Shout Out / World of Warcraft

The long-running titan of the MMORPG genre has a gazillion references to people who were involved in it and to countless other works in all sorts of media.

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Dedications

• Its most touching Shout Out would have to be the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, located in the Barrens. The shrine is engraved with the initials "MK" and the Spirit Healer that stands over it is named "Koiter" referring to Michael Koiter, a Blizzard employee who died during the creation of the game.
• There are, in fact, several such memorials in-game. The closest thing to an Alliance equivalent of the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior is the In Loving Memory memorial. Less seriously, in Outland, there's also a memorial to the cancelled Blizzard game, Starcraft: Ghost.
• The game contains a poem written in honor of Dak Krause, who died of leukemia. https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Caylee_Dak
• Another real life shout out is a quest in Mulgore which was made for a kid with cancer (who voiced the quest-giver). Said kid has since passed away.
• Similarly, the weapon Merciless Crossbow of the Phoenix has a tooltip that says "Finely crafted to Ephoenix's specification." Ephoenix was the name of Ezra Chatterton's hunter. Ezra had the opportunity to visit Blizzard as part of a Make-A-Wish wish and the crossbow is named after him.

Playable races

• Several jokes, flirts and dances each race has often include shout outs of some sort.
• Here is a comparative video showing the origins of most of the dances in game.
• An undead male joke asks for some odorant. Wet Dog, Smelly Garbage, or Low Tide will do.
• The dance for female goblins comes from the music video for the Beyoncé song "Single Ladies". One of their flirt lines also references the song.
  Female goblin: If you liked it you should have put a larger, more elaborate ring on it.
• Male night elf demon hunters have a joke saying that "Ten years will give you such a crick in the neck."
• Female blood elf demon hunters joke that they only wear black. And very very dark grey.
• The human male has a great idea for a movie split into three parts, "The Brotherhood of the Bracelet", "A Couple of Towers", and the grand finale, "Hey, the King's Back!"
• Male orcs would remind you that it's not easy being green.
• Male tauren will proudly proclaim "Here's the beef!", a reference to the Wendy's commercial which had the line, "Where's the beef?!"
• A flirty male pandaren says he'll "romance all three of your kingdoms."
• A female pandaren joke is a near word-for-word monologue from the first Kill Bill film.
• Goblins like to skip to Step Three: Profit.
• As of Shadowlands, one of the hairstyles available for female gnomes is the "Chibi" style.
• Male Gnomes like large posteriors, and they cannot prevaricate.

References to other Blizzard games

The Lost Vikings

• Eric, Olaf, and Baelog are three dwarves wearing viking-style horned helms who have gotten themselves lost in Uldaman. The "Memories of Tyr" updates their dialog and skills to make the parallels even more obvious, complete with them temporarily sailing a flying vrykul boat.

Overwatch

• In the Halls of Valor, two of the vrykul kings the group fights before the God-King Skovald encounter are named King Tor and King Bjorn. They were present in the original Utgarde Pinnacle instance during the King Ymiron encounter, so this might be a recursive example.
• In Highmountain, there are drogbar mobs called Bitestone Roadhogs. They pull the player toward them with a hook on a chain.
• The toy given at Winter's Veil 2016 is Mei's endothermic blaster.
• One of the Brawler's Guild solo fights introduced in patch 7.1.5 is a team named Ogrewatch.
• One class hall mission is straight-up titled "Overwatch".
• Holy paladins can find a skin for the Silver Hand from the "Edicts of the Lost Watcher" item. It turns their hammer into a Magitek version of Reinhardt's.
• In Zuldazar, there's a pair of fungarians named Genjo and Hanzin.
• A daily quest in Mechagon sends you to kill Junkbrat and Roadtrogg, who are respectively a mechagnome and a gas mask-wearing trogg.
• One of the final Highmountain missions, where you ride a giant eagle to bomb Drogbar forces, is called "Justice Rains from Above".
• The two characters existed long before Overwatch, but there's something reminiscent about Halford Wyrmbane, Commander of the 7th Legion, and Mathias Shaw, head of SI:7, working together and the former relationship between Overwatch Strike Commander Jack Morrison and Blackwatch Commander Gabriel Reyes. Bonus points for Wyrmbane and Morrison sharing the same voice actor, Fred Tatasciore.
• In Shadowlands, male pandaren and female night elves were respectively given hairstyles based on Hanzo and Sombra.
• In the fight against the Manastorms in De Other Side, Millificent's line for deploying an Aerial Rocket Chicken Barrage is "Poultry rains from above!".

Rock n' Roll Racing

• Three NPCs at an Alliance flight point in the Badlands are named Jake Badlands, Snake Sanders, and Katrina Lyons; playable characters from the game.

Starcraft

• The vanilla goblin shredder model and the Sky Golem and Mechanized Lumber Extractor mounts have a picture of Sarah Kerrigan on the control panel. Continuing the trend, the control panel of the Mecha-Mogul Mk2 mount has a poster on the right side taken from the box art for Brood War.
• A former Shadow priest talent was named Legacy of the Void.
• A quest in the Legion warlock storyline is called "Power Overwhelming".
• In the Horrific Vision of Orgrimmar, the Oblivion Elemental's aggro line is "Oblivion awaits!".
• A trinket dropped by the Lords of Dread in the Sepulcher of the First Ones is called the Heart of the Swarm.

