History Characters / Myst

** In ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'', he'll be subtle about it, but if you summon him before you rescue Catherine as detailed at the beginning of the game, but after you capture Gehn, he'll look at you incredulously ask why you called him, hinting that you really messed up as you both must flee Riven with Catherine still trapped.

** Atrus doesn't react well to your stupidity if you [[spoiler: go to D'ni without bringing the missing linking book page.]] His anger is much more severe in the original iteration of ''Myst'' while in ''[=RealMyst=]'', he's more baffled by your cluelessness than irate.

** Atrus doesn't react well to your stupidity if you [[spoiler: go to D'ni without bringing the missing linking book page.]]

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Yeesha can do a lot of things when writing Ages that were previously thought impossible. It turns out that a lot of these supposedly hard-and-fast natural laws surrounding the process of writing linking books, were just ancient traditions which had been around so long they were assumed to be laws. By being raised and taught in an environment where those weren't drummed into her head, Yeesha is able to accomplish things that everything her forefathers knew told them should cause her worlds to self-destruct.

A race of vaguely-humanoid beings that were enslaved by the D'ni long ago.

* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Apparently the case for Eedrah's entire family, as his father [[InvokedTrope cheerfully demonstrates]] to Atrus. This scene implies that the Terahnee [[SuperBreedingProgram practice eugenics on themselves.]]

* LongLived: The D'Ni seem to have a 400 year life-span, which is significantly longer-lived than an average human life-span.

* FeaturelessProtagonist: No defining features are ever given for them aside from a masculine pronoun in one of ''Myst's'' bad endings. This was {{Invoked|Trope}} by Cyan to allow players to better envision themselves as exploring Myst and its Ages.

* NonActionGuy: The Stranger is not out to win any fights through force. They go through every game unarmed; should the situation ever devolve into a physical confrontation, they've already lost. [[note]] In fact, throughout the series, a notable number of the bad endings involve them being overpowered and killed by an armed foe. [[/note]]

* ILied: Saavedro offers to return Releeshahn to the player freely at the end of Myst III when it turns out he can't return home without help. [[spoiler:If you take up his offer directly, he gleefully tosses the book into an abyss and scampers off home.]]

* LightIsNotGood: Kadish is strongly associated with light. Two of the puzzles leading to his vault feature lighting the floor in some manner, he created a bio-luminescent bacteria that could light the waters in the D'ni Cavern. In short, He brought light to D'ni, both literally and figuratively. This enlightenment was a corrupting force, according to Yeesha. His actions and beliefs were what truly doomed D'ni during the fall.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Yeesha, in what was both an act of pity, and to prove who the Grower truly is, wrote an alternate version of the age of Kadish Tolesa. The vault within is empty of both treasure and Kadish. It is unknown what fate Kadish met in the [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Vault,]] but it is possible that some version of Kadish still lives.]]

* TimeTravel: He wrote the age of Ahnonay, which he claims can be used to accomplish this. [[spoiler: This is {{Subverted}} when you figure out how the age truly functions.]]
* UnwinnableByDesign: An InUniverse Example, Kadish's [[TitleDrop Path of the Shell,]] was designed this way. The way to the tree is blocked by a boulder that could freely roll up the path, but would always block the exit. No matter what anyone tried, the boulder would always return to the start, and there was no way around. [[spoiler: The boulder is not the true path of the shell. It is referred to as the path of the stone. The true path of the shell is simply to wait in the right place.]]

* MayflyDecemberRomance: Her husband is over 70 when they marry, but because of his species' [[OlderThanTheyLook slow aging]], he's still her peer. [[spoiler: Ironically, she far outlives him.]]

* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: She inadvertently is the reason behind the destruction of the D'ni city.]]

* WidowWitch: Purposely {{Invoked|Trope}} by her on the traders who visit the Cleft. She warns Atrus that the traders would sell him into slavery if they knew he existed, so she pretends to be this trope to keep his existence hidden.

* ApocalypticLog: His [[spoiler: escape map of the D'ni tunnels after the fall.]]

--> '''Esher''': "You... [[ChewingTheScenery idiot! Moronic lump of filth! You are ''nothing!'' Rrghh -- I needed the power!]] I ''needed'' it! D'ni needed ''me!'' You threw it away to this ''witch'' and her legion of scum, the demon slaves! You have released the slaves as masters! You've turned the small to great! [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Curse the Maker..."]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: Half human and half D'ni.
* HumanMomNonHumanDad: Human mother, D'ni father.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: A mostly [[FanNickname fandom induced version]]. InUniverse, Atrus only ever refers to them as "My Friend".

