Origin of spellbook names

[passer_by]

Does anyone know who named the Vanilla spellbooks and how? In particular I'm wondering what references or in-jokes I'm missing in the dungeon books for arcane casters:

• Resistance of Scarabtarices: ???
• Mordenkainen's Escapes: Mordenkainen is from the original D&D campaigns
• Kelek's Grimoire of Power: possibly the Kelek Company of Norwood, MA, whose name is often seen on fuseboxes/circuit breakers (geddit, Power?)
• Tenser's Transformations: tensors, in geometry and physics, are defined in terms of the way they transform
• Raal's Tome of Destruction: ???

(One might also ask the origins of the shopkeeper names. By the way, usedn't one of them to be called "Gary Gygaz"? I always assumed he was a compressed version of Gygax — a reference to /vmlinuz — but he seems to be gone from the current version.)

[Pete Mack]

Believe they are straight D&D.

[PowerWyrm]

D&D. They are spell names in many derived games (Baldur's Gate and such).

[Sky]

That would be ADVANCED dungeons n dragons. They are famous spellcasters from the adnd lore.
Tenser has a couple named spells such as L1's Tenser's Floating Disk. He is known for utility spells, and iirc he is named in the very powerful Berserk spell. Mordekainen is a summoner mostly known for teleport and gate (thus WoR and "door" spells).
Kelek was originally a toy figurie and villain in the d&d cartoon and then incorporated in subsequent d&d modules.

I dont know who Scarabtarices is; i ... dont remember, who Raal is. The name sounds familiar, it could possibly be another caster named in the description of some spell.

[Rydel]

Mordenkainen and Tenser are both from DnD's Greyhawk setting - during the original home campaign, before the public release, Mordenkainen was Gary Gygax's character and Tenser was the character of his son, Ernie.

The name Raal sounds familiar outside of Angband, so I assume they are also from Greyhawk, but I don't recognize Scarabtrice, and Google only returns references to Angband

[wobbly]

you can almost spot angband & hengband originals if they google back to a monster list or spoiler

[Carnivean]

Originally Posted by Sky

dont remember, who Raal is. The name sounds familiar, it could possibly be another caster named in the description of some spell.

He was a character in Eye of the Beholder (1 or 2, not sure which) that the party could recruit. He had a distinctive, ugly appearance and was a mage.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Carnivean

He was a character in Eye of the Beholder (1 or 2, not sure which) that the party could recruit. He had a distinctive, ugly appearance and was a mage.

I think you refer to San-Raal from EOB2. He is a drow mage and had the Wall of Force spell which is really useful at some places.

[Carnivean]

Originally Posted by Adam

I think you refer to San-Raal from EOB2. He is a drow mage and had the Wall of Force spell which is really useful at some places.

That's the guy. Might not have been the source of the name if you are correct (and you certainly seem like you are).

[wobbly]

It certainly worth considering that some of the references are the other way round. Angband's certainly older then EOB II