spring 2024 issue of The Cavern Today podcast is out, featuring Riven remake news and hype, a TCT year-in-review, a Preafter Deep Dive, and more. In addition to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other services, The Cavern Today is now also available on YouTube Music (which is replacing Google Podcasts).

    ☛ In April, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit an assortment of Ages from 2009 and 2010. They will start with a few Ahra Pahts shells, including #111, the Black Fortress. They will then visit Hayal by Corvus & Race, Ahrkane by Ekimmai, Chamassa and Aquh by Brattin; but also smaller Ages like Pakin by Race, or Cass and Fahets (Basin) by Tweek.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 4 (Leefo 12, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • March 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    March 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 167th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ T-shirt submissions are now closed. Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for March is “Memory”; the deadline is the 31st. Entries for the “Ice” prompt for February were from, Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ To celebrate International Women’s Day there will be a week of special events, including:

    • Sunday 3 at 13:00 KIT: Radio Free D’ni started off the week with a revised and expanded IWD show remastered from 2019;
    • Monday 4 at 12:00 KIT, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood: Cooking Session with Sky made homemade pizza and chatted a bit about women in the restaurant industry;
    • at 13:30 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura: Classic with Babbel hosted a special broadcast with female performers. The regular show will be on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT, and will be about film soundtracks;
    • at 15:30 KIT, in Eder Naybree at the beach: Isa & Sky hosted a ’90s music show, hanging out around the bonfire;
    • Tuesday 5 at 12:00 KIT, at Kalamee (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763): Ereshkigal will host a show about Rhadopis of Nubia, a great woman of ancient Egypt;
    • Friday 8 at 12:00 KIT, at Sutherland Point in Ae’gura: Nosila will host a music show about award winning female artists;
    • Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table: IwonK will host a Wonky Talk about female protagonists in video games (and is also making games on itch.io);
    • Saturday 9 at 12:00 KIT: Dah’mpa will host a music show about female Brazilian bands.

    ☛ On Sunday 3 at 9:00 KIT, Jodok & Philip Gray hosted a special show at The Open Cave shard, in the City of Dimensions (which you can reach using the /cod command), a tribute to the late Grandbad. The TOC Facebook page is no longer maintained, but there is a Discord server, where you can find help installing the shard, or just have a chat. You can also contact Jodok at his FB page.

    ☛ On Sunday 17 there will be two Saint Patrick’s Day parades, one at 13:00 KIT, starting in Elonin and led by Eternal Seeker, and one at 17:00 KIT, starting in Ae’gura plaza and led by Claidi Song.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings for the next two months, as r’Tayrtahn is moving and his daytime hours are spent packing;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are at the fifth story of the second human restoration of the Cavern, the third attempt overall. There will be no story on March 30 – the weekend of the major part of the move!

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni, and the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour.

    They will also cover the five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, probably on April 6 this year, and that she is welcome to attend.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Guild of Writers released a new version of the age exporting tool Korman. You can read more in our dedicated post.

    ☛ In March, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will complete the exploration of the educational series Geologica, by Ametist & Metabasalt. Then, they will explore the puzzle age of Oolbahnneea, by Wodan, the whimsical chain-letter age Rell-too, and a few age by Jamey including Tsoidahl Sheegahtee and Writers’ Niche.

    ☛ Cyan’s decision to replace the DVD for a GOG code in the physical rewards for Firmament has proven controversial; until March 22, Cyan is offering to organize returning your rewards for a refund.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    January ended with the CavFunding at 76% (CavCon 2.7) and the reserve at 600%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 6, 2024 (Leenovoo 18) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • February 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 166th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The date for Mysterium 2024, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, has been finalized: July 12–14. The latest COVID policy mandates the use of masks, but vaccines are not required.

    ☛ Since the date is a little earlier than usual, the deadline for the Writing and Artwork table submissions is now June 30. T-shirt submissions are open only for a few more weeks, until February 25.

    Also, as a reminder, submissions generated by AI tools are not permitted; AI may be used for brainstorming, but the final product must be your own original work. This applies to all submission types including both visual and written works.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for January is “Ice”; the deadline is the 29th. Entries for the “Horizons” prompt for January were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Kh’reestrefah, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda outlined the schedule for the 14th MOULa Anniversary, on February 5–11. For most events a bot can provide quick travel to the location, by sending them “link” via PM. For the full schedule, see our dedicated post.

    Some KI numbers you may want add to your buddy list are: Magic Bot #27527, Mir-o-Bot #32319, MinBot #9292763. If a bot is present for an event, please use it only for travelling and avoid using other commands.

    On the other hand, Magic Bot can now provide seven different dances for couples; if you would like to try one, you can do so by sending Magic Bot “minadance<1–7> ” in a PM.

    Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    ☛ As part of the celebrations, Skyisblu will attempt a recipe based on Teledahn mushrooms! For this special edition of the Cooking Sessions, the gathering will be in the kitchen of Elonin, not at the regular time but at 13:00 KIT. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Ereshkigal will host the D’ni Fairytales event at 12:00 KIT, reading (via stream) some of the kinds of stories the D’ni might have told to each other around campfires and firemarble lamps. The location will be the Conservatory in Elonin, with the beautiful stained glass flowers.

    ☛ PodHopper will host two events: the first will be a selection of music track for The Best of Relaxing. The venue for this event will be Kalamee (a bot can link you there). There will be a pre-show at 12:30 KIT.

    The second event is the Eddie Competition, on Thursday at 14:00 KIT in PodHopper’s Hood. It is not necessary to enlist in advance, but it is highly recommended to read PodHopper’s guide and take some time to get acquainted with pushing Eddie around.