Other shout-outs

• The Curtainfire family from Stardust Village.
  • A Tiny Clever Commander is this to A Tiny, Tiny Clever Commander, complete with the target enemy being "Commander" Nazrim.
  • Frost death knights in Legion had a legendary ring named the Seal of Necrofantasia.
• With the introduction of achievements, another slew of references made its way into game, including the possibility to earn the title "Jenkins". Leeroy even got his own card in the TCG.
• On a more positive note, the game is completely packed with references to other properties. A short list: During a quest where you ride a giant in Northrend, if his HP gets low it's warned that "Gymer Needs Storm Cloud Badly!". Many engineer NPCs are references to Star Trek series characters such as "Jhordy Lapforge" and "Chief Engineer Trep". The manhole from Lost can be found in Sholazar Basin. An Engineering item is called MOLL-E. There's a whole section on another site, if you want to explore.
  • In Mists of Pandaria, there's an even more direct Gauntlet reference, the quest 'Blue Dwarf Needs Food Badly'. This expansion has more refs per square meter than you could shake a gnomish engineering-created Automatic Shaking Stick at, before it blew your hand off.
• Ulduar has a boss named Kologarn who has some relatively blatant shout outs. He is a giant construct guarding a bridge (really, he is the bridge) and when first aggroed, yells None shall pass! Being a construct, part of the battle strategy involves destroying his arms. When an arm is destroyed he may yell Just a scratch or Only a Flesh Wound! among other things.
• Pets:
  • All non-combat/flavour pets have 42 hitpoints. Apparently, collecting them is the meaning of life.
  • The flavor text for the Stinker battle pet, a skunk, says he uses his aroma to repel predators and attract cats, but he's not very successful at it.
• Cataclysm contains the two main characters from the fanfic Interactive Fiction parody You Awaken in Razor Hill, Tednugent and his pet Scratchfever ('Tednug' and 'Scratchfever' in-game), patrolling the area around the town of Razor Hill. They even perform a little in-joke from the story, highlighting Ted's odd attraction to harpies.
• Another quest in Cataclysm involves you defending a botanist's house using solar power to grow plants to ward off zombies. And you get your own Singing Sunflower if you make it to the end.
• The NPC John J. Keeshan and the quests involving him made for the Cataclysm expansion in the Redridge Mountains are essentially ones to Rambo.
• The Twilight Highlands quest Four Heads are Better than None. Your targets? A pair of two-headed ogres named Za'brox and Beeble'phod. Mix the names up a little...
  • More subtly, a glyph that allows mages to understand other languages through the Arcane Intellect buff has a fish for its icon in the glyph interface.
• And who can forget the Felwood questline chain of: "Do the Imp-Possible", "See the Invisible", "Touch the Untouchable", "Break the Unbreakable", "Fight the Power"?
• Bloodgulch in Twilight Highlands is home to Griff.
• Booty Bay has a gnome engineer named Oglethorpe Obnoticus.
• In Silverpine Forest, the Orc forces are commanded by Admiral Hatchet.
• In the old version of Dalaran, there's a shark in The Underbelly named Segacedi with the title of "Sewer Shark".
  • Also in The Underbelly, there are four small water-dwelling reptiles facing a rodent, surrounded by toxic magic waste.
• Several references to The Jungle Book:
  • In Stranglethorn Vale you hunt a panther named Bhag'thera.
  • In Pandaria there's a tiger named Ker Shan.
  • A whole group of characters in Zuldazar, posed as though the "goodies" have slain the "baddies."
• In Winterspring, there's a goblin who's named "Umaron Stragarelm", which is a combination of Umaro, Strago, and Relm.
• In Outland the Arakkoa capital is called "Skettis". The Arakkoa strongly resemble the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal. Some also make a sort of high, humming sound similar to the Verbal Tic of Dark Crystal's Chancellor.
• The first questgiver you encounter upon entering Westfall is a Stormwind chief investigator by the name of Horatio Laine. He wears a suit and has a habit of putting on his shades right as he is making a pun.
• In the Pandaren beginning area, there's a couple of ponds with bamboo platforms sticking out of them that turn you into small creatures if you fall in because of the spirits of the animals that died in them were infused with the water. Sound familiar?
• The Valley of the Four Winds contains an enemy called a Kernel Sprite.
• The icon for the EZ-Gro Cabbage you grow to start the Tillers quests for farming is a perfect sphere, very reminiscent of the QUALITY cabbage◊ in Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na ~Crescent Love~.
• A daily Tillers quest, You Have to Burn the Rope.
• A quest in the Jade Forest has you rescuing a farm from raiding Mogu. You can spit an acidic juice in their eyes to temporarily blind them, and one of their quips is "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"
• A rare Mogu sorcerer in the Krasarang Wilds will say "I will banish you to the land of wind and ghosts!" when aggroed.
• Pandaren cubs apparently cannot refuse a double hozen dare.
• The ENTIRETY of the Tillers faction, from farming your own crops, to making friends with certain NPCs and giving them gifts, is an obvious shout-out to the Harvest Moon series. Or even Rune Factory, since you can also kill monsters like in that game.
• In the Southern Barrens, there's a quest called Dwarf Fortress. It involves helping a goblin steal the plans for a dwarven fortress. Guarding the plans is Haggis Boatmurder. The plans themselves are described as "A depiction of the fortress using primitive icons to represent essential structures."
• It's hard to deny that one of the pandaren families being named Applebloom might not be unintentional.
  • Although Pink Peony the pink-clad cake vendor is more overt.
  • In Draenor, there's an enchanted fey dragon named Raindash.
• At New Cifera in the Valley of the Four Winds, amidst the Lumpy Toads, there are three named critters. They are called Rash, Zitz and Pimple.
• Inserted amongst all of the other newly-added tameable rare beasts, in the Swamp of Sorrows, there's a white and grey Wind Serpent named Yukiko.
• In the Dread Wastes, there's a quest called Psycho Mantid.
