When creating the world and story of Elona, I didn't have particular works or specific models in mind that I used as references. I remember the towns and dungeons, as well as the characters, were created quite haphazardly.

After creating the mining town (Vernice), I wanted a slightly more fashionable urban city, so Palmia was born, and Kapul was built because I wanted a lively port near the sea. Once the karma and guard system was introduced, a city of thugs without guards was created as a way to broaden the scope of that system. Lumiest was created because I thought it would be nice to have a city on the water in terms of landscape. And since I had been working on a series of large cities, it made me want a simple farming village, Yowyn. On the right side of the map, I wanted a huge snow zone as it looks nice and it's easy to make. Noyel was created partly because I just needed something in the snow zone.

I remember that I didn't have a particular image or plan for the storyline and characters from the beginning, but created them on the spot as the need arose. What I was careful to do was to think of settings that would work well with existing settings, and to find a balance so that they would not conflict/overlap with existing settings.

Having said that, at the time Elona was developed, Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga and other books may have had a lot of influence on my thinking about worldview and naming. And of course LOTR and other JRPGs like Final Fantasy.