List of authors referenced on Friends at the Table: Difference between revisions

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{{Expand list}}The following is a list of real-world authors whose works have been referred to in an episode of ''Friends at the Table'' or who have been specifically highlighted by a cast member as a touchstone/point of inspiration for the podcast.
{{Expand list}}The following is a list of real-world authors whose works have been referred to in an episode of ''Friends at the Table'' or who have been specifically highlighted by a cast member as a touchstone/point of inspiration for the podcast.
== Kevin J. Anderson ==
During the [[Road to PALISADE|''Road to PALISADE'']] game of ''[[Stealing the Throne]]'', while joking about Disney discontinuing the ''Star Wars'' Expanded Universe, Keith says he gets a cease and desist every time he tries to read one of Anderson's [[wikipedia:Jedi_Academy_trilogy|''Jedi Academy'' novels]].<ref name=":16">[[The Road to PALISADE 03: Stealing the Throne]]</ref>
== Jane Austen ==
In the first episode of the ''[[Good Society]]'' ''[[Live at the Table]]'' arc, Austin and Janine discuss Austen as an inspiration for character-focused storytelling, humanizing mistakes, the tension of being caught between desire and obligation, and banter that doesn't sound like Marvel Cinematic Universe banter.<ref>[[Live at the Table: Good Society Pt. 1]]</ref>
Austen's novel ''[[wikipedia:Persuasion_(novel)|Persuasion]]'' is referenced during the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Upstairs & Downstairs]]'' when discussing an aristocratic family being forced to relocate from their stately mansion to a modest (if only by comparison) and more cramped temporary lodging.<ref name=":19">[[The Road to PALISADE 19: Upstairs & Downstairs Pt. 2]]</ref>
==Paul Auster==
In the ''[[Bluff City]]'' season one postmortem, Paul Auster's [[wikipedia:The_New_York_Trilogy|New York Trilogy]] (''City of Glass'', ''Ghosts'', and ''The Locked Room'') is brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on ''Bluff City''.<ref name=":11">[[Bluff City Season 1 Post Mortem]]</ref>
==Jeremy Bentham==
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''Stealing the Throne'', Austin discusses how the Divine [[Discernment]] resembles and differs from the concept of the [[wikipedia:Panopticon|panopticon]] in response to viewers of the live recording bringing it up in chat. While he draws an important distinction between Discernment and the way Foucault understands the panopticon ([[List of authors referenced on Friends at the Table#Michel Foucault|see below]]), Austin does briefly consider that it could be a "Bentham machine" as they float the idea (before discarding it) of Discernment having been used as a prison in the past.<ref name=":16" /> As envisioned by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham along with his brother Samuel, the panopticon was a concept for a prison in which a single guard can view any inmate at any time, without prisoners knowing when they are being watched. Though Bentham did not succeed in advocating for his panopticon to be built, a series of his letters theorizing it were published as ''[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Panopticon_or_the_Inspection-House Panopticon; or the Inspection-House]''.


==Jorge Luis Borges==
==Jorge Luis Borges==
{{Quote|It is as though my eyesight were spherical, with the Zahir in the centre. Whatever is not the Zahir comes to me fragmentarily, as if from a great distance: the arrogant image of Clementina; physical pain. Tennyson once said that if we could understand a single flower, we should know what we are and what the world is.|author=Jorge Luis Borges (tr. Dudley Fitts)|source="The Zahir"<ref name=":15">Borges, Jorge Luis. ''Labyrinths''. New Directions, 1962.</ref>}}
In ''[[Twilight Mirage]]'', the [[Divine]] [[Memorious]] is named after the short story [[wikipedia:Funes_the_Memorious|"Funes the Memorious"]], whose titular character is cursed with perfect memory after an accident.<ref name=":2">[[Twilight Mirage 00: The Final Eight Divines]]</ref>
In ''[[Twilight Mirage]]'', the [[Divine]] [[Memorious]] is named after the short story [[wikipedia:Funes_the_Memorious|"Funes the Memorious"]], whose titular character is cursed with perfect memory after an accident.<ref name=":2">[[Twilight Mirage 00: The Final Eight Divines]]</ref>


''[[Sangfielle]]'' is described as "cosmic horror by way of Borges instead of Lovecraft" at the beginning of the season.<ref name=":0">[[Sangfielle 01: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 1]]</ref> Later in the season, the painting [[Duvall]] hopes to acquire is titled "Remembering the Zahir" as an homage to Borges's story [[wikipedia:The_Zahir|"The Zahir"]], about an object which creates an obsession that will come to crowd out the afflicted person's experience of reality.<ref name=":1">[[Sangfielle 13: Market Day in Blackwick]]</ref>
''[[Sangfielle]]'' is described as "cosmic horror by way of Borges instead of Lovecraft" at the beginning of the season.<ref name=":0">[[Sangfielle 01: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 1]]</ref> Later in the season, the painting [[Duvall]] hopes to acquire is titled "Remembering the Zahir" as an homage to Borges's story [[wikipedia:The_Zahir|"The Zahir"]], about an object which creates an obsession that will come to crowd out the afflicted person's experience of reality.<ref name=":1">[[Sangfielle 13: Market Day in Blackwick]]</ref> [[Zevunzolia]] and the [[Wrights of the Seventh Sun]] may be influenced by works of Borges's such as "[[wikipedia:Tlön,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius|Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius]]", in which he traces a series of real and fictional encyclopedia references to detail the invention by a secret society of a country that never was and subsequently, an alternate world (Tlön) with its own philosophy, languages, and culture. By the end of the story, artifacts from Tlön are appearing in the real world and influencing culture such that "The world will be Tlön."<ref name=":15" />
 
In the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, Borges is described as an influence throughout a bulk of ''Friends at the Table''.<ref name=":11" />
 
Austin has further discussed the writing of Borges, including "The Zahir" and "Tlön", on a ''Shelved by Genre'' bonus episode about the collection ''Labyrinths''.<ref>[https://www.patreon.com/posts/90455090 "Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths"]. ''Shelved by Genre''. Ranged Touch, October 6 2023.</ref>
 
==Bertolt Brecht==
During the live game of ''[[Scene Thieves]]'', as Janine narrates a sequence in the play in which her character throws a ceramic prop sandwich to the floor, shattering it, Austin jokes about "Brecht clapping in the grave" as the act calls attention to the artifice of the play, referencing Brecht's dramaturgical theory and practice of rejecting emotional catharsis and highlighting the unreality and constructed nature of theatrical performances.
 
==Gwendolyn Brooks==
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Wagon Wheel]]'', Austin mentions having a breakthrough on what the ''PALISADE''-era iteration of ''Twilight Mirage''<nowiki/>'s [[New Earth Hegemony]] naming scheme could be while reading a short poem by [[wikipedia:Gwendolyn_Brooks|Gwendolyn Brooks]].<ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 07: Wagon Wheel Pt. 3]]</ref> The poem, [https://poets.org/poem/we-real-cool "We Real Cool"], features a number of two-word phrases (e.g. "Strike straight", "Sing sin", "Jazz June")<ref>https://poets.org/poem/we-real-cool</ref> that struck Austin as good character names, giving him the idea that as a synthesis of the NEH possessive names and the names of [[Excerpt|Excerpts]] in the [[Divine Fleet]], people descended from the NEH on Palisade might "find their names from a quote in the world", meaning the players could name characters based on either quotes from real-world things (such as naming a crew member Highway Nine, a phrase from Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run") or by implication that a phrase used as a name is a quote from something within the setting.


==Octavia Butler ==
==Octavia E. Butler==
In ''Twilight Mirage'', Dre references Butler's ''[[wikipedia:Lilith's_Brood|Xenogenesis]]'' books (also known as ''Lilith's Brood)'', referring to the way in which the gene-trading aliens called Oankali have an obsession or hunger toward the human capacity for cancer.<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 13: An Instinct Without A Word]]</ref>
In ''Twilight Mirage'', Dre references Butler's ''[[wikipedia:Lilith's_Brood|Xenogenesis]]'' books (also known as ''Lilith's Brood)'', referring to the way in which the gene-trading aliens called Oankali have an obsession or hunger toward the human capacity for cancer.<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 13: An Instinct Without A Word]]</ref>


==Robert W. Chambers ==
==Miguel de Cervantes==
Chambers's ''[[wikipedia:The_King_in_Yellow|The King in Yellow]]'' (a collection featuring several short stories connected by the common element of a forbidden play called ''The King in Yellow'' that obsesses and perhaps dooms those who read it) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":7">https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679214070108162</ref>
{{Quote|"It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."
 
So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."|author=Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (tr. John Ormsby)|source=''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha''<ref>https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Don_Quixote</ref>}}
During an episode of ''PALISADE'' in which a knightly mech appears and stabs another mech whose appearance had been likened to a castle or stone tower, Keith remarks on the quixotic image that Austin has created, referring to the famed moment in Cervantes's novel ''[[wikipedia:Don_Quixote|Don Quixote]]'' in which the eponymous character charges with his lance at windmills, believing them to be giants.<ref>[[PALISADE 17: Upon Our Grace Pt. 4]]</ref>


==Philip K. Dick ==
Keith also mentions Don Quixote during ''Sangfielle'' while playing ''[[Anamnesis]]'', saying the Knight of Wands card in their Roll20 tarot deck makes him think of Quixote.<ref>[[Sangfielle 52: Six Travelers: Lyke]]</ref>
In an episode of ''Sangfielle'', Keith compares the shift in title between ''Roadside Picnic'' and its adaptation ''Stalker'' to the way Philip K. Dick's ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' was given the title ''Blade Runner'' when adapted to film.<ref name=":5">[[Sangfielle 04: The Blackwick Group]]</ref>


==Dave Eggers ==
==Robert W. Chambers==
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, the players discuss the idea of a fully networked society with "voting being as casual and popular as Buzzfeed quizzes", which reminds Dre of Dave Eggers' ''[[wikipedia:The_Circle_(Eggers_novel)|The Circle]]''.<ref name=":6">[[COUNTER/Weight -01: Secret World Gen Episode]]</ref>
{{Quote|The gate below opened and shut, and I crept shaking to my door and bolted it, but I knew no bolts, no locks, could keep that creature out who was coming for the Yellow Sign.|author=Robert W. Chambers|source="The Yellow Sign"<ref>https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_King_in_Yellow/The_Yellow_Sign</ref>}}
Chambers's ''[[wikipedia:The_King_in_Yellow|The King in Yellow]]'' (a collection featuring several short stories connected by the common element of a forbidden play called ''The King in Yellow'' that obsesses and perhaps dooms those who read it) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":7">https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679214070108162</ref> One of the motifs associated with the play is a symbol known as the Yellow Sign, which may possess some occult power, much like [[The Shape#Symbol|the Shape]] in Sangfielle.


