History TheFaceless / Literature

* ''Literature/TheBlueNosedWitch'': The three [[Bedsheet Ghost]]s Blanche spends the night with never show their face, and their gender is never indicated--they're only referred to by height.

* In ''Literature/TheStand'', people see [[BigBad Randall Flagg]] in their [[DreamWeaver dreams]] with a black hole for a face, and many assume that's what he'll look like in person. Thus, one of his many nicknames is The Man with No Face. When they do meet him, he appears normal enough... [[GameFace usually]]... but since he's a HumanoidAbomination, it's hard to say what he truly looks like.

* Agawin from ''[[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]''. Until ''The Fire Ascending''.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' - Lemony Snicket, the elusive author, is often photographed but never from the unobscured front. We don't even get to see him in the following series, ''Literature/AllTheWrongQuestions'', despite him ''being the main character''.
** Sir, from ''The Miserable Mill'', always has his face obscured by a massive cloud of cigar smoke.
* In the original version and first adaptation of ''Literature/TheLorax'', the Once-ler's face is never seen in either the "present" or "past" timeline. The second adaptation takes a different approach--see the Western Animation folder.

* Orual of Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'' begins wearing a veil shortly before she becomes queen. As a result, her face becomes the subject of much rumor among the populace, and Orual herself was regarded as "something mysterious and awful". The truth of the matter is, she was ''ugly''.
* 'She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed' from Creator/HRiderHaggard's ''Literature/{{She}}'' is usually draped from head to foot in gauzy, mummy-like wrappings because, according to her, her beauty drives men mad. Given that she is all-powerful men who do glimpse her are wise to meet her expectation.
* Erik, the titular Phantom of ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', originally wore a full-face mask and was very much a Faceless - until subsequent remakes cut said mask and the underlying deformity down by a lot. A made-for-tv miniseries of this from the 90s goes a step further with this and never shows the Phantom's face to the audience, even when unmasked--thus rather neatly avoiding a possible SpecialEffectsFailure.
* Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story ''The Minister's Black Veil'' tells of a Puritan minister who one day inexplicably dons a black veil to cover his entire face. The simple addition of the veil changes him from a beloved and respected figure to an item of fear and horror, and he wears it for the rest of his life.
* The face of [[spoiler: Haliax, the BigBad]] from ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'' (as well as most of the rest of him) is shrouded by both a black cloak and shadows. Considering the face of one of his subordinates that we do see, this is probably a good thing.
* In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Red Fury]]'', the Angels Sanguine wear their face-concealing helmets even among their fellow Space Marines, also sons of Sanguinius; they only take them off when among themselves, and even there, they wear face shadowing hoods.

* In the Literature/StarTrekShatnerverse novel ''The Return'', Kirk is BrainwashedAndCrazy from Romulans, and keeps his face concealed.
* The illustrated Creator/RogerZelazny novel ''Literature/ANightInTheLonesomeOctober'' does this with UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Other characters are shown full-faced in the drawings accompanying each chapter, but Jack appears once in a rear view and once with his arm raised, concealing his lower face.

* Squickily literal example from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' Taladas Trilogy- BigBad Maladar ''peeled his face off'' as part of an unknown dark ritual, leaving a skull-like ruin behind. Even he's rather ashamed of this, so he usually wears a deep hood with magical shadow inside it to conceal his deformity, revealing it only when he wants to strike terror. This habit actually earned him the nickname "the Faceless Emperor" in-universe.
* In Creator/FritzLeiber's ''Literature/FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser'' stories, both [[TheMentor mentor-warlocks]] are The Faceless. With names like "Sheelba of the Eyeless Face" and "Ningauble of the Seven Eyes", it's fairly simple to guess ''why'' they keep their faces hidden.
* In ''Literature/MoonOverSoho'' the BigBad uses magic to make his face look blank, and if you pierce the magic spell he has a full face mask, to conceal his identity.

* Many, though not all, of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Ten Who Were Taken]] from ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'' novels are fond of hiding their faces- one of them takes this to the point that he's actually known as the Faceless Man (all the Taken, like most wizards in this setting, go by descriptive titles, since their true names could hold power over them). Most prominent, however, is Soulcatcher, who keeps her face concealed behind her helmet for the entire first novel- in fact, between the face-hiding and the fact that she usually wears masculine clothing, it's not until the end of the book that the protagonists are even sure she's female.

