Culture

Realms of the Haunting is a game rich in cultural references (mostly of religious and mythological nature) which shall be listed in the following index, along with a description of their meaning.

A

Abaddon

In Realms of the Haunting, Abaddon is the Keeper of the Key to the Abyss and Guardian Power of the Soulstone.
In Biblical references, "Abaddon" comes to mean "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol. In the Book of Revelation, Abaddon is personified as "angel of the abyss" or "angel of the bottomless pit", respectively rendered in Greek as Apollyon.

Ace of Spades

The card that Gaul leaves by the main entrance of the house. On it is written, "Adam, now it begins". The Ace of Spades is commonly thought of as the highest-ranking card in the deck of playing cards. In popular myth and folklore, it is known as the "death card." As such it was used by American soldiers as a psychological weapon in the Vietnam War, based on the notion that Vietnamese ancient traditions supposedly held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune. Thus, it was common practice to leave an Ace of Spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card.

Adam

Given name of the main protagonist in Realms of the Haunting. According to the Book of Genesis, Adam was the first man created by God and noted in subsequent Jewish, Christian and Islamic commentary. His wife was Eve.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness

In the Mausoleum there is a wooden door with this piece of writing on it. It's a passage from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (King James translation).

And he that will his health deny, down among the dead to lie.

These words can be heard while travelling through the Tower and are loosely cited by Florentine from a poem by English writer William Morris, namely "Down Among the Dead Men".

And the moon shall turn as blood and the Sun as sackcloth, in the last days.

These words can be heard while travelling through the Tower and refer to a passage from the Book of Revelation.

Archangels

Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. The only archangel ever clearly named as being of the order in the Bible is Michael. Gabriel, named in Luke, is considered to be an archangel, as are Raphael (mentioned in the Book of Tobit) and Uriel (mentioned in the Book of Enoch).

Two of these four archangels are in some form referred to in Realms of the Haunting, namely Raphael and Michael (for more information concerning the latter, see Aelf).

Arkham

The address header of one of the letters which Adam finds in the Study reads:

The Delberry
Arkham
Massachusetts

Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers. In his story The Thing on the Doorstep, Lovecraft describes "the ancient, mouldering, and subtly fearsome town...witch-cursed, legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled, sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades brood out over the centuries beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic."

B

Belial

Name of one of the main antagonists in Realms of the Haunting. In the Bible, as well as some Christian and Jewish apocrypha, Belial is identified as a demon associated with the wicked or worthless.

(By the seven be bound)

Title of chapter IX. Recited by Gaul as he takes one of the green crystals from the altarstone in the Temple of the Morning Star:
Gaul - the Temple

Personal Musing: I'm still wondering whether this solemnly recited passage is a quotation or a reference of some sort?

C

Chullum ashdar in derias

These words can be found in the Mausoleum and need to be memorized in order to lower a statue which is blocking the entrance to another room. Apparently, it's a formula connected to the animation of a Golem.

Personal Musing: I was puzzling over this line for a while, trying to identify an anagrammatic structure (such as "Adam, Claude is a Liar" but that's apparently incorrect) or a reference of some sort, yet so far my efforts have been to no avail. Do feel free to enlighten my clouded spirits please, in case you have found a more viable explanation.

Crop Circles

Some of the documents which Adam finds throughout his journey, specifically the newspaper cutting from the Scrapbook and one of the newspaper cuttings inside Belial's Prison, refer to the phenomenon of crop circles, patterns created by the flattening of crops and popularly associated with the paranormal.

D

Dante's Comedy

When Adam enters the sanctum which leads to the Gates of Sheol for the first time, he comments that it looks "like something from Dante's Comedy," hereby referring to the Divine Comedy by Italian writer Dante Alighieri. This epic poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

To some extent we could analogize Adam's own travels through the Realms of the Haunting, being full of guilt and sorrow over his father's death and not having spent more time with him, having to suffer the figurative tortures of hell, before reaching catharsis and receiving salvation, being able at last to see his father again.

