Castle Daventry

The castle located in the middle of the kingdom of Daventry near the eastern Great Mountains, just south of Lake Maylie. It was castle that was the seat of power for many of Daventry's Kings over the years. Edward was the last king of the original lineage, but due to having no blood heir, he gave the kingdom to Graham. Because it once belonged to King Edward is is also known as Edward's Castle. It is located in the middle of kingdom of Daventry. It is surrounded by a moat guarded by Alligators, and Moat Monsters. Statues of lions grace the front gate, acting as silent guardians.

The castle has two throne rooms... The first was the main throne room in 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 Judgement Seat, where judgement would take place after every new moon. Along the sides of the Great Hall throne room are great gallery, three long ranks of benches where citizens, and nobles of the kingdom can view daily trials and court proceedings of the Kingdom. The Magic Mirror is kept in a niche on the right side wall of the Great Hall. A side door to castle living quarters was located on the wall to the left of the thrones. Across from the thrones on the other side of the Great Hall was a set of double doors, that opened out to the courtyard of the castle, after passing through a long hall (lined with suits of armor).

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 banquet 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. Inside the banquet hall was a fireplace with a hidden passage that lead to a river from an aquaduct, near Connor's Village.

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



Perhaps due to the cataclysm a mountain magically rose beneath the castle, and all lands west of the kingdom disappeared to somewhere else (perhaps seperated by a rifted linear sea). The damage caused by the mountain rising, and the cataclysm blocked many of the castle's passage ways. Something similar occured to the continent of Daventry during the time when the Three-headed Dragon rampaged across the continent, as Serenia had shifted somewhere else, leaving an ocean(or sea) along the northern edge of the Great Mountains north of Daventry (later to return by the time of King's Quest 5).

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 Life
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 inconsistances with previous material, including geography, and architecture. It's location is inconsistant 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 explaination 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 disappaered 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).

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.