I often use Mythology (mostly Greek and Egyptian mythologies) to inspire anything to do with a legendary hero or god.

I like to borrow from H.P Lovecraft for mysterious forces and how to make cults

I like sculpting my villains by thinking about a villain that I like from elsewhere and changing them to fit my needs (ex: Using Saruman as inspiration for an evil sorcerer)

Lastly, when building my empires and civilizations, I take cues from real empires.

What influences you when you create D&D settings and other story elements?

I use the rule of three a lot i keep things on a even keel since i make mmorpg stories so i start with some quests and use the rule of three so i dont get confused about the numbers of them since when the quests are done individually there is 3 parts to each quest and then when i scale up to making three total quests i dont get them confused with how many subquests there in each of the three major quests and once there done it counts as a beginning of the story and then you know there needs to be a middle and a end so that keeps tuat rule of three seperate so i dont get them mixed up with other things like using three part skills like use acrobatics check at mountain camp to get to the dragon and hopefully have the dragon be defeated if i didn't get any thing wrong in the other rules of three that were essential to completing the quest correctly. and for the last question what influences me when i create dnd settings and other story elements: mmorpg's and stories are pretty difficult to put together into a dnd game but like understanding all the layers using science is what i think makes it possible.

traditional fantasy and monster movies because why not!

I don't have anywhere I pull from specifically yet. So far, a lot of the ideas I use have been taken from other D&D campaigns (High Rollers, Critical Role) but it's quite fun making references when none of my players know about them!

When I make an adventure, the story inspiration usually comes from me checking out the latest module. I check out some monsters and think “how could I use this in an adventure?” Then I build up from that. Other ideas are brought to me from reading novels. Things like the lord of the rings. At the moment I am reading terry brooks shannara series.

My current campaign draws a LOT on Dwarf Fortress, plus some bits and pieces from Out of the Abyss. That said, my players have recently told me they want to focus more on intrigue, espionage, and social interaction, so I have to figure out how to incorporate that into an existing campaign.

I pull a ton from the horror spectrum. I don’t even like horror movies all that much, but I always wander into macabre and terror in my games. Go figure

Music tends to be my heaviest influence. Sometimes a song will have so much to it, and I can't help but imagine characters, scenes, and events.