Alternatively, but similarly, we could compare Claude to Dante Alighieri, who himself was a Florentine writer; we could thereby think of Claude's Journal as a simile to Dante's account of his travels through the realms of the haunting, as described in his Divine Comedy. Following this stream of (ill)logic, Adam (and the player) would be the reader of Florentine's Journal. The book is certainly involving, isn't it?

Death, Adam, is as light as a feather. Duty, is as heavy as a rock.

Rebecca says these words after she and Adam have received Eternity from the Iranian god of water, Tishtrya. This is a slightly altered quotation from Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising, the fourth book in his Wheel of Time series, where this is a Shienaran proverb: "Duty is heavy as a mountain, death is light as a feather." The game also alludes to other aspects of Wheel of Time. For more information, please refer to the main article. Apparently this expression is derived from a Japanese proverb, precisely an oft-quoted part of the code of the Samurai, which states that "while duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather."

Demonology

ROTH makes reference to several figures of Christian and occult demonology:

• Belial
• Pyrichiel
• Raym
• Raysiel
• Vine

The Devil take the hindmost

Title of chapter XX. An old-fashioned idiomatic expression which can be paraphrased as "Let everyone put his or her own interest first, leaving the unfortunate to their fate." First recorded in 1608, this proverb probably originated as an allusion to a children's game in which the last (coming "hindmost") is the loser, and came to mean utter selfishness.

Doppelgänger

As Adam treads through the Gates of Sheol for the first time, he enters the so-called Halls of Doppelgangis, the demon of insight and personality, and encounters a reflection of himself who sits on a throne and says to him that, "Goodness reflects the light; and evil bears the seed of all darkness. Choose well."

Hawk refers to Belial as Florentine's Doppelgänger of sorts: Hawk - Belial

In some traditions, seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death, or a warning of an approaching danger. The doppelgänger theme has also been prominently featured in literary works, e.g. by Edgar Allan Poe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Heinrich Heine.

Dreams

During their first encounter in the Study, Rebecca tells Adam that "dreams are a curious thing." The ending of the game suggests that the whole journey which Adam undertook was but a dream, albeit one of great intensity and vividity. One of the subjects that Adam can inquire Rebecca about is lucid dreams, dreams which enable the dreamer to actively participate in and even exert influence on the imaginary experiences in the dream environment.

In his journal, Florentine has granted some space to describing the dreams he had of the sword Eternity.

Before having even entered the Mansion, Adam has had very vivid dreams about the house and about Rebecca (see also precognitive dreams).

E

Earplugs

See also Odysseus

The Earplugs are one of the items that are necessary to solve the riddles surrounding the acquisition of the Key of Tears from inside Raysiel's Tower.

They are an allusion to the myth of Odysseus or Ulysses, respectively: lest they be driven insane (and shipwrecked in the process) by the enchanting song of the Sirens, Odysseus ordered his oarsmen to occlude their ears with beeswax. When inspecting the floating siren figure, Rebecca will notice a certain similarity to a picture she once came across in a book about Odysseus.

ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the apparent ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience. The term was coined by Duke University researcher J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct, hunch, or intuition. The term implies sources of information currently unexplained by science.
In ROTH, Rebecca apparently has psychic abilities of this kind. There are several instances where this becomes apparent:

• During her first encounter with Adam in the Study she reads his mind.
• Upon entering the Mansion's Armoury, Rebecca will telegraph an external event to Adam, in which they witness Gaul magically warding the front door of the Mansion and leaving an Ace of Spades playing card, on which is written: "Adam, now it begins."
  Gaul - 'Coming Events...'
• By using her pendant, Adam and Rebecca are also able to communicate with Hawk, specifically in the crypt area leading to the Caverns and inside his prison.

F

Father of Lies

Title of chapter XVII. Attributed to the Devil in the canon of the New Testament, meaning that he is the source of lies, i.e. that his evil, perverse nature is personified in the spawning of untruths. The game suggests that Belial is the 'Father of Lies'. In the Second Epistle of the Corinthians, 'Belial' is a reference to Satan.

