Fight the Power Word, Kill

(Basically writing this stuff down so that I don't forget it.)

p17 Xeno-Ys - I suspect the name is inspired by Xenoyr, one of the singers in the progressive metal band Ne Obliviscaris, whom I had recently seen in concert at the time of writing.

p18 Into the Labyrinth - derived from Jason Cordova's "exploring the maze" rules for Dungeon World, with permission. He gets a credit somewhere in teh opening pages of the book.

p21 - Chapter 2: Zones of Corruption
This was cut from the Whitestar sourcebook, which may make the adventure included there a little difficult to use if you don't have Dark Eden. This chapter is written as an in-universe text - specifically a guidebook to exploring the Zones. Since the actual layout is identical to the rest of the book, it may appear that one of the authors (me) has had some kind of breakdown, but this change was intentional.
I like this chapter. It even has some half-good cocktail lounge comedian gags in it.
It should go without saying that an awful lot of this is from Roadside Picnic. But I think if you write a sourcebook about apocalyptic future-Russia and don't include a thing to help people play out STALKER (yes I know Roadside Picnic isn't Russian), you're missing a trick.

p26 Chapter 3: Sons of Rasputin
Making these guys coexist with the new Whitestar faction was kind of a headache, I won't lie.

p28
Brother Eusebius - from Robert Schumann

Akaky Kovalyov
Akaky Akakievitch from Gogol's "The Overcoat" and Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov from "The Nose" -- both meek bureaucrats.

Lukanio - sort of derived from Lussurioso in Revengers Tragedy

Invidion - "invidious". Bit obvious.

Nikopol - from the Nikopol comics, specifically Immortel the film.
Bilar - from Bilal, the Nikopol creator.

Engelsein - a Rammstein lyric.

p31 Lightning Wall - I'd been playing a lot of Dishonored.

p34 "A gallery of ancient masks" - a bit of Gormenghast, a bit of "The End" by the Doors.

p39 Milavaka - something to do with cows, I think.

p41 Haxo Detention Centre - this is a real ghost station on the Paris metro

p48 Arwan - from the Welsh arweinydd, "leader, guide"
Palace of the White Deer - White Hart Lane

p49 High Burial - Highbury.

p78
Chapter 5: Africa
A lot of the most interesting stuff in here is just actual fact about real African places, advanced into the future timeline. I'd go looking for a place name or landmark to incorporate into my write-up of a region and just find things that were much more exciting and unusual than what I had planned, so I used it.

Kirill's Landing - I like to throw in locations like this that can be way-stations or home bases for the PCs. Ideally, every page would contain the basis of a whole campaign frame, at least good for a half-dozen sessions.

Grischenko - Boris from Goldeneye

p79 Ezi Nkomo, the Meat Men - the nickname of Botswana Meat Commission FC

p80 Ukweli - Swahili for "truth"
Uwongo - from Swahili uongo, "lie"
Jioni - Swahili for "evening"

Bumbusi - named after Bumbusi National Monument in Zimbabwe



p84 King Kipanga - from kipanga, Swahili "eagle"

p85 "perhaps not quite all" - from Asterix intro.

p90 Great Bamako - this adventure/random table format comes from the "transmissions" used in Technoir. I love the little tower illo/map on this page.


p96 Hagar Qim - a real place, Ħaġar Qim on Malta
Needle Sisters - I freaked myself out with the imagery in this, so it seemed like a good idea to keep it in.

p108 The Maktaba - from Arabic مَكْتَبَة ‎(maktaba), "library".

Sayigh - Arabic صائغ, "goldsmith, jeweller"

Oil Barons - Mad Max


p112 Lev Dubov - surnamed after a minor character in Face/Off

Ptichka - "little bird"


p113 Akash clan - from "Akashic"


p114
Sarasa Clan - Sanskrit, "bird, crane"
Parivala Clan - Kannada "dove"
Kabutara Clan - Gujarati, "dove"
Pareviyeku Clan - Sinhala, "dove"
Pura Clan - Tamil, "dove"
THERE'S A THEME.

Kp115 Kundalin galleys - kundalini
Javina Flitters - Sanskrit "quick"
Manthara galleons - Bengali/Sanskrit, "sluggish"
Nauyana galleons - Bengali/Sanskrit, "ship, vessel"


p116 Taungkone K'luu - Burmese တောင်ကုန်း ကလူ , "hill people"

p117 Poekaung Vines - Burmese ပိုးကောင် , "silk worm, worm"
Myaypone - Burmese မြေပုံ , "map"

Aahtuu u Hkaungghkwan
Burmese aahtuu အထူး "special"
Thai ของขวัญ K̄hxngk̄hwạỵ "gift"


p118 "the frozen Songhua River" - once traversed in horse and carriage by the author. Quite a bumpy ride.

p119
Purple Palace - from Chinese names for the Forbidden City.
Gongchan Financial Services - an outgrowth of the Communist Party, presumably.
Yellow Smoke - from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.

p120 Rhee Heung-min - named after Tottenham and South Korea attacking midfielder Son Heung-min.

p121 Takeshi Yukio - named after Beat Takeshi and Mishima Yukio

p124 The Koryo Chain - Koryo is an ancient name for Korea, still in somewhat archaic use today.

Gabchung - fr. Korean gonchung, "insect"
Dol-ge lit. "stone crab" in Korean (sort of)

p125 Kyodaime - Japanese, "gigantic eye"

p127 Oz Trails - Oztrail... Oztrailya... Australia. Yeah, I know.

p128 Aussie car slang
Tojo - Toyota Land Cruiser
Mud-Plugger - SUV, usu. with off-road tyres fitted.
Toorak - from Victoria slang "Toorak tractor" referring to a 4WD vehicle that never goes off-road.
Henries - i.e. Henry Ford = Fords
Hold-ons - Holdens
(Ford and Holden are the two biggest car marques in Australia, with a rivalry between their fans)

p130 Mabain/shamanic abilities - this is all derived from various aboriginal magical practices.

p132 The Killa Saints - from St Kilda Football Club, "the Saints".
Jacinta Gunston, Cyril Duryea - three Hawthorn FC players and a Neighbours actress.

p136 The People of the Valley - inspired by the short story "The Kingdom of the Blind".

p137 Filemu - Tuvaluan for "quiet, peaceful"

p141 Jarryd Puopolo - two more Hawthorn FC players
Isaac - maybe named after Hawthorn's Isaac Smith but probably not
Brooke - quite likely named after Brooke Satchwell

p150 Ketos - from Greek κῆτος

p160 Ghost Webs - a jellyfish once partially wrapped a tendril around my stomach and I guess the sensation has haunted me.

p164 Yara-ma-yha-who - the "old tales" version mentioned is the actual Australian figure of legend.

p202 Rud Eagla - Irish for "dread naught".
Sciathain - Irish for "bat"
Podmorem - Croatian, "submarine"

p206 Al-Kathban Buggy - from Arabic الكثبان alkathban, "dunes"

Naqilatan Junud - Arabic ناقلة جنود, "troop carrier"

pp209-10 Eclipse Mammoth/Two-tusk Mastodon - due to the paucity of artwork and miniatures made for the Dark Eden end of the Warzone line in the 90s, it was hard to figure out which was supposed to be which creature. in the end I just picked an approach and aimed for consistency.