  • Speaking of the Mantid, the achievement "Stay Klaxxi" requires you finish the daily quests with all ten Klaxxi-granted buffs. Those buffs are all named for heavy metal classics: Children of the Grave, Iron Man(tid), Speed King, Battle Hymn, Seek and Destroy, Master of Puppets, Angel of Death, Raining Blood, Silent Lucidity, and Painkiller.
• Also in the Dread Wastes is Han Stormstout, who is first found encased in amber.
• The Shado-Pan are very clearly inspired by the Night's Watch. They even say "We are the watchers on the wall" when clicked on, a line from the Watch's oath.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
  • In Budd's quest chain in Vashj'ir, he finds a cursed treasure that turns him into a skeleton a la Curse of the Black Pearl.
  • One of the quests out of Fort Wrynn in Talador is "Why is the Brew Gone"?
• One of Adarrah's quest dialogues is "I'm no stranger to love" and one of Mack's is "You wouldn't get this from any other guy!"
• A roaming NPC in Stormwind is named Elizabeth Birdsong, who mentions she's not from the area and discusses infinite possibilities.
• In Silverpine, players can fight witchaloks.
• One of the random phrases that the pandaren afflicted by the Sha of Despair can say is "How could this happen to me? I'm sick of this life.", a shout out to Simple Plan's infamous song "Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?)".
• The announcement trailer for Warlords of Draenor used a dwarf and orc to illustrate the new race models, decking them out in warrior and priest gear, like the two main characters (a dwarf and orc respectively) of the WoW machinima series "Alliance vs. Horde".
• In Stormwind's west bank, the bankers on the left half are named Kirsten, Scott, and Thomas and the ones on the right half are named Olivia, Newton, and John.
• The quest "Precious and Fragile Things Need Special Handling" takes its name from the opening lyrics of Depeche Mode's song "Precious".
• The achievement for obtaining 150 different companion pets is called "Littlest Pet Shop".
• Gorgrond in Warlords of Draenor has a three-headed plant hydra named Biolante.
• Gorgrond is also home to a rare botani (humanoid plant creature) named Bashiok. His dialogue consists entirely of the phrase "I am Bashiok", and when you loot him, you can get an item that spawns a dancing treant.
• The Viscous Fallout boss in Gnomeregan drops a dagger called the Toxic Revenger.
• A pandaren, Zach Chow, has a pet tiger named Azunyan.
• A random add in the Tanaan Jungle introduction's Blackrock Foundry, the Blackrock Slaghauler, is simply a shirtless orc hauling molten slag. When you fight him, he aggroes with "Hot stuff, coming through!"
• The Monk class is basically one giant Shout Out to Street Fighter, boasting a Hurricane Kick, a hand-thrown energy ball, a flaming breath attack, a somersault kick that trails a bright slash of orange energy, and a Psycho Crusher. Even their version of the signature move Storm, Earth & Fire from Warcraft III gets reworked to function more like Yun & Yang's Super Art from Street Fighter III and IV.
  • On that note, there is an unusual NPC in Temple of the White Tiger, called Lun-Chi. She looks and acts exactly like her Street Fighter counterpart, but when you talk to her, she says quotes such as: "Test your might!" or "There is no knowledge that is not power."
  • And if that wasn't enough, the Windwalker Monk specialization also has an extremely fast punch attack, while all specs used to have access to an instant-kill move when their opponent's life was low, which involved hitting a pressure point on the target. Sound familiar? If not, you're probably already dead.
• An NPC on the Wandering Isle named Jojo Ironbrow constantly asks you to provide him with hard objects he can test his strength on by smashing them with a single headbutt. In the final quest, you encounter an object that all but gives him a concussion when he attempts to break it with his head. Said object happens to be a solid jade stand.
  • An achievement in the Argus the Unmaker encounter in Antorus, the Burning Throne is titled "Stardust Crusaders". Similarly, in Dragonflight, there's a ring that can drop that's called "Platinum Star Band".
• Several mounts have them in the flavor text:
  • The flying carpets have lines from "A Whole New World" on their icons.
  • The Red Drake has the quote, "You should never listen to minstrels' fancies. A dragon would never hurt a soul, unless they tried to hurt him first."
  • Azure Drake: "Always speak politely to an enraged dragon."
  • Black Drake: (paraphrased) "It never pays to leave a live dragon out of the equation."
  • Bone-White Primal Raptor: "They are lethal at eight months, very lethal."
  • Smoky Direwolf: "Believed to reside mostly in the north. Hates weddings."
  • Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade: "Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
  • Blue Drake: "Come not between the dragon and his wrath."
  • Twilight Drake: "Never feed him after midnight."
  • Acherus Deathcharger: "Some horses merely adopt the dark. This horse was born in it, molded by it."
• The Blackrock Foundry raid features a boss encounter of twin brothers named Hans'gar and Franzok.
  • It's not just their names either. They quote Hans and Franz several times during the fight. When you first aggro them, they inform you that they are going to "pump you up".
• One of the elite mobs in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms is Cracklefang, a giant wolf that fights holding a sword in its mouth.
  • There's another reference to that in the form of a garrison follower you can recruit named Soulare of Andorhal, a paladin who says things like "Praise the Light!" He even gives you a bonfire with a sword sticking out of it for your toy collection if you use a /tired emote on him.
• In regards to Firefly, at Telredor in Zangarmarsh there's a gnome engineer named K. Lee Smallfry. You can give her an engine part you found. In Grizzly Hills there are two women named Saffron and Yolanda, both aliases used by Mal's supposed wife. One of them even has the name Reynolds.
• In the Forge of Souls instance in Icecrown, the first boss is Bronjahm, Godfather of Souls. He even has his own unique boss theme.
• Basically everything related to the Eldritch Abomination Old Gods is a Shout-Out to the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The two gods you fight as bosses even have very similar names (C'thun = Cthulhu, Yogg-Saron = Yog-Sothoth).
• On Draenor is a large tiger named Sher'khaan. The quest to kill him is "Sher'KHAAAAAAANNNN"!
