WARNING:
This site contains some major spoilers. If you haven't finished Riven yet I recommend you bookmark this site and come back later. Proceed at your own risk!



Welcome to Riven Illuminated

     After my third or fourth visit to Riven I started noticing things that I had missed on my previous visits. They were mostly little things that had no real bearing on the game itself. But if they weren’t there, Riven would have seemed stark and unrealistic.

     The Millers didn't frivolously include every little thing that came to mind. To quote Robyn Miller: "It’s just extremely important for us, when we’re creating anything, never to do it just for the sake of doing it, just because it’s ‘cool man’, you know. We try to really put meaning into every aspect of the world that we’re building." And so, everything in Riven has a purpose. For some things, that purpose is obvious, but others have a more subtle effect on the player. If Riven was real, these things would be there, so they are!

     All these little things add up to make Riven seem like a real place.

     In this site I'll try to show you things that you may not have noticed during your visit. The seasoned Riven player may recognise a lot of what I have to show, but hopefully by the end of your tour, your appreciation of Riven will have been enriched, and you will have a deeper understanding of the game.

   Some pages may take some time to load so please be patient.

     Enjoy!

 

Temple Temple Island Tay Tay (Rebel Age)
Jungle Jungle Island 233 Gehn's 233rd Age
Book Assembly Book Assembly
Island
 Misc. Misc. information
Survey Survey Island Eggs Easter Eggs

Prison Prison Island Mistakes Mistakes

Last update, 26-oct-1999 author:Stewart Bradford
 

"What's new....."

26-oct-99

  • Added info on multiple endings to Temple Island, Gehn's 233rd Age and Rebel Age pages
  • Added info about D'ni writing on lamps in Jungle Island village school house
  • Thoughts about Gehn's original test age in book used for Tay
  • Added notes about small D'ni writing on cover of Gehn's linking books on 233rd age page
  • Explanation of D'ni number system added to 233rd age section
  • Explained why you wait in trap book for so short/long a time in his 233rd age
  • Added pictures and notes about the design of the MagLev to misc. page
  • Added additional info about the Egg containing Robyn Miller's children to easter egg page
  • Added a mistake on the Survey Island gold elevator to the mistakes page
01-oct-99
  • Added spoiler warning to easter egg page and changed link image on main page
25-sept-99
  • Added entry about the super dome power generator on Temple Island
  • Updated info about Cho and the players arrival on Riven in Temple Island section
  • Added entry concerning icon about Gehn's guilds on Riven for Temple Island
  • Updated info about prisoner found in cell above Wahrk gallows on Jungle Island
  • Added entry about the strange rock formations on Gehn's 233rd age
  • Added entry on second set of RAWA initials to the Easter Eggs section
  • Added three more mistakes to the Mistakes page
    1. Repeated letter in school house
    2. Untextured object
    3. The 'man-of-light' in jungle
01-sept-99
  • Everything :o)

"Thanks be to....."

I'd like to give thanks to the following people for their (more often than not) unwitting help in creating this website.

  • Richard A. Watson of Cyan..... I asked him a few (what an understatement!) questions to help clarify things that I had already guessed at (and sometimes guessed completely wrong :o).
  • Chris Brandkamp of Cyan..... for giving me legal permission to use their assets.
  • Everyone on the Riven Lyst..... for posting their messages. Without this valuable resource I wouldn't know half the stuff I do about Riven.
  • Tony Davidson..... for his great Yantra 3D site where he has posted tonnes of test renders from his work on Riven, many of which I used for decoration here on my site.
  • Marty O'Donnell..... for telling me about his trick on Gehn's opera, for giving the Ytram it's name, and last but not least, for helping Riven sound so real.
  • Michelle (Lisandra) Long..... for copious amounts of editorial comments :o).
  • My brother..... for letting me use his computer and DVD version of Riven.
  • Torbjorn Mathisen..... for his great MYST & Riven Illustrated site. He has collected just about every Riven picture to be found on the net and put it all in the one spot.
  • James Gray..... for scanning in a couple of pictures from "From Myst to Riven" for me to use.
  • And of course everyone at Cyan..... for putting together the greatest game ever.
  • and just in case I forgot someone, I have to include the obligatory just-in-case-I-forgot-anyone thank you. So, thank you to those people.

All Riven images and text © 1996, 1997 Cyan, Inc. All rights reserved Riven ® Cyan, Inc.
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