Sirrus
From MYSTlore
Sirrus (9434 - 9480 DE (1779 - 1825 AD)) was the younger son of Atrus and Catherine, and brother to Achenar and Yeesha. He was likely named after the star Sirius[1].
Contents |
[edit] Life
Sirrus was the younger brother of Achenar, but more rational, arrogant and greedy.
He was born while his parents lived on Myst with Atrus's grandmother Anna. The brothers could play together with the pool as they grew, and explore their father's ages with him. When young boys, they met Pran of Everdunes, a friend Atrus made. However, Anna's death affected Atrus gravely and led him to bury himself in his work. Sirrus who was at 8 then, saw this as rejection, but he was too proud to let it show.
Initially, they were a nuisance to Atrus' explorations and he rarely took them with him. While building the Mechanical age, Atrus decided to bring them for help since they had grown considerably since Everdunes. They built the fortress of Mechanical and during their spare time they used to play with the supplies on the southern island and even make their own constructions; Atrus admired their ingenuity.
When older, the brothers accompanied Atrus when he returned to Channelwood and got along very well with the tree-dwellers, picking up their language fast. When Atrus left for Osmoian, Sirrus suggested to stay. Atrus warned them not to take advantage of the respect the tree-dwellers have for their ideas. Atrus visited them once more after Everdunes; the tree-dwellers were slightly distressed that he was leaving again, but were happy that Sirrus and Achenar were staying behind once more. When Atrus came back 3 days later after visiting a number of Ages, the boys had constructed a boat with the tree-dwellers and explored the surrounding waters. Atrus told them about Pran's death and they were shocked.
As they left the age, they asked if they can visit some other ages alone. This experience with the age-inhabitants may have contributed the brothers feel revered, and long for wealth and power.
Sirrus was eager to help his father building the machinery for the Selenitic mazerunner and later he assisted him bringing this machinery to Rime and its early constructions.
In an attempt to teach his sons the Art, Atrus created the Lesson ages and befriended Saavedro of Narayan to educate the boys in the principles of environmental balance. He asked the teacher to help the brothers learn about Narayan's careful tending of the Lattice Tree so that they would understand the balance necessary for civilization.
[edit] Corruption
But he had given his sons too much freedom and without his knowledge they grew mad with visions of riches and power, sprung forth by the endless possibilities of the books. They declared themselves kings of his Ages, ruling and destroying their people. It was a time when Atrus was busy with other things and left his Myst library unchecked for too long.
When Sirrus and Achenar returned to Narayan as corrupted adults, they claimed that they could "fix" Narayan, stirring up many of the young people against the elders and causing the neglect of the Tree. When they left Narayan, Saavedro, who had for some time been unsure whether or not to believe the brothers, made up his mind to confront them. Leaving Tamra and his children (by this time he had a second daughter) to seek shelter, he followed the brothers to J'nanin. There they told him that they had no intention of helping Narayan and left him stranded in the Age.
Sirrus plundered the resources of the Ages he subjugated and lived in luxury. He often clashed with his brother Achenar, whom he looked down on; Achenar on the other hand was disgusted by Sirrus' greed and even sent a threatening letter to him.
At some point they started burning the books in the library. Atrus found that out but was not ready to accuse one or the other. He hid the few surviving books in places of protection on the island, accessed by codes from the Myst tower.
In 9462 DE Sirrus was willing to seek Achenar's help to eliminate their parents before they discovered what the brothers had been doing. After they persuaded their mother to link to Riven and look for Atrus, they told him that she was waiting for him in K'veer. While Atrus was preparing, Sirrus left a message to Achenar's Channelwood imager and notified him. Achenar then took one page from their father's Myst linking book and Atrus could not link back to Myst.
Atrus and Catherine were successfully trapped in K'veer and Riven respectively, and Sirrus and Achenar began to work on the second part of their plan in Serenia to steal Atrus' memories from him and learn the Art.
