Golgamesh

Not to lend life to me own thread or anything, but I just ran by "Family Jewels" in Faultline, and had to share...

So, er, um...great guide and all, but where are the numbers for poor lil energy aura?

and the really sick part of this is, I knew this, I just had to look up the exact number:

"With atomic time the unit of a second is defined as; the duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of microwave light absorbed or emitted by the hyperfine transition of cesium-133 atoms in their ground state undisturbed by external fields"

so the cesium exposure enhancement increases sleep duration, which increases the number of seconds you sleep. Anybody got a better one than that?

This post is where it came from, I gather...

Ok, so since at least one person wants to know where the memetic (I'm pretty sure that's not a word, but it shoud be) "Go. Hunt. Kill skuls." comes from, and not everybody has the time to go through the hundreds of pages of posts that now contain these words, I thought I'd do a search for the words by date and show the earliest results.

FirePlug (Jan 28, 2005, 13:47)

"One of my secondaries (or tertiaries, or quarternaries, or whatever) reached level 9 yesterday. He's an Illusion controller, and I gave him the AE blind power.

I REALLY wanted to try this in a group, but nobody from my SG was on, so I took the chance of clicking the "seek team" button.

I was invited by someone, and immediately saw the group msg "Kill Skuls". I took off across the zone to find the team leader, when I saw someone else enter the team, and the leader again said "Kill Skuls".

He was all the way across the zone, so it took me a minute to get to him. I found him in a secluded lot, pressed up against the wall, just standing there.

I stood behind him for about three minutes. While I waited, I checked the missions, he had two "skul" missions, and seemed to be just standing there watching the numbers drop on them.

When I finally figured out that he had no intention of doing ANYTING himself, I did a "/G I should go kill skulls for YOUR missions while you sit in the middle of a lot with you thumb up your *^&%?", and quit the team

Why would anyone even bother to play this game if this is how they are going to do it?

And why would ANYONE join a team, and then go out killing solo? If you're going to be hunting by yourself, why sign up for the team?

The con men and the conned. I don't understand either one..."

imvicious2u (Jan 28, 2005, 14:55) responds with:

"Duh...You want i should kill skuls boss?"

Upsen_Downs (Jan 28, 2005, 15:53) responds to imvicious2u with:

"Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls"


everybody happy now?

I figured it would be easier if I just compiled everybody's contributions to date and posted them. I tried to give credit where credit is due, but don't shoot me if you mentioned something before the person I gave credit for it. I did my best. Also, I tended to leave out the more, shall we say, stretches of the imagination in favor of explanations that seemed dead on. For instance, as entertaining as the Tim Curry as a nautical method actor was, I'm pretty sure the devs probably named Curry Cove after Aquaman's real name, Arthur Curry, since two other PI locations are named after his wife and Aqualad. That being said, here's the results:

Slovalia
Warriors quoting Bruce Lee - "Move like water."

Charles_Langly
Freak boss named Stone Cold (as in "Steve Austin")

StrayLight
boss Mass Def (tribute to Mos Def, no doubt)

Zloth
Shadow Shard TF bosses named Humperdink and Vezeni (from
Princess Bride)

TheCatFanatic
contact in FBZ is General Hammond (from Stargate)
The Supergroup Registration form is Form 27B/6.
Form 27B/6 is the Ministry of Public Works' "Authorization for Repairs of Domestic Living Quarters by Licensed Repair Technicians" form in "Brazil"

MadScientist
Around the Bendis badge (referring to comic artist Brian
Michael Bendis)
Challenger Tech = Challengers of the Unknown
Raysun = (the opposite of) The Shadow
Astoria was a town in The Goonies

Technophile
Babbage, after Charles Babbage, the "father of
computing".
Tesla Princes/Knights/etc after Nicola Tesla, inventor
of, among many things, an alternating current motor.
Oscillators are devices for producing alternating
current.

Ironik
Toffet Terrace may be an alternate spelling of tophet,
which is an unpleasant place, or another name for hell.
Hutchison Park probably named after Thomas Hutchison,
who was the governor of Massachusetts in the period
leading up to the Revolutionaru War.

