Easter Eggs & Real World References (Spoilers!)

Easter Egg: Traps from the original Ultimas
Zone: Elysium Mines
Traps in the hallways are traps from the original Ultimas. (i.e. fire connected to a pressure plate and spikes from the floors)

 

Easter Egg: reference to the Bell of Courage and the Candle of Love
Zone: Resolute and Ardoris
On the Devotionals of Love and Courage, there’s a bell (Courage) and a candle (Love). This is a reference to the Bell of Courage and the Candle of Love from Ultimas 4 and 9 (according to @Rinaldi ).

 

Real World Reference: Ancient Minoan City of Knossos
Zone: Elysium mines

Various zones in SOTA were inspired by real life places.
For example, the landscape of Elad's Lighthouse was inspired by locations in Ireland.

However, in Elysium mines, the references to the real world are much more explicit and overt, so I thought I would highlight them here.
The appearance of many things in Elysium mines are exact duplicates of things in the ancient City of Knossos in Crete.

The City of Knossos had characteristic buildings with red columns, frescoes on the walls inside the buildings, and many pottery jars (all of which can be seen in Elysium mines).
In Greek mythology, the labyrinth that held the Minotaur was in Knossos. The lower level of Elysium mines is essentially a labyrinth, and it is inhabited by Satyrs (Satyrs and Minotaurs are both humanoids with animal features).

From Avatar's Update # 256: "The mines are also home to...spirits and undead...trapped...in the labyrinth. The visual inspiration for this mine comes from the Minoan City of Knossos in Crete, where the original Labyrinth from Greek mythology was said to have been. The glowing river is partially inspired by the river Styx, and is closely associated with the spirits wandering the labyrinth."

Here is a nice video comparing the real Knossos in Crete with Elysium mines, including pics of the real-world and SOTA frescoes. Very nicely done - they really do look the same!

 

Easter Egg: Reference to the movie Mad Max
In South Broken Road

Spoiler: Relevant Portion of the Mad Max movie

In a society on the verge of collapse, Max was a police officer. Max becomes embroiled in a violent feud with a savage motorcycle gang. The gang kills Max's wife, son, and his fellow police officer. In the closing scene of the movie, Max locates a member of the gang (Johnny) who is stealing boots from a dead body at a car crash. Max uses handcuffs to shackle Johnny's ankle to the wrecked car. Then, Max sets fire to leaking fuel and throws Johnny a hacksaw. It would take too long to cut through the handcuffs, so Johnny is left with two options: burn to death in the explosion or saw through his own leg to escape. As Max drives away, the car explodes (implying that Johnny burns to death in the explosion). This scene is shown below:

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Spoiler: Reference in South Broken Road

On the main road in this scene, you find a skeleton whose ankle is shackled to a charred wagon. The skeleton has an ax in his hand. This scene in SOTA corresponds to the scene in Mad Max shown above. The skeleton represents Johnny's dead body, the ax represents the hacksaw, and the charred wagon represents the car burned in the explosion. This location does not show up as a point of interest. When I encountered this scene in SOTA, it seemed peculiar to me, so I asked @Vas Corp Por (Travis Koleski, a developer) about it and he confirmed the Easter Egg. He also said there were no other Easter Eggs in South Broken Road.

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Here is a close-up view of the shackled skeleton:

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Gulligan's Island in Ardoris.

 

the princess bride: rickard in owl's head's fire lotus tavern and his appreciation for mutton. i noticed it seperately, but it looks like @Cordelayne gets first mention.

 

Wow this is a pretty extensive compendium. Going to have to hide more!

 

IIRC, this was discussed in a livestream prior to R56, as well. May be worthwhile to hunt it down as another media link.

 

1. Movie: Logan's Run - The New You shop. Where people could get a new look. You can find a New You shop in Ardoris and in Brittany...can't recall which sector.



Thank you @Rinaldi for the pics!






2. Real Life: A glowing sphere of light over Stonehenge. See this article, but there are others:

http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Disappearance_of_the_Stonehenge_Hippies

---> In SOTA, blue glowing energy over mini-stonehenge type circles are used as portals.

3. Book: SOTA Dragonbone Throne. Perhaps it comes from this series of books. Thanks to Celith Wraine for the info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dragonbone_Chair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory,_Sorrow,_and_Thorn



SOTA Pic:

 

Thank you @Rinaldi !!!!

