I always found the concept of leaving D’ni ridiculous. How can one leave a place that offers access to countless worlds and knowledge? It’s like a companion leaving the Tardis.
But life has that way of moving you on, of guiding you to a new path to take.
I would say that the time has come for me to pack up and leave the cavern, but truth be told I’ve not stepped foot in the cavern for a few years now. It has almost been 10 years since I came to the cavern, I have learned so much and yet there is more that could be learned. But focus started moving away from D’ni and to the Ages Written by us, by me. And as such I discovered that I no longer missed it, I no longer missed the people I didn’t want to speak to, the drama, the religious fervor of keeping a pure community, a pure D’ni.
Those who I could once call friends have long since moved on, and in their place resides resentment, a bitterness towards an aspect that was prevalent in my life for the thirteen years I spent since first finding out about Atrus and the D’ni.
I came to the realization that when the DRC fell apart in the beginning of 2004 it sounded a death toll. The things that guided us died, the community died and the corpse was ridden along for several more years. Yet the corpse riding is far from over I’m sure.
It is unfortunate that I had taken so long to come to this realization. I think that given that D’ni was a part of my life for so long made it harder for me to let go. But events of the last few years have allowed me to finally move past it, see it for what it is.
And I feel good about it.
The stress it was causing dealing with the interaction of others was not worth it. The stress of watching everything fall apart and few noticing it and others ignoring it was not worth it. The stress of dealing with the insidious ideology of the community was not worth it.
So I have been packing things up, my Books have been put in a safe place, aside from Kehrahn which belongs to my wife. My studies and experiments have been halted. The Ages have been secured and if any fall into destruction, well that’s just too bad.
The last two wallpapers are ready and will be posted up to the end of the year. The work on the archived forum posts (DRC, TTP DRCL) will probably go up at some point too not sure when, but after that the likelihood of further updates are slim to nil.
But life has that way of moving you on, of guiding you to a new path to take. My path takes me back to the surface, back to my home and back to my family to start a new chapter.
It was fun, for those first few years anyway…And who knows what can happen a few years from now.
