I was working on Clockwork for a long time, so a lot of references/Easter eggs crept into the project. If you're interested in that sort of thing - and in some of the thought that went into making Clockwork - this article is for you.
If you haven't yet played Clockwork itself however, be aware that this article is chock-full of spoilers. I'd strongly recommend playing it before reading further.
Jumping right into it:
Shadow
Shadow is an important character, and there are a lot of references in both her design and (some of) the encounters with her.
Her "face-paint" (and to some extent the rest of her appearance) is heavily inspired by this 2002 music video for the song "Stained" by Android Lust. I quite like the song, but until some Internet-Detective-Work I did around the time I started on Clockwork, I couldn't remember the name of the song or who it was by. At that point I had only seen it once, when drunk, on late-night TV back when it came out - but both the music and the visuals really stuck with me. I mean I still remembered it nearly ten years later, after all.
(The face-paint is also supposed to evoke Lamashtu's death during the gilding process.)
Shadow's "time stood still and she came towards me" scene - at 2:55 in the Clockwork trailer - manages to reference at least three different things at the same time. The air-raid-siren sound she makes is (probably obviously) inspired by the Silent Hill and Siren games, but the big reference is to Kairo.
Kairo is a 2001 Japanese horror movie by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and was a big influence on my approach to horror in the mod. The above scene with Shadow is a fairly direct homage to my favourite scene in Kairo; in my mind the scariest scene I've ever seen in any movie. Clockwork also has some themes in common with Kairo in general. I really can't recommend this movie enough.
Later edit: Lamashtu/Shadow's line "Death is eternal loneliness" is also taken from Kairo.
Another edit: The way Shadow leaves a scorch mark behind on the ground when she vanishes is also a reference to Kairo; the ashen smudges left behind by the ghosts. On top of that it's another thing that ties into Lamashtu's death during the gilding process.
Even later edit: Shadow's "slumped forwards" pose when she floats after the player towards the end of the Velothi Tunnels dungeon is referencing the way the ghosts move in Silent Hill 4. It can be seen briefly in this trailer for the game. (Probably the scariest trailer I've ever seen, by the way.) There's also this very long extended version if you're feeling up to it.
Lahar and Lamashtu
I got the name "Lamashtu" from ancient Mesopotamian mythology, where she is a kind of demon figure. To be honest though, there wasn't much significance to the choice beyond wanting an ancient-sounding name with potentially malevolent undertones/associations. Earlier I'd considered "Lilith", but that seemed a bit played out. Lahar is another ancient Mesopotamian god figure. I mostly chose his name based on its associations with Lamashtu.
Lahar's line "I apologise for the state of the house" when the player first enters Clockwork Castle is taken from a similar moment in Clive Barker's Undying - a game that also acted as a significant influence on the visuals of the Clockwork Castle interior.
Lamashtu's line beginning "When I was very young, she took me away from the foundry mother..." is a reference to the (amazing) closing cutscene to Thief 2: The Metal Age. A game that also had some more general influences on Clockwork, with its steam-punk setting, steam-powered robots, metal men, etc. Incidentally, the voices of the robots in that cutscene - and Karras and Garrett, the main character - are all the legendary Stephen Russell. He's had a number of roles in Bethsoft games too as it happens; including Belethor and Mercer Frey in Skyrim, and Nick Valentine and Codsworth in Fallout 4.
Along with many aspects of Clockwork, Lamashtu's character was conceived of before Skyrim was released. I changed direction with her once I knew what assets were in the game, but originally she was planned to resemble the iconic robot from Metropolis.
Try Jumping
This is probably the most overt reference in the mod, and it is of course a reference to Dark Souls. But is it so obvious? I have seen comments from - or videos recorded by - people who have found this Easter egg in Clockwork, read the apparent hint to "try jumping"... and then tried jumping because they don't know the reference.
You might wonder if I'm cackling with glee at tricking people into doing this, but it's actually more like "Oh no, there are people who don't know about "try jumping", and they're trying jumping. What have I done? Should I have really added that Easter egg?"
