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Fabletown Citizens

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fabletown_fables_vertigo_dc_comics_e.jpg
The cream of Fabletown society at the annual Remembrance Day gala.
Founded over three centuries ago in post-colonial Manhattan, Fabletown is officially the capital of Fable society and the seat of its power, both administrative, economical and magical. The leadership has gone through very few changes in its time, as has the overall population and infrastructure, but when these changes occur it is dramatic and earthshaking.

    Prince Charming 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7000_20141104161306_char.jpg
"I always truly love a woman when I'm first chasing her- I'm just no damned good at the "happily ever after" part."

"After all this time, do you not know me at all, my friend? Whether it involves a desperate war or a woman's virtue, I always win my battles. Always." - Prince Charming

Ex-husband to (in chronological order) Snow White, Briar Rose, and Cinderella. He successfully managed to grab the position of Mayor from Old King Cole. Later resigns from the Mayorship to become Fabletown's Director of Homeland Recovery, basically making him Commander in Chief in the war against The Empire.


  • 0% Approval Rating: His tenure as mayor wasn't completely catastrophic, and most of the disasters that did occur weren't even his fault. But Charming was clearly overwhelmed by the job and everyone knew it. It got so bad that he slept in the Business Office more often than not rather than go home each night, all to avoid the angry protesters camping out in front of the main building each day.
  • Amazon Brigade: After seemingly dying at the end of the War against the Empire, Charming organizes a veritable army of well-trained Indian women who help him conquer most of the Indus.
  • The Atoner: Tells Bluebeard, (a man he is set to kill so has no motive to mislead) that he intends to kill him as a "favor" to his ex-wife Snow White, for the events that led to their divorce. Of course, his primary reason for getting Bluebeard out of the way is to get his hands on his considerable riches, but Charming expressed sincere sorrow for his betrayal of Snow, and relished the opportunity to make up for it.
    • Although getting Bigby to return to Fabletown was utterly crucial to the war effort against the Empire, Prince Charming went to great lengths to make sure that not only would Bigby be able to live with Snow and his cubs, but they would be very comfortable and happy in the vast territory he parceled out to them, so this could be seen as a further act of atonement.
  • Back from the Dead: In Fairest #15.
  • Badass Boast: To be expected of an egocentric rake, but delivers one actually not centered on himself to start off Fabletown's War Council that even impresses Bigby.
    "Why, we're going to crush them, of course. We're going to put an end to their filthy Empire, once and for all."
  • The Casanova: His entire point. The reason he's in so many stories is because he constantly marries and eventually abandons various princesses and other beauties.
  • The Chains of Commanding: After becoming Mayor.
  • Character Development: He starts out as a selfish womanizer, but becoming mayor of Fabletown helps him mature. In the end, he sacrifices himself to destroy the Adversary's last gateway between the human and fable worlds. By "The Return of the Maharaja", you'd be very surprised to see this is the same person from early on.
  • Charm Person:
    • The source of his success with women. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't last all that long.
    • Subverted with Nalayani, who is somehow immune to his power. This endears her to him even more.
  • The Chessmaster: Utilizes the Mouse Police as spies to keep tabs on Bluebeard, as part of his scheme to assassinate him, preventing him from murdering Snow White and Bigby, and also to ultimately take control of Bluebeard's vast riches, after Charming becomes Mayor. He also proves quite adept at heading up the intelligence gathering and espionage missions Fabletown launches in the prelude to declaring war on the Empire.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
    • In addition to being a Master Swordsman, he turns out to be quite the strategic genius, as well.
    • During Snow White's revenge against the Seven Dwarves he proves himself to be quite a competent statesman and investigator and before the story began he had successfully averted a war between dwarves and humans. He also found out about Snow's actions, but ultimately kept silent because of his love for her.
  • The Determinator: With the help of Sinbad, over the course of four days, Charming fights his way through hordes of the Adversary's troops to personally deliver and deploy the bomb that will destroy the last enemy gateway, despite severe burns suffered in the crash of their airship.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Probably Charming's worst trait. He admits himself that while he is very good at working towards a goal, whether seducing women or running for mayor, he is bad at 'keeping' it.
    • Star example? He ran for mayor just so he could get his hands on Bluebeard's wealth, but fails to realize that running Fabletown is an extremely difficult job, especially because Snow White and Bigby make it clear that they'll quit if he takes over. The main reason he got elected in the first place was his promise of free Glamours for all non-Humanoid Fables, but didn't check with Frau Totenkinder if that was even possible. Turns out it isn't. Oops.
  • Disney Death: His body wasn't actually found. It's eventually revealed that he's alive, and working against his former ally Sinbad, who is trying to build a new multi-world empire based on an Islamic caliphate. Charming says openly that he didn't fight to overthrow one empire just for it to be replaced by another.
  • Dual Wielding: Duels Bluebeard with a regular sword, along with a dagger.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Fabletown's Director of Homeland Security, despite grievous wounds and burns suffered in his airship's destruction, fights his way alongside Sinbad through hordes of Imperial troops to get to the last mystical gateway and blow it up, sealing Fabletown's victory in the War to End All Wars. Subverted in that he survives by escaping through the gateway at the last second.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Is utterly appalled to discover that Arabian envoy Sinbad keeps slaves, and absolutely refuses to budge on that point, despite the dire need for an alliance with the Arabian Fables and the fact that there in no actual provision against having slaves in the Fabletown charter (which is stated to be because no one ever brought it up).
    • When recounting his romantic conquests to Beauty for her to document in his memoirs, Charming details how he bedded a dairy farmer and her two daughters. When Beauty assumes Charming had sex with all three at the same time, he is deeply offended at the notion.
  • Eye Scream: Loses his right eye during a duel with Sindhu Baba Singh. It fully regenerates later.
  • Fingore: Loses a few digits due to the curse placed on him by Sindu Baba Singh. They eventually grow back.
  • Fire-Forged Friends:
    • He and Sinbad become very tight during their campaign against the Empire, to the point where Charming has to force Sinbad to leave his side so Charming can blow up the final gateway.
    • Charming and Bigby go from despising each other to a friendship built upon mutual respect and trust, after Charming helps Bigby get around the Farm ban to reunite with Snow and his cubs, and their collaboration in plotting the destruction of the Empire. When Charming (supposedly) pulls his Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the final gateway, Bigby refuses to believe he's really dead and pledges to find him.
  • Forceful Kiss: Plants one on Beauty during the "Arabian Nights (and Days)" storyarc.
  • Frontline General: Despite not having an official, recognized rank during the Battle of Fabletown, he is by virtue of his experience in war a natural field commander, planning and directing offense and defense personally, and is right up front in the thick of the action at all times. And during the full on war against the Empire, after being officially named Director of Homeland Recovery, Charming, along with captain Sinbad, personally flies the Glory of Baghdad airship right into enemy territory to destroy the magical gateways, and when the ship is eventually downed, engages wave after wave of enemy infantry on his way to his objective.
