The Extra Yeesha Glyphs
Modified by dreamerblueON on July 23/04, now
that the official order of the glyphs is known. Started from thread at
MystObsession forum (http://www.mystobsession.com/) found here.
Been
thinking through some of the narrative that seems to be coming up in a little
more detail:
Yeesha leaves Mum and Dad...

...to go live in the Cleft for a
while (possibly as an end in and of itself, at least for a while, since she
claimed a bedroom there, but also possibly as a place to set up camp on her way
down to D'ni).

Why? Why leave the comfort of
Tomahna for the simplicity and "roughing it out" of the Cleft? A
disagreement with her parents? Or a choice to live a more ascetic life
(maybe just temporarily?), like the spiritual retreat of the Desert
Fathers? The letter from Atrus to Yeesha in URU Prime mentions some
"search" that she is on, which "seems to take [her] further and further from
[them]."
Wait a minute...in Yeesha's first speech to you, from the
imager, she says, "My parents brought me to this place - we will bring
you." To what "place" is she referring? Not the Cleft or Earth -
you're already there, so the future tense verb "we will bring" wouldn't apply if
that was the case. So...her parents brought her to D'ni, to the "uru" to
which she was referring? Then the picture here shows Yeesha leaving her
parents to go *back* to D'ni (since they already brought her there once), to do
more searching there just as Gehn left Anna at the beginning of BoA. Or
maybe Atrus and Catherine also discovered the Bahro and their enslavement and
the Bahro cave, just as they discovered the slavery on Tehrahnee (sp?)?
No, I don't think so; I would think that discovering them was part of what
Yeesha found on her "search."
By the way, I think all the light brown
stuff is from not the next picture, but the one after. I thought maybe
they got put face-to-face and the conte or pastels or whatever rubbed off on
this one, but that doesn't make sense because then the mirror image would be
seen on here, not the same one. Anyway, however it happened, I don't think
it's important, or even indicates the order of the glyphs.
She traded
with native Americans during the time she stayed in the Cleft. (These
activities were commemorated on a special plate, or maybe a Frisbee :).)

Anna was involved in trade as well
to make a life for herself and Atrus while they lived in the Cleft, and even
before she ventured below the surface, she and her father went to the markets in
town. While living with her father, what they sold was their surveying
ability. While living with Atrus, she sold carvings and paintings and so
on. What did Yeesha have to offer to the natives in trade, and what did
she get in return (food? anything else as well?)?


This glyph seems to indicate all that
Yeesha learned about the Bahro and D'ni history (note the Bahro crying eye seen
best in the red version), and possibly her setting up the journey for us to
follow in Prime plus part of Path of the Shell (note the spheres in the
lower-left corner). The figure seen besidee the spheres is probably
Kadish, as has been pointed out by others (see forum thread linked to above),
and so when this figure appears with two other figures (e.g., in the center of
this glyph, best seen in the red version), we at least know whom he is &
this gives hints as to who the other figures are. It's been suggested that
the center figure is the Watcher (again, see the forum thread for the excellent
rationale), and the fact that he has a book over his head is important in later
glyphs; the postioning of Kadish beside the Watcher shows that he is a follower,
though later he wrongly claimed to be the Grower. The identity of the
other figure is unknown at this point. Also still unknown is the figure in
the doorway on the right and the book type symbol beside it (though it's been
suggested that figure is a Maintainer & that the book symbol represents the
intra-Age linking possible in Relto--which she may be Writing
here--respectively; the doorway thing could also represent going through a
Journey Door).
A question: where is Yeesha doing this learning, and from
whom? Note the many-pointed star pattern; similar symbols are seen in the
Nexus and 3 places in the Neighbourhood (clock area, linking book area, and
around the pedestal in the meeting room)...so has she been to D'ni at this
point, or does the placement of this glyph before the next one (in which she
seems to be travelling down to D'ni) mean that can't be true? And are the
Bahro teaching her, crying out for her help? But if they're able to come
to her, wouldn't that mean they're pretty mobile, and don't really need us to do
the pillar thing? Does she just manage to piece the history of the Bahro
and D'ni together on her own (I suppose background teaching from Atrus and
Catherine would have helped her, especially what they shared with her of the
events that happened in BoD)? Is she just writing in a notebook, or is she
Writing, possibly Relto? What is the significance of the D'ni numbers
here?
Eventually, Yeesha starts to descend the Great Shaft to D'ni.
Partway down she has a nap in one of those resting places (likely more than one
along the way, if the Myst series of books is any indication). She
encounters some creatures along the way, like bats and frogs.

Near the entrance proper to D'ni she
meets the Watcher, who has travelled through time to meet her here and
now. Note the top of the cavern glyph seems to have some people going in
at the top--here is the glyph from the tree in URU Prime:

Yeesha travels down the Great Shaft
(which we are also sometimes travelling to as we go about our journeys, hence
the other people...but we are travelling in it in the future of this glyph, so
we don't run into her, I guess...or perhaps the others are the D'ni who used to
be in the Shaft, building it, or the few who travelled up it after the
Fall...don't know what the dots are, but there are also dots along tunnel to
D'ni in the above glyph, so I think they're just rubble along the path, to be
expected considering these tunnels were never really used & are old
besides)...

