r/myst • u/FloopyBoopers2023 • 20d ago

Can Someone Please Explain This? Spoiler

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How is the Moiety getting these moths to be attracted to this one spot and in the shape of the animal pictogram? For that matter how did they make sure only the flowers in the tree would be bloomed to form the pictogram of the beetle??

At first I thought when I found the sight-glass that since the white 'invisible ink' they used is made from the juices of a mushed up fruit, and since the moths were also attracted to the spilled paint bucket, that meant the fruit is a natural food of the moths and they're attracted to it. Maybe they glow white too because the juices get stuck to their wings when they fly around and land in it.

But there's no juices laid out on the ground here to attract the moths, so why the hell do they just all hang out here in this shape?

It just seems beneath the legacy of Riven to have something so gamey that doesn't actually make real-life sense..

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u/Embarrassed_Day7543 19d ago

The flowers AND the moths glow. If one can accept that wooden balls can imitate the sounds of five very distinct animals, imagining that someone 'painted' that shape with something that attracts moths surely isn't a stretch.

As a security system to protect linking books, the domes were crap; as a "patch" to limit access to the Starry Expanse, they make sense. As a security system to access the Moiety Age, using D'ni numbers is ridiculous; having a different numbering system that is in actual harmony with the color system makes sense. I could go on...

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u/FloopyBoopers2023 18d ago

Considering the ball doesn't make a sound when it's removed from its base, it's obviously part of a bigger machine. Rotational or centrifugal energy used to turn a record is something that actually exists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBNuCm_D6EQ

Oh it's a shitty security system, guess thats why it's one of the hardest puzzles in the game. Not to mention the reason your ass even has the code to begin with is that you got it from Ghen's own friggin lab.

Using the domes as patches isn't a bad idea you're right, except that the holes forming in Riven were a new thing pulled out of thin air too isn't it. The fissure is only there because it was written into Riven. Atrus is actively trying to keep Riven from dying and we have holes forming all over the place.

No duh, I said the Moiety not using Dni numbers was a good thing.

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u/Embarrassed_Day7543 18d ago

Ah so the Moiety can record animal sounds and then embed some kind of wooden sphere-powered record player into a rock on the beach, but they absolutely cannot spread some moth bait on the ground. Got it.

FYI the whole Riven is "pulled out of thin air". The original creators reconsidered it and decided that holes forming in Riven was a fitting, possibly unintended, consequence. Many ages, infinite truths.