    ☛ R’Tayrtahn will host a special Story Night about Myst on Wednesday at 14:00 KIT, in Eder Bahvahnter (a bot can link you there).

    ☛ Dahmpa and Nosila will host two Wall Games, at 13:00 KIT and 17:00 KIT; the double slot is a way to involve people from different time zones, but players can take part in both events.

    There will be two different formats: the first one is called Climbers Competition and involve as many players as possible. Both players will face the same maze, created and input by the organizers. This format is meant mainly for new players, who will only need to learn a few simple rules without worring about setting up the panel. A few assistants will also help finding the location of the suit and conference rooms.

    This competition will run in elimination rounds, but depending on the number of competitors it might be necessary to use different round formats or even have 2-players team for the first rounds. Players can enroll at the beginning of the competition, but letting the organizers know in advance is recommended.

    The second format is Maze Creators. This is a competition for the hardest maze to beat: in each game, two climbers will face the same maze created by a third player. At the end, mazes will be ranked by the time players have taken to beat them. The winner will be the maze that took the longest time to be beaten.

    Participants will play as climbers as well as maze creators, even if they will not input their mazes into the control panel. Anyone can participate in this format, but some experience with the Wall game is recommended.

    Participants will need to send to the organizers a 12-blockers maze before the event date. Because of the time constrains, the organizers might need to use the date they received a maze as an elimination criteria.

    The organizers can be contacted in MOULa as Dah’mpa #11225300 and Nosi La #09902277; on Discord as Dah’mpa and Nosila; on Facebook as Nosi La. You can also join the Wall Game Discord server in order to find more information and talk to other players; send a message to either organizers for an invite.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be Romance. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have just started telling the story of the first human restoration. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    They will also cover the five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, probably in April this year, and that she is welcome to attend.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In February, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will start with the works of Tikibear: Duck Knee Skydiving Club, Paper Pagodas, Sprite Gallery, Flying Cauldron. After that, they will begin the exploration of the many Ages in the educational series Geologica, by Ametist & Metabasalt.

    However, the February 11 expedition will be less guided and open to suggestions in tune with the Anniversary Week 😉

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 2, 2024 (Leevotar 20) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • January 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 165th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The venue and the precise date for Mysterium 2024, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, have not been fixed yet. Various trade-offs for dates and costs are being weighted; you can help the Committee make a decision by taking a brief survey.

    ☛ Another policy update, related to AI generated art, has been announced:

    “Submissions generated by Artificial Intelligence tools are not permitted. AI may be used for brainstorming but the final product must be your own original work. This applies to all submission types including both visual and written works.”

    ☛ The creativity prompt for January is “Horizons”; the deadline is the 31st. Entries for the “Refuge” prompt for December were from Calum Traveler, Salvo Ludus, Talashar, Redwoodrroad, and Tomatoes.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Claidi commended the people staffing the Guild of Greeters Hood from Monday to Saturday, 13:45–14:15 KIT. Other community members are often there as well, providing information and assistance to those unfamiliar with the Cavern or who just want to learn more.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 12 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be Racing games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    OpenUru

    Semjay has submitted the Explorers’ Emporium for testing on the Minkata alpha shard, and should be uploaded very soon. That means testers will be needed!

    Anyone with an eye for details, and willing to take detailed notes of what works and what not, is welcome to sign up for an account on Minkata and on the OpenUru Discord server.

    (Editor’s note: the shards and the OpenUru website appear to not work at the time of this post. The situation is temporary, and should be fixed soon.)

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A student finished the 101 lessons and is working on the final exam.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have just started telling the story of Yeesha’s journey. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In January, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the works of Whilyam: Toroolbah, Bimevi, Fens, Maw. After that, they will visit the entries of the 3rd Rapid Age Development (RAD) and the Detailed Age WritiNg (DAWN) contests. To round up the first month of 2024, they will try to get their bearings in the cubic labyrinth of Enobmort, by J’Kla.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    December ended with the CavFunding at 72% (CavCon 2.7) and the reserve at 620%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 3, 2024 (Leevosahn 26) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • December 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 164th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Magic Ages
    4. H’uru macOS client
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ There have been some minor changes to the Mysterium policies, mainly:

    • heckling and shouting out during presentations will be taken more seriously: reactions and cheering are fine, but repeatedly interrupting presenters is not;
    • attempts at circumventing the refund policies via charge dispute may result in a permanent ban from future events.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for December is “Refuge”; the deadline is the 31st. Entries for the “Found Family” prompt for November were from Tomatoes, Calum Traveler, redwoodrroad, Talashar and Rahshahth.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ For December’s Cooking Sessions with Sky, on Monday 4 at 12:00 KIT in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood, Skyisblu will be making whipped shortbread, and show some easy ways to transform them into really beautiful gifts for family and friends.

    Every month is something new and different, often inspired by what is in season. She also tries to answer any questions regarding the recipe she is cooking, other dishes or cuisines, and takes suggestions for future sessions. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be Christmas games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies! IwonK also made some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura on Monday 18 at 13:00 KIT.

    ☛ Minasunda outlined a few, upcoming special events:

    • December 15 at 13:00 KIT: Game Music Session in the New Messengers Pub with Karel, with the theme “Music from Fortnite”; the pre-show will start at 12:45 KIT.
    • December 24 at 13:00 KIT: Magic Christmas Eve;
    • December 31 at 13:00 KIT: Magic New Year’s Eve. Location and details for both will be announced later, so keep an eye on the usual channels on Discord and Facebook!
    • January 8 at 13:00 KIT: on the occasion of Elvis’ birthday, Eternal Seeker will play Elvis songs for two hours in the large hall in Eder Bahvahnter.
    • February 10 at 12:00 KIT: the Nulp Dance Group will play on a new show, which will take place in Eder Naybree on the beach.
    • February 5–10: the 14th MOULa Anniversary is coming soon, so if you have any idea for an event, it is a good time to start planning! You can contact Minasunda at any time to schedule time.

