The Ultimate List of Arcanum's Easter Eggs

Added. Thank you.

 

Unified Kingdom maybe United Kingdom.

Caladon might refer to Jerusalem cuz it's said that's the house Nasrudin's corpse.And Jerusalem it's the house of Jesus corpse.

Journey to the Center of Arcanum...once again Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth...

 

There's no such thing as a journey to the center of Arcanum, I believe. If your talking about the Void, that is most propably supposed to be a different dimension, a parallel universe, that sort of thing.

 

Regardless, the name of the scrapped sequel is hardly worth including.

 

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

 

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?

 

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

 

Look at Dark Messiah.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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".