Half Dome was a mountain in the Sierra range of the Snowy Mountains (a Mountain Range of the Great Mountains) located near the kingdom of Daventry, but can be seen from the Snowy Mountain closer to Serenia.
Background[]
In the distant south, in the Snowy Mountains, Sierra water from melting snow creates a myriad of tiny rainbows as it burbles through the rocks, forming tiny waterfalls on its way back to the sea.[1]The mountain can be seen far off in the distance across the valley below.
Graham thought the mountain looked familiar when he was passing over the Snowy Mountain in the eastern Great Mountains just before he encountered Queen Icebella. The Snowy Mountain was located further north, closer to the valley where Half Dome perches.
In the present Half Dome is located in Yosemite National Park within the Sierra Mountains of California (but there is no explaination on how it moved there)[2]. Perhaps it hadn't moved but represents like Tanalore a place that touches and exists in more than one realm across the multiverse beyond time and space.
A green forested valley can be seen below the mountain, which maybe considered part of the Kingdom of Daventry, perhaps the high foothills and highlands of eastern Daventry that lies east and north of Door into Mountain (with Daventry's foothills roughly rising up to and circling the mountain). A lake or another river lies at the bottom of the valley with another river or creek connecting to it.[3] However, the highlands of Daventry, and other tall peaks appear to separate it from lower regions of Daventry proper.
Behind the scenes[]
...Or an Easter Egg, because KQ3 was made by Sierra... You decide... The narrator comments on the mountain if you look at the mountains in a certain screen in KQ3. Images resembling Half Dome can be seen in many of the King's Quest games. Note a hill seen in the background of one of the screens in KQ1, and a cliff in the background of KQ2's starting beach for example.
A mountain resembling Half-Dome can be seen in the distance of the snowy peaks in KQ5 (but would seemingly be in a different location or seen from a different location than where Alexander travelled through the mountains).[4] It is noted that the mountain looked vaguely familiar to Graham.
Snowy Mountain and Snowy Mountains
The area in KQ3 and KQ5 is referred to as the Snowy Mountains (KQ3) or Snowy Mountain (KQ5), both appear to be roughly similar areas filled with snowmen and yetis. The snowy valley in KQ5 appears to be similar to the green valley seen in KQ3 with a lake and a river flowing through it. Geogaphically it appears that KQ3 seems to be further south from the mountain at a much higher elevation, and in KQ5 Graham is traveling along another mountain that is to the north but to the west of the Half Dome, much closer to the north end of the valley (and Half Dome), but at a lower elevation, as he is looking at it from a different angle (Half Dome appears much larger from that position).
The size and shape of half-dome is similar to how Half Dome appears depending on where in or on the rim of Yosemite Valley someone might be standing.
KQ3 claims that this valley with the lake and river is part of Daventry. As such it may represent a portion of the Raging River or the River Fools or even the Merelee River from the north (and/or the source of the river Graham flies over, and carefully avoid in Serenia). If it is the same valley seen in both KQ3 and KQ5 as it seems to be, then it lies roughly northeast of Daventry, and southeast to east of southern edge of Serenia.
Half dome was used as Sierra's logo. In KQ6, a photo of the actual Half Dome morphs into the classic green Sierra logo.
The river in the valley appears to be based on Merced River and possibly Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley, and possibly other water ways including Yosemite Creek, or Tenaya Creek. Tenaya Creek flows from Mirror Lake into the Merced River.
References[]
- ↑ "Ahhh. It tastes like Sierra water!"
- ↑ Narrator (KQ3):That must be Daventry! "But why is Half Dome here?" you wonder "But, of course," you think, "It's a sierra game!"
- ↑ "You have made the very top of the snowy mountain range. The snow path ends here at a cliff. Far in the distance, you can see a vast green valley. \"Could it be Daventry?\" you wonder. Your excitement mounts."
- ↑ Narrator (KQ5): "The shape of one particular mountaintop seems vaguely familiar to Graham."