  • Gentleman Snarker: Always has a nasty, but smoothly delivered barb ready for anyone who tries to match witty rejoinders, or just annoy him.
    (to Bigby)"You are a small, tedious man in need of more frequent bathing."
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: His status as one of the most famous and popular Fables of all affords him phenomenal healing abilities, rivaled only by the likes of Snow White and Bigby Wolf, and surpassed only by Jack Horner. His extraordinary capacity to regenerate is what enabled him to survive and recover from being at ground zero for the explosion that destroyed the last imperial gate, and what allowed him later to regenerate his whole hand after it totally disintegrated due to a magical "leprosy plague".
  • Guile Hero: While Charming's most capable weapon is his sword there are times when he's shown a genuinely cunning streak. When Snow exacts her revenge on the Seven Dwarves, the Dwarf King threatened war should Charming not find the culprit. Eventually Charming learns of Snow's actions (having trained her with a sword and witnessed the gradual killings of the dwarves getting more professional in accordance to her skill level) but ultimately pulls a gambit wherein he frames and executes one of the kingdom's most notorious murderers and sends his head to the Dwarf King claiming he was the Dwarf killer. He successfully averted a war but chose not to pursue the matter further with Snow in an effort to let her have her secrets.
    • Charming was the mastermind behind Boy Blue's secret invasion of the Homelands, which resulted in the acquisition of huge amounts of useful intelligence and Imperial secrets.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: With all of his allies dead and his only method of transportation destroyed, Charming singlehandedly takes the final bomb to the last gateway between the human and fable worlds and detonates it, presumably dying in the process.
  • Hidden Depths: After centuries of renown (and infamy) as a unrepentant womanizer, user and all-around cad, Prince Charming, when war with the Empire becomes an impending reality, rises to the occasion and shows his immense talent for battle planning and tactics.
  • Hypocrite: When it's discovered that the Woodland Building's doorman Trusty John is a spy for the Empire, Prince Charming is forced to banish him to the Witching Well. As he does so, he calls John "a craven pimp". Later, a guilt-ridden Charming has a nightmare where Trusty John promises to rise out of the Well and get revenge on him, citing the hypocrisy of the notorious womanizer Charming condemning him for betrayal.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Loses a "friendly" (and very public) fencing match to Lord Bluebeard (an expert swordsman), but later handily outclasses and slays him in a real life and death duel, proving he threw the previous contest.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: As the pressures of running Fabletown get to him, Charming can often be seen taking many swigs from his private stash.
  • Jerkass: Rude, womanizing, condescending, and greedy; Charming has almost no redeeming traits when he makes his debut. His tenure as mayor manages to humble him greatly, however.
  • Ladykiller in Love: His infatuation with Nalayani seems very much like the real thing, as admitting his love for her enables him to magically heal.
  • Master Swordsman: The most talented swordsman among all the Fables, maybe the most talented swordsman who's ever lived. He easily kills Bluebeard in a duel. Also gave fencing lessons to Snow White when they were married.
  • More Dakka: As Fabletown's Commander of Operations and Director of Homeland Recovery, he applies combat condition "Full Metal Storm", a military tactic inspired by Mundy armies, which necessitates the firing of all guns onboard the Glory of Baghdad warship, facilitated by Boy Blue instantaneously teleporting ammo dumps onto the ship, creating a perpetual, overwhelming onslaught of firepower that completely wipes out an entire phalanx of Imperial dragons.
  • Mundane Utility: During preparations for the battle of Fabletown, Charming uses his "powers of persuasion" to convince the local Mundane police that the barriers the Fables are erecting are for a block party.
  • Narcissist: This is what he started off as, he was a womanizer who threw his three wives aside and used other people to gain more wealth and used his looks to get more ladies to mess around and sleep with for his own entertainment. This changes when he goes through his Character Development.
  • Never Found the Body: Which, of course, leads to the mentioned above. It is later revealed that the force of the explosion hurled him through the magic gate just before it was destroyed, transporting him into the land of the Indus, where he becomes the "Maharajah".
  • Oh, Crap!: The newly-elected mayor's reaction when told that he would not be able to fulfill his promise to the animal Fables (who were the main reason he won the election) to supply free Glamours to anyone who wants one.
  • The Pornomancer: Maybe the best of all time. to quote Beauty: "You practically exude a panty-dropping musk that would make us all rich if we could bottle it."
  • The Power of Love: In the Homelands land of the Indus, Charming becomes afflicted with a "wasting curse" imposed by an enemy. It progresses to the point that his hand rots away up to the wrist and falls off, defying even the vast regenerative powers a Fable of his popularity level usually enjoys. But upon his realization and expression of having true love for a woman for the very first time (Nayalani), his flesh and bone begin to rapidly regenerate.
  • Prince Charming: A notable deconstruction of this trope with Prince Charmless, and Trope Namer and Trope Codifier of the first. He's beautiful and charming, but he's also rotten to the core (at least, until Character Development kicks in).
    Beauty: We both know you're hollow, Prince Charming. A ton of slick romance, encrusted with not a particle of real love.
  • Really Gets Around: Uh, you KNOW who we're talking about here, right?
    • The "Burning Questions" issue of FABLES featured a page posing the inquiry "How many romantic conquests has prince Charming had?", where then Mayor Charming relates his complete sexual history to Deputy Mayor Beauty as a key part of his memoirs. He recounts having no less than 1,412- by the time he was fifteen.
  • Royal Harem: Picks up a lovely bevy of beauties when he becomes Maharajah of the Indus.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: In order to prevent a war between kingdoms, Charming has notorious highwayman Blackbriar Johnny set up as the fall guy for the murder of the Seven Dwarfs. It was actually Snow White.
  • Serial Spouse: He has been in so many stories that a fair number of women are his ex-wives.
  • Sex God: Renown throughout the Homelands and the Mundane world for his prowess in bed. Even Cinderella, Charming's third and arguably most bitter ex-wife, has to concede the legendary lovemaking capabilities of her ex-husband.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Engages in this whenever he must interact with one of his ex-wives, even under friendly circumstances.
  • Start of Darkness: Charming's philandering ways began when Snow, his first wife, secretly murdered the Seven Dwarves in retaliation for their kidnapping and extended sexual abuse of her, lying to her husband about the depth of her knowledge and involvement in the affair, all of this nearly causing a war. Snow White herself admits that her abuse of Charming's trust could very well have been what made him the cad he is today.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: His looks are his bread and butter.
  • The Thing That Would Not Leave: Uses his trademark sweet talk and golden tongue to shack up with Briar Rose (ex-wife #2) in her luxurious apartment, and has the run of the place in short order.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Becoming mayor of Fabletown forces him to grow up and become a better person.
  • Upper-Class Twit: He and Briar Rose pretend to be a couple of these during an undercover mission. Briar bestows him with "Mortimer" as an alias.

