The Elder Scrolls

[G-Haven]

For the moment, I've got one Skyrim one, which also involves a short from Daggerfall. This one, however, involves some mature themes that some would not find comfortable, as the TES series has a tendency to not pull any punches.
Read at own discretion!
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In Riften, there is an Inn/Tavern called "The Bee and Barb." The name quite possibly has a less-than-innocent origin;

Spoiler

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Real_Barenziah,_Part_IV
A brief summary; Barenziah, who later became both Queen of Waycrest and Queen Mother of Morrowind, ends up trying to join the Thieves Guild while in Rifton. She gains sponsorship by bedding with a Khajiit member of the guild inside an inn. It is explicitly stated it was painful, as male Khajits, much like real felines, have barbed penises.

So, The "Bee" and Barb --->The "B" and "Barb."

It's noteworthy that this specific excerpt was "censored by the tribunal" in the later TES games (TES III:Morrowind and so on.)

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Second one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmzXJn5Wxsg
By using console commands and editing some of the games files to disable the invisible borders, it is possible to travel outside of Skyim's map.

If you travel down south enough, you can find an untextured place-holder for the White-Gold Tower where the Imperial City should be, as well as the overall landscape of Cyrodiil around it.

((I'm surprised nobody submitted this yet.))

[G-Haven]

From Morrowind:
North from Seyda Neen, there is an unique encounter in which a Bosmer wizard named Tarhiel will fall from the sky and crash in front of the player, dieing from the impact. On his body, he holds three Scrolls of Icarian Flight, which fortify 1,000 points to the Acrobatics skill (normally, skills cap at just 100.) He also has a journal next to his body mentioning him testing them out as an experiment.

The Scrolls of Icarian Flight is in reference to the greek mythological figure Icarus, whom shared a similar fate to Tarhiel. Where as Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell as a result, Tarhiel forgot to take the landing from great heights into account. It is, however, possible to save him by casting a large-area Slowfall spell in the area he is falling, which will only prompt the message "I don't want to talk about it", suggesting he is too embarrassed by his failure. You can also use the console commands to simply resurrect him and receive the same message.



The name "Tarhiel" is also a reference, to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, and his game id (agronian guy) references North Carolina's top Agronomy program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFiq_5ZTD9I

Spoiler

Also, don't confuse "aGronian guy" for "aRgonian." Easy mistake to make :P

Also there's a guy that submitted some stuff already using "Tarhiel" as a username.

[G-Haven]

another Morrowind thing-
A large number of names for the Ashlander NPCs, Egg Mines, caves/tombs and Daedric shrines in Morrowind are inspired by real-world ancient Assyrian and Babylonian names.

• -Ahhe (used for the Asha-Ahhe Eggmine, the Ashlander NPC Ashu-Ahhe, the caves of Dun-Ahhe and Tin-Ahhe, etc) is a component of the names of Assyrian and Babylonian kings, such as Ashur-nadin-ahhe and Marduk-nadin-ahhe.
  
  
• Ashur-Dan (used for the Ashlander NPC Ashur-Dan, the fire-river Foyada Ashur-Dan and the cave Ashir-Dan) is the name for three Assyrian Kings.
  
  
• -ipal (used for some Daedric shrines like Assurdirapal and Zergonipal, and Ashlander NPCs such as Dunsalipal Dun-Ahhe and Shipal Zansatanit, etc) is a component for the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.
  
  
• Ashur/Assur (forementioned in previous examples and more) is the Akkadian name for the Assyrian Empire and it's capital, Ashur/Asser. It's worth mentioning "Ashur" has a resemblence to "Ashlander."
  
  
• eriba- (Used loosely for the Erabenimsun Tribe) is a root for some Assyrian/Babylonian names (Eriba-Marduk, Sin-ahhe-eriba, etc)
  
  
• -nammu and -nummu (used for various caves/tombs and a few NPCs) is based off of a Babylonian King named Ur-Nammu.
  
  
• Sargon (used for the cave named Sargon) is the name of the founder of the Assyrian Empire (Sharru-kin, also known as "Sargon of Akkad.")
  

Other Ashlander names draw from other real-life cultures/people, such as Mamaea/Maesa who were family of the Roman emperor Elagabalus in the 3rd century (Julia Maesa was his maternal aunt and Julia Avita Mamaea was her daughter.)

