The real world, reality or real life is the physical realm of Daventry (and other physical realms such as Other World (20th century Earth) or Realm of Eldritch), and other physical alternate realities.
Background[]
As opposed to the Dreamland or spirit-world or the Realm of the Dead, cyberspace or the game realities.
It is the from the perspective of those living in it the Known World the universe that matters to them. Hence to the people of Daventry, the World of Daventry is their real world, but they also acknowledge the other world as being a 'real world' as well as they physically originated from it. However many consider the Realm of Eldritch a world beyond reality, a world beyond dreams.
Derek says of his world: "But I never claimed this as paradise; this is the real world. The normal cares and challenges of life fill our days."[1]
The King's Quest Companion reveals the story of the characters in the King's Quest universe and invites readers into the real world of Daventry to meet them and discover secrets about their lives that one could never have imagined before.[2]
It is Telgrin's philosophy that there is no such thing as good or evil, he finds them to be abstractions do not apply well to life in the real world. They make matters that are by their very nature complex seem rather too simple.
Though Derek had discovered mentions and snatches of "King's Quest" in his searches through the aether. He was startled to find that the games (the original Sierra series King's Quest 1-6), as far as he could determine, are accurate retellings of events he knows to be true in his world. That Roberta Williams was a 'great dreamer, that it doesn't take much to see how closely Derek Karlavaegens and Roberta Williams's versions of happenings in Daventry match through the first six games of the series, the first 20 years or so of the reign of king Graham.
The routes through the game realities is not always the same ones Graham, Alexander-Gwydion, Valanice, Connor, or Rosella took. They live in their real world, we live in ours, and our world still cannot duplicate real life inside a computer. The people of Daventry, whose real-life adventures constitute the basis for the King's Quest games, overcame their particular challenges in their own ways. In the game universe, on the other hand, there is often more than one way to successfully solve a problem. Occasionally the player will score more points by not doing things the same way the characters did. That's OK; it's only a game, not real life. For us, at least.
Notes[]
- The King's Quest Companion allows one to: "Learn the deepest, most hidden secrets about the real world of Daventry. "
- In the SCI/VGA Version of KQ1, players have been given two breaks in figuring out the riddle of the gnome's name. First, a spinning wheel and a pile of gold appear in the screen along with the gnome-a broad hint and reminder of the Rumplestiltskin story. The second break might bring tears to many an experienced King's Quest player's eyes. While the backwards alphabet answer-IFNKOVHGROGHPRM-still works, the backwards spelling answer-NIKSTLITSELPMUR-is now also correct. Gasp! This bit of information, of course, is of little comfort to those millions of players who have struggled with the problem in the past, or those without the SCI/VGA Version. Nor is it of any solace to Graham, who had to come up with IFNKOVHGROGHPRM in real life.
- It should never be claimed that Daventry is paradise; it is the real world.
- While adventuring through Kolyma, you will notice that if you walk far enough north and south, you end up back where you started. Kolyma "wraps around" in these directions both in the game and in reality.
Behind the scenes[]
Derek Karlavaegen and Peter Spear speak of the real world of Daventry and the computer game world as being two separate entities. KQ1AGI better represents the real world of Daventry while the remake does not. Derek sent messages from the real world that ended up in Peter Spear's computer.
Thus the real world can refer to any physical world were the living exist. This includes both world of Daventry and modern Earth. There are many real worlds across the multiverse through time and space and inter-dimensionally.
It is said that once Roberta Williams became the dreamer able to dream into the real world of Daventry, and there maybe another 'great dreamer' who lives within the 'real world' of Daventry, but in time their dreams (or the dreams of the latter) began to influence their world's present and future, possibly creating new realities.
The editions also call the games game realities to differentiate them from the 'real world' being told in Derek's stories. In the second and 3rd edition Peter Spear called the changes in the KQ1 remake's story 'creative license'.[3] The 2nd edition (and 3rd edition with some slight edits to reflect chapter number changes) added a explanation 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. Explaining that the original story was the true history of Daventry, and it would be wrong for him to be a revisionist historian. .
- In improving the look and sound of the game, however, Sierra decided to make a few changes in the game itself. Not many, just enough to make a few tough problems more logical and a little easier to solve. Thus, in the SCI Version only, the gnome's name problem can be answered in more than one way, the condor doesn't appear until late in the game, and the pebbles by the river find a more visible home by a lake. These, and the fine tuning of other sequences, changed the game slightly. It's called "creative license"...
- This book covers both versions of King's Quest 1 game. However, the changes in the game do not, and cannot reflect what actually did happen to Graham as he quested to save Daventry and win its throne. Anyone with an older or non-IBM/compatible KQ1 can play the game along with the narrative in Chapter 2 and win through to the end. This is no longer completely true for folks with the new version.
- It has been strongly suggested to me that I "rewrite" that particular court chronicle to reflect the game's changes. I have not. To do so would be to rewrite history, and thus reduce Graham's adventurings to a mere fiction. To do so would be to deny the reality of Daventry, something I am not prepared to do at this time.
- The other reason for my decision to leave the KQ1 narrative the same as it appeared in the first edition of this book is a more practical one. The vast majority of KQ1 players have the original version--King's Quest Classic, so to speak. To modify the words of that nameless court scribe would be a disservice to those game players, as well as a misrepresentation of apparent facts. For the sake of verisimilitude, my editors and I have decided to leave the narrative the same as it was sent to me.
- However, all of the changes to KQ1 have been included in Chapter 11, "The Easy Way Out." That chapter reflects both "game realities," the old and the new, and can be confidently used by all King's Quest players. No matter which version of KQ1 you have, we've got you covered.