Easter Eggs and Real World References

Trivia
AC Wictionary - Easter Eggs and Real World References - Fan Sites - Level VII Spell Names - Noteworthy Players - Retired Content - Seasonal Content - Settlement Names - Unreleased Content

Information to come! This page will be a consolidation of Easter Eggs, Popular Culture References, and misc trivia pages.

Easter Eggs

Dat File Easter Eggs

An Archive
The dungeon An Archive has a section of tunnels that spell out "LOVE".

Bur - Eastern, Northern, and Soutern Catacombs
The dungeons Eastern Catacombs, Northern Catacombs, and Southern Catacombs are shaped like a turtle on the upper level, and a frog on the lower level.

Golem Sanctum
The dungeon Golem Sanctum has a hidden message in its landblock which reads, "Stop hacking the data".

Lola's Den
The dungeon Lola's Den has a section of tunnels that spell out "LOLA".

Mount Naipenset Caverns
The dungeon Mount Naipenset Caverns has a section of tunnels that spell out "SEAN". This is likely a reference to one of several Turbine Developers named Sean.

Portal.dat - March 2001
The Spring's Sorrows portal.dat updates contained the message "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US". See original portal.dat here.

Portal.dat - September 2002
The Verdict portal.dat updates contained an icon of a humanoid. See original portal.dat here. During the Asheron's Call Player Luncheon in 2002, the mystery was solved. See:

The icon appears to be a Turbine employee wearing a STFU shirt. The video link above refers to the drudge dance.

Portal.dat - March 2004
The Across the Vast Divide portal.dat updates contained numerous satirical icons and a jumbled up image. See the original portal.dat here. The fake icons included:

Saddles
Golden Heal Kits
A horse
A flying horse
Capes
Winged horses
Chain Mail Bikinis
Futuristic Ray Gun

The jumbled up image, when reconstructed, made the following image:

Across the Vast Divide Portal Dat Easter Egg.jpg

NPC interactions

Alatar Locke
In the June 2002 Castling event, Alatar Locke was added as an NPC for the Arcane Pedestal Quest. Approximately one year later in the May 2003 event Discoveries, the item A Crumpled Letter was added to the newly introduced Mite Warrior Queen as part of the updates to Branith's Stolen Possessions. The letter was written by Elysa Strathelar and Alatar Locke was the intended recipient. He has a hidden interaction when it is given to him:

You give A Crumpled Letter to Alatar Locke.

Alatar Locke tells you, "What's this? A letter? Oh, from Elysa! Such a dear girl. I'll read this later. Thank you."

Brighteyes, the Tailor
Revealed by Allan "Orion" Maki in the article Asheron's Call Nostalgia Blog #1: Allan "Orion" Maki, Brighteyes, the Tailor has a hidden interaction when given Mushed Nanners:

You give Brighteyes, the Tailor Mushed Nanners.

Brighteyes, the Tailor says, "It's people! Mushed nanners is people!"

Brighteyes, the Tailor says, "It gets very lonely out here. I've had a lot of time to myself."

Drunken Madman
The Drunken Madman has a hidden interaction when given an Apple:

You give Drunken Madman Apple.

Drunken Madman says, "Entering damn portal-space!"

After this he crosses his arms and raises into the air as he enters portal space for a few seconds.

Violet Ball Interactions
In the wildly popular thread Still Unfound/Undiscovered Content, it was revealed that there were several undiscovered NPC interactions involving the Violet Ball.

There is a way for characters under level 130 to obtain the Violet Ball:

Shuthoth tells you, "By the way, could you take this off my hands? I have no idea what to do with it."

Shuthoth gives you Violet Ball.

There were also some NPC interactions that were undiscovered:

You allow Surloshen Realaidain to examine your Violet Ball.

Surloshen Realaidain tells you, "So lovely! This would look great next to my lilies! But I cannot take that which is not mine. Good day to you, my friend."

You give Crystal of Life Protections Violet Ball.

As you press the violet ball against the crystal, it is slowly absorbed. You perceive no other effect.

After these were discovered, developers began intentionally adding Violet Ball interactions to new quests:

From Missing Person Investigation

You allow Guard Hrothgar to examine your Violet Ball.

Guard Hrothgar tells you, "Aha! A clue!"

Guard Hrothgar tells you, "Wait...this isn't a clue."

From Tanada House of Pancakes Quest

You allow Chow Doun to examine your Violet Ball.

Oh, come now - do you think we'd still keep adding violet ball interactions after we told the community that we were doing it? Err....apparently, we would.

You give Corpse of Pon Mi Violet Ball.

You plant the violet ball on the corpse. In a thousand years, archaeologists will stumble upon the corpse and think that the violet ball was the lynchpin to some horrible human sacrifice ritual.

You give Pon Mi Violet Ball.

Pon Mi looks at the orb, then at you.

Pon Mi tells you, "What am I supposed to do with this? Throw it at the Tanada who come to kill me?"

According to a forum post by player Sek the Wise, the now retired NPC Carlo di Cenza had a Violet Ball interaction as well.

Other / Misc

Camping Ineptitude / Camping Mastery
Camping Ineptitude is a spell that is cast on the player when they open the chest located at the point of interest 82.7S, 48.8W - Undead Ruins. The face in the spell effect is Allen Grey, the former site manager of the old Crossroads of Dereth circa 2000. Camping Mastery is a spell that is cast on the player when they open the chest located at the point of interest Banderling Castle. The face in the spell effect is Devilmouse, who was, at the time, a developer.