==William Gibson ==
==CLAMP==
{{Quote|Alise Breka presents: ''Among Sharks''. The story of a Nidean captain escaping from an Apostolos base with the help of the very soldier who shot him down.|author=[[Sylvia Clare]]|source="The Best Mecha Anime of 2020 is a Podcast"<ref name=":18">Wescott, Adam. (2020-09-30). [https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2020/09/30-1/interview-the-best-mecha-anime-of-2020-is-a-podcast "The Best Mecha Anime of 2020 is a Podcast"]. ''Crunchyroll''. Retrieved 2023-02-23.</ref>}}
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Last Shooting]]'', Sylvi discusses the session's framing as an [[Alise Breka]] story (one of several ''Road to PALISADE'' games based on the cast members' responses to an interview question about ''PARTIZAN'' side stories they'd like to see) and talks about the concept as being 'what if Alise Breka was [[wikipedia:Clamp_(manga_artists)|CLAMP]]', referring to the style & favored motifs of the collaborative group of manga creators.<ref name=":17">[[The Road to PALISADE 04: Last Shooting]]</ref>
 
==James S.A. Corey==
While responding to a pair of ''Tips at the Table'' questions about the potential for adaptations of ''Friends at the Table'' into other media, Austin briefly mentions ''[[wikipedia:The_Expanse_(novel_series)|The Expanse]]'' (a series jointly written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the Corey pen name) as an example when discussing the process and decisions involved in adapting a book series to TV.<ref name=":12" /> Notably, though Austin does not mention it and may not have known, the first ''Expanse'' novel was loosely based on a ''d20 Modern'' game Franck and Abraham were in together, which in turn repurposed ideas from a pitch for an MMO Franck had made to a Chinese company.<ref>Charlie Hall (2018-08-07). [https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/7/17660410/the-expanse-tabletop-rpg-kickstarter-green-ronin "The Expanse, once a homebrew tabletop RPG, is going legit"]. Polygon. Retrieved 2022-09-10.</ref>
 
== John Darnielle==
In the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, John Darnielle's ''Wolf in White Van'' and ''Universal Harvester'' are brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on ''Bluff City''.<ref name=":11" />
 
==Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari ==
In the ''Spring in Hieron'' postmortem, Austin responds to a listener question to confirm that the [[Rhizome]] in the ''Spring'' finale is drawing directly from the Deleuzoguattarian notion of the [[wikipedia:Rhizome_(philosophy)|rhizome]], and to some extent other post-structuralist thought. In ''A Thousand Plateaus'', Deleuze and Guattari imagine rhizomes as non-hierarchical and latticed in organization, without a clear point of origin, as opposed to formalized and vertical 'arborescent' structures that situate knowledge and power as linear.<ref>[[Spring in Hieron Post Mortem]]</ref>
 
== Philip K. Dick==
During ''COUNTER/Weight'' character creation, Jack mentions that AuDy didn't think of parking as their job "in the same way that your water dispenser doesn't think of pouring out water" as a job. Art responds with a riff on the title of Dick's ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'', asking, "Do water dispensers dream of aquatic sheep?"<ref>[[COUNTER/Weight 00: If Han Solo Used To Be Beyoncé, or: Hashtag Otechku]]</ref>
 
In an episode of ''Sangfielle'', Keith compares the shift in title between ''Roadside Picnic'' and its adaptation ''Stalker'' to the way ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' was given the title ''Blade Runner'' when adapted to film.<ref name=":5">[[Sangfielle 04: The Blackwick Group]]</ref> During the season's post-mortem, Austin refers to the character of Walt Dangerfield from Dick's novel ''[[wikipedia:Dr._Bloodmoney,_or_How_We_Got_Along_After_the_Bomb|Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb]]'', a man trapped on an isolated satellite who becomes a radio DJ for a world devastated by nuclear war, as an inspiration for the [[Narrator (Sangfielle)|narrator]] moving from newspaper editor to DJ in the late-season episode introductions after the people of Blackwick excavate a radio antenna.<ref name=":21" /><ref>[[Sangfielle 55: Six Travelers: Es]]</ref><ref name=":22" />
 
==Charles Dickens==
[[Hector Hu]] mentions Dickens along with William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln in a ''Bluff City'' episode introduction.<ref name=":13">[[Bluff City 04: The Cost of Greed Pt. 2]]</ref>
 
Dickens is mentioned during the ''[[Drawing Maps]]'' episode in which Austin and Jack discuss character and setting concepts related to Pickman and the Shape in preparation for ''Sangfielle.''<ref name=":9">[[Drawing Maps]] - December 2020 - [https://www.patreon.com/posts/drawing-maps-7-51277325 Sangfielle Characters #7: Pickman]</ref>
 
==Umberto Eco==
While describing the appearance of the spy [[Marlon Styx]] in a ''[[PALISADE]]'' faction game episode, Jack describes him as someone who could easily be cast in an adaptation of Umberto Eco's ''[[wikipedia:The_Name_of_the_Rose|The Name of the Rose]]'', a murder mystery set in a medieval Italian monastery, with a pious and stern appearance.<ref name=":20" />
 
==Dave Eggers==
In the ''[[COUNTER/Weight]]'' world generation episode, the players discuss the idea of a fully networked society with "voting being as casual and popular as Buzzfeed quizzes", which reminds Dre of Dave Eggers' ''[[wikipedia:The_Circle_(Eggers_novel)|The Circle]]''.<ref name=":6">[[COUNTER/Weight -01: Secret World Gen Episode]]</ref>
 
== Frantz Fanon==
In the ''Sangfielle'' postmortem, Austin cites the Afro-Caribbean philosopher and Marxist Frantz Fanon as part of his reading list on subjects such as revolution and decolonialism in preparation for ''PALISADE''.<ref name=":21">[[Sangfielle Post-Mortem]]</ref>
 
==Michel Foucault ==
In the ''Twilight Mirage'' postmortem, Austin discusses Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics & biopower (an idea which Foucault introduces in the final chapter of ''The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction).''<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 68: The Twilight Mirage Post Mortem]]</ref>
 
Austin mentions getting sidetracked thinking about Foucault while discussing time zones and the imposition of standardized clocks during the intro of an episode of ''Sangfielle''.<ref>[[Sangfielle 39: Just Returns Pt. 3]]</ref>
 
{{Quote|He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.|author=Michel Foucault (tr. Alan Sheridan)|source=''Discipline & Punish''<ref>Foucault, Michel. ''Discipline & Punish''. Vintage, May 1995. p. 202-203.</ref>}}
 
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Stealing the Throne]]'', Austin discusses how the Divine Discernment resembles and differs from the concept of the [[wikipedia:Panopticon|panopticon]] in response to viewers of the live recording bringing it up in chat, emphasizing that it has not been established that people in the setting are aware and afraid of being seen by Discernment, and thus that cannot perform the same disciplinary function that Foucault illustrates through the panopticon, "that it doesn't discipline you—you discipline you."<ref name=":16" />
 
==Robert Frost ==
{{Quote|We are in a—how’s that poem go? We are in the woods. And there are paths. And you two are two of my rising stars. You know the poem. The stars in the woods? The paths? The inverted paths in the woods. We have some choices to make.|author=Austin Walker (as Simeon Shaw)|source=[[Bluff City 11: The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena Pt. 3|"The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena Pt. 3"]]}}
During ''Bluff City''<nowiki/>'s ''[[World Wide Wrestling]]'' game, the wrestling promoter [[Simeon Shaw]], played by Austin, tells his performers [[Erica Rizzo|Aqua Illusion]] and [[Charlie Cupid]] about the situation they find themselves in by obliquely referencing [[wikipedia:Robert_Frost|Robert Frost]]'s famed poem [[wikipedia:The_Road_Not_Taken|"The Road Not Taken"]], but cannot properly recall how the poem goes.<ref>[[Bluff City 11: The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena Pt. 3]]</ref>
 
==William Gibson==
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, Austin refers to the fact that cyberpunk author William Gibson dislikes ''Shadowrun'' for featuring magic. Later on, when transferring characters to ''The Sprawl'', the character [[wikipedia:Molly_Millions|Molly Millions]] from Gibson's [[wikipedia:Sprawl_trilogy|''Sprawl'' trilogy]] is referred to as an archetypal character emblematic of the Killer, the playbook for a character who "uses bleeding edge technology to commit violence".<ref>[[COUNTER/Weight 10: Drawing Clocks]]</ref>
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, Austin refers to the fact that cyberpunk author William Gibson dislikes ''Shadowrun'' for featuring magic. Later on, when transferring characters to ''The Sprawl'', the character [[wikipedia:Molly_Millions|Molly Millions]] from Gibson's [[wikipedia:Sprawl_trilogy|''Sprawl'' trilogy]] is referred to as an archetypal character emblematic of the Killer, the playbook for a character who "uses bleeding edge technology to commit violence".<ref>[[COUNTER/Weight 10: Drawing Clocks]]</ref>


==Frank Herbert==
During a scene of the ''Tales from the Loop'' in ''[[Bluff City (season)|Bluff City]]''<nowiki/>'s second season, Austin describes an overcast wintry sky as having "taken on the character of static—not to bite William Gibson too much here".<ref>[[Bluff City 32: To Be Young Near the Shore Pt. 1]]</ref> This refers to the opening sentence of Gibson's novel ''Neuromancer'': "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."<ref>Gibson, William. ''Neuromancer''. Ace, July 1984. p. 3.</ref>
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, Nick mentions ''Dune'' as an example of a science fiction story where characters have superhuman abilities akin to magic but explained through concepts such as advanced genetic technology.<ref name=":6" />
 
== Frank Herbert ==
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, Nick mentions ''Dune'' as an example of a science fiction story where characters have superhuman abilities akin to magic but explained through concepts such as advanced genetic technology.<ref name=":6" /> Art also rolls up [[Ziishe|a planet]] that several of the cast compare to ''Dune''<nowiki/>'s Arrakis, and Austin reminisces about a ''Dune'' hack of ''Burning Wheel'' that they never ran together.
 
