Category Archives: General

We Have Lanyards!

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Shorah and hello!

Lanyard Design

Proof of concept. Lanyards do not come with an Eric.

We’re thrilled to announce that we have lanyard designs ready to go for Mysterium 2026!

These lanyards feature the carpet pattern from the Portland Airport. A perfect addition to your travel needs.

Now, you may be thinking, “What in tarnation does the PDX carpet pattern have to do with Haven?!” Well, technically, nothing. However, it does have a bit of a cult following as well as its own Wikipedia page. And here at the MTA, our goal is to provide a great travel experience, which means memorable, local souvenirs!

Each registration comes with one lanyard. However, additional lanyards from this year, as well as previous year,s will be available for purchase at the registration desk. 

Submissions

Submissions are still open! We’re very much looking forward to seeing your events, art, and T-Shirt and/or Pin designs. As always, you can head on over to the Submissions portal to, well, submit something! 

Hotels

Before anyone gets too excited, we’re not quite ready to announce a hotel location yet. However, we’ve gotten quite a few amazing responses from local hotels, and we’re hard at work looking through what they’ve sent us. As soon as we have one, we’ll update you immediately. 

Creativity Prompts

Fall is here, and the holidays are right around the corner. November’s creativity prompt is still open for a few more days!

We look forward to seeing what kinds of creativity y’all have for us!

In the meantime, we’re wishing everyone a fantastic day of good food and great company in whatever manner you are able to celebrate! 

 

Kelly & Drea

2026 Mysterium co-chairs

P.S. We see you out there, looking for hints. Looking for clues. We see you, and we love you. 🙂

F is for Fall and Fun Festivities!

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Shorah and hello!
Fall is here, and we have some great stuff we want to share with you! (And a sneak peek at some room decorations that we’re working on.)

 

Portland Travel Page

The Location page on the website has been updated to reflect a pretty robust list of some really fun things to do when visiting Portland next year.

You’ll notice multiple lists, as things have been broken into categories. Sites you can easily access via public transportation, sites that require a car, and sites that require at least a full day.

We will be adding a list of restaurants and such to that page once we have the hotel contract signed.

Submission Reminders

Submissions are open! We are still accepting submissions for the following:

  • T-shirt designs both front and back
  • Enamel pins
  • Events
  • Activity book pages

Yes, we’ll be printing an activity book this year! So if you have some ideas for that, now’s the time to make it happen. Please head on over to the submissions hub for more detailed information and how to send in your entry for any of the categories.

Prompt Winners

We love the creativity from the community, and the stuff you guys submit is amazing.

August’s prompt winners are:

Written: Khrees (http://www.eldalamberon.com/dni_dict.htm) for 

D’ni Bubbles

.buhbeltee d’nee
treglahstahv
bahreleet zoo biv
k’tsee mot tsahv
.buhbeltee d’nee
bahreleet zoo tahmet
terthkahnradtahv roo dotsahr be
taygahn shem brezuh tso gor
.met kenen breseren pe
rebirahno khoyoo
gah kenen erthbigto b’rish
khe shem gah zoo
.buhbeltee d’nee
treglahstahv
bahreleet zoo biv
k’tsee mot tsahv
.buhbeltee d’nee
bahreleet zoo tahmet
terthkahnradtahv roo dotsahr be
taygahn shem brezuh tso gor

Translation:

D’ni bubbles in the wine (lit. ‘drink’)
make me all happy that I’m alive.
D’ni bubbles make me warm (lit. ‘full of fire’)
with a feeling (lit. ‘thought’) that I’m going to
love you till the end of time.
This is to the moon (lit. ‘light’) above the sea I invoke
and mostly this a toast (lit. ‘blessing’) for you and me.
D’ni bubbles in the wine
make me all happy that I’m alive.
D’ni bubbles make me warm
with a feeling that I’m going to
love you till the end of time.

Visual: Nina (https://bsky.app/profile/monkiinart.bsky.social) for

And September’s winner is:

Jet for

More updates will be posted soon. Have a great weekend!

Kelly & Drea

2026 Mysterium co-chairs

Keep Mysterium Weird

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Shorah and hello!