• In Stormshield, one of the vendors there asks, "Commander! Would you endorse my shop?"
• When you get to be able to build submarines, one of the possible names is Deep Sea Nine.
• One of the Battle Pets trainers uses a floating skull named Mort, a possible reference to Morte, who is also a floating skull.
• Getting Exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpents faction allows players with Jewelcrafting to create five different mounts. Each one is a brightly-colored artificial feline. There are four basic ones- red, green, blue, and yellow. Combined, they form another one -black.
• Heathcliff's Immortality: "Heathcliff, known as the Immortal Object, was said to be immune to any grave injury. Some questioned whether the blood knight's fortitude transcended the natural laws of the world."
• A Rogue legendary in Legion is some bracers called the Zoldyck Family Training Shackles.
• The head lumberjack in the Alliance garrison lumberyard is Justin Timberlord.
• The final phase of Mimiron's fight is the V-07-TR-0N.
• Lady Deathwhisper in Icecrown Citadel drops a bow called Zod's Repeating Bow. The flavor text reads, "Kneel before him."
• Another Icecrown drop is Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets, "For when herding just won't do."
• One Draenor quest sends you after a giant named An'dure the Awakened. The quest is "An'dure the Giant".
• While Reshad and Percy are rummaging through Syth's scrolls, they find one called "Fifty Layers of Shadow", which Reshad calls erotic sorcery-fiction.
• In Legion, part of the questline in Stormheim has you doing quests in Thorim's Peak for a group of dragons. All of the quests you do for them are named after DragonForce songs (For the curious, the ones in question are Wings of Liberty, Heart of a Dragon, Fury of the Storm, Where Dragons Rule, and Cry Thunder!)
• Another quest in the Stormheim area sees you having to rebuild a destroyed living statue in order to progress. The quest comes from the statue's head, and you need to find its right arm, right leg, left arm, and left leg. Whether or not the reference is intentional, it feels less like you're restoring a statue, and more like you're trying to summon Exodia the Forbidden One.
• Bilgerudder, a giant in Azsuna who uses NPCs as Pokémon, sometimes says "A-B-W. A-Always, B-Be, W-Winning. Always be winning, ALWAYS BE WINNING!
• The name of the Shadow Priest's artifact weapon, Xal'atath, sounds very much like Xel'lotath.
  • Bonus points: Shadow Priests have an insanity theme, and Xel'lotath represents Sanity in Eternal Darkness.
• In Bloodthorn Cave on Draenor, there's a pale orc named Gorum. He drops a ring called the Precious Bloodthorn Loop.
• At one point in the Alliance Garrison Campaign, you help Thaelin escape Iron Horde captivity while he pilots a self-built Dark Iron golem.
  • In a similar vein, after Mekkatorque's near-death experience at the Battle of Dazar'alor, he's revived with a chest-mounted device that resembles Iron Man's arc reactor.
• In Dalaran is a flower saleswoman named Aerith Primrose. The new version of Dalaran in Legion has her accompanied by a bodyguard named Koraud. He's dressed similarly to Cloud, right down to the BFS.
• There are three NPCs in the inn at Bradensbrook in Val'sharah - Jon Jafari, Arin Hanson, and Ross O'Donovan.
• Legion added the ability for Hunters to tame mechanical pets found in specific locations. Among them are two wolves named Rush and Treble.
• One of the Death Knight class hall missions is called "The Terror That Flaps in the Day".
• One of the Hunter Class Hall missions has you investigating the murder of an SI:7 agent. You go to her quarters to find a pair of SI:7 agents already there, two Men in Black named Agent Smith and Agent Jones.
• The description for the Eye of Inquisition pet is "Hello. Is it me you're looking for?"
• A lava-based Shaman legendary is Akainu's Absolute Justice.
• In Suramar's menagerie the player fights the devilsaur trainer Graedis Oenthar, who is eaten by said devilsaur as he calls her a "clever girl". The enemies outside have lines such as "Shoot her! SHOOT HER!" and "I'm getting fairly alarmed, here."
  • The following quest is another shout out as you ride a devilsaur named Su'esh through downtown to kill cultists and eat their monstrous allies.
• In the Court of Stars dungeon, pulling a certain boss will draw in three minibosses. If you kill all three of them in advance, and attempt to call in a fourth, the game will note: "But nobody came".
• The drogbar in Highmountain race snails. The Mightstone mobs in Neltharion's Lair can be seen with three named Turbax, Blaze, and Whipsnap.
• The Reliquary of Souls in the Black Temple is formed of three giant heads. During the last phase of the fight, the Essence of Anger's aggro line is "Beware: I live!"
• Harry Potter
  • Nar'thalas is a mage academy, so of course makes a few nods to Hogwarts, such as a caretaker named Filrich with a cat named Mrs. Nors, and penalties such as death or even detention.
  • In Suramar there is a hippogryph named Beakbuck.
  • One of the books in Nar'thalas is called Incredible Monsters and Where to Locate Them.
• Ysera's death, and her final fate, is quite similar to Draco's at the end of Dragonheart.
• The quest for Hunters to recruit Rexxar in Highmountain has you attempting to survive a night in the woods while your vision is obscured by darkness and you must gather meat to fend off hunger, a la Don't Starve.
• One skinning questline in Stormheim involves an NPC named Seymour, and his mother Agnes.
• The Stormwind Stockade features the twin brothers Randolph and Mortimer Moloch.
• The Burning Crusade version of the Headless Horseman dropped a Ring of Ghoulish Delight. Similarly, a PvP talent for death knights in Legion is named Cadaverous Pallor.
• One of the storylines in Val'sharah is titled "All Nightmare Long".
• The achievement for completing all storylines in Azsuna is called "Azsuna Matata".
• Two Artifact Traits for Brewmaster Monks are called Swift as a Coursing River and Dark Side of the Moon.
• One of Kel'thuzad's quotes is "Death is...whimsical today".
• When you dismount from the Grand Expedition Yak, Mystic Birdhat, one of the vendors, might comment, "Those yaungol have straight swords. Straight. Swords."
  • He might also say "Yak. Yak never changes." Likewise, the flavor text for Dracthyr Water Rations is "Water. Water never changes."
