Wanderer

The wanderer is the title given to the hero that defeated Harlin the Malevolent to save the lovely Princess Priscilla, due to parodox of time travel she was rescued twice (or rather for the first time). The hero rescued Priscilla, and she later went onto marry Kenneth the Huge after the wanderer. Harlin being evil rose to power again, and summoned the hero sending him back through time to the period before his defeat, to 'repeat' the actions. Due to obvious paradox that would be created by this situation, it his highly probable both accounts refer to the same individual (living through a paradoxal loop). Priscilla even states that the future individual is the one who became the wanderer (to which Harlin referred), confirming they are one and the same individual.

'The wanderer' was apparently of nobility as his kiss was able to turn the frog princess back into a human.

Background
In a time beyond history, legends tell of the happy wanderer, known as 'the wanderer', a being who had not but a flask of water, a small knife, a loaf of bread, and a blanket (and according to some a computer) to take on a great journey. What most legends omit is that same journey occured twice (one taking the place of the other) due to influence of time travel. Paradoxes aside the princess was rescued both times (or the single time such is the mystery of time travel).

The happy wandering barbarian had been passing through a village in the land of Serenia when he noticed a large crowd had formed. He sauntered over to see what was going on. After he heard a bell ring, it was followed by the town crier with a proclamation from King George IV, the King of Serenia. The happy wanderer heard that the king had suffered a terrible loss, his fair daughter had been kidnapped by the great and dreadful wizard, Harlin. Harlin had taken her to his castle beyond the Great Mountains. With crowd now hushed, the crier announced that the king offered half his kingdom to anyone who rescued the princess. The wandering barbarian decided, or rather was convinced by the king, that not only was he a happy wanderer, he also had an adventure to go on, and half the kingdom was a great reward.

To save the Princess, the hero crossed many obstacles put up by Harlin. He crossed the Endless Desert, freed the King of the Snakes. Passed a chasm into the woods north of the desert, and encountered a thieving gnome, which stole many of his items, and forcing him to use magic to find them. While in the woods the wanderer helped a parrot, who gave him a magic vial of liquid in return. Later the wanderer got past a lion to reach the Northern Sea. On the beach he was able to patch a boat, and make it to a Jungle Island in the sea.

While on the island he found a pirate's treasure, although the pirate escaped with the treasure hiding it in a cave. The hero rediscovered it, and through the use of magic found there, was able to fly across the sea to the continent north of the island where Harlin's Castle was located. On the continent the hero encountered, a peasant woman, an angry giant, and a peddler in the mountains.

After crossing the mountains he finally reaching Harlin's Castle. The evil wizard teleported the wanderer around the castle trying to capture and kill him. First the hero was teleported into a courtyard where he had to defeat a dangerous boar. Then he was teleported into a locked room on the edge of the wizard's maze. After he picked his way out of the room with his pocket knife he was able to find the wizard in the top of the tower. The wizard had been in the form of a bird, so the Wanderer used a magic ring turning himself into a cat, allowing him to eat the bird. The hero found that the princess had been turned into a frog. After kissing her, she turned back into Princess Priscilla. The wanderer kissed her again, she found it delicious. The wanderer then used some magic shoes to return them to the village of Serenia when he started. The hero was declared a junior-master adventurer for his outstanding feat.

He then was offered half her father's kingdom. The man accomplished the quest, but since he had more brawn than brain, he walked away from the offered marriage and kingdom. He walked off into the endless desert with a bloody broadsword in one hand, and a few gold coins in the other. He neglected to carry any water. Caravan drivers who travel that deadly desert say that the warrior is there still, his bones bleached white, with only one lone boot and a few scorpions for company. Following her rejection by the wanderer, married Kenneth the Huge, and they went on to become the new king and queen of Serenia. Several years later, King Graham came across the wanderer's bones while traveling through the Endless Desert, he decided the lone boot could be of use (and took it).

Unfortunately, despite having been defeated, the evil wizard Harlin began to regain his power. He hoped to change his original fate. But to up the stakes, and hopefully prevent his own defeat, he summoned an adventurer to challenge him (one he hoped was incapable of defeating him). The adventurer accepted the challenge, and the wizard gave him but a few supplies (including the flask of water, the small loaf of bread, the knife and the blanket) before sending him back in time. Priscilla learned appearing in a vision offered the 'new' wanderer words of encouragement, a few supplies, and a computer to help him along his way. She explained he was the one destined to be known as 'the wanderer'. In the end the history had already been written (and could not change) and Harlin was defeated.

The Wanderer
In the distant future, an evil wizard Harlin regained his power after his defeat years before by someone he knew only as 'the wanderer'. In this age an individual destined to be a great warrior and hero was born. As he grew up he began his training as a barbarian. Harlin hoping to change his own fate turned back the sands of time and chose the adventurer to send back to the period before evil wizard's own defeat. He challenged the warrior to make the legendary journey in hopes that this time that less educated individual would be incapable of defeating him. Priscilla learned of this attempt, and magically sent the adventurer a computer) and a few words of encouragement to help him out.

The nameless barbarian, a happy wanderer, entered the village of Serenia where he heard about the kidnapped priscilla from a town criar, and the king's offer for treasure, the princess's hand in marriage, and part of the kingdom.

