References

The land of Canadia is a dark place full of monsters and violence, but it has its comedic side. Many aspects of the server are references, both outside and inside, to other media. This is, in fact, the basis of the red text on all unique items. Here is a (note: incomplete) list of references that can be found during normal gameplay. WARNING: This article contains quest spoilers.

The Apprentice
First Version Second Version (v1.2.3)
 * Echolocationman is a blatant Batman parody. This is expanded upon in his role in School's Out.
 * The Jester is a reference to The Joker and The Puffin to The Penguin, both Batman comic villains.
 * The "CIVILIAN WINE" referenced in Echolocationman's futile attempts to hide his identity became an actual item with the introduction of the second quest, Piece of Cake. Given how flat the dialogue falls, this item might have been the actual first instance of humor in a quest on RA3.
 * "JUSTICE NEVER SLOWS" is a reference to Adventure Time. In one episode, Finn - the main character - tells his friend that he watches him sleep at night. "Dude, don't you sleep too?" "JUSTICE NEVER SLEEPS."
 * The Jester's mini-fridge is considered the first in-joke on the server, and also takes part in the Setting Sail quest and the Reprodcuer mini-quest.
 * Echolocationman was not created specifically for the server but in fact weeks before, in a comic strip by server creator Norgad. In the strip he is a nerdy-looking guy dressed up as Batman alongside the actual Batman. The punchline is "we are legally obligated to make the distinction," which is in turn a reference to the TV show Arrested Development. Whew.
 * Echolocationman uses his "JUSTICE" catchphrase more, as it appears in Dependent Claus, School's Out, and others.
 * The foreshadowing to Piece of Cake and "JUSTICE NEVER SLEEPS" still appear.
 * Echolocationman used to hold an unenchanted Lead, which was impossible to obtain. He now holds an enchanted Lead, presumably the Lasso of Truth, which was replaced with the Force Field in the same update that the new quest was released.
 * "Set us up the bomb" is mentioned twice, and is a reference to the grammatically atrocious fanfiction story DOOM: REPERCUSSIONS OF EVIL. See the Showdown in Dennis section of this article.

Piece of Cake

 * The premise of this quest is a reference to Recipe for Disaster, a quest from Gizmocraft 3 (a previous server by the writers). The quest involved collecting various ingredients to make a birthday cake. This, in turn, is a reference to the Runescape MMORPG quest Recipe for Disaster, but on a much smaller scale. Near the beginning of Piece of Cake, the player states that the premise sounds like "a recipe for disaster." Additionally, similarly to its GC3 counterpart, Piece of Cake was the second quest to be created.
 * Holli's Tavern is a reference to Jolli's Tavern, the bar at Winterholm in Gizmocraft 3. In fact, in the Dependent Claus quest, it is revealed that Jolli and Holli are siblings and that Jolli is masquerading as Santa Claus. Taken even further in that Holli's Tavern was, until v1.2.2, called "Jolli's Tavern" due to a typo.
 * Merely speculation: Holli could be the barmaid from the original Recipe for Disaster, seeing as how close she was to Jolli during that quest.
 * This quest is foreshadowed in The Apprentice for those who have not started it: the expression "sounds like a piece of cake" is used. Note that this was in the script for The Apprentice before this quest's release.
 * The reward for this quest, "The Lie," is a cake. This is a reference to the game Portal. The Lie is also the name of one of Minecraft's built-in achievements.

School's Out

 * School's Out was made on an actual snow day at Norgad/hmudstar/frogyfro's school. This is referenced in the first conversation: when asked if s/he knows what day it is, the player replies "Tuesday?" the day that the quest was made.
 * Mrs. Cole is a reference to a particularly mean teacher that the writers had the (dis)pleasure of having. Her ex-husband, Mr. Cole, is portrayed as scared of her but otherwise very outgoing and friendly to the students. This polarizing difference is played for comedy.
 * If one attempts to use the hallway at the opposite end of the library, they are told "NO CUTTING THROUGH THE LIBRARY." This is another reference to the writers' school, where cutting through the library is prohibited during passing periods.
 * The dummies used in the quest are a reference to a scrapped quest with a mostly complete script written by Norgad. In said quest, Timmy was kidnapped by the Cactus King (whose concept was later used for The Experiment). The dummies are Walking Cacti.
 * Until very late in development, Timmy was universally referred to as "Billy." This was because his father's name was Will Wippins, and Billy Wippins had a nice ring to it. The reason behind the change is even more interesting. "Timmy" was a character in Gizmocraft 3 who stood in Jolli's Tavern. He seemed to know a lot about monsters, and was in fact an NPC of the Recipe for Disaster quest who directed you to a spider dungeon. Renaissance Arcadia 3 is believed to happen during the events of Gizmocraft 1, which in turn takes place about 20 years before Gizmocraft 3. Additionally, with the strong control of dictator Gizmo and the supercorporation Klanker (especially its expansion in RA2 and GC3) causing a stigma that Gizmoland is a rich man's city, this would mean that between the events of RA3 and GC3, Timmy becomes a master of combat and also very rich to have moved there. This is the stealthiest reference to GC3 in the game.