We are so excited to bring Mysterium to Portland, Oregon for 2026. We’re already rolling on the planning and are thrilled about some of the fun things we have planned for this coming year.


Credits: Local celebrity, the Unipiper, playing flaming bagpipes, shows the heart of Portland.

2026 Theme Announcement

The theme this year is Haven, the prison age from Myst IV: Revelation. It seemed appropriate, as Portland is a temperate rainforest.

MTA

The MTA will be returning to Mysterium this year! First launched in 2017, the MTA stands for Mysterium Travel Agency (or the Mysterium Transit Authority, depending on the day) and it focuses on a bit of a travel agency theme. So, while the theme is Haven, expect a bit of travel agency vibes to accompany it this year.

Submissions

Submissions are open! We are now accepting submissions for the following:

  • T-shirt designs for both front and back
  • Enamel pins
  • Events
  • Activity book pages
  • Writing and Art Table

Yes, we’ll be printing an activity book this year! So if you have some ideas for that, now’s the time to make it happen. Please head on over to the submissions hub for more detailed information and how to send in your entry for any of the categories.

Downloadables

We’ve added the puzzle packet from 2025 to the downloadables page on our website! Head on over if you’d like a challenge.

We’ve got so much fun stuff in store for you this year!

Have a great weekend!

Kelly & Drea
2026 Mysterium co-chairs

Dates and Policy Updates

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Hello everyone!

We have some big announcements to make, so let’s dive right in.

We Have Dates!

We’ll be returning to our roots and hosting Mysterium 2025 during the first weekend of August. We look forward to seeing you from August 1st – 3rd!

Additional details about our venue will be announced and posted on the Location page as it becomes available.

Health and Safety Policy Updates

Masks and COVID vaccines will be strongly encouraged at Mysterium 2025. Masks will continue to be available for attendees who did not bring their own, should they wish to use one.

A change to our conduct policy has been implemented to support the health and safety of our attendees and staff. Please review it. In summary:

  • Attendees agree to immediately stop participating in Mysterium if they exhibit symptoms of a contagious illness.
    • You may engage via the live stream as an alternative.
  • Failure to follow the conduct policy’s health and safety guidance may result in removal from the event, or additional actions as necessary.

Submissions Updates

We are ready to accept submissions for this year’s Writing and Artwork table, run once again by the fabulous Annacat. Submissions will be accepted through July 15th. For more information, please see the Writing & Art Table Submissions page.

Information about all open submission opportunities can be found on the Submissions Hub.

Creativity Prompt Voting and Submissions Open

We’re in our final days of voting for our previous creativity prompt, “Falling.” We received a number of submissions, so be sure to vote on Discord by the end of this week!

Submissions for our current theme, “Hearth,” are also being accepted on Discord through the end of December.

 

That’s all for now! Until next time…

Curator and Drew
Mysterium 2025 Co-Chairs

Policy Updates

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Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! We have a couple quick items to announce. No, we do not have dates for Mysterium yet but are close and expect to announce that before the end of the year.

Policy Updates

We made a few changes to the Mysterium policies. Note the following:
  • We received some complaints about heckling and shouting out during presentations. While audience reactions and cheering are fine, repeatedly interrupting presenters is not.
  • Attempts to circumvent our refund policies via charge dispute may result in a permanent ban from future events.
The full set of policies is available on the Policies page of our website.

October Prompt Winners

We have our two winners for October’s community prompt topic of “Noir”. First, the visual winner angelmyst with this photo collage:

Captioned:

“There it stood, in all its splendor, pulling me to its craggy feet. Not just a mountain, The mountain. The mountain of my dreams…calling, ever calling. My childhood games were all compassed in its majesty. I had to see what it held.
Home, cozy and dark, it enveloped me in its depths, and held me breathless. Echos from my past played on the vaulted ceiling.
I shall never leave.
I can never leave.
I am its prisoner.”

Next, Talashar was selected as the written winner with “The Hidden Way”.
There are still a few days to submit entries for November’s topic of “Found Family”.

That’s it for this one. Again, we expect to have dates very soon and should be following up with another post in December.

Mysterium 2024 co-chairs
Annacat and Dan