== Alfred Jarry ==
During character building for the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Orbital]]'', while discussing the idea of a contraband fashion magazine that's politically or physiologically dangerous to see, Austin refers to Igor Stravinsky's ballet ''[[wikipedia:The_Rite_of_Spring|The Rite of Spring]]'' to which Jack mentions Ubu, likely referring to Alfred Jarry's play ''[[wikipedia:Ubu_Roi|Ubu Roi]]''; both works had famously chaotic and controversial premiere performances that supposedly provoked riots.<ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 11: Orbital Pt. 1]]</ref>


==Robert Jordan==
==Robert Jordan==
Early in ''Sangfielle'', Austin mentions learning the word "balefire" for a type of signal fire but not wanting to use it in anything because it had already been used in the popular ''Wheel of Time'' series.<ref name=":0" />
Early in ''Sangfielle'', Austin mentions learning the word "balefire" for a type of signal fire but not wanting to use it in anything because it had already been used in the popular ''Wheel of Time'' series.<ref name=":0" />


==Stephen King ==
== James Joyce==
During ''Sangfielle''<nowiki/>'s game of ''The Ground Itself'', King is referenced when the players discuss the idea of a group of young people getting together to recognize and fight a curse that the older generation cannot discuss.<ref>[[Sangfielle 02: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 2]]</ref> Keith later references (though not by name) King's book ''[[wikipedia:Duma_Key|Duma Key]]'' when discussing examples of mystical or cursed paintings.<ref name=":1" />
In the opening episode of ''Autumn in Hieron'', as Austin starts by introducing the 'love letter' mechanic, Keith jokes "Is this gonna get all James Joyce?", referring to the notoriously explicit letters written by Joyce to his wife Nora Barnacle.<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron 01: We Have Not Yet Begun To Be Pompous]]</ref>
 
==Franz Kafka==
In ''Winter in Hieron'', the New Archives are described as "a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare".<ref>[[Winter in Hieron 19: Make The Spring Last Forever]]</ref>
 
A scene of the protagonist Josef K. leading two men through town at the end of ''The Trial'' is referenced in ''Spring in Hieron.''<ref>[[Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and A Time|Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and a Time]]</ref>
 
In the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, Kafka is described as an influence throughout ''Friends at the Table''.<ref name=":11" />
 
==Stephen King==
During the game of ''[[Dialect]]'' in ''[[Road to PARTIZAN]]'', Austin tries to remember the name of King's book ''[[wikipedia:The_Shining_(novel)|The Shining]]'' and its titular concept, while thinking about names for a similar idea, and Janine lists off his other books ''[[wikipedia:It_(novel)|IT]]'' and ''[[wikipedia:Christine_(novel)|Christine]]'' in the process of getting there.<ref>[[The Road to PARTIZAN 01: Dialect Pt. 1]]</ref>
 
During ''Sangfielle''<nowiki/>'s game of ''[[The Ground Itself]]'', King is referenced when the players discuss the idea of a group of young people getting together to recognize and fight a curse that the older generation cannot discuss.<ref>[[Sangfielle 02: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 2]]</ref> Keith also twice references King's book ''[[wikipedia:Duma_Key|Duma Key]]'' when discussing examples of mystical or cursed paintings.<ref name=":1" /><ref>[[Sangfielle 25: The Perpetual Oratorio of Davia Pledge Pt. 3]]</ref>
 
During a scene of ''[[Tales from the Loop]]'' in ''[[Bluff City]]''<nowiki/>'s second season, as Austin discusses euphemisms for how travel between realities via the [[Tunnel Project]] can go wrong, Jack references King's science fiction short story "[[wikipedia:The Jaunt|The Jaunt]]", in which a technology allowing for teleportation has become ubiquitous in spite of a severe drawback—going through the Jaunt while awake causes unbearable mental trauma, as despite seeming instantaneous, "it's eternity in there".<ref name=":10">[[Bluff City 35: To Be Young Near the Shore Pt. 4]]</ref>
 
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''Last Shooting'', while discussing her idea of the work of Alise Breka, Sylvi says that she's a "genre writer" who "puts out a lot of shit [...] she's Stephen King and CLAMP, at the same time".<ref name=":17" /> Later in the season, while playing ''Orbital'', Keith narrates his character, stunned after receiving a vision, having a mundane thought rather than fully processing the weight of what he's experienced, which Jack describes as "such a Stephen King maneuver".<ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 14: Orbital Pt. 4]]</ref>
 
==Ryoko Kui==
During the "Sliced" minigame in their [[Live at the Table: Stewpot Pt. 1|first]] live session of ''[[Stewpot]]'', in which a player cooks a meal with monster parts, Keith remarks on ending up with a "bucket of produce" after drawing their random ingredients, to which Austin responds, "Produce can be monsters; I've read ''Dungeon Meshi''."<ref>[[Live at the Table: Stewpot Pt. 1]]</ref> Much like "Sliced", Ryoko Kui's manga ''Dungeon Meshi'' (also known as ''Delicious in Dungeon'') features fantasy adventurers cooking meals made with monster parts, including ones from dangerous plant monsters.


==Victor LaValle==
==Victor LaValle==
LaValle's ''[[wikipedia:The_Ballad_of_Black_Tom|The Ballad of Black Tom]]'' (a reworking of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" from the perspective of a black protagonist) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8">https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679212597907461</ref> Austin previously discussed this novella at length on an episode of ''Waypoints''.<ref>https://play.acast.com/s/vicegamingsnewpodcast/waypoints09-thesleepingkingdoesnthonorsmallrequests</ref>
LaValle's ''[[wikipedia:The_Ballad_of_Black_Tom|The Ballad of Black Tom]]'' (a reworking of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" from the perspective of a black protagonist) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8">https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679212597907461</ref> Austin previously discussed this novella at length on an episode of ''Waypoints''.<ref>[https://play.acast.com/s/vicegamingsnewpodcast/waypoints09-thesleepingkingdoesnthonorsmallrequests "The Sleeping King Doesn't Honor Small Requests"]. ''Waypoints''. Waypoint, November 11 2018.</ref>
 
==John le Carré==
In ''PARTIZAN'', Austin describes [[Broker Treequote]], an auditor from the [[Scrivener's Guild]], as being not of the James Bond model of spy but the type of British secret agent who appears in John le Carré's works: middle-aged, receding hairline, horn-rimmed glasses.<ref>[[PARTIZAN 19: On the Edge of Fracture]]</ref>
 
In ''PALISADE'', as Jack describes the unremarkable appearance and demeanor of [[Riah Connadine]], the new [[BIS]] commander on [[Palisade (planet)|Palisade]], Austin likens the character to [[wikipedia:George_Smiley|George Smiley]], a character who appears in a number of novels by John le Carré, to which Jack agrees.<ref name=":20" /> Smiley is a British intelligence officer with "the Circus" who is described as having an inconspicuous and ordinary appearance and demeanor. [[wikipedia:Gary_Oldman|Gary Oldman]], one of three actors Jack references in their description of Connadine's appearance, played Smiley in the 2011 film adaptation of le Carré's novel ''[[wikipedia:Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy|Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]]''. In a later episode, echoing his description of Broker Treequote several years prior, Austin calls Connadine a super-spy "in the George Smiley, you know, the ''Tinker Tailor'' model of super-spy, not the ''James Bond'' model."<ref>[[PALISADE 31: Seize the Chance Pt. 2]]</ref>
 
Jack also later describes the Circus as a big inspiration for the [[Paint Shop]],<ref>[[PALISADE 18: How It Always Looks Pt. 1]]</ref> and refers to ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' as a good book about a spy organization that has been infiltrated when [[Exanceaster March]] suggests that there is a spy in the BIS' ranks.<ref>[[PALISADE 19: How It Always Looks Pt. 2]]</ref>


==Ursula K. Le Guin==
==Ursula K. Le Guin==
{{Quote|We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.|author=Ursula K. Le Guin|source=2014 National Book Awards speech<ref>https://www.ursulakleguin.com/nbf-medal</ref>}}
{{Quote|We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.|author=Ursula K. Le Guin|source=2014 National Book Awards speech<ref>https://www.ursulakleguin.com/nbf-medal</ref>}}
Le Guin was an inspiration for some of the questions of utopianism in ''Twilight Mirage'', with Austin tweeting one interview quote about decentering conflict in storytelling from her beforehand (while ''TM'' was still being referred to as 'Season 6')<ref>https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/846179453436903425</ref> and quoting her National Book Awards speech during its premiere episode.<ref name=":2" />
Le Guin was an inspiration for some of the questions of utopianism in ''Twilight Mirage'', with Austin tweeting one interview quote about decentering conflict in storytelling from her beforehand (while ''TM'' was still being referred to as 'Season 6')<ref>https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/846179453436903425</ref> and quoting her National Book Awards speech during its premiere episode.<ref name=":2" />
It is possible, though perhaps coincidental, that the [[Kesh (planet)|planet]] & [[Principality of Kesh|society]] Kesh in ''COUNTER/Weight'' were named after the Kesh people from Le Guin's book ''[[wikipedia:Always_Coming_Home|Always Coming Home]]''. The Kesh in the novel are a post-post-apocalyptic society in far-future California with a low population density who reject industrial manufacturing and other aspects of contemporary society. ''COUNTER/Weight''<nowiki/>'s Kesh is a planet with tens of thousands of inhabitants and 19th century-level technology, a result of the interference of the [[Rapid Evening (intelligence agency)|Rapid Evening]] actively preventing the development of more complex technology.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[[COUNTER/Weight 15: A Candle in the Sun]]</ref>
The second season of Austin's podcast ''[http://rangedtouch.com/category/shelved-by-genre/ Shelved by Genre]'' discusses Le Guin's fantasy series ''The Books of Earthsea''. Austin briefly discusses his prior history with her work in the first episode of the season, saying that he had read some but not all of ''Earthsea'' previously and that he tended to be more of a fan of her science fiction writing.<ref>[http://rangedtouch.com/2024/01/19/a-wizard-of-earthsea-part-1/ "The Wizard of Earthsea - Part 1"]. ''Shelved by Genre''. Ranged Touch, January 19 2024.</ref>


==Ann Leckie==
==Ann Leckie==
During the ''[[Road to PARTIZAN]]''<nowiki/>'s game of ''For the Queen'', Austin mentions that he has been reading Leckie's ''Imperial Radch'' series and says it is good at having tense scenes before fights. Austin also recommends ''[[PARTIZAN]]'' for fans of the series during the ''Sports are Just Numerology'' bonus episode.<ref name=":3">[[Bonus Episode: Sports Are Just Numerology]]</ref>
During the ''[[Road to PARTIZAN]]''<nowiki/>'s game of ''For the Queen'', Austin mentions that he has been reading Leckie's ''Imperial Radch'' series and says it is good at having tense scenes before fights. Austin also recommends ''[[PARTIZAN]]'' for fans of the series during the ''Sports are Just Numerology'' bonus episode.<ref name=":3">[[Bonus Episode: Sports Are Just Numerology]]</ref>
During a ''PALISADE'' faction game episode, Jack suggests "let's do Breq and Seivarden" while narrating a moment in a chase scene between [[Candles Penumbra]] and [[Margate Lock]], referring to a key scene between the characters in ''Ancillary Justice'', the first book in the ''Imperial Radch'' series.<ref name=":20" />


==H.P. Lovecraft==
==H.P. Lovecraft==
Line 47: Line 157:


==Arkady Martine==
==Arkady Martine==
Austin recommends ''[[PARTIZAN]]'' for fans of Martine's ''[[wikipedia:A_Memory_Called_Empire|A Memory Called Empire]]'' in the ''Sports are Just Numerology'' bonus episode.<ref name=":3" />
Austin recommends ''[[PARTIZAN]]'' for fans of Martine's ''[[wikipedia:A_Memory_Called_Empire|A Memory Called Empire]]'' in the ''Sports are Just Numerology'' bonus episode.<ref name=":3" /> He later referred to the use of a poetic cipher (featured in [[SBBR]]'s infiltration of a [[Stel Nideo]] facility in [[Orzen]]) as the season's "big shout out" to the series.<ref>[[PARTIZAN 14: Deception in the Canyon City]]</ref><ref>https://cohost.org/austin/post/2973783-i-would-say-the-poet</ref>
 
==Karl Marx==
{{Quote|Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks. The time during which the labourer works, is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labour-power he has purchased of him.|author=Karl Marx (tr. Samuel Moore & Edward Aveling)|source=''Capital Vol. I''<ref>https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch10.htm</ref>}}
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' postmortem, Austin responds to the question "Was Marx’s analysis of capital as dead labor an inspiration for Rigour?" by saying, "It's fundamental."<ref>[[COUNTER/Weight 44: Live Post-Mortem]]</ref>


