Gehn
From MYSTlore
- For Aitrus's grandfather, see Gehn senior.
Gehn (gen[?]) (born 9392 DE (1737 AD)) is son of Aitrus and Anna. He was married to Keta.
Gehn was a significant figure of D'ni history since he was the first known half-human individual. He barely had a chance to experience the D'ni city and people, as the Fall happened during his early childhood. This did not hamper his interest in his heritage, however, as he meticulously studied D'ni's history and culture — including the Art. He considered himself the last survivor. Feeling more D'ni than human, he attempted to revive D'ni culture. He has become infamous for his belief that the D'ni actually created the worlds they linked to rather than created links to worlds that already existed.
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[edit] Life
Born on his family's Age Ko'ah, Gehn was named after his great-grandfather with hopes that his life would be more fruitful. Little Gehn was a sickly child; he entered the Guild of Book Makers at the standard age of four, and although he was teased mercilessly by fellow students at first for his half-ahrotahntee heritage, he did well, fascinated by the power and the secrets associated with the Art. After the fall of D'ni and the death of his father, Anna took him to the surface and raised him in the Cleft, but he came to blame her for the fall and eventually went out into the desert at the age of fourteen.
The events of the next five years are unclear, but he encountered the Amad people and married Keta. She became pregnant, and then suffered an illness which caused Gehn to bring her back to the Cleft in hopes that Anna would be able to help; but it was too late, and Keta died in childbirth. Gehn left his son with Anna and descended into D'ni. There he studied the history of that civilization and self-taught himself the Art, studying from Linking Books and notes.
When Atrus (as Anna named the child) reached fourteen, Gehn brought him down to D'ni to teach him and mold him into a partner and heir. But after Gehn demonstrated his lack of true mastery of the Art with his 37th Age, Atrus rebelled and tried to flee back to the surface, but was caught and locked in a room of K'veer with the Descriptive Book for Gehn's Fifth Age, Riven. Although Gehn disowned his son, he hoped Atrus would repair the unstable Age out of compassion for its inhabitants (which he did).
[edit] Riven
On Riven Gehn had established a Guild of special servants. After Atrus's unsuitability became apparent, he chose one of these Guild members, Catherine, who had shown a great talent for the Art, to become his wife. But Catherine betrayed him. Fleeing with Atrus, they trapped Gehn on Riven as it became evident that the man was a serious threat to the multiverse and its various inhabitants. They did so by utilizing the Star Fissure, an anomaly created by Gehn's faulty writing. The fissure acted as a portal from Riven to Earth, and although Atrus and Catherine were not aware of this, they knew that it was their only hope if they were to escape from Riven with all the linking books to D'ni, so that Gehn could never have access to the city and its resources again. Atrus and Catherine escaped by linking to Catherine's Myst Age directly over the fissure, letting the book fall into oblivion, and knowing Gehn, he would not have had the courage to plunge himself into the fissure, although if he had, he would have certainly been pleasantly surprised. This act, which was witnessed by a couple of natives, inspired a group of rebels, the Black Moiety, to declare themselves Gehn's enemies. The encounter between the three at the fissure spurred an entire religion amongst the Moiety. Among the information that was discerned from the events at the Star Fissure were the notions that Gehn was no God, Atrus and Catherine were, and having been born on Riven, a native, Catherine was the Rivenese Messiah that would end Gehn's reign of terror and lead the Rivenese to freedom.
Gehn attempted desperately to create new books and ink and write new Ages without other books to copy from. He did succeed eventually, writing his 233rd Age, although it required massive amounts of power to force one of his flawed books to work. He began work on his 234th Age, which he intended as a refuge for the people of Riven against the final collapse of their home. Thirty years after her departure, Catherine returned to Riven, misled by her sons and thinking Atrus was there. She aided the Moiety but Gehn captured her and interrogated her to try to learn where the Moiety were located. (He had no suspicion that they were using another Age entirely.)
The Stranger, sent by Atrus, tricked Gehn into using a book that appeared to link back to D'ni but in fact sent Gehn to a prison Age. Here Gehn would spend the rest of his life.
[edit] Character
Gehn from from the beginning was ruthless. He destroyed Anna's garden and precious water in the Cleft when Anna told him she could not save Keta. Gehn was impatient, dictatorial, arrogant, and easily offended. He frequently jumped to wrong conclusions in many matters and was difficult to please. Atrus rationalized Gehn's bluntness and rudeness by thinking that loneliness made him lose his manners.
Gehn taught himself the Art, but as a complete autodidact, with no guidance, and with little true understanding of what he was doing. His writing style was strained and choppy, largely composed of sections drawn from the Descriptive Books of others, often stripped of detail, and then assembled with little regard for how well they fit together or with trying to make a cohesive whole. He saw it as his mission to restore his distorted vision of D'ni: gods ruling over thousands of worlds. He had no interest in finding survivors of the old D'ni and indeed destroyed many Books linking to Ages that might contain them. Gehn's standard practice after writing and linking to an inhabited Age was to declare himself Lord over its people and demand their service and worship. Gehn numbered instead of naming his Ages. His godhood was challenged by the existence of the Whiteness which the people of Age 37 revered before (and after) Gehn's arrival, and even disobeyed them due to the Whiteness' favor, to his much envy.
His Art skills, were regarded as "less than average", as most of his Ages were inherently unstable. Where Atrus was concerned enough to actively maintain the Riven descriptive book in order to prevent it from collapsing while the Stranger rescued Catherine, Gehn did not share such profound interest in the people of Ages whose links he had created. Instead, he saw himself as the last of a race of gods: whereas Atrus came to believe that writing merely linked to existing worlds, Gehn saw the act of writing as that of creating a world, and thus, ultimately, its people. That he had, as he thought, "created" the worlds of which he wrote gave him, he believed, not only the ability to rule and control them, but the right.
Gehn considered his motives to revive the D'ni as noble ones, however at least during his years in Riven showed great carelessness on his 'creations' as he deemed the world and the inhabitants. He recognized (although seemingly impenitently) that the Wahrks of Riven diminished due to the over-hunting. His ruthlessness was also demonstrated when he ordered the cutting down of the Great Tree, as well as the desolation of the Rivenese forests to make papers. Furthermore he didn't hesitate to imprison and execute the Rivenese who defied his goodhood and rule, and even threw some of them into the Star Fissure for experiments' sake.
[edit] Writings
Atrus family tree
| Gehn senior | ∞ | (unknown) | Edit this box More detail ➡ |
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| Kahlis | ∞ | Tasera | ||||
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| Aitrus | ∞ | Ti'ana (Anna) | ||||
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| Gehn | ∞ | Keta (Leira) | ||||
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| Atrus | ∞ | Katran (Catherine) | ||||
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| Achenar | Sirrus | Yeesha | ||||
[edit] Background
In Riven Gehn is portrayed by veteran actor John Keston
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Featured
[edit] References
- Yeesha summarizes her family history in her journals.