 

In stumbling across the NPC who gives the 'jazzhands' emote ( https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...poilers-updated-r47.57956/page-7#post-1205002 ) if you talk to her a little more, you are told this -


"Beatrice Angelica: Lelanna McPherson was my understudy for several Anthony Boyd Weber productions. As the years passed, her jealousy of me grew to unimaginable proportions. There are those who believe it was she who overwaxed the stage which caused my failed quintuple cartwheel during the musical "Rats."

Absolutely not a reference to Andrew Lloyd Webber and the 'Cats' musical, in any way at all...

 

Easter Egg: Reference to Pirates of the Caribbean
Zone: Tenebris Harbor

This was first reported by @Barugon in this post, but his picture links expired, so I re-posted it here.

Spoiler: Relevant info about Pirates of the Caribbean

The Ride
At the first Disneyland park in Anaheim California, there has been a ride called "Pirates of the Caribbean" since 1969. The ride was later duplicated at other Disney theme parks.
In one area of the original ride, prisoners try to persuade a dog to bring them the keys to the cell. One prisoner holds a loop of rope and one prisoner tries to feed the dog a bone. The dog just sits in place and does not bring them the keys.

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The Movies
The ride inspired a series of "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. In one of the movies (The Curse of the Black Pearl), there is direct reference to the scene that is shown above, where a pirate uses a bone to coax the dog into bringing him the keys to the cell.

Spoiler: Pirates of the Caribbean in SOTA

Avatar Update #274 states that Tenebris Harbor "...has recently been attacked and taken over by pirates and plunderers who have burned down whole sections of the town." So, this location is a perfect place for a pirate Easter egg.
In the basement of a building, you will see a pirate in a cell, who is holding a bone and trying to coax the dog to bring him the cell key.

Spoiler: Location of the Easter Egg

In Tenebris Harbor, go into the basement of the building at location -2.0, 27.1, -19.2 (see the red arrow below).

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Real world reference to Richard Garriott's Family
In Central Brittany

Spoiler: Garriott's Family in-Game

Garriott's Mother

See this post describing in-game tributes to Helen Garriott (Richard's Mother).
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Garriott's Father

See this post describing in-game tributes to Owen Garriott (Richard's Father).
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Garriott's Wife

The in-game character Arabella is based on Richard Garriott's real-life wife (Laetitia). Arabella appears in multiple zones, including within Brittany Castle in Central Brittany.​

Garriott's Children

His daughter (Kinga) is in the library walking among the book cases and periodically reading books (the library is several floors up within Brittany Castle). In real life, Kinga likes to read.

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Garriott's son (Ronin) is running around the first and second floor of Brittany Castle, and occasionally runs outside and into the hedge maze next to the castle.
In real life, Ronin likes to run around (he actually got lost in Disneyworld and was found near the hedge maze).
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Listen to Richard speak about his children in-game in this part of the release 60 livestream.

Talking to Ronin and Kinga can give you hints about certain quests, especially the seasonal bosses.​

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Did you already get his mom, Helen Garriott, in the Brittany graveyard?

 

Yep ,
See this post about in-game tributes to Richard's mother.

P.S. I added the link to my post above.

 

Reference to Severus Snape - a character in the Harry Potter series
In Resolute

This one was found by @Merrik (same name in-game).

Spoiler: Severus In-game

Severus Snape is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He was a skillful wizard with a passion for the Dark Arts who specialized in potion making.

In resolute, Whitten will tell you about Severus if you ask him about "rumors".

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Whitten is the Combat Merchant inside the combat training shop, and is at location: -29.09, 77.583, -258.342.
To talk to him, you must un-check the option "Skip conversation with merchants" under options >
interface (5th check box from the bottom of the list).

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Reference to "D-ck in a Box" song from Saturday Night Live
Can sometimes be seen if you fall through the bottom of the map

Spoiler: "D-ck in the Box" song in real-life - Warning Adult content!

The song "D-ck in a Box" was a comedy song that debuted on Saturday Night Live in 2006.
It was presented as a music video that portrays two men singing about giving a Christmas gift to a girlfriend. Each singer has a gift-wrapped box attached to the front of his waist.
Here is the video:

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Spoiler: Reference in Game

Portalarium needed a place to store your character model, so they placed the model under the map.
They called this character model "Richard in a Box" - a reference to the "D-ck in a Box" Saturday Night Live skit.