== Mike Mignola ==
Austin also brings up Marx's writings during an episode of ''Twilight Mirage'', discussing the idea of full communism as a future state of society that people aren't ready to emerge directly into after living under capitalism, likely referring to Marx's discussion of phases of communist society in ''[[wikipedia:Critique_of_the_Gotha_Programme|Critique of the Gotha Programme]]''.<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 47: Uncontrolled Fires]]</ref>
 
==Gregory Mcdonald==
In the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, when a question is asked about books and other influences on ''Bluff City'', Keith somewhat jokingly mentions "the novelization of the movie ''Fletch''" (which was an adaptation of a [[wikipedia:Fletch_(novel)|book by Mcdonald]]) as a callback to an earlier discussion of the film.<ref name=":11" />
 
==Herman Melville==
Melville's novel ''[[wikipedia:Moby-Dick|Moby-Dick]]'' is mentioned during the ''Drawing Maps'' episode in which Austin and Jack discuss character and setting concepts related to Pickman and the Shape in preparation for ''Sangfielle.''<ref name=":9" />
 
Austin also alludes to ''Moby-Dick'' during the ''[[Road to PALISADE]]'', while playing as the whaler [[Narmine Te'ketch]] in ''[[Lancer]]''. Having previously described the AI assistant in his whaling mech The Captain's as a Microsoft Clippy-esque cartoon whale, Austin describes the whale as turning white and growing sharp teeth to resemble Moby Dick when Narmine inserts a [[Tenacity|contraband data disk]].<ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 10: Lancer Pt. 3]]</ref>
 
==China Miéville==
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''Lancer'', while discussing ways in which a [[Pact of Necessary Venture|Pact]]-aligned character might come to act for revolution, Jack refers to a passage from [[wikipedia:China_Miéville|China Miéville]]'s ''October: The Story of the Russian Revolution'' in which cavalry guards stood without attacking, allowing revolutionaries to crawl beneath their horses and enter the palace.<ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 09: Lancer Pt. 2]]</ref>
 
==Mike Mignola==
Mignola's ''Hellboy'' and ''Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham'' were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8" />
Mignola's ''Hellboy'' and ''Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham'' were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8" />


== Alan Moore ==
==Alan Moore==
Art mentioned starting some Alan Moore comics based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft in preparation for ''Sangfielle'' but bouncing off them.<ref name=":7" />
Art mentioned starting some Alan Moore comics based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft in preparation for ''Sangfielle'' but bouncing off them.<ref name=":7" />


== Terry Pratchett ==
==Kaoru Mori==
In an episode of ''Autumn in Hieron'', while discussing how Lem's musical pattern magic may change depending on the environment it is being performed in, Jack contrasts it to Pratchett's more absurd style of fantasy, saying "It still sounds like a violin [...] this isn't like a Terry Pratchett thing where all of a sudden you're on a airplane."<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron 15: Have You Ever Swung A Sword At A Ghost Before?]]</ref> Later in the same season, Austin compares a story Nick tells about a previous D&D campaign he ran to Pratchett, to which Nick agrees, "all of my fantasy stuff is basically just really just Discworld."<ref name=":4" />
The ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''[[Upstairs & Downstairs]]'' adapts Janine's ''PARTIZAN'' spinoff idea of "a story about Kesh housekeepers in the vein of Kaoru Mori's ''[[wikipedia:Emma_(manga)|Emma: A Victorian Romance]]''" from the cast's 2020 ''Crunchyroll'' interview.<ref name=":18" /><ref>[[The Road to PALISADE 18: Upstairs & Downstairs Pt. 1]]</ref>
 
==Haruki Murakami==
In the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, a number of Haruki Murakami works (''[[wikipedia:Hard-Boiled_Wonderland_and_the_End_of_the_World|Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]'', ''[[wikipedia:The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle|The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle]]'', ''[[wikipedia:Kafka_on_the_Shore|Kafka on the Shore]]'', "[[wikipedia:The_Elephant_Vanishes|The Elephant Vanishes]]", and ''[[wikipedia:A_Wild_Sheep_Chase|A Wild Sheep Chase]]'') are brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on ''Bluff City''.<ref name=":11" /> Austin describes ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' in particular as "influential for everything I've done as a GM", and notes the [[Polyphony]] episodes of ''Twilight Mirage'' as a particular example.
 
==Nostradamus==
{{Quote|At forty-five degrees the sky will burn,<br>
Fire to approach the great new city:<br>
In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,<br>
When one will want to demand proof of the Normans.|author=Nostradamus (tr. Edgar Leoni)|source=''Nostradamus and his Prophecies''<ref>https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Propheties</ref>}}
While discussing the [[Dim Liturgy]]'s use of ancient predictions by [[Crystal Palace]] in a ''[[PALISADE]]'' faction episode, Art compares the text they're working from to the supposedly prophetic writings of [[wikipedia:Nostradamus|Nostradamus]], prompting Austin to pull up and read some random selections of his work to get a sense for it.<ref name=":20" />
 
==Mervyn Peake==
During the first faction episode of ''PALISADE'', Jack lists several points of inspiration for the [[Paint Shop]], a mountaintop castle and strategic point on [[Palisade (planet)|Palisade]], including Castle Gormenghast, the titular location of Mervyn Peake's [[wikipedia:Gormenghast_(series)|''Gormenghast'']] series.<ref name=":20">[[PALISADE 03: Today Is a Monday]]</ref>
 
== Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt==
[[The Witch in Glass]], a character from ''PARTIZAN'' and ''PALISADE'', may be connected with Piatt's poem [https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/witch-glass "The Witch in the Glass"]. Though the character could have been named before they learned of the poem, Austin mentions being reminded of it "for ''Friends at the Table'' reasons" when quoting Piatt's poem on an episode of ''Shelved by Genre.''<ref>[http://rangedtouch.com/2023/07/07/the-shadow-of-the-torturer-part-3/ "The Shadow of the Torturer - Part 3"]. ''Shelved by Genre''. Ranged Touch, July 7 2023.</ref>
 
==Nicholas Pileggi==
During a scene of ''Tales from the Loop'' in ''Bluff City''<nowiki/>'s second season, Keith and Austin riff about [[Agent Clark]] and [[Agent Bailey]] of The Concern arguing over their favorite Martin Scorsese movies, deciding that Clark's favorite is ''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' and Bailey's is ''Casino''. Keith jokes that Clark prefers the book of ''Casino'' to the film. Casino was based on Nicholas Pileggi's nonfiction book ''Casino: Life and Honor in Las Vegas''. Pileggi also wrote ''Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family'', which was similarly adapted into Scorsese's earlier film ''Goodfellas'', and cowrote both screenplays with Scorsese.<ref name=":10" />
 
==Edgar Allan Poe==
{{Quote|Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly through that once barely discernible fissure, of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the House of Usher.|author=Edgar Allan Poe|source="The Fall of the House of Usher"<ref>https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Romance/The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher</ref>}}
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''Upstairs & Downstairs'', Austin references the house crumbling in on itself in the climax of Poe's short story "[[wikipedia:The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher|The Fall of the House of Usher]]", which fulfills its title in both senses – the fall of the familial legacy and the structure itself – with the mansion collapsing into a lake along with the death of the final living members of the family.<ref name=":19" />
 
==Terry Pratchett==
In an episode of ''[[Autumn in Hieron]]'', while discussing how Lem's musical pattern magic may change depending on the environment it is being performed in, Jack contrasts it to Pratchett's more absurd style of fantasy, saying "It still sounds like a violin [...] this isn't like a Terry Pratchett thing where all of a sudden you're on a airplane."<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron 15: Have You Ever Swung A Sword At A Ghost Before?]]</ref> Later in the same season, Austin compares a story Nick tells about a previous D&D campaign he ran to Pratchett, to which Nick agrees, "all of my fantasy stuff is basically just really just Discworld."<ref name=":4" />
 
==Thomas Pynchon ==
The name of [[Tristero]] from ''Autumn in Hieron'' was chosen by Austin as a self-described "unintentional/unconscious" allusion to Thomas Pynchon's novella ''[[wikipedia:The_Crying_of_Lot_49|The Crying of Lot 49]]''.<ref>https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/770680407880822785</ref> In Pynchon's story, the protagonist finds herself unraveling a possible conspiracy around the existence of Tristero (also spelled Trystero), a centuries-old underground postal service and secret society.
 
Pynchon and ''The Crying of Lot 49'' are also mentioned as influential during the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem.<ref name=":11" />
 
==Arundhati Roy==
Jack designated novelist Arundhati Roy as their facecast for the ''PALISADE'' character [[Iklins Slinger]].<ref>[[PALISADE 13: Worth the Trouble Pt. 2]]</ref>


== Matt Ruff ==
== Matt Ruff ==
Ruff's ''Lovecraft Country'' and its TV adaptation were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8" />
Ruff's ''Lovecraft Country'' and its TV adaptation were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":8" />


== Arkady and Boris Strugatsky ==
==William Shakespeare==
When discussing the title and dramatic question of the play the characters will be performing as part of their game of ''[[Scene Thieves]]'', Jack refers to Shakespeare using the device of a play-within-a-play (such as ''Hamlet''<nowiki/>'s ''The Murder of Gonzago'') to reflect the dramatic question of the broader story.<ref>[[Marathon Livestream: Return to Marielda|Bonus Episode: Marielda NNAF Fundraiser Livestream]]</ref>
 
[[Hector Hu]] mentions Shakespeare along with Charles Dickens and Abraham Lincoln in a ''Bluff City'' episode introduction.<ref name=":13" /> Janine, when discussing her take on ''[[Action Movie World]]''<nowiki/>'s playbook of The Thespian as [[Mason Lowry]], refers to "the prototypical actor who’s really antsy because he hasn’t played Hamlet yet".<ref>[[Bluff City 07: The Eighty Six Pt. 1]]</ref> During the ''Bluff City'' season one postmortem, the cast jokes about being better than Shakespeare for having "a show within a show within a show within a show" with ''[[Aliens in the Outfield (TV Show)|Aliens in the Outfield]]''.<ref name=":11" />
 
Austin compares the role of the [[Perennial Wave]] in ''PARTIZAN'' to "the way in which magic is used in certain fairy tales or in Shakespeare".<ref>[[PARTIZAN 00: The Divine Principality]]</ref> While making an analogy about [[Future]] later in the season, Austin refers to Hamlet's ability to monologue/soliloquize about grief as an example to discuss fiction being able to clarify real emotions.<ref>[[PARTIZAN 13: A Captive Audience]]</ref>
 
During talk at the top of a ''[[PALISADE]]'' episode, Austin refers to a line from ''[[wikipedia:Romeo_and_Juliet|Romeo and Juliet]]'' in which Juliet says "I have an ill-divining soul!"<ref name=":20" /><ref>Dowden, Edward, ed. (1900). ''Romeo and Juliet'', III.v.54. The Arden Shakespeare, first series.</ref> Later in the same episode, Jack alludes to Juliet's words "O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick."<ref>''Romeo and Juliet'', V.iii.119-120.</ref> The last episode released on the main podcast feed prior to the debut of ''PALISADE'' was a bonus [[Pusher Media Club|Media Club]] discussion of ''Romeo + Juliet'', the play's 1996 film adaptation. Later in the season, Shakespeare's [[wikipedia:Sonnet_30|Sonnet 30]] is used as the text of a poem that [[Routine Rennari]] is trying to wrap his head around during a faction game episode.<ref>[[PALISADE 18: How It Always Looks Pt. 1]]</ref>
 
