Name Cameos in Jeff's Games

[Quiconque]

Name Cameos in Jeff's Games

and other sources of names

 

 

1. talk.bizarre personalities

talk.bizarre was a newsgroup frequented by Jeff in the years leading up to the first Spiderweb games, and was the single largest source of names in Exile I. It was also used quite a bit in Exile II. At least a few of these folks served as beta testers as well.

 

Exile I:

• Andrew Solberg
• Ron Echeverri
• Mr. X of X Industries (a.k.a. Xian)
• Tom Boutell
• Blair P. Houghton
• Elspeth
• Ty Nance
• Starcap'n Ra
• Crisper Than Thou
• Sunshine on Leith
• Yong-Mi Kim
• Markian Gooley
• C.J. Silverio
• Zed
• Kevin "Chevyn" McAuley
• Gypsy
• Miles O'Neal
• Diane Wilson
• Caitlin Burke
• Josh "Doc" Hayes
• Billbill (Bill and Bill)
• Zvi Gilbert
• J. Eric Townsend
• Ken Johnson (Captian Johnson?)

Exile II:

• Tom Limoncelli
• Julian Waldby
• Johnathan Vail
• Paul Egli
• Jenine Abarbanel
• Nathan Torkington
• Genevieve Williams
• Kevin Schnitzius

Avernum:

• M. Legare

Avernum 4:

• Soren Ragsdale (Sorengard)

 

2. Rutgers math colleagues

A number of characters, mostly in Exile I, were named after grad school colleagues. Jeff quit his program after Exile I turned out to be a commercial success.

 

Exile I:

• Tor Gunston '98
• Carol Hamer '98
• Rita Cskany '98
• Aimee
• J.R.
• Tom Bohman '96
• Marco Lenci '99

Exile II:

• Marie-Cecile Vidican (Rutgers-related connection)

 

3. Society for Creative Anachronism friends

Source for several noteworthy names in Exile I.

• Patrick Padraig
• Hathwisa
• Bevan
• Anastasia

 

4. Television and film

Beginning in Exile II, Jeff has taken sets of NPC names from TV shows and occasionally movies. Comedy Central receives thanks in many readme's and shows up all over this list, especially early on.

 

Exile II:

• Absolutely Fabulous
  • Eddy Monsoon, Patsy Stone, Saffron Monsoon, Justin, Oliver (Blosk)
• Saturday Night Live
  • Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, Lorraine Newman, Jane Curtin (The Castle)
• 3rd Rock from the Sun
  • Kristen (Kirsten) Johnson, John Lithgow, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jane Curtin (The Castle)
• Felix the Cat
  • Felix (Patrick's Tower)

Exile III:

• Kids in the Hall
  • Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinley, Kevin McDonald, Scott Thompson (New Formello)
• Babylon 5
  • Ivanova, Londo, G'Kar, Delenn (Golddale)
• Laverne & Shirley
  • Laverne, Shirley, Carmine, Lennus (Lenny), Squiggus (Squiggy)
• Trainspotting
  • Spud, Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy (Shayder)
  • Irvine Welsh (author of the book, also in Shayder)

Blades of Exile:

• The Daily Show
  • Craig Kilborn, Lizz Winstead, A. Whitney Brown, Beth Littleford, Felix Unger (Blinlock)
• South Park
  • Eric Cartman (Zaskiva); Kenny (added in BoA)
• Titanic
  • James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

Geneforge:

• Sports Night
  • Dan Rydell, Dayna (Dana) Whitaker, Isaac Jaffee (Jaffe), Natley (Natalie) Hurley, Jeremy Godwin (Goodwin), Pixley, Aaron Sorkin (Pentil)

Geneforge 2:

• Black Books
  • Manny, Bernard
• The Office (UK)
  • Brent, Gareth, Dawn, Finchy (Gheth)
• The Wire
  • Kima, Macnulty, Bunk (Loyalist Encampment)

Blades of Avernum:

• The Daily Show (again)
  • Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Steve Carrell, Samantha, Corddry, Helms, Walls (Seleucia)

Geneforge 3:

• Arrested Development
  • Michael Bluth, Gob Bluth, Tobias Funke, Maeby Funke (Dhonal's Keep East Docks)

Avernum 4:

• Lonesome Dove
  • Pea Eye Parker, Lorena Parker, Woodrow F. Call, Bolivar, Augustus McCrae (Silvar)
• Horror/suspense film characters
  • Carrie
  • Jason Vorhees
  • Gunderson (innkeeper)

Geneforge 4:

• Veronica Mars
  • Veronica Mars, Duncan Kane

Geneforge 5:

• Mythbusters
  • Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman

Avernum 6:

• Mad Men
  • Joan Halloway (Holloway), Roger Stirling (Sterling), Freddy Rumson (Rumsen), Peggy Olssson (Olson) (Fort Draco raiders)

 

5. Girlfriends

Some or all of the provinces (and possibly other locations) in Exile III were named after Jeff's girlfriends. This was apparently stated by Jeff someplace. To wit:

• Mariann Krizsan
• Monoroe (Shirley Monroe)
• Sharimik (Shari Moskow?)
• Karnold (K. Arnold?)
• Bigail (Abigail?)
• Shayder (Shaynee Snider?)
• Footracer (Tracey?)

 

6. Authors and editors

It's unclear if these were intended as a deliberate tribute, or whether books and other written works were simply a convenient source of names that had just the right ring to them.

 

Exile I:

• General authors
  • Christopher Marlowe, Samuel Johnson (Bargha)
  • Arthur Leo Zagat (Spire), Roberta Rogow, Cynthia Felice (Bargha; all three are SF authors)
  • Bill Maher, John Cleese (Bargha; comics but also authors of books in 1993-1994)
  • John Calder, publisher of some Nathaniel Hawthorne works (Bargha; see fictional characters below)

Exile II:

• General authors
  • Thomas Gibbon, Tom Stoppard, Orson Welles, John Locke

Blades of Exile:

• Kurt Vonnegut

• DC Comics Bigwigs, Editors, Artists, and Writers
  • Paul Levitz, Richard Bruning, Lillian Laserson, Dave McKean, Dorothy Crouch, Bruce Bristow, Axel Alonso (VoDT); Robbin Brosterman, Lillian Laserson, Joan Hilty, Stephano Gaudiano, Chuck Kim, Ray Houlihan, Michael Zulli (ASR); Jenette Kahn (both); Abe Ocampo, Sheldon Mayer, Kimzahn (Timothy Zahn) (ZKR)

Geneforge 2:

• Philosophers
  • John Maynard Keynes, J.S. Mill, Henri Wald

Geneforge 3:

• SF authors
  • Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Connie Willis

Avernum 4:

• New York Times writers
  • Paul Krugman, Joe Conason

Geneforge 4:

• New York Times writers
  • Jay Mouawad, Louis Uchitelle, Kate Zernike, Martin Fackler, Michael Barbaro, Kirk Johnson, Rachel Swarns, Ian Urbina, George Vecsey, Lynn Zinser, Sabrina Tavernise, Randal Archibald, Manohla Dargis

Geneforge 5:

• The Onion A.V. Club writers
  • Tasha Robinson, Genevieve Koski, Josh Modell
• The Seattle Stranger contributors
  • A. Birch Steen, Megan Seling, Brendan Kiley, David Schmader, Charles Mudede, Dan Savage

 

7. Literary characters

Books became a consistent source for characters, alongside TV and film.

 

Exile I:

• Nathaniel Hawthorne's works
  • Hester Prynne (Bargha), Eustace Bright (Spire)
  • Samuel Johnson (Bargha; an author as well as a character in a Hawthorne book)

Exile III:

• Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
  • The "Unspecified Services" organization name

Blades of Exile:

• DC Comics, mostly involved in Crisis on Infinite Slarties Earths
  • Maria [several possible], Penelope Black, Bradley Covington (VoDT); Stone [family], Smith [several possible], Maya, Caroline Dean, Eric O'Grady, Helena [several possible], Luna Nurblin (ASR); Vale [several possible], Edward [several possible] (ZKR)

 

Note: the Crisis event involved a massive number of characters, so name overlaps would be expected; I consider these likely only because they are in the same context as the clearly evidenced list of DC editors in the above category.