• One gray quality weapon in Legion is the Mining Sword. As the description notes, its poor quality is due to swords being very bad at mining.
• The quest "Mglrgrs of Our Grmlgrlr" has a very soapy feeling.
• One mission in Suramar is titled "Power! Get the Power!".
  • In the Vindicaar, a Nightborne elf mentions giving his student a set of exercises measuring in hundreds.
• Tip: If you find yourself alone riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be alarmed - for you are in Azeroth!
• One relic dropped by Trilliax is named Foreign Contaminant.
• Cousin Slowhands says: Put more stuff in the thing more stuff goes in.
• An attack usable by canine Battle Pets is called Superbark. True to its inspiration, it appears powerful, but can't reduce the target's health below 1.
• One of the Order Hall followers for warriors is a vrykul with the last name Stormcloak.
• In one Legion engineering quest, you're sent to retrieve fireworks from four kids. One of them is a human boy named Smacky with a wolf pup named Shooby.
• An Artifact Trait for Demonology warlocks is called "The Expendables".
• An achievement in Black Rook Hold is titled "Black Rook Moan".
• A Battle Pet from a vendor in Azsuna is a Ghost Shark.
• The stable master at the Krazzworks is named Kazz Fetchum.
  • Likewise, one Brawler's Guild boss is a male draenei named Ash'katzuum. He fights using Battle Pets and defeating him gives you "The Very Best Shirt".
• One of the Darkmoon Faire carnies is a red-headed woman named Jessica Rogers.
• During the Darkmoon Faire, there will be a group of four little girls in awe at the festivities, named Jerrica, Aja, Shana, and Kimber.
• The Darkmoon Rabbit is a tiny white-furred rabbit whose face is stained with blood. It's a pseudo-raid boss because it zooms around chewing through necks.
  • Referenced again in Dragonflight with Baby, an adorable corgi who reduces three Primalists to gore in the blink of an eye. The follow-up quest to clean up the mess left behind is "Look at the Bones!"
• In one quest in Winterspring, you hunt Altered Beasts for their brains. The flavor text for the brains reads "Arcane in the membrane... arcane in the brain!"
• A relic dropped by Blood Princess Thal'ena is a Drop of True Blood.
• The Arcane Patrollers around the Ruins of Silvermoon recite RoboCop's Prime Directives before attacking.
• The inn in Gadgetzan is named The Road Warrior.
• In Arathi Highlands, there is a camp called Hammerfall. There is also a ring called Hammerfall Band.
• The Traveling Son and Traveling Warrior encounter is a reference to God of War (PS4).
• Protection Paladins have a talent named First Avenger.
  • Likewise, near the Scrap-O-Matic 1000 in Boralus is an NPC named Steve Martinez with a falcon named Captain.
• An NPC in Boralus is named Ron Mahogany with the title "The Anchor Man".
• An NPC in Freehold is named Harvey the Bird Man.
• While pursuing Priscilla Ashvane as she attempts to escape Boralus, an unfortunate cabbage merchant will have his cart destroyed during the chase if you crash into him.
• An area in Stormsong Valley has a golden bear named Honey Bear, surrounded by his friends Tiger, Pig, Rabbit, Melancholy Mule, and Hunter Robin.
• An achievement in Waycrest Manor is titled "Alchemical Romance".
• In Drustvar, there's a Kul Tiran pet master named Michael Skarn, based off of a secret agent character invented by Michael Scott.
• In Brennadam, you can loot An Unforgettable Luncheon ("Delightfully devilish."), which contains Steamed Clams ("They are obviously grilled.") and a drink called "Aurora Borealis" ("At this time of day? At this elevation? Localized entirely within this bottle? Yes."). You can also buy both items from vendors.
• Speaking of Brennadam, the quest "The Days Are Just Packed" sends you to meet a Seargent Calvin with spiked blonde hair outside the city. Also in town are his pal Hobbs and Babysitter-I mean, Mayor Roz.
• A vignette mob in Drustvar's Crimson Forest is a bear named Hyo'gi. He can grant himself a damage buff called "Smarter than Average" and has a self-heal where he pulls out a picnic basket.
• A vignette mob in Nazmir is a crocolisk that drops an Incessantly Ticking Clock.
• After completing the main story for Stormsong Valley, a quest called "Ruin has Come" becomes available. The questline, and the area you go to, are full of references to Darkest Dungeon. Just a few examples include:
  • The quest giver is named Wayne the Ancestral, referencing The Ancestor's voice actor, Wayne June.
  • Throughout the quests, a Sanity Meter called "Strain" increases and decreases during your stay. If the meter reaches 100, "your resolve is tested".
  • Wayne's quotes are randomized, and most of them are direct quotes from The Ancestor.
  • There are random, out of place spiders and grubs that wander the road, similarly to the random encounters in Darkest Dungeon.
  • The main area has a few wandering ghostly NPCs that reference the Houndmaster and the Blacksmith.
  • Also in the main area, a skeleton can be seen at a desk with a letter in front of him, and a musket propped up and positioned towards the skeleton's head.
• In Stormsong Valley, there are five tameable mechanocats called Sabertrons that come in red, yellow, green, copper, and pink. There's also an unpainted one in Tiragarde Sound named P4-N73R4.
• If you keep poking Lady Lucille Waycrest, she starts channeling Princess Leia.
  • "Aren't you a little short for an adventurer?"
  • "Help me, Marshal Reade. You're my only hope."
  • "Why, you pent-up, dull-witted, mangy-looking walrus herder!"
• Holy and Discipline Priests in Battle for Azeroth have a talent named Shining Force.
• Whenever a player enters or leaves Area 52 in Netherstorm through one of the gates, they get a short buff applied to them called "A-52 Neuralyzer". The tooltip for said buff reads "The flash of light you did not see did not erase your memories."
• One rare encounter one can find in Drustvar is a crying woman that's revealed to be a witch when approached.
• The Lost Platysaur companion is a reference to Ducky from The Land Before Time. According to the pet journal, it even states that it repeats some short sounds about three times in a row, similar to Ducky's trademark phrase "Yep, yep, yep".
• The rare raven named Nevermore.
• In Hillsbrad Foothills, "The Durnholde Challenge" series of quests ends with you fighting a shapeshifting mercury elemental called the D-1000. One of the items received for turning in the quest after slaying it is the Axe of the Judgment Day.
