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Here is a good deal of stuff that I didn’t include in the story for various reasons.
Back to TopMusic (Note: If the MIDI files don't play very well on WinAmp, try upgrading to the latest version.)
The "theme song" for the game, which never got a formal title (6 MB, right-click, Save Target As). The working title is "It Can’t be Love", co-written by me and Liam Longbow (who created the final composition). It’s a bit awkward in parts, but I’m glad it turned out as beautiful as it did. I never did get any vocals for the song, but the lyrics are here.
A beautiful instrumental by Liam – he was generous enough to create a beautiful batch of MIDIs for the game. This mournful melody is one I thought was fitting for when Cassima gives the ring to the ghost in Chapter One, making him remember his past.
Another instrumental which I thought would be perfect for Augustus’ theme music.
I envisioned this as being the music that plays during Edgar and Acilino’s duel.
Music for when Cassima is spying on the agent's conversation with the wizard in Tamir.
I intended to have this play in Chapter Five, when Cassima tells Alexander that she loves him and tries to touch him through the oracle’s pool.
Some suspenseful, uneasy music when Edgar experiences "SMR" in the quarry in Chapter Five.
Some beautiful musical ambiance for when Cassima is underwater in Chapter Seven.
Music for the scene in the castle Ashni is imprisoned in in Chapter Eight.
Edgar treating Cassima's wound and talking to her in the cave in Chapter Seven.
Concept Art
Some sketches of Edgar groping around after the physician has stolen his sight and preparing to duel with Acilino.
Cassima the lizard taking the fishhook into possession, demonstrating how items shrink to fit under her headdress while she is in a different shape.
Some concept art of the Aquila and its crew.
Sketches of the wiseman of the Serenian mountains.
Storyboarding for part of the intro, when Cassima is preparing to leave.
Notes on the Tamir scene (a very early draft!).
Thumbnails of scenes from Serenia.
Concept art/reference material for the "puzzle circle".
Sketches of the inhabitants of the sixth Isle.
Alexander's reference sheet. He's wearing what I would presume to be the "style" of the Land of the Green Isles, and I decided to be a little bold by dressing him in colors that actually didn't clash with each other, unlike the horrible sea green/magenta and green/yellow combinations he has worn in the past. :)
An old painting of Cassima running from the mob in Etheria which I used to be proud of.
A sketch of Alex and Rosella on their way to help Cassima and Edgar.
Edgar and Cassima in various poses and outfits.
Some humorous sketches of Cassima as a lizard which I thought stood the test of time fairly well.
Some of the only sketches of Edgar flying on his skyship (skysurfing?) that I could find.
A rough storyboard of the final scene, slightly different in some parts.
Miscellaneous
An animation from an early draft of the script in which Alexander allows Cassima to go looking for Shadrack. He changes his mind too late and runs to stop her, but she vanishes before he can (WARNING: Large .gif (3 MB)).
Edgar and Cassima, down in the dumps.
An old Flash animation of a scene in Eurus’ Den which took me forevah. My first real lip-syncing experiment. Guess who provided the voices of Icarus and his pals?
A full sized picture of the Cassima-as-a-panther image from the story, with a different type of shading that I tried out on a couple of animals before deciding to go with the airbrushed look.
A very old mouse-drawn sketch of Cassima. This was done before I had a scanner.
An animation of Edgar trudging along, more of a practice walk cycle than anything else.
When Edgar wins the fight with Acilino, the player can make him use the hand icon on the surrounding sky, and if he/she does, Edgar will try thumbing a ride, then stop when he realizes that he doesn't understand what he is doing.
