Overview
Facts related to game lore. I will extend it continuously.
Tips
- You can just look at most signs in game and press [use] to see a translation.
- For all that cheeky-breeky-slav-squat-striped-sweatpants-vodka-drinking stuff you have to go far to the east from Czech Republic. It’s not popular here at all.
Items
Why medal increases shield? Soviet WW2 vets have chests coated with medals. There were jokes that it made them bulletproof. In version 0.3.0 replaced by 1 koruna.
Common coin in ČSSR. The price of one piece of Pedro gum. (see Enemy Names)
Common packaging of milk. Probably refers to frequent advertising of milk drinking health benefits.
It was some mixture of pork blood and fat in a can. Used mainly as main ingredient in a soup called prdelačka or for making of blood sausage. Sometimes the name was used jokingly as an example of absurd food.
Portrait of Gustáv Husák, the last communist president of ČSSR. Most people remember him as the face of normalization (time period following russian invasion of ČSSR in 1968), old and dull. But in fact he had a colourful life[en.wikipedia.org] including long imprisonment by his comrades in fifties (he was lucky or strong enough to not comply in his kangaroo court and thus avoided death sentence).
Probably inspired by Jawa Pionýr[cs.wikipedia.org] (Pioneer).
Somebody guesses UVB-76 number station reference. I guess refference to radio jamming of foreign stations or just sign of malfunction of radio broadcast.
Since update 0.3.3(?) plays some numbers stations[en.wikipedia.org]. Label on it means “Russia” in cyrilics.
produced by Tatramat National company.
Karel Gott[en.wikipedia.org] was the most popular czech singer of all times.
Advertising of such gains of socialism as milk (mléko), cabbage or eggs was .
Milada Horáková[en.wikipedia.org] was a victim of fifties (see Misc/History of ČSSR). Her cremated remains were never given to her family.
Despite some speculations, street lights are not inspired by Chasm the Rift, but by real socialist[en.mapy.cz] and 19th century[en.mapy.cz] ones.
Can be found at the beginning of Mausoleum level. It’s hussite pavise[en.wikipedia.org].
Truck is inspired by some model of Avia[en.wikipedia.org] trucks.
Popular USSR game&watch of the era. (see Elektronika IM[cs.wikipedia.org]) This model was inspired by popular .
Reference to satirical comedy Bílá paní[www.imdb.com]. Full https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMwtjzsiIQ but in czech without english subtitles.
Vital part of soup with liver dumplings. Very popular in Czech Republic. Traditional part of wedding menu.
Inspired by Calva of Caslav[cs.wikipedia.org], top part of human skull attributed to Jan Žižka[en.wikipedia.org], leader of hussite armies (see Misc/Hussites).
Places
Prague subway station now called Háje[en.wikipedia.org].
Probably inspired by housing developement in Liberec[en.mapy.cz] which maintains its “soviet” charm to this day.
Kulturní dům (house of culture) was a common facility built or refurbished for meetings, balls, theater and other social events.
Probably inspired by old wastewater treatment plant in Prague[www.staracistirna.cz].
Sokol[en.wikipedia.org] movement was suppressed by communist government. But Sokol buildings were always referenced as “sokolovna” among people.
Spartakiádní street reffers to Spartakiad[en.wikipedia.org], event replacing Sokol gatherings. The names like a “Spartakiádní” frequently replaced former names “Tyršova” (founder of Sokol[en.wikipedia.org]) or “Sokolská” after 1948.
Inspired by actual Palace of Culture[en.wikipedia.org], now Prague Congress Centre, near former Gottwaldova (now Vyšehrad[en.wikipedia.org]) subway station.
Inspired by Vyšehrad[en.wikipedia.org], a place of Czech old legends, including the one including Šemík (see Enemy names]. There is a special cemetery for famous czechs, music composer Antonín Dvořák[en.wikipedia.org] among them.
Bridge is probably inspired by nearby railway bridge[en.wikipedia.org]. “Ať žije 1 máj” (Long live the May 1st) graffiti near the bridge was a common slogan refering to Worker’s Day celebration.
Exteriors are inspired by Mánes[en.wikipedia.org] building. Inscription on the wall “We stand firmly behind Svoboda and Dubček” refers to Prague spring and soviet invasion (see Misc/History of ČSSR).