==R.L. Stine==
In an episode of ''Twilight Mirage'', Art asks, "What's the name of that author who does those books?" and Keith suggests ''Goosebumps'' author R.L. Stine. He was not the one Art was thinking of.<ref name=":14">[[Twilight Mirage 12: The Promise of Presence]]</ref>
 
==Arkady and Boris Strugatsky==
The Strugatsky brothers' book ''[[wikipedia:Roadside_Picnic|Roadside Picnic]]'' is mentioned several times as a touchstone near the beginning of ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" />
The Strugatsky brothers' book ''[[wikipedia:Roadside_Picnic|Roadside Picnic]]'' is mentioned several times as a touchstone near the beginning of ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" />


== Jeff VanderMeer ==
==Jean Teillet==
In the ''Sangfielle'' postmortem, Austin mentions reading about indigeneity, revolution, and the Métis people in preparation for ''PALISADE''.<ref name=":21" /> He later specifically refers to having read Teillet's ''The North-West is Our Mother'', a history of the Métis nation, on an episode of ''Shelved by Genre''.<ref>[http://rangedtouch.com/2023/09/15/the-sword-of-the-lictor-part-1/ "The Sword of the Lictor – Part 1"]. ''Shelved by Genre''. Ranged Touch, September 15 2023.</ref>
 
==Chuck Tingle==
After seeing an emotional connection between [[Gig]] and an alien horse with a prehensile mane during an episode of ''Twilight Mirage'', Art asks, "What's the name of that author who does those books?" and then clarifies that he means "the Amazon guy", at which point several others figure out he's thinking of [[wikipedia:Chuck_Tingle|Chuck Tingle]], known for writing erotica about romantic encounters with fantasy creatures such as unicorns, as well as anthropomorphized objects or concepts. After Austin declares that they're not naming the horse after Chuck Tingle, Keith jokes about naming it Duck Pringle, before deciding to simply name it [[Duck]].<ref name=":14" />
 
==J.R.R. Tolkien==
During ''Autumn in Hieron'' worldbuilding, it was established that pre-[[The Erasure|Erasure]] Hieron once resembled Tolkien-style traditional fantasy.<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron 00: We’re Not Calling It Duckberg]]</ref> Tolkien continues to show up as a reference for fantasy tropes which the podcast tries to complicate, subvert, or move through in search of what parts are salvageable.<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron 29: Live Post Mortem]]</ref> Players also discuss pipeweed<ref>[[Autumn in Hieron Holiday Special 01: I Don't Know What's in That Box|Autumn in Hieron Holiday Special 01: I Don’t Know What’s in That Box]]</ref> and joke about getting sued by the Tolkien estate for saying "hobbit".<ref>[[Winter in Hieron 17: Undelivered Resignations]]</ref>
 
==Jeff VanderMeer==
During an episode of ''Twilight Mirage'', Austin mentions that VanderMeer's book ''[[wikipedia:Annihilation_(VanderMeer_novel)|Annihilation]]'' has been an influence both on [[The Wound]] from that season as well as [[The Buoy]] and the [[strata and laminae]] in ''[[Winter in Hieron]]''.<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 46: Every Time We Leave, It Changes]]</ref>
During an episode of ''Twilight Mirage'', Austin mentions that VanderMeer's book ''[[wikipedia:Annihilation_(VanderMeer_novel)|Annihilation]]'' has been an influence both on [[The Wound]] from that season as well as [[The Buoy]] and the [[strata and laminae]] in ''[[Winter in Hieron]]''.<ref>[[Twilight Mirage 46: Every Time We Leave, It Changes]]</ref>


''Annihilation'' is mentioned again as a touchstone in the first episode of ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":0" /> A move that Duvall takes later on in the season is called Annihilation, presumably as a reference to the book and/or its film adaptation.<ref>[[Sangfielle 33: Passage on the Jade Moon Pt. 2]]</ref>
''Annihilation'' is mentioned again as a touchstone in the first episode of ''Sangfielle''.<ref name=":0" /> A move that Duvall takes later on in the season is called Annihilation, presumably as a reference to the book and/or its film adaptation.<ref>[[Sangfielle 33: Passage on the Jade Moon Pt. 2]]</ref>


== Oscar Wilde ==
==C.V. Wedgwood==
While responding to a ''[[Tips at the Table]]'' question about whether media they're reading or watching affects their play, Austin mentions that he has been reading [[wikipedia:C._V._Wedgwood|C.V. Wedgwood]]'s ''The Thirty Years War'' in as research for the as-yet-unnamed ''PARTIZAN''.<ref name=":12">[[Tips at the Table]] 21: [https://www.patreon.com/posts/tips-at-table-25590332 Pet Goku]</ref>
 
==Oscar Wilde==
While brainstorming ideas for mystical or cursed paintings in ''Sangfielle'', Wilde's ''[[wikipedia:The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray|The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' is mentioned as something Austin doesn't want to replicate.<ref name=":1" /> ''Dorian Gray'' does, nevertheless, return later as a point of comparison for one of several miscellaneous exhibits in a gallery Duvall visits in [[Sapodilla]] while looking for information on his chosen painting.<ref>[[Sangfielle 22: Whispers in the City by the Sea]]</ref>
While brainstorming ideas for mystical or cursed paintings in ''Sangfielle'', Wilde's ''[[wikipedia:The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray|The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' is mentioned as something Austin doesn't want to replicate.<ref name=":1" /> ''Dorian Gray'' does, nevertheless, return later as a point of comparison for one of several miscellaneous exhibits in a gallery Duvall visits in [[Sapodilla]] while looking for information on his chosen painting.<ref>[[Sangfielle 22: Whispers in the City by the Sea]]</ref>


== Gene Wolfe ==
==Gene Wolfe==
While playing ''A Visit to San Sibilia'', Austin twice refers to Wolfe's ''[[wikipedia:The_Book_of_the_New_Sun|The Book of the New Sun]]'', first mentioning its use of "alcalde" as a term for a magistrate (''Book of the New Sun'' frequently uses terms that are archaic or obscure in modern English, ostensibly as means of "translating" concepts from its far-future setting that have not been invented yet) and later referring to the final scene of ''[[wikipedia:The_Shadow_of_the_Torturer|The Shadow of the Torturer]]'', which takes place amidst the chaos of a crowd passing through the gates of a massive wall, as a comparison for a commotion outside the walls of [[Concentus]].<ref>[[Sangfielle 56: Six Travelers: Pickman]]</ref>
{{Quote|I pressed past the merychip's head, seized the ankle of the wagoneer who had struck her, and pulled him from his seat. By that time all the gate was ringing with bawling and swearing, and the cries of the injured, and the bellowings of frightened animals; and if the stranger continued his tale I could not hear it.|author=Gene Wolfe|source=''The Shadow of the Torturer''<ref>Wolfe, Gene. ''Shadow and Claw''. Orb, 1994. p. 209.</ref>}}
While playing ''A Visit to San Sibilia'', Austin twice refers to Wolfe's ''[[wikipedia:The_Book_of_the_New_Sun|The Book of the New Sun]]'', first mentioning its use of "alcalde" as a term for a magistrate (''Book of the New Sun'' frequently uses terms that are archaic or obscure in modern English, ostensibly as means of "translating" concepts from its far-future setting that have not been invented yet) and later referring to the final scene of ''[[wikipedia:The_Shadow_of_the_Torturer|The Shadow of the Torturer]]'', which takes place amidst the chaos of a crowd passing through the gates of a massive wall, as a comparison for a commotion outside the walls of [[Concentus]].<ref name=":22">[[Sangfielle 56: Six Travelers: Pickman]]</ref> Austin would later critically discuss ''Book of the New Sun'' on the podcast ''[http://rangedtouch.com/category/shelved-by-genre/ Shelved By Genre].''
 
==Dave Wolverton==
In the ''COUNTER/Weight'' world generation episode, Keith mentions a book (Wolverton's ''[[wikipedia:The_Rising_Force|Jedi Apprentice: The Rising Force]]'') he read as a child from a prequel series to the ''Star Wars'' prequel films, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi is kicked out of the Jedi academy and effectively exiled because no one wanted him as an apprentice, as a point of inspiration for [[Mako Trig|his own character]], who he wanted to have been kicked out of a [[September Institute|university]] for [[Stratus|psionics]].<ref name=":6" />
 
==Timothy Zahn==
During the ''Road to PALISADE'' game of ''Stealing the Throne'', while discussing the discontinuation of the ''Star Wars'' Expanded Universe, Dre jokes that Disney won't even let them touch a book by [[wikipedia:Timothy_Zahn|Timothy Zahn]], an author known for his extensive work in the EU.<ref name=":16" />


==References==
==References==
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Latest revision as of 23:25, 16 March 2024

The following is a list of real-world authors whose works have been referred to in an episode of Friends at the Table or who have been specifically highlighted by a cast member as a touchstone/point of inspiration for the podcast.

Kevin J. Anderson[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Stealing the Throne, while joking about Disney discontinuing the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Keith says he gets a cease and desist every time he tries to read one of Anderson's Jedi Academy novels.[1]

Jane Austen[edit | edit source]

In the first episode of the Good Society Live at the Table arc, Austin and Janine discuss Austen as an inspiration for character-focused storytelling, humanizing mistakes, the tension of being caught between desire and obligation, and banter that doesn't sound like Marvel Cinematic Universe banter.[2]

Austen's novel Persuasion is referenced during the Road to PALISADE game of Upstairs & Downstairs when discussing an aristocratic family being forced to relocate from their stately mansion to a modest (if only by comparison) and more cramped temporary lodging.[3]

Paul Auster[edit | edit source]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room) is brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on Bluff City.[4]

Jeremy Bentham[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Stealing the Throne, Austin discusses how the Divine Discernment resembles and differs from the concept of the panopticon in response to viewers of the live recording bringing it up in chat. While he draws an important distinction between Discernment and the way Foucault understands the panopticon (see below), Austin does briefly consider that it could be a "Bentham machine" as they float the idea (before discarding it) of Discernment having been used as a prison in the past.[1] As envisioned by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham along with his brother Samuel, the panopticon was a concept for a prison in which a single guard can view any inmate at any time, without prisoners knowing when they are being watched. Though Bentham did not succeed in advocating for his panopticon to be built, a series of his letters theorizing it were published as Panopticon; or the Inspection-House.

Jorge Luis Borges[edit | edit source]

It is as though my eyesight were spherical, with the Zahir in the centre. Whatever is not the Zahir comes to me fragmentarily, as if from a great distance: the arrogant image of Clementina; physical pain. Tennyson once said that if we could understand a single flower, we should know what we are and what the world is.

