I had noticed a certain physical similarity between the characters quite a while ago, but mostly forgot about it. I decided to look up some old artwork of Elric and I'm thinking the MoM developers definitely chose to reference him with the Oberic character.

For those not familiar with Elric, he was as a fictional character, a former emperor and powerful sorcerer, and had ties to both Chaos and the elemental and animal kingdoms. I think Oberic's spellbook choices (Chaos and Nature) likely reflect this are probably a second nod in Elric's direction.

With all that said, I'm a fan of the Elric character so I think it's pretty neat. What does everyone else think? Is Oberic a subtle nod to a classic fantasy character?

Oberic
http://postimg.org/image/o3fpa27ol/

Elric

http://postimg.org/image/6m2toz5yj/
http://postimg.org/image/9qgvtswup/
http://postimg.org/image/pmajem1if/
- Try not to mind the sword too much. Let's just say it had a special role to play. Pay special attention to the helmets in the first two.

Every one of those wizards is a reference to someone in fantasy or mythology. Most of these are obvious, though some of them (Rjak/Rjat) might only be familiar to specific groups.

However, there seem to be dual references going on. As you've noted, there are Elric parallels, but Oberon/Oboron of the fey court in European mythology explains the elven look and the other half of the name.

Likewise, Horus is an ancient Egyptian deity, but his appearance as a wizard in Master of Magic looks suspiciously similar to that of the protagonist of the Quest for Glory series in the 3rd game... which came out around the same time, and drew heavily on ancient Egyptian mythology.

You might be right about the partial reference to Oberon. Though, in Moorcock's writings the people of Melniboné were said to resemble elves and were descended from an elfin nomadic race. It's hard to ignore the Ober in Oberic, though.

As for Horus, I like your thinking about Horus and the Quest for Glory 3 main character. I've read of the Egyptian god, but I never would have put those two together.

I wonder who Tauron references?

Tauron is almost certainly referencing Sauron of the Lord of the Rings novels, although I'm not sure why he was given the "1950s diabolical overlord" look - sure, he's a diabolical overlord, but there must be some other reason for the 1950s goatee style.

Rjak is likely a nod to the Dark Sun setting for Dungeons & Dragons, in which Rjat was the sorcerer who introduced defiling magic to the world (with the result that it slowly turned into a barren wasteland).

Most of the others are fairly standard mythological references, whether to mystics (Merlin), deities (Freya), or religious figures (Ariel). Sss'raa is the obvious exception, and I've no idea whether his concept was drawn from some other source in fiction (it's a little too far removed from "Sakkra" to be a clear-cut reference, especially since he's a draconian rather than a lizardman) or something randomly created for the game.

Perhaps Tauron = Taurus + Sauron, and the pointy beard and oversized collar are meant to subtly reference the horns of both the bull-god and the traditional representation of the Biblical devil. It makes as much sense as anything else. (Also, if his profile looked more like Sauron, players might start to confuse him with Rjak.) It makes sense as an homage rather than a direct reference. I always assumed the "Sss" in Sss'ra was a reference to the hissing of a dragon-snake, such as the original great wyrm, Ouroboros.