The Corrupted Ashbringer is a reference to the legendary sword of the same name in World of Warcraft.

There is a secret level in Diablo III titled "Whimsyshire," a complete turn from the game's typical story and theme by putting you in a cartoony bright wonderland with rainbows and unicorns. The level changes health orbs to be pink cupcakes, and the map will appear to a similar design as a child's blanket.

It is intended to be a secret area, similar to the Secret Cow Level in Diablo II, however unlike the Cow level, it is hard to make a huge profit from the items and gold dropped. It was likely put in as a joke, because many people felt that Diablo III's early graphics were too bright and cartoony.

There is a random chance for a unicorn to spawn with one of these names: "Rainbow Western," "Midnight Sparkle," "Nightmarity" and "Nightmare is Magic," each of these are references to character names from the 2010 animated series "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic".

The Burning Axe of Sankis is a Legendary Axe that will drop at character level 70. The flavor text for the axe reads:


This is a reference to a forum user named Sankis and his role in "Boatmurdered", a Something Awful community playthrough of the game Dwarf Fortress between 2006 and 2007. Triggering a chain of events that would end the playthrough, a defensive pool of lava outside the fortress set a wooden catapult on fire and destroyed an inscription that the dwarf and former ruler Sankis made for a statue. The latter event sent him into a fit of rage that was worsened by the smoke from the burning catapult flooding into the fortress, causing him to catch fire and become violent, beating a cow and two fellow dwarves until he died.