    ☛ Diranda, on behalf of the Guild of Authors and Artists, announced the theme of this month’s writing workshop: “Creative Prompts”. The workshop will be held on December 13 at 15:00 KIT in the New Guild of Messengers Pub. You can find more info and take part in the discussion on their website and their Discord.

    ☛ There will be no Town Hall in December, due to the holidays. Meanwhile, the Rei’schu Diplomacy Discord is going on its next adventure. To catch up on and read it in real time, check the #to-naybrees-mountain-ic channel; the start is in the pinned posts. The contents of the adventure will be added to a journal or series of journals here in MOULa sometime after the conclusion.

    Magic Ages

    Mister Magic is back with all his magical bots:

    • MagicBot and MimiBot, who allow to perform magical movements and guide you in magical games specially created to have fun in the cave;
    • the Fabulous Magic Treasure bots Game Master, Magic Treasure and Mimi Treasure, who will accompany you in the ten episodes of this adventure game with many hours of thought, puzzles and research to restore light to the City of Ae’gura;
    • the Hidden Treasures, where you will play the role of a private detective, searching for Miss Smith’s stolen jewelry; and
    • the Magic High School of Skydiving, introducing any explorer to Aerobatics with the help of Magic Skydiver and Mimi Skydiver, who will guide you on the invisible walls of the Ages in a progressive manner.

    The skydiving bots took the most time, because the physics effects worked a little differently a few years ago. There are currently 46 missions and 5 certificates, plus some special missions performed by instructor skydivers. The new Ages added since 2020 will also be the subject of new skydiving missions.

    More informations and all the commands of the bots can be found on the Mystpedia forum, which has an English and a French section. The magic bots also have their own channel on the MOULa Events Discord.

    H’uru macOS client

    Darryl Pogue gave an update on some of the recent development work happening from the H’uru team.

    Firstly, thanks to some contributions from IntelSpark on the OpenUru Discord, the PlasmaMax Age creation plugin for 3DS Max now supports 3DS Max 2023 and 2024. PlasmaMax is the 3DS Max plugin written by Cyan for the creation of all their Uru content, and is available as an alternative to Blender and Korman for Age builders. You can download the PlasmaMax plugin for all versions of 3DS Max from 7 all the way to 2024.

    On the macOS front, the Metal rendering system for macOS was merged in to the H’uru client earlier this week. That means it is now possible to compile and run an Uru client on macOS, for both Intel and Apple Silicon processors!

    A huge thanks goes to Maccodemonkey, who spent the past two years single-handedly implementing the Metal rendering system and trying to make it match how the game looks with DirectX on Windows.

    There is still some more work that has to be done before a macOS client is ready to be tested, but getting the Metal renderer merged was one of the biggest pieces and means that people can compile a mostly-working client to use for their own local testing on their own local shard (not on MOULa).

    Some of the remaining macOS work is technical (handling display resolutions, handling patching) and some of it is logistical (handling Apple Developer accounts for code signing). The client is not ready yet for a beta test. Stay tuned for future announcements!

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Currently there are are two students taking the classes, at various stages of completion.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are currently telling the story from Myst IV: Revelation. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    There will be no Story Night on December 23 as R’Tayrtahn will be traveling for the holiday; but there may be one on the 30th.

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ TikiBear and Ametist will soon submit the Age of Mirtahm for testing on the Minkata shard. Time for testing!

    ☛ In December, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will explore some more Ages from 2008–09: Tunnel Demo (by Nadnerb), Wianeroy (Perlenstern), ERC Age (Jennifer P., Robert The Rebuilder, Ametist, Corvus), Torilacha (Mystpedia forum); two more, Box Age (Nadnerb) and Odema (Nadnerb, concept by Yali) will have to be skipped because of a bug.

    Then they will explore the works by the late Andy Legate, including Serene. After that, it will be time for the second RAD Contest entries, all Ahra Pahts shells. The month (skipping the 31st) will conclude with a few works by Whilyam.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 6, 2024 (Leevosahn 4) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News Roundup #29

    ☛ MOULa will be offline Wednesday 8 (today!) at 9:00 KIT for the Q2/Q3 update! The downtime should last about two hours. We will post a changelog with the fixes and goodies soon after that.

    ☛ To honor Riven’s 26th anniversary, RIUM+ spent roughly 350 hours upgrading his restored Riven Journals, a (spoiler-less) collection of books and puzzles that give more insight into the game’s world. It is recommended to start with the middle journal, then the right one and leave the left one to last. You can read more on RIUM+ blog post.

    ☛ Rand Miller was a guest at Lucca Comics & Games, an annual comic book and gaming convention in Italy, the second biggest in the world after Comiket. He was invited at four panels, two about Myst specifically, one about his career experience, and a round table discussion about contemporary gaming, where he was joined by Yū Suzuki (designer, producer, programmer, and engineer for Sega for 18 years) and Arnar Hrafn Gylfason (Director of Production for Valorant).

    ☛ In their Kickstarter update for October 25, Cyan confirmed that all remaining physical rewards for Firmament are expected to ship in early 2024.