Nytrus_Oxyde
Nemesis Automaton office workers quoting the movie
Office Space.

Exelion
Roland, a Malta gunslinger boss, after Stephen King's
Roland, from The Gunslinger series.

LiquidX
Warriors missions dealing with Platonic Solids and
Pythagoreans, both mathematics references.

Coffeeninja
King's Row areas named after streets near Cryptic's HQ.

Atomic_Knight
Tempest is the alias of Aqualad during his time with the
Teen Titans.

Bountytaker
Louis Forest named after Louis XVI, who gave aid to
American revolutionaries.

Dennis_Heffernan
For numerous corrections about my vaguely-remembered
Greek mythology and its relation to Talos Island names.

Drewcifer
Fake Nemesis quoting Epyx, an old C-64 video game.

Knight_of_Argh
Crate# 9906769 referring to crate the ark of the
covenant was sealed in at the end of Raiders of the Lost
Ark?

Zhanate
Freak boss named Kerner, self-identified as a graphic
artist. Kern refers to the spacing between letters in
type.

Xanador
Benedict Tech, tech store that specializes in
prosthetics, after Benedict, a character from Roger
Zelazny's Amber novels, who lost an arm and had it
replaced with an artificial one.

Shiphty
The generic "If you want to fight, fight me" kung fu
movie dialogue of the Tsoo.

Inkblaster
Red Beast Energy Drink - Red Bull
Infront Steakhouse - Outback Steakhouse

Procella
Clockworks building Paladin saying "If we build it, he
will come", a quote derived from Field of Dreams.

Fushico
Hide Park refers to Hyde Park in Austin. And the "Guns
Ammo" store sign in KR actually exists in Austin on
South Congress.
The Conjuntion Junction badge in TV, which comes form
the Schoolhouse mini-cartoon "Conjunction Junction
(What's your Function?)"

Interdictor and Khaighle
Hide Park -> Hyde park -> Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -> guy
who drank potion that turned him into monster, which is
what is happening to The Lost and the Trolls.

Khaighle
Ernesto Hess, the Council guy who wants to work with
heroes, could be a reference to Rudolph Hess, a Nazi
agent who parachuted into Britain in the 40's and
attempted to negotiate a separate peace with Germany.

Lady_Jade
Prisoner boss named J.P. Mason after John Patrick Mason,
Sean Connery's escape artist character from The Rock.

WingedKagouti
Hide Park - An old English measure of land, usually the
amount held adequate for one free family and its
dependents.
Another Hide Park can be found in Terry Pratchett's
Discworld novels. That park is named so because it is
actually the size of a hide.

Max_Firepower
Moth Cemetery = Mothman, Unexplained America? Or Moth
Diaries, a book dealing with "obsession and death"
perhaps?
Toffet Terrace - Helsing Letters, seeks The Tophet, a
mysterious organization...
Striga - a pretty pink plant that's parasitic. Home to
the Vampyrs...

Poison
Prisoner boss named Johnny-23, which is Danny Trejo's
character's name in Con Air.
A Carnie boss named "The Artist Formerly Known as
Claire", after Prince's name fiasco.

Sir_Vimes
Just FYI, I asked a developer about who Bettis was. They
said that it was originally suppose to be Bendis, and
wasn't sure why it was changed when it went live.

PBG3814
Hutchison Park referring to Anne Hutchison, a woman who
was chased out of colonial Mass because she was
essentially doing what a woman should not be doing
(thinking, having opinions) in colonial times. She was
exiled to Rhode Island, the same location as Paragon
City.

Smersh
Cooke's Electronics = Fry's Elctronics (store or chain
on west coast?)

Golgamesh
Hide Park - Dido, when she founded Carthage, was given a
space to build her domain no larger than that which
could be bound by an ox (?) hide? So she sliced the hide
into thin strips and laid them around a hilltop, upon
which was built Carthage. not sure if that has any
relevence.

LadyAndreca
Exploration badge in Talos called "Minotaur" after the
Talus/Talos connection.

Paveway
Portacio Industries and Wetware Inc enhancements refer
to Wetworks, an old Image Comics title, created by
Portacio.