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** "The Voice in the Tunnel", a mysterious cat that Ivypool and Blossomfall encounter in ''Sign of the Moon'' is one. Because it's really, really dark in the tunnel, and because Ivypool apparently can't tell voices apart, Ivypool can't make out any of their features, nor can she figure out their gender. It wasn't until the following book, ''The Forgotten Warrior'', that Ivypool returns to the tunnel and meets up with this character again that she finds out who they are. It's [[spoiler:Hollyleaf, a vanished and presumed dead protagonist from the previous story arc, ''Power of Three''. [[IKnewIt Just as suspected by fans.]]]]
** Also in ''The Forgotten Warrior'', the prologue begins with a mysterious cat that is not described and is referred to with only gender neutral pronouns. Speculation went wild when the prologue was released online. The final verdict on the mystery: [[spoiler:Although the prologue is made to make you think it's Hollyleaf, it's definitely not her. We never do find out who it is, but given the events of the novel it is almost certainly Sol.]]
* Agawin from [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]. Until ''The Fire Ascending''.
* ''Literature/TheUltraViolets''' mothers' faces are never seen from the neck up.
* BigBad [[ImmortalityImmorality Gerridon]] from the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'' has never had his face clearly glimpsed or described in any of the novels - he's always shrouded in shadow/ wearing a mask/ standing behind the POV character or an object/ etc. Heroine Jame actually lampshades this fact in ''Sea of Time'', thinking to herself that it's ironic that despite the fact that Gerridon's influence has shaped her life, she's never actually gotten a good look at his face.

* ''Literature/TheBalancedSword'':
** The mysterious wizard Khoros's face is always [[EyeObscuringHat hidden by the shadow of his hat]], no matter what the lighting conditions or the angle you look at him from.
** Terian, Tobimar's patron god, is always depicted with his face concealed by a blaze of light.
** Myrionar, Kyri's patron god, takes it a whole lot further: As the god of justice, for all people regardless of race, gender, or category, It is referred to with a gender-neutral pronoun and never shows Its face nor allows Its face to be depicted, so that Its own categories (if it has them) are not apparent. It is always represented by Its emblem, a set of scales balanced on a sword tip.
* In ''Literature/TheStand'', people see [[BigBad Randall Flagg]] in their [[DreamWeaver dreams]] with a black hole for a face, and many assume that's what he'll look like in person. Thus, one of his many nicknames is The Man with No Face. When they do meet him, he appears normal enough... [[GameFace usually]]... but since he's a HumanoidAbomination, it's hard to say what he truly looks like.

* The face of [[spoiler: Haliax, the BigBad]] from ''TheNameOfTheWind'' (as well as most of the rest of him) is shrouded by both a black cloak and shadows. Considering the face of one of his subordinates that we do see, this is probably a good thing.

* Joelle Van Dyne a.k.a. "Madame Psychosis", from David Foster Wallace's [[{{Doorstopper}} magnum opus]], ''InfiniteJest'', is never physically described, and wears a veil over her face at all times. She claims this is because [[TheBeautifulElite any man who gazes on her unearthly features instantly falls in love with her]], but ([[UnreliableNarrator slightly suspect]]) anecdotal evidence suggests that while this may ''once'' have been true, the face beneath the veil was horribly disfigured. In either case, her unmasked features play a key role in [[spoiler: the [[BrownNote titular film]]]].

* [[EnigmaticMinion Chlorr]] from the ''OldKingdom'' trilogy is known as Chlorr ''of the Mask'' for a reason; she always hides her face behind a bronze mask and continues to do so even after becoming a [[OurLichesAreDifferent Greater Dead]], meaning that her original mortal features would have largely ceased to exist. Later on, [[SealedEvilInATeddyBear Mogget]] taunts her by calling her "Chlorr No-Face", implying that there may be a very good reason for the mask. [[spoiler: The prequel ''Clariel'', Chlorr's StartOfDarkness, reveals that the original purpose of the mask was to provide protection from Free Magic creatures that can burn human skin with a touch; by the novel's end, Clariel's/Chlorr's face ''has'' been burned and she's using the mask to cover it up]].