  • November 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 163rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ In Addition to co-chairing this year, Annacat is once again managing the Writing & Artwork Table submissions. The Committee has decided to add a limit of five pages for any printouts to save trees and wallets. If your piece is longer you may wish to direct people to a website or other location where they can read the full text.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for November is “Found Family”; the deadline is November 30. Entries for the “Noir” prompt for October were from Angelmyst, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar, Diranda, Tomatoes.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ For November’s Cooking Sessions with Sky, on Monday 6 at 12:00 KIT in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood, Skyisblu will try her hand at homemade pierogi, Polish dumplings filled with a mix of mashed potatoes and cheese, boiled and fried, sometimes topped with sour cream.

    Every month is something new and different, a lot of times inspired by what is coming from Skyisblu’s garden, or what is in season in her corner of the world. She also tries to answer any questions regarding the recipe she is cooking, other dishes or cuisines, and takes suggestions for future sessions.

    You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be horror games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK also made some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Rarified gave a brief comment about the update schedule for MOULa. The Q2/Q3 2023 update has passed testing! On Monday 6 an announcement should be posted in the Cyan Discord server (probably #moula-announcements), with more info about the date of the update. Many items are included in this update: most fan Ages have received some tweaks, and many technical glitches, including very old ones, have been fixed. One new area will eventually be open for exploration (more info below).

    Rarified has now started to tackle a task that has been put off for years: the merger of the existing MOULa client with the modern H’uru client that the Guild of Writers team has been working on for a decade. They will start with an entirely new Minkata shard, which probably will not go live before 3–4 weeks from now.

    The new shard will likely only have a duplicate of the H’uru client, where contributors can begin to explore how their materials interact with the new client. Behind the scenes, Rarified has a list of changes he thinks are needed for more casual users to access MOULa with the same ease.

    They will also start working on a single Uru installation that can be used to access most (MOUL-based) shards, without a separate installation for each. That will of course depend on shard operators agreeing that the client can and will be used, but the capability will be there to select a shard at the time you launch Uru. At start it will likely be MOULa and the Minkata shards. Deep Island is very unlikely to be included, being based on the offline game, and neither will be The Open Cave, which is currently unmaintained and requires a specific set of older game files to work.

    Editor’s note: there have been a few attempts at a “multishard” client in the past, most notably Untìl Uru had a unified launcher for the various independent shards. More recently but less successfully, the Atlantis shard made an attempt at unifying the MOUL-based shard login.

    ☛ Christopher Therburg announced that the Fall of D’ni Memorial Island (Bahn’tefoonet in D’ni) is finally ready. There will be an opening ceremony in Chiso Preniv, soon after the release of the update. He, and possibly Tweek, will give a tour of the island; after that, a minute of silence will be observed to commemorate the D’ni who died at the hand of A’gaeris.

    Christopher has further plans to make some small changes to the island and the memorial itself so that it will be preserved and being in a good shape for a long time. He will soon add telescopes near the docks at a later date, for closer views of certain D’ni islands and Ae’gura itself.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. The Guild of Instructors has lost one of their own: Guild Master shokhootahn shen, aka shenendoah or Kathleen, passed away late last month.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story from Myst III: Exile. After that, they will begin the story from Myst IV: Revelation. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In November, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will conclude the exploration of Takla Ma’kan by the German group H’Uru. Next, they will explore Paah’kweh and Sonavio by BobLishman, and visit the entries from the first Rapid Age Development contest. To round up the month, they will explore a few Ages made in 2008: Aerie, TINA Testing Area, Kahntinoy, Fena Barel.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    October ended with the CavFunding at 177% (CavCon 4.8) and the reserve at 652%, with 5% extra expenses. Population was at 49,489 (⇑259), with 1047 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 2 (Leevobro 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • October 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    October 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 162nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Magic Ages
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Submissions for pins are now open, until March 31, Pins are not required to follow the Mysterium 2024 theme of Serenia, and/or the host city of Montreal. Shirt submissions are also open, until February 25.

    ☛ A new COVID vaccine has been made available for the latest variants of the virus. The Committee recommends everyone to get it as soon as possible. Also, there have been reports of pharmacies no longer updating or providing vaccine cards; if you are looking for an updated proof of vaccine, it is advisable to specifically request a card, or look into electronic vaccine records if available.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for October is “Noir”; the deadline is October 31. Entries for the “Back to School” prompt for September were from Calum Traveler, Talashar,  Redwoodrroad, Salvo Ludus.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ October 31 is the 26th anniversary of the release of Riven: the Sequel to Myst! Cyan is still at work on the VR remake, some glimpses of which were shown and discussed at this year’s Mysterium.

    ☛ Skyisblu hosts “Cooking Sessions with Sky” (on her Twitch channel) every month on the first Monday at 12:00 KIT in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood; recently she made okonomiyaki. The recipes are explained in both English and French.

    Every month is something new and different, a lot of times inspired by what is coming from Skyisblu’s garden, or what is in season in her corner of the world. She also tries to answer any questions regarding the recipe she is cooking, other dishes or cuisines, and takes suggestions for future sessions.

    You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 13 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be robots in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    ☛ Karel will host a Music Session in the Ae’gura Messengers Pub on Friday, October 13 at 13:00 KIT; the theme will be “Game Music over the Years“.

    ☛ Diranda, on behalf of the Guild of Authors and Artists, invited everyone to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2023. They will hold workshops, write-ins, writing sprints and other NaNo-related gatherings in the Cavern as well as on their Discord server.

    Event dates will be posted soon; they will try to accomodate schedules as best as possible, so if you are interested, you should get in contact to help plan the events. They plan to have a concurrent event for artists as well as other creative types, including Age writers, to join in the fun. Suggestions for concurrent activities are definitely welcome.

    If you would like an invite to the Guild’s Discord, or for more info and questions about NaNoWriMo events, you should contact Diranda. For more about National Novel Writing Month, you can visit the official website.