G

Gaul

As seen in Gaul - the Temple, Gaul quite obviously limps. His defective walk could be considered an allusion to his name which is of German origin and describes a bad, old or incapable horse. Curiously, both Gaul and Hawk, then, are named after animals.

H

Haunted House

A haunted house is an edifice which is believed to be the center for supernatural occurrences or paranormal phenomena, and may allegedly contain ghosts, poltergeists, or even malevolent entities such as demons. The motive of the haunted house has been prominently featured in literary fiction (such as Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls" and King's "The Shining"), films (e.g. "House on Haunted Hill", "The Haunting" and "The Others") and videogames ("Alone in the Dark", "Clive Barker's Undying" and "Realms of the Haunting").

Hawk

Hawk is, like most of the characters that Adam and Rebecca encounter throughout their journey, a product of the Soulstone. He describes himself as a vessel born of time to become a Host for the Power of Light, and emphasizes that, thus, he is the complete antithesis of Gaul - the Host in spe for the Power of Darkness.

In ancient Egypt, the hawk was a symbol associated with the sun and especially sacred to Horus, Ra, Osiris, and Seker. Horus and Ra were often depicted as hawk-headed, both being solar deities. The hawk also depicted one of the parts of the human constitution, the human soul. For more information on hawks in mythology and folklore, go here.

Helston

Until his death, Adam's father was the pastor in the small Cornish village of Helston which provides the general setting for Realms of the Haunting. Its name comes from a large block of stone that some say was used to block the entrance to Hell and which was, thus, referred to as "Hell's Stone". This stone was according to legend being carried by the devil before he was challenged by the town's patron saint, St. Michael. In their ensuing combat, the stone was dropped and left to the town. It spent many years laying in the courtyard of the Angel Inn. But the stone is no longer whole, in 1783 it was broken up and used for building materials. The remains are now part of the west wall of the now renamed Angel Hotel. They can be recognized as two black stones that are set in the wall, under a window found in an alley adjacent to the hotel. They are marked by the grooves of coaches that passed over them during its days in the courtyard.

I

I will also send wild beasts amongst you

In the room with the throne where Adam receives the marks, there is this passage from the King James version of the Bible, namely Leviticus 26:22, written on the wall.

It is Raym. And with him follow the hordes of Hell.

These words can be heard while travelling through the Tower. For more information, see Raym.

K

Kabbalah

Realms of the Haunting contains various references to Jewish mysticism which is more commonly known as Kabbalah (or Qabalah, respectively). According to Kabbalah, the universe is conceived as being composed of ten fundamental spheres of existence, and the 22 shining paths which connect them. Together they make up what is called the Tree of Life. It is also taught that there are four realms / levels of existence. As with the Tree of Life the four worlds emanate from one another in a series, from the highest and most divine to the lowest material level. The four worlds describe different regions of the Tree of Life, with a number of spheres, or Sephira, being attributed to each world. Each world is also associated with various archangels, demons, heavens and hells.
The four worlds are:

• Atziluth: The highest of the four worlds Atziluth is known as the realm of causes. This is a world of pure spirit, unadulterated divine light. It is entirely active and giving and thus is sometimes considered to be symbolically masculine. The three highest spheres, sometimes known as the trinity - Kether, Chokmah and Binah belong to this realm. The various Divine Names of Qabalah are also associated with this world.
• Briah: The second highest of the four worlds Briah is known as the realm of Ideas. This is a world of pure intellect, but this should not be considered to relate to logic and rational problem solving and such like. Briah is abstract Intellect, the realm of Platos Ideas, the divine archetypes from which all things are created; in Briah is the Idea of the world, before it is actually created. Briah is composed of the three spheres directly below the abyss: Chesed, Geburah and Tipareth. The Archangels of Qabalah are associated with this realm, and may be thought of as residing within it just as we reside within the material world.
• Yetzirah: The second lowest of the four worlds, Yetzirah is known as the realm of formation, or the formative world. This is the realm of the Astral, of the collective unconscious and the Anima Mundi (world Soul) and such like. It is the realm where specific forms are created. Yetzirah is composed of the three spheres directly below the viel of Parekh: Netzache, Hod and Yesod. The Angels of Qabalah reside within this world.
• Assiah: The lowest of the four worlds, Assiah is known as the realm of effects. It is the world of the body and the senses, and of all objects and matter. Only one sphere belongs to this realm and that is Malkuth.

