The King's Quest Companion



King's Quest Companion is an official authorized walkthrough/hint book that covered each of the games in a novella style format written by Peter Spear, Jeremy Spear, and some material by eluki bes shahar. There were four editions, with the 4th edition covering up to King's Quest 7. The short story adaptations often added new history to the story of Daventry in the process, as well as adding more detailed background to items found, while remaining true to the games.

The author blends fact and fiction through each of the novelizations by writing them as if a historian in Daventry had sent him messages, recounting the events surrounding each game, and what the antagonist had done during the course of the game. The accounts sometimes enriched the ending of each game by expanding and going beyond the endings. There is various artwork scattered throughout the book. Though apparently at least some of the artwork changed between the 2nd and 3rd editions, for example the maps of the lands within the world of Daventry(which altered the names and locations of certain places between the maps).

The framing story around the entire book is that Peter Spear was given Documents in the real world that had been sent to him from the world of Daventry by a historian named "Derek Karlavaegen" telling about the world of Daventry and history of its people, how they communicate with our world, and why he came to bring the information in the first place. He sent a handful of court chronicles known as the "Chronicles of Daventry".

Much of the KQ7 material was originally printed in the Authorized King's Quest VII Players Guide) by Peter Spear, which apparently was created as separate book, so that people with the 3rd edition of the KQ companion didn't have to buy the 4th edition.

The book was endorsed by Roberta Williams and she believed it brought the games to life in an exciting new way. She said it added another fascinating dimension to the entire King's Quest experience. She felt it was a pleasure to read, and a must have for anyone wanting to explore the series in greater depth and detail. Ken Williams (the former owner of Sierra On-line supported the book from day one. The author directly worked with designers receiving behind the scenes information, and influencing material in the games, manuals and even other official Hint Books on occasion. Sierra's Interaction Magazine, and King's Quest Collection reprinted portions of the book on occasion to advertise them, and give hints to players (Sierra Magazine, Autumn 1989, Interaction, Fall 1994).

Additionally there is a connection between the Space Quest Companion, which Peter Spear claims were also messages sent to him from "Roger Wilco". The material in the Space Quest Companion were supposed to have originated from Roger Wilco from the future across the multiverse on mysterious disks.

The four editions

First edition covered up to King's Quest IV.

Second Edition covered up to King's Quest V, and King's Quest Sci/EGA version.

3rd Edition covered up to King's Quest VI

4th Edition covered up to King's Quest VII.

The maps in the King's Quest companion changed between second edition and 3rd, with art style changed and locations or names somewhat altered between the previous maps. Certain details were changed in order to work with new information added from each new game. For example in an earlier edition the outcome of Manannan, that Derek could find no evidence of him or of any cat in the place, after the events of KQ3 the quote was later modified to work with KQ V's extended information. Usually the changes to the text only affected the "read me first" and "introduction" chapters.

See here, for the outdated versions of land maps from second edition. Even though the maps are updated in later editions, the newer artwork seemed more stylized than than earlier artwork, and listed more location names. In some cases locations of places even differed between the old versions and updated versions of the maps.

Read Me First and Introduction
These sections cover a little information about the history of the games, and the author's decision to write the book, and how he began to start receiving messages from the Daventry from Derek Karlavaegen. These sections specifically the read me first section are probably the most modified sections over the course of all 4 editions.

For example 3rd edition added a caveat as to why the author never bothered to adapt order of events as told in the KQ1 remake, but rather left the version of the story as shown in the original KQ1. That paragraph was removed in the 4th edition and replaced with a brief explanation for each of the games up to the 7th, and that they took place over the course of 20-25 years in Daventry's time.

Chapter 1 The Eye Between the Worlds
This chapter is written by Derek Karlavaegen, and is written as the explanation as to how he is sending information to earth from where Daventry is located, and a bit of history about the world, and Other World they withdrew from.

Chapter 2 King's Quest 1: Quest for the Crown
KQ1 novelization was written for the first edition of the book and adapts KQ1AGI only. It is apparently written by the Daventry Scribe Derek Karlavaegen, or another court scribe of Castle Daventry.

