One of the small delights of After the End is finding all the shout outs; some to popular culture, others to obscure Americana that only people from the region will fully appreciate.
- Several courtiers in Philadelphia are based on characters from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- Thom and Martha Wayne are patricians of the Gothamite culture in the merchant republic of New York. Random dynasty names for Gothamite characters also includes various surnames of Batman villains.
- What's more, Thom and Martha Wayne are scripted to die in the first year when coming home from the market. Their young son, Bruce Wayne, will take up the mantle. Some days later, he will receive an event that will give him traits like Duelist, Just, and Shy, and he will be known as 'The Bat'.
- Also in New York in the CK2 version resides the Jewish patrician family of the Rothschilds
- In the CK3 version, New York is also home to House Morales.
- The Orientalist emirate of Suncoast in Florida is ruled by the Ababwa dynasty, a reference to Aladdin's moniker of "Ali Ababwa" in the eponymous film:
- In the first few days of the game, the current ruler of Suncoast will be killed, causing his son Ali to inherit the emirate. An event chain will lead to Ali gaining numerous traits and the nickname 'Fabulous He', another reference to the movie.
- The counties of Interlake and Little Saskatchewan in Manitoba are ruled by a family of dwarves with names such as Thoren [sic], Thrain, and Dwalin
- If you take a peek at the courtiers present in Dallas, Texas, you can find a certain Jayarr Ewing.
- As if the shout-out for the Tribe of the Mouse weren't obvious enough, it starts out being ruled by one Elias Waltney, with the Disney castle as his coat of arms.
- The prevalence of Catholicism in Texas and the Great Plains, as well as the Pope in Missouri, have been admitted by the devs to be a reference to A Canticle for Leibowitz, as is the Tribe of Tenesi in, well, Tennessee.
- And tying into the sports theme as well, St. Louis is the home of the Pope and the College of Cardinals.
- Lord Hannegan's reign over the county of Texarkana serves as another reference.
- One of the possible event chains features a mysterious figure (implied to be Satan in disguise) who challenges the player to a contest for their soul, with the prize if they win being an instrument relative to the nature of the contest made of gold (golden sword for fencing, golden chalice for drinking, etc.). If you win, the confirmation dialogue states "I've shown him how it's done." (The fact that the mysterious stranger is clad all in black may also double as a reference to Johnny Cash ).
- One of the saints a follower of the Sagrado Corazon can choose as their patron is El Santo.
- The ruler of the Maritimes (encompassing the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) is Caitlin Beaton. One of her vassals is Anne of Green Gables.
- No one rules Baja California like King Gaston!
- Jonathan of the Nyukem dynasty rules over the Chiefdom of Esmerelda Pass, seemingly having brought his gun with him but no bubblegum.
- Alberto Yanco 'the Weird' rules as the High Chief of New Mexico.
- The Duke of the Bahamas and heir to the Caribbean Empire, Barrington Bustamante, has the nickname 'Stepping Razor'.
- One ruler of one of the Tex-Mex border states is a certain Gonzalo "the Speedy."
- The Rust Cult worships Father Ford.
- One Texas county is called the "Kingdom of Possum," a dual reference to Possum Kingdom Lake and the song that briefly brought it into the national spotlight.
- The County of Covington in Kentucky is ruled by Count Cincinnatus Driver of Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 novels. His son Achilles, and daughter Amanda are also present.
- The Count of Talladega is a slow-witted man named Ricky Bobrell, a reference to the main character of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
- There's a certain Sander Harlan who rules as the Count of Corbin in Kentucky
- Jojo and Loretta from "Get Back" are rulers of a tribal band based in Tucson, Arizona.
- One of the vision quest outcomes has your character fighting and winning a fierce duel in a cave against a hated enemy, only to discover that said enemy is actually himself. Another has the character witness a band of ghost riders in the sky, chasing a herd of demonic cattle.
- House King rules over the County of Bangor, where Stephen King currently lives.
- The county of Peach in the Holy Columbian Confederacy is ruled by House Pratchet [sic], descendants of Terry Pratchett
- The isle of Coiba, south of Panama, is ruled by the Brethren count Atomsk, a reference to Anime/FLCL
- There's a Garrison Krebsbach kicking around northern Minnesota — and all of his children are above average.
- Most mercenary bands and some holy orders in post-Event North America take names and/or colors from Real Life sports teams and groups. Examples include:
- Others take names and/or color(s) from groups from fiction:
- The Steel Brotherhood who also fly the winged sword and cogs and, to no one's surprise, are heavy infantry specialists.
- In Washington DC, you can find Reilly's Rangers.
- The Masked Men of Capistrano
- The Policeman's Union in Alaska
- Talon Company
- Hell's Angels [sic]
- Others, still, take names from Real Life or historical organizations that have evolved into mercenary bands over time or due to distortion of their original purposes:
- The Cult Of The Apple; their coat of arms is the "rainbow apple" symbol that Apple used as their logo between 1977 and 1995.
- The Pinkerton Band based out of Chicago
- The Anachronists based in New England
- The Ottawa Mounted Men
- The San Patricios
- The Panamax Company, a mercenary company of marines
- Religious holy orders, mercenaries that explicitly fight for the faith rather than only for money, often also take names from Old World organizations:
- The nature-loving Gaians have The Keepers of Green Peace
- The Protestant successors known as the Evangelicals have The Army of Salvation
- The Orientalists have The Fruit of Islam
- The Americanists have The Men in Black. The organization also serves as a secret society and the equivalent of the Assassins in the base game.
- The mainstream Mormons and the fringe Lamanitas share the Nauvoo Legion.