[G-Haven]

Morrowind again:

In the in-game book called No-h's Picture Book of Wood, it states that the last page of the book has the words "Boat Ack" scrawled about the margin in a vandalistic manner. This is a reference to the late Kurt Cobain, as in his teen years he enraged a neighbor by vandalizing a boat by painting the words "Boat Ack" on the side of it. It is worth noting the book itself is rare and is found in only two locations, one of them being on a boat called Falvillo's Endeavor docked near Vos.

[G-Haven]

Another Morrowind;

In Jobasha's Rare Books, located in the Lower Waistworks of the Foreign Quarter in Vivec, there is a potted plant that that when approached, has actually been named "Charles the Plant." The plant also holds an alchemy ingredient called Meteor Slime.
This is a reference to two plants from Maniac Mansion, the first being "Chuck the Plant" who appears in various other Lucas Arts games, and the second being the man-eating plant that you can feed a meteor to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtqj1uhU5DQ

[G-Haven]

An expansion on an already existing trivia; http://www.vgfacts.com/trivia/3626/

On Azura's Coast, you can find a dead Redguard NPC called "Arlowe." On his body is a unique weapon called the "BanHammer."
This is a reference to Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, site creator of Something Awful. He was sometimes referred to as "R-Low" on the forums. The "BanHammer" was a common euphemism for someone getting banned from the forums.

The reference goes further in the Tribunal expansion. If you have the Mace of Slurring and go to Mournholds Museum of Artifacts, ask curator about the artifact and she will tell you "It was crafted near the end of the Second Age by Kyanka, a slightly deranged Altmer weaponsmith and enchanter. He had a rather warped sense of humor, and apparently delighted at the thought of reducing opponents to a gibbering mess before crushing them to death."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ff4BlliT8

[G-Haven]

This one is about Oblivion and the Radiant AI:

The 2005 E3 demo video showcased a new system called "Radiant AI", which gave them general goals to achieve, how the goals were to be achieved was totally up on the NPC and the environment they were in.

This, however, presented problems when it was first implemented, as there were no "rules" for the NPCs to follow, only goals. This would cause many problems for the player including quest-lines being broken. Some examples are an unseen NPC going around town, buying up all the armor from the town stores, and another was an NPC important for the Dark Brotherhood questline would end up being found dead, as he was also a Skooma dealer and was killed by other NPCs needing the Skooma. As a result, many of the behaviors of the RAI had to be toned down significantly in the final release.

https://web.archive.org/web/200709220402...emilpags06
http://youtu.be/p4JROwvfzSc?t=35s

[SERIOUSLY THOUGH*]

This one is about Oblivion and the Radiant AI:

The 2005 E3 demo video showcased a new system called "Radiant AI", which gave them general goals to achieve, how the goals were to be achieved was totally up on the NPC and the environment they were in.

This, however, presented problems when it was first implemented, as there were no "rules" for the NPCs to follow, only goals. This would cause many problems for the player including quest-lines being broken. Some examples are an unseen NPC going around town, buying up all the armor from the town stores, and another was an NPC important for the Dark Brotherhood questline would end up being found dead, as he was also a Skooma dealer and was killed by other NPCs needing the Skooma. As a result, many of the behaviors of the RAI had to be toned down significantly in the final release.

https://web.archive.org/web/200709220402...emilpags06
http://youtu.be/p4JROwvfzSc?t=35s

That's really interesting.

I still remember this one time when an NPC was creeping around Bravil. I decided to follow to see what she was up to. She went into someone's house and pickpocketed them for something. The person realised, the guards were called. Many townsfolk ran in to the fray and most died. There were about 10 NPCs remaining in Bravil.

I re-loaded my last save-file and punched the creeping NPC so that they would all turn on me and I could actually just pay the fine and play the game without everyone being dead.

[G-Haven]

Kirkbride did an AMA some time ago, so probably going to try to scour some more from it later;
For Morrowind:
http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments...ng/cd5y4b2

According to writer/concept-artist Michael Kirkbride, Vivec (and his androgyny) is inspired by the Ardhanarishvara, the androgynous aspect of the Hindu god Shiva.