Jet_Black
Up and Away burger - In and Out burger
The Badguys - The Goodguys
Prisoner "Redd" Maybe from The Shawshank Redemption

KaliMagdalene
Freaks discussing recent events in story arc named Rosen
and Stern (after Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet"...or, possibly, more recently, from the Tom Stoppard film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead")

Heraclea
Striga < Latin strix, originally a kind of owl. Now striga in Italian means a flying witch or various sorts of night-faring spooks.
Crowley = Aleister Crowley, a magician who was involved in the Golden Dawn in turn of the century England, and led a rather scandalous life.
Nectanebo was one of several pharaohs of the last native Egyptian dynasty, before Egypt was conquered, first by the Persian Empire, and then by Alexander the Great, and then by the Romans.
Li Tieh Kuai is "Iron Crutch Li", one of the eight immortals of Taoism. He was apparently fond of out of body experiences, and one of his students found him apparently dead, and cremated his body. When he returned, he had to take over the body of a crippled beggar, while of course keeping his magical kung-fu powers; thus the Iron Crutch.

Cliff_Hanger
The Science/Tech DO for Intangibility Duration is the Oscillator Overthruster. The OscillatION Overthruster was used in the movie and novel THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI to allow for passage through solid objects, by accessing the "8th Dimension", made up of all the empty space in matter.

Wizatch
Dark Waters- a reference to "Pirates of Dark Water" an old cartoon
Moth Cemetary & Barca Plaza- Could these be refernces to silence of the lambs? Barca is Hannibal's last name, think Hannibal & you associate the name with Hannibal Lecter. The other serial killer in the film, Buffalo Bill, would stuff moths in his victims' throats. Death's Head moths I believe.

Ilion
Hellions repreating the "You wouldn't want to see me mad" quote from the original Hulk television series.

WhiteRook
Major Flanders Chicken = Colonel Sanders Chicken = Kentucky Fried Chicken

megamoses
Independence Port has way too much in common with Three Mile Island. A nuclear power plant accident. It's apporximately 3 miles long, and it has alot of steel industry like Pittsburgh where Three Mile Island is located.

and extra special kudos to TheCatFanatic for reminding me of the 27B/6 reference. Believe it or not, that reference was what got me writing this thing in the first place; it just got lost in the mix.

[ QUOTE ]
hide
n.
An old English measure of land, usually the amount held adequate for one free family and its dependents.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hide

Another Hide Park can be found in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. That park is named so because it is actually the size of a hide.

[/ QUOTE ]

And this actually reminds me, that Dido, when she founded Carthage, was given a space to build her domain no larger than that which could be bound by an ox (?) hide? So she sliced the hide into thin strips and laid them around a hilltop, upon which was built Carthage. not sure if that has any relevence.

ah...ok, then:


BRICKSTOWN

The Crescent - of course, I almost forgot this one. Mesopotamia existing in the Fertile Crescent. The Crescent, btw, in my opinion, has the best district music of any district in the game. Is there any way to find out who was responsible for that music?

Mashu Bridge - With any kind of luck, nobody will notice that my name is taken in part, from Gilgamesh, a Babylonian priest-king. Anyway:

"Gilgamesh allows his life to fall apart; he does not bathe, does not shave, does not take care of himself, not so much out of grief for his friend, but because he now realizes that he too must die and the thought sends him into a panic. He decides that he can't live unless granted eternal life; he decides to undertake the most perilous journey of all: the journey to Utnapishtim and his wife, the only mortals on whom the gods had granted eternal life. Utnapishtim is the Far-Away, living at the mouth of all rivers, at the ends of the world. Utnapishtim was the great king of the world before the Flood and, with his wife, was the only mortal preserved by the gods during the Flood. After an ominous dream, Gilgamesh sets out. He arrives at Mount Mashu, which guards the rising and the setting of the sun, and encounters two large scorpions who guard the way past Mount Mashu. They try to convince him that his journey is futile and fraught with danger, but still they allow him to pass. Past Mount Mashu is the land of Night, where no light ever appears. Gilgamesh journeys eleven leagues before the light begins to glimmer, after twelve leagues he has emerged into day. He enters into a brilliant garden of gems, where every tree bears precious stones.."