    Cinderella 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cinderella_03.jpg
"I have loads of questions for you to answer. Just as soon as I finish kicking your ass."
"Everyone knows my story. I get dressed up. The clock strikes twelve. I lose a shoe. And it's all downhill from there. My name is Cinderella. Cindy to my friends. Don't tell anyone, but I'm a spy. One of the best, even if I'm being humble. And there are times I love my job." - Cinderella

Prince Charming's third wife. Officially a simple shoe store owner, she's actually one of the top secret agents of Fabletown.


  • Arch-Enemy: To Dorothy Gale, now a notorious assassin.
  • Action Girl: She is an undercover spy whose skills would put James Bond to shame. Her Inner Monologue during the "War and Pieces" arc points out that her longevity gives her a near-unbeatable advantage over any Mundane spy or combatant—she's had centuries to train and perfect her skills, while any given Mundane has only a single human lifespan to do the same.
  • All Women Love Shoes: She runs (naturally) a shoe store as her cover.
  • Back from the Dead: Thanks to an until-then-unmentioned deal with a self-proclaimed god years earlier, Cinderella has one guaranteed resurrection. She uses it in issue 151, quickly rejuvenating to her normal self in the process from her horribly burned body before.
  • Badass Adorable: Blonde and beautiful, and also one of the deadliest Fables in existence.
  • Bait-and-Switch: The beginning and vast majority of "Cinderella Libertine" makes it look like Cindy is a betrayer of Fabletown and spy for the Adversary, when in actuality, she is a spy totally loyal to Bigby and her fellow Fables.
  • Been There, Shaped History: It's suggested by her own internal monologue that she was involved in the Hindenberg blimp disaster.
  • Break Them by Talking: Cindy is an expert at this, often verbally playing upon her opponents weaknesses to gain an edge and ultimately defeat them.
  • Car Fu: During the "Skullduggery" two-parter, she uses a dump truck to get the drop on Imperial Envoy Hansel who is escaping in a sedan, utterly crushing his front end.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Arguably the finest hand-to-hand fighter in the Fableverse, she will also use any object in her vicinity to gain an advantage in battle. Hansel, the Adversary's "envoy", even states that his dossier on her denotes that.
  • Cute Bruiser: More "drop dead sexy" than "cute, but more than capable of taking out men more than twice her size, even in close quarters, and a numbers disadvantage.
  • Deadpan Snarker: As befits her cynical, irreverent nature.
  • Deal with the Devil: Often went to Frau Totenkinder for magical items that were vital to accomplishing her missions. And of course they came with a price...
  • Determinator: In her Final Battle with Frau Totenkinder, she survives what is essentially a Fantastic Nuke at point-blank range, albeit barely. While Totenkinder can barely move, Cinderella manages to stand up and walk over to her glass slipper before she collapsed. When Totenkinder asks How Is That Even Possible?, she says this:
    Cinderella: Stubborn, I guess. Work to finish.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Strangely enough, for a master spy. But her hand-to-hand combat skills are so sharp she rarely needs them. And she can always take one off her opponent.
  • Femme Fatale Spy: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Arguably the greatest the Fable world has ever seen.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Sometimes gets seriously injured during missions. But her Fable nature and status as one of the more popular legends enables her to not only survive fatal damage, but regenerate quite swiftly.
  • Guile Hero: Goes with the territory of being a spy. Cinderella has gone on record stating that you can talk your way out of most situations if you're a good enough liar.
  • Honey Trap: How she took down former Deputy Mayor (and The Mole for The Empire) Ichabod Crane, and probably many others like him.
  • May–December Romance: Pretended to have one with Ichabod Crane. (At least, appearance-wise. Given that they're both Really 700 Years Old...)
  • Mutual Kill: With Totenkinder. She dies of her injuries soon after killing her, though it doesn't last.
  • Noodle Incident: Heavily alludes to having had something to do with the Hindenberg crash.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: After meeting Aladdin, her Baghdad counterpart under less than auspicious circumstances, they start to bond when the realize they were both "born poor, and lifted from the ashes to royalty by magic".
    • Shares many disturbing similarities with her nemesis, the mercenary killer Dorothy.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: In "Cinderella Libertine", where she plays a Dumb Blonde in order to seduce and lure information out of Ichabod Crane.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Has an unrepentant gutter mouth, to help with her façade of a bitter, irresponsible, jet-setting shoe store owner.
