Characters of Myst
The Myst series of adventure computer games deals with the events following the player's discovery of a mysterious book describing an island known as Myst. The book is no ordinary volume; it is a linking book, which serves as a portal to the world it describes. The player is transported to Myst Island and must unravel the world's puzzles in order to return home. Myst was a commercial and critical success upon release and spawned four sequels—Riven, Exile, Revelation and End of Ages— as well as several spinoffs and adaptations.
While the player, referred to as a [|Stranger], remains faceless and unnamed, Myst and its sequels introduce a variety of non-player characters. The inhabitants of Myst include the explorer Atrus, a writer of many linking books, and his wife [|Catherine] and their children Sirrus and Achenar and Yeesha. Other characters introduced in the series include [|Gehn], Atrus' power-hungry father; Saavedro, a traumatized victim of Atrus' sons; and [|Esher], a member of an old civilization whose motives for helping the player are ambiguous.
The first Myst titles used pre-rendered graphics, and digitally inserted footage of live actors into the backgrounds. For Myst V: End of Ages, a different approach was taken: a special camera recorded actors' faces and mapped the video onto digital models. The characters of Myst have been generally praised in each installment. Reviewers found that the live action characters increased immersion, while the digital body language and spoken conviction in End of Ages endeared the characters to the player. Dissenting reviewers considered Mysts acting melodramatic and overwrought.
Development
When the first game in the franchise, Myst, was created, all the characters were created from footage of live actors. The actors were filmed on a bluescreen, then added to the pre-rendered backgrounds via chroma key. Due to a limited amount of time and money, Mysts creators, Rand and Robyn Miller, took on roles in the game themselves.The Ages of Myst were occasionally seen as lonely by players and reviewers. As a result, Cyan added more characters to the sequel, Riven. Villagers scurry away as the player approaches, and major characters such as Gehn and a rebel band known as the Moiety address the player and give or take items away from him or her. For the first time, Cyan directed the live action actors for Rivens scenes; the designers, including Richard Vander Wende, were apprehensive about how the characters would fit in the finished product. Rand Miller reprised the role of Atrus due to fan expectation, even though he hated acting.
Later Myst titles improved on the integration of live action sequences in the prerendered environments of the games. Myst III: Exiles developers filmed all the scenes using standard definition cameras, which producer Dan Irish looked back on as a mistake; by not using high definition video cameras, the video did not look crisp at high resolutions. For the next game, Myst IV: Revelation, Ubisoft allowed players to move the game camera and interact with the video while it was playing through the use of the ALIVE game engine.
Myst V: End of Ages was developed so that players could freely navigate Ages rendered in real time, which meant that the digital insertion of characters into the settings was not feasible. The models for End of Agess characters were instead computer-generated. A special device was created that captured video of the actors' faces while they spoke their lines, as Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters. Motion capture was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff worried that the audio syncing for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results.
The player character in Myst, Riven, Exile and Revelation is never given a name and remains faceless at all times. Atrus addresses the player character as "my friend" in cutscenes. Cyan's intent was for players to feel as though they were themselves there, stranded on a mysterious island with no choice but to explore. Thus, the games' protagonist is an anonymous, gender-neutral entity with no given history, and players are free to imagine themselves as the protagonist.
