Man, reading that again makes me really want a sequel.

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Most people already wanted a sequel "without" the need to read all these things... Traitor...

P.S. Tarant + Tulla = Tarantulla (the spider). Couldn't find it in the list.

I'm not sure if I would have liked an Arcanum sequel in the first-person perspective. It'd be a rather drastic change of the gameplay mechanics.


Interesting observation. It's 'tarantula', however, with a single 'l'. But still, it could be worth mentioning.

On a side note, there's a city named Tula in Russia, again with a single 'l'.

Wait, I know, why don't they use the Oblivion engine to make it.

That very concept is depressing on more levels than I care to count, even as a clearly illuminated joke. There's no one I trust to recreate any part of the Arcanum world in such a way. While Fallout 3 is playable for me, Arcanum 2 beneath Bethesda's belt could very well bring about the apocalypse.

Edit: Since I'm in the right thread, I thought I'd stay on topic. Not sure if anyone's been into the possible connection before, but I reckon there's a good chance that Schreck's Pistol could be a reference to Julius Schreck, an early member of the Nazi party, and allegedly a close friend to Hitler as well as first commander of the SS. With thought of the name's exact spelling, and the Donn Throgg Nazi poster supporting the theme, I thought I'd mention it, although there's not really enough info to warrant its addition to the list. Of course, it could always mean something along the lines of "Fright's Pistol." Over-analysis, eh?

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There's probably a Wallachian proverb for it.

It's too bad they couldn't do that the first time they tried.

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Look at Dark Messiah.

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A sequel? To destroy the legend and raise hordes of 13-years-old retarded leet speaking fanboys out of nowhere? Are we feeling well? I'll be the first to brutally torture the team which will want to make this happen, for the better good. No, really, let's just accept the suequelness and not-that-big fandom with joy and gratitude.

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Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.

I have two easter eggs! Don't I feel special...

The first is encountered in Tarant, when conversing with a rather abnormally jovial half-orc name of Thom Grak. If your PC is, I believe, any race other than half-orc, you may choose to antagonize him based on his race, by which he will be unfazed, grabbing your arm, albeit politely. You may then, and rather hilariously, bid him "get your hands off me, you damned dirty ape!" in an obvious "Planet of the Apes" reference. I thought that was quite awesome.

Also, it just recently hit me that the Unified Kingdom's attempts to persuade the kingdom of Arland (of which Caladon is capital) to join their tightly-knit alliance, is a direct reference to a similar political situation of the last several centuries between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Hence, ARland, IREland. I actually struck myself for not having realized that sooner.

I realize that the latter of these is likely debatable, but I personally believe it to be so. Also, I apologize for leaving so lengthy a post.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, although; I'm sure everyone already knows: Thom Grak is also the trigger for Matt De Cesare's conspiracy sidequest and the one who asks you to find him at the Wellington Gentlemen's Club. Also, @Drog: Thank you for enunciating my run-on sentence.

2nd Edit: Yeah, so, it turns out that another House of Lords user named Klaz actually found the Thom Grak easter egg before I did. In February, no less.

Added. Thank you!

Wasn't sure about this one at first.

SPOILER ALERT---------------------Though I can't imagine for who by this year.

During the sidequest to hunt down the Whytechapel murderer, you must obtain the Blade of Xerxes. Upon arrival at the cavern in which it is to be found, you meet a party of adventurers, one of whom is named Morrawynd. Whether or not the Blade of Xerxes is an allusion to the now well-known Persian emperor aside, Morrawynd is to me a clear reference to the Isle of Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (released June, '97 [Originally from Arena, as Drog has corrected me]).

I was wondering about the blade, when I remembered the archeress and it clicked that Morrowind existed before The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Ah, the adventurer party.

I'm pretty sure that all of their names are Easter eggs. Only two are obvious though.