  • Super-Strength: At one point, is able to flip an upended Range Rover back on its wheels single-handed.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Her mission to rescue Pinocchio from kidnappers succeeds despite her "capture" because the bad guys fail to strip her of all the pistils on her person, assuming she only had the one already on her person, and the one she took from her "escort". Cinderella made sure to take the firearms off all three of her assailants, which, as she points out, is what any real spy would do, unlike in the movies.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Answers to Prince Charming as mayor of Fabletown, and is dispatched by him for several missions during his tenure, and she despises every minute of working with her ex-husband. Cinderella does take pleasure in handing him huge bills for her expenses, however.
    • Has this again with Aladdin during their co-investigation of magic artifact smuggling.
  • The Vamp: Often takes this role in the course of her missions.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: After acquiring the silver slippers from Dorothy Gale, she can look like anybody she feels like, which should be very useful for her profession.
    • Frau Totenkinder once turned her into a mouse, as part of a mission.
  • Waking Up at the Morgue: In issue 151, she comes back to life in a mundy morgue, frightening a nearby coroner.

    Beast 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/16599_normal.jpg
"Holy crap on crepes, what have I gotten myself into?"
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fi100_beast.png
Beast's Monstrous form
"The world got meaner. I just kept up with it." - Beast
A former prince cursed to become a powerful, fearsome monster, he has gone from serving as a handyman in Fabletown to its Sheriff in the wake of Bigby's departure. He has been married to Beauty for several hundred years.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Arguably the nicest, most even-tempered gentleman in Fabletown outside of Flycatcher. But get him mad, and the beast comes out. And it is horrifying.
  • The Big Guy: Is already a brawny, hunkish fellow in his human form, thicker and taller than most of the other humanoid Fables. And then he transforms into The BEAST.
  • Brought Down to Badass: Eventually loses the ability to turn into a monstrous creature as his daughter Bliss inherits his curse, but is still a very brawny, guileful tough guy.
  • Curse: Frau Totenkinder, as the Black Forest Witch, puts a magic spell on a nobleman who would become known as "Beast" that transforms him into a hideous fell creature, and the spell could only be lifted by a woman who loves him with true love.
  • The Gumshoe: Takes on this role in the mid-40s when he's tracking down the serial killer Lamia, secretly his wife Beauty.
  • Guile Hero: Slowly but surely develops into one by necessity as he grows into his role of Sheriff and spymaster. See how expertly he manipulates the Blue Fairy.
  • Happily Married: To Beauty, despite centuries of heated arguments and sniping.
  • Henpecked Husband: Beauty has been gnawing away at his spine for centuries. Despite this, they are both strongly devoted to each other.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Invokes this when he takes out St. George, before he can take out Lamia, who is actually Beast's wife Beauty.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifter: Formerly this, as his curse would turn him back into a monster if his wife Beauty became angry at him. But later, Frau Totenkinder, who originated the curse, modifies it so that Beast can transform at will.
  • Killed Off for Real: At the hands of a brainwashed Bigby Wolf, his predecessor as Sheriff.
  • Nice Guy: So kind-hearted and soft-spoken, despite his monstrous aspect, he goes out of his way as Sheriff to resolve conflicts without violence, or even raising his voice all that often. His loving wife tends to use him as a doormat because of this.
  • Odd Friendship: Has one with Frau Totenkinder. Putting aside the fact that she likes Beast's polite and respectful manner, she also happens to be (unbeknownst to him) the witch who put the monster curse on him in the first place.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: As the likelihood of his parents naming him "Beast" is extremely remote, it can now be definitively said that his real name was never revealed in the course of the series.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the mild-tempered, easy-going Beast suddenly starts acting extremely hostile and confrontational to Bigby Wolf, spoiling for a fight, every Fable in the vicinity knows something is wrong. Turns out both he and Bigby were being affected by the influence of Mr. Dark.
  • Papa Wolf: To his adorable little daughter Bliss. Not that she really needs much protection, as she can take on the form of a fearsome creature.
  • Powered Armor: After he loses the ability to transform into a monster, Weyland Smith builds him a huge, golden battlesuit called "The BDGA" (Big Damn Golden Armor).
  • Secret-Keeper: Not only is he The Spymaster of Fabletown by virtue of being its Sheriff, but he must also keep hidden the fact that his wife Beauty is actually Lamia, a murdering monster.
  • The Spymaster: Part of the job as Fabletown's Sheriff. Becomes adept at it quite swiftly, as he deploys agents to do covert surveillance of Imperial envoy Hansel, and to locate former Sheriff Bigby.

