This is a brief chronology of events discussed in the KQ1 manual (it makes up part of the OT timeline).
Background[]
In this timeline in the walk-through in the Hintbook defaults to the lowest point version of the game (and highest score is 'things to try'). Graham killed The Dragon with his sword ('primary solution' to the story, less violent method is the secondary 'secret solution'). Same goes for the Giant, he killed the giant (being patient was a secondary solution). Giving treasure to the Troll, instead of having him butted into oblivion. Graham entered the well by sitting in the bucket, and letting it lower. Climbed back outside using the well. Got the golden key, and climbed the staircase, instead of climbing the beanstalk. Gave a treasure to the rat, instead of the cheese. Used only the four leaf cover, didn't have the fiddle (or didn't use it). He either didn't get the magic ring, or uses it to get past the random enemies. Didn't bow before the king. May not have killed the witch (only if she entered the cottage, while he was there searching her bedroom). Lost his dagger, trying to throw it at the troll.
The treasures are collected in the order of the Old Well (Magic Mirror), the Land of the Leprechauns (Magic Shield), and finally Land of the Clouds (Chest of Gold). The same order as they were stolen in the manual, and the same order as given by Edward, when talking to him. Also the same order as introduced in The King's Appeal.
The Hintbook came out after KQ2, and makes reference to it.
Timeline[]
- Over 500 BGC
- The last time there had been a successful attack on the kingdom of Daventry. Daventry obtained the magic shield, protecting the kingdom henceforth..
- c. 400 BGC
- Daventry lost the harvest to an early autumn rainstorm (the crops had been planted before the last frost).
- 1 GC
- Daventry's lovely fruit trees had blossomed early that year.
- KQ1
- 2 GC
- KQ2
- 21 GC
- KQ3
- KQ4
Notes[]
- Months passes between the theft of first treasure, and the second.
- Many years passed between the theft of Magic Shield and the theft of the last treasure, the Chest of Gold.
- Years passed, since invaders attacked the kingdom, and the news of the loss of the Shield spread. Armies attacked the weakened Daventry.
- Many more years passed between the final theft, and the time when Graham was called to the throne to find the the treasures.
- Whereas this timeline placed the loss of the third treasure many years after the loss of the previous treasure, the King's Quest Companion, placed the loss of the three treasures in the same year approximately, see Companion timeline. The book suggests that the first treasure was stolen twenty years before KQ1, and that Hagatha showed up 'decades' ago to steal the third treasure. Twenty years is the bare minimum for 'decades' to work accurately, although technically the term could be rounded to 'decades' from at least 15 years before KQ1.
- This is essentially the original timeline for the series, and there is little deviation from it, between KQ1 and KQ3. So those can be inserted on the timeline with little effort. KQ4 changed the dates from KQ2 significantly shirting the timeline (shifting the KQ2 to three years after KQ1, and shifting the twins birth two years after that). Thus the KQ4 timeline is not easily reconciled with this earlier version. It becomes harder to tell which timeline the later games follows. The Companion timeline for example stuck with the date for KQ2 established in that game, see KQ2 timeline.
- Traditionally a young man would be a page from about age seven to about fourteen. From about fourteen or fifteen to about twenty-one they would be a squire (or apprentice knight), and from twenty-one onwards they would be a fullsworn knight. In later sources in the original KQ lore Graham is listed as age nineteen (as per the KQ6 Hintbook, and KQ7 Hintbook) which would make him a tad younger than most knights. In some of the early releases of King's Quest 1, the box shows him with streaks of white in his hair, and perhaps even lines in his face, which might suggest that he might have been interpreted as being much older perhaps even older than twenty-five at the time of KQ1. Assuming Graham was 19 at the time of KQ1 as its stated in later sources by Lorelei Shannon, he would be 39 at the time of KQ3/4.
Behind the scenes[]
Descriptions would hint that that the first two treasures were stolen within the same year, as only a few months passes between the events. The third treasure was stolen many years later.