There are various references to other times and places: In the Novarian city states is a strong movement towards the abolition of slavery, which was common in Classical Greece but not Renaissance Italy; there is a reference to Doctor Truentious, the Vindium revolutionary, taking the tile "First Consul" which was historically Napoleon Bonaparte's title before he became Emperor; the reference in Metouro's history to a social reformer being assassinated by oligarchs and his cause taken up by his more radical brother recalls the Gracchi Brothers in the Roman Republic; the story of King Fusinian of Kortoli supposedly halting the tide refers to the well-known story of King Canute of England; references to "a really effective contraceptive spell" loosening public morals in Novaria clearly reflect the 20th Century contraceptive pill.