Castle Daventry

Castle Daventry is the home of King Graham and and his family, and the administrative center of the Kingdom of Daventry. The castle located in the middle of the kingdom of Daventry near the eastern Great Mountains, just south of Lake Maylie. Overlooking the town of Daventry, it was built (or perhaps renovated) by King Edward the Benovolent as a gift to his bride, Queen Maylie. Although it was apparently rebuilt in the same location as the previous Castle Daventry as the moat predates King Edward's reign. The castle is also known as King Edward's castle. Edward later passed the castle to his favorite knight, Sir Graham due to having no blood heir.

Description
The castle is protected from potential conquerors by thick stone walls and is surrounded by a moat infested by alligators and moat monsters with a taste for human flesh. the moat monsters were first established in the castle's moat as an additional line of defense by an early king of Daventry. Statues of lions grace the front gate, acting as silent guardians. The gate is protected by two large doors and a portcullis. Beautiful urns and a small garden adorn the front of the castle. The castle walls are carpeted with a thick tangle of vine. Along the top of the half of the walls, banners and flags wave gently in the wind. Behind the castle lies a well-tended carrot patch.

Beyond the front gate is the courtyard of the castle; a path leads from the gate to the keep where the Great Hall is located. A staircase leads up to massive doors which lead to the antechamber, a long marble hall lined with suits of armor. An oil lamp hangs from the ceiling. On the other side of the antechamber is the set of double doors that leads into the main throne room of the castle.

The castle has two throne rooms... The first was the Great Hall, that housed King and Queen's wooden and padded thrones set on top of a raised marble dais. Sometimes a third padded seat was brought into the room known as the Judgment Seat, where judgment would take place after every new moon. Along the sides of the Great Hall throne room are great gallery, built of dark wood oiled to a soft luster and containing three long ranks of benches, padded and upholstered with dark purple velvet. It is here where knights and their ladies would sit during important assemblages. It was also where the nobles and citizens of the kingdom could view daily trials and court proceedings of the Kingdom. At the head of the room, across from the doors to the antechamber, was a raised dais, upon which were set the thrones of Daventry's king and queen, flanked by banners embroidered with the kingdom's venerable crest. To the right of the dais, set into a shallow niche, hung Merlin's Mirror, one of the irreplaceable treasures of Daventry, for it is a magic mirror, with the power to forsee the future and show events occuring in faraway places. , A side door to castle living quarters was located on the wall to the left of the thrones.

The second was a drafty, smaller Throne Room, which housed the official throne, the throne that King Edward once used in the Great Hall, it was made of solid gold, and stone inlaid with gold and gems, and is currently only used for coronation ceremonies. A hallway lead off from the the side of the throne room which lead to a dining hall. Two paintings hung on the wall in the banquet hall including one of King Graham, and the other of Queen Valanice. Behind King Graham's painting was hidden a key that unlocked a chamber to a teleportation device in the Old Castlekeep of Daventry, the ruins of a much older castle in Daventry. The upper floor of Daventry Castle had a hallway with doors leading to dusty rooms that were locked part of the year. They were too cold and drafty to live in during the winter, even with fireplaces and shutters. The castle staff would air them out for summer living. One locked door leads to a circular staircase which leads up to the tallest parapet of a castle. the main staircase from the hallway lead down into the heart of the castle, it was also a circular staircase..

Secret tunnels worm their ways beneath the castle in a labyrinth of passages not totally mapped. It is said that their are magical windows at the end of some of those passageways that allow one to be teleported immedietly to other parts of the world. A fireplace in the smaller throne room dining hall lead into one such secret passage. The passage lead to an aquaduct connected to a river near Connor's Village.

The castle was refurbished not long after the events of KQ5.



It seems that during the time of the cataclysm that a mountain had risen beneath the castle and all lands and kingdoms to the west of Daventry mysteriously vanished. The damage caused by the cataclysm blocked many of the castle's passage ways, including the gate that lead into the smaller Throne Room. This mirrors the events of the previous disaster in Daventry when the three-headed dragon rampaged through the lands. At the time, great earthquakes changed the landscape destroying landmarks and creating others, the Great Tear was formed. During that time Serenia had mysteriously shifted somewhere else, leaving the Great Mountains along the northern edge of the continent (only to reappear later). As Derek Karlavaegan says the world is always reinventing itself.

While it still had a moat, as it rested on top of a high mountain with cliffs on each side, the moat did not surround the entire castle, and flowed under one of the castle's gates. It appears that at the time of the cataclysm Graham was then using the smaller throne room rather than the Great Hall(where the great gallery was located). Because no niche existed in the small throne room(as it was in the Great Hall), the Magic Mirror was placed on the same wall as the royal thrones just above a small table.

Castle Daventry in the Unofficial Games
In KQ2 (AGDI) Edward's Castle Daventry is still in use in its previous location after the events of MOE according to its timeline. One of the images of the future shows Connor walking through the court yard with Graham, up the steps into the Great Hall, where he is to be told he is to become the next king of Daventry.

Real World
The Castle Daventry shown and mentioned throughout King's Quest games (up to King's Quest 7) and books is intended to be the same castle. Additionally according to Mark Seibert, MOE's producer, the Castle Daventry seen in KQ8 was intended to be the same castle from the previous games.

"Yes, the castle entered through the passageway behind the waterfall is Castle Daventry. The reason you don't see much of it is that it was damaged in the opening scene. That is why you can only go so far in before you find blocked passageways.  We wanted to originally let you explore the entire castle, find the royal family turned to stone, etc, etc, but as you know, things had to be cut and this was one of the many things that was easy to have a story reason why not to do it."-Mark Seibert.

However that version of the castle has major inconsistencies with previous material, including geography, and architecture. It's location is inconsistent with the fact that the Castle Daventry was located in a meadow within a valley according to KQ1, KQ3, and KQ5, rather than on top of a mountain as it is in MOE.

However knowing that Castle Daventry has two throne rooms (according to King's Quest: The Floating Castle) it can be used to explain away one of the issues, as it can be assumed that in earlier games you see the Great Hall, and in MOE you see the smaller Throne Room. The geography issue can be explained by using Derek Karlavaegen's explanation that the world is always in flux, and lands appear and disappear at times, and physical changes happen to the land. If that was the case then a mountain rose beneath Castle Daventry, and all lands west of the castle disappeared or shifted west(similar to how land of Serenia had "disappeared or shifted north" during the time of KQ3). Additionally its possible that castle Daventry was moved through magical means to its new location (its not the first time Castle Daventry was moved by magic, as KQ5 is an an example).

The King's Quest Companion speaks of secret passages lieing under the castle, one such passage is seen in KQ8. This implies that the castle is most likely still in its original location. Additionally its possible that changes to castle's location might have occured during the period of KQ7 as Rosella appears in the introduction singing on mountain at the top of cliffs with a waterfall. This appears to be near the castle's garden, where she talked to Valanice about marriage.

Also it may be important to point out that the picture of the Castle Daventry as seen in the overworld map of all the zones in KQ8 shows the rest of the castle. More of the castle than the loading screen picture(above) shows. It shows that a moat surrounds most of the castle.