Merlin's Mirror

Merlin's Mirror, the Magic Mirror is one of the Three Great Treasures of Daventry, along with the Shield of Achille and Chest of Gold. It once belonged to the magician Merlin. The magic mirror is framed with ornately carved mahogany wood and is polished to a high sheen, and is priceless. The enchanted mirror has the ability to foretell the future to its beholder. King Edward and the rulers before him used it mostly to keep Daventry prosperous, to foretell the weather for planting and harvest, or to foretell enemy movements, but King Edward and Queen Maylie did use it at least once to look upon the image of Daventry's next king.

Background

It was once in possession of Merlin, who used its property of showing the truth, whether of past, present or future. The legend in Daventry is that the mirror was first found in a cave beneath the earth, next to the crystal coffin of a great necromancer who was thought to be Merlin himself. Since it was obtained by Daventry, no evil would harm the kingdom since it showed the future and things happening far away places, so the King always knew what to expect and was always prepared.

It had served the Kings and Queens of Daventry for over 200-400 years. Unfortunately, the mirror was stolen from King Edward and Queen Maylie by a sorcerer, and the thief hid it in in a cave guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. The sorcerer had approached the couple and had asked for the mirror in payment to help them have kids. However, it was a sham, and the sorcerer got away. King Edward had spent years trying to recover the mirror. Countless people had searched for it both in Daventry and elsewhere. Years, later Edward sent Graham to hunt for the mirror along with the other great treasures of Daventry. Graham was able to reach the dragon by climbing down a well and dousing the dragon's flame. The magic mirror was the first of the three treasures he recovered.

The mirror continued to help Graham and his family, whenever King Graham looked into his magic mirror, he saw visions of adventures yet to come...for him, for his children, and for Daventry, the land he loved so much. Through it Graham saw the spirit of King Edward council him. Graham used the mirror while he was searching for a wife; it was within its mahogany frame that he first saw the image of Valanice, imprisoned in a the Crystal Tower. Alexander also used it to find his true love, Cassima. Genesta also used it to communicate with Rosella.

On the night Alexander was kidnapped, for some bearer of black magic (likely Manannan) had cast a cloud of darkness upon its face... It could provide no answers, not even a clue in finding the lost prince or stopping the Three-headed Dragon that was ravaging the land.

Telgrin put a curse on the magic mirror clouding it during his invasion of Daventry from the Floating Castle.

Graham and a Daventry Official saw the oncoming of the cataclysm through the mirror. Connor was able to communicate with Lucreto through the mirror, but it seemed to be largely blackened with swirling dark fog and smoke. Later Graham and the official saw the Kingdom restored through the mirror when they got their forms back.

Notes

• During Edward's reign the mirror was kept in the king and queen's chambers.

• During Graham's reign it was kept both in either one of the castle's two throne rooms and the king's chambers.
• With the Shield of Achille there is no need to predict enemy movements as Daventry cannot lose against the armies.
• In King's Quest: Your Legacy Awaits Graham uses it as a tool to tell the stories of his life to his daughter Gwendolyn (infact it is made to be part of the interface, including his inventory interface). It is kept in his bedroom at this point, as he lays in his bed. Note: As one of the elements of the game's story is that Graham might be embellishing his stories, this might contradict the 'never tell a lie' rule of the mirror from the original lore, but the new game is a reimagining, not necessarily maintaining everything from the original universe.
• In the original game, the treasures can be picked up in any order, in the remake, the mirror and the chest of gold can be picked up in any order (the shield was the last item to be picked up), according to the King's Quest Companion the mirror was the first item he picked up (the Chest of Gold was the last). It appears that Your Legacy Awaits implies that the mirror was the last treasure to be discovered (after looking over all other places it could have been hid in Daventry).

Behind the scenes

The name, Merlin's Mirror first originated out of official The King's Quest Companion. It was later mentioned in KQVI and VII hintbooks, and King's Questions. It is known as the 'magic mirror' in KQ1 original. In KQ1SCI it is known as the 'Magic Mirror'.

Sierra's King's Quest I Hintbook places the order of finding the treasures as Mirror, Shield, and then Chest. This is the same order given in the King's Quest Companion's novelization. It's also the same order that Edward tasks Graham to find the treasures

The manual for KQ4 implies that it was Manannan that was the evil wizard who likely cast the spell on the mirror, for he was watching the dragon as it made its journey to Daventry, where it committed the destruction. However, it never states that for certain.

The upcoming King's Quest: Your Legacy Awaits seemingly appears to make the Magic Mirror the last treasure Graham recovered, as he says the well was the last place he looked. One argument for making the mirror the last treasure would be that had he found it first, it may have allowed him to find the other two. This is probably the reasoning why it was the first treasure to be stolen from Edward as well, as it likely would have helped him track down the other two. It's also the reason why the mirror is usually 'blacked' out by magic most of the times a major threat approaches Daventry, otherwise they would know how to overcome it. However, simply because the mirror might show clues or details of what is happening, or where something or somebody is located, it does not always interpreted correctly by those viewing it (see Edward assuming the view of Graham in the mirror was actually their own son, which lead to them giving up the treasure in the first place).

However, the mirrors ability to see future and future events does cause some plot holes, such as in the example in KQ1SCI, when it states the newly crowned King Graham used the mirror to view the future, see his future wife, and the children they would have, and his children's adventures. If he had actually forseen all those events, then he would have had the chance to prevent them from happening.

Of course its possible he saw if he didn't let his son be kidnapped, there would have been no one capable of rescuing his kingdom from the Three-Headed Dragon that would appear later on, and rescue his daughter (it might explain that he had no choice but to give the virgin maidens and his daughter to be sacrificed until his son could return). Of course this causes issues with KQ3 in which he clearly didn't know anything about where his son was located, and the mirror was blackened to prevent him from seeing anything that would save the kingdom. For more information, see Dimension#More KQ1 remake questions.

It's abilities are said include showing the past, present and future. In the games and related prologue material, its largely only shown present and future events. In the upcoming KQ game, Graham will be using it to show his daughter his adventures of the past.

Of course another of its abilities is always showing the 'truth', if Graham is embellishing his stories with his daughter: "It wasn't exactly how I remembered it, " old man Graham says. "But it wasn't all that different either." (see death scenes, or other changes to the story/history, in comparison to previous games/published events), then it is perhaps not so truthful in the 'reimagined' universe. Of course its possible that she doesn't see everything that that her Grandfather claims happened but only fragments, so only the truthful fragments are shown in the mirror (the mirror does seem to swish over with shadowy fog, at times, and not show all the events).

Magic Mirror (unofficial)

See Magic Mirror (unofficial)