... I don't know, I still think it's sort of funny. And to be fair, a bit of common sense should tell you that jumping from one of the highest points in Nurndural right down into a pit of bubbling lava is probably not a great idea.
To explain the reference though, one aspect of Dark Souls' unusual online component is the ability to leave messages on the ground wherever you want. Maybe as helpful hints... and maybe not. They appear as glowing orange letters on the ground - in other people's games. You can't write whatever you want though; you have to choose from certain pre-defined words and phrases (or string some of them together). One such phrase is the ubiquitous "try jumping", and it is often deployed - as a joke - in places where you really shouldn't try jumping.
Amalgam
Amalgam's name was meant to reference his being made of a combination of parts - and early on I'd considered having him be an actual amalgam of personalities, too; given his "multiple soul gem hearts in one body" thing. After settling on the name I noticed that it can also refer to a particular gilding process; "amalgam gilding". Just... perfect serendipity.
Initially I was trying for a kind of chorus effect for Amalgam's voice - again to fit with the "combination of souls" theme, but couldn't come up with something I was happy with. I went with my backup plan, which was an effect inspired by the voice of Soundwave in the old Transformers cartoon.
Some people have commented that Amalgam's voice is sort of musical - almost as if he's singing. To be honest, that wasn't really intentional, but rather a side-effect of the vocoder process I used on his voice. Believe it or not, the first several seconds of Nelly Furtado's "I'm like a bird" was used as an input to modulate his voice in the vocoder program. It wasn't my idea; the sample came with the program. It worked though, so I stuck with it.
Later edit: Amalgam's looped laughter when you find him crushed by the caved-in ceiling was inspired by this scene from the end of Batman (1989). I'd always remembered that scene from having seen bits and pieces of the movie as a child, but it actually wasn't until I was preparing to do the confrontation with Amalgam in Clockwork that I finally sat down and watched the whole movie.
Miscellaneous
Ludwig's character was not originally based on King Ludwig II of Bavaria, but his name was - once I noticed some similarities in their character. See especially Neuschwanstein Castle.
The quest name "I Against I" is taken from the Massive Attack song of the same name - originally from the Blade 2 soundtrack. (My username is also from a Massive Attack song title, incidentally; Antistar.)
Inside the fake wardrobe leading to the small hidden vault in the Clockwork Castle Armoury is a reference likely familiar to Morrowind veterans; a "Fat Lute".
Unintentional References
You're just going to have to take my word for it on these.
In the "Crystalline Heart" quest, the "metal woman" Lamashtu needs a new heart. It somehow didn't occur to me until after I'd finished making the quest that this somewhat resembles the Tin Man wanting a heart in the Wizard of Oz.
It's been pointed out to me (... several times) that, when active, the Travel Machine looks like a Stargate. Similar function, too. Again, I don't know how this realisation escaped me until someone mentioned it. (Except perhaps that I stopped watching Stargate at least a decade before starting on Clockwork.)
It's also been pointed out to me that aspects of Lamashtu/Shadow's story resemble those of a central character in Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. I have seen the show, too... but it was not until after I'd already conceived of Lamashtu/Shadow's character and story.
The Gilded
Finally, the Gilded. They are at least partially based on the ancient automatons encountered in Ultima VII Part 2: The Serpent Isle. (Ultima VII - parts 1 & 2 - was my favourite game of all time until Morrowind came along.) The automatons in Serpent Isle were also "metal men" housing the soul of a once-living person, though their method of creation was different to the Gilded in Clockwork.
When it comes to the "crazed" Gilded - as in the hostile ones in the Nurndural dungeon - everything they say is a reference to something; almost all of it song lyrics.
The main thing I needed for their dialogue - in combat, when just wandering around, whatever - was that it be intelligible phrases and sentences... but not really make sense. It's actually difficult to come up with a large volume of that kind of dialogue, so using random, out-of-context pieces of song lyrics made things a lot easier for me there.
