History Main / CrypticBackgroundReference

* The ''HarryPotter'' books sometimes play this straight and sometimes use it to disguise [[{{ptitlexn9xzsjd5fif}} Chekhov's Gun]].

* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean''[='s=] Jack Sparrow made several ''non sequitur'' references to his past exploits (e.g., "And then they made me their chief.", "Apparently you've never been to Singapore.") that enriched his character. The sequels tried to tie the movies together by creating plot points out of them.

* A {{mook}} in ''{{Ronin}}'' asks Jean Reno's former spy "Don't I recognise you?" He replies "Vienna" and shoots him. It's not relevant to the plot at all.

* ''GirlGenius'' does this alot, helping to give the sense that it's an alternate history defined by the presence of {{Mad Scientist}}s. Among the more notable are references to what things were like before [[AntiVillain Baron Wulfenbach]] took over Europe, what the places ruled by [[{{Understatement}} less pleasant]] Sparks are like, and the fact that there are multiple popes.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' often makes fleeting references to events that happened in the thousand years between 1999 and 2999, such as [=~Conan O'Brien~=] losing his legs in the War of 2012, most videotapes being destroyed in 2443 during the Second Coming, the ''StarTrek'' Wars (and the ''StarWars'' Trek) and the Sith Wars.

* ''{{Fable}}'' and ''{{Fable}} 2'' gives us all kinds of elaborate references to places you never go, ancient tribes and cults, and legendary heroes, none of which are ever seen.

** Don't forget M.Bison crowing about how "The Ancient One" couldn't face him. Or Fei Long dedicating his art to "the master and his son". Or those three college students who inspired Sakura to take up fighting. Or pretty much anything at all involving Gill. Or the whole sordid tale of how Carlie Nash's death happened, or for that matter, ''where'' it happened, which also qualifies as a MultipleChoicePast.

* Considering ''{{Blame}}''! is a series that prides itself in it's sheer vagueness, it isn't a big surprise that this trope shows up at least ''once a chapter''. Technology and factions are seen, mentioned and interacted with often, but in most cases, never fully explained. This adds to the already frighteningly vast feel of the '{{Verse}}, and leaves plenty of room for WildMassGuessing.

* For a while, the Pokemon Ash saw on his first day as a trainer was a complete mystery, unknown even to the Pokedex and Professors. Of course, now we know it's Ho-Oh...

* TheSlayers has a hierarchy of gods and demons distributed over four universes. Only some of these deities are described, others are named or merely implied. Nothing is known about the demons Chaotic Blue and Death Fog, for instance, and less than that about their opponents. Fanfic authors have, naturally, expended much effort to fill the gaps.

* ElfQuest ''used'' to do this, but over the years, people RunningTheAsylum have started to fill in most of the gaps. Sometimes very badly.

* In the ''Three Investigators'' mystery stories, the boys' junkyard-based hideout had a large number of code-named entrances (Green Gate one, Red Gate Rover etc.). Every mentioned path or doorway was used in at least one of the stories, except for "Secret Four".

* In Michael Ende's The NeverendingStory, many vague allusions are made to the further adventures of secondary characters, always accompanied by the phrase, "But that is another story, and will be told another time." Needless to say, said stories have never been told.

* Simon R Green often uses this trope in the {{Nightside}} series.
* In The CodexAlera stories, there are several mentions of a group called "The Children of the Sun" who were, it seems, totally wiped out by the Alerans relatively recently (historically speaking) and, as a last action, did * something,* * somewhere,* for * somereason* and now there's a jungle in the middle of the continent, that no one can enter for reasons which are unexplained. We never find out what the jungle is, who the Children were or why people can't get in there.

* The story of Princess Nell in Neal Stephenson's ''The Diamond Age'' starts out like this, and Nell and the Primer spend the next decade or so expanding the references.

* Following the tradition of the films, the StarWarsExpandedUniverse make references of their own, some of them mentioned or expanded on by others, some of them never mentioned again. It gets downright fractal at times. Try hitting [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Random Random Page]] on [[TheWikiRule Wookieepedia]] and see [[WikiWalk how far you can get]] before finding an article with one line of description and one or two appearances.

