彩蛋

Why? Why?! WHY?! - Embracing the futility of life's questions in the Improbable Ceramics event

My circuits hurt. - Same option for machine empires

Easter eggs are inside jokes and references to popular culture, included for the player's amusement. This is a non-exhaustive list of Easter eggs present in Stellaris. For others, also see the TVTropes page.

The Blorg

The Blorg portrait

During the pre-release stream series former Stellaris game director Wiz was inspired by one of the fungoid portraits to create a very friendly but hideously ugly species called the Blorg. The Blorg Commonality was a fanatic xenophile misunderstood empire that desperately wanted to make friends, and also had a militarist side in order to force others to be their friends if everyone rejected them. Due to fan requests, the empire was included in the game at launch, together with the Fanatic Befrienders AI personality, unique only to the Blorg and any empire with the exact same ethics and traits.

The Blorg became something of an inside joke within the game. The xenophile advisor references to the Blorg as friendly, the Subdermal Stimulation tech shows a Blorg body-pillow, the Chemical Bliss drugs it unlocks include Blorg bodily fluids, and the Uncanny trait (which describes machines made in the image of one of the most horrific species in the universe) shows a robotic Blorg. Finally, a possible name for black hole systems is Blorg's Bane.

Species with the Blorg portrait have a 1 in 140 chance to say "Umm...friends?" instead of regular fungoid sounds when contacted via the Contacts menu.

Collectivism and Individualism

Before the 1.5 patch Stellaris featured two additional ethics:  Collectivist and  Individualist. In patch 1.5 they have been replaced by the  威權主義（Authoritarian） and  平等主義（Egalitarian） ethics respectively. Those ethics were the source of many forum arguments and thus were replaced with the more carefully-designed ethics present in the current version.

Those two ethics and the arguments they brought are referenced in an anomaly event describing how a primitive civilization destroyed itself after an ideological schism over the definitions and morality of collectivism and individualism. One of the dialogue options is Those aren't even real ethics..., referencing how they're no longer present in the game.

Fallen Empires

The Fallen Empires are inspired by the Vorlons and the Shadows from Babylon 5 with their ancient technology, dogmatic focus on a single ethic and millennia of stagnation that eventually allow the younger races to catch up and surpass them.

The War in Heaven, named after a biblical event from the Book of Revelation, is also a reference to the Second Shadow War in the series Babylon 5. Humanity is caught in the middle of a war between two ancient forces: the awakened Shadows and their ancient rival - the Vorlon Empire. Humanity led the Army of Light opposing both ancients, by allying with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and the Minbari Federation.

The achievement Last, Best Hope also refers to a line repeatedly said within the show that the eponymous station was the last, best hope for peace, and formed the aforementioned League of Non-Aligned Worlds. The achievement requires leading the said league to victory against both Awakened Empires.

When a Fallen Empire awakens the dialogue box also repeats a line from the series: Giants in the playground....

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Stellaris contains a number of references to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel series. More importantly though, the actual series is present in the game. One of the anomaly events from the  遙遠繁星故事包（Distant Stars Story Pack） DLC called Honeymooners leads to the discovery of the "alien travel guide", identically named The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which supposedly describes "many sights and phenomena still unknown to us". Xenophile and Xenophobe empires can use it to boost their respective ethics' attraction for 10 years.

One of the diplomacy messages when at war with a Fanatic Purifiers empire is This war will bring about an era of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms..

One of the unique systems from  遙遠繁星故事包（Distant Stars Story Pack） contains a species called Prikki-Ti, which is sealed on their Shielded world inside a time warp and will become a Fanatic Purifier empire if they manage to get out alone or with player intervention. They are a reference to the Krikkit species from the third novel, which fails to exterminate all other life in the galaxy and gets sealed that way.

In  啟示錄（Apocalypse） if Earth is shattered with a World Cracker there is a 50% chance of creating a wormhole in the system leading to another newly created wormhole, something that also happens in the novels.

Government

 公民兵役（Citizen Service）

Reference to Federal Service from the Starship Troopers series, with similar logo to the movie.

 種族潔癖（Fanatic Purifiers）

Reference to Warhammer 40k, complete with descriptions and dialogues common in the series.

 噬殺蜂群（Devouring Swarm）

Reference to the Tyranids from Warhammer 40k and the Zerg from StarCraft.