    Beauty 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beauty_03.png
"Please, dear heart- for your own safety in the middle of the night- please tell me you didn't just say 'settle down, honey' to me."
"Maybe instead we should try to find out how Beauty and her Beast can run things." - Beauty
Married Beast centuries ago in the Homelands, (temporarily) freeing him from his curse. A former bookstore clerk, she rose to take her place as Deputy Mayor of Fabletown when Snow White resigned. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that the real Beauty was killed ages ago by a creature named "Lamia", who took on her identity.
  • Becoming the Mask: The real Beauty was killed centuries ago back in the Homelands, by Lamia, who took on Beauty's physical and spiritual being, and became locked into it when she stayed that way too long.
  • Deadpan Snarker: has quite the sharp and biting tongue. Occasionally whetted upon her husband, but also often engaged in Snark-to-Snark Combat with Mayor Charming.
  • Happily Married: Deeply loves and is utterly devoted to her hubby Beast, despite their constant bickering.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Right after Prince Charming steals a deep, passionate kiss, Beauty rebuffs him, stating that despite their constant sniping at each other, she would never betray Beast because they are deeply devoted to each other. Charming points out that everyone actually observes that it's she who harps on Beast all the time; it's not reciprocal. Beauty obviously takes this to heart, as later she is seen to be much nicer to her husband, as well as much more understanding and patient on the whole.
  • Meaningful Name: Obviously apropos, as she's certainly gorgeous.
  • Number Two: As Deputy Mayor. First to Prince Charming, then his successor, King Cole.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a harsh (but well deserved) one to Prince Charming after they share a kiss, to let him know why it'll never happen again.
  • Rhetorical Question Blunder: Early on into her tenure as Fabletown's new Deputy Mayor, an exasperated Beauty wonders aloud how Snow, the previous Deputy, managed to run things so neatly and efficiently. Bufkin goes into a whole spiel about how Snow had the advantage of centuries of experience in administration, running things back when there were dozens of people to help, and having plenty of time to learn the ropes. Beauty, frustrated to all hell, kicks the monkey out.
  • Scaled Up: It turns out that "Beauty" is actually the monster Lamia, whose true form is that of a giant snake.
  • Self-Deprecation: When recounting her visit to Dr. Swineheart, she tells her husband that she told the doctor that among other symptoms she was feeling "bitchy", or at least "moreso than usual".
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: On the car ride home, after Prince Charming's funeral service, Beast asks his wife if she's alright, noting that she was crying a great deal during the service. Beauty just says that she always cries at such functions, but Beast replies that she was weeping much more than usual, and comments that Prince Charming was notorious for trying to bed any and every woman within reach, subtly inquiring as to whether the former Mayor ever tried anything with her. Beauty stated that she never slept with Prince Charming: she did leave out that she shared a kiss with him.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: After her minor indiscretion behind closed doors with Prince Charming, in which the Mayor lets her know that she is universally seen by the public at large as the aggressor in her marriage and main reason she and Beast argue, Beauty is markedly nicer and more compassionately patient with her beloved husband, and the sniping is gone. Largely for the most part, anyway.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Prince Charming made a pretty aggressive move on her on one occasion while they worked closely together running Fabletown. But despite her admitted strong attraction to him, she remained loyal to her longtime dear husband. She also resolved to never find herself in a room alone with him again.

    King Cole 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_cole.jpg
"I side with Fabletown. Always have. Always will. And I'm not going anywhere, come what may. This is my home forever, and no one's kicking me out of it. Dammit."
"And now, predator and prey, prince and pauper, we are all of a single community— allied in our undying memory of the Homelands, and the unshakable determination that one day we will return to win those lands free of the Hated One." - King Cole

Fabletown's long-serving mayor.