 

Geneforge:

• Chekhov's plays
  • Maria "Masha" Kulygina, Vassily Solyony, Nikolaj Tuzenbach, Aleksandr Vershinin, Ferapont (The Three Sisters)
  • Konstantin Treplev (Treplyov) (The Seagull)
  • Mikhail Astrov, Aleksandr Serabryakov, Sofya Serabryakov, Ilya Telegin (Uncle Vanya)
  • Anya, Varya, Leonid Gayev (The Cherry Orchard)
  • Nikolai Ivanov, Michael Borkin, Avdotya, Gavrila (Ivanov)

Geneforge 3:

• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
  • Jonathan Strange, Arabella Strange, Gilbert Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Avernum 4:

• Wicked
  • Elphaba

 

• Emperor of Ocean Park
  • Kimmer Madison, Talcott "Misha" Garland, Mariah Garland, Oliver Garland

Geneforge 4:

• Watchmen
  • Dave Gibbons, Adrian Veidt, Fred Motz
• Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle
  • Jack Shaftoe, Eliza of Qwghlm, Moseh de la Cruz

Avernum 5:

• The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder
  • George Antrobus, Lilly Sabina, Maggie Antrobus

 

• Kurt Vonnegut's novels
  • Kilgore Trout, George Pefko, Norman Fuller

Geneforge 5:

• Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
  • Harold Skimpole, John Jarndyce, William Guppy, Richard Carstone

 

• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
  • Lenar Hoyt, Brawne Lamia, Martin Silenus

 

• Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
  • Erasmus (Erasmas), Orolo, Sammann

Avernum 6:

• Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
  • Vladimir, Estragon
• King Lear, by Shakespeare
  • Regan, Edgar, Edmund (Almaria)
  • possibly also Noam and Tardiff, critics who wrote about Lear
• The Stand, by Stephen King
  • Nick Andros, William Hapscomb, Stuart Redman, Frannie Goldsmith (Fort Duvno)

Avadon:

• Les Miserables
  • Cosette, Eponine, Varoche (Gavroche)

 

8. Musicians

An occasional but clear presence. Jeff frequently gives shout-outs to the bands he listens to while programming in his readme's, so it seems possible there are more references we haven't caught.

 

Exile II:

• Tori Amos
• Melissa Ethridge (Etheridge)

Avernum 4:

• Sleater-Kinney
  • Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss, Sleater-Kinney

Avernum 6:

• Neko, Case (Webbed Woods)

Avernum EFTP:

• The New Pornographers
  • Carl Newman, Neko Case, Kurt Dahle, Dan Bejar, Kathryn Calder

 

9. Comedians

The Exile I entries are questionable, since Jeff did not use very many produced-content sources for names in that game, but they are comedians who seem to fit perfectly with Jeff's sense of humor (as well as the Scorched Earth Party).

 

Exile I:

• Bill Maher
• John Cleese

Avernum 4:

• Dave Chapelle
• Redd Fox
• David Cross
• Patton Oswalt
• Sarah Silverman
• Terry Gilliam

 

10. EverQuest (and the Chaos Justice guild)

A major name source around the Avernum 4 era. Jeff gave us a lead on this one. There are a surprising number of trails for this on the web, despite the timeframe being a decade ago. Most of these names came from other characters in his guild, or who raided with his guild, though there are a few from raid targets as well.

 

Geneforge 3:

• Meraia, Tuona, Muram
• Barxt (raid target)

Avernum 4:

• Kabraxaz, Nociduas, Abisynthe, Trysbrina, Lyun, Uggluk, Imiriel, Sinedin, Tuona, Kasaz, Zarbonn, Kragg
• Keldovan, Hanvar (raid targets)

 

11. World of Warcraft

Jeff has talked about WoW even more than EverQuest, and mentioned it in more readme's. Many names, especially in Avernum 4 and beyond, sound like they could easily have come from WoW characters. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find reliable googleable material the way I was for Chaos Justice, but it's a safe bet that this was a prodigious source for names for a number of games.

 

12. Nearby locations

Mainly a source in Exile III, which of course required naming more small friendly towns than any other SW game.

 

Exile III:

• Golddale (Silverdale), a town Jeff was once associated with
• Port Townsend
• Bremerton
• Poulsbo
• Colfax
• Gorst

Geneforge 5:

• Zoka, a Seattle donut shop (also has a readme callout)

 

13. Spiderweb affiliates

Hat tips to people who've been there for Spiderweb.

