The King's Quest Companion



King's Quest Companion is an official authorized walkthrough/hint book that covered each of the games in a novella style format written by Peter Spear, Jeremy Spear, and some material by eluki bes shahar. There were four editions, with the 4th edition covering up to King's Quest 7. The short story adaptations often added new history to the story of Daventry in the process, as well as adding more detailed background to items found, while remaining true to the games. See From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part 2: Romancing the Throne for an example.

Background
The King's Quest Companion is not a hintbook, it is a solution book. The book was designed to help play the games or to enhance a player's game-playing experience. The solutions are given directly, clearly, and in narrative form. The narratives themselves are the main path through the games (as defined by the game publisher Sierra On-line, and its developers). It was created as a stand alone solution guide, back when most hints from Sierra could only be received through calls to Sierra On-line, the Sierra hintbooks, and electronic bulletin board services, and on major computer on-line services, and occasionally in popular computer and game magazines. It also contains sections that follow a similar step-by-step walkthrough format as seen in some of the game hintbooks published by Sierra.

The rest of the book is a guide to the world of Daventry. It is a companion to the games, with backgrounds on themain characters, fuller descriptions of other creatures, people, and beast that player's are likely to meet, a geographic atlas, and a generalal all-purpose reference.

The author blends fact and fiction through each of the novelizations by writing them as if a historian in Daventry had sent him messages, recounting the events surrounding each game, and what the antagonist had done during the course of the game. The accounts sometimes enriched the ending of each game by expanding and going beyond the endings. There is various artwork scattered throughout the book. It includes not only narratives but the 'real' maps of Daventry. Though much of the artwork changed between the 2nd and 3rd editions, for example the maps of the lands within the world of Daventry (which altered the names and locations of certain places between maps).

The framing story around the entire book is that Peter Spear was given Documents in the real world that had been sent to him from the world of Daventry by a historian named "Derek Karlavaegen" telling about the world of Daventry and history of its people, how they communicate with our world, and why he came to bring the information in the first place. He sent a handful of court chronicles known as the "Chronicles of Daventry".

Much of the KQ7 material was originally printed in the Authorized King's Quest VII Players Guide by Peter Spear, which apparently was created as separate book, so that people with the 3rd edition of the KQ companion didn't have to buy the 4th edition.

Sierra's Involvement
The King's Quest Companion is an official guide created in part through the help and input by many Sierra employees, and as such referenced by some of the later material produced by Sierra.

Roberta Williams is acknowledge for being of help in writing the books. According to Peter Spear, he would call Roberta Williams in order to develop chapters for the book. If she wasn't around or was too busy, he would contact other colleagues working on the games including Jane Jensen. The books were officially endorsed by Roberta Williams and she believed it brought the games to life in an exciting new way. She said it added another fascinating dimension to the entire King's Quest experience. She felt it was a pleasure to read, and a must have for anyone wanting to explore the series in greater depth and detail. She provided Peter Spear with encouragement, support, and access to work in progress.

Ken Williams (the former owner of Sierra On-line supported the book from day one. He and his brother John Willams were extremely helpful and supportive of the book through the years, and without their support the book might not have existed. Peter Spear worked directly with Jane Jensen shile editing and writing material for KQ6 portions (some of which written by the professional novelist eluki bes shahar), he worked directly with Jane Jensen, and he worked with Lorelei Shannon on the material published in the 4th Edition and King's Quest VII: Authorized Guide. Other people at Sierra that assisted with Peter Spear in developing the book through the years include Bill Davis, Dennis Jonathan, Kirk Green, Anita Greene, Liz Jacobs, Mark Siebart, Marc Hudgins, Jonk Meek, Dan Rogers, Jerry Bowerman, and Joe Escalle.

The author directly worked with designers and the game publisher to receive behind the scenes information, and influenced material in the games (About King's Quest I-V), manuals and even other official Hint Books on occasion (see KQ6 and KQ7 hintbooks by Lorelei Shannon, KQ5 Manual (computer and NES versions), the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles, and King's Questions (a computer game), and other material in the King's Quest Collection (15th Anniversery Collector's Edition)) (The Royal Scribe). Sierra's Interaction Magazine, and King's Quest Collection reprinted portions of the book on occasion to advertise them, give background story to the King's Quest World, and give hints to players (Sierra Magazine, Autumn 1989, Interaction, Fall 1994). The former article was included in the Inside the Chest archive included in several editions of the King's Quest Collection.