 鐵心滅絕者（Determined Exterminator）

Reference to Skynet from Terminator. In the game files the civic is even called terminator.

 同化鬥士（Driven Assimilator）

Reference to the Borg from Star Trek.

Technologies

Droids

Contraction of "android" apparently first used in a 1952 SF short story by Mari Wolf, but popularised by Star Wars.

Gene Seed Purification

Reference to the Space Marines from Warhammer 40k

Morphogenetic Field Mastery

The description includes the words cradle and pharmaceutical, referencing the video game series Zero Escape in which the company Cradle Pharmaceutical covertly researches morphogenetic fields.

Positronic AI

Reference to Isaac Asimov's robot stories.

Traditions

Standard Construction Templates

Reference to Warhammer 40k

To Boldly Go

Reference to the opening monologue of Star Trek

Armies

 克隆人部隊（Clone Army）

Reference to the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

 異形部隊（Xenomorph Army）

Reference to the Alien franchise.

 基因戰士部隊（Gene Warrior Army）

Reference to the Space Marines from Warhammer 40k, made more overt by the name of the enabling technology.

Planetary features

BosWash Metropolitan Axis

Reference to the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis novel

Portal Research Area

Reference to Doom series

Underground Vault

Reference to the vaults from Fallout

Traits

 精神閹割（Nerve Stapled）

Reference to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri

Towel-bearer

Reference to the first rule of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The event giving the trait is appropriately named Stay Calm.

 地獄雄心（Hell's Heart）

Reference to the Moby-Dick novel

Strategic Resources

 活體金屬（Living Metal）

Possible reference to the Necrodermis from Warhammer 40k

 澤珞（Zro）

Reference to Element Zero from Mass Effect

Species Portraits

Second humanoid species

Similar to the Klingons from Star Trek

Pointy-eared humanoid species

Similar to the Vulcans from Star Trek, the Eldar/Aeldari from Warhammer 40,000, and other "space elves" from numerous properties

Fourth humanoid species

Similar to the alien character Diva Plavalaguna from The Fifth Element

Fox mammalian species

Reference to the Star Fox series

Winged mammalian species

Similar to the flying attack monkeys from the Wizard of Oz

Fifth Reptilian species

Similar to Kowakian Monkey-lizards from Star Wars

Fifth molluscoid species

Similar to the Yahg from Mass Effect

Creatures of the Void arthropoid species

Similar to the Shadows from Babylon 5

Chirpy avian species

Reference to the social media logo from Cities:Skylines

Humanoids Species Pack

Half of the portraits from the species pack are inspired after common fantasy races

Flags

14th human flag

Reference to the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek

13th human flag

Reference to the Crux Terminatus badge from Warhammer 40k

2nd domination flag

Reference to the Terran Empire from the Star Trek mirror universe

22th round flag

Reference to the Mantle of Responsibility from Halo

Achievements

Brave New World

Reference to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel of the same name

Emissary

Reference to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Clever Girl

Reference to a famous line from Jurassic Park

Deus Vult

The Christian motto from the First Crusade and a common line in Crusader Kings II

Domo Arigato

Reference to the 80's song Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto by Styx

Power Overwhelming

Reference to the invulnerablity cheat code and archon quotes from the StarCraft series

Faster, Stronger, Better

Reference to the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man

Voight-Kampff

Reference to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Break on Through ...To the other side

Reference to The Doors' song Break On Through (To the Other Side)

Building Better Worlds

Reference to the Weyland Yutani company motto from Aliens

Suffer not the Alien

Reference to the motto of Deathwatch who excels in fighting xeno threats for the Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40k.

Payback

Reference to the 1983 TV series "V" where an entire fleet of a seemingly human extraterrestrial civilisation arrives in peace to offer its help to mankind. The achievement picture is an also an inverted version of the series' poster.

Then Virgil, Now Beatrice

Reference to Dante's Divine Comedy

Outside Context

Reference to the Iain M. Banks book Excession. The author coined the term "Outside Context Problem" to indicate a surprising and unexpected situation, such as an invasion by massively superior alien force occuring in the middle of World War 2.

Like Tears in Rain

The title of this achievement references the famous monologue of Roy Batty from the film The Blade Runner. The subtext is (also) a nod to the System Shock series of games where the main Antagonist is comparing pathetic creatures of meat and bone with itself.

Distinctiveness Added

Reference to the Borg from Star Trek

Planet of the Mechs

Reference to the Planet of the Apes series.