– Jorge Luis Borges (tr. Dudley Fitts), "The Zahir"[5]

In Twilight Mirage, the Divine Memorious is named after the short story "Funes the Memorious", whose titular character is cursed with perfect memory after an accident.[6]

Sangfielle is described as "cosmic horror by way of Borges instead of Lovecraft" at the beginning of the season.[7] Later in the season, the painting Duvall hopes to acquire is titled "Remembering the Zahir" as an homage to Borges's story "The Zahir", about an object which creates an obsession that will come to crowd out the afflicted person's experience of reality.[8] Zevunzolia and the Wrights of the Seventh Sun may be influenced by works of Borges's such as "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", in which he traces a series of real and fictional encyclopedia references to detail the invention by a secret society of a country that never was and subsequently, an alternate world (Tlön) with its own philosophy, languages, and culture. By the end of the story, artifacts from Tlön are appearing in the real world and influencing culture such that "The world will be Tlön."[5]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, Borges is described as an influence throughout a bulk of Friends at the Table.[4]

Austin has further discussed the writing of Borges, including "The Zahir" and "Tlön", on a Shelved by Genre bonus episode about the collection Labyrinths.[9]

Bertolt Brecht[edit | edit source]

During the live game of Scene Thieves, as Janine narrates a sequence in the play in which her character throws a ceramic prop sandwich to the floor, shattering it, Austin jokes about "Brecht clapping in the grave" as the act calls attention to the artifice of the play, referencing Brecht's dramaturgical theory and practice of rejecting emotional catharsis and highlighting the unreality and constructed nature of theatrical performances.

Gwendolyn Brooks[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Wagon Wheel, Austin mentions having a breakthrough on what the PALISADE-era iteration of Twilight Mirage's New Earth Hegemony naming scheme could be while reading a short poem by Gwendolyn Brooks.[10] The poem, "We Real Cool", features a number of two-word phrases (e.g. "Strike straight", "Sing sin", "Jazz June")[11] that struck Austin as good character names, giving him the idea that as a synthesis of the NEH possessive names and the names of Excerpts in the Divine Fleet, people descended from the NEH on Palisade might "find their names from a quote in the world", meaning the players could name characters based on either quotes from real-world things (such as naming a crew member Highway Nine, a phrase from Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run") or by implication that a phrase used as a name is a quote from something within the setting.

Octavia E. Butler[edit | edit source]

In Twilight Mirage, Dre references Butler's Xenogenesis books (also known as Lilith's Brood), referring to the way in which the gene-trading aliens called Oankali have an obsession or hunger toward the human capacity for cancer.[12]

Miguel de Cervantes[edit | edit source]

"It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."

So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."

– Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (tr. John Ormsby), The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha[13]

During an episode of PALISADE in which a knightly mech appears and stabs another mech whose appearance had been likened to a castle or stone tower, Keith remarks on the quixotic image that Austin has created, referring to the famed moment in Cervantes's novel Don Quixote in which the eponymous character charges with his lance at windmills, believing them to be giants.[14]

Keith also mentions Don Quixote during Sangfielle while playing Anamnesis, saying the Knight of Wands card in their Roll20 tarot deck makes him think of Quixote.[15]

Robert W. Chambers[edit | edit source]

The gate below opened and shut, and I crept shaking to my door and bolted it, but I knew no bolts, no locks, could keep that creature out who was coming for the Yellow Sign.

– Robert W. Chambers, "The Yellow Sign"[16]

Chambers's The King in Yellow (a collection featuring several short stories connected by the common element of a forbidden play called The King in Yellow that obsesses and perhaps dooms those who read it) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for Sangfielle.[17] One of the motifs associated with the play is a symbol known as the Yellow Sign, which may possess some occult power, much like the Shape in Sangfielle.

CLAMP[edit | edit source]

Alise Breka presents: Among Sharks. The story of a Nidean captain escaping from an Apostolos base with the help of the very soldier who shot him down.

Sylvia Clare, "The Best Mecha Anime of 2020 is a Podcast"[18]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Last Shooting, Sylvi discusses the session's framing as an Alise Breka story (one of several Road to PALISADE games based on the cast members' responses to an interview question about PARTIZAN side stories they'd like to see) and talks about the concept as being 'what if Alise Breka was CLAMP', referring to the style & favored motifs of the collaborative group of manga creators.[19]

James S.A. Corey[edit | edit source]

While responding to a pair of Tips at the Table questions about the potential for adaptations of Friends at the Table into other media, Austin briefly mentions The Expanse (a series jointly written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the Corey pen name) as an example when discussing the process and decisions involved in adapting a book series to TV.[20] Notably, though Austin does not mention it and may not have known, the first Expanse novel was loosely based on a d20 Modern game Franck and Abraham were in together, which in turn repurposed ideas from a pitch for an MMO Franck had made to a Chinese company.[21]

John Darnielle[edit | edit source]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van and Universal Harvester are brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on Bluff City.[4]

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari[edit | edit source]

In the Spring in Hieron postmortem, Austin responds to a listener question to confirm that the Rhizome in the Spring finale is drawing directly from the Deleuzoguattarian notion of the rhizome, and to some extent other post-structuralist thought. In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari imagine rhizomes as non-hierarchical and latticed in organization, without a clear point of origin, as opposed to formalized and vertical 'arborescent' structures that situate knowledge and power as linear.[22]

Philip K. Dick[edit | edit source]

During COUNTER/Weight character creation, Jack mentions that AuDy didn't think of parking as their job "in the same way that your water dispenser doesn't think of pouring out water" as a job. Art responds with a riff on the title of Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, asking, "Do water dispensers dream of aquatic sheep?"[23]

In an episode of Sangfielle, Keith compares the shift in title between Roadside Picnic and its adaptation Stalker to the way Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was given the title Blade Runner when adapted to film.[24] During the season's post-mortem, Austin refers to the character of Walt Dangerfield from Dick's novel Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, a man trapped on an isolated satellite who becomes a radio DJ for a world devastated by nuclear war, as an inspiration for the narrator moving from newspaper editor to DJ in the late-season episode introductions after the people of Blackwick excavate a radio antenna.[25][26][27]

Charles Dickens[edit | edit source]

Hector Hu mentions Dickens along with William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln in a Bluff City episode introduction.[28]

Dickens is mentioned during the Drawing Maps episode in which Austin and Jack discuss character and setting concepts related to Pickman and the Shape in preparation for Sangfielle.[29]

Umberto Eco[edit | edit source]

While describing the appearance of the spy Marlon Styx in a PALISADE faction game episode, Jack describes him as someone who could easily be cast in an adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a murder mystery set in a medieval Italian monastery, with a pious and stern appearance.[30]

Dave Eggers[edit | edit source]

In the COUNTER/Weight world generation episode, the players discuss the idea of a fully networked society with "voting being as casual and popular as Buzzfeed quizzes", which reminds Dre of Dave Eggers' The Circle.[31]

Frantz Fanon[edit | edit source]

In the Sangfielle postmortem, Austin cites the Afro-Caribbean philosopher and Marxist Frantz Fanon as part of his reading list on subjects such as revolution and decolonialism in preparation for PALISADE.[25]

Michel Foucault[edit | edit source]

In the Twilight Mirage postmortem, Austin discusses Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics & biopower (an idea which Foucault introduces in the final chapter of The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction).[32]

Austin mentions getting sidetracked thinking about Foucault while discussing time zones and the imposition of standardized clocks during the intro of an episode of Sangfielle.[33]

He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.

– Michel Foucault (tr. Alan Sheridan), Discipline & Punish[34]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Stealing the Throne, Austin discusses how the Divine Discernment resembles and differs from the concept of the panopticon in response to viewers of the live recording bringing it up in chat, emphasizing that it has not been established that people in the setting are aware and afraid of being seen by Discernment, and thus that cannot perform the same disciplinary function that Foucault illustrates through the panopticon, "that it doesn't discipline you—you discipline you."[1]

Robert Frost[edit | edit source]

We are in a—how’s that poem go? We are in the woods. And there are paths. And you two are two of my rising stars. You know the poem. The stars in the woods? The paths? The inverted paths in the woods. We have some choices to make.

– Austin Walker (as Simeon Shaw), "The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena Pt. 3"

During Bluff City's World Wide Wrestling game, the wrestling promoter Simeon Shaw, played by Austin, tells his performers Aqua Illusion and Charlie Cupid about the situation they find themselves in by obliquely referencing Robert Frost's famed poem "The Road Not Taken", but cannot properly recall how the poem goes.[35]

William Gibson[edit | edit source]

In the COUNTER/Weight world generation episode, Austin refers to the fact that cyberpunk author William Gibson dislikes Shadowrun for featuring magic. Later on, when transferring characters to The Sprawl, the character Molly Millions from Gibson's Sprawl trilogy is referred to as an archetypal character emblematic of the Killer, the playbook for a character who "uses bleeding edge technology to commit violence".[36]

During a scene of the Tales from the Loop in Bluff City's second season, Austin describes an overcast wintry sky as having "taken on the character of static—not to bite William Gibson too much here".[37] This refers to the opening sentence of Gibson's novel Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."[38]

Frank Herbert[edit | edit source]

In the COUNTER/Weight world generation episode, Nick mentions Dune as an example of a science fiction story where characters have superhuman abilities akin to magic but explained through concepts such as advanced genetic technology.[31] Art also rolls up a planet that several of the cast compare to Dune's Arrakis, and Austin reminisces about a Dune hack of Burning Wheel that they never ran together.

Alfred Jarry[edit | edit source]

During character building for the Road to PALISADE game of Orbital, while discussing the idea of a contraband fashion magazine that's politically or physiologically dangerous to see, Austin refers to Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring to which Jack mentions Ubu, likely referring to Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi; both works had famously chaotic and controversial premiere performances that supposedly provoked riots.[39]

Robert Jordan[edit | edit source]

Early in Sangfielle, Austin mentions learning the word "balefire" for a type of signal fire but not wanting to use it in anything because it had already been used in the popular Wheel of Time series.[7]

James Joyce[edit | edit source]

In the opening episode of Autumn in Hieron, as Austin starts by introducing the 'love letter' mechanic, Keith jokes "Is this gonna get all James Joyce?", referring to the notoriously explicit letters written by Joyce to his wife Nora Barnacle.[40]

Franz Kafka[edit | edit source]

In Winter in Hieron, the New Archives are described as "a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare".[41]

A scene of the protagonist Josef K. leading two men through town at the end of The Trial is referenced in Spring in Hieron.[42]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, Kafka is described as an influence throughout Friends at the Table.[4]

Stephen King[edit | edit source]

During the game of Dialect in Road to PARTIZAN, Austin tries to remember the name of King's book The Shining and its titular concept, while thinking about names for a similar idea, and Janine lists off his other books IT and Christine in the process of getting there.[43]

During Sangfielle's game of The Ground Itself, King is referenced when the players discuss the idea of a group of young people getting together to recognize and fight a curse that the older generation cannot discuss.[44] Keith also twice references King's book Duma Key when discussing examples of mystical or cursed paintings.[8][45]

During a scene of Tales from the Loop in Bluff City's second season, as Austin discusses euphemisms for how travel between realities via the Tunnel Project can go wrong, Jack references King's science fiction short story "The Jaunt", in which a technology allowing for teleportation has become ubiquitous in spite of a severe drawback—going through the Jaunt while awake causes unbearable mental trauma, as despite seeming instantaneous, "it's eternity in there".[46]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Last Shooting, while discussing her idea of the work of Alise Breka, Sylvi says that she's a "genre writer" who "puts out a lot of shit [...] she's Stephen King and CLAMP, at the same time".[19] Later in the season, while playing Orbital, Keith narrates his character, stunned after receiving a vision, having a mundane thought rather than fully processing the weight of what he's experienced, which Jack describes as "such a Stephen King maneuver".[47]

Ryoko Kui[edit | edit source]

During the "Sliced" minigame in their first live session of Stewpot, in which a player cooks a meal with monster parts, Keith remarks on ending up with a "bucket of produce" after drawing their random ingredients, to which Austin responds, "Produce can be monsters; I've read Dungeon Meshi."[48] Much like "Sliced", Ryoko Kui's manga Dungeon Meshi (also known as Delicious in Dungeon) features fantasy adventurers cooking meals made with monster parts, including ones from dangerous plant monsters.