The party consists of:
Jyheirad (Human)
R'yn-Diak (Elf)
Morrawynd (Half Elf) - most probably a reference to the province of Morrowind, which has been a part of the TES lore since Arena (1994).
Frondo (Halfling) - a very obvious reference to Frodo Baggins of Lord of the Rings.

Some say that Jyheirad could be a reference to Jaheira of BG2, but I'm not sure if that makes any sense. Google also says that Jherrad Lopez is a Latin gay porn star.

R'yn-Diak could be a modification of the Polish surname 'Ryniak', but I haven't heard of any famous people with this last name. Maybe Muro remembers something.

As far as my knowledge and quick review of some polish sites goes, there wasn't anyone with that surname who would be likely to have been referenced in a computer role playing game of any sorts.

This may be more of a curiosity, but...

It was here, to be exact. Long shot indeed and hard to prove, but I guess it was worth mentioning at least. Surely not an anagram (the name lacks one "a" letter for that), but perhaps a play on that title? We may never know.

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Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.

Ach! I forgot about Frondo. Can't say about R'yn Diak, but I would say that the Jaheira reference could well be legitimate, considering the dev mindset, but I agree that it's a bit of a stretch. As for the anagram, I doubt it just as much as you do. It wouldn't have been hard to name him R'yn Diaak or Rayn Di'ak or R'in Diyaak or something, and it would have made more sense. Still possible, especially considering the thought that it could have been a play on the name, but I doubt it.

Also, Herkemer Oggdoddler, a bitter Cumbrian ex-soldier (and melee, dodge, and firearms expert) living in Blackroot, may be a reference to Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer (1728–77), who was the commander of American forces at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777, was wounded therein and later died as a result of his wounds. Oggdoddler's descriptions of the last great battle between Cumbria and Tarant reflect General Herkimer's decisions, failures, and ultimate regrets both during and after the battle. I don't remember very well, so don't quote me, but Oggdoddler may also have claimed to have suffered a severe leg wound during the battle as did General Herkimer. Details of the actual battle are available all over, but I found one particularly relevant account here:

http://www.ussoriskany.com/id5.html


This WAS an edit, although I don't see anything indicating that below the post. Maybe it's just me.---->EDIT: One more. The rather comical pamphlet given to you by the priest in the Panarii Temple in Tarant's commercial district contains a clean, pure, easter egg. Part of the pamphlet reads: "'I've never been happier! I've even sold my Staff of Hideous Death!' -Wermian Doone, Former Dark Necromancer." This is a reference to a premade character, Solomon Doone, whose short biography denotes his birth unto a long line of evil necromancers. Again, I apologize for posting so liberally.

Also, I just remembered a reference, (I BELIEVE in one of those random pub sequences in which you wager 500 coin on a sometimes very easy, sometimes very obscure question.) alluding to "Cumbrian fire" being used as a last resort during the war with Tarant, a reference to the somewhat well-known "Greek fire" made use of minimally by certain Greek city-states, and more famously by the Byzantines, or Eastern Romans in limited naval warfare.

Dear lord... ALSO: The F1-F6 hotkeys which host follower commands have their own easter egg, another I had forgotten, (and possibly one of many) that being found in the jocular spurts of random dialogue which occer if you should attempt to use one of these commands while out of fatigue. "#Troika" can randomly appear while doing so, this as opposed to "#fjsapi" or "#urgvsk" (or whatever they might actually be) as substituting for "#Attack" after taking one too many Orcish maces to the face. I'm thinking of loading up the game for old times' sake to see if there are any more, but have been busy. I haven't the intimate knowledge of Arcanum's source code enough to, say, scroll through the possible outcomes of mashing commands during knockoutedness, and lack the inclination to do anything to that end beyond whining about it.

I don't think it was mentioned before:

-The Barbarian's Heavy Blade is really the Atlantean Sword from the Conan the Barbarian movie.
View of the movie sword

-The presence of chakrams seems to be linked (in part) to the Xena: Warrior Princess show. Looking at the item list (boomerangs) of the art files, the number 25 is called "chakrum-xena.ART".

i dont know if you have missed it or not but isnt the city Tarant:s name a reference to Isaac Asimovs Trantor in "Foundation"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(novel)

*i know that this thread probably went inactive quite some time ago*

Hi there!

