Sirrus and Achenar

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In the computer game series Myst, Sirrus and Achenar are the sons of Atrus and Catherine, and the eldest two of their three children. They are the villains of the original game Myst, and reappear in Myst IV: Revelation.

Contents 1 Sirrus 2 Achenar 3 Youth 4 Betrayal 5 Revelation 6 See also 7 External Links 8 Atrus family tree

[edit] Sirrus

Sirrus (D'ni: Sihrus/[Sirus]) is the youngest son of Atrus and Catherine, commonly paired with his brother Achenar. In Myst, Sirrus was played by Robyn Miller. In Myst IV: Revelation, Sirrus was played by Brian Wrench.

Sirrus was first met inside the red book on Myst Island in Atrus's library. The book was revealed to be a type of trap or prison that Sirrus claimed that his father had incarcerated him in. At first, the book had many pages missing, and when first opened without the pages, the player could not see or hear Sirrus at all due to the static blocking the gateway image. When the first red page was put into the book, Sirrus is able to barely see someone looking into his red book. He implored the player to find more red pages which were scattered in the four remaining ages of Myst. With each page he could see out of the book more clearly. As the vision became clearer he shouted out not to pick up the blue pages belonging to his brother Achenar's blue book. He slowly explained through the static which later cleared once enough pages were gathered, that he could escape and reward the player. [1] Sirrus was the brother who lusted after beauty, power, wealth and luxury. He also had an addiction to alcohol and drugs. At the end of Myst, if he so chooses, the player leaves Sirrus imprisoned, and instead frees his father, Atrus, from his prison in D'ni. The player waits in D'ni, and when they return to the island of Myst, the red and blue books that acted as the two son's prisons have mysteriously disappeared, with burn marks in their place. Later, in Myst IV: Revelation, it is discovered that the brothers are in fact not dead. Twenty years later, they escaped their prisons with yet another sinister plot.

[edit] Achenar

Achenar (D'ni: Akehnahr/[Akenar]) is the oldest son of Atrus and Catherine. In Myst, Achenar was played by Rand Miller, who also played Atrus. In Myst IV: Revelation, Achenar was played by Guy Sprung.

Achenar is the first son of Atrus and Catherine, commonly paired with his brother Sirrus. Achenar was apparently mentally unstable, and became obsessed with violence and death. He owned many torture instruments. He was an accomplished hunter, and enjoyed mounting trophies of his kills. Achenar was first met inside the blue book on Myst Island in Atrus's library. The book was revealed to be a type of trap or prison that Achenar claimed that his father had incarcerated him in. At first, the book has many pages missing, and when first opened without the pages, the player could not see or hear Achenar at all due to the static blocking the gateway image. When the first blue page was put into the book, Achenar was able to barely see someone looking into his blue book. He implored the player to find more blue pages which were scattered in the four remaining ages of Myst. With each page he could see out of the book more clearly. As the vision became clearer he shouted out not to pick up the red pages belonging to his brother Sirrus' red book. He slowly explained through the static which later cleared once enough pages were gathered, that he could escape and reward the player. Like his brother, he claimed Atrus and Catherine were dead, and that his brother was responsible for the destruction of the Ages. [2] At the end Myst, if he so chooses, the player leaves Achenar imprisoned, and instead frees his father, Atrus, from his prison in K'veer. The player waits in D'ni, and when they return to the island of Myst, the red and blue books that acted as the two son's prisons have mysteriously disappeared, with burn marks in their place. Later, in Myst IV: Revelation, it is discovered that the brothers are in fact not dead. Twenty years later, they escaped their prisons with yet another sinister plot. Though, in the end, Achenar turns to the side of good and saves his sister's and the player's lives, dying for them by destroying Sirrus' evil machine and inhaling a toxic gas in the process.

[edit] Youth

Sirrus and Achenar were two bright young boys who grew to be confident, ambitious young men. Growing up on the Age of Myst, they followed their father Atrus everywhere and had many journeys together. The two boys were very intelligent, and created many useful devices and projects to help their father in the Ages he linked to. As time passed though, Atrus gave them free rein to the books all describing and linking to the fantastic Ages that he had visited. However, Atrus later remarked that this was probably unwise. Unsupervised as they were, they began to change. They became greedy for wealth and power.

When Atrus tried to teach them The Art, he wrote five ages - the Ages of J'nanin - to guide them. When they made it to the Age of Narayan, the home of Saavedro, their greed took a hold of them. They convinced the people of Narayan to abandon their traditions, and as a result, Narayan was destroyed. Eventually, they lead Saavedro to J'nanin, tied him up, and imprisoned him there, never returning. The repercussions of these actions only occurred twenty years later, in the game Myst III: Exile.

[edit] Betrayal

Back on Myst, the brothers' eyes turned to the red and blue books which Atrus had left on the island. He had written the two Ages within, Spire and Haven, to entrap greedy explorers that might stumble upon his island, and warned the brothers not to enter those Ages.

It was also around this time that the boys were taken to Catherine's Age of Serenia, where they planned to forcibly learn The Art by removing the knowledge from Atrus' head. However, their plan never came to fruition, due to arguments between the brothers.

Eventually, they devised a plan to rid themselves of their ever-vigilant parents forever. They trapped their mother Catherine in Riven, and their father Atrus on K'veer in D'ni. They then proceeded to destroy and burn most of the Ages of Myst.

Finally, they linked into the Ages of the Red and Blue books. Achenar linked through the blue book, which lead him to the Age of Haven, while Sirrus linked through the red book, leading to Spire. They soon realised that the Ages were prisons. The Island of Myst was left uninhabited for some time, since all of its previous inhabitants were trapped on four different Ages.

Eventually, a mysterious stranger found his/her way onto the island and uncovered the truth about the brothers. After Atrus (and later, Catherine) was freed, he took revenge upon his sons by destroying the red and blue books. Worthy of note is the fact that the books he destroyed were linking books, rather than the descriptive books for their respective ages.

[edit] Revelation

Twenty years later, Atrus and Catherine had another child — their only daughter Yeesha. Living in their new home on Tomahna, they decided that the time had come to see if their fallen sons had reformed. For this purpose, Atrus wrote a special linking chamber into the descriptive books of the two prison ages. Atrus, Catherine and Yeesha all visited both of the brothers several times, over a period of many months.

In order to determine whether either of them had reformed, Atrus once again called upon his good friend, the stranger, to help him. While the stranger was visiting, and Atrus was away on Rime, an explosion occurred in Tomahna, and Yeesha was kidnapped.

The brothers had taken her back to the Age of Serenia, with a new sinister plan — ostensibly, to extract the knowledge of The Art from her head. Fortunately, the stranger followed them there to save her by discovering the brothers' true intentions.

Ultimately, it was revealed that Sirrus had been the sole kidnapper, while Achenar had followed him there to try and save her. His years in exile had reformed him, while Sirrus's had only served to make him more bitter and greedy. Sirrus had been planning all along to use one of Serenia's dying Memory Chambers to transfer his mind into Yeesha's body, thereby fooling Atrus into teaching him The Art.

In the end, the stranger followed Sirrus into the dream land of Serenia and destroyed his mind (freeing Yeesha's in the process), while Achenar was forced to break open the gas chamber sustaining the giant flower so that the two protagonists could succeed. After Yeesha was saved, Achenar died of gas poisoning, a sacrifice which ensured his redemption and ended the tale of the two brothers.

[edit] See also

• Myst
• Myst III: Exile
• Myst IV: Revelation
• Myst comic: The Book of Black Ships

[edit] External Links

Brotherly Love -- a Sirrus & Achenar fansite

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