Trap book
From MYSTlore
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
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 traveling to the "trap book Age" they would be able to escape at any 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 Spire and Haven. This caused a lot of confusion among some players, who were not aware of what "really" happened in the games. When Atrus linked away from Haven and from Spire, he took care to drop the linking books back to Myst in places where he was sure they would be destroyed (see Haven Journal and Spire Journal). These Ages became then Prison Ages, for the lack of a linking book to anywhere else. In the game, the linking panels of the trap books in Myst did NOT show the age but the prisoner; this has been contributed to Artistic license.
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. Since Gehn's linking books could only be powered be the Fire marble domes, he could not have brought a (working) book. That Gehn was trapped has been confirmed.[1]
[edit] See also
- Prison Age - the canonical replacement of Trap Books.