While I was constructing KQ9:IT4, my hard drive failed, and I was darned lucky to have had the presence of mind to install a secondary hard drive shortly before this happened. Nonetheless, I still lost a significant portion of art and a small piece of text, including a great bird’s-eye-view animation of the crystal dragon flying out of her cave, plus most of the scenery of Llewdor. I also lost the image of the plant Cassima climbs as a lizard in Chapter Three. I did, however, find a rough draft of an animation of her climbing the plant that I assembled in an animation class which seems to be all that’s left of that scene (GIF, 700 KB; the second Cassima in the final frame was to be the final frame of another animation where she climbs to another branch to bite the fruit off, part of an unimplemented puzzle where she has to use its sticky juice to help her safely climb down the table leg).
The game's icons (in the form of a cycling animation)! The Inventory and Settings icons aren't quite complete, but just about everything else is.
An old picture of Cassima, Edgar and Scrimshaw, from a picture I drew for Sierra Planet a long time ago.
Ever get confused trying to keep track of where and when Cassima and Edgar are during their quest? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get mixed up as well. Over the years, I created several different versions of a timeline which showed where the characters were, which period of time they were in, and how they got to and departed from that era. Here is the latest version, which should make the layout of the chapters a little less confusing. (This timeline doesn’t quite match up with the final story, however, and regarding the green bars on the timeline…you know how yellow and blue have to be together to make green? :) )
All the completed walk cycles I planned to use in the game! They ain't so hot, especially in Flash, which does wierd things to GIFs, but I didn't want to leave anything out. Enjoy!
A flowchart to keep track of the many variables in the game's storyline.
I work at a local store, and places that sell things inevitably churn out receipts. What does this have to do with KQ9:IT4? Well, the backs of receipts are wonderful places for jotting down notes, and as fate would have it, while the text that makes up this website was still being written, most of my best ideas would come to me while I was working, so I got into the habit of keeping a pencil stuffed down my sock and a handful of receipts in my pocket. Here are just a few of the notes I wound up accumulating.
Some rough sketches of most of the non-animal males in KQ9:IT4, including the wizard Cassima sees in Tamir (which Edgar later sees on the sixth Isle, sometime after the wizard's "accident").
It may not be a game, but I figured, why not cook up some cover art?
A poster of sorts for the story that is just about the right size to be used as a wallpaper.
Back to TopThese are scenes that didn’t make it into the final story, but were in the original game scripts. Needless to say, don’t read them unless you’ve finished the story or don’t care about having the experience spoiled.
In the original game design, if Cassima doesn’t reassume her human form within a certain amount of time, she is escorted from Icebella’s castle, not having the opportunity to change into a human again until she arrives at the alpine village. The following dialogue occurs when she slides down the slope to the village:
(If Cassima DOESN’T have the scarf (WOLF), she slides down the mountain slope with a howl/scream, landing in a pile of rope at the bottom of the slope with a loud "OMPH!" and getting hopelessly tangled up in it. She tries to get to her feet and falls down again.) Cassie (wolf): Ow…what the…is this some kind of snare or something? Of all the embarrassing things that could happen in a different form…(struggles again)…wait a minute…what am I saying, this is just a coil of rope. I might be able to use this…if I could just…get it off me…(struggles a little more until finally resorting to her teeth to get the rope off. She coils it up and slips it under her headdress.) There. (player control)Cassima follows through with her "I can be a wolf" remark to Edgar at the pool in Tamir if the player shows the pendant to Edgar. Consequently, Edgar goes for a walk with her in her wolf form in the scene that follows it. The former scene originally went like this:
Cassie (looking at her bracelet and smiling mischievously): I can be a wolf.
Edgar (looking nervous): Is that so?
Cassie: Yeah. Want to see?
Edgar (holding up his hands): No! No, I told you I don’t like transfigurations…
Cassie (still looking mischievous): Okay. (pause) Lupus! (starts changing while Edgar looks mortified)
Edgar: No…no…Cassie…I mean, Cassima…stop! Really…Hey, in the name of Etienne Navarre, STOP!!
Cassie (completely wolf by this time): Okay, I stopped!
*Etienne Navarre is the name of the cursed hero of the film "Ladyhawke", who changes into a black wolf at night.During their walk together in Chapter Three, Cassima and Edgar originally met the unicorn that Rosella captured in Tamir. I cut this scene because I thought one unicorn was enough:
Cassie: This is a beautiful country. You were lucky to have been raised here.