(By the way, note the picture that
is in the tree:

This could also perhaps represent the
water running "always down" to the roots of the tree, which then begins to grow
again, but I don't think we'd be walking along that water...or maybe our
presence represents that we help the water to run down to the roots of the tree
again...but I still cling to my theory that the dots in the two glyphs above
show both to be tunnels, and this one is the spiral shaft tunnel or
something)

...and eventually gets to the bottom,
where she meets the Watcher again (who went ahead of her). Just like when
Anna came down from the surface, this is like the meeting of two worlds, hence
the gap between the two figures? Note there are only surface animals on
Yeesha's side of this culture gap, and only writing-related things on the
Watcher's...or whatever the symbols around the Watcher represent...maybe
prophecies, but I don't know about that given the context below.

Pretty much the same symbols as on the
previous glyph are seen here, but they're rearranged into a very organized
pattern (letters and numbers in order along top and bottom, surface creatures
and the Watcher's knowledge in concentric circles) to emphasize a basic type of
school. I think the Watcher learns from this also, about the surface
(hence the inclusion of the surface creatures in the stuff above the Watcher's
head), or maybe she's learning the words for those things in D'ni (maybe she
knows spoken but not written D'ni?). One of the Watcher's books is removed
from the circle as Yeesha learns a little bit at a time, just like when we learn
the basics of anything they're compartmentalized..or maybe it's just to make
room for the river of knowledge he's pouring on her head (seen in the reddish
copy), anointing her in a way. What Yeesha is learning exactly is still
debatable...she is writing in a glyph above, after all, and I think she has
already Written Relto at this point, but maybe not...maybe she is learning
Writing here and Writes Relto later. So, did Yeesha know *anything* about
Writing before she went down? If not, was this her choice, or that of her
parents? Or maybe she was actually writing in English above & didn't
even know basic D'ni, so learns even the numbers and such from the Watcher, but
I find that a little unbelievable...maybe the numbers are just there in order to
*represent* schooling (like we see the alphabet in order by the blackboard in
our classes for younger children).

Under the Watcher's instruction, Yeesha
grows in the knowledge of Writing and can do more complicated things.
(Once you know the basics, you can move on to see how your previously
compartmentalized knowledge is really all related and reorganize it).
Notice Yeesha's name and the Book symbol are getting closer as she gains more of
his knowledge. I also see two five-pointed stars in this image, and they
don't really look like those seen in the Nexus and Neighbourhood (mentioned
above). What does this represent?

Yeesha's and Book's knowledge is fully
integrated now (hence overlapping symbol), and the tree begins to grow
again. Is this because they are tending to it, or is it a result of D'ni
knowledge passed on, or the completion of the training of the D'ni saviour, or
???
Next comes the battle sequence. Once day an enemy is
encountered by Yeesha and the Watcher.

I'll call him Glorious Big Book, but
who is this guy, the devil [/sarcasm]? I do like another member's
suggestion that he is (Yeesha's) Pride; I kind of doubt that it is Gehn as
others have speculated. Why is the eye-looking symbol there? Why are
Yeesha's and the Watcher's symbols separate again? Did the big bad guy
scare Yeesha's name out, or maybe this represents that she doesn't know anything
about this enemy, hence she can't be unified with him in this
confrontation? Where did the bad guy show up from, and why now, if at
all?
Recently the main theory seems to be that this enemy is Kadish,
after Yeesha saves his life...finding out that she is the Grower and he (Kadish)
is not, Kadish gets very upset and makes the following confrontation
happen. If this enemy is Kadish, then that means that Yeesha must already
realize she is the Grower, since she has already brought Kadish back to
life...the previous glyph with the tree would then be a beautiful realization of
this realization, as she prunes and grows the new shoots.
Yeesha is
attacked by Glorius Big Book, and at first is overcome...

(Now the presence of some of the
Watcher's knowledge on Glorius Big Book's side makes sense, if this is Kadish,
since he has read the prophecies and is here perhaps claiming why they show he
is the Grower.)
but the Watcher jumps in and protects Yeesha...

(How is this attack carried
out? Last time I looked, there was no fireball spell in the
D'niverse.)
but alas, he falls (wow, rather dark aura around Glorius Big
Book's symbol now).

Now Yeesha remembers her schooling
(notice the symbols of the Watcher's knowledge) and begins to fight back
Perhaps she was forced to write an Age for this guy, and did write a functional
book, but had a duplicate "trick" book as well, which he would link into, having
seen the functional book and thinking the "trick" book was it, or maybe the two
books are the same, showing that she altered a functional book to make it a
trap/prison.

(The symbols that are in the big
books look like some of the options that can be put into the Cleft imager...what
does this represent?)
Finally, she is victorius, trapping the baddie and
becoming Glorious Yeesha.

And now, we are being made
into a new Uru, and we are helping the tree to grow again. (And Yeesha
adds the ability of the Great Tree in the pub to link us somewhere
else...)

Another question: why do some of
the pictures have this neat coloured strip/border, and others don't?