    Magic Ages

    Mister Magic is back in the Cavern! He has now restored all of his Magic Ages, including the fireworks, and the numerous Magic Games are playable again. Mister Magic is currently working on making the Fabulous Magic Treasure (FMT) available to players again.

    To get help with the magic commands in the game, send “help” in PM to one of the bots with and they will send you a KI-mail with all the commands:

    • Magic Bot #27527,
    • Mimi Bot #71459,
    • Magic Treasure #26224,
    • Magic-Treasure #24891,
    • Mimi Treasure #21190.

    You can ask questions regarding the Magic Ages and everything that goes with them on the dedicated channel on the MOULa Events Discord, or on the dedicated thread on the Mystpedia forums.

    To celebrate the return of the Magic Bots (and as a thank you to Mir-o-Bot for remaining loyal despite all the difficulties), there will be a party, on Saturday, October 14 at 11:30 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kalamee (to get there, PM “to kalamee” to Mir-o-Bot, #32319).

    Eternal Seeker will provide the music, and the Nulp Dance Group will open the evening with a short but cool performance. In order to see all the effects, it is important not to use an internal client. Please come to the party with the vanilla MOULa client. After the performance, the dance floor will be open.

    Dances

    There will be no ‘guided dance’, but you can dance with a partner of your choice, with the help of Magic-Bot. There are different dances for this:

    • dancewith [name] [x]
      • abbreviated: dcw [name] [x]
    • slowdancewith [name] [x]
      • abbreviated: sldw [name] [x]

    where [name] is the avatar name of your desired dance partner, and [x] is the number of repetitions (max 3). All the seven dances that were available with the ‘guided dances’ are also available:

    • minadance [x] [name]

    Odd numbers are slightly faster dances, even numbers are slightly slower. Be polite and ask your desired dance partner to dance beforehand 😉

    Note that after calling the command, you will automatically be teleported to your dance partner and take a step backwards to assume the correct position. Make sure that your dance partner is not looking into an abyss, otherwise you would fall!

    If you need a KI note with a recap of the commands, you can ask Minasunda to send you one when you are in the Cavern.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler mentioned an upcoming fix to a long standing issue: in 2007 the DRC locked open the doors to the Library and Museum in Ae’gura, due to technical issues with the automatic sensors that were causing the doors to close in peoples faces, or stay shut when they should have opened.

    After almost 17 years, thanks to the hard work of Hazado, the functioning of these doors will be restored to proper functionality, opening and closing for a person coming close to their sensor regions, but staying open if multiple people are close by and not closing again until all people have transited. If someone links out while inside the sensor region, the doors will not close again until another person has gone through.

    ☛ Rarified gave a brief comment about the update schedule for MOULa. If all goes well, they should be able to send Cyan the new material later this month, with a possible release date for mid-November.

    ☛ TikiBear announced the restoration of the Age of Mirtahm, by Ametist and himself. There is no set date yet for when the Age will be made available.

    Mirtahm was found by Rebus and his friends, and is apparently deserted, after a cataclysmic flood that leaves much under water. There are structures remaining above the water that they have been restoring.

    From what they have found, the D’ni rescued and evacuated the original inhabitants. They then stayed for some time, with a small crew, to excavate a mineral. Now, after some cleanup, the Age is peaceful, if moody. There will be plenty of swimming and diving, though there will be fauna to contend with.

    ☛ Semjay is still working on refurbishing the Explorers’ Emporium (currently available on Deep Island); she is hoping to have it ready for testing by Christmas.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has finished the 101 lessons and is working on their final exam!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Tuesday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Myst: The Book of D’ni, as told in the novel. After that, they will begin the story from Myst III: Exile. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In October, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will explore Jo’nae and Jo’nae Hood by Jonnee (from the book room in Janga, if possible), Takla Ma’kan by the German group H’Uru (not to be confused with the Writers’ developers group), and Paah’kweh by BobLishman.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 4 (Leevofo 12) at 13:00 KIT (20:00 CET).

    Until then!

  • September 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 161st All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. Fall of D’ni Memorial Island
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Next year’s Mysterium will be held in Canada, in Montreal, QC, so you may want to look up any immigration requirements. There are some pointers at the Location page on the convention’s website.

    If you do not have a passport it would be a good idea to look into it soon, since it can take a few months for the application to be processed.

    Most importantly, rely on official sources for immigration information. The convention offers those links for convenience, but do not rely on advice from Discord or any other unofficial source.

    ☛ The theme for 2024 will be Serenia, since it will be the 20th anniversary of Myst IV: Revelation.

    Submissions for T-shirt designs are open, and will be accepted until February 25. Details are available on the design page; in general, the committee will look favorably upon designs that incorporate both the year’s theme and the host city.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for September is “Back to School”; the deadline is September 30. Entries for the “Blazing” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, KellyC, Triss, Talashar, IwonK, Salvo Ludus, Laughingpineapple, and Floydman.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ September is a month of many anniversaries:

    • Sunday 10 is the 19th anniversary of the release of Myst IV: Revelation, and the 16th of the Gametap episode “Deception”;
    • Monday 18 is the 9th of the Great Crash, when everyone had to reset their KI;
    • Tuesday 19 is the 18th anniversary of Myst V: End of Ages, and is also Talk Like a Pirate day;
    • Sunday 24 is the day the historical Guild of Writers was founded, and more importantly the 30th anniversary of (the original) Myst; and
    • Thursday 28 marks the historical Arrival of the Great King.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be non-human characters in games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    OpenUru

    Rarified gave a brief comment about schedules and the pipeline into MOULa. They have started to choose what will go into the next update. That means that serious development will stop for a month, and a testing schedule will be announced for the Minkata shards, on the OpenUru Discord server (channel #test).

