Daventry

Daventry can refer to several things: Properly, it's the name of the Kingdom of Daventry, but the name can be also used to refer to the world in which the King's Quest games take place, the World of Daventry (referred to as Earth within the games). The name can also refer to Castle Daventry, the great keep and seat of power for the Kingdom of Daventry, and Daventry town ( which is not far from the castle), and in some cases it is an alternate title for the continent of Serenia.

Kingdom of Daventry
The Kingdom of Daventry is main Daventry on the continent of Daventry/Serenia. It is the home of Royal Family of Daventry, King Graham, Queen Valanice and their two children. Daventry is a very old kingdom and had its share of good and bad kings over the thousands of years of its existence. Daventry is (at least in the view of noted Daventry writer Derek Karlavaegen) the greatest kingdom on the continent, and there is a great deal of evidence to support his belief. The Town of Daventry and Connor's Village are located not far from the castle.

Continent of Daventry
Daventry is the name of the continent that which the kingdom is part of. (though the continent is also known as Serenia as well). According to Derek Karlavaegen's "crude maps", Daventry is the name of the entire eastern continent where the major nations of Serenia and Daventry are located, along with many lesser nations. However in his notes he refers to the continent as the "Continent of Serenia". Though Alexander refers to the continent as "Daventry", in his interview with Derek. Derek also refers to the Continent of Daventry in his earliest notes as well.

The land of Serenia lies in the north beyond the Great Mountains. The Endless Desert lies to the northwest. While Daventry is located in the south of the continent. When Gwydion landed on the northern shore of the continent, the northern half of the continent and Serenia was mysteriously missing (according to Derek Karlavaegan the shape of the world is always changing do to magic). The shore he had landed on lay close to the edge of the kingdom of Daventry, which was located in a valley between two mountain ranges at the time (a river flowing through the valley). Derek's maps sent around the time of early 23 GC (KQ4 era) show that Serenia was missing. His map shows only the kingdom of Daventry (and the notes correspond as well ). He doesn't mention any of the lesser kingdoms that share the continent which he would mention in later correspondence (although he admits those kingdoms come and go with the seasons). Sometime later in the same year, Serenia and the northern half of the continent reappeared (in time for Graham to visit the kingdom).

''It should be noted that the nature of the change in continents is because the designers hadn't thought of where Serenia was located yet. Also the KQ3 chart is not to scale, as the Western Sea in between the continents is actually much farther from Llewdor than is shown, taking at least a month's travel time to cross between them.''

World of Daventry
According to King's Quest Companion "World of Daventry" or simply "Daventry" is a name humans may use for the entire world where King's Quest's lands are located, although this is not the proper name of the planet. The world appears to actually be earth from a long time ago in the distant past, and like the present earth shares the solar system with at least Jupiter. At several points in history magical beings withdrew into Daventry to avoid persecution by the increasingly scientific societies. The world is continued to be called "Earth" by the gnomes from the Underground Realm of the Gnomes, and the occasional human (according to the games and manuals).

Derek Karlavaegen once explained, "We have no name for our world, our universe, but you may call it Daventry if you like. We think of it as home." However, the world is also referred to as Daventry (or ''World of Daventry) by various authors of the Chronicles of Daventry including Derek himself. Derek also calls the world Earth in the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles. .

See On the Origin of Daventry for further Information.

Behind the scenes
Daventry or Daventria is an actual name of a real place in Europe. Why Roberta Williams chose this name for her fantasy land, is unknown. Maybe she liked the real name and decided to adopt it.

"Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth.'"-Roberta Williams, Talkspot Interview, part 1 (1:20:40 to 1:59:58)

Though as implied by Roberta's quote, and the manuals and introduction for KQ6 that King's Quest's stories occur a long time ago in earth's past, its possible that she intended that the Daventry of the games to be the same location as the modern Daventry, just many centuries in the past. Daventry may also be located in the location of present day Yosemite, Half Dome is said to be located near the kingdom in KQ3.

The first two editions of King's Quest companion speak of Daventry of England appearing in Shakespeare but treats the location as a separate place and that both exist in separate worlds.

Some fans, prefer to refer to world of Daventry as Serenia, which in reality is only a realm of that world. The reason behind this is that civilization spread from Serenia, which was where humans arrived after the first withdrawal.