Seven Gates - in Sumerian/Assyrian/Babylonian mythology, Ishtar had to descend through the Seven Gates of Hell, leaving a piece of clothing or insignia at each of the gates, in order to rescue Tammuz. We'll leave the rest of that particular story to the imagination.

Dark Waters - the "dark waters", traditionally the realm of Nuu, the god of the abyss, are actually all the world's waters, although the Nile is the source. Nuu, is, of course, (I hope) the Egyptian corrolary of Enki.

The Abyss Towers - Enki, chief god of the Sumerians, was the Lord of the Abyss. We'll just keep to ourselves what else he was lord of.

The Chasm - not sure how this relates, except in the obvious manner.

The Ziggurat - typical temple structure of the Mesopotamians.

and States, if I may be so bold, did Hiro Protagonist have anything to do with this interest in Mesopotamian culture?

(or I Was Really Bored During Server Maintenance Today)

So, it occurred to me that I'd seen a lot of really funny and/or appropriate references to just about everything in CoH, from Raimi Arcade in DA to the freakshow Axel F to well, a lot of other things. So today, during server maintenance, I decided to write down the ones that had struck me, and research the ones that hadn't. This is the result.

ATLAS PARK (Prometheus Park, Hyperion Way, Argosy Industrial Park - all references to Greek mythology)

BOOMTOWN (BAUMTON) (The Fuse, Powderkeg, Primer, Grenadier, Cannonade - all references to explosives)

BRICKSTOWN (at least a few of these place names could be interpreted as referring to things that are deep and dark)

Mashu Bridge - Mashu is a famous landmark in Japan, a lake 20 km wide formed from the deep caldera of an extinct volcano.

Seven Gates - traditional, there are Seven Gates to the Kingdom of Hell.

Dark Waters - nothing obscure I can think of, but still follows the "deep dark" pattern.

The Abyss Towers - an abyss is a deep chasm, sometimes synonymous with an underworld or afterlife for evil folk.

The Chasm - "deep and dark" all right.

The Ziggurat - now this is where my "deep dark" pattern kind of breaks down, because a Ziggurat is actually the exact opposite. The word is Semitic and means, more or less, "to build high". Maybe the CoH designer wanted some counterpoint to all the "daap dark"-ness?

CREY'S FOLLY (all are pretty much related to obvious features. i.e.: Paragon Water Works has polluted water all around, The Blight is the same, The Circus has freaks in it, etc)




DARK ASTORIA (if anybody can tell me what relation this has to undead, I'd be very happy. I did find a guy who had a D&D campaign started in 1992 in a land called Astoria, which had been overrun by undead in the near past, but I figured that was too much of a coincidence. The guy's name is Brad Dunker, and I tried doing some searching to see if he had any connection to NCSoft, Cryptic, or CoH, but came up empty).

Romero Heights _ George Romero, "Night of the Living Dead" fame.

Raimi Arcade- Sam and Ted Raimi of "Evil Dead" fame

Barca Plaza - No idea. Barca is Hannibal's last name (the guy who crossed the Alps in 14 days on elephants), but I can't see where that relates to the undead.

Dido's View - Dido was a historically- and mythologically significant woman, purportedly the founder of Carthage. Her only connection to the undead seems to be that in Virgil's "Aenid", Aeneas comes across her in the underworld and begs her forgiveness (he scorned her at the behest of Zeus, after which she killed herself). Coincidentally, Hannibal Barca's family claims descendance from a nephew of Dido.

Toffett Terrace - this is a long shot, but the only one I have: Toffett = tuffett = small grassy mound = burial mound?

EDEN

Arcadia - mythologically, the woodland Heaven.

The Pit - "learn from our mistakes" maybe?

The Utopia Complex - "utopia" being a perfect world

Aveda Towers - from the Aveda (natural beauty products) Corporation's mission statement: "Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty, but around the world."

The Serpentine - a lake in Hyde Park, London. But, more tongue-in-cheek-wise, a public transport system in Switzerland called the "Serpentine Peoplemover System", and what are the DE trying to do in Eden but "move the people"?