The four editions
The books are largely a narrative based hintbook, main path through the game (as defined by the developers) is contained within the novelizations. Near the end of the book in the chapters concerning the 'Easy Way Out' contains step by step walkthroughs for each of the games, including notes discussing alternate paths and solutions in the games, and hints for how to safely make it past troublesome parts and avoid death. This part contains screen-by-screen, encounter-by-encounter, problem-by-problem path from the beginning to end of all the King's Quest games.
 * First Edition (1989) covered up to King's Quest IV & includes an encyclopedia.
 * Second Edition (1991) covered up to King's Quest V, and King's Quest Sci/EGA version and includes an expanded version of the encyclopedia.
 * Third Edition (1993) covered up to King's Quest VI
 * Fourth Edition (1997) covered up to King's Quest VII.

The maps in the King's Quest companion changed between the first & second and the 2nd & 3rd edition, with art style changed and locations or names somewhat altered between the previous maps (for example Harpies Island and Mordack's Island switch positions). Peter Spear appears to suggest that maps were sent to him by Derek Karlavaegen. Its mentioned that some changes to the maps for example addition of "Green Isles" to the world map in Second Edition reflect changes to the world due to Derek hiding information (or being intentionally misleading ) or the world being in magical flux and in some cases surrounded by barriers (Magical Law of "Containment") The maps were replaced in a style better fitting the new artwork and the new world map and the addition of the map of the Green Isles.

See 1st Edition Maps, 2nd Edition Maps and 3rd Edition Maps for the maps from each edition of the book. Even though the maps are updated in later editions, the newer artwork seemed more stylized than than earlier artwork, and listed more location names. The locations of Daventry and Kolyma are aligned differently in each edition's maps. For example, the Monastery in Kolyma is shown to be in the north in the first and second edition maps and the south in the later editions. However, this can be explained by the warped boundaries existing around the kingdoms at the time (magical "Containment").

Certain details in the book's text were changed in order to work with new information added from each new game. For example in an earlier edition the outcome of Manannan, that Derek could find no evidence of him or of any cat in the place, after the events of KQ3 the quote was later modified to work with KQ V's extended information. Usually the changes to the text only affected the "read me first" and "introduction" chapters. Though some chapters were extended with each edition (I.E. The World of Daventry)). Due to amount of added content in the 3rd edition relating to King's Quest VI, the chapter "An Encyclopedia of Daventry" was left out.

The King's Quest Companion chapters
Below is a summery of the various chapters in King's Quest Companion from the various editions of the book in the order that they appear (or approximate location in the books). Notes are included where chapter numbers are different between editions.

Read Me First and Introduction
These sections cover a little information about the history of the games, and the author's decision to write the book, and how he began to start receiving messages from the Daventry from Derek Karlavaegen. These sections specifically the read me first section are probably the most modified sections over the course of all 4 editions.

For example 3rd edition added a caveat as to why the author never bothered to adapt order of events as told in the KQ1 remake, but rather left the version of the story as shown in the original KQ1. That paragraph was removed in the 4th edition and replaced with a brief explanation for each of the games up to the 7th, and that they took place over the course of 20-25 years in Daventry's time (part of this was actually a quote from the second edition added back into the chapter).

Chapter 1 The Eye Between the Worlds
Note: This was chapter 3 in the first edition.

This chapter is written by Derek Karlavaegen, and is written as the explanation as to how he is sending information to earth from where Daventry is located, and a bit of history about the world, and Other World they withdrew from.

It also discusses how Roberta Williams has been learning about the world through her dreams.

Chapter 2: Quest for the Crown
KQ1 novelization was written for the first edition of the book and adapts KQ1AGI only. It is written by an nameless court scribe of Castle Daventry.

King Graham collects the treasures in the order of Magic Mirror, followed by the Magic Shield, Followed by the Magic Chest.

KQ1 remake was not adapted into a novelization due to conceit from the "Read Me first" page in the 2nd and 3rd Edition, that the story was supposed to be a historical document that actually came to him from the "real" kingdom of Daventry, and that Roberta Williams must have received her ideas for the stories from dreams sent from the realm of Daventry, and that Roberta's personal changes to the story for the remake did not reflect the actual history as given to her by the people of Daventry themselves. The author explained that he could not rewrite the court chronicles given to him by Derek to reflect the changes to the story because he would be rewriting the history of the events of King's Quest 1, thus "reducing it to mere fiction", something he wasn't prepared to admit. He didn't want to "misrepresent the facts" as given to him by the scribe Derek Karlavaegen. It was also due to the fact that at the time the original KQ1 was the most common released version out among sierra's customers.

