WFRP 1 Easter Eggs: Power Behind the Throne, Part 1

Power Behind the Throne was written out-of-house by Carl Sargent, so it was less affected by the Design Studio silliness that you’ve seen in previous products. As you’ve seen in the last post, though, Carl Sargent was far from humorless. Here are some things I found while re-reading the adventure: I’m sure there are more that went over my head.

The Major NPCs

As we’ve already seen, the image of the regrettably-named Gotthard Goebbels was based on former White Dwarf editor Paul Cockburn.

The lecherous “doctor” Luigi Pavarotti takes his name from the famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who was at the height of his fame at the time.

The rest of the NPCs aren’t based on anyone in particular, as far as I remember, but there are plenty of silly German names.

The Todbringer “Death-bringer” family was already established in The Enemy Within.

The name of the princess’s chaperone, Hildegarde Zimperlich, mean “squeamish.” There was a Mrs. Squeamish in William Wycherley’s 1675 play The Country Wife, but I don’t know if that was an inspiration. Certainly, delicacy and even squeamishness are key characteristics of a good court chaperone.

Schutzmann means “policeman,” making it a suitable, if rather lazy, name for the Watch Commander.

Schwermutt (or rather schwermut) means “melancholy,” though there is no trace of melancholy in the General’s description.

Maximillian von Genscher seems to be named after Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who was the German Vice-Chancellor at the time.

The name of High Wizard Albrecht Helseher translates roughly as “Hell-seer.” Don’t look into any strange palantirs, Max!

His deputy, Janna Eberhauer, has a name that translates as “boar tusks,” at least according to Google Translate. What that has to do with her as a character, I don’t know.

The name of the Graf’s Paramour, Emmanuelle Schlagen, is a German verb meanin “to hit.” I suppose that means she is a striking woman! And as with Grand Countess Emmanuelle von Liebowitz (later changed to Liebwitz), her first name is a reference to the series of French movies which ran from 1975 to 1993. Poor form to reuse a joke in this way, I feel, but there it is.

Of the ladies at court, Kirsten Jung is named after the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, while Petra Liebkosen’s name means “caress” and Natasha Sinnlich’s means “sensual.” A little obvious (not to mention sexist) given their roles entertaining important visitors to the Graf’s court, but the depiction of women in fantasy was very different in the 1980s to how it is today. Plus, of course, we never expected any non-native English speakers to even look at WFRP!

Siegfried Prunkvoll’s name translates as “magnificent,” which I guess reflects his appearance more than his character.

One to the Law Lords. Reiner Ehrlich’s name means “honest,” and Joachim Hoflich’s means “polite” (give or take an umlaut over the ‘o’). Karl-Heinz Wasmeier seems to be named after the German skier Markus Wasmeier.

SPOILERS!

At the start of the adventure, Hoflich has been replaced by a doppelganger (give or take an umlaut over the ‘a’). There’s a story behind this, which explains why I have always believed that this adventure was originally created for AD&D. Others firmly disagree, so I don’t know what the truth is. But anyway…

Doppelgangers were a last-minute addition to the Bestiary chapter of the WFRP rulebook. Citadel never made a doppelganger miniature – perhaps for obvious reasons – so they were never part of Warhammer. They were well established in D&D, though. Shortly before the WFRP first edition rulebook went to print, I was told to add an entry for doppelgangers to the Bestiary, because there was an adventure coming in that would require them. So I did, and in due course Power Behind the Throne came in from Carl.
Make what you will of that!

Minor NPCs

There are a few more interesting names among the lesser NPCs.

The Spy Nastassia Hess is another example of our thoughtless use of Nazi names, being named after Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess. Her first name might be inspired by the actress Nastassia Kinski, who had stared in a very steamy remake of Cat People in 1982. That’s the one with the iconic David Bowie song.

The staff of the Pit tavern also seem to have been named out of a pocket German dictionary. Landlord Fritz Schwanger’s name means “pregnant” – possibly a reference to his stomach, althouth he is described as being of medium-heavy build. Otto Geschwur’s name means “ulcer,” and I have no idea why. Bruno Kohl, of course, is named after eye makeup, which actually fits his club-kid persona.

Then we have Wasmeier’s pawns. Brunhilde Klaglich (again missing an umlaut over the ‘a’) means “miserable,” which again is at odds with her character. Her aliases are more in point: Kaltblutic means “cold-blooded” and Kenner means “connoisseur.” Dagmar Mitschuldige’s name means “complicit,” which makes a kind of sense, while Fleischer means “butcher” and Hundisch means dog-like. Those two seem fairly random.

Finally, the name of Wasmeier’s servant Swelt Tunger translates as “tungsten.” Again I have no idea why, any more than I know where the name Swelt came from.

Phew! That’s a lot of names. I’m going to break this entry into two, and next week’s post will look at the adventure itself. See you then!

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