King Graham collects the treasures in the order of Magic Mirror, followed by the Magic Shield, Followed by the Magic Chest.

KQ1 remake was not adapted into a novelization due to conceit from the "Read Me first" page in the 3rd Edition, that the story was supposed to be a historical document that actually came to him from the "real" kingdom of of Daventry, and that Roberta Williams must have received her ideas for the stories from dreams sent from the realm of Daventry, and that Roberta's personal changes to the story for the remake did not reflect the actual history as given to her by the people of Daventry themselves. The author explained that he could not rewrite the court chronicles given to him by Derek to reflect the changes to the story because he would be rewriting the history of the events of King's Quest 1, thus "reducing it to mere fiction", something he wasn't prepared to admit. He didn't want to "misrepresent the facts" as given to him by the scribe Derek Karlavaegen. It was also due to the fact that at the time the original KQ1 was the most common released version out among sierra's customers.

In the 4th edition his explanation was replaced with a brief list of the history of each game up to VII, and that they take place over the course of a period of 20-25 years.

Chapter 3 The World of Daventry
In this chapter Derek describes what he knows about the world of Daventry, and the continents and kingdom's there. It has apparently been updated three times throughout the first three editions to include later information about the world of Daventry as each game was released, up to King's Quest 6. It has original information about the main continents, the oceans surrounding them, as well as a bit of info about the citizens, and creatures inhabiting each land. It also includes a map of the world of Daventry(which was apparently altered in each edition as each game established a new location).

Chapter 4 King's Quest 2: Romancing the Throne
The adaptation of the official KQ2, the original, it is supposed to be from the court chronicle from Daventry's prime minister Gerwain, recounting the story from what King Graham told him after the events. It is a direct and accurate adaptation of all the events that occurred in the original KQ2, much expanding the story, and giving history to the various creatures and characters that graham encountered. It is incompatible with the much different and altered storyline in the unofficial Romancing the Stones. See here for more information.

Chapter 5 A Magical Primer
This is an article on spells, and the history of magic written by Alexander. It includes Fragments from The Sorcery of Old by an unknown author which discusses the history behind the readable spells in the The Sorcery of Old (the spellbook that Alexander used while in Llewdor) as examples of magic used in Daventry.

Chapter 6 King's Quest III: To Heir is Human
The adaptation of KQ3. It is written as interview that Derek Karlavaegen's had with Alexander himself after the events of KQ3 about his adventure.

Chapter 7 Grave Matters
This chapter which is said to be reprinted from "Ten Days In Tamir" which was first published in "Telltale Traveler". It tells a little about the history of Whateley Manor, and the graveyards there. As well as discussing the history, and the poetry of the gravestones there.

Chapter 8 King's Quest 4: The Perils of Rosella
This is the adaptation of KQ4 in it Valanice is recounting the story of her Daughter's involvement in Tamir.

Chapter 9 Iconomancy: A Magic Without Words
This chapter was written by Alexander, and he discusses the magic of Iconomancy. He then gives history behind the various spells that his father and Mordack used during the wizard's duel.

Chapter 10 King's Quest 5: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
Derek Karlavaegan's record of the events as told to him by King Graham of his adventures that transpired during KQ5.

Chapter 11 From the Land of Green Isles An Author's Note
This chapter was written by Derek Karlavaegen with a second part written by Peter Spear. First part is "From the Land of Green Isles, A confession and Apologia", and is an apology by Derek Karlavaegen for leaving out, and hiding the existence and location of the Green Isles from the maps and articles he had sent to Peter Spear that were used in earlier editions of the book. He admitted he had intentionally lied about the existence of the land even though he had visited it in the early days of his adventure, and even written a journal of his adventures there, and facts about the kingdom in his work the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles. He apologized for denying its existence to those he sent documents to or conversed with even after learning that Cassima had been saved by King Graham.