A Quest for Noblett

 * Old Coot Brooks is a direct reference to real-life friend of the writers, Brooks. He is actually not very irritable and old in reality.
 * This is the first quest to mention religion outside of a fictitious blaspheme. "Noblett" is one of the three patron gods of "Vormonism," the others being "Woolskie" and Thrashbrine (also member of the Trifecta and figure of the Mudkillers cult). Vormonism was created by writer hmudstar and is considered the native and most popular religion of Canadia.
 * Some consider the strange slang that the Coot uses to refer to the hostile mobs to be a reference. It is merely nonsense.

I Feel Muddy

 * After the Old Coot has handled your armor and weapons for about 40 seconds, they are returned to you and the quest is complete. When you get the stuff back the durability is SLIGHTLY damaged on each piece. Keeping in mind that Brooks did not move during this time, it is unknown what this refers to. It has, however, been confirmed that it is not a glitch.

Showdown in Dennis

 * "Dennis" is a reference to Ghetsis's background battle theme in the games Pokemon Black and White, which is simply the ghastly chant "DENNIS. DENNIS. DENNIS." frogyfro was the first to use this as a substitute for "Hell" for censorship purposes. The creation of the "Dennis" and its establishment as a taboo word and location was perhaps the first precursor to RA3's fictitious swears.
 * The story of the Old Coot's friend Jonathan being the Demon is a reference to the fanfiction story DOOM: REPERCUSSIONS OF EVIL. The last dialogue of the story is the completely random and out of place "'No Jonathan. You are the demons.' And then John was a zombie." Taken further with the fact that the Demon is indeed a zombie as well.
 * It is later revealed in the Setting Sail quest that Brooks's girlfriend was stolen by the Novelty Trader. It is stated in this quest that Jonathan stole his girlfriend. While there are no indicators that these were not simply two different girlfriends, the connection can be made between the Novelty Trader and the Demon.

Gone Fishin'

 * The fish in this quest can not be obtained in any way other than sitting on the dock (or near the shore) and catching them. This is ruthlessly referenced in EVERY OTHER INSTANCE of Fjorn Fleming in a quest, where you are constantly required to catch fish for him for seemingly no reason other than to prove your mettle.
 * The Hostile Mob Caravan is a slight reference to the Borderlands 2 quest "Two Easy Pieces" (in the Captain Scarlett DLC) where the loot chest placement is more or less the same, and you are bombarded with enemies. It is also significantly far away from all civilization.
 * The sign by the mayor near the Elite Dungeon's keyhole is a reference to the mayor's sign near the well in Hubtown. This was also referenced with the sheep pen near the Outpost. While the sheep pen instance is more of a reference to the original sign, it should be noted that there is no visible mayor. These three signs are the only indicator of any leadership in Hubtown or any town in RA3, in fact. The mayor has no involvement with any quests and is not referenced by any dialogue.

Dependent Claus

 * The quest's name is a reference to the "dependent clause," a clause in a sentence that is not a sentence on its own (without being joined to another clause with a conjunction). For example, "The mayor has no involvement with any quests and is not referenced by any dialogue." The word "and" is a conjunction, and so "is not referenced by any dialogue" is a dependent clause.
 * This quest's (and Dark Souls) status as a "Christmas Event" is a reference to the game Runescape, where each Christmas an event is held with a unique storyline, sidequest, and rewards. However, unlike Runescape, these quests are there year-round.
 * Mr. Cole was first featured in this quest. While he was an NPC before any quests had been created at all, his first speaking role was during the caroling section. MONTHS before the School's Out quest, Cole's role as the antithesis to the madness of the characters around him (his straight-man personality is parodied as an anti-joke in this case) was established.
 * The song that plays during the conversation with the Old Coot is a reference to Arrested Development, season 4.
 * The reward for the quest is a reference to a throwaway line during the carol scene with Fernanda and Fred.
 * The Old Coot's line "I GOT A NEW TELE" is a brick joke reference to the quest Showdown in Dennis, where Brooks mentions that his old roommate Jonathan stole his "tele" before turning into the Demon.