Victor LaValle[edit | edit source]

LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom (a reworking of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" from the perspective of a black protagonist) was mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for Sangfielle.[49] Austin previously discussed this novella at length on an episode of Waypoints.[50]

John le Carré[edit | edit source]

In PARTIZAN, Austin describes Broker Treequote, an auditor from the Scrivener's Guild, as being not of the James Bond model of spy but the type of British secret agent who appears in John le Carré's works: middle-aged, receding hairline, horn-rimmed glasses.[51]

In PALISADE, as Jack describes the unremarkable appearance and demeanor of Riah Connadine, the new BIS commander on Palisade, Austin likens the character to George Smiley, a character who appears in a number of novels by John le Carré, to which Jack agrees.[30] Smiley is a British intelligence officer with "the Circus" who is described as having an inconspicuous and ordinary appearance and demeanor. Gary Oldman, one of three actors Jack references in their description of Connadine's appearance, played Smiley in the 2011 film adaptation of le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a later episode, echoing his description of Broker Treequote several years prior, Austin calls Connadine a super-spy "in the George Smiley, you know, the Tinker Tailor model of super-spy, not the James Bond model."[52]

Jack also later describes the Circus as a big inspiration for the Paint Shop,[53] and refers to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as a good book about a spy organization that has been infiltrated when Exanceaster March suggests that there is a spy in the BIS' ranks.[54]

Ursula K. Le Guin[edit | edit source]

We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.

– Ursula K. Le Guin, 2014 National Book Awards speech[55]

Le Guin was an inspiration for some of the questions of utopianism in Twilight Mirage, with Austin tweeting one interview quote about decentering conflict in storytelling from her beforehand (while TM was still being referred to as 'Season 6')[56] and quoting her National Book Awards speech during its premiere episode.[6]

It is possible, though perhaps coincidental, that the planet & society Kesh in COUNTER/Weight were named after the Kesh people from Le Guin's book Always Coming Home. The Kesh in the novel are a post-post-apocalyptic society in far-future California with a low population density who reject industrial manufacturing and other aspects of contemporary society. COUNTER/Weight's Kesh is a planet with tens of thousands of inhabitants and 19th century-level technology, a result of the interference of the Rapid Evening actively preventing the development of more complex technology.[6][57]

The second season of Austin's podcast Shelved by Genre discusses Le Guin's fantasy series The Books of Earthsea. Austin briefly discusses his prior history with her work in the first episode of the season, saying that he had read some but not all of Earthsea previously and that he tended to be more of a fan of her science fiction writing.[58]

Ann Leckie[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PARTIZAN's game of For the Queen, Austin mentions that he has been reading Leckie's Imperial Radch series and says it is good at having tense scenes before fights. Austin also recommends PARTIZAN for fans of the series during the Sports are Just Numerology bonus episode.[59]

During a PALISADE faction game episode, Jack suggests "let's do Breq and Seivarden" while narrating a moment in a chase scene between Candles Penumbra and Margate Lock, referring to a key scene between the characters in Ancillary Justice, the first book in the Imperial Radch series.[30]

H.P. Lovecraft[edit | edit source]

Sangfielle is described as "cosmic horror by way of Borges instead of Lovecraft" at the beginning of the season.[7] Keith also describes the Junk Mage class in Heart as coming "out of nowhere" with Lovecraft-style cosmic horror aspects in a number of its major abilities, which he often had to reflavor to fit with Lyke and Sangfielle.[60]

George R.R. Martin[edit | edit source]

Austin mentions Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series during a bit about the game Deadly Premonition in an episode of Autumn in Hieron.[61]

Arkady Martine[edit | edit source]

Austin recommends PARTIZAN for fans of Martine's A Memory Called Empire in the Sports are Just Numerology bonus episode.[59] He later referred to the use of a poetic cipher (featured in SBBR's infiltration of a Stel Nideo facility in Orzen) as the season's "big shout out" to the series.[62][63]

Karl Marx[edit | edit source]

Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks. The time during which the labourer works, is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labour-power he has purchased of him.

– Karl Marx (tr. Samuel Moore & Edward Aveling), Capital Vol. I[64]

In the COUNTER/Weight postmortem, Austin responds to the question "Was Marx’s analysis of capital as dead labor an inspiration for Rigour?" by saying, "It's fundamental."[65]

Austin also brings up Marx's writings during an episode of Twilight Mirage, discussing the idea of full communism as a future state of society that people aren't ready to emerge directly into after living under capitalism, likely referring to Marx's discussion of phases of communist society in Critique of the Gotha Programme.[66]

Gregory Mcdonald[edit | edit source]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, when a question is asked about books and other influences on Bluff City, Keith somewhat jokingly mentions "the novelization of the movie Fletch" (which was an adaptation of a book by Mcdonald) as a callback to an earlier discussion of the film.[4]

Herman Melville[edit | edit source]

Melville's novel Moby-Dick is mentioned during the Drawing Maps episode in which Austin and Jack discuss character and setting concepts related to Pickman and the Shape in preparation for Sangfielle.[29]

Austin also alludes to Moby-Dick during the Road to PALISADE, while playing as the whaler Narmine Te'ketch in Lancer. Having previously described the AI assistant in his whaling mech The Captain's as a Microsoft Clippy-esque cartoon whale, Austin describes the whale as turning white and growing sharp teeth to resemble Moby Dick when Narmine inserts a contraband data disk.[67]

China Miéville[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Lancer, while discussing ways in which a Pact-aligned character might come to act for revolution, Jack refers to a passage from China Miéville's October: The Story of the Russian Revolution in which cavalry guards stood without attacking, allowing revolutionaries to crawl beneath their horses and enter the palace.[68]

Mike Mignola[edit | edit source]

Mignola's Hellboy and Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for Sangfielle.[49]

Alan Moore[edit | edit source]

Art mentioned starting some Alan Moore comics based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft in preparation for Sangfielle but bouncing off them.[17]

Kaoru Mori[edit | edit source]

The Road to PALISADE game of Upstairs & Downstairs adapts Janine's PARTIZAN spinoff idea of "a story about Kesh housekeepers in the vein of Kaoru Mori's Emma: A Victorian Romance" from the cast's 2020 Crunchyroll interview.[18][69]

Haruki Murakami[edit | edit source]

In the Bluff City season one postmortem, a number of Haruki Murakami works (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, "The Elephant Vanishes", and A Wild Sheep Chase) are brought up in response to a question about books and other influences on Bluff City.[4] Austin describes Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in particular as "influential for everything I've done as a GM", and notes the Polyphony episodes of Twilight Mirage as a particular example.

Nostradamus[edit | edit source]

At forty-five degrees the sky will burn,
Fire to approach the great new city:
In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,
When one will want to demand proof of the Normans.

– Nostradamus (tr. Edgar Leoni), Nostradamus and his Prophecies[70]

While discussing the Dim Liturgy's use of ancient predictions by Crystal Palace in a PALISADE faction episode, Art compares the text they're working from to the supposedly prophetic writings of Nostradamus, prompting Austin to pull up and read some random selections of his work to get a sense for it.[30]

Mervyn Peake[edit | edit source]

During the first faction episode of PALISADE, Jack lists several points of inspiration for the Paint Shop, a mountaintop castle and strategic point on Palisade, including Castle Gormenghast, the titular location of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series.[30]

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt[edit | edit source]

The Witch in Glass, a character from PARTIZAN and PALISADE, may be connected with Piatt's poem "The Witch in the Glass". Though the character could have been named before they learned of the poem, Austin mentions being reminded of it "for Friends at the Table reasons" when quoting Piatt's poem on an episode of Shelved by Genre.[71]

Nicholas Pileggi[edit | edit source]

During a scene of Tales from the Loop in Bluff City's second season, Keith and Austin riff about Agent Clark and Agent Bailey of The Concern arguing over their favorite Martin Scorsese movies, deciding that Clark's favorite is Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Bailey's is Casino. Keith jokes that Clark prefers the book of Casino to the film. Casino was based on Nicholas Pileggi's nonfiction book Casino: Life and Honor in Las Vegas. Pileggi also wrote Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, which was similarly adapted into Scorsese's earlier film Goodfellas, and cowrote both screenplays with Scorsese.[46]

Edgar Allan Poe[edit | edit source]

Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly through that once barely discernible fissure, of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the House of Usher.

– Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"[72]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Upstairs & Downstairs, Austin references the house crumbling in on itself in the climax of Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher", which fulfills its title in both senses – the fall of the familial legacy and the structure itself – with the mansion collapsing into a lake along with the death of the final living members of the family.[3]

Terry Pratchett[edit | edit source]

In an episode of Autumn in Hieron, while discussing how Lem's musical pattern magic may change depending on the environment it is being performed in, Jack contrasts it to Pratchett's more absurd style of fantasy, saying "It still sounds like a violin [...] this isn't like a Terry Pratchett thing where all of a sudden you're on a airplane."[73] Later in the same season, Austin compares a story Nick tells about a previous D&D campaign he ran to Pratchett, to which Nick agrees, "all of my fantasy stuff is basically just really just Discworld."[61]

Thomas Pynchon[edit | edit source]

The name of Tristero from Autumn in Hieron was chosen by Austin as a self-described "unintentional/unconscious" allusion to Thomas Pynchon's novella The Crying of Lot 49.[74] In Pynchon's story, the protagonist finds herself unraveling a possible conspiracy around the existence of Tristero (also spelled Trystero), a centuries-old underground postal service and secret society.

