A true artistic work is "revealed" to have been created with some other purpose in mind. Perhaps some god or devil had a hand in it. Perhaps it was a summoning ritual, à la ''Literature/TheKingInYellow''. Perhaps it was part of a ritual to attain godhood, which is why everyone's so enraptured by it. Either way, someone, or some''thing'', other than the author had a hand in it, and we're just finding out for the first time.

''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' is mentioned in almost every UrbanFantasy work with vampires, with Creator/BramStoker usually having an ulterior motive of some kind when writing the book. Creator/WilliamShakespeare is another popular subject for references, although in much more eclectic media.

Similar BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy, but applying to the artistry rather than the artist. Contrast FictionScience, when RealLife science is used to examine fictional works. SubTrope of ShoutOut (a reference to another work/person).
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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* ''Anime/ReadOrDie'': The {{OVA}} features a literal BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy that also applies here; one of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's symphonies [[spoiler:drives [[BrownNote anyone who listens to it to suicide]]; earlier researchers who examined the music killed themselves, but the I-Jin were drama queens]]. Hence why their method consisted of a clone of him flying around on a massive rocket-powered steam organ.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen: The Black Dossier'': One of Shakespeare's fictional plays (''Faerie's Fortunes Founded'') is basically the minutes for the meeting in which the first League was founded.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'':
** Shakespeare puts on his debut performance of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' for Oberon, Titania, Robin Goodfellow, and Morpheus. Robin Goodfellow escapes into the world to pester others, and it's implied that Titania is responsible for the death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet. It's explicitly stated that Morpheus commissioned both ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ''Theatre/TheTempest'', in exchange for making Shakespeare a skilled writer.
** Morpheus has had his hand in the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' anthology. Specifically, the city of Baghdad is originally full of magic and wonders, but Haroun al-Rashid grows afraid it wouldn't survive that way, so he makes a deal with Morpheus; Baghdad would become a mundane city, and Morpheus would preserve a dream version which became the stories in the ''Arabian Nights''.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'':
** Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge gets possessed by an alien ghost, who leaves messages in his {{poetry}}. Later, Dirk is revealed to be the infamous "Person from Porlock" who disrupted "Literature/KublaKhan" because if completed the poem would've caused the end of the world.
** The entire works of Music/JohannSebastianBach are actually the music of [[spoiler:the motions of every particle of matter as read by an alien supercomputer and injected into history by a time traveller because he felt bad about blowing it up.]]
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Bram Stoker is [[LiteraryWorkOfMagic commissioned]] by Lara Raith of the competing White Court of Vampires for the explicit purpose of teaching humans how to kill [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Black Court vampires]]. Because of this, the few surviving Black Court vampires are exceptionally clever and dangerous.
* ''Literature/InterviewWithTheVampire'': The aforementioned book itself serves a similar function InUniverse. When Lestat awakens in the sequel, he discovers his name and many details of his life with Louis are now famous and part of popular culture. ''Literature/TheVampireLestat'' is framed and written as his response --cashing in on the popularity to promote his new rock and roll career, correcting misconceptions about his person, detailing his origins, and officially breaking TheMasquerade while calling on other vampires to do so as well.
* ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'':
** ''II: The Globe'': The wizards of Unseen University visit the "Roundworld" to fight off the elves as they disrupt ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.
** ''SOD III: Darwin's Watch'': The wizards try to make sure that UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin completes ''The Origin of Species''
* ''Literature/SongsOfEarthAndPower'': All pieces of {{art}} ever created by humanity posses unique magical properties; either through ThePowerOfRock or in an ArtInitiatesLife sense.
* ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'': A short story reveals that Bram Stoker was one of the vampires who wanted to come out early. His sire, {{Dracula}}, wished to be the main character.
* ''Literature/ThreeDaysToNever'': Creator/CharlieChaplin works symbolic imagery into ''Film/CityLights'' as part of a magical ritual to attempt to bring his son back from the dead. An earlier movie he worked on but never shown to the public is part of the MacGuffin; Albert Einstein talks Chaplin out of showing the movie, as the mojo generated by the imagery would likely fry some audience brains.

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[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E1BuffyVsDracula Buffy vs. Dracula]]" reveals that the real Dracula helped write the original book. He just wanted to get famous, but Spike gripes that thanks to him, everyone knows the weaknesses of vampires.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead The Unquiet Dead]]": Creator/CharlesDickens is inspired to write the episode's monsters into ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood'' so the world will know the truth. Of course, he DiedDuringProduction before finishing it.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]": Shakespeare's lost play, ''Love's Labours Won'', was influenced by a trio of aliens to serve as a summoning ritual for their species.
* ''Series/{{Jekyll}}'': It's revealed that ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' is a [[spoiler:trap to kill anyone seeking Jekyll's abilities, as the potion described is poison]]. The real source of the abilities turns out to be [[ThePowerOfLove Jekyll's maid]].

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[[folder: Roleplays ]]

* ''Roleplay/SquadraDeiFalchiDiGradara'': An entire school of magic, the Flame of the Heart school (a Fire elemental list of spells focuses on buffing and battlefield control) is supposedly based on a series of in-universe HeroicFantasy books whose author is believed to also secretly be an elementalist archmage.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'': In the sourcebook ''Reliquary'', Shakespeare's lost play ''The Witches'' serves as a summoning ritual that opens a portal to... well, it's not a very nice place. The backstory says Shakespeare got the entire audience together after the first performance to promise that it would never be used again.
* ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'': One sourcebook hints that the poem "Literature/KublaKhan" was inspired by a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent qashmallim]] for purposes unknown. The visitor who interrupted Coleridge and ruined his vision was a Promethean who feared dire results if the poem was finished.
* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'': Dracula influenced Stoker's writing as a "parting gesture" to Kindred society. In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'', meanwhile, the Ordo Dracul, a vampire society Dracula founded, are suspicious of the book's origins--it seems too much of a ContrivedCoincidence--but ultimately don't know what's up with it.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight: The Beast Within'': One of Music/RichardWagner's operas is capable of outing werewolves.

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