Characters
Atrus and Catherine
Atrus is the main non-player character in the Myst series, appearing in all five games of the main series; he also narrates the opening of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. He is a member of the ancient D'ni civilization, though his only D'ni inheritance is through his paternal grandfather. The D'ni perfected a craft known as the Art, which allowed them to create portals to other worlds known as Ages by writing a descriptive "linking book". After the fall of the D'ni civilization, Atrus' father, Gehn, teaches him the Art and Atrus creates many linking books, surpassing his father's skill in writing. Atrus comes to understand his father's power-hungry nature; as punishment for defying him, Gehn traps Atrus on K'veer, an island off of the main D'ni city, with a book leading to Gehn's Age of Riven as the only escape.On Riven, Atrus meets Catherine, a local inhabitant and a brilliant student of Gehn's who shows promise in the Art of writing Ages, despite not being D'ni herself. Together they trap Gehn on Riven. Atrus' grandmother, Anna, helps Catherine by writing the Age of Myst as an escape route while Atrus destroys every other linking book on Riven. The linking book to Myst is dropped into a starry expanse known as the Star Fissure, where it is presumed lost. Catherine and Atrus start a family on Myst, raising their two sons, Sirrus and Achenar; however, both boys grow greedy and seek to strand their parents, trapping Atrus on K'veer and luring Catherine to Riven, where she is captured by Gehn. The Stranger's discovery of the Myst linking book saves Atrus from being trapped in K'veer a second time, and Catherine from Gehn's clutches. Moving to Tomahna, Atrus and Catherine have a third child, their daughter Yeesha, and attempt to resurrect the D'ni by writing a new Age for the people called Releeshahn. By the events of End of Ages, Catherine has died, and an elderly Atrus confines himself in Releeshahn to live out the rest of his life. Atrus is played by Rand Miller in all the Myst installments. Catherine is portrayed by Sheila Goold in Riven, with her voice dubbed by Rengin Altay, and Maria Galante in Exile.
Sirrus and Achenar
Sirrus and Achenar are the sons of Atrus and Catherine and are the eldest of their three children. They first appear in Myst, trapped in two different books. Each swears that he is innocent of plundering their father's Ages, claims that Atrus is dead, and that the other brother is to blame. In actuality, both brothers grew greedy, destroyed Atrus' library, killed the inhabitants of the Ages, and attempted to strand their parents forever. They in turn are trapped in special prison books Atrus designed to imprison unwanted travelers. Once he is freed by the Stranger, Atrus burns Sirrus and Achenar's books.Revelation reveals that the brothers remained exiled on two different Ages for twenty years, where Atrus and Catherine hoped they would reform. During his imprisonment in the inhospitable Age of Spire, Sirrus learns to harness the Age's electromagnetism to create crude airships and crystalline explosives. He is thoroughly embittered by his exile, especially when he learns about his sister Yeesha and how Atrus is teaching her the D'ni language and the Art of Writing, which he never taught his sons. Sirrus uses his explosives to breach the linking chamber Atrus installed, and manages to escape. Achenar, trapped in the jungle Age of Haven, becomes a game hunter preying upon the local wildlife. However, he is overcome with remorse when he hunts one species to extinction, and is later befriended by a group of monkey-like creatures. After Sirrus helps Achenar escape, they travel to the Age of Serenia. According to a journal Achenar kept on Serenia twenty years before, Sirrus' original plan was to trap Catherine on Riven and use an aging "Memory Chamber" to steal Atrus' knowledge of the Art. After escaping from Spire, Sirrus kidnaps Yeesha and uses the old Memory Chamber to take over her body, intending to play-act as Yeesha long enough to learn the Art before killing his parents. Achenar, who has reformed during his imprisonment, helps the Stranger set Yeesha's memories right again. Sirrus is killed when the Stranger reverses the mind-switch; Achenar is fatally poisoned when he repairs the machinery to save his sister. In Myst, Sirrus was played by Robyn Miller, and Achenar by his brother Rand; in Revelation, the brothers are played by Brian Wrench and Guy Sprung, respectively.
Yeesha
Yeesha is the only daughter of Atrus and Catherine. She is briefly mentioned in the novel Myst: The Book of D'ni, and is first seen as an infant in Exile. Yeesha is seen by her parents as a correction to the mistakes they made with their wayward sons. Her parents teach her D'ni and the Art. In Revelation, her brother Sirrus attempts to use Yeesha in a plan to learn the Art and kill his parents, but Yeesha is freed by the Stranger and Achenar.An adult Yeesha appears in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and is one of two main characters in End of Ages, where she tries to persuade the player to help free an enslaved race known as the Bahro by unlocking a powerful Tablet. Over the course of her life, Yeesha takes on many roles, eventually assuming the aspect of a prophesied D'ni savior-figure known as "The Grower". Baby Yeesha is played by Exile game producer Greg Uhler's daughter. Juliette Gosselin plays a young Yeesha in Revelation and Rengin Altay voices the character as an adult in Uru and End of Ages.