Edgar: I wasn’t raised here, in the lowlands. I grew up in that castle in the mountains.
Cassie: So you told me. (she bushes a branch aside and sees the unicorn grazing in a meadow. She gasps in amazement)
Edgar (whispering): That must be the unicorn Lolotte had Rosella bring to her!
Cassie: He’s so beautiful…is he…(she reaches out a hand, but the unicorn gallops away. Cassima looks disappointed)
Edgar: Don’t worry, Cassima. He’s as wild as the forest. Even if you are a pure woman, that creature won’t get within a yard of – oomph! (while Edgar was talking, the unicorn snuck up behind him and nuzzled his back. Cassima laughs and strokes the unicorn’s muzzle)
Cassie: I guess times have changed, Edgar.
Edgar (stroking the unicorn too): I guess so. (after a few seconds, the unicorn trots off. Night is falling.)In Chapter Three, Cassima (as a wolf) and Augustus originally spied on the cabin from behind a fallen log, which I scrapped in favor of the bushes, and this amusing bit of dialogue takes place:
Cassie and Augustus creep up behind a fallen log. Cassie looks over it at the cabin. Augustus: Hey! Keep your ears down!
Cassie: What?
Augustus: Your ears are up! Fold them back (he demonstrates). Like this!
Cassie: Oh. Right. (she flattens her ears against her head.)
Back to TopSeveral of the new characters in the story have names which aren’t related to myths or fairy tales in any way, but still have unique meanings:
Ashni - A flash of lightning (Indian) Ghislain (the female wolf) - Pledge (French) Labrusca (the blind Winged One) - A wild grape vine (Latin) Gabbro (the man at the Llewdor Oasis during Edgar’s visit) - a type of igneous rock, similar to granite (Italian) Aubrey/Auberic - Elfin king (Germanic) Acilino (the duel-mad Spaniard) - Eagle (Spanish) Aquilla (Aubrey’s ship) - Eagle (Latin) Scrimshaw - The art of carving or engraving pieces of whalebone or ivory by means of very tiny scratches Welkin (the sentry griffin) - The vault of the sky (Middle English) Yanaha (the prim female griffin) - She meets the enemy (American Indian) Foehn (the scruffy griffin, pronounced "fane") - A dry, ascending wind up the slope of a mountain (Germanic) Orla (the female druid) - Golden lady (Irish) Shappa (the cat-man) - Red thunder (American Indian) Suhad (the ruler of the 6th Isle) - Sleepless (Arabic)
Back to TopTrue to form, KQ9:IT4 contains a lot of fairy tale references, mentions or flat-out spoofs -- and it's not always just fairy tales that are parodied either...