Rise of the Machines

Reference to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Clash of the Titans

Reference to the movie Clash of the Titans

Exterminatus

Reference to the famous course of action in Warhammer 40k

No Khan Do

Reference to Star Trek Into Darkness

Pandora's World

Reference to Pandora's Box from Greek mythology. Lowering the shield also brings similarly bad results.

Stay on Target

Reference to Star Wars Episode IV

1999AD

Most likely a reference to the 1995 JRPG Chrono Trigger as in that game a creature named Lavos falls from space and burrows down into the planet's core in the prehistoric age where it grows in size over many millennia before emerging again in the year 1999AD, destroying the planet as it does so.

A Hump Like a Snow-Hill

Reference to Moby Dick

Raiders of the Lost Galatron

Reference to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Our Fleets will Blot Out the Stars

Reference to the movie 300

With Thunderous Applause

Reference to Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Reference to the Latin phrase "Sic Semper tyrannis" (thus always to tyrants), supposedly said by Brutus on the day of the assassination of Julius Caesar. The phrase is also the motto of the U.S. state of Virginia and was shouted by John Wilkes Booth after his assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln.

Modern Cincinnatus

Reference to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a general in the Roman Republic who was twice granted dictatorial powers by the Roman Senate to respond to a crisis and twice relinquished it as soon as the crisis had passed.

Burn Notice

Reference to USA Network show Burn Notice

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Blorg

Reference to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Slavery Types

Battle Thralls

Reference to the Ur-Quan Masters from the Star Control series

Grid Amalgamation

Reference to the Matrix series. In the game files the slavery type is even called matrix.

Megastructures

Ring World

Reference to Larry Niven's novel Ringworld

Interstellar Assembly

Reference to the Babylon Project from Babylon 5

Mega Shipyard

Reference to the Star Forge from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Strategic Coordination Center

Reference to Battle/Command School from Ender's Game.

Endgame Crises

The Contingency

Reference to the Reaper cycle from Mass Effect.

Extradimensional Invaders

Reference to the Devidians from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Prethoryn Scourge

Reference to the Tyranids from Warhammer 40k or Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars.

The Reckoning

Reference to the Fall of the Eldar in Warhammer 40k.

Ship names

The standard human namelist used by the United Nations of Earth is loaded with references; for instance, all Destroyers are named after cities, whilst Cruisers are named after battles (Somme, Hastings, Bunker Hill) and military commanders/leaders (Julius Caesar, De Gaulle, Genghis Khan), construction ships are named for oceans and rivers (Pacific, Atlantic, Volga, Ganges, Rhine), science ships are named for explorers and scientists (Grissom, Gagarin, Asimov, Hawking), and so on.

Enterprise (battleship)

Reference to Star Trek.

Firefly (corvette)

Reference to Firefly, the main ship's class.

Greased Lightning (corvette)

Reference to the cult movie Grease.

Serenity (colonizer)

Reference to Firefly, the main ship's name.

Thunder Child (destroyer)

Reference to War of the Worlds.

Yeager

Reference to Chuck Yeager, the first person to travel past the speed of sound

Pirate ship names

Aside from pop culture references, many pirate ship names are reminiscent of the naming conventions of Culture starships, from Iain M. Banks' fictional setting.

The Slings, The Arrows, and Outrageous Fortune

Reference to Hamlet

Black Earl

Reference to Black Pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Attack on Freighter

Reference to Attack on Titan

Tycho, Durandal, Leela

Reference to Marathon, the eponymous colony ship's three shipboard AIs.

Oh, That's a Pirate!

Reference to a video game in Part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Soylent Green

Reference to the movie Soylent Green.

Resonance Cascade

Reference to Half Life.

Hell's Bells

Reference to the Hells Bells song by AC/DC.

Pillage and Reconciliation

Reference to the ship "Truth and Reconciliation" from the popular video game Halo: Combat Evolved

Comet Sighted!

Reference to the "Comet Sighted" event in various Paradox Interactive games.

System names

Alderaan, Dressel, Jabba and Lando

All are planet or individual names from Star Wars

Amlitzer

Reference to the battle in the Amlitzer system in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes

Arrakis

Reference to the arid planet in Dune's saga

Astarte

Reference to the battle in the Astarte system in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes.

Cknoor

Reference to the nickname of Anders "cKnoor" Carlsson, Streaming Producer at Paradox.