  • Adipose Rex: More than a little chubby, and lets his greed show more often than not, but certainly a good guy overall.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Much later in the series, Cole reveals to Leigh Duglas that his deceased wife used to call him her "Robber Baron"- a combination of his former title, and his first name, Roberson.
  • Cool Old Guy: This is how you negotiate with Arabian fables, Charming.
  • Dirty Old Man: Was very attentive to the fake Red Riding Hood, and practically slobbered over Leigh Duglas, the former Mrs. Sprat (after her makeover and name change).
  • Embarrassing First Name: Not so much "embarrassing", but hardly anyone knows it. It's Roberson.
  • The Good King: Practically starved himself so that his subjects and fellow refugees could eat during their desperate escape from the Homelands.
  • Graceful Loser: Is utterly trounced in a landslide by Prince Charming in the first Mayoral election for hundreds of years. Despite surreptitiously demanding an immediate recount (using Flycatcher as a proxy), he hands over the reins of office with no fuss, moves out of the palatial mayor's penthouse days early to accommodate Charming's victory party, and is never depicted as engaging in gloating or enjoying in any way Charming's troubles during his near-disastrous tenure.
  • Hidden Depths: Initially introduced as a money-seeking old man who doesn't do much to actually run Fabletown, but when the Arabian fables arrive, he has both the linguistic knowledge and calm temper to help the two groups tolerate each other.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifter: An errant Glamour spell temporarily transforms him into a cat.
  • King Of Town: Set up, but subverted. He and Snow project this image, but it turns out King Cole is a skilled negotiator and diplomat, who is very capable of smoothing out ruffled feathers. In Arabic.
  • May–December Romance: Tries to start one up with Leigh Duglas, but she's only using him to sabotage Fabletown from within.
  • Modest Royalty: Despite being called King, he's only the mayor, and never acts like anything more.
  • Money Fetish: From the onset, he always seemed to have a huge infatuation with riches and filling Fabletown's coffers, and was aghast at Prince Charming's killing of Bluebeard, as he feared the community would be denied his huge yearly contributions. Cole was almost completely despondent when the Fabletown buildings, along with Bluebeard's vast treasure rooms, disappeared thanks to Mr. Dark; even Frau Totenkinder called him out over this, as this seemed a petty concern compared to the imminent threat of The Dark Man. But as Cole explains, Fabletown desperately needs vast funds just to maintain the community itself, not to mention the Farm, it's largest single ongoing expense, and if bills aren't paid, creditors and other unwelcome Mundy attention will arise.
  • Nice Guy: Is always polite and kind.
  • Putting the "Pal" in Principal: After Fabletown is nearly destroyed in the wake of Cinderella and Frau Totenkinder's magical duel, the Fables' existence and magical nature are exposed to the world at large. To educate humanity in magic, and to ingratiate themselves with human society more easily, King Cole and Maddy found the Totenkinder School of Magic, with Maddy as the main instructor and Cole as Head of the facility.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Took part in the battle of Fabletown just like everyone else, though that was greatly motivated by it being an election year. But he was right there on the front lines, and nearly got killed.
    • His putting his fellow Homeland refugees before himself (nearly starving himself to death so they could eat) during their exodus from enemy controlled territory went a huge way towards him being elected the first Mayor of Fabletown.
  • Smart People Play Chess: A wise, savvy diplomat, he and Sinbad's bonding over the game helps greatly to smooth over American/Arabic Fable relations.
  • Wingding Eyes: Depicted with the dollar sign variety of these when Prince Charming tells him that since Bluebeard died without a will, the Fabletown government gets all his fabulous wealth.

    Pinocchio 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i72_pinocchio.png
"I'm over three centuries old and I still haven't gone through puberty. I want to grow up, I want my balls to drop, and I want to get laid."
"That's not how you get over a broken heart, Flycatcher. There's only one surefire cure. Hookers. Our treat." - Pinocchio

Boy Blue's roommate who, due to the Blue Fairy's overly specific transformation, looks like a child, despite being hundreds of years old. Like in the classic story, he is the adopted son of Geppetto, and as his father is The Adversary, his loyalties are in extreme conflict.