-The book Cassima notices in the wiseman's hut in Chapter Two, Life, The Multiverse, And Everything, is a reference to the 3rd book in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy", Life, The Universe, And Everything. --RW+X_in_SQ7, 11-12-06
For those of you who haven't read the KQ Companion, the term "multiverse" is often used to describe where the KQ world resides. --Akril-"...whatever Powers that Be had noticed her winging her way east of the sun, and had somehow plucked her out of the air and placed her west of the moon..." This line from Chapter Two is a play on the title of the Norwegian fairy tale, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." It's about a girl whose beloved is separated from her because of a curse, and she has to travel...well, you probably know where she goes in order to find him. It's a pretty catchy title, at least. --Akril, 10-24-07
-Augustus the ferret (Chapter Three) is named after Augustus Caesar, whose original name was Octavius, which means "eight". Both Augustus and his daughter Octavia have eight spots on their backs. Not only that, but August is the eighth month of the year as well. --Akril, 10-24-07
-The fellow that Edgar fights in Etheria [in Chapter Four] is a spoof of Inigo Montoya of The Princess Bride (excellent movie and book), and the fight is very similar, especially the "There's something I need to tell you..." part. --RW+X_in_SQ7, 11-12-06
On the same note, Acilino's final line was originally slightly different, but I changed the first words of that line to "Prepare to die" to tie in with Inigo's rehearsed monologue from The Princess Bride. --Akril-Aeolus, the formal name of Lighter Etheria, is the name of the keeper of the four winds in Greek mythology. --Akril, 10-24-07
-"The dragon looked at Edgar as if the prince had explained how he had taken the door to his house off of its hinges to keep anyone from unlocking it while he was gone." This line from Chapter Five is a nod to the Brothers Grimm. In one of their tales, a "clever" housewife does just this when she and her husband are leaving their home. --Akril, 10-24-07
-Eurus' Den is named after Eurus the east wind (the least important of the four winds in Greek mythology). --Akril, 10-24-07
-Cassima's "Edgar! You idiot!" line in Chapter Seven is a parody of a scene in the fantasy film "Willow", in which the protagonist (Willow) is trying to change an enchanted sorcerer back into her human form, but becomes distracted for a moment, and when he turns back to the sorceress, he finds that he has changed her into a goat, prompting her to bleat, "Willow! You idiot!" --Akril, 10-24-07
-Lycathia, the land that Edgar accidentally visits in Chapter Eight, is the kingdom that Rosella visits in the King's Quest: The Floating Castle novel, which isn't looking its best in KQ9:IT4. --Akril, 10-24-07
Think you’ve spotted an injoke, a reference or something similar in KQ9:IT4? Then send me a line at Akril15[at]aol[.]com (remove the brackets) or Instant Message me at Akril15[at]aol[.].com (AOL IM) or Akril15[at]hotmail[.]com (MSN IM). If you guess correctly, your injoke/reference/whatever will be listed here, along with my comments! Happy hunting!
Back to TopSome informal commentary on the two main characters of the story.
Cassima:
I found Cassima an interesting character the first time she appeared in KQ5. Interesting and pretty darn beautiful. Black hair, green eyes…yowzah. Once Graham gains her trust, she proves that she isn’t the fragile damsel in distress that she appears to be at first. I mean, what sort of delicate waif gets to know an ominous underground labyrinth so well that she can easily find her way to a dungeon inside it? Not only that, but befriend the ominous beasts that populate the fortress – now that takes courage.Cassima is also the only female protagonist who deliberately causes extreme physical harm to a villain, and not by shooting a magic arrow at him or blasting him with a mysterious device of unknown powers – by brazenly ramming a dagger into his shoulder. A woman brave enough to attempt something like this definitely has some protagonist potential. Not only that, but Cassima has saved the lives of two characters on two occasions – Graham’s in KQ5, when he is trapped in the dungeon, and Alexander’s in KQ6, when Alhazred is about to kill him. I’d say that’s a record of some sort.
Edgar:
Not many people like Edgar for one reason or another, but I feel that he just hasn’t gotten the attention he deserves. If it weren’t for his love for Rosella in KQ4, Lolotte would have probably kept her locked in that prison cell for the rest of the game! I also doubt that Edgar actually wanted to marry Rosella – if he did, he wouldn’t have helped her escape from his room (though that rose that he ties the key to is such a dear expression of his feelings towards her). In this way, Rosella doesn’t defeat Lolotte entirely on her own – Edgar helps her along the way. Once he becomes human (or so he thinks) like Rosella, he hopes that she will love him as he loves her, but circumstances result in his proposal being turned down – bad timing on his part, I reckon.
Something that isn’t brought up very often is that Edgar is indirectly responsible for saving Etheria and Eldritch. How, you ask? Simple: if he hadn’t lured Rosella into that portal and pulled her through it, she and her mother would never have been able to save the two lands. His reasons for bringing her to Vulcanix may have been a little misguided, but in spite of his changed form and warped mind, he was somehow able to do the right thing once again. Also, once he gets his right shape back, he pulls some pretty impressive stunts to reunite Valanice with Rosella before the volcano erupts…how the heck did he do all that?? He even very nearly dies to protect Rosella – a foolish move, perhaps, but you’ve got to give the guy credit for looking after the woman he loves. And his eyes even change color! (Sorry - bad joke, shutting up now.)