Camping Ineptitude
Camping Mastery

Credits
If you wait all the way through the credits (Click Credits button on main character login screen) after a while the following Easter Egg appears:

Wow

You sat through all the credits

ALL of them.

U R t3h h4rdc0r3

Seriously though.

Y'all rock.

All of you.

Whether you're playing AC for the first time
or you've been with us since beta,
we're thrilled that you're here.

All the players, everyone who's made the community
so active and fantastic, everyone who's given a part
of themselves to this game. We couldn't have done
it without you.

Thank you.

(The credits are over now.)

(Seriously, go kill some Olthoi!)

(Fine, you can stick around, but I'm gonna go hunt Eaters.)

(Ibn out.)

Prior to Throne of Destiny when you waited through the original credits some beta and other early development images would appear.

@logopolis
In the early game, the command @logopolis would open a game of Pong. It was later removed. According to an interview with Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile, this command was added by Michael Ferrier, who Chris referred to in the interview as Mike "@Logopolis" Ferrier.

Real World References

Comics

Spider-Man
Verdentine Magnan is a reference to Spider-Man. Specifically, he is modeled after the Spider-Man of the Spider-Man 2002 film which was released a month prior to Verdentine getting added to the game. One piece of dialog in particular is a reference to Spider-Man:

Verdentine Magnan gazes dreamily into the distance.

Verdentine Magnan tells you, "Imagine having the abilities of a Grievver! You could climb almost any surface. Your strength would be magnified many times that of a normal human. You could spin webs, although that seems rather useless unless you want to catch your lunch... You reactions would be enhanced and you might have senses beyond those we are aware of."

Verdentine Magnan tells you, "I know that sounds silly, but I often daydream about such things."

Super Friends
The Dark Monolith Quest is a reference to the Challenge of the Super Friends episode "Monolith of Evil". The Dark Monolith and the Guardian of the Monolith are inspired by imagery from the episode:

Watchmen
The march 2009 event Who Watches the Virindi? is a reference to the film Watchmen. The film is based on the cult hit graphical novels of the same title and was also released to theaters in March 2009. In the novels as well as the film the phrase "Who watches the watchmen?" can be seen numerous times in reference to the public questioning the authority of the super hero group The Watchmen (the film's protagonists).

Holidays

April Fools' Day

Christmas

Easter

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Literature

Movies

Music

Television

Doctor Who
During Release and for some time after, a Police Box could very rarely appear as a landscape spawn. It served no purpose and could not be interacted with. It was later removed.

01-08-2010 - Link

It was removed many moons ago for various reasons. If I remember right, even if we turned it on now it would not work because of art changes that were made in ToD.

Frelorn

Police Box image #1
Police Box image #2
Police Box image #3 from Maggies Site
Police Box image #4

Other / Misc

Pet Rock
On Dark Isle is a small rock at 86.9N 59.8E. If you use it you get the following:

You pat the top of the stone. Good stone. I mean, what else could you expect from a stone? You wish you could take it home and make it your pet.

This is a reference to the Pet Rock of the 1970s.

Turbine / Developer References

Landscape Signatures

Knathtead Anagrams

At least some of the Knathtead names (and perhaps all) are anagrams of names/nicknames of AC developers. K'nath Tead itself is Death Tank backwards.

Creature	Guesses	Confirmed Developer
K'nath An'dras	Sandra/Srand
K'nath B'orret	Robert?
K'nath Ban'ry	Ryan B.?
K'nath C'ire	Eric Deans
K'nath D'dot	Todd Berkebile James Todd
K'nath D'Nob	Bond
K'nath Di'vda	David?
K'nath Dyn'ra	Ryan D.?
K'nath G'erg	Greg "GrogBro" Breault
K'nath I'km	Kim "Mirin" Payson
K'nath K'ram	Mark?
K'nath La'nal	Allan "Orion" Maki
K'nath N'aes	Sean Huxter
K'nath N'da	Dan?
K'nath N'gell	Glen L.?
K'nath N'osaj		Jason Booth
K'nath Nod'narb	Brandon
K'nath R'ajed	Jared?
K'nath Ra'dnas	Sandra?
K'nath Ri'shc	Chris?
K'nath S'el	Les Nelken
K'nath S'hirc	Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile Chris Lye Chris Foster
K'nath S'tath
K'nath Son'ja	Jason?
K'nath T'amt	Matt/Scenario
K'nath Thea'reh	Heather/Zyrca
K'nath X'ela	Alex "Ibn" Beckers
K'nath Y'bot	Toby Seltsam
K'nath Y'nda	Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
K'nath Z'bog	??

T'thuun Cultist Anagrams

Similar to Knathtead Anagrams, in Shattered Lines several maddened human creatures were introduced with anagrams of developer forum names:

Creature	Guesses	Confirmed Developer
Cloywer the Unstable	Crowley
Despe the Insane	Speed
Inkitan the Crazed	Kintani
Lorfne the Unhinged	Frelorn
Siabot the Deranged	Tobias?
Ves the Mad	Sev

References to Turbine & Asheron's Call

The Asheron's Call logo appears in several places in the game:
- The texture used as the floor of Meeting Hall Style Buildings, among other things.
- The Pyreal texture and icon, after it was redesigned in the The Widening Gyre event.
- The Olthoi Stamp and Olthoi Flag, along with other items that can be stamped.