Post by ryuutenshi on Apr 22, 2008 16:52:59 GMT -5
Just as with the D'ni, the cultures of the Ages of Myst were also inspired by surface cultures. Riven, for example, shows influence of various Pacific cultures (such as Aoatora [New Zealand] and Hawai'i) in addition to Southeast Asian and Spanish influence. So, a very short list of possible inspiration we should turn to, and what we know.
Uh, note that I haven't played Exile or Revelation. so I may need help there. I'm going to be contacting some of the naryani scholars I know for help as well.
I'm also going to focus here mostly on worlds with their own civilizations - ie, Riven, Naryan, etc - as opposed to worlds such as Selentic, which while I'm sure Atrus ate stuff there, I'm also sure there wasn't any native cuisine.
Riven[/u]
Of the Ages in the Myst games, Riven is probably the most well developed. It gets a whole game to itself, after all! So:
We know they ate:
-Fruits of various kinds (classroom, etc)
-Fish. Lots of fish. Especially dried fish.
-They had to boil their water, becuase for some reason the Rivenese didn't evolve to deal with the unusual microorganisms in the water either. So, water is always boiled first.
-Tropical climate, at one point Riven was covered in jungle until Ghen ruined this.
-Revered trees, wharks. There's a note -somewhere- about them eating the Sunners (The whale-like creatures)
So, this leads me to the following conclusions:
-They didn't eat anything except fruit raw. Fruit was OK becuase the bacteria probably were processed already (ie, the water wouldn't make them sick).
-Lots of soups, again, water content. Tea, as well.
-Heavy influence of both polynesian, southeast asian, and possibly south american foods. There's one southeast asian dish, a way of wrapping spiced fish in banana leaves and then roasting it slowly, that I think would be a perfect Rivenese food.
-Possibly Inuit influence of all things - the sunners are very much like whale, and so if the Rivenese ate those they'd have dishes similar to however the Inuit prepare whale. NOTE: I DO NOT CONDONE THE EATING OF WHALE MEAT EXCEPT BY NATIVE CULTURES. Substitute beef >>;
-I can't remember, but I don't think the glyphs in the Tay cavern showed any large land mammals, so they're unlikely to have pork (a staple of Hawai'ian food) or beef (or the Rivenese equivalent, anyway) Actually I don't remember any large land animals at all, so mostly fish and maybe a small fowl or something similar to chicken.
Channelwood Foods
-We know pretty much that there were monkey people. This would lead us to assume a lot of fruit, but..
-The climate seems Northwest american. So maybe look to foods from that region for inspiration instead. What kinds of animals besides frogs were around? Again, a lot of fish... so perhaps ceader plank salmon would be perfect (pacific northwest, keeps with the tree theme)
Stoneship Foods
-Again, we don't know much about this place. However, given the geography I think there might be a lot of shellfish under that water. So we'll have a bit of a cross between Asian and Northeast American, weird as that sounds. Something similar to New England boiled dinner (ie, a lot of crustaceans and fish boiled in water - esp important due to the lack of rain which means a lack of fresh water!) save without the usual potatoes and cabbage. Subsitute various seaweeds, I suppose?
Mechanical Age Foods[/u]
-We know even less about Mechanical than Channelwood or Stoneship. We know that they had alcohol (sirrus) but that's about it. Still, given the presence of water, there must have been fish somewhere...
Naryani foods/u]
-I haven't played Exile, but my friend Robbie pointed out the lack of land and the whole living in trees bit. I realized that it'd probably be very bad to light fires in the trees, and indeed, fire could be quite hazardous. Not only that, but there don't seem to be many animals. Thus, I think the Naryan would have first eaten a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, naturally provided to them by the trees, but they also would have caught and eaten raw fish - in other words, delicious sashimi.
-If they did cook, it'd have to be over small fires and with a way of control. Again, I have to say that they'd have food similar to Japanese food - the Japanese first have a similar formal structure to their society and second as their homes were all wooden they had to make certain to cook over small fires. If there's shallows they might even have had rice, but I'm not sure. Someone who knows more about Narayan should help.
The Cleft
Depends on if you believe it's in New Mexico or the Middle East (I'm old school, so I go with the mid east. sorry guys.)
If it's in the Middle East, well, obviously various middle eastern foods. If in New Mexico, southwestern native american foods and such.
Myst Island
Atrus and his family probably ate a fusion of whatever the food from the Cleft was (Southwest American or Middle Eastern), D'ni food, and Rivenese dishes prepared by Catherine, with an oddly Northeast United States twist (due to Myst's apparent climate) and with bits from the various Ages he visited. so undoubtedly something very interesting!
