Template:Did You Know

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Did You Know? is a feature of MYSTlore with all sorts of random, surprising, amusing, unusual or even pointless factoids and trivia all around the Myst Universe.

The below list of submissions is a bullet point list (avoid changing its format; things may break). Using a custom extension at MYSTlore, the Main Page randomly picks one of the factoids and displays it in the Did You Know? section.

The more you fill this list, the more likely it will be for visitors to discover something new and unexpected this way.

Submissions

9470 DE was an eventful year: Atrus finished Releeshahn, relocating many D'ni and sealing off Terahnee, Atrus and Catherine built and moved to Tomahna, and on top of that, their daughter Yeesha was born.
The word "D'ni" can refer to a city, a language, a people, or an age.
Although the Book of D'ni uses the word "bahro", they're completely unrelated to the Bahro referred to in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Myst V: End of Ages.
In early development of Myst V: End of Ages, the Age Noloben was titled Siralehn instead, and many files still reflect the srln abbreviation.
The frog in Riven, the ytram, was named after Marty O'Donnell, a sound designer for the game. It is simply his first name, spelled backwards.
The character Catherine has been played by at least four different actresses, despite the fact that she appears only in three of the Myst games. This was because in Riven, she was played by two actresses simultaneously - one (Sheila Goold) acting in front of the camera, and another one (Rengin Altay) dubbing the voice later. Later, Altay was also hired to do the voice on the realMyst trailer as well as Yeesha's voice in the Uru series.
Rand Miller has said several times that he did not enjoy acting Atrus in Myst and Riven, and that he would never do it again. Despite this, he was persuaded to repeat his role in Exile, Revelation and End of Ages, as well as reprising his Myst performance in realMyst, and he is therefore the only actor to have appeared in all of the games of the original franchise.
Myst was the best selling computer game in the world for almost ten years - until The Sims ^(Wikipedia) took over that title.
Not a single toilet can be found in any Myst game.
In the original game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, it is possible to access one of the D'ni neighborhoods by jumping over a balcony railing.
Many animals found in the Myst games have been given nicknames by fans. Revelation's mangree, for example, was called a "monkey-kitty", and the pir birds of Myst V: End of Ages were appropriately dubbed "piranha chickens".
The only Ages visited in the Myst series that are not islands (and therefore provide an alternate means of restricting movement) are D'ni/Earth/Tomahna, Tay, Narayan, Spire, Todelmer, and Releeshahn.
The Uru games contain fewer island Ages (by percentage) than the Myst series: only Relto, Teledahn, and Ahnonay are islands.
When Cyan made Riven, Robyn Miller, Richard Vander Wende and Josh Staub went to Santa Fe ^(Wikipedia) to take a lot of photos which served as the basis of many textures used in the game. Later, Cyan reused some of these textures. Most prominently, the sky at the cleft in Uru is partly the same as the sky in the Riven age in Riven.
Atrus, arguably the most well-known character in the Myst series, shares his first name with his grandfather. In D'ni, the two names are spelled Atrus^[?], but when transcribed to English, Atrus's grandfather's name is usually spelled "Aitrus" to separate the two.
The original idea for D'ni came from a story Robyn Miller conceived involving a boy named Matt Dunny who discovers an underground kingdom.
The frogs found in Haven in Myst IV: Revelation are named dan'ni frogs. The development team named the frogs after one of the moderators on the Uru Obsession fan forums.
If you pronounce the letters in the word "Uru", you will end up saying "You are you", referring to how it is the first Myst game where you are allowed to choose your own character.
Robyn Miller has a Myst Online account, although not under his real name.
There was an unfounded rumor that Cyan Worlds and Tell Tale Games discussed ways to do a crossover with the Myst games and the Sam & Max series.
If you typed "/look" in an age in Uru Live, it listed, among other things, the compass directions of exits. This is a reference to Zork ^(Wikipedia) and other similar text-adventure games.
Rand and Robyn Miller appeared on a postage stamp in Palau, a former United States protectorate in the Pacific.
Robyn Miller has a son named Alex whose name can be seen hidden on an image in Boiler Island in Riven: The Sequel to Myst.
In Achenar's hologram in Channelwood in the first Myst game, the chant he says is really the phrase "Rush Limbaugh understands" backwards.
Originally in the development of Riven, Survey Island was named Garden Island and the map room was located on Temple Island instead.
The book that Atrus can be seen writing in during the conclusion of Myst was actually a dictionary that Robyn Miller bought at a booksale for $19.95.
Easter eggs, little secret rewards, can be found in games across the Myst series, from the original game to Uru, from pictures of the developers' families to secret videos of actors.
Several members of the Narayani Collective have been working on creating a written form of Narani and are attempting to reconstruct a spoken form of the language. The only resources they currently have are the lyrics to the Myst III: Exile theme and the lyrics to the bonus track "Exile" off of the Myst III soundtrack.
Most of the sounds from Myst were created with everyday household items. A bubbling sound effect, for example, was made by inserting a straw into the Miller brothers' toilet and blowing into it.
The linking sound effect, a staple of the Myst series, is slightly different in every game.
Saavedro is only one character whose name is commonly misspelled, either purposefully or accidentally. To date, he has been known as Saav, Saavy, Saavie, Saveedro, Saaveedro, Vederey, Savvy, and Saavi, among other names.
The title of the game Myst was considered a very funny title for a game in Germany: "Mist" is the German word for "Manure".
Myst V: End of Ages is the only game in the Myst series that does not contain any easter eggs.
Catherine's real name is Katran, but Atrus misunderstood the pronunciation when they first met, giving her the name by which she is more commonly known.
It is (understandably) very common among fans to mix up "Narayani" and "Narani". The difference between them is important to remember, as the two words mean very different things. (Narani is the name of the language, while "Narayani" means "of or relating to Narayan".)
It is possible to see a flashback to the beginning of Myst III: Exile in Myst IV: Revelation by using the amulet on one of the tapestries in Atrus's study in Tomahna.
As part of an effort to promote Myst III: Exile, toy company Mattel ^(Wikipedia) released Saavedro and Atrus action figures.
There was a spelling error on the Saavedro action figure package that incorrectly identified him as "Saveedro". There were also numerous flaws that fans found with the doll itself, namely the color of his hair and sculpt of his face.
Before Hyperion was the publisher, bringing David Wingrove on board, James Lileks wrote an early draft of Myst: The Book of Atrus.
Many fans believe that the large C-shape that circles part of the ice ball coaster on Amateria is a reference to the Cyan Worlds logo.
A copy of the Book of Ti'ana can be seen very briefly in the Lizzy McGuire episode Between a Rock and a Bra Place, as shown in this clip at 9:40 minutes.