Before release 67, "Richard in a Box" was only visible when you fell through the bottom of the map. Most of the time, when you fell through the map, you fell far away from "Richard in a Box", so you could not see it. Or, you fell so fast that "Richard in the Box" was hard to discern even if you were relatively close. Also, "Richard in a Box" is only drawn when you are relatively far below the map. So, it was very difficult to see. Starting in Late June 2019 with release 67, the new "/slew" and "/fly" command allowed town owners and dungeon creators to view their map from almost any position, which allowed "Richard in a Box" to be found more easily.

@Merrick (one of the first players to see this surprise) saw "Richard in a Box" when he fell through the floor of a player made dungeon and died in Early April 2019:

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Shortly thereafter, @Chris (a developer) described this reference in his livestream on April 10th, 2019:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMYzmmdx1o&t=41m15s​

The character sheet needed to be stored somewhere, so they put it below the world. The colors on "Richard in a Box" are the 3 primary color channels (red, blue, green) which are the base colors to construct the final appearance of your avatar. Because "Richard in a Box" contains data from your avatar, the body, clothes, and armor will be those of your current avatar.

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After the "/slew" and "/fly" command were added in June 2019 (release 67), players were able to more easily see "Richard in a Box." @Stryker Sparhawk used the new commands to find "Richard in a Box" and posted this pic in the release 67 screenshot thread.
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Easter Eggs - References to Fantasy Books
In Jaanaford

In Jaanaford, there is a building called the Reliquarium where important books and artifacts are displayed.

Spoiler: Location of the Reliquarium

In Jaanaford, at location (-89.808, 35.215, 16.566) - see red arrow below.

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Spoiler: The Artifacts (Easter Eggs)

Note: these artifacts cannot be taken nor put in your inventory.

Not a Sword

In the book series The Wheel of Time, there was a powerful crystalline, curved sword called Callandor. In the series, it was sometimes called the "Sword That Cannot Be Touched" or the "Sword That Is Not a Sword."

In SOTA, there is a green crystalline, curved sword on the wall of the reliquarium. If you hover your mouse over the sword, the label states "Not a Sword. Absolutely no touching!!!" - a clear reference to the "Sword That Cannot Be Touched" and the "Sword That Is Not a Sword" from the book series.

Spoiler: Pic of Callandor in SOTA

Chalice of Flame

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the 4th book in Harry Potter series of books. The Goblet of Fire was made of wood and was used at the beginning of every Triwizard Tournament.​

In SOTA, there is a cup in a bookcase called "The Chalice of Flame", which appears to be a reference to the "Goblet of Fire".

Spoiler: Pic of the Chalice in SOTA

Eye of the Mage

This is likely a reference to either Daniel Arenson's book Eye of the Wizard or Alastor Moody's magical eye from the Harry Potter series of books.

In SOTA, a small eye sits on a pillow in the bookcase. It is labeled "The Eye of the Mage".

Spoiler: Pic of the Eye in SOTA

Bowman's Arrow

In J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit, there is a character named Bard the Bowman. In the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, he was referred to as Bard the Bargeman.

In a bookcase, there is an arrow that belonged to "Bowman" or "Bargemen" (the inscription is too worn to discern).

Spoiler: Pic of the Arrow in SOTA

Hand of the King Killer

The Kingkiller Chronicle is a series of fantasy books by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the nicknames of Kvothe (the main character) is KingKiller. During a test to see if he is worthy, Kvothe slices the palm of his hand.

In SOTA, there is a skeleton's hand labelled "The Hand of the King Killer".

Spoiler: Pic of KingKiller in SOTA

Dead Zedd's Head

In the fantasy book series The Sword of Truth, there is a character called Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (commonly known as "Zedd"). Ultimately, Zedd was beheaded.

In SOTA, there is a skull in the bookcase that is labelled "Dead Zedd's Head".

Spoiler: Zedd in SOTA

Medicinal Cordial

This refers to Lucy's Cordial from The Chronicles of Narnia.

The cordial, which belonged to Queen Lucy Pevensie (aka Queen Lucy the Valiant), was a small bottle that contained a powerful medicinal potion that cured almost any illness or wound with only a few drops.

On a bookshelf in SOTA, there is a small flask labelled "Medicinal Cordial".

Spoiler: Pic of the Cordial in SOTA

 

This thread is a lot of fun

 

Why is this not in here? This is clearly an homage to The Road to El Dorado:




And this is obviously where you send tribute to Xibalba (although it looks like it got a bit borked a release or two back):