Notes[]
- Graham has been king for several years now and the realm is doing well.
- Twenty years have passed and King Graham and Queen Valanice have twin, teenaged children, Alexander and Rosella. Unfortunately, Alexander, as a baby, was stolen unnoticed from his crib one night.
- In later years, King Graham's health began to fail, and the royal physicians were powerless to help him.
- With the King's health fully restored, and his family together once more, it was a happy and fulfilled Graham who set out for a walk in the forest one spring day almost a year since Rosella had returned from Tamir.
- King’s Quest takes place some centuries before 1992.
- KQ2 takes place several years after KQ1.
- The twins were born a year after the wedding.
- One morning about six months later, Queen Valanice looked into the nursery and found it unattended with Alexander's crib empty and Rosella crying uncontrollably.
- A dragon had been terrorizing Daventry for years.
- Eighteen years later finds an unhappy lad by the name of Gwydion searching desperately for a way to escape the slavery enforced upon him by the evil wizard Manannan.
- The saga of "King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella," begins where King's Quest III" leaves off.
- Graham had many years and adventures still left in him.
- The fifth King's Quest continues the saga after the return of Rosella from the land of Tamir.
- 1992 - These centuries later.
Behind the scenes[]
Information within KQ5 places KQ3, some "...twenty years passed..." after KQ2 until the start of KQ3 (it apparently ignores KQ4 manual, the intent of the KQ2 manual, as well as the King's Quest Companion). However the about screen does seem to incorporate some ideas from the companion (the Royal physicians and the reference to 20 years maybe a reference to quote that says the series takes place between 20 or 25 years after KQ1 (this quote is likely the source of both original timeline and anniversary timeline variants).
The material in KQ5 hintbook if added together adds up to roughly twenty years after KQ1 (? + 19 years + six months).
This material suggests Alexander was 18 when he escaped (see also Novel timeline) or even possibly almost 19 (based on the about screen quote and KQ5 hintbook). However the "eighteen" reference is probably rounded from his actual age ('nearly eighteen').
- The inn bandits robbery occured the day before Graham visited the inn, in KQC this would have been the same day he reached Serenia (as he spends a couple of days in the kingdom proper), and doesn't enter the inn until his second day there.
- The cobblers sold their last shoe the day before Graham visited the shop.
- The toyshop had many sales the day before Graham visited the shop.
- Mr. Richards would come to the toyshop the following day after Graham's visit to the shop.
- When Graham enters the toyshop it is around 'lunchtime' as stated by the toymaker's son.
- Roberta Williams' summary actually places KQ3, some 18 years after the children's birth (and/or kidnapping), ignoring countless sources that state that KQ3 takes place not quite eighteen, but when Alexander is still seventeen. Though it could be technically just rounding his age up, and not be taken literally. It still might take place within the 18th year following his birth (and/or kidnapping), he turns eighteen at the end of the year. However, if it is 18 following his kidnapping it could place him as much as late eighteen (almost nineteen) and less likely to work.
- The KQ5 hintbook is unspecific builds off of an unknown wedding date, with additional dates added onto it (? + 1 + almost six months + 18; this would add to about 19 + six months or about twenty more or less after the wedding)
- The reference to Graham and Valanice marriage happening "several years" after KQ5 would make it be at least more than two or three years, but not many[1]. Which could place it any point early in the timeline, after 2-4 years. This in fact could mean that KQV could take place anywhere among a range of years in latter half of the timeline. Which in turn could This could push KQ6 into a different date bracket than 25 GC (which would then make further inconsistent with the KQ6 Hintbook).
- A loose reading of the manual for KQ5 could suggest that KQ4 takes place years after KQ3, however other sources within KQ5, and related material by Roberta confirms that KQ4 begins where KQ3 ends. The intent of KQ5 manual is instead to point out Graham's "later years", not "later years" after KQ3.
The KQ5 timeline source material is primarily from KQ5 (and the in-game About KQ5), the KQ5 Manual, and the KQ5 Hintbook (World of King's Quest: A Brief History of Daventry) Additionally The Magical World of King's Quest is expanded and paraphrased from the version in KQ5 hintbook.
About KQ5 discusses only a few references to time. The first is a near quote of Roberta Williams' information in KQ5 Hintbook, in The World of King's Quest: A Brief History of Daventry, in which KQ2 is said to be "several years" after KQ1 (suggesting that it is more than 2 or 3 years after KQ1).