Pynchon and The Crying of Lot 49 are also mentioned as influential during the Bluff City season one postmortem.[4]

Arundhati Roy[edit | edit source]

Jack designated novelist Arundhati Roy as their facecast for the PALISADE character Iklins Slinger.[75]

Matt Ruff[edit | edit source]

Ruff's Lovecraft Country and its TV adaptation were mentioned by Art as part of the "season seven reading list" that he went through in preparation for Sangfielle.[49]

William Shakespeare[edit | edit source]

When discussing the title and dramatic question of the play the characters will be performing as part of their game of Scene Thieves, Jack refers to Shakespeare using the device of a play-within-a-play (such as Hamlet's The Murder of Gonzago) to reflect the dramatic question of the broader story.[76]

Hector Hu mentions Shakespeare along with Charles Dickens and Abraham Lincoln in a Bluff City episode introduction.[28] Janine, when discussing her take on Action Movie World's playbook of The Thespian as Mason Lowry, refers to "the prototypical actor who’s really antsy because he hasn’t played Hamlet yet".[77] During the Bluff City season one postmortem, the cast jokes about being better than Shakespeare for having "a show within a show within a show within a show" with Aliens in the Outfield.[4]

Austin compares the role of the Perennial Wave in PARTIZAN to "the way in which magic is used in certain fairy tales or in Shakespeare".[78] While making an analogy about Future later in the season, Austin refers to Hamlet's ability to monologue/soliloquize about grief as an example to discuss fiction being able to clarify real emotions.[79]

During talk at the top of a PALISADE episode, Austin refers to a line from Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet says "I have an ill-divining soul!"[30][80] Later in the same episode, Jack alludes to Juliet's words "O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick."[81] The last episode released on the main podcast feed prior to the debut of PALISADE was a bonus Media Club discussion of Romeo + Juliet, the play's 1996 film adaptation. Later in the season, Shakespeare's Sonnet 30 is used as the text of a poem that Routine Rennari is trying to wrap his head around during a faction game episode.[82]

R.L. Stine[edit | edit source]

In an episode of Twilight Mirage, Art asks, "What's the name of that author who does those books?" and Keith suggests Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. He was not the one Art was thinking of.[83]

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky[edit | edit source]

The Strugatsky brothers' book Roadside Picnic is mentioned several times as a touchstone near the beginning of Sangfielle.[7][24]

Jean Teillet[edit | edit source]

In the Sangfielle postmortem, Austin mentions reading about indigeneity, revolution, and the Métis people in preparation for PALISADE.[25] He later specifically refers to having read Teillet's The North-West is Our Mother, a history of the Métis nation, on an episode of Shelved by Genre.[84]

Chuck Tingle[edit | edit source]

After seeing an emotional connection between Gig and an alien horse with a prehensile mane during an episode of Twilight Mirage, Art asks, "What's the name of that author who does those books?" and then clarifies that he means "the Amazon guy", at which point several others figure out he's thinking of Chuck Tingle, known for writing erotica about romantic encounters with fantasy creatures such as unicorns, as well as anthropomorphized objects or concepts. After Austin declares that they're not naming the horse after Chuck Tingle, Keith jokes about naming it Duck Pringle, before deciding to simply name it Duck.[83]

J.R.R. Tolkien[edit | edit source]

During Autumn in Hieron worldbuilding, it was established that pre-Erasure Hieron once resembled Tolkien-style traditional fantasy.[85] Tolkien continues to show up as a reference for fantasy tropes which the podcast tries to complicate, subvert, or move through in search of what parts are salvageable.[86] Players also discuss pipeweed[87] and joke about getting sued by the Tolkien estate for saying "hobbit".[88]

Jeff VanderMeer[edit | edit source]

During an episode of Twilight Mirage, Austin mentions that VanderMeer's book Annihilation has been an influence both on The Wound from that season as well as The Buoy and the strata and laminae in Winter in Hieron.[89]

Annihilation is mentioned again as a touchstone in the first episode of Sangfielle.[7] A move that Duvall takes later on in the season is called Annihilation, presumably as a reference to the book and/or its film adaptation.[90]

C.V. Wedgwood[edit | edit source]

While responding to a Tips at the Table question about whether media they're reading or watching affects their play, Austin mentions that he has been reading C.V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War in as research for the as-yet-unnamed PARTIZAN.[20]

Oscar Wilde[edit | edit source]

While brainstorming ideas for mystical or cursed paintings in Sangfielle, Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is mentioned as something Austin doesn't want to replicate.[8] Dorian Gray does, nevertheless, return later as a point of comparison for one of several miscellaneous exhibits in a gallery Duvall visits in Sapodilla while looking for information on his chosen painting.[91]

Gene Wolfe[edit | edit source]

I pressed past the merychip's head, seized the ankle of the wagoneer who had struck her, and pulled him from his seat. By that time all the gate was ringing with bawling and swearing, and the cries of the injured, and the bellowings of frightened animals; and if the stranger continued his tale I could not hear it.

– Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer[92]

While playing A Visit to San Sibilia, Austin twice refers to Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, first mentioning its use of "alcalde" as a term for a magistrate (Book of the New Sun frequently uses terms that are archaic or obscure in modern English, ostensibly as means of "translating" concepts from its far-future setting that have not been invented yet) and later referring to the final scene of The Shadow of the Torturer, which takes place amidst the chaos of a crowd passing through the gates of a massive wall, as a comparison for a commotion outside the walls of Concentus.[27] Austin would later critically discuss Book of the New Sun on the podcast Shelved By Genre.

Dave Wolverton[edit | edit source]

In the COUNTER/Weight world generation episode, Keith mentions a book (Wolverton's Jedi Apprentice: The Rising Force) he read as a child from a prequel series to the Star Wars prequel films, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi is kicked out of the Jedi academy and effectively exiled because no one wanted him as an apprentice, as a point of inspiration for his own character, who he wanted to have been kicked out of a university for psionics.[31]

Timothy Zahn[edit | edit source]

During the Road to PALISADE game of Stealing the Throne, while discussing the discontinuation of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Dre jokes that Disney won't even let them touch a book by Timothy Zahn, an author known for his extensive work in the EU.[1]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Road to PALISADE 03: Stealing the Throne
  2. Live at the Table: Good Society Pt. 1
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Road to PALISADE 19: Upstairs & Downstairs Pt. 2
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Bluff City Season 1 Post Mortem
  5. 5.0 5.1 Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths. New Directions, 1962.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Twilight Mirage 00: The Final Eight Divines
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Sangfielle 01: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 1
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Sangfielle 13: Market Day in Blackwick
  9. "Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths". Shelved by Genre. Ranged Touch, October 6 2023.
  10. The Road to PALISADE 07: Wagon Wheel Pt. 3
  11. https://poets.org/poem/we-real-cool
  12. Twilight Mirage 13: An Instinct Without A Word
  13. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Don_Quixote
  14. PALISADE 17: Upon Our Grace Pt. 4
  15. Sangfielle 52: Six Travelers: Lyke
  16. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_King_in_Yellow/The_Yellow_Sign
  17. 17.0 17.1 https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679214070108162
  18. 18.0 18.1 Wescott, Adam. (2020-09-30). "The Best Mecha Anime of 2020 is a Podcast". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  19. 19.0 19.1 The Road to PALISADE 04: Last Shooting
  20. 20.0 20.1 Tips at the Table 21: Pet Goku
  21. Charlie Hall (2018-08-07). "The Expanse, once a homebrew tabletop RPG, is going legit". Polygon. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  22. Spring in Hieron Post Mortem
  23. COUNTER/Weight 00: If Han Solo Used To Be Beyoncé, or: Hashtag Otechku
  24. 24.0 24.1 Sangfielle 04: The Blackwick Group
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 Sangfielle Post-Mortem
  26. Sangfielle 55: Six Travelers: Es
  27. 27.0 27.1 Sangfielle 56: Six Travelers: Pickman
  28. 28.0 28.1 Bluff City 04: The Cost of Greed Pt. 2
  29. 29.0 29.1 Drawing Maps - December 2020 - Sangfielle Characters #7: Pickman
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 PALISADE 03: Today Is a Monday
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 COUNTER/Weight -01: Secret World Gen Episode
  32. Twilight Mirage 68: The Twilight Mirage Post Mortem
  33. Sangfielle 39: Just Returns Pt. 3
  34. Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish. Vintage, May 1995. p. 202-203.
  35. Bluff City 11: The Grapplers Down at Promenade Arena Pt. 3
  36. COUNTER/Weight 10: Drawing Clocks
  37. Bluff City 32: To Be Young Near the Shore Pt. 1
  38. Gibson, William. Neuromancer. Ace, July 1984. p. 3.
  39. The Road to PALISADE 11: Orbital Pt. 1
  40. Autumn in Hieron 01: We Have Not Yet Begun To Be Pompous
  41. Winter in Hieron 19: Make The Spring Last Forever
  42. Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and a Time
  43. The Road to PARTIZAN 01: Dialect Pt. 1
  44. Sangfielle 02: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 2
  45. Sangfielle 25: The Perpetual Oratorio of Davia Pledge Pt. 3
  46. 46.0 46.1 Bluff City 35: To Be Young Near the Shore Pt. 4
  47. The Road to PALISADE 14: Orbital Pt. 4
  48. Live at the Table: Stewpot Pt. 1
  49. 49.0 49.1 49.2 https://twitter.com/atebbel/status/1367679212597907461
  50. "The Sleeping King Doesn't Honor Small Requests". Waypoints. Waypoint, November 11 2018.
  51. PARTIZAN 19: On the Edge of Fracture
  52. PALISADE 31: Seize the Chance Pt. 2
  53. PALISADE 18: How It Always Looks Pt. 1
  54. PALISADE 19: How It Always Looks Pt. 2
  55. https://www.ursulakleguin.com/nbf-medal
  56. https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/846179453436903425
  57. COUNTER/Weight 15: A Candle in the Sun
  58. "The Wizard of Earthsea - Part 1". Shelved by Genre. Ranged Touch, January 19 2024.
  59. 59.0 59.1 Bonus Episode: Sports Are Just Numerology
  60. Sangfielle 18: What Happened at Bell Metal Station Pt. 2
  61. 61.0 61.1 Autumn in Hieron 28: A Choice About What You Believe
  62. PARTIZAN 14: Deception in the Canyon City
  63. https://cohost.org/austin/post/2973783-i-would-say-the-poet
  64. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch10.htm
  65. COUNTER/Weight 44: Live Post-Mortem
  66. Twilight Mirage 47: Uncontrolled Fires
  67. The Road to PALISADE 10: Lancer Pt. 3
  68. The Road to PALISADE 09: Lancer Pt. 2
  69. The Road to PALISADE 18: Upstairs & Downstairs Pt. 1
  70. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Propheties
  71. "The Shadow of the Torturer - Part 3". Shelved by Genre. Ranged Touch, July 7 2023.
  72. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Romance/The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Usher
  73. Autumn in Hieron 15: Have You Ever Swung A Sword At A Ghost Before?
  74. https://twitter.com/austin_walker/status/770680407880822785
  75. PALISADE 13: Worth the Trouble Pt. 2
  76. Bonus Episode: Marielda NNAF Fundraiser Livestream
  77. Bluff City 07: The Eighty Six Pt. 1
  78. PARTIZAN 00: The Divine Principality
  79. PARTIZAN 13: A Captive Audience
  80. Dowden, Edward, ed. (1900). Romeo and Juliet, III.v.54. The Arden Shakespeare, first series.
  81. Romeo and Juliet, V.iii.119-120.
  82. PALISADE 18: How It Always Looks Pt. 1
  83. 83.0 83.1 Twilight Mirage 12: The Promise of Presence
  84. "The Sword of the Lictor – Part 1". Shelved by Genre. Ranged Touch, September 15 2023.
  85. Autumn in Hieron 00: We’re Not Calling It Duckberg
  86. Autumn in Hieron 29: Live Post Mortem
  87. Autumn in Hieron Holiday Special 01: I Don’t Know What’s in That Box
  88. Winter in Hieron 17: Undelivered Resignations
  89. Twilight Mirage 46: Every Time We Leave, It Changes
  90. Sangfielle 33: Passage on the Jade Moon Pt. 2
  91. Sangfielle 22: Whispers in the City by the Sea
  92. Wolfe, Gene. Shadow and Claw. Orb, 1994. p. 209.