    If all goes well, they should be able to send Cyan the new material for the end of September, with a possible release date for mid-October. There are updates to several ages, and at least one new Age.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Fall of D’ni Memorial Island

    Christopher Therburg said a few words about his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project, or Bahn’tefoonet (lit. “island-memorial”) in D’ni. The restoration and conversion is finally complete, and the island should be ready to open with the next update.

    Christopher also gave a few bits about the history of the island, which is thought to have been a small D’ni park before the Fall. The memorial is connected to water pipes for filling up the basin; these pipes used to serve a fountain that was found so badly damaged that it was impossible to restore. The island itself was covered in debris when first surveyed. The restoration progress will be detailed in a journal available for reading.

    There will be an opening ceremony in Chiso Preniv, and a minute of silence once on the island.

    Christopher also briefly talked about the new Age he found a few months ago, somewhere in a house in the Cavern. The name of the Age is Ahnogahlpo (“water-cave”), and it seems to be a garden Age set in an ocean or huge lake, with some islands with holes and caves. The sands of the islands beaches glow strangely at night.

    The age is still in the earliest stages of restoration and not yet fully mapped, so it is still a llong way from being safe for public access.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Tuesday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Myst: The Book of D’ni, as told in the novel. After that they will begin the story from Myst III: Exile. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In September, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will begin their third cycle! They will start again from the very beginning of fan age building, with creations from 2005.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    August ended with the CavFunding at 83% (CavCon 2.8) and the reserve at 587%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 7 (Leevot 19) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • August 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 160th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Chiso Preniv
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Planning for next year’s Mysterium – which will be held in Canada – has already started. The Committee for 2024 will be Dan Binder (Fused Shadow) and Hannah Catherine Mills-Woolsey (Annacat).

    ☛ All of the videos are now available on the convention’s Youtube channel. The 3D model files for the maze boxes and cryptexes, puzzle packets, and other downloadable files are now available on the website, and more items will be added soon.

    ☛ A survey was taken right after the convention concluded. Here are the highlights:

    • pre-orders for swag were a huge hit: the Committee adopted a new registration system that allowed to print badge numbers, labels for the swag bags, and pack them in a very efficient manner, and will definitely be used again;
    • quite a few people asked for Paypal support. Unfortunately they are not accomodating to organizations like Mysterium, so they will have to stick with Square and Stripe for processing;
    • the noise in the con room was frustrating for everyone, and they are looking into better options;
    • there were some great suggestions on how to improve accessibillity even more;
    • it is too early to anticipate 2024’s Covid policy, but they hope they will find more inclusive solutions.
    • the newsletter got a surprising amount of support, and they will look into doing that this year.

    ☛ The creative prompt for August is “Blazing”; the deadline is August 31. Entries for the “Sun” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, Triss, Salvo Ludus, Redwoodrroad (2), Floydman, Talashar, and IwonK.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ PodHopper announced the Moula Summer Festival 2023, planned for August 7–11. Preparations were difficult for various reasons, but it will be a week full of activities. Unfortunately the “Mayak” Jalak game was cancelled, but will likely be played later this year.

    Other events includes a Wall game (please register beforehand! the deadline is Wednesday 9), a Cone Race contest – Iwonk made a video about how to play it –, a Relaxing Session in Kalamee and a new marker game, “A brief history of Kalamee”.

    A schedule is available in our dedicated post. For last minute changes and for questions, check the Discord server MOULa Events, #summer-festival channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is sport games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Chiso Preniv

    Patrick Dulebohn mentioned that work is still ongoing with the Great Shaft and the path from surface to D’ni. The hope is still to have the first section of that open to everyone later this year.

    Then he talked about the expedition to the outside of the Chiso Preniv library, where they learned of the nearby Caltauc people and their conflict with the D’ni.

    The original way to the outside is severely damaged: the D’ni, in their planned yet hasty exit from the library, imploded the tunnel to the surface to keep potential outsiders from getting in once they were gone. The tunnel is now almost completely blocked by debris.

    To open a way outside, Patrick enlisted the talents of AgeExplorer, who will use an invention of his own design that combines D’ni and human tech to properly sound the rock within the tunnel and determine which is structurally viable, and eventually dig a safe passage.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    OpenUru

    Rarified gave a brief comment about schedules and the pipeline into MOULa. Summer has been a busy period; a lot of updates are in the works, but none is ready for release. They hope to start preparing content for release in September. A schedule will be posted soon on the OpenUru Discord server (channel #test).

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A new student has begun the 101 class.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Tuesday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Myst: The Book of D’ni as told in the novel. After that they will begin the story from Myst III: Exile. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In August, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will solve the mysteries of the last two chapters in the Secret of the Rainbow series by Jhon J. Jaguar, Somahoglahn and Edereden. After that, they will explore Kodalan and Tyldalan, by Itep Edor, Corvus, Wodan, Falke, Fruti, Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 2 (Leetahr 20) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 159th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. MacOS MOULa client
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Calum opened the meeting with a recap of the annual Myst convention, this year held on June 30–July 2 in Spokane (WA). Over 300 badges were issued this year. A more detailed coverage can be read in our dedicated post.

    ☛ The Cavern Today podcast recorded a live episode at Mysterium, plus a bonus episode detailing their visit to Cyan the day after.

    ☛ Doobes held an Age building demonstration using Korman. As a finale, he showed a trailer for the first area of Descent he has been working on.