Inspired by National Monument at Vítkov[en.wikipedia.org]. Built before WW2 in honor of WW1 czechoslovak legionaires. In fifties it was used as mausoleum of Klement Gottwald, “the first president of workers” and burial site for other communist prominents. Vítkov hill is also place of one of hussite victorious battles[en.wikipedia.org]. Speaking of Gottwalds mummy, rumor says that soviet specialists failed and it rotted.
Prague locations on a map[mapy.cz].
Inspired by real Točník[en.wikipedia.org] castle.
Maybe inspired by labor camps of fifties (see misc/History of ČSSR) where oponents of communist regime were sentenced to forced labor. Or by czechoslovak uranium industry in general. ČSSR had some sources of high quality uranium ore. Most of it was mined and transported to USSR.
Weapons
Symbol[en.wikipedia.org] of a union between the peasantry and working-class.
Inspired by ČZ vz. 52[en.wikipedia.org].
Inspired by Sa vz. 24[en.wikipedia.org].
Inspired by KS-23[en.wikipedia.org].
Inspired by T 21[www.csla.cz] RPG. Replaced by Hussite shotgun in update 0.3.5.
Hákovnice[cs.wikipedia.org], tarasnice[en.wikipedia.org] or other medieval hand cannon[en.wikipedia.org]. Since 0.3.5 acts as a rocket launcher.
Called “Brno” – refers to Zbrojovka Brno[en.wikipedia.org] or to czech phrase “big as Brno” maybe.
The same as an ordinary boring non-hussite crossbow?
Enemy Names
Literally translated as Withmask.
Literally translated as Withhood.
Šemík is a popular horse from czech mythology, famous for his giant leap.
Pedro was a popular chewing gum[pinata.cz] brand. According to Hyacint, it was ment as mutated form of the gum initially.
Translates as carp. Sometimes named Bečva here (reference to recent ecological disaster on Bečva river in Czech Republic).
Translates as miner.
??? Kejda (possible root of the name) translates as liquid manure.
Sekáč is a czech name for harmless spider from Opiliones[en.wikipedia.org] order.
Abbreviation for Samostatně útočící pes – autonomous attacking dog.
Translates as head. Head of Vladimir Iljič Lenin[en.wikipedia.org]. Whispers “Lenin žije” (“Lenin is alive”).
Translates as snitch. Some state police[en.wikipedia.org] reference?
Headsman.
White Lady[en.wikipedia.org]. (see Items/Portrait of woman with a wrench)
War wagon (not a wheeled coffin :]).
Bear, Doggo Grande.
Miscelaneous
Czechoslovakia was transformed into Czechoslovak Socialist Republic[en.wikipedia.org] after communists seized power in 1948.
After period of terror in fifties (including kangaroo courts, death sentences and imprisonment of tens of thousands people in workcamps) there was some liberalization resulting in prague spring[en.wikipedia.org] of late sixties. Communist leaders became behaving like if ČSSR wasn’t vassal state of USSR at all. They were briefly corrected by invasion[en.wikipedia.org] of soviet and some other Warsaw Pact[en.wikipedia.org] armies in 1968.
After invasion (or “fraternal help” officially) started time period called “normalisation”[en.wikipedia.org] covering seventies. Prague spring proponents and people refusing invasion were not criminalised (in most cases) this time, but lost their jobs and political functions and their families suffered too. Soviet army established bases in ČSSR to occupy it (“temporary stay” officially, lasting 22 years).
Small democratic dissent united around proclamation of Charta 77[en.wikipedia.org] lately to the displeasure of the communist government. Signatories of Charter 77 were bullied by state police[en.wikipedia.org] and some of them were imprisoned.
Socialist economics were struggling and in eighties Gorbatchev came with reforms called “perestroika”[en.wikipedia.org] or “přestavba” in czech. But eastern block collapsed in late eighties anyway. And ČSSR era ended in 1990.
Atmosphere of everyday propaganda and lies was stirred in 1986 by Chernobyl disaster[en.wikipedia.org]. Official media downplayed size and dangers of incident but it only inflamed the paranoia of the population.
The most popular beverage was (and still is) lager beer (pivo). Also many liqueurs (zelená [pepermint], becherovka[en.wikipedia.org] or tuzemák[en.wikipedia.org]) were more popular than vodka.
Period of Hussite wars[en.wikipedia.org] is popular among czechs due to massive usage of hussite related myths by nationalist and communist propaganda depicting hussites as religious or socialist medieval reformers, ideal soldiers and folk heroes defeating spoiled foreign catholic armies.