A number of intriguing journal entries were scattered throughout the pages of the original official Exile website. In plain view were several individual entries consisting of a few lines of text and an accompanying image. There also were interactive Flash journals that include animation and sound effects.
Our journals and notes are scattered. Our search has lead us to a page, a place that reveals much about this site. Things are not as they seem.
Entry 1125:
The disorientation isn't quite as horrible as the fear. Perhaps the fear adds to the strange vertigo... wondering if I am up or down or perhaps backwards in time.
Entry 5241:
We've just begun, and already I'm tired. The threats, added to the mystery of ages, has compounded my misery. My legs ache, but I don't tell the others.
Entry 5932:
This is nothing like the scripting...its altogether different. To believe it's a form of communication may be accurate, but to be self-assured in knowing how ancient this "language" is would be a mistake. Quite dangerous to assume anything here.
Entry 6388:
Our explorations and research has taught us little of what's behind these pages. Only dust. So many strange signs, strange words... its all so new. Soon we will find what we have been looking for.
Entry 8591:
Our old ways...the rules and the wisdom. They don't work here. We are, once again, breaking our own rules just to survive and to live long enough to understand the ways of this world.
Journal 1512:
Our meticulous notes and journal entries are only so many scattered pieces of paper - without order, without connection. It makes me wonder if the key to all this can ever be found. I shall rest now, and perhaps will find answers in my dreams...
Journal 6388:
My hand trembles as I write. I was awakened early to find a page. Such writing!
It is a doorway. But a doorway to what? Why do I feel the faintest sense of foreboding? We don't feel welcomed here - as if treading in a forbidden place. Are we being observed?
Journal 6698:
A most intriguing find moments ago ... a hidden place that seems incongruent to the natural formations and patterns of this Age.
Ancient? Perhaps. At this moment we are gleaning what we can from the site, and more will surely follow.
Somewhat disturbing... I do not know what to write.
Journal 6899:
So many symbols and signs. Words that have no meaning, as voices couched in the dust. What will be revealed?
Again, I have no words to accurately describe what we have found. From Age to Age we traverse worlds, and yet we have never discovered anything quite like this.
I am being summoned.
Journal 7248:
Do I struggle to find meaning where there is none? Or do these remnants truly indicate something of great importance? What at first seemed mundane has become evidence of great, hidden secrets. Little can be taken for granted here and yet, even with all our previous experience, we find our abilities lacking.
Journal 7263:
He is here; there can be no doubt of it now.
Our days spent in exploration and dangerous journeys... and now to have come to this.
The writings warn us, leaving many clues to the he's coming.
Journal 9072:
We have arrived. Greeted by the expected vistas and wonders we find in all our journeys.
A cursory glance of the area about camp suggests all is as it should be within this Age; I anticipate a thorough, yet brief accounting before we move on to our next exploration.
The "Chime Journals" are named after the background sound that plays while the journals are open.
When I linked to this Age, I knew the search would be difficult. There was no guarantee that I’d find my way home. But what choice did I have? My wife is in danger! If I ever hope to see her again, I have to follow all his instructions.
I fear I am running out of time.
I know he has a reason for everything. I have only to look, to examine all I see, and I’ll discover how things work. I just can’t figure out what he intends! The devices he built in this Age, the tracks that begin and end without purpose...
What does he want me to learn?!!
I don’t know. I don’t know! And I’m afraid of what my ignorance is costing me.
Don’t know how much longer I can take this. The vast expanse of this Age, the utter silence, cut only by the wind...
Yesterday I was certain I heard him speaking to me. I thought maybe he’d come back. That he’d taken pity on me and would show me the way home. I thought I would see my beloved wife again.
When I reached the chasm gantries, I knew. I should not have been able to distinguish his words. The waterfall should have drowned out his voice.
And yet, I could still hear it.
The voice I had been listening to was my own.
I am going to die here. If I can’t find a way out of this Age, surely I am going to die.
Have to keep searching. Have to find out where it is.
The last piece I need.
The animals elude all my traps. The vines keep hindering my progress. I chop them back to the branches, only to regret it later.
So hard to know what I must do. So hard, and I can hear him laughing.
Don’t know how much longer I can take this.
Twenty years, old friend. Twenty years I’ve been waiting for this moment.
You thought your past was buried. Thought you could move on, make a new home for yourself. You thought you could continue writing worlds. Leaving your mistakes to die in the dust.
You can’t old friend. You can’t. I’ve been waiting all these years. Planning, and scheming, just waiting for this day. I knew it would eventually arrive.
Do you realize that I’ve visited your home? Do you know what I’ve been setting into place?
Soon, my friend. You’ll see. You will learn what your mistakes have finally wrought.
Related: MYSTellany: The Journals at Myst3.com - additional background info