The hope was also that players would hear these lines and potentially recognise some of them - perhaps while distracted fighting the Gilded - and think "that sounds familiar... what is that?". At the risk of sounding sort of artsy-fartsy, this feeling of not quite being able to place something was intended to mirror the generally confused mental state of the crazed Gilded.
Anyway. What follows is essentially just a big list of music I like, as I go through and identify all the songs the Gilded lines were taken from. (Partially so I can credit them somewhere.) That's why I left it until the end; if that doesn't interest you, well - thanks for reading.
Otherwise, here goes:
"You know, sometimes."
"Sometimes I get to thinking."
"You know me."
"Why don't you come away."
"No... I won't bite."
"I won't bite your face."
"Come away with me."
"I won't... no."
"Fly... fly fly away."
"No, no, no."
"Say no no no."
Powderfinger - Come Away
The second half is the good part. Just to get that out of the way. In their heyday, Powderfinger were the quintessential Australian Alternative Pop-Rock band, and very popular. Mention this song to the average Powderfinger fan though and be prepared to receive a blank look. It's an obscure hidden track at the end of their second album, sounds absolutely nothing like their usual stuff, and is possibly my favourite song of all time. (You may notice that at the time of writing, I am the only person to have commented on the above video.) From what I can tell, the idea behind this song was to take some generic love song lyrics and twist them until they became as creepy as possible.
Along with showing up in the usual Gilded randomised dialogue, I notably used these lines - basically in the order they appear in the song - in the scene when the player is first introduced to the crazed Gilded.
"I strike out across the swells."
Parkway Drive - Alone
Australian metalcore band I quite like.
"Uncontrolled and undivided..."
Cog - No Other Way
Australian prog-rock band. A lot of Australian bands in here, I'm noticing. Well, I am Australian.
"I don't like these colours one bit."
System Shock 2
Not song lyrics, holy cow. This is a reference to the terrifyingly polite (but deadly) protocol robots in System Shock 2.
"Im not dead."
The Smashing Pumpkins - The Everlasting Gaze
... I think? I mean it's definitely a line in this song and I do like The Smashing Pumpkins, but I feel like I was originally thinking of another song. That's going to bug me now.
"You know what I'll say."
"Brother let your knees bleed... please."
Incubus & D.J. Greyboy - Familiar
From the Spawn Soundtrack. Awful movie, but the best movie soundtrack of all time, in my opinion. Every track was a collaboration between an electronic artist and a rock artist - back in the days (the late nineties) when this combination was a lot more unusual.
"In all directions at once."
Roni Size & Soul Coughing - A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon
Another one from the Spawn Sountrack.
"We've all come to suffocate."
Neneh Cherry - Twisted Mess
I haven't listened to this song in years; wow. (Also I may have misheard this line slightly.)
"The nightmare rides on."
The Smashing Pumpkins - Behold! The Night Mare
I like The Smashing Pumpkins a lot.
"On the surface, simplicity."
Björk - Pagan Poetry
NAKED BJORK WARNING
"Nothing, nothing... Nothing."
Buckethead - Coma
Featuring Azam Ali and Serj Tankian. Incidentally, when I finally released Clockwork after 4-5 years of hard work, the emotion I felt could best be described as this. (Nottingham Lace, another Buckethead song.)
"I was central. I had control."
"I need this. I need this."
"It's crazy what you could've had."
R.E.M. - Country Feedback
R.E.M. were so good up until the mid-late nineties.
"They had time and so did I."
Butthole Surfers & Moby - Tiny Rubberband
Another song from the Spawn Soundtrack.
"It was a dream."
"But it was not a dream."
Apollo 440 & Morphine - This is Not a Dream
Another song from the Spawn Soundtrack. It's a really good soundtrack!
"I know what I want."
"I want to stop seeing red."
Android Lust - Stained
This is the song with the music video I mentioned above; containing the inspiration for Shadow's appearance.
"Tell me who to hurt."
"You can trust me."
Android Lust - God In The Hole (Version)
Another Android Lust song. These lines worked quite well for the crazed Gilded.