--- In a way, Cassima and Edgar have personalities that are the opposite of the typical male and female ones: Cassima is bold and somewhat reckless, while Edgar is much more shy and withdrawn. It is interesting to see the way two such conflicting personalities interact. Neither of the two characters are flawless either: Cassima has her "little problem" to deal with, and Edgar has his own irrational phobia to conquer. Neither of these quirks would have been as prominent in an actual game, but that’s the good thing about straight prose – you can cram a lot more into every block of text.
The clothing of the two characters is almost identical to the outfits they wore in the last games they appeared in, with a couple of exceptions in each case: Cassima's headdress is a combination of the headdress in the "talkie" and "non-talkie" portraits in KQ6 that appear when she is talking, and Edgar's pants are much baggier than the ones he wears in KQ7. He's also missing his belt buckle and the gold fringe around the bottom of his tunic. (Isn't it interesting how Edgar is wearing brightly colored clothes in the first game he appears in while Cassima's clothing is very dull and earthy, then in the next games they appear in, Edgar's outfit is dull and Cassima's outfit is colorful!)
Lastly, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve given Cassima and Edgar their own "personal" interjections – Cassima says "Great Samhain" or words to that effect (Samhain being the Lord of the Dead, of course), and Edgar says "Great Levanter" (the King of the Winds in KQ7). I thought these expressions would be more interesting than to have both of them saying "Good Lord" or "Egad" all the time.
A few random spoilerriffic game extras which don’t fit in anywhere else.
-Elise, Ashni’s mother, is also the name of the princess in "The Wild Swans" (in one of the translations I encountered, at least), the story from which the wiseman also originates. This is just a coincidence, however – Ashni’s mother is not the wiseman’s brother, despite their similar hair color.
-Ashni’s similarity to Princess Fiona in the movie "Shrek" – in both hair color and the location in which she first appears as an adult – is also a coincidence. I came up with her design and story before the movie came out…I think.
-There is a "sandy haired" knight in Graham’s court in King’s Quest: The Floating Castle named Sir Aubrey…ever get that "death by coincidence" feeling? This is a case of cryptomnesia, however. I read TFC, a lot of stuff happened, I created a character for KQ9:IT4, named him Aubrey, reread TFC years later and went, "ACK how did that happen?!"
-You have no doubt noticed my deliberate omission of anything related to King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity. Why did I do this? There are several reasons:
-Everything about the game is un-King’s Quest-ish. The Old English dialogue, the unfamiliar protagonist, the excessive action and violence, the dearth of any real fairy tale cameos or humor, everything down to the lack of a number and witty subtitle in the game’s name make MoE seem more like a spin-off than an actual member of the series.-MoE isn’t King’s Quest VIII, even though people often refer to it as such. There is no VIII in the title. As far as I’m concerned, KQ8, a worthy sequel to the light-hearted fantasy adventure games we grew up with, doesn’t exist, and probably never will.
-For the reasons above, I haven’t played it, and I don’t intend to.
In KQ9:IT4, I am treating MoE like a bad nightmare, or a mere fleeting vision of what the KQ world would be like if it was thrust into 3D Action/Adventure Land, with everything in the real world continuing on just as smoothly as it was going at the end of KQ7. I suppose I could just pull an Al Lowe and say that I’m skipping KQ8, but that’s just not my style. So if there is no KQ8, why didn’t I call this game by that name? Because of the resulting confusion with MoE which would boil up. Plus, the number nine ties in with the storyline so well that I just couldn’t call this story anything else but KQ9.
-Despite having no set schedule once I was inspired to create this new story and its numerous "add-ons", The time spent on the new KQ9:IT4 from inception to completion just spans the months that the name of the sorcerer in Chapter Eight is composed of.
