Literary and Worldbuilding Influences is a note listing the mythological, historical and literary sources behind three entries.
- Nagas: Hindu mythology (wise, protective serpents); the Silk Road (magical trade); dream planes (classic fantasy, with an uchronic twist).
- Sarajevo 1914: real history (the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Black Hand, Young Bosnia), rescripted by time travel.
- Lighthouse-Monolith: the archetype of the isolated tower (Atlantis, wizard towers) and the temporal mechanism (Clarke: “Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology”).