* We know about {{Torchwood}} 1 and Torchwood 3. But the mysterious disappearance of Torchwood 4, and why Torchwood 2 is one guy, called Archie, above a bank in Glasgow, ("A very strange man") will probably never be revealed.

** A common theme in the original series and early TNG is having a character list one or two examples from real-world history and adding a fictional example from the setting that is implied to be similar by association.

* In {{Tsukihime}}, during the final encounter with Nrvnqsr, he and Arcueid have an entire conversation on things that you don't learn until much later in the game, or in supplemental materials. This is intensified by the use of code-like terms, such as referring to Roa as the "Serpent of Akasha".

* Also present in TheDescendants, with characters mentioning minor villains they've defeated, superheroes in other cities, and seemingly pivotal moments in history that haven't even been explained in flashback. Knowing the series though, they may just be a series of [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]]
* DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog makes mention to other superheroes/villans outside the main characters, such as Bait and Switch, Johnny Snow, and Hourglass.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' often makes fleeting references to events that happened in the thousand years between 1999 and 2999, such as [=~Conan O'Brien~=] losing his legs in the War of 2012, most videotapes being destroyed in 2443 during the Second Coming, the StarTrek Wars (and the StarWars Trek) and the Sith Wars.

* MahouSenseiNegima has a visual one: in [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v01/c001/10.html This]] splash page from the first chapter of the manga, look closely at the center. Zazie Rainyday [[http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/StarfireandSakura/zazieclaw.png has claws]]. 250+ chapters later, this is still totally unexplained, as is pretty much everything regarding Zazie. [[spoiler: It finally appears in the story proper in ''chapter 298''.]]

[[folder: Manga & Anime]]
* Considering ''{{Blame}}''! is a series that prides itself in it's sheer vagueness, it isn't a big surprise that this trope shows up at least ''once a chapter''. Technology and factions are seen, mentioned and interacted with often, but in most cases, never fully explained. This adds to the already frighteningly vast feel of the '{{Verse}}, and leaves plenty of room for WildMassGuessing.
* ''EurekaSeven'' features the characters spouting a lot of {{Engrish}} phrases that doesn't mean anything until a good 20 episodes later. It gets pretty confusing when half of the spoken terms have no meaning.
* MahouSenseiNegima has a visual one: in [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v01/c001/10.html This]] splash page from the first chapter of the manga, look closely at the center. Zazie Rainyday [[http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j43/StarfireandSakura/zazieclaw.png has claws]]. 250+ chapters later, this is still totally unexplained, as is pretty much everything regarding Zazie. [[spoiler: It finally appears in the story proper in ''chapter 298''.]]
** This is a BrickJoke, actually.
** The Magic World is filled to the brim with this type of stuff, with people referring to all sorts of races, animals, places, and phenomena that don't happen here.
* For a while, the Pokemon Ash saw on his first day as a trainer was a complete mystery, unknown even to the Pokedex and Professors. Of course, now we know it's Ho-Oh...
* ''SailorMoon'' has its share of this. ''Sailor Stars'' is practically ''made'' of this trope.
** Some specific examples? And it could always just be a result of AdaptationDecay, you know -- the manga does explain some stuff that was never mentioned in the anime.
* TheSlayers has a hierarchy of gods and demons distributed over four universes. Only some of these deities are described, others are named or merely implied. Nothing is known about the demons Chaotic Blue and Death Fog, for instance, and less than that about their opponents. Fanfic authors have, naturally, expended much effort to fill the gaps.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''AstroCity'' uses this trope a ''lot,'' especially in the earlier volumes when the universe wasn't so fleshed out. There are constant references to heroes, villains, and incidents that the readers have not seen yet - and sometimes never see, since the story is more about how people think and live in a superhero world than about the actual exploits of the heroes. The author, Kurt Busiek, uses this trope a lot in his work - the same treatment is given to his magic-replaced-technology World War I story ''Arrowsmith,'' among others.
* ElfQuest ''used'' to do this, but over the years, people RunningTheAsylum have started to fill in most of the gaps. Sometimes very badly.