-Regarding the sorcerer: the idea for his name actually came to me during a lecture on woodpeckers. No, really, I saw a graph with the calendar's months represented by the letters they started with during the talk, and that name just jumped out at me. Nifty.
-The title of the book visible in the foreground of Leticia’s shop during Cassima’s visit is Tempus Fugit, meaning "time flies" in Latin. ;)
-Random numerological trivia: if you multiply nine by any number (except zero) and add up the numbers of the resulting answer until you are left with a single number, you will always get nine (e.g., 9X3=27, 2+7=9; 9X7=63, 6+3=9; 9X11=99, 9+9=18, 1+8=9). Nine is a fairly popular number in superstition and myth. I also got nine when I added up the approximate number of pages in the story: 423 (4+2+3=9). Woah...coincidence strikes again...
-The title of Chapter Three was originally "Going Home", but I changed it at the last minute to something much more rhythmic and relevant.
-Since Cassima is the only recurring main character who hasn't voluntarily or involuntarily changed into a different creature (Graham changes into a tiger, a rabbit and a mongoose in KQ5; Valanice changes into a jackalope in KQ7; Rosella changes into a frog and a troll in KQ4 and 7; Alexander changes into an eagle and a fly in KQ3 (and a snail if he doesn't do one of Manannan's chores quickly enough) and Edgar gets changed into a green hunchback many years prior to KQ4 and a troll sometime before KQ7), you could say that she's making up for lost time in KQ9:IT4.
-Believe it or not, Edgar's method of moving from one island to another in the very beginning of his half of Chapter Four was not copied from the rubber-chicken-with-a-pulley-in-the-middle method from LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island! I came up with the idea long before I even played that game, inspired by those "gliding" amusement devices sometimes found on kids' playgrounds that let you ride through the air while hanging from a silding pair of handles.
-Following on the heels of the previous fact, the "bad" future that Cassima and Edgar step into yet ultimately doesn't come to pass isn't borrowed from Day of the Tentacle -- I came up with the concepts long before playing DoTT.
-Zephyr is a name that has been bestowed upon a character in the KQ games before -- in KQ7, there is a fourth wind that Levanter summons to find Oberon and Titania besides Sirocco, Gharbi and Borasco that is never named in the game and doesn't have a single line (yet she is the one who finds the king and queen!). In the KQ Companion, however, she is named Zephyr. I'm not sure if I realized this when I was naming Zephyr the griffin or not, but hopefully most fans won't notice this little coincidence.
-I was originally planning to have Bluebeard be the sorcerer who changed the flying horse from KQ2 into a snake when it refused to be his steed, but I felt that was a bit much. Not to mention the confusion with the maiden that changed herself into a snake.
-The sixth isle was originally going to be named Nuha, an Arabic word meaning "intellect", but I thought that would be too obscure and merely dubbed it the Isle of Wisdom.
-Several references to characters and places in KQ9:IT4 can be found in my older KQ fanfics and vice versa (pretty subtle advertising, ne?).
-One of the tentative subtitles for the game was "When Co-Stars Collide".
-Is it just me, or do the two characters on the cover of the fourth edition of The King’s Quest Companion look more like Cassima and Edgar than any other main characters in the games? Perhaps this was one of my more subtle inspirations.
-In contrast to the official games, did you find KQ9:IT4 amazingly and abnormally abundant in appellations beginning with "A"? Au contrare -- KQ6 contains a much greater number of non-recurring characters with names starting with A. Aside from Alexander, there are Allaria, Azure, Ariel, three -- count 'em -- three Alis (the bookshop owner, the boy ghost, and whoever that Zebu character is) and the double-decker Abdul Alhazred, plus the first king and queen of the Land of the Green Isles from the guidebook to the land, Aliphid and Astar (not to mention the Arch Druid and the Ancient Ones)! The only A-names in KQ9:IT4 are Aubrey, Ashni, Acilino and Augustus, along with the Aquilla and Aeolus.