 

Exile III:

• Jordan Bojar of Foglio studios

Nethergate:

• Phil Foglio
• Kaja Foglio

Various:

• Mycroft Foglio, son of Phil and Kaja

Geneforge:

• Brent Heustess, beta tester

Geneforge 4:

• Reiner, tileset creator
• Paul Ellsworth, beta tester

 

14. Family

The first was stated by Jeff; his immediate family receives frequent use, but he has said sometimes that he just likes the names.

 

Exile I:

• Elmer, Jeff's grandfather

Various:

• Mariann Krizsan, Jeff's radiant wife
• Cordelia, Jeff's daughter, but also a favourite name of his
• Miranda, Jeff's daughter, but also a favourite name of his

Queen's Wish:

• Queen Sharyn, Jeff's mother Sharon

 

15. Other friends

Some of these are simple Facebook speculation, but the source of one rather important name, Erika Redmark, was supplied by Jeff.

 

Exile I:

• Erika, a high school friend
• Jennifer Rippel (?)
• Shaynee Snider (?)

Exile II:

• Prazac, a high school friend
• Tina Mancuso (?)

Avernum 4:

• Lark Griffin (?)

Geneforge 4:

• Sharon Crowley (?)

 

16. Miscellaneous

Name sources that don't fit into the above categories, but seem likely due to unusual similarities (Zanthia) or Jeff's background (Sylow, Moon).

 

Exile I:

• Sylow, a Norwegian mathematician
• Zanthia, the alchemist protagonist of The Legend of Kyrandia 2
• Exile, name of a one-way transport mechanism in Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile (cited by Jeff as inspiration; related inspiration from Robert Silverberg's short story "Hawksbill Station")

Exile III:

• Moon, a town in Ultima 3
• Malloc and Calloc (towns), C functions

Blades of Exile:

• Newsworthy figures of the time
  • Steve Forbes, Chelsea Clinton, Michele Aboro, Welde, Madeleine Albright (ASR Willow)

Geneforge 3:

• Galileo Galilei's family
  • Maria Celeste, Vincenzio Galilei, Sestilia Bocchineri
• Alcholic beverages
  • Sauza tequila, Macallan single malt whiskey, Maker's Mark bourbon, Bailey's Irish cream, Captain Morgan rum, the Aunt Agatha mixed drink

Avernum 6:

• Djokov and Baghdatis, pro tennis players

Avernum 2 CS:

• Morrigan, Celtic warrior goddess
• Venus Castinan, aspect of goddess related to non-male-performing men

 

17. Names from the news

In the Geneforge and Second Trilogy years, googling a set of names from the same town often turns up a newspaper or magazine of the appropriate era, and it's sometimes one local to Seattle. It's unlikely that this is always a coincidence, but in many cases the names are so common that it's not really possible to establish a definitive tie, either.

 

18. Name generators

You may have noticed that the Avadon and Avernum Remake series do not show up on this list very much, even though the Avadon games involve a real slew of new names. Googling those names doesn't turn up much. However, googling those names often turns up name generator name lists. I'd wager Spiderweb is using a relatively nice name generator, and probably one that generates names of particular linguistic backgrounds, as we've seen a few clusters of names that closely resemble common Slavic names, to take one example.

 

19. Kickstarter contributors

More recent Spiderweb games have been funded in part by generous contributions on Kickstarter.  Some of the reward tiers include the ability to contribute a name (and sometimes a concept) to content like items, quests, and NPCs.  There are quite a few of these, many more than have been identified here.

 

Geneforge Mutagen:

• Sudanna, Sudanna, by Brian Herbert
  • Hiley

Geneforge Mutagen, Infestation:

• "Geneforge Comic Dub" by ACat animation
  • Thrackerzod, Arixy, Kevin

 

This document is not complete -- it is a work in progress, and we'd love your help in continuing to expand it! If you have any ideas or see names that look familiar, please feel free to post in this thread. Some other names we are currently suspicious of, but don't feel confident enough about to include in the main list, are below.

