Ryk E. Spoor
patreon
All-Patron Reward: Less Obvious References 2
🕑 Added 2019-12-08 18:08:20 +0000 UTCLast month's post of some of the possibly-harder-to-catch references in my work seemed to be received well, so let's do a few more!
1) Exaggerated Aussie Bruce Irwin from the Boundary books has his last name from Steve Irwin, the Crocodile hunter; his first name, however, is from the animated great white shark in Finding Nemo, as the latter was given an Australian accent and "Bruce" is a common "generic" Australian name. (the animated shark got his name from the mechanical shark in Jaws, which in turn got it apparently from one of the accountants trying to limit the expenses on the film.
2) Konstantin Khoros, the meddling ancient Atlantaean wizard from Paradigms Lost, Demons of the Past, and the Balanced Sword trilogy, has two main contributors to his origin. His "voice" is strongly influenced by a somewhat mellowed-out version of Nero Wolfe. In appearance, he is strongly based on Kaos (pronounced like something between "Kos" and "Cows" in Japanese), the mysterious likely-Shugendo monk who's the driving force behind the events in Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.
3) The Wanderer, seen in the Phoenix books and also in the forthcoming Godswar dualogy, is obviously from our Earth (or one very like it). Specifically, he's a version of me, and originally was created for an RPG campaign set in Middle-Earth; out on the net somewhere are some of the writeups of that campaign, under the title An American Gamer in Gondor.
4) The Voidbuilder language in the Arenaverse is almost entirely references, just with transposed syllables, reversals, or odd separations. There are some non-reference words in there, just to add in some variety, but most of them are references, and they are generally thematic to the events involved. For instance, when Mandallon is attempting to heal Laila Canning, he begins: " Dilkare deon arlyo ". This is a scrambling of "Kildare" and "Leonard" (as in "McCoy"), referencing fictional doctors. While I have worked to construct "sensible" languages previously (though in no way to the extent or competence displayed by people like Tolkien), the design of the Voidbuilder languages is meant to be a metareference for the world's purpose in the context of the author.
5) In Princess Holy Aura, Devika's Sikh religion is highlighted fairly clearly, and most obviously with the Khanda sword that she uses. What isn't quite so obvious is that her outfit incorporates all three of the holy weapons of the Khanda symbol -- the Khanda sword, the chakram, and the kirpans. In addition, as modesty is one of the principles of Sikhism, her outfit -- while still fairly cheesecakey -- is significantly more covering than those of the other Maidens.
6) Also in Princess Holy Aura, Steve Russ' apartment is a duplicate of the first apartment I ever rented solely on my own, on Melwood Avenue in Pittsburgh, though I didn't have the amazing Weapon Wall Steve has. However, the "Lucky Starr" blaster that he gives to Dex is a reference to a Star Trek Type II Phaser model that the original Steve (Reed) and I used to sell back and forth to each other when the other needed money.
7) In Diamonds Are Forever, the idea of there being diamonds in that area of Kentucky is not quite as farfetched as one might think; while (as far as I know) there have been no actual finds of diamonds there, there are kimberlite "pipes" in that area of the state and it is quite possible that farther down they do harbor diamonds.
