Dogs of War – Julius Caesar: Act 3, Scene 1, line 273
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Dog_of_War_(Storm)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dogs_of_war_(phrase)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg58hVEY5Og
https://www.gallipoliartprize.org.au/project/peter-smeeth-cry-havoc-and-let-slip-the-dogs-of-war/
There’s trouble at the well, Detective Donna “Lassie” Lassiter, alerts Governor Weiler and your wizard to the trouble. Down in the well, your wizard chances upon the Dogs of War.
“Uh… halt. Who goes there!”
“They’re uh… they’re not answering. Just staring at us… with their eyes.”
“Easy now, it’s just an intimidation tactic is what. Eyes can’t hurt you.”
“Nope, nope, can’t take it! We got to fight them. Havoc!” Dog of War conversation about your wizard just before the battle.
The Dogs of War are in fact General Benedict Brutus von Booth’s foot soldiers.
“We were introduced by the same people who supplied me my Dogs of War. The deal is simple: I use Tunk-Ak’s monsters to drive everyone from Vicorgia… …Then I turn over my forces to him to invade MooShu. Which is fine by me. All I want is to destroy Rottingham’s career here. Yes, Wizard. I poisoned wells, hired gangsters, recruited monsters, created conflict with Puerto Nuovo all to destroy Rottingham’s enterprise.” – General Benedict Brutus von Booth
After defeating General Benedict Brutus von Booth, your wizard earns the badge “Let slip the dogs of war.”
The dogs of war is a phrase spoken by Mark Antony in Act 3, Scene 1, line 273 of English playwright William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war.”
This is the “Cry Havoc!” soliloquy scene.
In the scene, Mark Antony is alone with Julius Caesar’s body, shortly after Caesar’s assassination. In a soliloquy, he reveals his intention to incite the crowd at Caesar’s funeral to rise up against the assassins. Foreseeing violence throughout Rome, Antony even imagines Caesar’s spirit joining in the exhortations: “raging for revenge, with Ate by his side come hot from hell, shall in these confines with a Monarch’s voice cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.”
In a literal reading, “dogs” are the familiar animals, trained for warfare; “havoc” is a military order permitting the seizure of spoil after a victory; and “let slip” is to release from the leash. Shakespeare’s source for Julius Caesar was The Life of Marcus Brutus from Plutarch’s Lives, and the concept of the war dog appears in that work, in the section devoted to the Greek warrior Aratus.
“Cry Havoc! and let slip the Dogs of War”
In another interpretation, employing the meaning of “dog” in its mechanical sense (“any of various usually simple mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening that consist of a spike, bar, or hook”), the “dogs” are “let slip” as an act of releasing. Thus, the “dogs of war” are the political and societal restraints against war that operate during times of peace.
The phrase has entered so far into general usage that it is now regarded as a cliché. The 1980 movie, “The Dogs of War” starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger was about mercenaries who depose the government of a fictitious African nation in order to secure mining rights. Victor Hugo used “dogs of war” as a metaphor for cannon fire in chapter XIV of Les Misérables. Lex Luthor wielded the expression against his father in an argument during the Season 1 finale of Smallville. The phrase was used by Christopher Plummer’s character General Chang (a devotee of Shakespeare in the ‘original Klingon’) in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in a scene which featured Chang’s Klingon Bird of Prey attacking the USS Enterprise. Jeremy Clarkson used the phrase during a Top Gear special, before attempting a speed run at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, adding “They probably think that’s a Bon Jovi lyric here.”
The current list of all the (known) Novus references are located 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
Dog of War image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Julius Caesar image is borrowed from faroutmagazine.co.uk and is copyright MGM
“Cry Havoc! and let slip the Dogs of War” is borrowed from Gallipoli Art Prize and is copyright Peter Smeeth
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
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