But Harlin had underestimated the wanderer's resourcefulness. Through logic and luck, he overcame his magical obstacles. He plotted his path meticulously, leaving no avenue unturned, no setting unexamined. He learned the passwords that magically opened paths where none existed. Although Harlin had conjured up all the evil and dangerous creatures within his powers to block his way, the wanderer still he pressed onward. His possessions were few to begin, but he learned quickly to use what he found along his way - sticks and stones, apples and crackers - to defeat harlin's beasts of diversion. Finally, harlin took shelter behind his magic. At last, he believed, the wanderer was defeated. He rested too easily. In the final hours of his search, the wanderer made his way through the corridors of Harlin's castle and solved his magical mysteries. The princess was rescued; he was beaten. But he did not accept defeat forever! His magical powers remained intact - just as strong, just as evil.

After the wanderer's return to Serenia, he turned down the king's offer, and went back into the desert and died. Priscilla later would marry an individual known as Kenneth the Huge. The stories of the barbarian would fade into legend, and Harlin would arise again, to send the hero into the past.

Paradox
Legends from a time beyond history record that a 'wanderer' traveled through Serenia to Harlin's Castle to rescue the princess. However the identity of that nameless wanderer was never known. Knowing this after Harlin began to regain his power, decided that he could perhaps change history, if he assure that his counterpart in the past was challenged to a new adventur; he looked for a hero, he hoped was less skilled than the one that defeated him. If he could assure that his past counterpart could defeat the new hero, he could perhaps prevent his own destruction. To do this he summoned someone that seemingly fit the bill (someone all brawn and no brains).

It seems that Harlin, the Wanderer, and Priscilla were destined to be stuck in a paradoxal loop in time. Harlin had become the means of his own destruction, he sent the same barbarian, whom had defeated him into the past (giving the barbarian the chance to defeat him as the legends had recorded). The barbarian was destined to live out his final days in the past, dieing in the desert (and to be born in the distant future). The princess (perhaps then a spirit of the Princess) seemed to have been the only one truly aware of the barbarian's identity, as she claims he had become 'the wanderer'.

Behind the scenes
The Wanderer was the title of the main character in The Wizard and the Princess and the Adventure in Serenia

It may be interpreted that the manual for Adventure in Serenia (and some of the collection releases of The Wizard and the Princess), that there are two separate individuals that go by the title of the wanderer. In the prologue, Harlin refers to previous wanderer in the past tense (mentioning that he existed in "a time beyond history"), and uses terms that treat him as a separate individual from character he is speaking too ("you"). It is implied that he is challenging the new hero, to a new adventure ("you") from the present who is sent back in time to repeat the actions of 'the wander'. He always refers to the previous wanderer who challenged and defeated him as "he", or the "one", and the new hero he is challenging as "you" rather than saying that "you" have challenged him before. An additional distinction that should be noted is that the previous wanderer was "a happy wanderer" even before he chose to go on the adventure, he didn't necesarily have to "become the wanderer", like the second adventurer. Priscilla on the other hand suggests that this individual is the one who became "the wanderer", and would save her.

The King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, details the journey and death of the wanderer. According to his backstory, he was a barbarian with great brawn but little brains, who would later die after turning down the Princess' reward. He became the skeleton that Graham found in the desert. It confirms that Priscilla's would later marry Kenneth the Huge. It is possible that Kenneth is the second wanderer, although marriage was not one of the rewards directly offered for rescuing the princess in Adventure in Serenia.

However, as is learned from Harlin, he was only defeated the one time, and thus sends back an indiviual of his choosing back to the period before his defeat. This use of time travel would either result in change of history or seperate alternate realites. If seperate realities, there would be one in which the barbarian turned down the princess, and died in the desert, and one in which a completely different hero saved the princess, and which the barbarian never had the chance to meet her. This of course causes problems with other material.

The only situation that allows for a single timeline is if the barbarian was actually sent from the future to the village. He was born and raised a barbarian in the future sent to the past (was given some advice from Priscilla vision), then entered the village met the town crier and went on the journey. He was ultimately fated to die in the past after turnign the princess down. Since the king's quest companion seems to support the barbarian's story as the only reality, and because Priscilla states that the hero was the one who became the 'the wanderer', it would suggest that the latter is the true situation.

One additional detail which may effect the interpretation of events is the possibility that only Harlin had reversed himself back into time (to the period beyond history), where he discovered the hero whom he challenged to defeat him, before himself fading back into time. In this situation, the barbarian would have been challenged in his own present time (the past) sometime before KQ1 by a Harlin from the future. Of course the exact situation is unclear (and the former seems more likely, as he refers tells the 'friend' he is talking to that the events occured in a time beyond history), suggesting that it was the past for adventurer as well.

In early drafts of Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles the author of the guidebook was to be named, "John the Wanderer", instead of Derek Karlavaegen. If there originally was an intended connection to the hero that saved Priscilla, it is unknown. If so, it might mean that the first Wanderer's name was John. In the published Guidebook, Derek describes himself as "...not a hero, I am a wanderer...".

Interestingly enough the story of the wanderer is not the only one to contain elements of time travel and time parodoxes. Time travel is also suggested as an explanation for how Graham met Rumplestiltskin both during KQ1 and KQ5. Another fan theory is that the Wanderer may be King Edward and Priscilla was his first wife that later died when the famine struck Daventry, and after he gave away the Magic Shield in order to try save her. However King's Quest companion says that King Edward's wife was Queen Maylie. It gives Priscilla's husband's name as Kenneth the Huge.