Tag: Calum

  • 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!

  • 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!

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • March 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    March 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 155th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. International Women’s Week
    2. Mysterium
    3. OpenUru
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    International Women’s Week

    Skyisblu presented the schedule for the International Women’s Week celebrations starting on Monday 6 (see our dedicated post). A thank goes to Nosila for organizing and sorting it all out, and to everyone who planned the events.

    Mysterium

    Enamel pins and button sets have been added to the Mysterium website for preorder. Designs for the pins are by Katherine “Squeefruit” White, Kelly “Rayne” Coston, redwoodroad, and Avior. Designs for the buttons are by Designs for the and Designs for the . Riven daggers are covered by the lanyard charms.

    Unfortunately, there is no option to ship internationally; the last time that was attempted, it took months to get everything sorted out. An option is to ask someone you know will attend to pick up swag for you and mail it to you afterward.

    Social buttons will be available for free to attendees, staff, and guests. A green “Yes” button implies that you are comfortable with people approaching you and engaging in conversation; a yellow “Ask” button implies that you would prefer people to ask before engaging in conversation; a red “No” button implies simply that you would like some space and to be left alone.
    The buttons must be returned at the end of the convention so that they can be sanitized and used again next year.

    The prompt for February is “Idle Hands”; the deadline is March 31. Entries for the “Heart” prompt for February were Rahshahth (featuring pixel art by Kefrith), Calum Traveler, and Talashar.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    OpenUru

    ☛ The restoration of Eder Bahvahnter, by Ametist, is complete and waiting the final phase 5 reviews. The book to Bahvahnter will be found in Elonin when it will be released, sometime at the end of March or early April.

    ☛ For Eder Naybree, some latency and lag issues have been hammered down, this quarter’s update should bring a significant reduction in load on some lower end machines. This is primarily the reason the beach side has been delayed.

    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.

    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 on weekdays 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 through 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 the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by 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 March, the Fan Ages Expeditions will visit Elsewhere by Denost. It is a huge Age, with a lot of swimming, running and many puzzles; it will keep the explorers busy the whole month!

    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 1st (Leenovoo 14) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 154th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    The Committee, always striving to make the convention as welcoming and accessible to as many people as possible, has released an accessibility survey to solicit feedback and ideas. The survey is short and all questions are optional.

    The big news was of course that registrations are now open! The Committee is using a new registration software for this year, and possibly into the future: you will need to open an account, and through that you will be able to access the shop section to purchase tickets and swag.

    Speaking of swag, there will be plenty this year, such as lanyard charms (Riven dagger, Gehn crest, quab, watermelon), Myst series timeline coffee mugs, and a poster print with awesome artwork! More will be added at future dates as things like pins get settled and finalised.

    As for the Covid-19 policy, it will be mostly the same as last year: full vaccination is required (including a bivalent booster) by June 23, and masks (N95 or equivalent) will be required and enforced.
    At Cyan’s headquarters the policy will be different and a bit more lax: special guests and Cyan staff will be allowed to remove their masks while presenting or taking part in a panel, and may not be guaranteed to be fully vaccinated.

    Hotel registration is also open; pricing is a bit higher than usual, because many unrelated events will be hosted at Spokane at around the same time, and the convention is just before US Independence Day.

    A few submission deadlines are still open:

    • pin designs are open until February 12;
    • events are open until April 29 (if you require special seating arrangements or equipment, you will need to inform the Committee in the submission).

    The prompt for February is “Heart”; the deadline is February 28. Entries for the “Beginnings” prompt for January were Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Kefrith, and Talashar.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda presented the schedule for the XIII MOULa Anniversary Celebration Week (see our dedicated post). This year is also the 30th anniversary of the original Myst game, and the 20th anniversary of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst!

    If Mir-o-Bot is present for an event, please use it solely for traveling, respect the events and do not use bot commands. Minasunda will release videos of the events some time (13 events will take a while to process!) after the anniversary week, in her YouTube channel.

    ☛ Dah’mpa presented the Wall competitions. Both will take place at Wally’mpa’s Gahreesen; the meeting point will be the Watcher’s Pub. If Wally’mpa (Dah’mpa’s doppelgänger) is unresponsive, please wait until he gets back to you: entry will be put on hold during matches to minimize chances of bugs.

