I owe the game scripts and the occasional bits of game trivia to The Dark Chronicle and Nosgothic Realm; and the locations and concepts cut from the games to The Lost Worlds. The “What do the fans want in LoK6?” thread on the Eidos Forums has been a great source of inspiration. Finally, reverso.net is the on-line translator I used for the several French quotes.
Literary inspirations and quotes: Heart of Darkness was inspired by – well, by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In fact, I’m very sorry to admit this, the most important scene of the chapter has been directly lifted from the novella – well, after some rewriting to make it fit Nosgoth instead of Congo. (If you’re feeling charitable, you may say that it was adapted instead of plagiarised, but that’s entirely up to you.)
The wolf smell-vision comes from Mr. Pratchett, of course. :D In particular, what I had in mind was something like in the Discworld Noir game.
Avici comes from the Ksitigarbha / Lotus Sutra.
Parts of the Elder God battle plan come from the Greek mythology, from Heracles’ fight against the Hydra.
Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem comes from Virgil’s Aeneid; “Better reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n,” from Milton’s Paradise Lost; “The one who hunts monsters must beware lest he himself become a monster; for as you gaze into the Abyss, it also looks into thee,” from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil; “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” from the Bhavad Gita, “Know your enemy and know yourself,” from Sun Tzu, or whatever the proper transcription of his name now is.
OK. Part three of the acknowledgments is for all my reviewers. In short: thanks! :D
Special thanks to Shadowjewel for making me let Perun survive and making me rethink the role of the Seer and the first Guardian of Balance; for general beta work and advice; and to Balance Reaver for continued support in really difficult times.
And, finally, there are the greatest thanks of all – to Amy Hennig and the other folks at Crystal Dynamics, those who actually created the games. I hope that if they ever learn that I’ve played a bit in their sandbox, they won’t mind it very much.
(I did put in the disclaimer at the beginning, didn’t I? Yes, I did.)