Covfefe

Reference to the meme that resulted from the misspelling of coverage in a tweet from Former American President Donald Trump

Eye of Hawking

Black hole system and tribute to theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the name was added in the first patch after his death. He famously proved theoretically that black holes could lose mass over time.

Giedi

Reference to the homeworld of House Harkonnen in Dune's saga.

Heaven's Gate

Reference to Heaven's Gate, an American UFO religious millenarian group.

Higashik-Ata

Reference to Part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable; protagonist's last name.

Kazon

Reference to the Kazon tribes, an aggressive and sectarian species from Star Trek: Voyager. Dogar and Kazon are also the twin gods of Evil and Darkness in Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters.

Kazoo

Reference to the kazoo of cKnoor, as seen in the pre-release stream.

Kerbol

Reference to the central star from Kerbal Space Program

Kuma

Reference to the nickname of Björn "Kuma-kun" Iversen, Audio Director at Paradox.

Mar-Adetta

Reference to the Battle of Marr-Adetta in "Legend of the Galactic Heroes".

Manward

Reference to the Game Director of Stellaris, Martin Anward.

Olimar

Reference to the protagonist of Pikmin.

Omicron Persei

Though it is a real star system it is likely also a reference to "Futurama" where the overlord Lrrr of the Omicronians lives on Omicron Persei VIII.

Polgara

Reference to the sorceress Polgara of the Belgariad series.

Rantemario

Another reference to a star system in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes.

Tantanga

Reference to the alien invader from Super Mario Land.

Targon

Reference to Mount Targon from the League of Legends lore.

Tiamat

Named after a goddess from the Babylonian pantheon, it appears as an item or creature name in Dungeons & Dragons and a number of video games.

Ulm

Reference to a small German one province minor in the Europa Universalis series, another grand strategy game by Paradox.

Vermillion

Another reference to a star system in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes.

Vohaul

Reference to the villain Sludge Vohaul in the Space Quest games.

Yildun

Reference to the headquarters of Technodyne Industries of Yildun in the Honor Harrington novels.

Yump

A reference/joke at the expense of Game Director Martin "Wiz" Anward, for his repeated (mis)pronunciation of 'jump' as 'yump' (in relation to FTL travel) during prerelease livestreams. In the random name list (/common/random_names/base/00_random_names.txt), it appears directly below 'Kazoo' and 'cKnoor'.

Planet names

Alpha Complex (Ring World)

The name of the facility the tabletop RPG "Paranoia" takes place in; which is also taken care of by a Custodian Matrix.

Dune (desert world)

Another name for Arrakis from Frank Herbert's Dune saga.

Kipling (jungle world)

Reference to Rudyard Kipling, an author famous for The Jungle Book.

R'lyeh (ocean world)

Reference to the sunken city from the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft.

Dagon (ocean world)

Reference to the ocean-dwelling deity from a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Walled Garden (gaia world)

Translation of Rannoch, the Quarian homeworld's name from Khelish, their language, in Mass Effect.

Melpomenia

Reference to one of the Spatian's worlds in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Cycle.

Solaria

Reference to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Asteroids

1337- prefix

An asteroid may get the random name 1337, which means "Leet" (elite) in leetspeak, a type of computer and Internet slang.

AT-, R2-, C- prefixes, and -AT, -ST, -D2, -3PO suffixes

All references to Star Wars.

THX- prefix and -1138 suffix

Reference to George Lucas' first movie, THX-1138. This name would appear several times in other movies made by Lucas, usually in the background or as subtle references in dialogue.

HAL- prefix and -9000 suffix

Reference to HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey"

TLDR- prefix

Relatively common internet slang; stands for "Too Long, Didn't Read".

UL1M- prefix

Might be a reference to the EU4 state of Ulm.

OD1N- prefix

Odin, of Norse Mythology.

VIR- prefix

Likely a nod to the tutorial AI, VIR, and possibly Vir Cotto of Babylon 5.

WPR- prefix

Possible reference to WOPR, the military supercomputer antagonist of the 1983 film WarGames.

LV- Prefix

Reference to LV-426 from Alien

Random events

Comet sighted

An event present in most other Paradox games.

A Species of Ice and Ice

Reference to A Song of Ice and Fire.

Anti-Alien Task Force

Reference to the XCOM and UFO series.

Eddic, Monolithic

Reference to Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey.