[edit] Imprisonment
While Achenar was working on the machine in Serenia, he considered taking temporarily the life stone from Serenia. He entioned it to Sirrus, who accused Achenar of letting his "insatiable desire for instant gratification" screw up yet another one of his plans, and then blamed his brother for the whole Narayan civil war.
This argument made Achenar mad and ruined their plan. Sirrus then dared to link to Spire, fooled by the natural palaces and hoping for a civilization to conquer. Instead he found himself trapped in the desolate prison Age. After overcoming his first disappointment over a bonfire he built, he used a rope and descended a tunnel to find himself in a crystalline complex.
[edit] Experiments
Sirrus' only option was reaching the planet surface with the hope that he would find a Myst linking book his father had thrown when first visiting the Age. Simple survival required several experiments on growing his own food.
He spent a considerable amount of his time during the first several years of his captivity carving sculptures and experimenting the nature of the rock's magnetic properties. Sirrus eventually realized that even the biggest rocks could be moved simply by manipulating their natural magnetic field via a directed electrical charge.
He discovered another type of rock that had the capacity to attract and store enormous amounts of electric charges absorbed from the surrounding atmosphere, thus acting as a massive battery. Sirrus also experimented on the harmonic properties of Spire's minerals, and used the results to fashion a musical instrument, the Spider Chair.
These discoveries enabled Sirrus to build a network of batteries and control panels to distribute electricity throughout Spire. He used this electricity to manipulate rocks into bridges and walkways, and also create a vehicle by modifying a floating rock, for traveling back-and-forth to the neighboring island. He was hoping (having Emmit and Branch of Stoneship in mind) that the Age would be home to a native civilization unbeknownst to his father and that he could make contact with them. His first experiment with this "rock-ship" failed in 9466 DE.
It wasn't until he eventually reached the island that he finally discovered the true nature of the Age; to his disappointment he found that Spire had neither civilization, nor ground, as it was floating high above a gas giant's surface.
[edit] Escape
Catherine always felt a longing for her imprisoned sons and she believed that Anna's death caused Atrus to lose himself, neglecting thus the kids when they were little. Atrus and Catherine used the crystal viewer to look at their prison Ages, but this was not enough and eventually Catherine wrote linking chambers into each Age in 9475 DE; when Sirrus noticed the chamber, he realized that his father is alive.
Contact between parents and sons was reestablished. Unfortunately this was a way for Sirrus to escape.
Sirrus pretended to have reformed when Atrus and Catherine made contact with him via a linking chamber, but was consumed with jealousy when he learned of Yeesha's existence and that they were teaching Yeesha the Art. However he would meet her and play chess with her. He even would carve her Spirit Guide out of Spire's crystals and their chess pieces.
Eventually he used the crystal bombs to break open the linking cage and go to Tomahna to kidnap Yeesha. She fled to Haven, seeking Achenar's protection, and after a brief struggle between the brothers, Sirrus used a crystal bomb to incapacitate Achenar. He brought Yeesha to Serenia, where he could switch bodies with her and, pretending to be Yeesha, learn the Art.
He was foiled in this by the Stranger and Achenar, and his mind was crushed by its naked exposure to Dream.
[edit] Writings
Atrus family tree
| Gehn senior | ∞ | (unknown) | Edit this box More detail ➡ |
|||
| | | ||||||
| Kahlis | ∞ | Tasera | ||||
| | | ||||||
| Aitrus | ∞ | Ti'ana (Anna) | ||||
| | | ||||||
| Gehn | ∞ | Keta (Leira) | ||||
| | | ||||||
| Atrus | ∞ | Katran (Catherine) | ||||
| | | ||||||
| Achenar | Sirrus | Yeesha | ||||
[edit] Background
In Myst game Sirrus was portrayed by Robyn Miller. In Revelation by actor Brian Wrench.
In Myst, the player can communicate with Sirrus and through the linking panel he will ask for the pages that will repair his linking book and set free. However canonically this didn't actually happen.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Featured
[edit] References
- Sirrus and Achenar are mentioned briefly in the epilogue.
- The events of Myst and Revelation are summarized in Yeesha's journals.