"Love can last forever."
"You can make it last forever."
The Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty Three
I remember listening to this song when I was fifteen and wondering if I would still like it when I was thirty-three. I did and I do.
"Take time, move forward."
In Hearts Wake - Inertia (The Hermit)
Another Australian metalcore band. (Usually sounding a lot heavier than this.)
"Try to connect, and thinking I am."
Collide - Shifting
"Closed eyed, sky wide open."
Massive Attack - Group Four
As you might guess from the other Massive Attack references in this article, I'm a big fan.
"It's bright and blue and shimmering."
Tool - Third Eye
Prog-metal legends Tool. I can't believe this album is twenty years old this year.
"Don't want to be on top of your list."
"I want to be free, and I am... free." (Said by Amalgam)
Massive Attack - Karmacoma
The music video is still creepy after all these years (and at the time was often censored on TV). The line said by Amalgam there only appears in the music video.
"I turn a stone, I'll find you there."
Massive Attack - Antistar
Yep, that's where my username came from.
"I know the pains you took to show me."
Sneaker Pimps - Superbug
Probably most known for their early hit 6 Underground, they had a couple more albums after that and Chris Corner is still going today in the form of IAMX.
"I can't eat, I can't sleep."
"Looks like it's the end."
Massive Attack - Marakesh
A studio recording of this song never surfaced as far as I know, which is a real shame. From what I understand it became Atlas Air. This live version had an amazing rock-out at the end, though.
"We're all alone and there is no noise."
Atari Teenage Riot & Slayer - No Remorse (I Wanna Die)
More from the Spawn Soundtrack.
"I never did anything out of the blue."
David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
My favourite Bowie song. What an amazing riff.
"This chaos is killing me."
David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy
Still going right up until he died. (Yes I know this song is from the nineties.) It's such a shame.
And that's it, unless I've forgotten something. Thank you for reading, and I hope you find it at least somewhat as interesting as I do.
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42 comments
"every moment runs into the next with precision and predictability of a perfect machine. Every day is exactly the same. There is nothing more to say".
I was astounded by his melancholy, of the state of perfection where nothing can go wrong, but backfires into the inability to grow and reflect and adapt. Ludwig's story-telling of his life and point of view of the gilded had made him even more priviliged than he already was. Regardless, it may not seem that the gilded have souls or were open to an array of personality, which is the reason why there is no more staff within the premises, one of the many reasons I adored Ludwig was that he was humbled and open to anything, in spite of his lineage and social order. But the years take a toll, and even Ludwig have gears that rust. Being a loner had made Ludwig skeptical just like the workers, and he so feared for his erasure of existence with no will or even people to show for it. Through his journals it certainly has made an impact on me, and as I kept reading I had become more worried and feared what may become had become of him since both Lamar and Lamashtu have no clue where he is. Nonetheless, I feel content. Even if Lamashtu and Lamar brushed him off so quickly. It isn't neccesarily their fault due to their millenium's worth of experience, they too forget. In his final moments, Ludwig couldn't even bear to look at them, the judgement was too much, reimagined by their red lifeless eyes accrued by his new world view. Surely though, with what had happened, without reflection of his life, it was better than nothing.
Absolutely love Kairo. It's probably still my favourite movie.
I hate to shoot a message on a post that's not been replied to for a while, but I really must ask:
How exactly did you create Amalgam's Voice? I'd love to use his voice for an NPC in a dungeons and dragons campaign I'm setting up, but apart from the hint about a vocoder, I've no clue what I'd be doing with it. If not, its no worries, but at any rate, let me say thank you for the mod! ever since i saw it, back when i played skyrim on the old xbox 360 version i'd always wanted to play it, and now that I have i have to say, my life feels complete. Its my all time favorite mod. Thank you so much
If by any chance you're still interested in this, I used YoGen Vocoder on a TTS voice (pitch-shifted Microsoft Hazel, specifically).
And thanks very much - glad you like it.
* What does she say?
