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?