Roberta also places the births of the twins 1 year after KQ2 in that source, and Alexander's kidnapping six months later, but it doesn't easily map onto the About KQ5 or the KQ6 timeline.
The second main reference is that KQ3 is twenty years after KQ2. In other words suggesting that the children were born two years after KQ2 (if they were almost 18 in KQ3).
With the reading of the KQ5 Hintbook alone, the exact date of KQ1 is unclear, as is the exact date of marriage (takes place "several years after KQ1"). This would mean that the KQ2 wedding had to have taken place at least 2 or 3 years after KQ1, but not 'many' (likely less than 5)[2]. Several can mean;
- 2a : more than one <several pleas>
- b : more than two but fewer than many <moved several inches>
Such that a loose interpretation KQ5 material could roughly fit onto the Original timeline (with KQ2 taking place two years after KQ1 and the birth 1 year after KQ2) even though only one year passed between KQ1 and 2 in that timeline. However considering that KQ4 timeline and later KQ6 timeline moved things further away from KQ1 (suggesting that the wedding and birth in KQ5 material probably takes place 5 years after KQ1). The companion keeps things vague enough to suggest that the series takes place over a 20 or 25 year range (likely taking the reference from both the KQ1-3 manuals which placed things closer to twenty, and the KQ4 manual which shifted things by two extra years closer to twenty-five). Though some of the later sources apparently then referenced the Companion, taking the 25 year date. While others seemingly took the route closer to the original trilogy. This is a brief timeline that tries to look at the hintbook in context; BW = Before Wedding, and AW = After Wedding. Wedding = KQ2. Note that technically the born 1 year later date for the twins could be a approximation (if the wedding occured near the beginning of the year, and the twins were born 9 months or later within the same year it could be rounded up to a 'year'.)
Timeline details from the KQ5 manual[]
- ? GC
KQ3 KQ4
- (? + 1 year) GC
KQ5
Timeline details from About KQ5[]
- 1 GC
- KQ1
- ? GC
- KQ2
- (? + 20) GC (or at least almost 20)
- KQ3
- KQ4
Timeline details from KQ5 Hintbook[]
- 1 GC
- KQ1 (spring)
- ? GC ('several years later')
- KQ2
- (? + 1) GC
- The twins are born.
- (? + 1 GC + six months) GC ('about six months later')
- Alexander is kidnapped.
- (? + 1 + six months + 18) GC(19 years plus six months; roughly twenty years)
- KQ3
- KQ4
Combined[]
- 1 GC
- KQ1 (spring)
- ? GC ('several years later')
- KQ2
- (? + 1) GC
- The twins are born.
- (? + 1 GC + six months) GC ('about six months later')
- Alexander is kidnapped.
- (? + 20 (1 + six months + 18)) GC
- KQ3
- KQ4
- (+1 year) GC
KQ5
Timeline with regards to the 'wedding'[]
- 4-2 BW
- After various adventures and altercations, Graham successfully retrieved the three treasures and brought them back in triumph to his king. Soon thereafter, though, King Edward died and Sir Graham was indeed crowned King of Daventry.
- 1 AW
- Graham and Valanice returning to Daventry, Valanice became King Graham's wife, and Queen of Daventry in a beautiful wedding ceremony.
- 2 AW (or late 1 AW)
- The twins are born.
- 3 AW (or 2 AW)
- 6 months after birth: Alexander is kidnapped
- Not long after the mirror goes dark, and the dragon begins ravaging Daventry.
- 20 AW (or 21 AW)
- Alexander escapes from Manannan in Llewdor (a similar date also appears in TFC)
- Shortly after Rosella travels to Tamir to save her father.
- 21 AW (or 22 AW)
- KQ5
- 22 AW or 23 AW (KQ6 could occur at the end of 20 AW or 21 AW)
- KQ6
- KQ7
Novel timeline[]
- See Novel timeline.
Using the twins birth date for KQ1 and KQ3 from the 'Novel timeline' because the World of King's Quest and The Floating Castle share the same age for Alexander during KQ3 (eighteen). In this timeline, KQ2 would take place late 1 GC or so. KQ2 Manual date for Graham's journey is more or less maintained. In this timing Alexander may be kidnapped either during late 2 GC, or early 3 GC. KQ5 manual (1 year date), KQ6 (six month date), and KQ7 introduction dates are utilized.