• In Mariner's Row in Boralus, there's a pair of NPCs named Laura Statler and Mark Waldorf who will make a crack about your character as you pass by them.
• A ferry master in Tiragarde Sound is named Denzel Crocker, and next to him are two frogs, one green and one pink.
• During the quest to bring the Dark Irons into the Alliance officially, a dwarf runs in, says, "Goblins in the tunnels. Thought you ought to know." then passes out.
  • The third storyline during the Alliance version of Tides of Vengeance is titled "Mischief Managed".
• In the Freehold instance, one of Trothak the Shark Puncher's moves is a Shark Tornado.
• In Stormheim is a rare tameable Spirit Beast moose named Bulvinkel.
• A storyline in Tiragarde Sound is titled "The Shadow Over Anglepoint".
• The Xal'atath storyline in Battle for Azeroth includes a part where you go into a cave and fight a giant blue makrura named Toatana whose shell is covered in gold.
• The northern side of Dazar'alor contains a cave under a waterfall, in which is a treasure chest. The chest contains a small amount of War Resources, but also a grey item called "Weighty Bag of Sand", the hover tooltip for which describes it as "Weighs almost exactly as much as a fist-sized golden statue."
• Yazma might be named after Yzma, seeing as they're both Treacherous Advisors who plot to off the emperor of a Mayincatec empire.
• The flavor text for Mecha-Bytes reads "Contains a jagged metal rusty-O!"
• The blue dragon Saragosa.
• During the Cataclysm alpha and beta, there were hooded sand gnome NPCs resembling Jawas before they were replaced with pygmies for the live release.
• Fire mages have an Azerite Trait named "Blaster Master".
• Feral druids have an Azerite Trait named "Jungle Fury".
• A Necrolord Soulbind Trait is named "Transcend the Flesh", most likely after the Wolfsschanze album.
• One bonus elite mob that can spawn in the second wing of the Throne of Thunder is the Rocky Horror.
• An item that drops off Emperor Thaurissan in Blackrock Depths is The Emperor's New Cape.
• The Venthyr Class Ability for monks is named Fallen Order.
• An epic BoE fist weapon in Shadowlands is the Wolf-Fanged Fist.
• A world quest in Bastion where you must defeat Devourers is called "AHHH! Real Monsters!"
• Another quest involving Devourers in Ardenweald is called "Who Devours the Devourers?"
• A mob for a wanted poster quest in Bastion is a screecher named Darkwing. Turning in the quest gives you a cloak with the flavor text "Let's get dangerous."
  • If you're doing world quests with Kashaa, she'll occasionally drop in saying 'I am the terror that flaps in the night'.
• In Glitterfall Basin, the fae Seaharper asks if you want to see her friend, then shows you a sponge that she says lives under the sea and has a starfish for a best friend.
  • Related, a quest in Maldraxxus is titled "...Even The Most Ridiculous Request!"
• In Ardenweald you can encounter spirits that have no form of their own, but prey on others by shapeshifting into something they fear. Of course, they are called boggarts.
  • Related, in a world quest where you must expose boggarts hiding among the audience at the amphitheater, one sign that they're a boggart is them describing the play as shallow and pedantic.
• A small group of quests in Ardenweald, all involving removing evil masks from faeries, invokes the names of Persona 5 music tracks, such as "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There", "Blooming Villains", and "Beneath the Mask".
• Industrial rock band Stabbing Westward gets a couple of shout outs in Shadowlands:
  • In Bastion, during the RP dialogue of the quest "Step Back From That Ledge, My Friend," Disciple Nikolon says, "I cannot save them... I cannot even... save... myself..." (referencing "Save Yourself" from Darkest Days)
  • Maldraxxus features a side quest called "Stabbing Wasteward."
• In Ardenweald, there's a transportation network that works through mushrooms called a Mycelial Network.
• An item one can gain from helping Revendreth dailies is a painting depicting three darkhounds baying to the moon, a reference to the 'Three Wolf Moon' image. Another item that can be sold quite casually is a "Miserable Pile of Secrets".
• Traveling through the In-Between invokes the feeling of a loading screen.
• One of the places you can visit for Marasmius's daily quest, 'Into the Unknown', involves traveling to a secret underground Mushroom Kingdom, where you must rescue the Princess Penicilla from Maw-crazed Fungrets, including their ringleader, Bagoom. Marasmius even quips, "Mushroom Kingdom? Never heard of it." And once you fully restore the Mycelial Network, he'll offer a new daily quest called 'Go Beyond!'
• In the far end of the House of Plagues in Maldraxxus, there are slime mobs called Turbulent Juices. The tooltip for the spell they attack with reads "Shoots an array of real turbulent juice, it's comin' at ya."
• A rare Anima power that drops from the Ghastly Charger (a ghostly horse monster) in Torghast is a beneficial heal-over-time called "Spectral Oats", the preferred treat of a certain phantom steed named Garyl.
• A Runecarving Power that Vengeance Demon Hunters can acquire is Spirit of the Darkness Flame.
• In Korthia, in the back of the cave where the rare monster, Consumption, spawns, there lies a deceased Korthian guardian named Wal-Ace, along with his deceased pet gromit.
• In order to rescue a baby murloc named Gurgl, you have to battle a pirate captain who hoards battle pets. Her opening pet is a... thing named Missing1, which also visually glitches her other two battle pets, and has an attack called 'DATA ERROR'.
• An Anima Power for all druid specs is called "Affinity Stones", and gives them the power of every spec's Affinity passive. Similarly, the "Singing Stones" Anima Power for warriors grant an enhancement to each of their Shouts/Yells, and also come in the Infinity Gems' six unique colors.
  • A toy that you can get as a Paragon reward from The Ascended is a Malfunctioning Goliath Gauntlet, which destroys half of the critters within 40 yards when used.
• The Kings' Rest achievement that rewards you with Miimii the miniature mummy as a battle pet is called "How To Keep a Mummy".
• Zo'phex in Tazavesh, the Veiled Market is a blatant parody of General Grievous, namely in that he wields four Laser Blades and spins them rapidly as an attack. To hammer it home, one of the items you can get off him is a "Blade of Grievous Harm".