 

 

OTHER CHARACTERS WE EYE SUSPICIOUSLY

Linda (Linda Strout? no -- most likely predates her)

Strout (G1 Servile, A4 Fort Monastery resident -- Linda Strout? -- unclear)

Micah

Bernie ("the Chart")

Mairwen

Karzoth

Skunky Joe

Etunimdiam (G4 gazer) -- sounds like "et unum diem", Latin for "and a day" -- has an xbox live account listed under Seattle, WA

Skarp (A5 Exodus) -- Seattle WA band.

Elinor, Klivans, Haedrich (ASR Selathni) -- cookbook authors; Vonnegut in same town

Commander Wallace and Craftmaster Pynchon in Zhethron's Keep (Av3) -- see thread

Potential Slithzerikai inspiration in the Sleeth of Gamma World (tabletop RPG)

SIMS (F. Paul Wilson novel) as potential inspiration for Serviles

Default character names: Aldous Huxley (Brave New World has obvious thematic relevance for Avernum), Thissa from Exile vs Hissssa from Dungeon Master

[Tyranicus]

In Golddale in X3, there are characters named after Babylon 5. Specifically Londo, G'Kar, Ivanova, and Delenn.

 

Also in X3 are the towns of Malloc and Calloc, which are C++ terms.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Also in X3 are the towns of Malloc and Calloc, which are C++ terms.

Heh... that's funny.

Though I'd call them C terms, not C++. In C++ you have new, which is better.

[Aran]

[X1-6] Solberg = Andrew Solberg, usenet poster & E1 beta tester

That was a real name? Hehe... there have been several (non-real) Solbergs on Spiderweb since, and one of them is tied to a pretty infamous plagiarism incident back in the day.

 

By the way, the Foglios have two characters in their famous Steampunk fantasy Girl Genius named "General Krizsan" and "Professor Vogel", and I wouldn't be surprised if that's on purpose too. But this list is for cameos in Spiderweb games, not the Vogels appearing in other cameos.

 

I think there were more Krizsan references in the series than those two - IIRC there was a well-off/military/aristocratic family who were both the namesake of the province and the family of the exiled Krizsan.

 

Also, http://pied-piper.er.../2018/p5#000114 :

On the subject of ex-wives, all the provinces of Valorim are supposed to be named after women with whom Jeff was involved. Mariann Krizsan is his wife and Gale is Shirley once and current surname.

 

—Alorael, who isn't so sure about Footracer. Maybe Jeff had a brief fling with fitness once before coming to his senses?

 

 

[X3] Malloc & Calloc (towns) = C functions

Giving me meme reversal: Now whenever I read about the C functions, I think of the towns.

[Aran]

And as I said in the game forum thread that inspired this, Trainspotting was cameo'd in one of the towns of A3.

[Quiconque]

Not Gale, Monroe.

[Aran]

True:

 

http://www.spidweb.c...mezonechat.html

The voice of the spiders? Me and my ex-wife' date=' Shirley Monroe. The monster getting hit sounds in Exiles I-II was her too. The "Mmmmmm" sound in Exile III (when you get food) is me. Mmmmmmm. No helium. It's a natural skill.[/quote']

 

Note that Gale is not a province, but a town in Monroe. A slip.

 

---

 

I'm not even sure about Karnold, Midori, Footracer and Bigail. For the most famous cameo series in Exile 3, two out of six is a poor statistic. Did Jeff ever claim this theme himself, or was it simply inferred from the two known references?

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I thought the town with the trainspotting references was called Wainscotting.

 

Also, in ASR, Kenny, Cartman, and Stan (from South Park) appear as characters in the town with the palace. I'm sure there's other such references in BoX scenarios as well.

[Andraste]

Port Townsend is a real city in X3 and Washington state.

[Dikiyoba]

I think there were more Krizsan references in the series than those two

IIRC there was a well-off/military/aristocratic family who were both the namesake of the province and the family of the exiled Krizsan.

General Gabor Krizsan is the one who named the province.

 

I'm not even sure about Karnold, Midori, Footracer and Bigail. For the most famous cameo series in Exile 3, two out of six is a poor statistic. Did Jeff ever claim this theme himself, or was it simply inferred from the two known references?

Well, Midori and Footracer are names that get reused, which is suspicious. Midori is a lich in X2 and someone named Footracer appears in G5.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Quiconque]

Monoroe is fairly obvious after Krizsan. I suspect that somebody noticed those two, posted about them which specifying "two", and then somebody else leapt to the conclusion that it applied to all six and posted it.