In the 4th edition his explanation was replaced with a brief list of the history of each game up to VII. A quote that the games take place over the course of a period of 20-25 years was reused from 2nd Edition version of the chapter.

Chapter 3 The World of Daventry
Note: This was chapter 1 in the first edition.

In this chapter Derek describes what he knows about the world of Daventry, and the continents and kingdom's there. It has been updated in each of the first three editions to include later information about the world of Daventry as each game was released, up to King's Quest 6. It has original information about the main continents, the oceans surrounding them, as well as a bit of info about the citizens, and creatures inhabiting each land. It also includes a map of the world of Daventry (which was replaced as each game established a new location).

This chapter was expanded upon in each edition up to the third. The first edition included material about Daventry, Kolyma, Lllewdor and Tamir. The second edition added material relating to Serenia, and the third edition added info relating to the Green Isles.

Some interesting differences between the first edition and later editions is that Derek describes his universe as being divided into four parts (the lands from the first four games) whereas he raises the number to "many" by the second edition, with the addition of the line that the world is always reinventing itself. In addition his description of Daventry is clearly of the continent as seen in King's Quest 3 and as described by Alexander during chapter 6 (with Serenia missing). As Daventry takes up the bulk of the continent at the time there is no mention of the small kingdoms that come and go with the seasons as mentioned in later editions.

Note: Since Eldritch exists in parallel universe, there is no information about the land included in the chapter (in the 4th Edition).

Chapter 4 King's Quest 2: Romancing the Throne
The adaptation of the official KQ2, the original, it is supposed to be from the court chronicle from Daventry's Prime Minister Gerwain, recounting the story from what King Graham told him after the events. It is a direct and accurate adaptation of all the events that occurred in the original KQ2, much expanding the story, and giving history to the various creatures and characters that graham encountered. It is incompatible with the much different and altered storyline in the unofficial Romancing the Stones. See here for more information.

Beyond a slight reduction to one of the scenes involving Red Riding Hood, and a slight extension to one of the scenes involving Grandma, there are few changes in the story between each edition.

Chapter 5 A Magical Primer
This is an article on spells, and the history of magic written by Alexander. It also includes Fragments from The Sorcery of Old, a document written by an unknown author which discusses the history behind the readable spells in the The Sorcery of Old (the spellbook that Alexander used while in Llewdor) as examples of magic used in Daventry.

''Note: Much of this chapter is based on early development scripts of KQ5, with Roberta's personal input. While a few things in the script were different in the final released PC game (and different between the disk and cd-rom versions as well), some of the material from the early script was still put to use in the official port of KQ5 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Chapter 6 King's Quest III: To Heir is Human
The adaptation of KQ3. It is written as interview that Derek Karlavaegen's had with Alexander himself after the events of KQ3 about his adventure, Prince Alexander's Own Story! Exclusive Interview.

Chapter 7 Grave Matters
This chapter which is said to be reprinted from "Ten Days In Tamir" which was first published in "Telltale Traveler". It tells a little about the history of Whateley Manor, and the graveyards there. As well as discussing the history, and the poetry of the gravestones there.

Chapter 8 King's Quest 4: The Perils of Rosella
This is the adaptation of KQ4 in it Valanice is recounting the story of her Daughter's involvement in Tamir.

Chapter 9 Iconomancy: A Magic Without Words
This chapter was written by Alexander, and he discusses the magic of Iconomancy. He then gives history behind the various spells that his father and Mordack used during the wizard's duel.

Chapter 10 King's Quest 5: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
Derek Karlavaegen's record of the events as told to him by King Graham of his adventures that transpired during KQ5.

Chapter 11 From the Land of Green Isles
This chapter was written by Derek Karlavaegen with a second part written by Peter Spear. First part is "From the Land of Green Isles, A confession and Apologia", and is an apology by Derek Karlavaegen for leaving out, and hiding the existence and location of the Green Isles from the maps and articles he had sent to Peter Spear that were used in earlier editions of the book. He admitted he had intentionally lied about the existence of the land even though he had visited it in the early days of his adventure, and even written a journal of his adventures there, and facts about the kingdom in his work the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles. He apologized for denying its existence to those he sent documents to or conversed with even after learning that Cassima had been saved by King Graham.

The second part was from Peter Spear discussing how he was contacted by another person claiming to have received documents from Derek Karlavaegen that had never even heard of the King's Quest series. He mentioned how he had soon received a similar document from Derek a few days later, and then contacted Jane Jensen to see if Roberta and Sierra knew anything about the documents. He then discussed how Jane Jensen sent him a copy of the "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" that Derek had sent her.