  • And This Is for...: Rounds off all the women he might have scored with if he had been in an adult's body, as opposed to a child's, while beating on the Blue Fairy.
  • The Apprentice: Once they are reunited, Geppetto immediately starts grooming his son to rule the Empire in his stead one day.
  • Back from the Dead: Is effectively killed when, as a flesh and blood human, he is decapitated during the Battle of Fabletown. Only the fact that he magically reverted to a wooden marionette upon his "death", and Boy Blue transported his wooden remains to Geppetto to be restored, enables Pinocchio to be restored.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: As a living marionette, his greatest desire was to become a real boy. Now he is a boy... forever.
    • Later, his biggest wish was to be reunited with his beloved father. He finds him, alright: running the Empire as the bloody-handed Adversary.
  • Can't Grow Up: The Blue Fairy made him a real boy, but didn't give him the ability to become an adult.
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Specifically, Geppetto assumed his adopted son had died, or was hopelessly lost in the Homelands. At any rate, Geppetto was far too busy running the Empire behind the scenes to search for him.
  • Dirty Kid: Despite being several centuries old, he still has the mannerisms and overall maturity level of a pre-teen of his physical aspect. This, coupled with his raging libido, makes him do things like peek in women's showers and changing rooms.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Perpetually miserable being a grown man stuck in a child's body, he's drunk quite often; when anyone wants to find him, the first place they look is the Branstock, his favorite tavern.
  • Genre Savvy: Very knowledgeable about the various comic book tropes and conventions, due to his years of voraciously reading them. This makes him the natural choice to found and lead "The Super Team".
  • Living Legend: Due to being the first puppet Geppetto ever carved, he has this status in the Empire among the Wooden soldiers.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: His father Geppetto is the Adversary.
  • Loophole Abuse: When he is brought back from the dead Geppetto puts him under a loyalty spell like his other "children". This spell forces him to act in his father's "best interest"—but Pinocchio believes that Geppetto surrendering to Fabletown IS in his father's best interest on the basis of his questionable sanity.
  • Morality Pet: Tries to serve this function for his father Geppetto.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Does his best to inflict one on the Blue Fairy as soon as he sees her; for her part, she doesn't bother to fight back, and isn't visibly hurt in the slightest, and restrains him quite easily in the end.
  • Not Growing Up Sucks: Hates that he's stuck forever in the body of a young child.
  • Not Quite Dead: Boy Blue, during his one-man invasion of the Empire, bargains with Geppetto, the Adversary and Pinocchio's father, to use his magic to restore his friend to life.
  • Off with His Head!: Decapitated by the Adversary's Wooden Soldiers during the invasion of Fabletown. Due to his origin as a talking marionette, he merely reverts back to a puppet, but is effectively dead. He later gets better.
  • Older Than They Look: Applies to most Fables, but especially extreme in Pinocchio's case; he looks like a prepubescent child, but is several hundred years old at the youngest.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: Is later elected President of the United States under the Republican ticket. Proves to be a bit of President Corrupt, with a little President Scheming, some President Jerkass, a tad President Geek, and a whole lot of President Playboy, which ultimately gets him impeached early into his second term.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Knows his way around quite a few curse words. Very jarring, as he resembles a pre-teen.
  • Those Two Guys: He started out as this with Boy Blue and Flycatcher.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Has a set of toy wooden soldiers his father Geppetto carved for him back in the Homelands. As Pinocchio escaped the Homelands and Geppetto did not, Pinocchio assumed his father perished, and keeps the soldiers in his father's memory, and becomes incensed when someone (like Flycather) treats them like mere playthings. Ultimately subverted, as it turns out that Geppetto did not die, and in fact is The Adversary.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: As a lifelong fan, he's an expert on the "superhero" tropes and traditions. But applying them to battling Mr. Dark in the Fablesverse, which is more of a comicbook/fantasy hybrid (or something entirely different), proves wildly inappropos. Take the scene where he tries to recruit Rapunzel for his "Super Team", as he assumes that since she has supernaturally long, and ever-growing hair, she can articulate it mentally and use it for combat. Rapunzel assures him this is not the case.

    Briar Rose 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/16567_normal.jpg
"I don't think the enchantment cares where I am, or amongst whom."
"Briar Rose- the Sleeping Beauty- was the one essential part of this phase of our operations. She could single-handedly take most of the Imperial bureaucracy out of play with one prick of her finger." - Boy Blue
The Sleeping Beauty of legend, and Prince Charming's second wife. She's perennially wealthy, thanks to the blessings bestowed upon her at birth, but also still suffers her classic curse of omnidirectional sudden slumber.
  • Cool Car: Uses a car that is actually the shapeshifted evil fairy, Hadeon the Destroyer. It is of course very magical and can fly to different worlds and dimensions.
  • Curse: Upon her birth, Hadeon the Destroyer, an evil fairy feeling slighted by not receiving an invitation to Briar Rose's christening, basically condemned Briar to die when she someday pricks her finger. But another fairy, Leysa the Defender, despite being unable to totally remove the curse, was nevertheless able to mediate it by changing the curse to a spell that would instead induce wide-reaching deep sleep.
  • Exact Words: When Briar was gifted with the blessings from the fairy queens shortly after her birth, one of them, Alyas the Noble, promised that she'd "sing like a nightingale". Unfortunately, the spell magic was far too literal, as Briar's "singing" more closely resembles the chirping of birds.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: After a knock-down, drag out magical duel between Hadeon The Destroyer and Lumi The Snow Queen, it is Briar who beats down the immensely powerful evil fairy who cursed her as a baby, with a few well-delivered knuckle sandwiches. As Briar points out, as an immortal Fable, she's had several human lifetimes to learn and master several combat arts.
  • Loophole Abuse: The conditions for the Spell of Sleep are that a "prince" that loves Briar must kiss her. In one instance, Flycatcher (who is actual royalty), expresses his strong physical attraction to her, and a kiss from him is sufficient to break the spell. And on another occasion, a police dog named "Prince" licks her face with great affection, and this works as well.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Fabletown's war chiefs devise a plan that revolves around using Briar Rose and her curse to disable the entire Imperial Capital.
  • Rags to Riches: As a result of the blessing the fairy queen Ionna the Gifted placed on her at birth, Briar is incapable of not being rich. Anything she does to that would make her money will be successful regardless. Even if she doesn't seek out wealth, wealth will be drawn to her. As Flycatcher put it, if she were to give away every penny she had, she'd win the lottery the next day. She actually exploits this at one point in order to buy an extra car so that Snow White can get home quickly.
  • The Rock Star: Fairy queen Yeva the Lively gave baby Briar the magical ability to create and play music to perfection. She used this blessing to form a hugely successful rock band, The Dirty Girls, during The '60s. Her specialty was bass guitar.
  • Super Gullible: Fairy Queen Sofiya the Wise foretold that newborn Briar would "have the wit of an angel". As her fellow fairy queen Alyas the Noble pointed out, angels by their very nature tend to believe everyone is honest, so that "blessing" might turn out to make Briar susceptible to deceivers. Sure enough, cads like her future ex Prince Charming have no problem wrapping her around her finger.
  • Taking You with Me: At some point towards the end of the series, Briar Rose gets cut by Brochan Weir's "Nightblade", which causes the victim to be afflicted with a curse not unlike that of zombies. Realizing she can't escape that fate, and also realizing that after the evil fairy witch Hadeon, currently forcibly transformed into a dimension-spanning car, will have fulfilled her magical geas and will then be free to wreak vengeful havoc, decides on a course of action to resolve both of these dilemmas. When the "undead curse" starts to take effect, Briar takes the Hadeon auto on their last trip, with the destination being the End of the Universe. And Briar, having no desire to endure the ordeal of turning into a zombie, pricks herself with a pin to induce her Curse of Sleep one last time.
  • True Love's Kiss: The only thing that can break Briar's Curse of Sleep, in conjunction with the kisser having to be a "prince".
  • Upper-Class Twit: She and Prince Charming ("Mortimer"), assume this guise during a caper. Charming sticks her with the unflattering nom de guerre of "Hortense".

