Ozzy – Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” and Ozzy Osbourne and Sir Daniel Fortesque from the PlayStation game MediEvil
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Ozzy_(Mirage)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediEvil
Thank you Ryan S. for pointing out the Ozzy Osbourne connection. Thank you Ashley D. for the MediEvil connection
Ozzy is a skull in the Defiled Crypt. Wizards encounter him during the Quest, Threat to the Overlord. His true name was Ozymandias, King of Kings. You find him in a tomb beneath a shattered colossal statue, the only part that remains of the statue is a pair of legs.
After being your wizard’s Wise-Beyond-His-Hundreds-Of-Years Sidekick for a number of quests, Ozzy becomes the same kind of advisor for the Sultana. He asks you to retrieve his dismembered body parts so a Chronomancer can make him whole again. His arms were buried in the Ulnar Crypt in Caravan and guarded by Armed Guards. His legs were entombed in the Femoral Tomb in Caterwaul Canyons and guarded by the Foot Patrol. His torso was interred in the Chest Cavity in the Rubal Wastes and watched over by the Body Guard. (puns about the body parts all around)
“Ozymandias” is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). It was first published in the January 11, 1818 issue of The Examiner of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley’s collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826.
In antiquity, Ozymandias was a Greek name for the pharaoh Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BC), derived from a part of his throne name, Usermaatre. In 1817, Shelley began writing the poem “Ozymandias”, after the British Museum acquired the Younger Memnon, a head-and-torso fragment of a statue of Ramesses II, which dated from the 13th century BC. Earlier, in 1816, the Italian archeologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni had removed the 7.25-short-ton (6.58 t; 6,580 kg) statue fragment from the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramesses II at Thebes, Egypt.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
— Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias”, 1819 edition
John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adopted the nickname “Prince of Darkness”.
Osbourne became a founding member of Black Sabbath in 1968, providing lead vocals from their self-titled debut album in 1970 to Never Say Die! in 1978. The band was highly influential on the development of heavy metal music, in particular their critically acclaimed releases Paranoid, Master of Reality, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 due to alcohol and drug problems. He then began a successful solo career with Blizzard of Ozz in 1980 and has released 13 studio albums, the first seven of which received multi-platinum certifications in the US. He has since reunited with Black Sabbath on several occasions. He rejoined in 1997 and helped record the group’s final studio album, 13 (2013), before they embarked on a farewell tour that ended with a 2017 performance in their native Birmingham. His longevity and success have earned him the informal title of the “Godfather of Metal”.
Osbourne has sold over 100 million albums, including his solo work and Black Sabbath releases. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Black Sabbath, and into the UK Music Hall of Fame as a solo artist and as a member of the band. He has been honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Birmingham Walk of Stars. At the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, he received the Global Icon Award. In 2015, he received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
In the early 2000s, Osbourne became a reality television star when he appeared in the MTV reality show The Osbournes alongside wife and manager Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack. He co-stars with Jack and Kelly in the television series Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour.
MediEvil is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by SCE Studio Cambridge and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game is set in the medieval Kingdom of Gallowmere and centres around the charlatan protagonist, Sir Daniel Fortesque, as he makes an attempt to stop antagonist Zarok’s invasion of the kingdom whilst simultaneously redeeming himself.
In the year 1286, an evil sorcerer named Zarok plotted to take over the kingdom of Gallowmere with his undead army. It is told in legend that the champion, Sir Daniel Fortesque, led the King of Gallowmere’s army to victory and managed to kill Zarok before he succumbed to his mortal wounds. In reality, however, Dan was struck down by the first arrow fired in the battle, with the king choosing to cover it up and declare Dan the “Hero of Gallowmere”. Zarok, meanwhile, went into hiding. 100 years later, Zarok reappears, casting a spell over Gallowmere to plunge it into eternal night, awaken his undead army and steal the souls of the living. However, in the process, he unwittingly revives Dan, who has over time become a skeletal corpse, missing his jaw which fell off and the left eye he lost in the battle of Gallowmere. Having been unable to ascend to the fabled Hall of Heroes for his ignoble death, Dan uses this opportunity to defeat Zarok, save Gallowmere and earn his place as a true hero.
The current list of all the (known) Mirage references can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Ozzy and dialogue boxes images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment
Ramesses II and Ozzy Osbourne images are borrowed from Wikipedia and are in the public domain.
MediEvil images are copyright Sony Computer Entertainment
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 