In addition this section acts as somewhat of a behind the scenes, pointing out differences in development between early concept ideas of the game's story (that made it into the novel) and the released version of the game. For example in early development, there would have been clues engranved on the wall's of the catacomb, Valanice's face would have been on the copper coin of Daventry, rather than King Graham, and the "Drink Me" bottle would have been empty, forcing Alexander and even the Pawn Shoppe owner get int the act of Alexander's "death", to fool the Genie. The boo describes these differences and others as insignificant to the main theme of the narrative that largely remains consistent to the game in most cases. None of the differences effect the guide's usefulness as a hintbook and still tell which items to use to solve a given puzzle.

Chapter 12 King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
This is was from the Court Chronicles written by Derek Karlavaegen chronicling the events Alexander told him of his adventures he went through in the Land of the Green Isles.

This is the novel for King's Quest 6, written by eluki bes shahar.

Interestingly the novelization was based on an earlier draft of the KQ6 game so there are some differences in some of the puzzle items and some of the scenes than what occurs in the final released game these include such things as valance on the copper coin, the black feather remains black after being stirred in the magic paint, the old coins are made out of gold, among other little things. Despite these minor differences, novelization use as a hintbook is unaffected (all the items are still used in the correct places).

Chapter 13 From The Eye Between The Worlds

 * This chapter was originally published as chapter 3 in the King's Quest VII: Authorized Players Guide by Peter Spear and Jeremy Spear (with assistance/permission by Lorelei Shannon and Roberta Williams).

Peter Spear discusses the willing suspension of disbelief that he had to maintain ever since he received messages from Derek Karlavaegen. How he has had to come to terms accepting them as true even though he believes that the stories should only be from computer games, and not from a real universe. Yet while he tried to find evidence of the messages to be fake he has never found evidence disproving Derek's claims. By this time those from Daventry are now calling the world Daventry. Ultimately Peter Spear believes that everything must be true, based on strange and mysterious occurances in his life revolving around mysterious messages he keeps on receiving.

Recently he received a long letter from Derek, consisting of two parts, the first part was an anonymous telling of the events of KQ7 of which was a lengthy narration, more a romance than anything else, that is popular among the readers of "popular gossiping and literary trifles." The second part was an apology from Derek in which he cautions people from the other world in believing the events in KQ7 as wholly true, that the story be more fancy than fact. He explains while he's a good friend of Alexander's and the royal family, he has never heard the story from their own words. He has never heard anything about a possible marriage from Rosella or her family. Nothing from their words, their looks, or the language of their bodies. He believed the story to be either a rumor or popular fabrication. Just mass hope for another royal wedding, manifesting itself as a true romance, is another explanation Derek gave to explain the wide spread and uncritical acceptance of the tale.

He believed that Rosella while impetuous, is no fool, and would not marry any man before her time, especially not Edgar who she hardly knew anything about. He also believes that Valanice would not be so easily swayed from her course of rescue as she was as the tale may have told. But he admits the tale could be completely true and the truth has been kept from him for reasons only the royal family knows. He admits that is their right and their privilege and he is only a royal subject. But he feels the whole story just seems to ring false to him.

He had another theory that he thinks may be possible, which is that the great dreamer in the other world, creates tales and fables from which is of their world's reality, his world's history. He now thinks that there may be another great dreamer in Daventry, one who had dreamed the fictions of the other world, and is creating new realities and histories for his world. He believes that Daventry and the Other World are so close together people from both sides are dreaming about the other side, and influencing the history of each world. He believes that the other world is now creating its own visions of Daventry, a different Daventry than they inhabit, and now those from Daventry dream of the other world, and it is changing them.

''Note: Peter Spear & Jeremy Spear (the authors of this chapter) are not trying say that KQ7 doesn't exist. Actually, in context they are just showing the limits in Derek Karlavaegen's personal knowedge. The story is so fantastic to Derek, that he has a hard time believing it personally, yet he is humble enough to admit that he is probably wrong in his own interpretation of the events. From Peter Spear's perspective in the same chapter, he believes the events are quite real, and part of the history of Royal Family. Further context is offered in the KQ7:Authorized Guide; "The Princeless Bride is a most curious piece of work as it purports to be the telling of actual and true events. Is it? Make up your own mind after reading both it and part 3. The story itself also provides an accurate and complete walk-through the game. Read along as you play, or enjoy it by itself. The universe is much stranger than we imagine."