[[folder: Film]]
* Upon its original release, ''StarWars'' was a prime example of this, full of name-drops that had nothing to do with the plot but which combined to make the fictional world feel boundless and lived-in. References to the Imperial Senate, the Old Republic, 'big Corellian ships' and the spice mines of Kessel are a few examples. Scenes that were cut in the original release, such as Han's confrontation with Jabba the Hutt, also made things like Greedo's confronting Han over something he did to wrong Jabba seem bigger. Of course, literally every single throwaway line has been since filled in to ridiculous levels of detail by either the {{prequel}}s or the ExpandedUniverse.
--->'''Lando''': "She's as safe now as she's ever likely to be. Don't worry about that."\\
'''Han''': "You know, that's almost exactly the same thing you said back on Boordii. That botched dolfrima run - remember? You said, 'It'll be fine; don't worry about it.'"\\
'''Lando''': "Yes, but this time I mean it."
* ''BladeRunner'': "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the TannhauserGate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. ... Time to die."
* The ''GalaxyQuest'' ShowWithinAShow television series featured the Omega Thirteen, a device which was named and implied to be very important without ever explaining what it did (the series was canceled before it would be revealed). In-universe fans have been wildly speculating about it. We eventually find out that it [[spoiler:allows very limited time travel]] - or at least, the one built by the Thermians does.
** Technically, they based it on their own {{Fanon}}; in the universe of the show-within-a-movie, it was never revealed, though some fan speculation was along the same lines.
* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean''[='s=] Jack Sparrow made several ''non sequitur'' references to his past exploits (e.g., "And then they made me their chief.", "Apparently you've never been to Singapore.") that enriched his character. The sequels tried to tie the movies together by creating plot points out of them.
* Whatever is in [[MacGuffin the suitcase]] in ''PulpFiction.'' It's described as something beautiful, but that's all.

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* In ''{{Stargate SG-1}},'' one of the four great races is the Furlings, who are never shown in 10 years of episodes (though a parody in episode 200 shows them as small furry creatures, looking somewhat like Ewoks).
** The non-appearance of the Furlings has become something of a RunningGag.
* In addition to the character [[{{Backstory}} backstories]] seen in flashbacks, ''{{Lost}}'' has included a number of throwaway references that have captured fan imaginations, including Sawyer's "Tampa job" and Sayid's Basra incident.
* In ''DoctorWho'', the entire freaking show is built on this trope. The Doctor will routinely spout off about unexplained spacial phenomena, utterly bizarre alien cultures and references to the [[NoodleIncident Last Great Time War]] and to many other things.
** Well, four things.
*** Well, four things and a lizard.
**** But it was a VERY smart lizard.
**** [[OverlyLongGag The world will never know the danger it faced from Red Hatching!]]
* Unintentionally done in the TV series adaptation of ''TheDresdenFiles'', where things that are explained in the books are referenced, but are never explained in the series. It is possible they would have been, [[TooGoodToLast had the show not been canceled after a season]].
* ''HowIMetYourMother'': There was much speculation as to the origins of the goat in Ted's apartment, which is mentioned in season three but abruptly dismissed with "oh wait, that was on my thirty-FIRST birthday". Fans had a whole season to wonder, but the actual explanation was, perhaps inevitably, a bit of a letdown.
** The title itself refers to How Ted Met the Mother of His Children. Her identity ''still'' hasn't been revealed.
* We know about {{Torchwood}} 1 and Torchwood 3. But the mysterious disappearance of Torchwood 4, and why Torchwood 2 is one guy, called Archie, above a bank in Glasgow, ("A very strange man") will probably never be revealed.
* The constantly expanding ''StarTrek'' universe is replete with this one and usually two or three are generated per episode.
** A common theme in the original series and early TNG is having a character list one or two examples from real-world history and adding a fictional example from the setting that is implied to be similar by association.
* ''{{Leverage}}'' has several of these, such as the named cons that we never see the team run, like the "London Spank," the "Genevan Paso Doble" and the "Apple Pie," which is a "Cherry Pie" but with lifeguards. Also, there's what Nate did at the Russian border. WordOfGod says that [[spoiler:he may have technically hijacked a train,]] but that hasn't been mentioned on the show and likely never will be.
* The early seasons of ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' occasionally referenced B5's third-in-command, Major Atumbe, who was never seen on screen. Basically a HandWave indicating [[HufflepuffHouse someone was]] [[HeroOfAnotherStory still in command]] of the station when both Sinclair/Sheridan and Ivanova were absent.
** Also, much like ''StarTrek'' above, B5 would frequently have characters relate something happening in the episode to one or two things from real-world Earth culture or history, and add a third example from future Earth history ca. 2000-2250 or from a non-Earth culture.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music]]
* The song "Red Barchetta," from the {{Rush}} album ''Moving Pictures'', takes place in an unspecified {{dystopia}}n future and relies heavily on this trope to paint an impression of the setting in the song's limited timeframe. An example:
-->My uncle has a country place that no one knows about
-->He says it used to be a farm before the Motor Law
-->And on Sundays I elude the Eyes and hop a turbine freight
-->To far outside the Wire, where my white-haired uncle waits.
** The [[http://www.mgexperience.net/article/nice-drive.html original short story]] that inspired the lyrics is a bit more descriptive of the setting, but still succumbs to this trope.
[[/folder]]

