On the Origin of Daventry

During the production of the games, two simultaneous official theories about Daventry's existence and how it relates to earth were created.

Daventry Is On Earth
Throughout the production of the games, the authors of the manuals and even the introduction video for KQ6, insisted that the games portrays earth history of a European-like kingdom that occurred a long time ago, when magic and mystical creatures still existed on earth, and that is the reason for references to many earth legendary characters, historical characters, and earth books. Even in material related to KQ8, the game is said to be set a long time ago, and the Gnomes refer to the world as earth.

"A long, long time ago, when unicorns still roamed the forests and the merfolk still dwelt in the shallow waters frequented by men, there ruled in the kingdom of Daventry..."-KQ1 manual.

"I'm afraid my time on Earth grows short."-Edward, KQ1(remake).

"A long, long time ago, when creatures of myth and magic walked the earth openly with lesser mortals, there dwelt in the kingdom of Daventry...."-KQ2 Manual

"A long, long time ago, when magic was the only science known to man, there dwelt in the land of Llewdor..."-KQ3 manual.

"Once, in a kingdom called Daventry...According to legend, shortly after Rosella's rescue King Graham decided it was time to pass on his adventurer's cap..."-KQ4 Manual

"Long ago, in the kingdom of Daventry..."-KQ5 Manual

"A long time ago, there was a peaceful and prosperous kingdom called Daventry."-KQ5, King's Quest collection.

"Long time ago in the castle of a kingdom called Daventry..."-KQ6 intro.

"...face of the Earth...Mother Earth...anywhere on earth"-Guidebook to the land of the Green Isles.

"In a time long ago, magic and myth is embodied in every living creature roaming the world. Unicorns graze in forest meadows, wizards concoct mystical spells and kings and queens manage thriving kingdoms."-KQ8 demo/website description

"...the place where the earth meets the sun."-Manual, KQ8.

"I can shift the earth's magnetic pole just a tad..."-Gnomic Terramancer, KQ8.

Additionally Connor refers to the planet Jupiter in Mask of Eternity, as if it is part of Daventry's celestial sky.

Daventry Is In Another Universe
Where as Peter Spear, and his co-authors of the King's Quest Companion insisted that Daventry is in a separate universe that coexists with our own, and that the citizens of Daventry withdrew from Earth and still communicate with us from there. The events of Daventry appeared to more or less occur simultaneously with last part of 20th century's earth history, and the messages would be sent to our world soon after occurring in their world. Peter Spear never gave any specific dates as to when people withdrew, or when the events in the stories took place.

Both Theories May Be True
It may be possible that both interpretations from designers and Peter Spear be equally true in the literal sense.

It is possible that the people of Daventry withdrew from earth into the earth's past. So that their universe is on earth only in the past, and they communicate with people of their future from back in the past. This would also explain why the gnomes, and even ocassional human refer to the world as earth.

This idea originates from a hypothesis in the quantum mechanics of time travel which states that time travelers don't actually travel back in time but rather they slide over into a parallel dimension, similar to how every loop on a coil is parallel to every other loop on the coil but still connected to each other from one end to the other. So the term time travel is a misnomer as the person isn't actually traveling back in time but rather crosses over to time that is parallel on a coil of time. Even though the time traveler exists in a parallel dimension one can still partially influence the future by the actions committed in the past because time moves forward it will eventually catch up with his original dimension as the coil of time winds up to his original point in time.

Read the novel "Timeline" for an example of this hypothesis being used in a story.

Other Possible Explanations
However 'long ago' mustn't always refer to Earth. It could also mean 'long ago in Daventry', in the sense that the events concern not the present of Daventry, whatever world Daventry could be. Also, reference to 'earth' in dialogues and text, could as well be a 'translation' and mean generally World (of Daventry), without referring to our planet.

Alternatively it may also be possible to explain that the dialogue from manuals, and KQ6 intro came from historians in Daventry's future when technology has taken over, and magic no longer exists. At that time they may consider Daventry to be their earth. From that point in time they communicate to people of earth to around the same point of time as their ancestors did.

On the other hand neither explanation truly explains Connor's reference to the planet Jupiter, and its connection to the Celestial Globe, which is intended to represent the stars and planets seen by the people of Daventry in the night skies.

Withdrawal in the Unofficial Games
The team of the unofficial The Silver Lining has chosen to use the withdrawal theory for their game's history and even specified an exact date of the first withdrawal, 10,000 BDC, according to their timeline.

The Official Timeline
In the official timeline the date of the withdrawal had to have been at least 10,000 years before Graham's Coronation if not more.

Real World
Peter Spear, and the designers competing ideas existed throughout the course of the production of each additional game up to the last edition of King's Quest Companion, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, as well as the later released King's Quest Collections.

The interesting thing of note is that much of the material from the manuals and the companion were created from notes from Roberta Williams herself, though she did not necessarily have a hand in directly writing any of the material. Its hard to say which is her personal viewpoint since she literally supported both. Although Roberta Williams herself had supported the Daventry is our "earth" idea in a few interviews around the time of Mask of Eternity.

Mask of Eternity's material never comments on when events specifically take place, but references to "long, time ago" exist in the some of the related material, and references to earth exist in the Realm of the Gnomes. As well as reference to the planet Jupiter.