The second part was from Peter Spear discussing how he was contacted by another person claiming to have received documents from Derek Karlavaegen that had never even heard of the King's Quest series. He mentioned how he had soon received a similar document from Derek a few days later, and then contacted Jane Jensen to see if Roberta and Sierra knew anything about the documents. He then discussed how Jane Jensen sent him a copy of the "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" that Derek had sent her.

Chapter 12 King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
This is was from the Court Chronicles written by Derek Karlavaegen chronicling the events Alexander told him of his adventures he went through in the Land of the Green Isles.

Chapter 13 From The Eye Between The Worlds
Peter Spear discusses the suspension of disbelief that he had to maintain ever since he received messages from Derek Karlavaegen. How he has had to come to terms accepting them as true even though he believes that the stories should only be from computer games, and not from a real universe. Yet while he tried to find evidence of the messages to be fake he has never found evidence disproving Derek's claims. By this time those from Daventry are now calling the world Daventry.

Recently he received a long letter from Derek, consisting of two parts, the first part was an anonymous telling of the events of KQ7 of which was a lengthy narration, more a romance than anything else, that is popular among the readers of "popular gossiping and literary trifles." The second part was an apology from Derek in which he cautions people from the other world in believing the events in KQ7 as wholly true, that the story be more fancy than fact. He explains while he's a good friend of Alexander's and the royal family, he has never heard the story from their own words. He has never heard anything about a possible marriage from Rosella or her family. Nothing from their words, their looks, or the language of their bodies. He believed the story to be either a rumor or popular fabrication. Just mass hope for another royal wedding, manifesting itself as a true romance, is another explanation Derek gave to explain the wide spread and uncritical acceptance of the tale.

He believed that Rosella while impetuous, is no fool, and would not marry any man before her time, especially not Edgar who she hardly knew anything about. He also believes that Valanice would not be so easily swayed from her course of rescue as she was as the tale may have told. But he admits the tale could be completely true and the truth has been kept from him for reasons only the royal family knows. He admits that is their right and their privilege and he is only a royal subject. But he feels the whole story just seems to ring false to him.

He had another theory that he thinks may be possible, which is that the great dreamer in the other world, creates tales and fables from which is of their world's reality, his world's history. He now thinks that there may be another great dreamer in Daventry, one who had dreamed the fictions of the other world, and is creating new realities and histories for his world. He believes that Daventry and the Other World are so close together people from both sides are dreaming about the other side, and influencing the history of each world. He believes that the other world is now creating its own visions of Daventry, a different Daventry than they inhabit, and now those from Daventry dream of the other world, and it is changing them.

Chapter 14 King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride
From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part VII, written by an unknown scribe, it chronicled the events of King's Quest 7. In it Valanice and Rosella tell King Graham about their adventures in Eldritch and Etheria after they returned from the land. As the previous chapter implies Derek Karlavaegen thinks the story is either fiction, the royal family has chosen to keep the true knowledge of the event to themselves(but somehow gossip escaped), or someone else is directly changing physical nature of their world, and its history.

This novella was apparently originally printed in the Authorized King's Quest VII Players Guide.

Chapter 15 The Easy Way Out
Peter Spear discusses the differences between the real universe of Daventry, and the video game universe of Daventry. He discusses how he can't prove the existence of Daventry, and how most will just think the series are merely games. He further explains how the messages he received are what really happened, and how the events truly occurred. However the games allow for more than one way to solve puzzles and therefore more than one way to reach the end of the stories, so the this section shows all the other alternatives.

The next sections were straight forward hint guide material such as puzzle solutions and maps existing outside of the lore of framing story (though on occasion he makes references to what really happened). It included such things as covering the differences between KQ1 and its remake, and alternate story paths in KQ6. As well as the various alternate solutions to KQ7. In some cases this section even had some behind scenes information on the making of each of the games, and contained additional background notes for the game's stories.

Unfinished Fifth Edition
According to Peter Spear, a 5th edition was in the works, that would have included events of Mask of Eternity. He had been part way through, when the publisher decided to cancel the book for a number of reasons. What had been written was in the form of brain storming notes and scribbles.