History VideoGame / UruAgesBeyondMyst

During the multiplayer's original cancellation, two expansion packs were released for the singleplayer game: ''To D'Ni'' and ''The Path of the Shell''. They were retroactively bundled together as ''Uru: Complete Chronicles'' in retail form, and are available to this day on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GOGDotCom.

* EndlessDaytime: Teledahn's sun moves horizontally across the sky, never dipping beneath the horizon as it circles. Though evidence (images of the sun passing in ''front'' of some more distant landforms) indicates that it may an artificial light source, rather than the planet being [[Literature/MissionOfGravity Mesklin]] on steroids. (Though the passing in front may simply be a rendering glitch)

Unlike previous games in the series, ''Uru'' is third-person, takes place in modern day, and you play as a custom created avatar instead of [[FeaturelessProtagonist the Stranger]]. The biggest departure though, was that originally the game was going to have an Massively Multiplayer Online component to it, where multiple players could work together to solve puzzles.

You play an explorer who descends into the ruins of the lost D'ni civilization, located somewhere beneath New Mexico. In the ruins you find a hologram of Yeesha, Atrus and Catherine's daughter, who tasks you with rebuilding the D'ni civilization. Generally you begin by taking on her "Journey", exploring select Ages left behind by the D'ni that shed light on the Bahro, a mysterious species buried deep in D'ni history. This also leads you to learn the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC), an organization who has taken over the archeological process of documenting and restoring the D'ni Cavern and its Ages for public access. The stories that result from these converging paths (saved either in [[InGameNovel length journals within the game]] or [[AllThereInTheManual in archives of previous live events]]) span over 20 years alongside the game's development, telling tales of discovery, schism, achievement, tragedy and hope for the future, and the cause of seeing the Cavern "live again."

* AbortedArc: Two major arcs saw premature ends due to the game's development difficulties; the original narrative begun with the conflict between the DRC and Yeesha's followers was cut short after the ''Uru Live'' beta, with the 'singleplayer expansions and ''VideoGame/MystVEndOfAges'' having to roughly tie the loose ends together. The second arc under [=GameTap=]'s hosting picked up the pieces from all of these for a narrative of its own regarding the DRC's future and the fate of the Bahro, but was left hanging by [=GameTap=] pulling the plug on the servers. Unlike last time, the ''[='MOULagain=]'' era has seen no significant follow-up to these events due to Cyan not wishing the OfficialFanSubmittedContent to cause major plot developments for the ''Myst/Uru'' universe at this time, resulting in their narrative being smaller stakes and divorced from matters of the Bahro or DRC characters.

* AbortedArc: Two major arcs saw premature ends due to the game's development difficulties; the original narrative begun with the conflict between the DRC and Yeesha's followers was cut short after the ''Uru Live'' beta, with the 'singleplayer expansions and ''VideoGame/MystVEndOfAges'' having to roughly tie the loose ends together. The second arc under [=GameTap=]'s hosting picked up the pieces from all of these for a narrative of its own regarding the DRC's future and the fate of the Bahro, but was left hanging by [=GameTap=] pulling the plug on the servers. Unlike last time, the '[='MOULagain=]'' era has seen no significant follow-up to these events due to Cyan not wishing the OfficialFanSubmittedContent to cause major plot developments for the ''Myst/Uru'' universe at this time, resulting in their narrative being smaller stakes and divorced from matters of the Bahro or DRC characters.

You play an explorer who descends into the ruins of the lost D'ni civilization, located somewhere beneath New Mexico. In the ruins you find a hologram of Yeesha, Atrus and Catherine's daughter, who tasks you with rebuilding the D'ni civilization.

The multiplayer aspect was troubled from the start. The game was originally supposed to be multiplayer only, then had a single player mode added, then the multiplayer aspect was dropped altogether, after it was beta tested. Beta testers who had their own fan servers were allowed to keep their servers. Eventually the multiplayer aspect was released as ''[[http://mystonline.com/en/ Myst Online: URU Live (again)]]''.

Two expansion packs were released for ''Uru'': ''To D'Ni'' and ''The Path of the Shell''. The original game and its two expansion packs were re-released as ''Uru: Complete Chronicles'' in retail form, and on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/GOGDotCom.

* AbortedArc: Due to the cancellation of the multiplayer component, numerous plot threads involving Yeesha, the D'ni Restoration Council, the Bahro etc. were left hanging. When the multiplayer component was revived by [=GameTap=], the plot threads picked up again with new content being released every week. Unfortunately, [=GameTap=] pulled the plug due to a lack of subscribers and the various storylines were abandoned once again.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Bahro Nekisahl (lit. "Twisted Bahro"). The Bahro were ill-treated by those D'ni who knew they existed (typically without the Powers that Be having a clue, lest the masters be incarcerated or executed), and some of them have given in to their hate--of ALL subspecies of ''Homo sapiens''.

* [[MadeOfIron Made Of Nara]]: Your avatar can fall four stories without panic-linking and not be harmed. Of course, some of the Ages could simply have lower gravity than Earth.

* ShrineToTheFallen: A bar in Ae'gura contains a video marquee showing the names of dead players (as well as one dead fictional character). A later update to the free-to-play version added an entire memorial age, with notebooks containing biographies of dead players.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: If you want to keep those neat looking pillars in your Relto forever, the game won't force you to return them. Of course, this means you are keeping the living soul of a sentient being agonizingly trapped for eternity for no reason other than your own amusement...

** The death of Willow "Wheely" Engberg in ''Uru Live'', i.e. the slaughter of a teenaged girl, was roleplayed out over chat.
** When the player behind the character Pepsi in ''Uru Live'' died in real life, it came as quite a shock. Years later, in the D'ni Games (a fan-created Olympics-styled event) of Until Uru, the Pepsi Memorial Marathon was named in honor of her.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Two of the Prophecies of Oorpah that Yeesha quotes pertain to this.

''Uru: Ages Beyond Myst'' is the fourth game in the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' series, developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} in 2003.

The multiplayer aspect was troubled from the start. The game was originally supposed to be multiplayer only, then had a single player mode added, then the multiplayer aspect was dropped altogether, after it was beta tested. Beta testers who had their own fan servers were allowed to keep their servers. Eventually the multiplayer aspect was released as ''[[http://mystonline.com/en/ Myst Online: URU Lives Again]]''.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The rotating fortresses of Gahreesen are designed to prevent mass linking, in order to disable an invading force.
** More horrifically, the second fortress contains a number of prison cells in the top level, designed to be inescapable. In order to link into them, the architects set up a timer, and as that timer reached a certain point (and the appropriate cell slid into place), they would forcibly link the prisoner therein. One wonders what would happen if they got the timing ''wrong''...

* HiddenInPlainSight: The 'ante-chamber age' to Ahnonay features a stained glass window that appears abstract and meaningless but actually depicts [[spoiler:the mechanism used to fake the age's apparent time travel properties]]. Just in case more proof was needed after Kadish Tolesa that Kadish was an enormous smartass.

* HiddenInPlainSight: The 'ante-chamber age' to Ahnonay features a stained glass window that appears abstract and meaningless but actually depicts [[spoiler:the mechanism used to fake the age's apparent time travel properties]]. Kadish was evidently an enormous smartass.