Glancing Hit

Reference to Mass Effect 2 dialogue about Sir Isaac Newton and the dangers of kinetic weapons missing their target, and subsequently traveling as long as required until they hit something.

Improbable Ceramics

Reference to Russell's teapot, a philosophical analogy about the burden of proof.

Mharin Kharin

Reference to the Marin Karin move from Megami Tensei, which charmed/brainwashed enemies and gained infamy among the fanbase for its inaccuracy and overuse by a character in Persona 3.

Nimkip

Reference to Pikmin, a video game developed by Nintendo.

Olfactory Study

Reference to Futurama's "Smell-O-Scope".

Purple Rain

Reference to the song Purple Rain by Prince.

Rogue Agent

Reference to James Cameron's Avatar.

Speed Demon

Reference to the endings of Mass Effect 3.

The Tree

Reference to the iconic scene from The Fountain.

Horizon Signal

Reference to the movie Event Horizon.

The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe

Word-for-word title reference to a track from the first Halo's soundtrack. Appropriate, given the series' ringworlds are designed to unleash a Neutron Sweep-esque pulse to wipe out possible hosts for the Flood.

Broken Union

Reference to the Trill symbionts from Star Trek.

MegaCorpse Concert

Reference to Metalocalypse. The player reply also references a memetic line from the series.

Messages

"The galaxy is dark and full of terrors."

Reference to the famous line from "Game of Thrones".

"Alert all commands. Deploy the fleet."

Reference to Star Wars Episode V.

"I can taste your stink and every time I do, I fear that I've somehow been infected by it."

Reference to Agent Smith from The Matrix.

"You will embrace the greater good, eventually."

Reference to the T'au Empire from Warhammer 40k. The reply is only available if your ethics match the T'au's (Authoritarian,Militarist,Xenophile)

"The spice must flow."

Reference to Dune.

"You are a rock tricked into thinking..."

Reference to a tweet by @daisyowl on the nature of computers.

"What a talentless looking [fox mammalian race]."

Reference to the Tails Gets Trolled webcomic.

"Make it so."

Reference to Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek

"Look at the size of that thing!"

Reference to Star Wars Episode IV

"You may be wondering about the meaning of the mural behind us. That's a very good question with a very interesting answer! The price for the answer is 15 quadrillion Credits."

Reference to Star Control.

"The enclave is in a frisky mood. The creation of Scentilus Rift has caused many an artist to change their primary focus to creating new experiences for it."

Reference to Oculus Rift.

"May their reign stretch into infinity... and beyond!"

Reference to Toy Story.

"Well secluded, I see all."

Reference to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

"Is Unit A5091-b in possession of a soul?"

Reference to the Geth question from Mass Effect.

"Wonderful! Prepare the gift baskets."

Reference to Pocahontas.

"Brutal."

Reference to the Metalocalypse meme.

"Life, uh, finds a way."

Reference to the Jurassic Park series.

"My precious!"

Reference J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Diplomacy Messages

"Soon, communications from all your vessels will be blocked. None of you are free of sin." (Evangelizing Zealots negative greeting)

Reference to the Weird Twitter account @dril.

"The [ruler title] Protects." (Evangelizing Zealots war greeting)

Reference to Warhammer 40k.

"Please notice me senpai." (Fanatical Befrienders greeting)

Non-specific reference to Japanese anime.

"We are the [empire name]. Lower your shields and surrender your ships." (Hive Mind war greeting)

Reference to the Borg from Star Trek.

"Our words are backed with the planet-destroying power of a Colossus!" (neutral Colossus owner greeting)

Reference to the "Nuclear Gandhi" bug from the second Civilization game.

"Pray that you will never have to witness the firepower of our fully armed and operational Colossus!" (neutral Colossus owner greeting)

Reference to Star Wars Episode VI.

