Name Derivations 

Cultural Influences

d20 Modern

Most of my inspiration for seems to have come from early 90's adventure shows and videogames.

Literature

Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth

Narnia

Mythology

Norse - Mostly place names and some influence on deities.

Irish

Japanese

Chinese

Animated

Slayers - Ruby eyed god of the monsters, anyone? My cosmology also took some influence here.

El Hazard - There are a few ideas in conception, particularly paralleling the Shadow Nation.

Pirates of Darkwater - Nothing in particular. The Maelstrom was very Spelljammer.

Conan the Adventurer - Also, nothing in particular.

Games

Warcraft - I admire the detail put into every facet of their backstory.

Legend of Zelda - I found the ubiquitous underworld concept a really useful device.

Elder Scrolls - I like how the nations and factions were designed. The great houses of Morrowind have influenced the structure of the eastern clans.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Lots of politics and character/place name derivations.

Ultima - There are many things I'd love to incorperate derived from the virtues and anti-virtues.

Terranigma - The notion of inside-out planes.

Zork - The Great Underground Empire, the way spellbooks work (gnusto'd in from scrolls)

Castlevania - It may not come through in my games, but the feel of my dungeons is inspired by the music.

Shining Force - I liked that there were centaurs and animal-folk integrated with normal society.

Wild Arms - The Great Spirits of Anherosh were inspired by Wild ARM's Guardians.