-Nearly every location in the story is an extension of a place in at least one of the official games, and nearly every one is inaccessible within the games themselves. The alley and the houses beyond the gate in Serenia can't be reached in KQ5, the mountain village is visible when Graham is picked up by the Roc, Chessboard Land can't be entered in KQ6, only a small part of the Bountiful Woods and Etheria can be explored in KQ7. The only completely made-up locations are the Llewdor oasis, Aelous, Dark Etheria, the sixth Isle and the Edge of the World (although the last location is mentioned in the KQ Companion).
As for Lycathia, it actually does exist in the KQ universe -- Rosella visits it in King’s Quest: The Floating Castle. Nothing much is said about it except that it is close to Daventry.
-The older wizard that Shadrack's "agent" meets in Tamir was originally a nameless man with a rather two-dimensional "Yarrgh, I'm evil" personality. I decided to make him be the last known sorcerer from the Land of the Green Isles instead (the same one that ends up as an aardvark). His backstory isn't too clear, but the long and short of it is that the agent came to him in the Green Isles about 15 years prior to KQ9:IT4 to seek his advice regarding travelling to a time far enough in the past to murder King Edward (which he is currently incapable of doing).
He forces the sorcerer to travel with him to Tamir, where the sorcerer temporarily gets rid of the fisherman and his wife so he and the agent can talk in private. After this, the sorcerer returns to the Isles, and a few weeks later in his time, he poofs himself into an aardvark (Alhazred arrives several months later). Shadrack either chose to consult him because he knew the sorcerer would have this accident and disappear from the isles, ergo not having any time to tell anybody about their conversation, or perhaps Shadrack had something to do with the sorcerer's accident. ;)
-Shadrack's path is indeed difficult to follow, but roughly, it goes something like this:
Arrives in Serenia about 17 years prior
Continues to the Land of the Green Isles, travels forward to a time several years after KQ9 (Chapter Four)
Travels into the past to consult with the sorcerer, about 15 years into the past
Travels with sorcerer to Tamir (Chapter Three)
Stops to regain his strength at the Llewdor oasis (Chapter Five, he intends to consult Bluebeard but Cassima distracts him)
Travels to Etheria to be sure that his source of power is still intact, Cassima distracts him again ;) (Chapter Six)
Travels to Daventry, just prior to KQ1 (Chapter Nine)-Edgar was originally the one who gets everybody home by combining his pendant with Cassima's again. I decided to let Alexander have the honors instead, since beating his brains out trying to figure out a way to get his wife home only to have someone else do it for him seemed a bit unfair.
-There are a few subtle "injokes" in this picture. Valanice is wearing the same dress she wears in the KQ6 intro and the sapphire brooch and earrings that Graham found in Kolyma on his quest to find her, Cassima is wearing her locket, and the belt buckle Edgar is wearing has the insignia of Daventry on it.
-Don't "get" the significance of the name of the material the pendants are made of? It's a play on the name of the mineral aventurine, which is typically green or blue-green in color. The name of aventurine comes from the Italian "a ventura", meaning "by chance".
-Despite the neatness of which I’ve tied up the KQ story, there are still several loose ends. The two most apparent, surprisingly enough, revolve around Cassima and Edgar! Anything can happen to Cassima’s baby in the near future, and as for Edgar, since cats only live around 20 years and he’s living the life of one…
…Well…it all boils down to whether one creature’s lifespan is the same as another’s, I suppose. Do I sense some sort of involvement with Manannan in the attempt to prevent Edgar from dying thirty years prematurely? ;)(9-3-07): I just discovered a little error in the intro: the route from Cassima and Alex's room to the castle's main doors doesn't pass through the throne room, yet Cassima does pass through it. Oh well...good old artistic license. If you pretend that she entered the tower that the KQ6 finale took place in and walked down its steps and entered the throne room that way, then the situation makes a little sense.