    Player can participate in either or both sessions. The goal is to give players (and spectators) more opportunities to participate. There will be only individual competitions (1 vs 1). This is because in team competitions bugs show up pretty quickly. Devs and testers are working hard to get rid of these issues, but for now it is safer to stick with the simpler mode.

    Participants can register until February 4 at midnight, 24:00 KIT, in order to better plan the format of each competition. Only players that really know how to play the game can sign up. That is because explaining how the Wall works during the competition would take too long and is very hard to do without drawings.

    ☛ 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 is cooking games. Feel free to suggest more interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    OpenUru

    The first quarter update testing is underway on Minkata Alpha. Testers are asked to to be discrete about a certain project they can find there until it will be ready to be released, and only report issues on the OpenUru Discord. This quarter has a wide gamut of contributions, from fixing old cold bugs in existing Ages, to (maybe) a couple of new Ages.

    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.

    Doobes

    Doobes gave a few updates. First, he will be attending Mysterium to do a presentation: he will demonstrate Blender for Korman, to show in real time how to build a basic Age, and the ZLZ Age Importer, to show the process of converting Cyan Ages into usable Blender files. If you will not be able to attend, the event will be streamed live and archived to Mysterium’s YouTube channel sometime after.

    Next, he is back to work on Descent. The main focus has been relighting the section already available, just beyond the bottom of the Shaft. The current lighting is a bit unrealistic and too bright. The plan is to give this area a more natural and atmospheric lighting. After that, he will tackle the mechanics of the Great Shaft and all the wiring they will require.

    If all goes well, a new version of Descent should be uploaded to Minkata before the end of Q1, with a tentative release after the Q2 update, possibly in time for Mysterium. All this hinges on who difficult the wiring will turn out to be, so as always temper expectations!

    A change that should be coming this quarter will be the ability to delete fan Age books via Chiso Preniv. This will be possible due to coding from Hazado and graphical assets provided by Tweek.

    Doobes also mentioned Hazado has also been working on squashing more bugs with the Gahreesen Wall, so as many testers as possible are needed at the Minkata shard to give things a proper stress test.

    Finally he mentioned the release of Blender for Korman 0.14 (see our dedicated post).

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook 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# 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 on weekdays 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 the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by 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.

    On February 11 there will be no Story Night, as it would clash with the anniversary celebrations.

    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 February, the Fan Ages Expeditions will visit Lonirvan, the second chapter in the ‘Secret of the Rainbow’ journey by John J. Jaguar.
    They will then complete the exploration of the Maintainers Gateway by Melvin.
    Next will be the Cathedral by DenDwaler; the month will conclude with the first few steps (and swims) in Elsewhere by Denost.

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

    January ended with the CavFunding at 240% (CavCon 4.14) and the reserve at 715%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 47,027 (⇑324), with 1220 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 4 (Leevotahr 21) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • January 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 153rd All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    Submission deadlines for the 2023 convention are getting closer:

    • shirt designs closed on January 7;
    • pin designs are open until February 12;
    • events are open until April 29 (note that if you require special seating arrangements or equipment, you will need to inform the Committee in the submission).

    A few policy changes were also announced, regarding privacy and a few other points.

    The prompt for January is “Beginnings”; the deadline is January 31. Entries for the “Endings” prompt for December were Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Talashar and Laughingpineapple.

    OpenUru

    Issues have been reported with some shirts going invisible at odd distances or reappearing at further ones; the fan devs plan to fix these in the coming quarter.

    The Q1-23 update testing is underway on Minkata Alpha. Testers are asked to to be discrete about a certain project they can find there until it will be ready to be released, and only report issues on the OpenUru Discord. Eder Naybree may have its beach expansion locked down in this quarter too.

    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.

    Storytellers

    Calum thanked the participants to the event in Eder Naybree for making it successful. The storytellers will try to telegraph some events a bit more obviously going forwards, but they still want to keep the free-form on-the-moment events. Transcripts are available on the IC discussion forum.

    Events in the Cavern

    IwonK’s first stream for the year will be about racing games. To attend, tune in to her Twitch channel on January 13 at 15:00 KIT. There will be cookies, as always!