 

I mean, "Bigail"? That's a crappy name.

[Khoth]

Abigail, parhaps.

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: Slarty

Monoroe is fairly obvious after Krizsan. I suspect that somebody noticed those two, posted about them which specifying "two", and then somebody else leapt to the conclusion that it applied to all six and posted it.

And once posted, such things become known facts and are repeated for ever and ever, occasionally garbled along the way.

I'm liable to do that myself - for example, I nearly pointed to another post as support for "Midori" being such a cameo, before actually reading the link.

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

General Gabor Krizsan is the one who named the province.

So he is. I should read my own wiki more often.

[Feo Takahari]

Found another one: Strout in G1. If I recall correctly, she's a rich immigrant from Pentil, found in Vakkiri, who sells you a canister.

[Sleeping Dragon]

Didn't we end up discovering that Bjorn, the guy who built the Halls of Chaos in Avernum 2, was the name of a guy who made some music for one of Jeff's games?

[Quiconque]

Bjorn Lynne's earliest SW credit is G4, which was released 11 years after the Halls of Chaos were created. So this seems unlikely.

[Xelgion]

How come no one has said DV from G5?

[nikki.]

Xelgion, please edit your signature to remove the blank lines. Thank you.

[Sleeping Dragon]

Originally Posted By: Slarty

Bjorn Lynne's earliest SW credit is G4, which was released 11 years after the Halls of Chaos were created. So this seems unlikely.

Huh, what a funny coincidence.

[Quiconque]

Given the rather massive list of names that have appeared in SW games, it doesn't seem very unlikely at all.

[Sleeping Dragon]

Sure, but come on... Bjorn? I still think it's funny.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Bjorn isn't an uncommon name. I don't see what's so funny about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjorn for examples.

[Sleeping Dragon]

Well, I'm not from Scandinavia or Iceland (where just about all your examples are from), and neither is Jeff. Bjorn is most definitely an uncommon where we're from, though I can't speak for you, I suppose. It's also a funny name, probably since a 'b' followed by a 'j' is so uncommon in the English language. Though now that you've made me analyze it, it's not funny anymore.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I'm born and raised in Massachusetts, though. I believe the J is pronounced sort of like the Y in "yes", but I could be wrong.

[Sleeping Dragon]

I know that much, at least, being a fan of Bjork. Is Bjorn a common name in Massachusetts?

[Xelgion]

Originally Posted By: SupaNik

Xelgion, please edit your signature to remove the blank lines. Thank you.

Sorry, the mods beat you to it, move faster if you want the job.

Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff

I'm born and raised in Massachusetts, though. I believe the J is pronounced sort of like the Y in "yes", but I could be wrong.

No, it is pronounced like a y, but this does not apply for all Massachusetts names, "Jonathan" is not pronounced "Yonathan".

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I know that. I meant in the name "Bjorn" specifically, hence "the J" and not "J" or "the letter J".

 

Edit: In Spanish, J is pronounced like an H. Try saying Bjorn like that. It's not easy.

[Acky]

Shaftoe, Eliza and Moseh are characters from a book by Neal Stephenson, but I don't know what.

[Milla]

I remember hearing somewhere that G3 there name cameos of Arrested Development characters in the east port town on Dhonal's Isle.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I don't believe there's a Kyle in Zaskiva. I could be wrong.

[nikki.]

Xelgion, please edit your signature to remove the blank lines. Thank you.

 

Sorry, the mods beat you to it, move faster if you want the job.

Moderate here? No thank you.

 

The only Bjorn I want to know is far too Mighty to appear here.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Ackrovan

Shaftoe, Eliza and Moseh are characters from a book by Neal Stephenson, but I don't know what.

Moseh is in The Confusion and The System of the World, and Jack Shaftoe and Eliza in those and the preceding Quicksilver as well. There are at least six other characters with the surname Shaftoe and a speaking role in the Baroque Cycle books or in Cryptonomicon, but I think the reference is to Jack.

—Alorael, who will grudgingly not argue that the vahnatai are collectively a reference to the Greys.

[Callie]

Originally Posted By: Andraste

Port Townsend is a real city in X3 and Washington state.