I think this thread may be one of those ones that is immune to gravedigging, considering the subject. Feel free to smack me if I'm wrong, men in charge.

Although it's an interesting idea, I don't think there's enough corellation between Tarant and Trantor for it to count as an Easter Egg. If it was, there's a lot of cheap Doctor Who references I could be making about now...

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"Writer's block: it affects the best of us, and doesn't affect the worst of us enough."
~ Kitty, ImpishIdea

Currently surviving on caffiene, microwave dinners and requests for porn from certain fandoms. Guess the fandoms, win some porn!

Nice Girls Don't Scream Orcish Battlecries. (Thank God I'm Not A Nice Girl.)

....maybe i didn't really express myself in a correct way... <it's hard to write English on a japanese keyboard>

was i ment was not only the name bu the whole structure of the city... one of the most obvious things is Bates "little castle". it's a copy of the Emperors* castle in Foundation.
It was several years ago i played Arcanum so i don't really remember everything, but isn't there a couple of references to Daneel* in your logbook as well?

*I didn't read Foundation in english so i hope that's what he is called in English as well...

I've also read the book and it doesn't seem to have much in common. I mean, sure, you could force yourself to relate various aspects of the city to Trantor, but there's too much missing. There's nothing that can be related to the Mycogen sector, there are no domes above the city and there seems to be no references to Hummin/Olivaw or psychohistory in the game. No link there IMO.

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“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroy ... ldyet.com/

I really like the design of the swords, that's the sword used by Xena?

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xena swords

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Can't be sure if this is common knowledge or not, so I'll just go ahead and throw it out there anyway. Magnus is a pun, his name being Latin for 'great,' or more loosely 'big.' Which of course we all know is one thing dwarves generally aren't. Do with that what you will.

Only realised this when I was running some light translations for an essay.

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There's probably a Wallachian proverb for it.

The Barbarian Heavy Blade looks to me like quite a lot of designs of two-handed Gothic medieval blades. Hell if I know, though, could still be a reference to Conan.

I severely doubt that Magnus is a pun, more of a stereotypical name for a Dwarf that was given to the most relevant Dwarven character in the game.

Also, good to see you back here, Minuos. I always liked you back when I was just a lurker. You seem to be part of a trend, actually. I never thought I'd see Floyd here again, for one thing. Although I must say I was depressed to still see Zanza here (When I realized the Alliance of Self-Indulgent Pseudo-Intellectuals wasn't accepting new members, I gtfo'd. Zanza, however; "Yeah, lulz, I'm a total troll, I know", kinda sad, if you ask me).

I don't know if Magnus was a pun or not. It could be. It could also relate to the Scandinavian name, which is my middle name and my late Great-Grandfather (b. 1920ish)'s name.

Lawl, this forum is made up of pseudo-intellectuals? How far does the 'pseudo' part go, exactly? I mean, for the vast majority of us, any attempt at intellectualism really would be pseudo (at least one of us actually has one or two university degrees, DElf being a teacher, and so is probably allowed to claim intellectualism). I'm hoping one day I can get a Ph. D and claim to be the most intellectual person here, though it might be a bit overkill for 75% of the forum.

We never discuss anything serious, anyway. Pseudo-intellectuals think what they're talking about matters politically and philosophically. I think if there's a problem here, it's that we're made up of pseudo-artistics. People who think they're Tolkien or Lee Streisberg, but are really Anne Rice or Tim Kelly, and who fail to see the relevance of artists like Ernest Hemingway or Robert Wilson, who have eschewed traditional structure.

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A good point and astutely presented.

...I fold.

However, words are not always crystalline conduits, and semantics always play their part in stalling communicative progress. In other words, I think you know what I was trying to say.