Riven Easter Egg - Flash of Face at End of Game, When Atrus Holds Up Linking Book

That's the point... he was supposed to.. that's not an egg

This egg is also at the start of Riven, when Atrus holds up the Linking book to Riven. Several people have seen six views of the same face in it. Some say he looks like Bill Clinton, but nobody's really sure.

There are ten different endings to Riven, maybe this happens in just one. Here are the ten endings: 1. You release Catherine, capture Gehn and open the Star Fissure. You win. 2. You meet Gehn but don't capture him and open the Star Fissure. You win, but Catherine is not there and Atrus gets shot- so do you. 3. You meet Gehn, bring the linking book but don't go in it. Gehn lets you go twice, but the third time you refuse the book, he shoots you. You lose. 4. You get the prison book and trap yourself in it in the Moiety Age before capturing Gehn. The Rebels burn you up. You lose. 5. You get the prison book after meeting Gehn, leave the Moiety Age and go into it. Gehn's guard takes your place and Gehn says that you retrieved the book before shooting you. 6. You get the book before meeting Gehn, leave the Moiety Age and enter it. Gehn's guard takes your place and Gehn has a different speech before shooting you. 7. You capture Gehn and go into the prison book yourself. You take Gehn's place and Gehn is free. 8. You capture Gehn and go to the Moiety Age. Then you go into the book yourself. You take Gehn's place and Gehn finds himself in the Moiety Age. He has a different speech here. 9. You capture Gehn but do not free Catherine when you open the Star Fissure. Atrus is upset at this, and Catherine does not appear, but Gehn does not show up either. 10. You don't get the prison book, you don't capture Gehn or free Catherine before opening the Star Fissure. Nobody appears. NOTE: When you get the prison book, you get the manhole combination too, which you need to open the Fissure. The only way this can happen is if you guess the combination, or if you cheat- before you get the prison book, or do anything, save the game. Then get the prison book and the journal and remember the combination. Then go back to your earlier game and tap in the code. *gasp* That was a ton of typing!

Where is this face, anyways?

Didn't you just explain to everyone where it was?

Not really, I explained where the one at the START of Riven was, but I have no idea where the one at the end is. Is it on the whole screen? Is it in the scenery? A character's clothes? The linking book? I GOTTA KNOW!!!!!! Please?

I'm not sure, but I think that face at the beggining is one of the makers of the game.

I honestly think it looks like Gehn.

I have a few ideas about whose face it might be: Robyn Miller (co-creator, acted as Sirrus in Myst) John Keston (Actor who played Gehn in Riven) Richard "RAWA" Watson (lead programmer, I think) Chris Brandkamp (Responsible for the sounds in Riven and Myst) Chuck Carter (Graphics designer for Myst and Riven. His face appears in a mosaic in Myst) These are only possibilities. I know it definitely can't be Sheila Goolde (She acted the part of Catherine in Riven).

The eyes appear when Atrus first holds up the Riven book to you in the opening cinematic. Using rivplay, you can slow it down and look at each appearance of the face. The eyes have slightly smaller pupils. This suggests Gehn, who is D'ni. D'ni, a people from beneath the earth, have smaller pupils due to their cave environment (they're also very sensitive to light). I read somewhere (Offical, I think, but if not, a damn good guess), that this was intentional, so that it felt like Gehn was watching you from the very beginning. Creepy, eh? I thought it was very cool once I read about it. I hope this helps to clear things up

In the book of D'Ni, when they trap a leader of a small rebel group and prepair the book, they say how one of the men saw someone in the book through the small window