It's not the only one: Bremerton, Poulsbo, Colfax, and Gorst are Washington cities as well.

Wait, Gorst and Colfax are in A3, right? I can't really remember.

[Randomizer]

I need to get out the hintbooks, but Jeff said JR in X1 in Fort Dunvo was named after the Dallas character and listed sources from a few other TV shows.

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: Vinegar and Engine Oil

—Alorael, who will grudgingly not argue that the vahnatai are collectively a reference to the Greys.

Are the Greys from one of Stephenson's books too? I've only read Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Quicksilver and Confusion so far.

[Sleeping Dragon]

I believe Alorael is referring to the generic alien species from popular culture. One must admit to at least the aesthetic similarities. Though you'd never catch the space men in glowing fungus ponchos.

[Aran]

Oh. I'm not that familiar with alien lore...

[Ouroboros]

Erika Redmark maybe this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red

Patrick Padraig

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Pearse

Aimee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee

[Sleeping Dragon]

*check's Aran's location on a globe using poor knowledge of latitude and longitude*

 

Ah, well here in America, Greys are the generic alien. I don't really know much about it either, it seems to just be a name given to the grey, big eyed, skinny aliens that everyone seems to like to report in their crazy abduction descriptions here. Now they're used in movies and TV a lot, surely you've seen this type of alien before somewhere.

[Milla]

Here is an alien of the gray type.

[Aran]

Thanks! I think I have; I just didn't know that "Greys" was what they were officially called.

 

BloodMoon, why would Jeff Vogel name an archmage after a historical Viking?

[Alorael at Large]

Why not? But I don't think the name matches very well, and it's thematically inappropriate. She's also a more major character than the other cameos tend to be. The Patrick Pearse connection is also too strained; it's really just a first name and last initial. I think the name is more intended to be silly on its own, since it's essentially "Patrick Patrick." Aimee is too generic a given name to mean anything in isolation.

 

—Alorael, who actually wouldn't be surprised if the Greys appeared in Stephenson's books somewhere. They're the kind of wacko conspiracy theory fodder that he seems to get a kick out of.

[Sudanna]

Padraig is the Irish version of Patrick.

 

Patrick Patrick?

[Lilith]

I've got an uncle named Terence Patrick Patrick McMahon. It's a long story involving an overly enthusiastic priest.

[Quiconque]

So in the course of googling groups of names from the same town together, I think I've discovered the major source Jeff uses for random names.

 

News. Despite the fact that I've never googled anything but names, I frequently get in the top 5 results an article from a Seattle newspaper that mentions all of the names I am searching for at some point. They may be first or last names, they may be together or seperate; frequently they are part of a list.

 

This happens with other news sources too, but the fact that Seattle comes up more often than any other location can't be a coincidence. It also makes sense given the number of names we see, that immediately call up a strong association to a particular celebrity or historical figure, but which we aren't used to hearing otherwise. Winslet. Tycho.

 

I haven't recorded any of these instances because the name sources are essentially random and uninteresting.

 

This method does not seem to have been used much in the Exile days, which makes sense; most of the random, whitebread townspeople had random, whitebread names. Some of the more memorable characters seem to have come from the talk.bizarre usenet group.

 

Finally, major characters appear to have mostly unique names. This is obvious for, say, Khyryk or Litalia, but it appears to be true of older ones also. Exile 1 is unclear here, as Solberg and 'X' come from usenet and some others, like Linda, are suspicious.

 

Take a look at the first post if you haven't lately -- LOTS of updates.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

As I said, there is a mage in Zaskiva named Stan, who is friends with Cartman and Kenny. I don't know why Kyle is missing, but Stan is definitely there.

 

Also, your first contact in ASR is Vonnegut. I believe Jeff is a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, so the character is probably named after him.

[Dikiyoba]

The friendly cockroaches named Gregor in A3 are a reference to The Metamorphosis.

 

Astoria is a small town in Oregon, but that could just be a coincidence.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Keneforge]

Two more:

In G5 there are two gardians named Ersmas and Orolo, charecters from stephensons latest book "Anathem". I won't say where due do spoilers.

 

Note: I'm pretty sure these and the G4 cameos aren't the only refrences to Stephensons work. I'll go back and check.

[Ouroboros]

Linda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda