After a short, and I must admit: baffling stroll around the island Atrus's book stranded me on, I must admit I am amazed. The island is, in its own desolate (and Myst'ish) way: beatuiful! Stairs carved in stone, leading to caverns in the mountainside, in turn containing strange and intriguing devices.
I have to admit that the two, no: three devices I have discovered here have left me with more questions than answers:
The spinning room of scarabs: I believe the story told by the mosaic's inside the scarabs tells of the world's creation by Ghen. The entire room can be spinned in 120 degree turns from the outside, leading me to believe that if the room is left in a certain specific position, it can be accessed again from a different location: for what purpose, I cannot say.
The metal cone outside the prison cell: The cone seems to contain something, a pale liquid of sorts. A switch next to it did absolutely nothing, and the lid below it is locked. I dont know the combination to the lock yet...
Lastly, there is the ball-chair. I can operate the chair, but cannot figure out its purpose. It's only control seems to... alter(?) the sounds around me, muffling the hum of the caverns into silence, which then fades away.
Fortunately, i have also found a much simpler mechanism which will be of much use: a transit system! The several islands comprising this age appear to be interconnected with a sort of rail-transit system. I have just operated it for the first time, and am about to study island #2.
(Thought to self: when I called for the transport, it was at the other end of the rail. Maybe the people I saw when I arrived in this age used the rails to leave the island, explaining why I didn't see them?)