Chapter 14 King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride

 * This chapter was originally published as chapter 4 of the King's Quest VII: Authorized Players Guide by Peter Spear and Jeremy Spear (with assistance/permission by Lorelei Shannon and Roberta Williams).

From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part VII, written by an unknown scribe, it chronicled the events of King's Quest 7. In it Valanice and Rosella tell King Graham about their adventures in Eldritch and Etheria after they returned from the land. As the previous chapter implies Derek Karlavaegen thinks the story is either fiction, the royal family has chosen to keep the true knowledge of the event to themselves (but somehow gossip escaped), or someone else is directly changing physical nature of their world, and its history.

The Easy Way Out

 * Note: This was chapter 9 in the 1st Edition, Chapter 11 in the 2nd Edition, Chapter 13 in the 3rd Edition, and Chapter 15 in the 4th Edition. Additional chapters for each game are covered in chapters 14-19 in 3rd Edition and chapters 15-22 in 4th Edition.

Peter Spear discusses the differences between the real universe of Daventry, and the video game universe of Daventry. He discusses how he can't prove the existence of Daventry, and how most will just think the series are merely games. He further explains how the messages he received are what really happened, and how the events truly occurred. However the games allow for more than one way to solve puzzles and therefore more than one way to reach the end of the stories, so the this section shows all the other alternatives. He also repeats King Graham's rules for adventuring (or rather a version of the rules originally given to Graham by Sir Hereward).

The next sections or chapters 16-22 in 4th edition are straight forward hint guide material such as puzzle solutions and maps existing outside of the lore of framing story (though on occasion he makes references to what really happened). It included such things as covering the differences between KQ1 and its remake, and alternate story paths in KQ6. As well as the various alternate solutions to KQ7. In some cases this section even had some behind scenes information on the making of each of the games, and contained additional background notes for the game's stories.

An Encyclopedia of Daventry (Abridged)

 * Note: This was chapter 10 of the 1st Edition and chapter 12 of the 2nd Edition. It is missing from later editions.

This chapter includes various articles about various topics related to King's Quest universe, from Abominable Snowman to Zombies. It goes into more detail about many topics than can be found in stories themselves. It also expands on the backgrounds of various characters.

Material relating to KQ5 was added in the 2nd Edition version.

The Final Score

 * Note this was chapter 11 of the 1st Edition and Chapter 13 of the 2nd Edition.

Points lists from the games. The individual sections of this chapter were inserted into chapters 14-19 in 3rd Edition and 16-22 in the 4th edition.

Behind the scenes
The King's Quest Companion was routinely sold through Sierra's magazines. The first and second editions, for example was sold through Sierra Merchanise in Sierra News Magazine Fall 1990...and Nick's Hot Deals 2 in Spring 1991.

Influence
The King's Quest Companion was written with input by several of the KQ developers. The book went onto influenced some of Sierra's own material including some of the games, and Sierra's published hint books.

The King's Questions trivia game from Sierra for example included several questions requiring knowledge from the the King's Quest Companions (especially 2nd Edition). The ingame map of Daventry and the Green Isles was inspired by artwork of the world of Daventry included in the 3rd Edition of the Companion.

The manuals for KQ5 makes reference to the 'royal physicians' failure to care for King Graham after his heart attack (a fact first established in the King's Quest Companion 2nd Edition). The updated script for KQ5 NES includes a reference to Cedric being turned to stone by Mordack's spell (which also appeared in the Companion 2nd Edition).

The Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles (the manual for KQ6) adapted the character of Derek Karlavaegen from the Companion as the author of the guidebook. The King's Quest 6 hintbook makes further direct references from the Companion, including Lake Maylie, details about Graham's father, Hereward (and a few other details). The About King's Quest I-V menu found within KQ6, also makes reference to the 'royal physicians' from the the Companion.

Sierra's KQ7 Hintbook makes references to the names of the Three Royal Treasures from the Companion ((Chest of Gold, Merlin's Mirror, and Shield of Achille)).

The 15th Anniversy King's Quest Collection, included several other Sierra developed pack-ins that made direct references to material from the Companion; such as the names of the three Royal Treasures of Daventry.

Alternate covers
There have been alternate covers for first and third edition in advertisements. Its unclear if the Companion was ever published with these covers.

Fifth Edition
According to Peter Spear, a 5th edition was in the works, that would have included events of Mask of Eternity. He had been part way through, when the publisher decided to cancel the book for a number of reasons. What had been written was in the form of brain storming notes and scribbles.