Myself, I know that while I was on Myst I would have killed for some hot chocolate...
Uh, note that I haven't played Exile or Revelation. so I may need help there. I'm going to be contacting some of the naryani scholars I know for help as well.
I'm also going to focus here mostly on worlds with their own civilizations - ie, Riven, Naryan, etc - as opposed to worlds such as Selentic, which while I'm sure Atrus ate stuff there, I'm also sure there wasn't any native cuisine.
Riven[/u]
Of the Ages in the Myst games, Riven is probably the most well developed. It gets a whole game to itself, after all! So:
We know they ate:
-Fruits of various kinds (classroom, etc)
-Fish. Lots of fish. Especially dried fish.
-They had to boil their water, becuase for some reason the Rivenese didn't evolve to deal with the unusual microorganisms in the water either. So, water is always boiled first.
-Tropical climate, at one point Riven was covered in jungle until Ghen ruined this.
-Revered trees, wharks. There's a note -somewhere- about them eating the Sunners (The whale-like creatures)
So, this leads me to the following conclusions:
-They didn't eat anything except fruit raw. Fruit was OK becuase the bacteria probably were processed already (ie, the water wouldn't make them sick).
-Lots of soups, again, water content. Tea, as well.
-Heavy influence of both polynesian, southeast asian, and possibly south american foods. There's one southeast asian dish, a way of wrapping spiced fish in banana leaves and then roasting it slowly, that I think would be a perfect Rivenese food.
-Possibly Inuit influence of all things - the sunners are very much like whale, and so if the Rivenese ate those they'd have dishes similar to however the Inuit prepare whale. NOTE: I DO NOT CONDONE THE EATING OF WHALE MEAT EXCEPT BY NATIVE CULTURES. Substitute beef >>;
-I can't remember, but I don't think the glyphs in the Tay cavern showed any large land mammals, so they're unlikely to have pork (a staple of Hawai'ian food) or beef (or the Rivenese equivalent, anyway) Actually I don't remember any large land animals at all, so mostly fish and maybe a small fowl or something similar to chicken.
Channelwood Foods
-We know pretty much that there were monkey people. This would lead us to assume a lot of fruit, but..
-The climate seems Northwest american. So maybe look to foods from that region for inspiration instead. What kinds of animals besides frogs were around? Again, a lot of fish... so perhaps ceader plank salmon would be perfect (pacific northwest, keeps with the tree theme)
Stoneship Foods
-Again, we don't know much about this place. However, given the geography I think there might be a lot of shellfish under that water. So we'll have a bit of a cross between Asian and Northeast American, weird as that sounds. Something similar to New England boiled dinner (ie, a lot of crustaceans and fish boiled in water - esp important due to the lack of rain which means a lack of fresh water!) save without the usual potatoes and cabbage. Subsitute various seaweeds, I suppose?
Mechanical Age Foods[/u]
-We know even less about Mechanical than Channelwood or Stoneship. We know that they had alcohol (sirrus) but that's about it. Still, given the presence of water, there must have been fish somewhere...
Naryani foods/u]
-I haven't played Exile, but my friend Robbie pointed out the lack of land and the whole living in trees bit. I realized that it'd probably be very bad to light fires in the trees, and indeed, fire could be quite hazardous. Not only that, but there don't seem to be many animals. Thus, I think the Naryan would have first eaten a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, naturally provided to them by the trees, but they also would have caught and eaten raw fish - in other words, delicious sashimi.
-If they did cook, it'd have to be over small fires and with a way of control. Again, I have to say that they'd have food similar to Japanese food - the Japanese first have a similar formal structure to their society and second as their homes were all wooden they had to make certain to cook over small fires. If there's shallows they might even have had rice, but I'm not sure. Someone who knows more about Narayan should help.
The Cleft
Depends on if you believe it's in New Mexico or the Middle East (I'm old school, so I go with the mid east. sorry guys.)
If it's in the Middle East, well, obviously various middle eastern foods. If in New Mexico, southwestern native american foods and such.
Myst Island
Atrus and his family probably ate a fusion of whatever the food from the Cleft was (Southwest American or Middle Eastern), D'ni food, and Rivenese dishes prepared by Catherine, with an oddly Northeast United States twist (due to Myst's apparent climate) and with bits from the various Ages he visited. so undoubtedly something very interesting!
Myself, I know that while I was on Myst I would have killed for some hot chocolate...