Descriptions

"Some species are more equal than others." (Caste System citizenship)

Reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm

"Space is the final frontier" (Voidcraft technology field)

Reference to Star Trek

"There may come a time when intellects, vast and cool and unsympathetic, regard our worlds with envy and draw plans against us." (Planetary Defenses technology)

Reference to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

"Where we're going, we won't need skin to feel!" (Subdermal Stimulation technology)

Reference to Event Horizon

"Let the enemy come to us. We shall fight them for every planet, every moon, every asteroid that lies within our space. We shall never surrender." (Defense in Depth war doctrine)

Reference to the second of Winston Churchill's three famous speeches

"The swarm consumes. The world trembles. We grow." (Consume World decision)

Reference to Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

"Livestock is Pops!" (Livestock slavery)

Reference to Soylent Green

"We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us." (Assimilation citizenship)

Reference to the Borg from Star Trek

"Glory to organics." (Bio-Trophy citizenship)

Reference to NieR: Automata

"Assuming direct control." (Machine Integration citizenship)

Reference to Harbinger from Mass Effect 2

"I am the senate." (Change Council Size to 1 resolution)

Reference to Palpatine from Star Wars Episode 3

Advisors

Militarist advisor

Reference to the Klingons from Star Trek

Spiritualist advisor

Reference to Babylon 5.

Xenophobic advisor

Reference to the Commisars from Warhammer 40k

VIR (tutorial advisor)

Click the portrait repeatedly for some funny comments, also a reference to Blizzard Entertainment games where units would have silly and often fourth-wall-breaking responses if clicked on multiple times in succession. VIR's name is possibly a reference to Vir Cotto from Babylon 5.

Diplomatic

Sample of diplomatic advisors voice, says "..and hot tea" wich is reference to Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek, who is diplomat as a captain of starship, an his favourite "Tea. Earl grey, hot"

Enigmatic Observers

The Enigmatic Observers have a tendency to lean against the fourth wall in their dialogue.

"All the world's a stage, and all the species are merely players. You are a player, are you not?"

Neutral greeting and a reference to William Shakespeare.

"Don't break the fourth wall, you clever child you."

Neutral greeting. Possible refrence to Clara Oswald from Doctor Who.

"You have ceased to amuse. Your little game will soon be over."

War greeting. Ironically they cannot give an empire game over unless awakened.

Leviathans

The Infinity Sphere & Gargantua

Reference to the Interstellar movie. One possible outcome causes the system to be renamed to Pantagruel, making it also a reference to Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel novel series. The damage modifier against it that can be obtained from the Curators is described as relying on a crew member "to constantly make calibrations to the ship guns", a possible reference to Garrus Vakarian from the Mass Effect series.

Tiyanki Matriarch & AH4B

Reference to the Moby-Dick novel. The swallowed admiral is also coded to be humanoid if the DLC is installed.

Shard & The Rubricator

Reference to Smaug and the Arkenstone from The Hobbit.

The Shroud

The Shroud is modeled after the Warp from Warhammer 40k, and the Shroud entry dialogue contains plenty of references to various franchises.

Patron Entities

Composer of Strands

Inspired by the Chaos God Nurgle.

Eater of Worlds

Inspired by the Chaos God Khorne.

Instrument of Desire

Inspired by the Chaos God(dess) Slaanesh.

Whispers in the Void

Inspired by the Chaos God Tzeentch.

Entry Lines

"Do you think that is air you're breathing now?"

Reference to The Matrix.

"They should have sent a poet..."

Reference to the movie Contact. Itself referenced in Starcraft.

"Do you hear the voices too?"

Reference to the Chaos from Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War.

"Horror... horror has a face."

Quote from Apocalypse Now.

"What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?"

Quote from the Orange Catholic Bible from the Dune series.

Other

Galactic Community and Galactic Imperium

Reference to the Galactic Republic and Galactic Empire from Star wars.

Despicable Neutrals (placeholder personality)

Reference to the people of the Neutral Planet in Futurama, and possible reference to the "Despicable Me" movie trilogy.

Mario and Luigi (the first two names in the Italian section of Humanoids 3 name list)

Reference to the main protagonists of Nintendo's flagship franchise

Zelda (female name from Humanoid 3 name list)

Reference to the title character from the Legend of Zelda series

Crystalline Entities are Unbreakable special project

Reference to Part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga, Diamond is Unbreakable.

Guardians of the Galaxy (ascension perk)

Reference to the Marvel comic book series of the same name

Chinorr Stellar Union preset empire

A reference, albeit misspelled, to Paradox Studio's stream producer

L-Cluster Nanites

Reference to the replicators from Stargate: Atlantis

Enigmatic Cache

Reference to Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama

Miniature Galaxy (relic)

Reference to the first Men in Black movie

Gas Giant Structure (archaeology site)

Reference to the Titanic

Never Forget (archaeology site)

Reference to Blade Runner, specifically the "Tears in rain" or "C-Beams Speech" monologue.

遊戲概念