Knights Templar

It is evident from the paintings and coats of arms found in the mansion that Florentine used to be a member of the Order of the Temple, one of the most famous and powerful Christian military orders which was historically active in the years 1119–1314. The order is also referenced in Florentine's Journal.

In the PC Format feature on Realms of the Haunting, producer Paul Green makes mention of the Templars as an influence in conceiving the game's lore. The article speaks of Florentine as a man "who made his living as a Knight Templar in Syria."

Kudurru

Kudurru was a type of stone document used as boundary stones and as records of land grants to vassals by the Kassites in ancient Mesopotamia between the 16th and 12th centuries BCE. The word is Akkadian for "frontier" or "boundary." The kudurrus would contain symbolic images of the gods who were protecting the contract, the contract itself and the divine curse that would be placed on a person who broke the contract.
In Realms of the Haunting, kudurrus can be found in the Tower in the form of orthostats which serve as pathmarkers.

L

Look Homeward, Angel

Novel by Thomas Wolfe. This book can be found just at the start of Realms of the Haunting on a small table in the Main Hall of the Mansion.

M

Mark of the Beast

Title of chapter VIII. A term mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

Michael

As mentioned in the Book of Revelation, Michael is an archangel, one of the principal 50 angels in Christian and Islamic tradition. His name means "Who is like God?" There are several hints within Realms of the Haunting that Aelf is a manifestation of the biblical Saint Michael. Apart from that, Adam's father was a vicar at St. Michael's, the local church of the parish of Helston. The in-game church has a magnificent stained glass window depicting Michael as he casts the Devil out of Heaven.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

In the room with the throne where Adam receives the marks, there is this passage from the King James version of the Bible, namely Hosea 4:6, written on the wall.

N

Normans

Inside the lady chapel of St. Michael's there is a statue depicting a knight which Adam says to stem from the Norman period lasting from 1066 to 1154. These statues are also frequently encountered in the Mausoleum.

O

Odysseus

A legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. He is most famous for the ten eventful years he took to return home after the ten-year Trojan War. Among his adventures was the encounter with the Sirens. Circe had warned him of the dangers of these singing creatures who lured men to their death on the rocks around their island. She advised him to avoid them but said that, if he really felt that he must, he should have his men plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast to keep him from escaping.
In Realms of the Haunting, one of the tasks in Raysiel's Tower requires Adam to use a pair of Earplugs (which remind him of Odysseus) in order to avoid being harmed by the noise coming from a floating Siren figure in one of the rooms.

P

Pyrichiel

According to the official Interplay walkthrough, the creature that Adam has to fight after solving the puzzles in the third test of the Key to the Abyss is Pyrichiel, major demon and Master of Fire (Greek pyr "Fire") who also appears in the Steganographia of Johannes Trithemius, an occultist book encompassing three volumes written in the 15th century and dealing mainly with magic-related subjects, such as using spirits to communicate over long distances. Lately, however, these volumes have been known to be actually concerned with cryptography and steganography. Trithemius also invented the so-called tabula recta, a device of encryption.

R

Rainbow

The rainbow is a symbol of God's faithfulness and his promise to never again destroy the earth by flood. It comes from the story of Noah and the Flood. After the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant with Noah to never again destroy the earth and all living creatures by flood.
In Realms of the Haunting, the rainbow features prominently in Raysiel's Tower, namely in the form of a rainbow-coloured key (fashioned indirectly out of seven coloured gems) and a pair of rainbow-coloured glasses, both of which are needed to advance in pursuit of the Key of Tears.

Raphael

In Realms of the Haunting, Raphael is a so-called Gardener who serves as a guide to the Tower.