    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 on weekdays 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 the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by 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 January, the Fan Ages Expeditions will conclude the exploration of Elodea Schatzkammern by Dulcamara. Then they will examine two new TikiBear restorations, along with Greenwood Cottage, originally by Kierra and salvaged by Melvin. Next they will explore the mysteries of The Maintainers Gateway by Melvin, and conclude the month in Shorah Pahts, the beginning of the ‘Secret of the Rainbow’ journey by Jhon J. Jaguar.

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

    December ended with the CavFunding at 143% (CavCon 4.4) and the reserve at 579%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 46,703 (⇑290), with 1250 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 4 (Leevosahn 27) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • December 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 152nd All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Lexember

    For the third time, after 2019 and 2021, Cyan is taking part in Lexember, posting a word definition every day on their official Twitter account. This time, along with D’ni, they will be posting definitions for Rivenese words!

    As with past years, a list with all the relevant links is being compiled on the Guild of Archivist’s wiki.

    OpenUru

    The team of artists, programmers, and janitors were quite weary after the summer update, so they took things easy this time and combined the time of the third and fourth quarters. There are new Ages, improvements to existing ones, and fixes.

    There have been talks about porting over the Open Cave pet Relto page, but there are a few issues to be cleared before that can be done, if at all.

    Doobes has fixed an issue with the Ahnonay Cathedral doors, which will stay open until the last person links out. He is also trying to fix a similar issue with the doors in Chiso Preniv, which depend on a couple of scripts that affect many other doors, so there may be a potential benefit to these cases (possibly even re-enabling the doors in the Museum and the Library).

    The update is presently on the Staging Server, undergoing final testing, and is expected to be released sometime in the next two weeks.

    Other items on Doobes’ to-do list are getting Relto and Kirel almost fully converted to Korman, so that adding books and pages and updating things would be much easier. The full Descent is still being worked on. He is also playing around with the five Guild Pubs, trying to make them a bit more unique, by e.g. opening up the side rooms and showing various work going on with each. Direbo is on hold, pending Cyan’s decision on Myst V content.

    Doobes is also planning to hold a live demonstration at Mysterium 2023 of how to build and export an Age with Korman, and how to import Ages using Sirius’ ZLZ Age Importer. Along with that, he is working on an asset library of various D’ni objects to use and essentially ‘paste in’ an Age; this to encourage others to take a crack at Age building by easing some of the modeling and texturing burden a bit.

    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.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda announced the upcoming release of the machinima movie Okohahzah (“black-white” in D’ni, in the sense of light and shadow) on YouTube, Saturday 10 at 12:00 KIT. You will be able to chat with the creators (including Mina) on the YouTube Premiere chat or in the Cavern, in Mir-O-Bot’s Elonin (o get there PM “link” or “meet” to the bot – note that the command is not “to Elonin”).

    On 30 December Minasunda will also release a video with a review of 2022 and all that happened in the Cavern this year. She will post the link on Facebook and Discord.

    ☛ The 13th anniversary of MOULa is coming soon. Minasunda is planning the festival week on 6–11 February: if you’d like want to contribute with an event, let her know so that she can plan the dates.

    Podhopper already announced the Eddie Competition, while Nosila and Dahmpa will host a music event together; Eternal Seeker and Mina are planning another music event with a ‘guided dance’, and the Nulp Dance Group is working on a dance show in Fahets Highgarden.

    ☛ Minasunda closed with a plea to be considerate when helping new players. There have been reports of ‘veteran’ explorers who have solved puzzles in newcomers’ instances despite their protest. This is inappropriate behavior that takes the fun out of playing; the respectful act is to back off when new players decline the help.

    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 on weekdays at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on weekdays 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 the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by 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, that he eventually uploads to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay 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.

    Storytellers

    The Storytellers have been running sporadic story events, and a few scheduled events, such as the Town Halls on the last Wednesday of the month. Due to holidays, the December one may be skipped.

    In place of that, in Eder Naybree on Sunday 4 at 11:00 KIT, they closed the ‘troublemakers’ story arc, to move on to others such as the Rei’schu negotiations or Benahvud’s amnesia. Transcripts were posted on the story forums, along with the discussion threads.

    Mysterium

    The Mysterium prompt for December is “Endings”; the deadline is December 31. Winners of the “Fall” prompt for November were Delcolux, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar and Laughingpineapple.

    Miscellanea

    In December, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of the underworld of Elodea (Unterwelt, Tunnelgang, Schatzkammern) 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, January 7, 2023 (Leevosahn 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!