A tale Without a Name ("Παραμύθι Χωρίς Όνομα") is a Greek book, written in 1910 by Penelope Delta, about a kingdom that has destroyed itself due to corruption from the royal court and neglect from the royal family except the two youngest siblings, and their tales to restore the kingdom before disaster happens.
Its main gimmick is that nobody has an actual name, and instead they all have names according to their personalities. It has been adapted to a stageplay where barely anything changes.
This book contains examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
- Unfortunate, a blacksmith, begs Supreme Chancellor Cunningson to not steal his food. It's in vain, and Judge Hareheart covers Cunningson up.
- Hareheart himself, once he is captured by the Prince's troops and his treason is exposed. The Prince hangs him.
- Asshole Victim: Everyone among the court who exploits the people.
- Cunningson dies trying to escape the Prince who is about to expose him.
- Hareheart betrays his country, is tried by it after one of his victims leads him to the Prince and gets executed.
- The jester spoils himself rotten by stealing from everyone, even Cunningson, and gets executed by Uncle King because he is no longer able to entertain him.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Prince leads his troops to victory against a superior foe by attacking them in their sleep.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- The unnamed young man who starts doing nothing but yell at the Prince for his family's incompetence. He is certainly unaware of the prince actually being competent and caring. The moment the young man sees he is wrong, he carries the country's defense against the invasion with just two moves at the cost of his life.
- The one-armed sailor that is used as a joke about the (lack of) fleet of King Mindless, being the only member of the navy, to the King's frustration. He still gets an important job done with the help of only one of the King's guards.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Prince might be incredibly competent, but he has a serious flaw that prevents him from stopping the villains before they become a threat. He can't read, and so has to get help by King Witless, his father, for once. When the King reads a message Hareheart had for Cunningson, the Prince realises the judge is a traitor, but it's too late to stop the treachery, and the country has to get to war to save itself.
- Dirty Coward: Judge Hareheart. He is very cruel to the commonfolk and one of the frauds who exploit the country's state. He also betrays his own people and is the reason Uncle King wants to invade the country in the first place. But when confronted by the Prince, both times, he pathetically grovels and begs for mercy, using lies to make himself look better. Also, unlike Uncle King, he doesn't even fight the moment his country fights back.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Supreme Chancellor Cunningson. He is a thief and the power behind the throne, one of the masterminds behind the corruption of the kingdom. He also dies before the main conflict.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The country starts in a nadir and things only get worse as it has to face war and treachery. After repelling the invaders by the skin of their teeth, the Prince and the countrymen get the country back to its feet and make it even stronger than its neighbors.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Uncle King is a spiteful person who gets easily consumed by revenge and acts tyrannical when things are dire for him. Yet he is a brave, determined man, who is absolutely disgusted when Hareheart, the person who persuaded him to start a war against the judge's own country, acts cowardly when said country fights back. Uncle King calls him out and kicks him before joining the fight.
- Evil Chancellor: The Supreme Chancellor, Cunningson, is a cruel man who shamelessly exploits the dire state of the kingdom and abuses the commonfolk until his death.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Barmy is a terrible ruler. She is not a tyrant, but she is even more criminally incompetent and delusional than her husband, to the point she is against her children taking any action for the country for most of the story.
- Ironic Echo:
- Uncle King, frustrated by his nephew's incompetence, sends him a head of a donkey with a crown that's about his importance to the world and shows what he thinks about him. When the Prince, after beating him twice, is asked to join him, he sends him the donkey's head as something worth of his offer, which makes the villain kill himself out of anger.
- King Witless starts his boasts about an army as delusional. In the end, he can back them up.
- Karmic Death: Uncle King dies after having his insulting gift returned to him.
- Meaningful Name: Every single character has a name that is about their character, except some very minor characters. Their names stay the same even after some of them grow out of them (for example, when the sisters Jealousia and Spitefulia stop fighting each other and being mean to everyone in general, their names stay the same), except that of the male lead's.
- Meaningful Rename: The Prince becomes King Wise the Second when he gets the country back to its feet.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Unfortunate finds a scared man on the enemy's side after the invaders are beaten back, and is planning to release him. He changes his mind once he sees it's Judge Hareheart, who wanted to convict him unfairly earlier in the book. Then he sends him to the Prince, who puts the coward on trial and executes him for treason, so Unfortunate indirectly but knowingly gets his revenge.
- Small Name, Big Ego: King Witless thinks he has one hundred thousand warriors under his command and thus isn't afraid of anyone. He only has two liutenants, plus an one-legged soldier and a one-armed sailor. Only in the end can he truly back up all of his boasts.
- Villainous Breakdown: Uncle King, after barely being beaten the first time, wants revenge. But now the country of the protagonists is too well defended thanks to the castles and archers, and he ends up cutting down the bearers of bad news and the remaining criminals that had defected to his side, before getting physically sick as well.
- You Have Failed Me: Uncle King loves to do this.
- He executes one of his officers for the humiliating defeat he has in the middle of the book.
- He also executes the traitorous jester of King Witless when the jester fails miserably to make him laugh, because he was used to being nothing but a parasite to both kings.