According to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Raphael is an archangel. His faculty concerns all manners of healing. He appears as a young man carrying a flask, a staff or a fish. The fish hereby represents the healing power of God and is a reference to the Book of Tobit wherein Raphael tells Tobias to catch a fish and then uses the galbladder to cure his father's blindness.

Raquia

In Realms of the Haunting, Raquia is one of the four realms which Adam enters throughout his journey.

According to Jewish mysticism, Heaven is subdivided into seven Realms, Raquia being the second realm or Heaven, respectively. Its guardians are two archangels, Zachariel and Raphael, and it is considered the realm where the fallen angels are imprisoned and to which the planets fastened.

Raym

While travelling through the Tower these words can be heard: "It is Raym. And with him follow the hordes of Hell."
According to Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Raym (or more prominently Räum or Raum, respectively) is a Great Earl of Hell, ruling thirty legions of demons. He is depicted as a crow which adopts human form at the request of the conjurer. Raym steals treasures out of kings' houses, carrying them where he wishes, and destroys cities and dignities of men (he is said to have great dispraise for dignities). He can also tell things past, present and future, and reconcile friends and foes.

Red moon

Red moon in one of the cutscenes

During one of the cutscenes in which Adam and Rebecca first happen upon the Mansion's central courtyard with the hanging skeletons, Memory's Garden, a red moon can be seen. This can be interpreted as a reference to a passage from the Book of Revelation that talks about the opening of the sixth seal:

“

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

”

From a scientific point of view, the red colour of the moon is attributed to a lunar eclipse when Earth intercedes between its satellite and the Sun, interrupting its immediate exposition to sunlight. Some of the light rays coming from the sun, however, are being refracted by particles in the Earth's atmosphere. They get redirected behind the Earth and onto the Moon, hence it's still visible in a copper sort of red. The more atmosphere that sunlight travels through, the more the blue and green parts of the spectrum are scattered (cf. sunrises and sunsets).

S

Serpent

In Realms of the Haunting, in order to open the Sarcophagus in the Mansion's Study, Adam has to find and place seven golden Serpent Statuettes on the indentations in front of the Egyptian receptacle.

A word of Latin origin (from serpens, serpentis "something that creeps, snake"), signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some symbolic value. In Christian context, it commonly stands for a deadly, subtle, malicious enemy. A prominent example of this includes Eve's seduction by a serpent to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, an act explicitly forbidden by God. The serpent tempted Eve by suggesting that eating the fruit would cause her to become as wise as God, having knowledge of good and evil. Eve ate the fruit, in rebellion against God's command and later so did her husband, Adam, despite God's warning that "in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die". The serpent is also occasionally used as a synonym for the Devil.

Seven Seals

A concept of Christian eschatology, stemming from the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible, where a book with seven seals is described in Revelation 5:1. The seven seals are opened by the Lamb (presumably Jesus), one by one. Each opening of a seal is followed by some event or series of events.
In Realms of the Haunting, the seven Shards and Seals are attributed to the Soulstone and serve to bind the Universe together.

Sheol

In Realms of the Haunting, Sheol is one of the four realms which Adam enters throughout his journey.

In the Old Testament, Sheol is a term for the realm of the dead. In the New Testament, it is usually translated as hades, a term normally associated with the underworld in Greek mythology.

Shrive, the

The English verb to shrive is an obsolete word referring to the act of confession, or to hear the confession of and give absolution to (a penitent). For more information, see Shrive.

Sword in the Stone

Florentine at some point took the sword Eternity from the Soulstone and thus performed the first step in unsettling the balance of the universe. The motive of the sword in the stone might hereby be a reference to the story of Arthur: According to the legend, the Sword belonged to Uther Pendragon, the High King of Britain. After Uther's death there was no known heir and the barons were fighting among each other as to who would become the next High King of Britain. Merlin, Uther's counselor, had the sollution: he took Uther's sword and, by dint of his magic, pushed it into a rock. The one man able to draw the sword from the stone again would become the rightful heir. Many tried but only Arthur succeeded in the task and consequently gained the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain.

