Wanderer

The wanderer is the title given to the unnamed barbarian hero from the future that defeated Harlin the Malevolent to save the lovely Princess Priscilla, due to parodox of time travel she was rescued. The hero rescued Priscilla, and she later went onto marry Kenneth the Huge after the wanderer refused. Harlin being evil rose to power again, and found an individual to send back through time to the period before his defeat, to 'repeat' the actions but expecting a different outcome. Due to obvious paradox that was created by this situation, he sent back the one who had defeated him in the first place. Priscilla states that the future individual is the one who had been ('and would become') the wanderer.

'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 a computer (an Eye Between the Worlds) to take on a great journey. What most legends omit is that same journey occured due to influence of time travel, and the wanderer was sent from the future. Paradoxes aside the princess was rescued.

The wanderer had been transported into a desert, Priscilla appeared to the wandering barbarian in a vision, confirming he was the one destined to become the legendary wanderer, and offered him words of encouragement, a few supplies, and a computer to help him along his way. He was pointed in a direction of a nearby town. Despite his situation he was still happy.

The wandering barbarian then passed through the 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.

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.

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. Finally, harlin took shelter behind his magic. 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. At last, he believed, the wanderer was defeated. He rested too easily. For the wanderer was able to pick his way out of the room with his pocket knife. In the final hours of his search, the wanderer made his way through the corridors of Harlin's castle and solved its magical mysteries and discovered the wizard in the top of the highest tower. The wizard had transformed himself into bird, believing he could trick the wanderer, but the hero saw through the ruse, using a magic ring turning himself into a cat, and then gobbled down the wizard. Harlin never had the chance to learn identity of his assassin before his death.

Searching further in the castle, the hero found that the princess had been turned into a frog. He kissed the frog, restoring her to her true form.. 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, Priscilla 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 picked-clean and sun-bleached skeleton of the man while traveling through the Endless Desert. He wondered what happened? But who could say, it made Graham uneasy nevertheless. An old shoe lay, forgotten, near the poor man's skeleton. He decided the lone boot could be of use, uneasily, Graham reached down and removed the old shoe from the desert sand.

Although the princess had been rescued; and Harlin was beaten, he did not accept defeat forever! His magical powers remained intact - just as strong, just as evil. When he regained his form, and the time was right, he made plans with the hope 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 into the desert. In the end the history had already been written (and could not change) and Harlin became the agent of his own destruction.

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 adventure; 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).

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 states that 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. There are two prologues, one that appears in manual of later editions of Wizard and the Princess (beginning with the C64 version of Wizard and the Princess), and another that appears on the back of the box of most editions of the game. These prologues are linked together.

In both versions of the prologue to the game, this character is said to be "you" the player, you are described as "a happy wanderer' or 'the wanderer'. He is defined to be a 'barbarian' in The King's Quest Companion.

Some have misinterpreted from the manual in later rereleases for Wizard and the Princess including the C64 version (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, but this is a misleading interpration. 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 wanderer'. 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, and he doesn't realize he is talking to the one who was destined to become the wanderer.

An additional detail that should be noted is that in the previous prologue printed on the back of the box in most editions of the game (including the c64 version), the character ("you" ) was known as "a happy wanderer" even before 'you' chose to go on the adventure, thus he didn't necessarily have to "become the wanderer", like a second adventurer would have, but rather "you" had already become a 'wanderer' shortly before the events of the manual which actually supports the time travel story in the second manual. Priscilla, confirms this by stating that the individual, "you" are the one who became "the wanderer", and would save her (thus confirming they are one and the same).

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.

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 would cause contradictions between the material.

The only situation that allows all sources to fit, is that the wandering barbarian (King's Quest Companion) was actually sent from the future to the village (Second prologue). 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 (as stated in original prologue). He was ultimately fated to die in the past after turnign the princess down. Since the king's quest companion states the barbarian's story as the only reality, and because Priscilla states that the hero was the one who became the 'the wanderer', it confirms 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...". In KQ6 Amiga, Hassan mentions how he remembers a 'wanderer' (Derek) coming to the islands when he was just a boy, perhaps the only direct reference to Derek Karlavaegen made in the games.

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.

While the prologue story mentions that a 'computer' was given to the Wanderer ("you"). This is not an actual item in the character's inventory in any version of the game. It is instead a reference to the 'computer' used by the player "you" to communicate and control with during adventure. A nod to the player's computer is made in the original manual for the game as well. The manuals also go onto suggest that this computer is sort of like a 'puppet' or 'companion' used by the adventurer "you" to explore, pick up items, and also protect the player from being hurt by the wizard's spells directly.