That moment you realise Halcyon is a goddamn bird

A few minuted ago I stumbled upon someone in another forum with "Halcyon" in his nickname.
At first I assumed he's an Arcanum fan but googled it up just to be sure and was like whoa. Sure took me some years.

That being said, anyone has a similar Arcanum-related story of sudden realisation, linguistic or otherwise?
I reckon they'll mostly come from non-native English speakers, but then again perhaps you'll surprise me.

 

I recently found out who this Nasrudin fellow really is. After playing a bit as the Ottomans in Civilization I wanted to learn a bit about their janissary UU. Long story short: Janissary led to Ottoman Empire, led to Turkish People, led to Seljuq dynasty [...] led to Nasreddin "a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes".
Looking under 'Collections' at the wikipedia page you can find amazing titles such as "The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasreddin", "The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasreddin", "The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasreddin" and perhaps best of all "The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, jests, and donkey tales of the beloved Persian folk hero"

Also, I seem to recall that Panarii means (or at least resembles a word that means) giving bread to the poor.

 

M. Aronnax is the protagonist of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Except in the movie(s) where apparently Ned Land is the hero; in the book he just paces around and randomly kills for fun while Aronnax drools over the natural wonders and broods on Nemo's mysterious motives.

Ned Land is an irritating, brain dead thug. Brad Pitt is billed to play him in the new remake.

 

These all sound like easter eggs to me.

 

Bill Gates Vs Steve Jobs = "Gilbert Bates" Vs "Cedric Appleby"?
(both well renowned technologists)

Or; Gilbert Bates = GB = BG = "Baldur's Gate"
Similarly, talking to someone in Arcanum, and mentioning the 'Isle of Despair'; they'll respond with "You mean the Black Isle?... sorry I don't know."
Those are some of the things I've noticed in Arcanum, in terms of possible 'clever' Easter eggs.

 

Apparently there's some more shit in this game beyond the bridge out of Shrouded Hills.

 

I seriously spent the majority of my first play through trying to kill everything in the boil with Molotov cocktails with 0 points in throwing. It was such a chore until I realized the boil wasn't the full of Tarant...

I assumed I came in on the bridge from the north so everything south was the city. I'd like to say I only felt silly when I found out you could go north, but lets be honest I was devastated at my ineptitude.

 

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Holy crap I did the exact same thing, I knew about the rest of Tarant, but Molotov Cocktails were great.
Though I also didn't bother putting points into throwing, I just wanted to craft items on my first failed play-through.

True Story:
Unfortunately, due to my horrible throwing skill, I once was encountered by a grizzly bear at a low level in the woods. Virgil and Magnus were on my team, I tried to use the ol' molotovs here, but since the bear was a good space ahead of me, I was destined to miss ridiculously.
Virgil, at the time was standing an equal amount of space directly behind me, hilariously, when I threw the molotov it went 100% backwards (flew out of my hand, it would seem) and hit Virgil. He did the whole "Uuuaaarghlll" (GruesomeDeath.mp3) style death animation (arm being blown off), and the bear proceeded to kill both Magnus and I.

Probably the funniest death I have had playing Arcanum.

 

More of a gameplay thing than a lore thing, but realising that I didn't have to naturally acquire the stat caps to get their benefit was quite surprising for me.

 

"Virgil" is Dante's companion from the Divine Comedy. he joins Dante at the beginning of his journey through Hell.

with "Magnus" the half-ogre from Shrouded Hills I had a little deja-vu tied to Fallout 2 - of "Marcus" the supermutant from the Broken Hills.

 

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Magnus Mead Mugg and Sogg Shale Fist?

That is to say, you merged two NPCs - a half-ogre from Shourded Hills and a dwarf from Tarant - into one.

 

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Yeah, that one was so obvious that I actually named my second character Dante after my first one had gotten butchered by chickens in Shrouded Hills. Then I met an orc hating priest also named Dante in Blackroot and got so annoyed that I uninstalled the game. Good times.

 

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aw crap, sorry for that yes, I have mistaken the names. well, never mind then :roll:

 

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What?

Perhaps you're confusing Arcanum with some sort of Zelda game?

 

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No, no confusion. It was just a little accident I had due to my underestimating the little buggers. Full story here (first post).