* BeyondTheImpossible: The novels feature her Age [[FanNickname "Torus"]], a stable doughnut-shaped world, which features a huge waterfall that falls through the planet's core, turns into rain and gets carried back by clouds to refill the ocean, which in turn feeds the waterfall. Atrus' reaction to first seeing this was that, until then, he had thought it impossible to do such things with the Art. Most of Catherine's Ages seem to have a [[MindScrew touch of insanity]], including the equally trippy Serenia. Atrus even acknowledges this when he realizes that [[spoiler:Myst Island couldn't have been written solely by Catherine, because it was too ''normal''!]]

* PsychologicalProjection: He tries to pass off his harsh rule of Rivens as the Natives being a violent people by nature, but Gehn is the one who is abusing his status as a "God" by indoctrinating children from a young age to be obedient or face execution by being fed to a whark at his gallows. [[spoiler: Gehn will also shoot Atrus dead in cold blood if given the chance and then have his lackey do the same to you.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: As much as Atrus means well, he often makes situations worse. The biggest example is in ''Exile'' with a lot of focus on how his attemting to forget the past has screwed over Saavedro.

* {{Foil}}: To Gehn. Both are [[NotSoDifferent outcasts from their respective civilizations]] who are elevated to a position of godhood by the Rivenese people. However, unlike Gehn, who [[AGodAmI abuses his godhood]] for personal glory, Catherine [[AGodIAmNot reluctantly uses her position]] as a means liberate the Rivenese. Gehn believes in the superiority of the D'ni race and has rejected his human blood, whereas Catherine works among the D'ni as a representative of the human capacity to excel at the Art. She is also shown to be an exceptional Age writer, while his Ages fall apart due to ineptitude.

* HiddenDepths: Despite his [[{{Understatement}} eccentric mannerisms]] he is indeed as intelligent as his brother, judging by Atrus's comments in his journals and his actions in ''Revelations''.

* LargeHam: In the original version of ''Myst'', Atrus was much more animated and emotional, occasionally dipping into ChewingTheScenery. This is most evident if you go to D'ni but forget to take the page with you, causing him to angrily shout the above quote in such a way as to [[{{Mondegreen}} sound like any number of gibberish phrases.]] Inverted both in later games as well as {{Updated Rerelease}}s of ''Myst'', as he is much more stoic and reserved.

* HiddenDepths: Despite his [[{{Understatement}} eccentric mannerisms}}]] he is indeed as intelligent as his brother, judging by Atrus's comments in his journals and his actions in ''Revelations''.

* AntiVillain: He is simply an innocent victim of Sirrus and Achenar's reign of terror, trapped alone on a desolate age for decades and unable to return to his wife and children.

* AxCrazy: Though he will kill you at the drop of a hat if given the opportunity.

%%* BigNo

%%* HeWhoFightsMonsters
* IHaveYourWife: Holds the only contact Atrus has to his people hostage in order to get him to fix what Sirrus and Achenar did 20 years prior.

* LastOfHisKind: Saavedro thinks himself to be the last of the Narayani race due to a rather nasty civil war that occurred on his home Age. [[spoiler: This is not the case.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Once you finally manage to turn the tables on him.

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: In universe, his descriptive books are dodgy imitations of safer and superior works thanks to heavy use of BeigeProse to preserve ink and thanks to his unwillingness to learn The Art properly.
* SmokingIsNotCool: He's one of the series' main antagonists and is the only major character shown to be a heavy smoker.

* BeigeProse: Exaggerated. Rather than actually learn the art of the Art, like his son, Gehn treats writing like a science, scavenging through old D'ni linking books to learn "formulas" and deleting any "unnecessary" words to preserve his ink supply. This has a direct and negative effect on the stability of his worlds. Atrus, who spends years and years trying to stabilize his MagnumOpus, the book of Riven, compares his work to looking at a collage of masterful tapestries and paintings haphazardly cut apart and strung together with no regard for cohesion or style.

* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Constantly smoking from one in both the games and the books. Its not tobacco: [[spoiler: [[GRatedDrug Its extract from poisonous frogs he captures.]]]]

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Yeesha can do a lot of things when writing Ages that were previously thought impossible. It turns out that a lot of these supposedly hard-and-fast natural laws surrounding the process of writing linking books, were just ancient traditions which had been around so long they assumed they must be laws. By being raised and taught in an environment where those weren't drummed into her head, Yeesha is able to accomplish things that everything her forefathers knew told them should cause her worlds to self-destruct.

* BrokenBird: In End Of Ages.

* WidowWitch: Purposely {{Invoked}} by her on the traders who visit the Cleft. She warns Atrus that the traders would sell him into slavery if they knew he existed, so she pretends to be this trope to keep his existence hidden.

[[folder: Book of Ti'ana]]

* HeroicSacrifice: He dies protecting [[spoiler:Yeesha from his brother]].

* GameOverMan: If you foolishly enter D'ni without the white Myst book page, leaving you both without any hope of exit. This actually causes Atrus to shout ''"What kind of fool are you?!"'' before turning away in disgust. (If you instead choose to free Sirrus and Achenar, they will gloat before trapping you in their respective books.)