History ShoutOut / TalesOfMU

* One chapter contains a description of a young boy playing out a fantasy battle scenario with toys, including a part where "the boy added a hellhound with an anti-magic shell and immediately one-upped himself with a behemoth that quite improbably fed on anti-magic hellhounds." (The fantasy version of [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory an attack dog with built-in forcefield and a dinosaur who eats forcefield dogs!]])

* According to Lore professor Fenwick Hall, "The people of Whale Island tell of [[Literature/TheWizardOfOz the sorcerer-king who came out of the sky in a basket of whicker and traded a handful of emeralds for seal-skins to repair his… this is the exact translation… ‘gas-bladder'.]]"

** The university employs a lawyer by the name of Mitch [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings McSmeagol.]]

** Gnomes are essentially {{hobbits}} [[WritingAroundTrademarks in all but name]]. They live in shires and don't wear shoes. "Halfling" is considered a racial slur. Some of them have a certain propensity for adventures, though they consider the very concept quite improper and ''really'' don't like to talk about it, to the point that Hazel gets put off her dinner by the group discussing adventures in Y2-137. However, they have a cultural tradition of "forming a fellowship against the darkness" when hard times come around. Hobbits' natural stealth, in gnomes' case, translates as a combined PerceptionFilter and WeirdnessCensor that gets stronger the more of them are in one place.
*** Hazel learned lockpicking because "you never know when Old Grayrobes will come knocking." It's a Gnomish saying, in fact.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' gets a couple of prominent nods:

* The university employs a lawyer by the name of Mitch [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings McSmeagol.]]
* Gnomes are essentially {{hobbits}} [[WritingAroundTrademarks in all but name]]. They live in shires and don't wear shoes. "Halfling" is considered a racial slur. Some of them have a certain propensity for adventures, though they consider the very concept quite improper and ''really'' don't like to talk about it, to the point that Hazel gets put off her dinner by the group discussing adventures in Y2-137. However, they have a cultural tradition of "forming a fellowship against the darkness" when hard times come around.

* The "Stone Soldiers" game which forms a foundation for some of the interactions with Hazel and the second-year storyline revolving around Acantha is a homage to miniatures-based tabletop [[WarGaming wargames]] such as ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''.
* The OT story [[http://www.talesofmu.com/other/the-centre-cannot-hold "The Centre Cannot Hold"]] contains a prominent theme from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', with the "evil star" Malbus as a NegativeSpaceWedgie through which monstrous chaos beasts occasionally force their way into the MU-niverse to wreak havoc following the same lines as creatures of Chaos entering the Materium through Warp rifts like the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom in 40K.

* The "Stone Soldiers" game which forms a foundation for some of the interactions with Hazel and the second-year storyline revolving around Acantha is a homage to miniatures-based tabletop wargames such as ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''.

* Gnomes are essentially {{hobbits}} [[WritingAroundTrademarks in all but name]]. They live in shires and don't wear shoes. "Halfling" is considered a racial slur that refers to gnomes. Some of them have a certain propensity for adventures, though they consider the very concept quite improper and ''really'' don't like to talk about it, to the point that Hazel gets put off her dinner by the group discussing adventures in Y2-137. However, they have a cultural tradition of "forming a fellowship against the darkness" when hard times come around.