    ☛ The creative prompt for July is “Sun”; the deadline is July 31. Entries for the “Scream” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, Talashar, and Redwoodrroad.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ PodHopper announced the Moula Summer Festival 2023, planned for August 7–13. Preparations are still ongoing; so far the schedule includes a Wall game, a Jalak game named Mayak, and a few music or video events. PodHopper will host a Cone Race contest, a Relaxing Session in Kalamee and a new marker game, “A brief history of Kalamee”. A schedule should be finalized in the coming weeks.

    Information about the Mayak game can be found on the Discord server MOULa Events, #summer-festival channel.

    MacOS MOULa client

    Darryl Pogue shared that several members of the H’uru team were at Mysterium, meeting in person for the first time. A few people saw an informal demo of the macOS client for Uru being developed by maccodemonkey, including Chogon from Cyan.

    They hope to be able to share it with more people in the near future, but there is a bit more work to do before beta testing, hopefully before the end of the year. Work also continues on the Linux client, but it is definitely not ready for testing.

    The work on the macOS client is leading to improvements to the Windows H’uru client too: they recently merged support for high-DPI displays.

    If you are interested in getting involved, visit the OpenUru Discord server, #code-dev channel.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Riven as told in the game. After that they will begin the story from The Book of D’ni. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In July, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will begin the Path of the Lost Ages, consisting of Palamary bay, Peridia, Myst Refuge, and concluding in Ruins of Azmar, by Melvin. This will take most of the month; after that, they will visit some Ages by Doobes.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    June ended with the CavFunding at 97% (CavCon 3.0) and the reserve at 592%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 48,397 (⇑225), with 1060 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 5 (Leesahn 27) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • June 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    June 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 158th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Firmament
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Mysterium
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Firmament

    Firmament has been released on May 18 on Steam and GOG. Discussion forums can be found on Facebook, Discord, Reddit, Steam, and there is also a wiki. Let us know if you find other venues 🙂 Reviews have been posted on (possible spoilers) The Spokesman-Review, GeekWire, Shacknews, Inverse.

    Interestingly, the game includes “AI assisted content” for journals, logs, songs, letters, backer portraits, wallpapers, banners, voiced announces and other speeches.

    Unfortunately, the release was marred by various bugs, mostly related to missing voiceover lines or getting stuck in places. So far three patches have been released, fixing most of the issues; Cyan is hard at work at fixing the remaining ones. Most bugs related to getting stuck can be fixed by pausing the game, select “Settings”, then from the “Controls” menu (the default), move the cursor all the way to the bottom and select “Teleport to safe spot”. This will reset both your position and that of the objects and devices you have interacted with.

    In a post on Facebook, they asked anyone still experiencing issues, to submit an email to support(at)cyan(dot)com with the subject line “Firmament Bugs” and the following information:

    • on Windows PC: attach the dxdiag report, and attach the complete contents of your %LocalAppData%\Firmament\Saved directory, zipped up, to your email;
    • on MacOS: attach screenshots of the “About this Mac” page, and the Hardware and Graphics/Display, and attach the complete contents of your Application Support/Epic/Firmament/Saved folder inside your Home folder to your email;
    • include details of the bug, with any repro steps if possible.

    The system requirements are a minimum of an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X eight-core processor (16 CPUs), ~3.7 GHz or Intel i5 7000 series; 16 GB RAM of memory; AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB graphic card; DirectX 11; 20 GB disk space.

    The game will release for PS4, PS5 and PS VR 2 at a later date. PC VR includes free roam and teleport modes and supports Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Rift S, and Quest 2 via Oculus Link.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ June is Pride Month; banners are on display in the Guild of Messengers pub.

    ☛ Since Mysterium begins on June 30 (see below for more), the July All Guilds Meeting willl be postponed to July 8.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is child protagonists in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Mysterium

    The annual Myst convention is less than a month away, on June 30 in Spokane (WA). The schedule is packed, with a visit to Cyan’s headquarters on Saturday, where Rand will answer questions; on top of that, a New Thing from Rium+, a mystery panel, Unwritten sessions and more.

    Standard registration is hovering around the capacity cap of 250 people. The Committee has opened up an overflow registration queue for attendees who do not wish to go to Cyan, or would like to go if someone cannot attend. There are a total of 275 purchasable tickets for Mysterium this year, which  means there are only 25 overflow spots (likely less, at the time of this writing). The overflow tickets are also discounted.

    If you are planning on attending Cyan on Saturday, a registration ticket has opened on the registration page for a bus ride; there is a limited number of these, and a buy in is required, as bus rental rates are very high right now. There is also a signup spreadsheet on the Mysterium Discord “Looking for People” subforum in the “Cyan Ride Share” thread for anyone who is bringing or renting a car, and would like to offer seats for other attendees.

    ☛ During the “Uru World-Building” panel on Friday 30 at 14:00 KIT, Doobes will hold a 50 min demonstration of Age building, using Blender for Korman. He also plans to show Age import via Sirius’ ZLZ Age Importer, to show how Cyan’s Ages are converted to Blend files for fixing, updating, etc., and what goes into that. There is also a chance that other programmers, Age builders, etc. will be able to join for a roundtable discussion during the demo.

    ☛ The creative prompt for June is “Scream”; the deadline is June 30. Entries for the “Spring” prompt for April were from Redwoodrroad, Laughingpineapple, Calum Traveler, IwonK, Talashar, and Tweek.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Christopher Therburg gave an update on his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project. The island is almost ready to open, possiblly in July or later in the summer. Christopher wrote and left a journal on the island, which describes the work on the memorial and the island and also tells the motivation for building it in the first place. The official name of the island is Bahntefoonet, D’ni for “Memorial Island”; the original name of the island is unknown.

