Magical law of "containment"

Magical law of "containment" is a strange magical barrier that folds space back upon itself creating a loop that puts travelers back where they started in the lands. Thus if they were to head north through the great strangeness they will always end up back in the south. From the perspective of the traveler the land seems to connect seamlessly. Geography seen in the distance seems blend into the natural geography. Thus when they actually pass through the barrier itself, they do not notice since it seems as if they are traveling to an actual point that they saw in the distance. So if a traveler was to head north they would not notice when they had actually ended up being transported back to the south. These barriers have been seen in Daventry, Kolyma, Llewdor, and even Tamir.

The great strangeness of the continent of Kolyma blocks travel to the northern and southern shores of the continent, while a mountain range and a great chasm blocks access to the eastern lands of the continent.

The containment barrier that was put up around Daventry blocked travel to surrounding kingdoms (though its suggested that Graham may never encountered the barrier during his journey, instead remaining just inside of the boundaries, had he known about it he would have found it useful ). Though in time it faded away, at later times it was replaced by other kinds of barriers. During the years the Three-Headed Dragon attacked Daventry, other kingdoms built walls between Daventry to keep the Dragon contained there, so it wouldn't pass into their lands. At the same time, huge rifts in the earth were opened due to earthquakes blocking travel to the south.

The barrier that was put up around Llewdor blocked travel to the northern and southern shores of Tanalore, while the Medusa Desert, Death Bogs, and Impossible Mountains to the west blocked access to Tamir and other kingdoms. The Three Bears' House and Port Bruce lay to the south of Manannan's mountain, but could both be seen by looking north from the mountain. The mountain could be seen to the north of the Three Bear's House.

The barrier in Tamir blocked access to southern and northern shores of Tanalore while the impossible mountains, the death bogs, and the Medusa Desert blocked access to other kingdoms and Llewdor.

Analyzing the maps
The idea of world wrapping is not just something that occurs just as a gameplay mechanic or as part of the lore in early King's Wuest manuals, or King's Quest Companion, but something that appears within the in-game as seen in the artwork or within screen direction descriptions. This section attempts to analyze landmarks of each game that are physically affected by such wrapping visually or descriptively.

Analyzing the Map of Daventry
When looking at the map of Daventry in KQ1, one might compare the map to the one that appears in KQ3, and notice that the landmarks shared between both do not match up in positions appeared in the previous game. For example in KQ1 one sees that a river is almost due south from from the Castle as seen on one screen. Whereas in KQ3, the due south is a brown dry road/path (which may be the river though dried up). North and just west of the castle in KQ1 is a the Door into the Mountain (just west of Lake Maylie). The edge of the mountain slope leading up to the cliff with the door can be seen sloping down to Lake Maylie (in the remake), a bush is shared between the two screens (in the original). In KQ3, the door into mountain appears almost due south of the castle, and to the east (near the Great Tear). Finally is the ancient well, which in KQ1 is located south west of the Door into Mountain (about three screens away and one screen south). In KQ3, the ancient well is placed one screen due west of the Door into Mountain according to the map (about one screen north and 3-4 screens east or west from the castle), and ingame near the Great Tear, borders both.

Analyzing the map of Kolyma


To the right is a map made from screenshots in the game showing the progression of the beach.

Notice that many of the elements seen in the background of each screen is shown in close up with each additional screen. For example second row from bottom shows the edge of the grassy area and the start of the beach. Next screen progresses into an area near there. In the distance you can see a small hill with a grey rock next to it, and two palp trees leaning towards the east, and a small set of rocks to the west of the hill. In the next screen that same hill is seen in closeup, the two trees just behind it, and the rocks to the left of it. In the distance from that screen a scarp face can be seen, with a palm tree just to the right of it, leaning to the east (a similar structure appears in the next screen). In that screen one can see a cliff face with two rocks in the water in the distance. The next screen shows that same cliff face a bit closer, but still in the distance (it has a resembalance to Half-Dome, Sierra's logo). The next screen puts the player next to that cliff. Two palm trees can be seen in the distance, that may correspond to the two palm trees in the first grassy area (although the grassy area does not seem to show up in the distance in the previous screen). In the distance in that grassy area, one can see a single palm tree leaning to the east, next to the shore. That palm tree corresponds to a palm tree in the second grassy area, also leaning to the east, next to the shore.

One may notice that this has an immediate effect on other geographical locations and landmarks in Kolyma, for example look at the chasm, part of the chasm appears in the far north, and part of the chasm appears to the far south of the land. Infact, no matter where you split the map (in order to define boundaries of the map), many of the landmarks will be split into half, with one half laying in the north or one half laying in the south. These major landmarks that are split no matter how you configure the map include, the beach, the poison lake, or the chasm.

See the article on Kolyma that splits the beach in half.

These details show that wrapping in the game is not only a game mechanic, but something incorporated physically into the artwork and environment of the game.

Behind the scenes
According to the manual for the King's Quest IBM, this phenomena was described as such; "Daventry's world is has a three-dimensional quality about it, places "wrap around" like countries on a globe. Imagine Daventry as a country so large it bends around the world."

Some fans have theorized the phenomenon might be explainable by saying that the land is in fact an island, and the character only walks and makes circles across its shores. Imagine for example Tamir as an island with the swamp at its centre, and Rosella walking around it.

However this explanation doesn't work for Llewdor since locations like Port Bruce and the Three Bear's house can be seen both north of Mananna's House from the mountain, but are also located south of it (the mountain can be seen to the north of the Three Bear's house). This would be physically impossible in the real world.

If it was an island it would also leave circumference of the island much to small to contain the endless desert on the inside. It should actually take Gwydion less time to cross through the desert to the shoreline on the other side than it does to walk around the circumference of the assumed "island", if it was an island. Also sometimes geographical locations can be seen in the distance that one can't actually reach, even if they are traveling in the direction of the locations.

In the cases of Daventry, Llewdor, Kolyma, and Tamir of the official games, no islands were actually visited as each one is located on continents with other lands.