* Is it a random set of words you made up using a Dwemer translator?
*If you refuse to spoil it, PLEASE give me a way to translate it. I have a translator book courtesy of Shanath Selthri in Project AHO, so I could try using the subtitles you graciously added to reverse-scribe the words into the common letters, then find some other source to try and translate the words.
Side note: Playing a Dwemer character and my "head-cannon" demands I knew what she said considering my character's story.
Thank you for this amazing mod, its a must have/experience. :D
Also; you have a head-cannon? Gunther would be envious.
A few more amusing notes from my playthrough:
Anyway, Clockwork is really beautifully designed in location, story, and characters, and hands-down one of my favorite Skyrim mods!
These boxes are freaking me out at this point, knowing there may be a terrifying threat right under my nose! It’s creepier than Shadow at this point!
One thing, though; you should be able to go back to where you left Amalgam. It shouldn't be closed off. Are the portcullises to the commissary closed for you? I may have to have a look at that.
After completing Clockwork's questline and spending some time away, I came back to Nurndural. It was pretty clear the dungeon reset -- the disassembled pipes were back, chests I'd looted re-locked, doors I'd opened re-closed, etc. (The bars that are at the entrance for the first introduction to the Nurndural Gilded were still down, though.)
I wanted to revisit Amalgam because I felt bad for killing him and the music boxes had shown up, so I wanted to see if he was back up and running. The Sickness Ward doors had bars up in front of them, but I could still open the door through the bars. The bars blocking off the area where I left Amalgam, though, were also up and couldn't be bypassed the same way.
I noticed empty lever sockets next to those bars and checked for a respawned lever in the Mortal Layer just in case, but no dice.
It still reads as intentional, because I would also be inclined to have a few extra sets of bars between me and the person who waltzed into my quarters and ripped out my heart... but I'm intrigued by your mentioning that you should still be able to access the area.
(Or maybe what I've just described IS what's supposed to happen, and I'm just unobservant at lever-finding.)
this was the whole reason i had come here. XD
in my playthrough on the xbox special edition version, i did it and went into the lava like a dingus. but afterwords left it alone and went on my way with the quest. but when my nephew was playing it and found it again- doing the same reaction and jumping in, not once, but 3 times from different spots around it. it gained some laughs from us whenever his character hit something other than the lava and went flying into the air just to land in it and spin around- i had to look it up in interest. when i found this and informed him his face was a priceless "80". ...he proceeded to jump again for laughs.
btw,
i would like to add on something else... we have the Frostfall mod. hilariously, whenever you go into the lava- which has a water detail when in it- it says the character is drenched and that the lava is "cool and refreshing". XD
yep, that fire is nice and cool. best swim, 10 out of 10 would recommend a dive into it.
laughs aside, thank you for the mod! I've enjoyed it enough I've introduced it to my cousin and nephew, played through it once and a half, and watched a YouTuber play it. it's so memorable and the sirens of the ghost still unsettle me even now. i was in awe the first playthrough over the story and 'castle', looking around my house tense after the ghost, and crying over Ludwig's story.
Haha - oh dear. I use Frostfall myself and don't remember getting that message there, but after doing my initial tests to make sure the lava was hot and would kill you (barring 100% fire resist, maybe), I didn't make a habit of jumping into it.
And thanks; glad you liked it.
The broken pneumatic terminal receptacle in the secret room is just set dressing, really; it's there because it's mentioned in Ludwig's journals and by Lamashtu.
I think I originally decided to include those dresses because it was easy (being playable duplicates of Shadow's outfit) and because I liked the names I thought of for them. (Red Dress of Angles/Pale Dress of Angles.) It sounds like you found the note from Lahar sitting on them that explains them. There is actually also some semi-secret dialogue you can get if you talk to Lamashtu while wearing one of the dresses as a female character, though.
Overall they're for some extra characterisation.
Thanks for introduction to Android Lust, it's fantastic music.
Thank you also for this mod, one of my all-time favourites. Absolutely brilliant.