Dark Souls

 * The quest's name is a reference to the game Dark Souls, an adventure-roleplaying game renowned for its extreme difficulty. This is reflected by the quest's objective of defeating 50 Farlanders, considered the longest (if not necessarily hardest) objective in any one quest in RA3.
 * Blitzen, who is portrayed as stereotypically Russian, refers to "mother Equat" in his dialogue. Equatscraft was a server by Norgad's brother Rotzumey and included the region of New Tyenka'aa, which is considered canon to the Renaissance universe. Equat is the continent on which the server took place, and this is the only direct reference to a fictitious regional stereotype in RA3.

Setting Sail

 * Several throwaway lines of dialogue from the Muddy quest series return as brick jokes for this quest, which is considered the longest and hardest (as of v1.2.2). Brooks's reference to his girlfriend, Victoria, is alluded to with Victoria's inclusion as the Ultimate Fish. Brooks also mentions that he was "shot in the b*lz" at the age of 69. Puffin offhandedly mentions that he did this to Brooks in the recent past.
 * The Face is a reference to the character "The Face" in the game Runescape. She stands around Port Sarim, near the Rat Pits, which is where you have your cat chase giant rats in a fight to the death and bet on it. The Face has a cat named Lady.
 * K'nuckles is a reference to the character from the show The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. In one episode near the end of the show's run, K'nuckles goes back to "captain school" so that he is not labeled as a "cabin boy." Sure enough, the other two NPCs above deck with him are Long Johns, the captain, and Cabin Boy.
 * Captain Long Johns is a reference to the character Long John Silvers in the novel Treasure Island (by Robert Louis Stevenson). The famous pirate character is also the namesake of the seafood restaurant.
 * The Piece of Eight Games are an important part of this quest's plot. In Gizmocraft 1, Pieces of Eight was the first minigame in the city of Gizmoland. Each player spawned on a beach on opposite sides of an ocean-like arena. Islands with Dovebirch trees and loot chests were strewn about, and players could use boats to get from island to island. The minigame enjoyed little success, but was created entirely in Vanilla Minecraft. This meant that an ocean was painstakingly handbuilt, and the chests had to be restocked after each game.
 * The lobby for the game featured the two ships (which were considered the "logos" of the city), The Scarlet Seafarer and The Greenman's Galley. The ship in Salt Ekal City harbor IS the Greenman's Galley.
 * The MAX PAIN part of the quest is an inside joke between the writers. A mutual friend (we will call him Joe) once visited their house for Norgad's birthday party. frogyfro was playing the game VVVVVV on his laptop. As he played, Joe would randomly state things such as "You know what those spikes remind me of? MAX PAYNE." Due to the server's running joke of copyright issue avoidance, the name is purposely corrupted. That strange blue room that you fight him in? A VVVVVV reference pixel-for-pixel, right down to the red spikes.
 * The reward for this quest, Potty the Parrot, is a reference to the Spongebob Squarepants character, as well as the notion that pirate captains should have parrots on their shoulders.

Mister Manager

 * The entire quest is a reference to the second episode of Arrested Development: "Top Banana." During the episode, Michael's son, George-Michael, works at the family banana stand. He achieves the rank of "Mr. Manager." Each time he attempts to call himself that, Michael quickly says "we just say manager." This line is quoted several times throughout the quest. The quest reward, the Bananapants, have the red text: "There's always money in the Bananapants." a reference to the quote from the episode "There's always money in the banana stand."

