Popculture references in Arcanum

Damn! Someone beat me to the black beard reference.

The secret old blind master whos killing chickens with the aerial decapitator is from an old chinese kung fu movie called The One Armed Boxer VS The Flying Guillotene. The Aerial Decapitator being his weapon of choice.

 

Some of these "referances" are quite far fetched in my opinion. It would seem that Xz agrees with me.

 

Thorvald Two Stones / Linus Benedict Torvalds

Xz, sure, the resemblance of Thorvald Two Stones and Linus Benedict Torvalds names may by a coincidence, I do not argue.
It's just an assumption, conjecture.

 

I just keep getting this hysterical mental image of Torvalds playing the game, encountering his possible-name-buddy, and saying 'Only TWO?'

My mind works in very strange ways.

 

Two headed cow found in H.T Parnells is from some other game made by the lead designers. I think it was called. Nuclear Holocaust Misadventure:An after nuclear war, statistical and character interactive and highly context sensitive escapade in the heart of California.
Or something like that.

 

I always thought it was about the two headed bovine in the Ripley's museum.

 

I assumed it was from Fallout:


This is available in the avatar section....

 

It's from Fallout, allright.

 

Okay, so I've modified the first post to include what's been found so far, but there's still more to be found I'm sure:
-the Boil is called a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" - Star Wars

Also would appreciate any confirmation or seconding of the questionable references. Oh, also I will go ahead and say that I had never heard of Madame Toussade's as a wax museum in London that I know of.

 

The team of adventurers which you encounter when searching for the blade of Xerxes in the Pit of Fires (can't remember if that's the right name) are referances to other fantasy works. I can't remember all of their names, but "Morrawynd" is a pretty dead giveaway for an elven name.

 

Okay, so these are thoughts about the adventurers outside the Pit of Fires:
Jyheirad = Jaheira (Baldur's Gate 2)
Frondo = Frodo (LOTR)
Morrawynd = Morrowind (Mentioned in Elder Scrolls before Morrowind was released)
R'yn Diak = ???
At least this is the thought on other forums, personally I'm a bit skeptical of this as a reference, because Morrowind is a location not a person.
And no one has had any ideas for R'yn Diak that I can find.
I don't know anything about BG2, but if Jaheira is a heavily armored fighter that lends the idea credence. So anybody have any ideas for these things?
Oh, to help the ideas to flow:
Jyheirad - heavily armored fighter.
Frondo - Halfling Thief
Morrawynd - Elven Archer
R'yn Diak - Mage
For the references to be considered good I'd say the person being referenced should be of the same archetype.

 

http://www.madametussauds.com/

There's wax museums across the globe.

The spelling got changed a bit but it would still be pronounced the same - I think....

Madame Toussade's - Madame Tussaud's

 

When I told to the participants of the Arcanumclub forum about Xz's doubts, they agreed that this is likely a simple coincidence of names.
Perhaps to comply some balance they begun discussion about the compliance of Nicholas (the last ruler of Vendigroth) and Nicholas II (last Russian Tsar).

Some guys want to visit Vendigroth for read old newspapers there.

At the other Russian Arcanum forum: Fallout.ru I found another interesting suggestion.

One of the books in the library of Tarant (some long essay about the causes of disease) refers to Sir Francis Crick.
Real Francis Crick (with James Dewey Watson) discovered that DNA is a double helix (and several others things derived from this fact). F. Crick, in addition to the Nobel Prize, was awarded the rank of knight in the UK.

 

Jaheira was a multiclassed Fighter/Druid, capable of wearing heavy armour and casting Ironskins. If you used her right, she was unkillable.

 

Hmm. Its a long shot but, Ryn'Diak seems to be a anagram for Kyrandia...

Anyone ever heard of The Legend of Kyrandia games by Westwood studios?
It could be that.

 

Re: Linux

There is a person whose name is Franklin Payne. This is obviously referring to Frank Zappa. Can you see it?

Franklin Payne, Frank Zappa.

And in both surnames, the second letter is a!

 

In Tarant, when you speak to the friendly Half-Orc that wants you to find Matt DeCesare, you can be mean to him and one of the dialog choices will be "Get your hands off me you dirty ape!". That's a famous quote from the original Planet of the Apes movie.