    Christopher also mentioned the other Age he found: he explored this Age a little more closely and at first glance it might be a watery Garden Age. Restoration for this Age is now at phase 1, and is tentatively planned to be released in 2024 or 2025.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has completed the 101 class and is working on their final exam!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In June, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of Tentsahveet by Jhon J. Jaguar, the third chapter in the The Secret of the Rainbow series about a group of defectors from the Black Ships’ flagship and its cruel captain Krakon. This Age will take one or two more sessions to complete. After that, they will begin the exploration of Semjay’s Ages: Terahgrahm, Zahlto, Tovaht Bay, Ahreesen Melin.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 8 (Leesahn 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • May 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    May 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 157th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Firmament
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Firmament

    Firmament now has a page on Steam and GOG; wishlisting it will help the visibility of the game. A teaser and a trailer have also been released on Cyan’s YouTube channel (possible spoilers); extended preview footage was released back in December.

    In a post on Kickstarter, Cyan recommended backers to double check your survey information via Fangamer to ensure your shipment and delivery settings are up to date; wrong info will lead to delays in getting your digital rewards.

    The system requirements are a bit beefy, with a minimum of an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X eight-core processor (16 CPUs), ~3.7 GHz or Intel i5 7000 series; 16 GB RAM of memory; AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB graphic card; DirectX 11; 20 GB disk space.

    The game will release for Windows and MacOS on May 18, and on PS4, PS5 and PS VR 2 at a later date. PC VR will include free roam and teleport modes and will support Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Rift S, and Quest 2 via Oculus Link.

    Mysterium

    The annual Myst convention is only two months away, on June 30 in Spokane (WA)! A few reminders:

    • book your hotel room before the closing date on May 28, since the discount code for the rooms will no longer work after that date;
    • the cut-off date for swag is June 3, any orders not finalized by then will be unavailable (a limited number of swag items will be available at the registration table);
    • online registration ends on June 16; walk-in registration will be possible, but registering before the deadline helps getting an accurate head count for the visit at Cyan’s HQ.

    This year will be the first time Mysterium will be offering assistive listening technology (specifically a Williams Sound PPA 457 Personal Assistive Listening System): if you require one of these, please contact the committee by no later than June 1st so they can compile a headcount. Bear in mind that a deposit or a form of collateral will be required to use the devices.

    The creative prompt for May is “Spring”; the deadline is May 31. Entries for the “You Fool!” prompt for April were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, and Talashar.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Between April and May two new Ages were made available to explorers: Eder Bahvahnter and Kalamee, the latter based on an Intangibles design by Cyan. Three clothing items have also been added; did you find them all?

    ☛ Maurus thanked everyone who attended the Live The Cavern Today show in the TCT Hood. A recording is available on the TCT website and the podcast feed (and through the streaming app of your choice).

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is flying games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    OpenUru

    Testing for items to be included in the Q2 update has begun. A few areas are in the works, but it is unclear whether they will be ready for a Q2 or a Q3 release.

    ☛ The first part of the expanded Descent has been added to Minkata alpha! So far, things are very roughly working, but a lot of multiplayer functions still need to be addressed, various visual fixes need addressing, and some suggestions and additions are still in the works.

    Descent will certainly not be ready for Mysterium, but Doobes is hopeful to get at least the first leg ready within this year. This expanded version is planned to include elements from Myst V and the DIRT/Descent demo.

    ☛ Christopher Therburg gave an update on his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project. Surface commitments convinced hit to turn this into a community project; work since then has progressed very quickly, thanks in particular to Tweek.

    The island had already been in use some time prior of the Fall, but it is unclear for what purpose: possibly a wedding place, or more likely a small park overlooking Ae’gura. Another dock was added to the island, and a memorial was placed on the spot where the largest stalagmite once stood. The memorial was initially planned to be placed in Ae’gura, but issues with the two possible locations led to relocate it to this little island, which also offers a nice vista of Ae’gura and the whole Cavern.

    The island has finally reached phase 5. There are still a few things that need to be done before it can be opened, hopefully in time for the anniversary (July 12, Leesahn 8). The island will be accessible via Chiso Preniv first, but in the future it will also be added to the Nexus, and also with a boat from Ae’gura.

    Chris also mentioned he found a new Age somewhere in the Cavern, but it still needs further explorations and mapping before restoration can actually begin.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has completed the 101 class and is working on their final exam!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In May, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of Alabaster by Dulcamara; another huge Age, with many puzzles, so it will take a couple more sessions. After that, they will begin the exploration of Tentsahveet by Jhon J. Jaguar.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 3 (Leebro 6) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News Roundup #28

    ☛ As mentioned in the MOULa update post, the Relto start was given a new video, which was premiered on YouTube on the day of the update; you can watch it in English, French and German.

    Eder Bahvahnter will open on April 17 at 12:00 KIT; you can get there via Elonin, or by sending “to Bahvahnter” in PM to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319).

    Kalamee will open on May 1 at 13:00 KIT, in Chiso Preniv; Nosila will provide the music.

    ☛ A new update for the Myst Documentary was posted. There has been great progress on several fronts. The film’s treatment is now complete. A new trailer was completed, to be shown to potential partners to gather the additional funds required to finish the documentary; the trailer will be showcased at Mysterium 2023. Two new excerpts are also available in the article. The Vault of Stories so far has gathered more than 90 volumes with 535 pages.

    ☛ Doobes’ work on the Descent path and the possible integration of more Myst V ages was the focus of an article on Massively Overpowered.

    ☛ The Cavern Communications Network has released the 5th episode of its podcast The Water Cooler Show: an interview with Ametist.

    ☛ A few ages have been ported to VRChat, with Cyan’s approval: Bevin, Eder Tsogal, Kadish Gallery, Ahnonay Cathedral, and more. More info is available at the Virtual Reality Guild Discord server and VRC group.