  • Additionally, an achievement that you can get while fighting him is titled "Will It Blend?"
• In the Mechagon starting zone for Mechagnomes, there's an NPC called "Lelu Multipass".
• Hidden in the Iron Trench in Maldraxxus is a gladiator sitting with a bloodtusk marked as his Skeletal Steed, a slime cat named Pus-In-Boots, three onions, and a corpse marked Some Body.
• In Loch Modan, one of the artifacts that the Explorer's League discovered is a mostly-buried Statue of Liberty.
• The Hellfire Peninsula quest "Shizz Work" references Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) where the player leads a felhound around and kills demon pigs, then rummages through the...leftovers... to find the keys to a shredder. In the film, a dog belonging to one of the heroes eat the keys they desperately need. They feed the dog laxatives and take him for a walk. The pooch just happens to "go" when a group of people looking to kill the heroes show up, and they're so disgusted by the man digging through (presumably runny) dog poop that they run off.
• In Frostwall, an ogre named Guh will sell you a Gas-Powered Stick.
• In Un'Goro Crater, you can find two companions clad in specific colored overalls, named Larion and Muigin.
• Completing several achievements in Torghast grants you the title "Tower Ranger".
• Two of the artifacts in the Reliquary of Remembrance are books that imprison individuals that keep screaming for you to bring the final pages of one color, while avoiding the opposing-colored pages. One screams about finding the final crimson page, but avoid the blue pages, and the other needs the final azure page, but demands you avoid the red pages.
• In the Wrath of Azshara dungeon, a potential world quest can come up where, inside the dungeon, you must defeat a giant crab named Gom Crabbar, a reference to the infernal Gom Jabbar.
• When the Temple of the Jade Serpent dungeon returned in Dragonflight, the Talking Fish mob that spawns between the first and second bosses was given a spell called Splash, which does nothing.
• In Tol Dagor, entering a specific cell reveals that a prisoner broke through the back wall into the sewer. On the ground is a poster that looks like Raquel Welch dressed as a cavewoman.
• The "Spirit of Aquementas" quest chain from Classic is more commonly known as the "Zelda quest chain" as the entire thing is one long reference to the series.
• In the Lords of Dread encounter in the Sepulcher of the First Ones, there's a phase where all the raid members become hostile to each other and need to find which among them is actually Mal'Ganis and Kin'tessa in disguise. During this phase, there's a hidden achievement called "Amidst Ourselves".
• Opening sealed crypts in Revendreth sometimes releases a hostile ventyhr who was trapped inside. They drop an Almost Empty Amontillado Cask, which contains a trowel, jester's bells, and an empty wine bottle.
• In the Waking Shores, there's a mini-quest where you're tasked to save books of historical draconic literature. The books you save are The Lord of the Wings, The Scales of Wrath, Dracuixote, and Pride and Protodrakes. A vendor item you can even find is a book called Celsius 232.
• In Dragonsbane Keep, a stone tablet called "Complaint to Scalepiercer" can be found, wherein a customer complains he arranged to purchase copper ingots but the ones presented were sub-standard. History buffs will recognize this as a reference to the Complaint to Ea-nasir, the oldest written complaint in human history.
• In the Ohn'ahran Plains, there's a rare encounter that consists of a trio of feral bakar working alongside a rockfang. Their names are Shenzai, Bankai, and Edai, and the rockfang Skaara.
• Also in Ohn'ahran Plains is a subzone called Mirror of the Sky, which appears to be a reference to power metal band Kamelot's title song from The Fourth Legacy which contains the lyrics "flying like an eagle from oblivion, rising in the mirror of the sky."
• The main banker in Valdrakken sits in a vault surrounded by piles of gold and other valuables. Their companion is a duck wearing a top hat.
• The companion Spyragos is based on Spyro the Dragon, as his description includes both his Skylanders Character Catchphrase of "All Fired Up!" and his very first line in his first game ("Looks like I've got some things to do!"). The quest to unlock him further references Skylanders by having the drinks needed to complete it named after various playable Skylanders: Flameslinger Rum, Riptide Brew, Popfizz Punch (Pop Fizz), Happy Trigger Sour (Trigger Happy), Slam Bam Swill, Whirlwind Wine, and Stealthy Elven Port (Stealth Elf).
• The new Steamy Romance Novel in Dragonflight is The Lusty Draconian Mage.
• A guest at the Thaldraszus spa complains it's the worst experience they've had since Pyre Festival. At least there they had a burnt tent.
• A visiting Kirin Tor mage in Valdrakken goes by the simple name of Asahina.
• In patch 10.0.5, you're given a quest by a Timewalker representative named Zawarudu.
• Sky Captain Swayze and Ka'anu Reevs reference the Point Break (1991) skydiving scene.
• When you approach the centaur master artisan, Khadin, she'll rarely say "If I had a coin for every apprentice named 'insert player name', I'd have two coins, which is not that much, but it is strange that it has happened twice."
• The Azure Span has two references to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind:
  • The corpse of an elf named Tarheel can be found with a Scroll of Bounding Leap. Using it grants Icarian Flight, allowing you to jump a ridiculous height.
  • A Scroll of Blinding Speed can be found which, as with the Boots of Blinding Speed, renders you completely blind.
• When finding random artifacts in a Zaralek Cavern daily, one of the items you can find is a Mirror Shard, with its description being "It's still you, despite everything."
• When helping Kalecgos discover the whereabouts of other blue dragons, one of them, Kirygosa, is found in the Jade Forest in Pandaria, dancing happily and spraying water about as if she was a goddess.
• The Dracthyr's regiments are called "weyrns", a nod to the Dragonriders of Pern series where the eponymous dragonriders are organised into Weyrs.
• A small, casual, yet groundbreaking fact is that supposedly fictional Hearthstone characters like Sir Finley, A.F. Kay, Cariel Roame, and Guff Runetotem are not only present in the Dragon Isles, but also REAL. Makes one wonder if they've gotten royalties.