T

The Pit and the Pendulum

In Charles Randall's vicarage, we come across a book named "The Pit and the Pendulum," probably an anthology of several stories, since the eponymous work itself comprises only 6155 words.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in which the narrator of the story is deemed guilty for an unnamed crime and put into a completely dark room. He passes out while trying to determine the size of the room. When he wakes up, he realizes there is a large, deep pit in the middle of the room. He loses consciousness again and awakens strapped on his back, unable to move more than his head. He soon realizes there is a large blade-like pendulum hanging above him, slowly getting closer to cutting through his chest. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. Several editions including various short-stories by Poe have been released under this title.

There is a Reaper whose name is death and with his sickle keen, he reaps the bearded grain at breath and the flowers that grow between.

This quotation is a slightly altered version of the first stanza of the poem, "The Reaper And The Flowers," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and can be heard while travelling through the Tower.

There is no armour against fate; Death lays his icy hands on kings.

During the fight between Adam and Belial on the Island of Threads, it is possible to trigger a cutscene if Adam gets too close to Belial (instead of hiding behind one of the rocks). Therein, Belial quotes British dramatist James Shirley in a slightly altered form: "There is no armour against fate; Death lays his hands even on kings."

Tishtrya

Tishtrya is the name of a Zoroastrian divinity associated with all forms of water, i.e. clouds, lakes and the sea. In Realms of the Haunting, Adam and Rebecca make his acquaintance upon completing the riddle in Arqua. He materialises from the fountain on the upper floor and rewards them with the Sword of the Dragon, Eternity, in exchange for the prepared Hookah Pipe.

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell / In adamantine chains and penal fire

Pyrichiel, whom Adam has to fight after solving the puzzles pertaining to the third test of the Key to the Abyss, speaks these words which originate from John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" (Book I, 47f).

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

After Adam and Rebecca have freed Hawk, he speaks of Arqua as the place which harbours the Tree of Understanding of which their ancestral mother and father (Eve and Adam) ate and thus received the knowledge of good and evil.

Tree of Life

By locating a floral key and using it on a door fashioned into the likeness of an ancient tree in the basement of Charles Randall's vicarage, Adam and Rebecca reach a shifting image of the Tree of Life. Later on, as Adam enters the white Elohim Tower on the Island of Threads, he will find the real manifestation of the tree.

In the Book of Genesis, it is a tree planted by God in midst of the Garden of Eden (Paradise), whose fruit gives everlasting life, i.e. immortality. Together with the Tree of Life, God planted the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. After eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the biblical account states that Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life.

U

Uguisubari

Uguisubari or Nightingale Floors, as they are known in the Western world, refer to a certain type of floor that has been used in some Japanese temples and palaces. When tread upon, they would produce a chirping sound, alleviating detection of unwanted intruders.
One of the rooms in Raysiel's Tower features this kind of alarm system, and Adam has to wear the Silver Armlet to avoid waking up Raysiel.

V

Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love. It is the brightest natural object in the night sky, except for the Earth's Moon. Florentine's Observatory in Realms of the Haunting is full of references to Venus, the so-called morning star, whose Romanian name is "Luceafăr", the Latin equivalent being "Lucifer" which means "Light-bearer" (from the Latin lux, gen. lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"). In Christian theology, the term "Lucifer" has come to be associated with Satan as the fallen "son of the dawn".

Vine

Florentine's Journal mentions someone named Vine who at one point seemingly was an ally of Florentine and Belial. Furthermore, the official Interplay walkthrough identifies Vine as the demon which Adam has to fight after having placed all the brains in the machine (as part of the first test of the Key to the Abyss).
According to Christian demonology, Vine is an Earl and also a King of Hell, commanding 36 legions of demons. He can tell present, past and future, discover witches and hidden things, create storms and make the water rough by means of them, bring down walls and build towers. He is portrayed as a lion holding a snake in his hand and riding a black horse.

W

We all labor against our own cure. Death is the cure for all disease.

A slightly altered version of this quotation from English philosopher Sir Thomas Browne can be heard while travelling through the Tower.