The Cascades and The Hive are self-evidently related to nature)


FAULTLINE

Subduction - the act of one continental shelf sliding under another one, resulting in earthquakes.

Dark Canyons, Downfall, Precipice, Aftershock and Reservoir are all self-evidently related to earthquakes.

FOUNDER'S FALLS

William's Square - after the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams

Louis Forest - stumped on this one. Lots of founders of things named "Louis", but none as clearly related as, for instance, Roger Williams.

Blackstone Hills - the U.S. Constitution was based, in part, on Sir William Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England" (1765).

Hutchison Park - jury's still out on this one.

The Gaspee - The HMS Gaspee was a British navy ship that was burned by American colonials after it ran aground while chasing a suspected "smuggler" in an attempt to collect taxes from the itinerant Americans. It was a fairly large event leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Red River is geographical and Liberty Town is fairly self-evidently related.

GALAXY CITY (aside from Freedom court, all place names are astronomically related: Nebula is a collection of stars, Constellation is a perceived pattern in the stars, Gemini is a constellation, as is Orion, Equinox is one of two points where the ecliptic cross the celestial equator (if that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, I feel your pain))

THE HOLLOWS

Most of the geography in The Hollows seems to be self-evident. The Red River is a river, the Cherry Hills are hills (strangely enough, "Red River Valley" and "Cherry Hill Park" were both popular songs in the past, although, as far as I can tell, this trend doesn't extend to any of the other areas in The Hollows, although The Four Seasons were a band that sang popular songs in the 60's.)

Grendel's Gulch - Grendel was the creature from "Beowulf" who, if not traditionally a troll, could certainly be likened to one.

Eastgate Park was just too generic a term for me to research. A quick Google search gave me 5000 hits on places in the U.S, Canada, and England.

INDEPENDENCE PORT (all place names in IP are related to liberty, freedom, and whatnot, or to geographical terms, such as landing, cove, wharf, etc. They all refer to CoH itself.

KING'S ROW

All place names in KR seems to be simple geographical description, sometimes with a word appropriate to royalty thrown in. The only glaring anomoly to this is The Gish. I REALLY REALLY hope this is the reason, because there's an Elvis impersonator named C.J. Gish, and Elvis is "The King". That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.


PEREGRINE ISLAND

Bayside Docks - self-explanatory

Curry Cove - not a clue.

Nelson Borough - My brain is getting fuzzy from all this Googling. A tribute to Admiral Nelson, maybe?

Cutlass Isles - cutlass = sword wielded by pirates = Pirate Isles.

Mera Heights - Ah, and finally the Googling pays off. Arthur CURRY (see Curry Cove, above) is the real name of DC comics's Aquaman. His wife was named MERA.

Portla Court - just refers to Portal Corp.

Poseidon Square - Poseidon is the Greek god of the ocean.

Tempest Quay - a tempest is stormy weather typically associated with sea travel.


PEREZ PARK

Boneyard - just the area where the Skulls hang out.

Hells' Highway - the area where the Hellions hang out.

George Perez (Park), Bill Everett (Lake), and Neil Gaiman (Woods) are folks involved in the comic book field. I'm heard tell that somebody named Bettis is, also, but the only hits I get on Bettis are for football's Jerome Bettis and the movie actress Angela Bettis.

SKYWAY CITY

Astral Way - "astral" meaning "of the stars".

The Gruff - this one's a stretch, but it's my only shot. The Gruff is populated primarily by trolls, and trolls could certainly be described as "gruff". Hey, I said it was a stretch!

Vista Plaza - "vista" being "view seen from on high".

Hide Park - I can only assume this was supposed to be High Park.

Land of the Lost - well, aside from being the name of a popular Saturday-morning television show in the 70's, this is where you find The Lost.

STEEL CANYON

Bronze Way, Copper District, Platinum Lake, Fools Gold District, and Silver Lake are all references to metals, obviously.

Gimry Ridge - "Gimry ridge is one of the well-known Dagestan with the pronounced cuesta relief form. Being raised to a southwest from Buinaksk in 18 kilometers from city on the average, Gimry ridge is the natural boundary of the foothill and middlemountain Dagestan zones. The ridge crest has a wavy character without sharply selected tops. Gimry ridge overall length is equal 42 kms, from which 13 kms are necessary on the ridge section above Sulak channel, and 29 kms are lifted in country between Shuraozen and Avar Koisy rivers."