Cultural Translations / Woolseyisms

• The French language version of WoW has some references that are unique to itself such as:
  • Millhouse Manastorm singing the Johnny Hallyday song "Allumez le feu!" ("Light the Fire!") during the final boss fight of The Arcatraz (Burning Crusade dungeon).
  • The quest to save Argent Crusaders on the back of a proto-dragon in Icecrown in Wrath of the Lich King is called "Ça va tanguer dans la verdure!". It's a reference to the comic book series The Adventures of Tanguy & Laverdure (about two Ace Pilots) by Belgian author Jean-Michel Charlier.
  • In Mists of Pandaria, a quest is titled "Certains aiment Cho". It is a pun on the French title of Some Like It Hot, Certains l'aiment chaud.
  • In Legion, there's a Class Hall mission called "Il est l'or, monseignor". That line is pronounced by Yves Montand to wake Louis de Funès' character up in the comedy film Delusions of Grandeur.
  • In Legion again, the boss Oakheart from the Darkheart Thicket dungeon says "À la fin du blanc-bois, je souche!". It's a pun on the famous quote "A la fin de l'envoi, je touche!" from the play Cyrano de Bergerac.
  • There's a quest at Maldraxxus in Shadowlands called "Je me voyais déjà en haut de l'affiche" ("I already fancied myself on top of the poster"), from a song by Charles Aznavour.
  • In the Alliance introduction quest of Dragonflight, a Mechagnome NPC says "Mille millions de mille stators!". That's the Character Catchphrase of Captain Haddock in Hergé's Tintin comic books, "Mille millions de mille sabords!", only with "sabords" replaced by "stators".

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