Modding API

 * The quest itself is a reference to the "modding API" that Mojang are constantly promising to add to Minecraft, but never do. Grumm is an employee of Minecraft.
 * "Hello World" is the name of the first program that many learn to code in various coding languages: a simple program that returns the message "Hello World"
 * The Dumptsar, Outhouses, and Camp itself are references to the Klanker supercorporation in Gizmoland. Klanker first appeared in THE VERY FIRST GIZMOCRAFT as a housing industry - two years before the RA3 server began. It then appeared in Gizmoland 2 as a power agency, and Gizmoland 3 as a steel mill and silo. Renaissance Arcadia 2, although short lived, contained several Dumptsars and Outhouses, perhaps the first instance of its "generic household item supercorporation" status. Gizmoland 4 saw the entire city of Gizmoland go under the influence of KLaNKER Industries, with the once-grand city reduced to trash fills, outhouse stations, burning garbage, streetside marketplaces and food stands, and an 80s rock bar. Even the project Super Giz Bros. Brawl (a spin-off of Super Craft Bros. Brawl) included the "Oxnart" stage, full of these features. Klanker's constant expansion foreshadows the ultimate end of humanity in the Renaissance timeline: the Mustard City Incident, in which a nuclear explosion destroyed half of the known world. This, of course, does not occur until in-game DECADES after RA3, but it shows how early the Klanker corporation existed.

Pandora's Box

 * The quest is a reference to the common story of Greek mythology: a woman named Pandora opens up a box with all of the evils of the world in it. And then it is parodied to great extent.
 * The ban message "Go annoy Hypixel's admins." refers to the Hypixel Minecraft server, which is a prominent example of the kind of monetized public server that Norgad actively hates.
 * The reward for this quest, Elpis, is a very nerdy reference. In the aforementioned mythology, all of the evils escaped Pandora's box, except for Elpis, who stayed at the bottom. Elpis is the spirit of hope. It is unknown currently why the author classified "hope" or the embodiment of it as "evil," but along with the evils being released hope was withheld. The item's red text: "Perches in the soul." is an even further, unrelated reference. The poem by Emily Dickenson, "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," describes hope as "perching in the soul."

THE BEST QUEST EVER MADE

 * The entire quest is a reference to the comically immature and unintelligent youth of the 21st century and the idiots they idolize, complete with memes and terrible grammar. You have been warned.
 * "TAKE THE RING WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE EXPLOSION" is a reference to the "cool guys don't look at explosions" meme.
 * "BROKNEE" is a corruption of "brony," a male member of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom.
 * "BROSKI" is a reference to Youtube user Pewdiepie, who is famous for his annoying videos and neologisms. Also see: "BROFIST"
 * Corval's apparent fear of squids and love of "BUDDER" stems from the Youtube user SkyDoesMinecraft, a Minecraft player also known for annoying and immature videos.
 * "LORD OF A RING" is a reference to Oliver Age 24's video "How to Draw Really Good - Harry Potter," which is in turn a reference to the Lord of the Rings series of novels/movies.
 * "MY GF BROEK UP WITH ME" is a callback to a line from A Quest for Noblett.
 * All of the NPCs in the quest are real players who were picked at random from the front page of mcskinsearch.com. There was a fourth player who had a gorilla skin who was scrapped from the quest, but can be found in frogyfro's Museum.
 * The areas used in this quest were player-made. The place where the quest is started, "Wood," was built and covered in profanity-laden signs by a user who is now banned. The signs were removed but the statue itself serves as the quest's starting point. The "BROPIT" was an area known as the Exploiter's Pit and discovered by hmudstar, frogyfro, and Rotzumey to prove that lava and ore existed beneath the server. That's right: Corval's lava pit is one of the very rare instances of natural lava on the server.

Don's Quest I: The Summer

 * DON ADVENTUREROR is frogyfro's roleplaying server alias. He has been associated with leather and compasses. The original Don skin still exists, but is rarely worn by frogyfro if ever. Don's counterpart was Norgad's roleplaying server alias, the orc Thok Hragged. Don was also a major character on frogyfro's server FroRPG, which was the precursor to Renaissance Arcadia.
 * The Summer Home is a reference to the Bit Leader's Summer Home on the original Gizmocraft server. It was part of an adventure-parkour minigame created by frogyfro.
 * The zombie backup dancers are a reference to the backup dancers in the Thriller music video.

Don's Quest II: The Winter

 * The red text on the upgraded Jon gear are references:
 * "Water is exactly 23.6% the blood of your enemies." is a reference to "Water is exactly 0% cucumber." which is a reference to this Yahoo! Answers post.
 * "God bless America. And Infinity I." is a reference to the Bald Eagle symbolically representing America, and the fact that for a while, the Desert Eagle was the only Infinity bow.
 * "def much" is a reference to the Bandolier's previous unreliability in terms of defense.