Trap book

From MYSTlore

This page contains information that is not a canon part of the storyline.

Trap books (or prison books) were tampered Linking books that caught whoever used them in a limbo between Ages.

One of their properties was that one could see and hear the person in the Trap Book through the Linking panel and communicate with them.

Another property was that only one person could be in a trap book at one time, anyone who linked into the book after someone was already within it, would free the person and take their place.

[edit] Artistic License

The following section is written from an OOC point of view. Events and elements surrounding the Myst Universe are regarded as fictional.

Trap books were central to the Myst storyline and played a part in Riven but later retconned away, with Cyan Worlds explaining they had simply been ordinary linking books that linked to Ages which had no linking books within them, much like the Prison Ages of the D'ni. If someone took a linking book with them when travelling to the "trap book Age" they would be able to escape at any time.

The reason the "trap books" had been effective when Atrus used them on his sons was because his sons had become used to all of the Ages having linking books back to Myst. However Gehn on the other hand was accustomed to keeping a spare linking book on him whenever traveling to an Age. That Gehn was trapped has been confirmed^[1], but how is unclear at this time.

The retconning was central to the Myst IV: Revelation storyline that allowed the player to travel to the Prison Ages Achenar and Sirrus had lived on. This caused a lot of confusion among some players, who were not aware of what "really" happened in the games.