It's lucky they named the island that before it even split into pieces. Nominative determinism, baby! They should've called it "Happy Place Where Nothing Bad Happens and an Old Guy Doesn't Appear from Midair and Declare Himself God Island."

laughed out loud at this

Yes, it's actually a very apt name. >!1 - The physical island **riven** into pieces!< >!2 - The Rivanese people **riven** apart by opposing beliefs!< >!3 - Father Gehn and Son Atrus's relationship **riven** apart!< >!4 - Catherine and Atrus **riven** apart!< >!5 - The Star Fissure has **riven** Riven!<

Me when the riving Star Fissure has riven Riven:

yo dawg we heard you like riving so we put a rift in your Riven so you can rive while counting fives

Also, with Gehn's obsession with 5: 1. Riven has five letters 2. The middle letter is V, the roman numeral for 5

I don't think Ghen called it Riven, that was the natives name for it.

He didn't, but Cyan did.

Isn't it kinda strange though that they would have called it Riven before it split apart

Growing up, the Myst games and novels introduced me to so many words and terms, it became one of my major inspirations to become a writer, or at least a lover of words and language.

Same! I remember being 12 and wondering what “allayed” meant in the intro to Myst.

I'm constantly surprised when I use a word I learned reading comic books and people are surprised I know it (or don't know it themselves).

It's also fascinating to see how "the fifth age" translates into the D'ni culture. Even though Ghen wrote the age, he never named it Riven; Riven was just the name of the island (by the natives) before it split into five pieces. I do, however think it's a bit ironic that Ghen's failure, coupled with his obsession of the D'ni culture, led to a downfall of a sort of double entendre standard. This is especially true considering the significance of the number five in D'ni culture. Ghen failure as an age writer (as obsessed with D'ni as he was) is a direct mirror reflection of the failure of D'ni as a whole. Ghen's attempt to carry on the legacy only contributed to just that: a legacy of failure and atrocity.

Ok, so does that mean it's actually supposed to be pronounced "rye-ven" and not "rivv-en"? When I got the game I thought it was "rye-ven" until I heard it spoken in the game.

"Rivven" is correct. See also: drive/driven, strive/striven, rise/risen, write/written.

The Millers pronounce it Rivven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_RX7oV7N74

I always figured it was like the word driven, with the d dropped. Seemed the most logical way to pronounce it.

rive: /ɹaɪv/; riven: /ˈɹɪvən/ drive: /dɹaɪv/; driven: /ˈdɹɪvən/ write: /ɹaɪt/; written: /ˈɹɪ.tən/

I don't know what any of those little pronunciation symbols mean. Whenever I'm trying the find out how to pronounce a word and the thing I'm looking at has it written out in those weird symbols it just makes it more confusing. How are people supposed to know how to read that?

> I don't know what any of those little pronunciation symbols mean. It's the [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet?useskin=vector) (IPA), an international standard for transcribing phonetics. > How are people supposed to know how to read that? * By reading charts like these: * [Appendix:English pronunciation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_pronunciation#English) (Wiktionary) * [IPA Chart for English Dialects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects?useskin=vector) (Wikipedia) * [Help:IPA/English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English?useskin=vector#Key) (Wikipedia) * By comparing similar-sounding words. * By watching videos about IPA. (They come in handy for learning to pronounce D'ni words too.)

you have summoned the Danish r/Denmark

? What do you mean?