If the English sounds a little wonky, it's because it's probably the author's second, third or fourth language. Much better than my Russian, no doubt. Gimry ridge is basically a ridge along the River Sulak in Dagestan in SE Russia. I'd give a few influence to know to which developer this place was important, and why.

Blyde Square - Blyde river Canyon in South Africa was easy enough to Google after the Gimry fiasco. Maybe they're both hot mining spots? I didn't research that deeply, but South Africa is well-known for its gold and diamond mines, so maybe...

Royal Overlook - I'll just assume they needed some other "looking down on a low place from a high place" name to go with the Blyde and Gimry references.



TALOS ISLAND (named after Bull-ish protector of Crete in Greek mythology)

Argo Highway - Greek Argonauts killed Talos (actually, Medea killed him, but she was with them at the time)

Circe Island - Another Argonauts encounter (with Circe the sorceress)

Eleusis, (New) Corinth, (New) Thebes, (New) Troy, Ithaca (Island), and (New) Sparta - I don't know my "Odyssey" that well, but my bet is that all these ancient cities had something to do with it.

Helen Point - Helen, was, of course, the wife of King Menelaus (sp?), who was "stolen" from him by Paris, the younger brother of Prince Hector, and son of King Priam of Troy, while Hector and Paris were on a diplomatic mission in Sparta (home to Helen and Menelaus). They (Paris, Helen, and Hector) fled back to Troy, Menelaus begged his brother, King Agamemnon, to make war on Troy, and thus we got the siege of Troy, the Trojan Horse, the legend of Achilles, and Helen, "The face that launched a thousand ships".

Scylla Island - Scylla, along with Charybdis, was one of the rocks the crushed ships between them across which Odysseus and friends came during "The Odyssey". I think this was the part about stuffing their ears with bit sof wax to blot out the song of the sirens (harpies) which would lead them to be smashed on the rocks.

The Serpent's Teeth - ok, this one is a long one. Zeus steals Europa, sister of Cadmus. Cadmus is charged by his father to seek her out. Athena helps him out. He has to slay a serpent, and when he does, Athena instructs him to plant the teeth in the ground. He does, they turn into warriors and fight each other. When 5 remain, they build Cadmus the City of Thebes and install him as king. Teiresias is a descendent of one of these men who sprang from the Serpent's Teeth. His relevance to the Odyssey is that Circe instructed Odysseus to journey to the land of the dead to speak with Tiersais, the only woman (apparently, s/he changed sexes several times in his/her tale) in the underworld allowed to retain her intellect and sanity by Prosepine, and consult her about a way to make it home. Told you it was long.

TERRA VOLTA

Challenger Technology - I would assume this is tribute to the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle that exploded on take-off with a civilian on board, Kristin McAuliffe (sp?), who was to be the first civilian in space.

I've heard tell that all the names in TV come from early pulp comics heroes's names. Gordon Trench is easy to translate into Flash Gordon, Rodgers Industries into Buck Rogers, Walker Energy comes from Kit Walker (The Phantom) and so on. I'm too lazy to research the rest. ok, ok, there's only two more. I'll take a stab at Raysun...um...er, how about Grayson, as in "Dick Grayson", the "Robin" side of the Batman and Robin duo? And Savage Waste Disposal is probably referring to Doc Savage. Ok, so it wasn't all that hard. I still don't know what Coroman refers to, though.

VILLAINS (this one just popped into my head, so I had to include it, since I laughed my [censored] off and my 18 and 23-year old roommates had no idea what I was laughing about)

(Freak BosS) Axel F - very famous movie theme song(by Harold Faltermeyer) from the 80's. Refers to Axel Foley (played by Eddie Murphy) in "Beverly Hills Cop"

I'd love to hear if anybody else can fill in the gaps for me, especially about Coroman (I was thinking Roger Corman), but any insights would be nice to share. And any other things I didn't mention would be fun, too, like the "I'm feelin' kinda...invincible" "Big Trouble in Little China" quote and such-like.