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ages of Gehn and Atrus in the MYST series
Thanks to Aitrus5 on Mystcommunity for spurring me to do my homework and piece this together, and for Jehon's expertise and patience in answering numerous questions. I have striven for accuracy, but it's possible I've made a mistake somewhere.
Evidence: Book of Ti'ana
Gehn is four when he is sent away to school.
"In his eighth year", his parents visit his school during an Open House (so to speak), which is interrupted at the end by the quakes that signal the fall of D'ni. People rush outside to see the black cloud. So Aitrus dies, and Anna flees with Gehn to the Cleft, when Gehn is eight.
Evidence: Book of Atrus
Gehn is "just nineteen" when he brings his dying wife to Anna, and Atrus is born.
Chapter 1, Anna gives Atrus a kitten for his 7th birthday.
The rainstorm when Atrus is 10. Flame dies.
"Fourteen, now" is said in the description of Atrus when he's fiddling with the battery. Gehn shows up within a day or so. 14 +19 means Gehn is 33 when he takes Atrus away.
When Anna protests Atrus leaving, Gehn scoffs that he was exactly the same age. From this we surmise Gehn ran away from Anna at age 14.
When Gehn takes Atrus to Age 37, it says, "for three years now he'd been accompanying his father to these Ages". Gehn took him to one almost immediately after bringing him down to D'ni. Also, when Atrus confronts his father concerning Age 37, Gehn mocks Atrus for only having studied the Art for three to three and a half years. It's not quite clear how many months pass before Atrus' adventures on Riven, but I doubt more than a year. This puts Atrus at about 18 by the end of BoA, and Gehn at about 37.
When Atrus arrives on Age 37, he's told by an inhabitant that they have known Gehn for a thousand days. Atrus assumes Gehn arrived soon after writing the Age, and therefore guesses the book was written 3 years previously. That means just about the time Gehn came to fetch Atrus from the Cleft.
Evidence: Riven and Exile
Riven
Gehn's Journal: 83.5.14-- He has been on Riven "for nearly thirty years."
Gehn's Journal: 86.9.29-- Catherine arrives on Riven. Atrus would not have gone to K'veer until after this date (and sons would not have used Red and Blue Linking Books until after Atrus was gone).
Atrus' Journal on K'veer begins: 87.6.10 "[The corrections to Riven] held for more than thirty years..."
Atrus' Journal: Stranger arrives 87.7.13.
Gehn's Journal: 87.7.30-- The stranger arrives on Riven. (unknown how long it took before Catherine and Atrus were reunited, but presumably days not weeks, or this would not have been the final journal entry).
Exile
Atrus' Journal: 93.6.6 "In the ten years since my sons, Sirrus and Achenar, left me trapped on K'veer Island..." **
Journal ends 93.10.28, end of year, with the announcement that he is ready to start writing Releeshahn.
Conversion of these dates. Abbreviated D'ni dates have dropped the digit [15] in front of them, as we traditionally drop the century.
'86 decimal = '[3][11] D'ni. [15][3][11] = 9461 decimal.
'87 decimal = '[3][12] D'ni. [15][3][12] = 9462 decimal.
'93 decimal = '[3][23] D'ni. [15][3][23] = 9468 decimal. ** this seems to be a contradiction. It was not THEN ten years since his imprisonment on K'veer. But if he started writing Releeshahn at the beginning of the next year, and it took three years to finish, it would then be ten years after his imprisonment.
Fall of D'ni: year 9400.
Gehn starts writing Fifth Age: 9417
Atrus writes first Age: 9429
Atrus marries Catherine: 9431
conclusions from above:
Gehn is 8 at Fall of D'ni, meaning he was born in 9392.
Gehn starts writing Fifth Age when he is 25. (Nice bit of irony)
Atrus is nineteen years younger than Gehn. Therefore he is born year 9411.
Atrus writes his first Age at age 18.
Atrus is 20 when he marries Catherine. (hm. They waited a while after settling on MYST? I suppose they would).
Summary
| Year | Gehn's Age | event | Atrus' Age | event |
|---|
| 9392 | (0) | born on Gemedet | | |
| | 9400 | 8 | Fall of D'ni. Gehn goes to Cleft with Anna. | | |
| | 9406 | 14 | Gehn runs away from Anna. | | |
| | 9411 | 19 | Gehn returns with dying Keta. | (0) | born and left in Anna's care |
| | 9417 | 25 | Writes Age 5. | | |
| | 9418 | | | 7 | Our first glimpse of young Atrus. Gets his kitten, Flame. |
| | 9421 | | | 10 | The desert rainstorm. Flame dies. |
| | 9425 | 33 | Comes to fetch Atrus. Writes Age 37. | 14 | Goes to D'ni to begin training |
| | 9428 | 36 | Takes Atrus to Age 37 | 17 | Events on Age 37. |
| | 9429 | 37 | Age 37 destroyed. Trapped on Riven within a year or so. | 18 | Writes first Age. Goes to Riven. Meets Catherine. End of BoA. |
| | 9431 | | | 20 | Marries Catherine on Myst Island. |
| | 9462 | 70 | Fall (and game) of Riven. Gehn trapped in Prison Age. | 51 | Imprisoned on D'ni by sons(9161) freed by Stranger |
| | 9469 | | | 58 | Begins writing Releeshahn |
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| 9472 | | | 61 | presumably, Game of Exile (See Exile section above) |
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What's that in Earth Years?
Rumor has it that Cyan or RAWA said the Myst/Riven games took place in Earth year 1806. I don't know about rumors, but I do know that in the BoT, Anna and her father use an oil lamp for spelunking, as well as a tinder box. Her hardhat's chinstrap is leather, not elastic fabric or plastic. Atrus learns about electricity from the D'ni books of his grandmother. But Anna and her father have a good grasp of chemical analysis of rock samples even before she goes to D'ni. To me, late 1800s makes more sense--as close as possible to the modern period without having electricity.Also, there's some sort of "empire" in the area, because Anna's father's employer serves an emperor. Someone suggested Ottoman, but I'm not sure about that. I'm still not satisfied with this.
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