When Lemuria was teased by the developers in early 2021 one of them in a KILive stated that if there was any unifying theme to the world of Lemuria it would be “Heroes”. When the world was released in November of 2021, there were copious amounts of complaints from the players that there was NO unifying theme to the world. Our wizard bounced from one (seemingly) unconnected area to the next. There were even accusations that the Wizard101 Dev Team was losing their creative touch and recycling areas used by previous worlds (The Floating Land in Celestia and the deserts of Mirage being the most commonly mentioned).
Being the pop culture aficionado that I am, I quickly realized as I played the world through with my wizard, that YES there was a unifying theme to Lemuria. It was the Pulp Heroes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I also realized that as a 50+ purveyor of Pop Culture, many of these references were flying directly over the heads of some of the younger players.
I took it upon myself to educate my fellow wizards with a 16-part series of articles written for a Wizard101 Facebook group. It was well received and honestly, I learned some things as well. The articles were so well received that I started to wonder if there was a Master List of ALL the pop culture references across the Spiral in Wizard101.
As I’ve researched my lists, I’ve seen many good lists scattered around the internet but nothing that could be called all-encompassing. So I decided to create one focusing mainly on the NPCs and Creatures of the Spiral. The complete list of worlds with written articles is below. This is not a complete list for Lemuria as it focuses on Lemuria’s heroes. I neglected many other hilarious pop culture mentions when I first wrote these articles.
I will be finishing off Lemuria down the road. If you know of a Pop Culture reference I missed, PLEASE comment what I missed. You’ll get credit in the article about what you found.
Here’s the list of Lemurian Heroes and the Pulp Heroes of yesteryear who inspired them.
Lemuria:
The Bantam – The Phantom
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:The_Bantam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_(character)
Buck Gordon – A combination of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Buck_Gordon
Buck Rogers – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers
Flash Gordon – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon
Centaurzan – Tarzan
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Centaurzan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan
Chief Krull – Kull the Conqueror
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Chief_Krull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kull_of_Atlantis
Dog Tracy – Dick Tracy
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Dog_Tracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tracy
Duck Savage – Doc Savage
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Duck_Savage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Savage
Mandar – Conan the Barbarian
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Mandar_the_Barbarian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian
He-Mandar – He-Man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He-Man
Mandrake the Maligician – Mandrake the Magician
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Mandrake_the_Maligician
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrake_the_Magician
Morg the Merciless – Ming the Merciless
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Morg_the_Merciless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_the_Merciless
Moth Amon – Thoth Amon
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Moth-Amon
https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Thoth-amon
Shadoe aka Tessa Truhart
A combination of Dick Tracy’s girlfriend, Tess Trueheart and The Shadow
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:The_Shadoe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tess_Trueheart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow
Skeletaur – Skeletor
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Skeletaur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletor
Solomon Crane – Solomon Kane
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Solomon_Crane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Kane
Stallion Quartermane – Allan Quatermain
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Stallion_Quartermane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Quatermain
Theopolis & Twee Ki – Dr. Theopolis & Twiki
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Quest:To_the_Rescue!
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Theopolis
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Twee_Ki
https://www.buckwiki.com/data/Theopolis
https://www.buckwiki.com/data/Twiki
Wilma Deering – Wilma Deering
http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Wilma_Deering
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Deering
*BONUS* League of Exemplary Personages – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Justice League of America
https://101universe.fandom.com/wiki/League_of_Exemplary_Personages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League
Other Worlds in Wizard101 Pop Culture series
Wizard City
Krokotopia
Marleybone
Mooshu
Dragonspyre
Grizzleheim / Wintertusk
Aquila
Wysteria
Celestia
Zafaria
Avalon
Azteca
Khrysalis
Polaris
Mirage
Empyrea
and the Zeke Quests
Vulcan Stev's Database 