* KingdomHearts enjoys this quite a bit. In fact, each game features a secret trailer hinting at the plot of the next game...''before anyone actually thinks up what the plot will actually be''. To this end they've been infamously vague.

* Fable and Fable 2 gives us all kinds of elaborate references to places you never go, ancient tribes and cults, and legendary heroes, none of which are ever seen.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* MagicTheGathering uses this a lot. Many of the early ones were given explanations later, but some weren't - for example, we still don't know whose uncle [[EvilUncle Uncle Istvan]] is supposed to be.
* BattleTech had an interesting case; the ''Mechwarrior Dark Age'' novels made refernces to events that had occured in the 65-year TimeSkip since the last published ''Battletech'' novel. The result was a lot of terms used in general discussion that had no explanation - The Jihad, the Ruins of Gabriel, Apollyon, the Master and so forth. Since then, new ''Battletech'' fiction has begun to explain some of this.
* The current incarnation of the Necrons in ''Warhammer40K'' was inspired largely by a throwaway line by Rick Priestley about "the quiescent perils of the C'tan" which "lay beyond the Gates of Varl". References were quietly worked into the game over the years in the form of the C'tan phase sword and phase knife, until the release of the first Necron codex where the C'tan were finally revealed as the "gods" of the Necrons, [[EldritchAbomination indescribably ancient and evil monsters which feed on suns.]]
** There are also the two "missing" Space Marine Primarchs and their Legions. Every mention of the twenty Primarchs lists numbers II and XI as "All records deleted", and EU works have consistently refused to give any detail about who they were or what happened to them.
[[/folder]]

Compare to the closely-related NoodleIncident, CanonFodder, NarrativeFiligree and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. See HufflepuffHouse for organizations with this treatment more referred to than seen. Not related to a {{Henway}}. If the reference in question is actually explained later on, it becomes {{Foreshadowing}}, ChekhovsGun, or BrickJoke.

** One thing Tolkien knew from his studies as a linguist and English teacher is that some of the old myths recreate the WhatsASecretFour effect ''entirely by accident'', when the relevant poems or stories are lost -- the medieval Finns probably had an explanation of [[{{Mystery Science Theater 3000}} what a Sampo is]], for example, but it didn't survive the Middle Ages.

* Upon its original release, ''StarWars'' was a prime example of this, full of name-drops that had nothing to do with the plot but which combined to make the fictional world feel boundless and lived-in. References to the Imperial Senate, the Old Republic, 'big Corellian ships' and the spice mines of Kessel are a few examples. Scenes that were cut in the original release, such as Han's confrontation with Jabba the Hutt, also made things like Greedo's confronting Han over something he did to wrong Jabba seem bigger. Of course, literally every single throwaway line has been since filled in to ridiculous levels of detail by either the {{prequel}}s or the ExpandedUniverse, so...
** The more imaginative writers of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse make references of their own, some of them mentioned or expanded on by others, some of them never mentioned again. It gets downright fractal at times. Try hitting [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Random Random Page]] on [[TheWikiRule Wookieepedia]] and see [[WikiWalk how far you can get]] before finding an article with one line of description and one or two appearances.

*** Well, considering this is TvTropes, we're not really ones to talk...
*** So if [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jatras this]] was the first random page I got, what does that mean?

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