- The nature-loving Gaians have The Keepers of Green Peace
- Harvard University's library system seems to have survived, and is known to the Occultists of New England as "the Crimson Library".
- A titular tribe of Snowbirds is ruled by the Occultist dynasty of Pabodie
- Within the court of the Trailblazers and the County of Tillamook in Oregon are a certain duo named Chloe Pricer and Maxine Coalfield.
- The County of South Platte is ruled by Treyston Stotch
- The Duke of the Catskill Mountains is one Rip Ranvincle.
- John Lee Pettimore is a Revelationist tribal leader in the Appalachians.
- The fallen kingdom of New England, which once ruled everything from Buffalo to New Brunswick and was a major regional power, was founded by legendarily strong warrior Vincent Mahonic. The Mahonic banner is the inverted WWE logo.
- One of the duchies along the Mississippi is the Duchy of Twain, and the shield for it features a picture of a young boy in a wide straw hat.
- House Clinton is listed as as a politically-prominent historical dynasty that ruled all of Upstate New York even prior to the Event, as a reference to George Clinton, governor of New York and Vice President.
- While House Clinton went extinct shortly before the game start, there is an extant House DeWitt, descended from a bastard son of one of the Clinton kings. DeWitt Clinton was the nephew of George Clinton, and like his uncle, served as governor of New York.
- While House Clinton went extinct shortly before the game start, there is an extant House DeWitt, descended from a bastard son of one of the Clinton kings. DeWitt Clinton
- House Blythe rules Arkansas, a reference to the birth surname of former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.
- An audio example: One of the tunes included with the Fan Fork is the "Fisher's Hornpipe," best known to videogamers from the old classic Colonization.
- A Canuck count is named Picard John-Luke with James, Tiberius and Janeway as family members.
- A standard name for a Wastelander (ie, Australian Outback) character is "Steve Irwin".
- The name for the Ozlander cultural empire is Dreamland.
- A count named Scott Pilgrim exists in Ontario, and is married to a Americanist named Ramona.
- The Russian religion, Nousthreskeia, closely resembles a less violent version of The Monolith faction from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- The Count of Rutland is one Norville Rogers, also known as Norville the Shaggy. He also has a unique event chain which spawns Fred, Daphne, Velma and a dog courtier named Scoobert.
- The Druidic Petty Kingdom of Avalon is ruled by Queen Morgan Fay, and her son is named Lancelot.
- The Mayor of Morro Bay in California is one Johnny "Iron-Hand"
- All of the past and present rulers of the county of Humboldt in California are named after Spongebob characters. Its ruler in 2666 is one Bob "the Sponge".
- This is a reference to Spongebob's creator Stephen Hillenburg, who went to Cal Poly Humboldt College for university and got his marine biology major and art minor there.
- The ruler of Tortuga is a pirate named Jack 'the Savvy' Passer,note who has a telescope and compass in his treasury, and Blackbeard's flag as his coat of arms.
- One possible event chain for traveling to Brazil is a Whole-Plot Reference to Heart of Darkness.
- In an homage to A Study in Emerald, the Top God of Thelema is "the one we call Queen, for human mouths cannot voice her true name".
- In the files, some of the names for British characters spawned by their invasion are the Inherently Funny Words from the poems in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
- The court chaplain of Chisholm (capital Wichita, present-day Kansas) is named Frexspar.
- Reuben and Remnar Soady from Escanaba in Da Moonlight are present as Norse chiefs on the Upper Peninsula, while their father Albert has achieved Memetic Badass status in-universe for conducting a truly legendary raid all along the length of the American East Coast and the Mississippi River.
- Corvo, Jessamine, Emily and other characters from Dishonored are present in the county of Nantucket.
- In Colombia, the Merchant Republic of Macondo is led by the Buendía family.
- There is a one armed adventurer named Finn in Avalon, serving as the strongest hero of the Druidic faith and is the only starting character with the 'Paladin' trait.
- Several shout-outs to the Fallout universe, naturally:
- Several mercenaries, as mentioned above.
- The Count of Pittsburgh is a certain Ishmael Ashur, and he has a young daughter named Mary.
- The county of Grand Staircase has a couple of references to Fallout: New Vegas: It's ruled by a certain scarred man named Joshua and also features kind, yet defensive apostle Daniel of Zion.
- Tucson, Arizona, has been renamed to "Two Sun" (matching its pronunciation).
- The High Chieftain of the Colorado (River) is one Edward Kaiser.
- Gertrude Stoklasa is the Countess of Milwaukee. However, it's not her that's important, but her gluttonous, drunk, cynical father Mike Stoklasa. Of further interest is that you can find in her court Jay Bauman, a proud, cynical erudite and Richard Evans, a fat, cynical architect and game master.
- In the CK3 mod, San Andreas is home to the Wachowski and Anderson dynasties.
- In CK3, the county of St. George in Utah is ruled by the Afton dynasty, who have a golden rabbit on a purple background as their sigil, referencing the setting and main antagonist of Five Nights at Freddy's.
- In CK3, southern Newfoundland is ruled by the Mercer dynasty, referencing the Canadian comedian Rick Mercer.
- In CK3, one tribal chieftain in northern Wisconsin is named Werner Ünderbheit.
- In CK3, the La Banda de Juventud, also known as the Juventides, in Patagonia is a direct nod to the "Cult of Youth" in Last and First Men.
- The Kingdom of Campanha in South Brazil is led by Erico Terra-Cambará. The family name is pulled straight from the novel O Tempo e o Vento by Érico Veríssimo, which narrates the multi-generational story of the Terra-Cambará family through the history of Rio Grande do Sul.
