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The Connected Lands

Started by chris the cynic, May 19, 2006, 11:22:39 AM

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chris the cynic

This is me trying to justify to myself the odd geography of King's Quest: The Mask of Eternity.  Once again, this is just what goes through my head when I say, "Why is this game so oddly put together?"

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There are many legends of lost continents and vanished civilizations, but one legend stands out from the rest, gather round as I tell you of the eternal kingdom.

A great an ancient race of men who had advanced in both magic and technology set out to find the perfect home, but as they traveled the world the found that nowhere was just right because whenever they went somewhere they had to leave someplace else behind, and so it was decided that they would do the impossible, the unthinkable:

They would create their new home, a place that would have everything, and have it all within reach.  To this end they found several small isolated places and linked them together via magical means.

In the land that is now Daventry, a moderate climate good for farming, they built a small castle and a settlement.  This place  also housed their land's only graveyard, in which they created a portal to the land of the dead so that the bereaved might visit their lost ones.  To make sure those who visited the Dimension of Death did not forget about life its exit lead to the place most full of life in all of the connected lands, a Swamp where new life was constantly being created.

Perhaps the best understanding of how far this race had moved beyond the limitations of distance is  shown in their maps where what is now Daventry appears to be a mere stone's throw from the Swamp even though the two are truly far apart.

However not all things in the connected lands were truly distant, the Swamp was connected by underground water ways to another ancient land, an underground complex where they could reach the greatest treasures of the earth without effort which was also said to the home of a great prophet named Hector.

While gnomes that now inhabit the underground depend on tunnels to the surface legend tells that once their tunnels and caverns were excavated the ancients had no need of such crude footpaths for each of their lands including Daventry, The Dimension of Death, The Swamp, and the Underground, were connected by means of magic to all of their other lands.

Legend tells of at least four more connected lands, and two more on top of that.  We know little of their most beautiful realms a swift river surrounded by dense lush forest and a serene sea side town, but we do know of their two most harsh climates: a wasteland of liquid fire and a place so cold the water never melts.

We may never truly understand why they wanted to journey to these places much less why they wanted them to be part of their homeland, but there are theories.  There are always theories.

Some say that the barren land was the best place for forging the metals retrieved from the underground, and they say that the cold was perfect for ... other things, they're just not specific as to what those things are.  Sledding perhaps.

Another theory tells us of the two remaining lands, it says that the most important thing to the ancients was their religion, and The Mask of Eternity, a sacred relic which dwells in The Realm of the Sun.  There the Archons, priests of the Mask and preservers of the faith, watch over the Mask which is said to protect Truth, Justice, and all things good.

But the priests, though immortal, were once men, and they had to get there somehow.  The theory states that hidden somewhere in either the Frozen Reaches or the Barren Region is a portal to yet another land, a small paradise with a great monument of freestanding stone where a potential Archon is judged and, if found worthy, allowed entrance into The Realm of the Sun.

Some say that the Frozen Reaches and the Barren Region are part of the connected lands only to keep the portal to that paradise hidden where no one would seek it.

Regardless of the reasons for the way the land was how it was we know that it was, for a long time, a prosperous place where people had almost forgotten that there was so much distance between the actual places.  Which made it so much worse when it all came crashing down.

We don't know where the swamp was, we have no idea which river was a part of the connected lands and we don't know which mountains the Frozen Reaches are actually in.  Rumor has it that those who live in the Barren Region today have never even laid eyes on the gnomes that dwell in the underground, if this is true then it tells us exactly how far the lands have drifted from each other.

As with so many tragic legends this one comes with a glimmer of hope, for though the connected lands are disconnected, and the only survivors of the kingdom are the Archons who represent only a spark of faith, there is a prophesy that tells of a coming darkness that will be replaced almost immediately by a new bright age.

It is said that the Mask of Eternity itself has foretold that it will be betrayed by one of its own, one of its most trusted Archons, will betray it and break it.  At this time it is believed that a tragedy will befall all descendants of the ancients, all humans, darkness will engulf the land, evil will pour in from all sides and the dead will be turned against the living.

In addiction to this all evil will flock to the broken mask perverting it's power while it is weakened.

Yet, it is said, that this tragic occurrence will forge a new hero who will unite most, if not all, of the scattered lands that were once connected, and from this turmoil the kingdom of the Mask will be restored, no longer will it merely be "the connected lands", but instead the true Eternal Kingdom.

dark-daventry

That was good! I never thought of that! I am writing a book of fan fiction for King's Quest, and this could be a great contribution! (Or rather I have plans to write one...)
Founder of the (new) Left Handed Alliance Of Left Handed People (LHALHP)

Gay and proud of it!

Avid Adventure Game fan

Rosedragon

I like the explanation that gives for moe. I wish moe was better. The grpahics are crude and ugly, and there is hardly any plot. Connor is a shallow character.  I like the way you explained the existance of those lands. Now, about the other lands in the KQ world, Kolyma, Lewdor, Tamir, Serenia, the Land of the Green Isles, Eldritch, who cna explain them?


The world's cutest, sweetest dragon princess

chris the cynic

I've always found it far more interesting to assume that there is a reason for something and then try to figure it out than to say, "There is no reason for this the designer/artist/author/filmmaker just got lazy."  That is what this comes out of and I think you'll find that a lot of the time things make sense if you think about them even if the person making it didn't intend them to.

Things have a habit of fitting together, sometimes in spite of the people who made them.

dark-daventry

Founder of the (new) Left Handed Alliance Of Left Handed People (LHALHP)

Gay and proud of it!

Avid Adventure Game fan