Spells In IWD2 & Chinese characters

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You know, The characters in Chinese writing look like small pictures. And in IWD2 there are some of the spells' icons are Chinese characters.
Such as

• Symbol of Death (pronunciation: si)
• Symbol of Despair (This spell uses 2 Chinese characters, left of which stands for "no", right of which stands for "hope".)
• Symbol of Pain (pronunciation: tong)

Did any of you notice that?

 

That is very interesting, obviously they used many different cultures and references to develop the game. In Dungeons and Dragons there is such a mishmash of mythologies, legends, tales and so on that it is very hard to find some coherence, if any.
I'm thinking about the chimera a monster from Greek mythology but there are many examples: Duergar look like the dwarves in Norse mythology; Rakshasas and Devas (Indian mythology), Djinnis (Arabian Nights) are all adapted from pre-existing myths.
It is very interesting to know that the programmers decided to use actual Chinese characters to symbolize these spells!

 

@Caradhras
Just to be picky, it's one djinni, two djinn. Also, good job at noticing the Devas thing, I was just studying Indian culture and the Hindu religion last semester and nothing rang a bell.

There are billions of Greek mythology connections. Also Tyr (Faerun god) comes right out of the Norse pantheon, and I think Meilikki has something to do with ancient Finnish legend. There was a thread a while ago about Baldur's Gate and the connection to the Norse god Balder. I agree with Caradhras this is interesting.

 

Loviatar is also directly from the Finnish Pantheon. Ilmater is named similarly to another, but she's the Goddess of Mothers, not a God of suffering.

And Tymora and Beshaba come from Tyche, the Greek Goddess of luck.

 

The FR also have the Mulholrand(I know I butchered the spelling) pantheon( basically the Egyption gods) and Tiamat.

 

Duergar is about the same as the Norwegian word for dwarves (it's written "dvergar" or "dverger" now).