    Bluebeard 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/default_bluebeard_by_mark_buckingham.jpg
"Against boredom, even gods struggle in vain."
"Amnesty or not, I can't blithely forget what happened to each of his past wives." - Snow White

Hands down the single wealthiest citizen of Fabletown, largely by virtue of escaping the Homelands with all his vast riches intact, and also due to treacherous, predatory practices. He is the main contributor to the Fabletown government. He claims to have forsaken his evil ways.


  • A God Am I: At his hearing, just before he signed the Fabletown Compact absolving him of all his past crimes, when asked why he murdered all his newlywed brides, he replied, "Against boredom, even gods struggle in vain." He is clearly unrepentant, and has an extremely high opinion of himself.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: He's pretty conventionally attractive, while in the original story he was supposed to be ugly enough that convincing women to marry him actually took quite a bit of work. Then again, the main source of this "ugliness" in the narrative was his blue beard, something most New York residents wouldn't bat an eyelash at these days.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: The vast majority (if not the entirety) of Fable society is relieved, if not elated, to hear the news of Bluebeard's murder at the hands of Prince Charming, as he was not only an elitist asshole and unrepentant serial killer, but it was widely rumored that he continued to extort money and/or favors from the many Fables he helped escape the Homelands for a huge price, so those obligations immediately evaporated. Rose Red sums up the general consensus with her "Well done" to Charming. Only Sheriff Bigby Wolf and Mayor King Cole are dismayed at Bluebeard's death; Bigby because he spent many years building a case against Bluebeard so that he could prosecute him by the book, and Cole because he (initially) feared that Bluebeard's huge and vital contributions to the Fabletown coffers would stop.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: LORD Bluebeard, if you will- wealthy beyond belief and a true bastard.
  • Asshole Victim: Absolutely no one mourned his death at the hands of Prince Charming, not even his valet.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Was all too willing to kill reporter Tommy Sharp to prevent him from exposing Fabletown. And despite Jack and Bigby's scheme making it unnecessary, he later shoots the guy anyway to be sure (and because he's an a-hole).
  • Bald of Evil: His head is devoid of hair, and his heart is even more devoid of mercy and one centuries ago, in the height of his bride slaying days.
  • Bigger on the Inside: His apartment is this due to some very expensive spells placed on it.
  • The Bluebeard: The Trope Namer and Trope Codifier.
  • Captain Obvious: His very astute observation at the end of his duel with Prince Charming, standing there with a sword through the trunk.
    "You prick! You've killed me!"
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Does this to Jack Horner during the "Who Killed Rose Red" arc, and was about to do it to Tweedle Dee in "The Wolf Among Us".
  • Combat Pragmatist: Uses a robe or cloak during his duel with Prince Charming to gain a momentary advantage.
  • Dirty Coward: And boy did Bigby call him out on it, nearly(?) making him wet himself in the process.
  • Fiction 500: Once Bluebeard is murdered, the government begins looking through his multiple treasure rooms. Beast estimates that after the expenses of turning all the wealth into untraceable cash, it would be tens or hundreds of billions. Bluebeard was one of the richest, if not the richest person in the world, and no one ever realized.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wears glasses, probably to help him look cultured and respectable. He's utterly evil through and through in reality.
  • Hated by All: Giving his history of murdering all his wives and treating everyone around him with disdain along with being charmingly sadistic and attempting to murder Bigby and Snow, no one's going to miss him.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Prince Charming for attempting to kill Snow and Bigby.
  • Killed Off for Real: Slain by Prince Charming, and his body is thrown down the Witching Well. He later returns when Flycatcher frees the souls trapped there, but he's slain again soon after, and this time, it sticks.
  • Master Swordsman: Recognized as one of the best with the blade in Fabletown, he was responsible for training other citizens (like secret agent Cinderella) in fencing. He is very skilled with a sword, though ultimately not enough to save himself from Prince Charming.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Immediately suggests they kill Tommy Sharp, the reporter who threatened to reveal Fabletown's existence. Insists upon it again later, when it looks like the scheme to steal Sharp's evidence has gone awry. And after everything is over and Sharp is no longer a threat, Bluebeard kills him anyway.
  • Narcissist: Bluebeard is extremely arrogant and egotistical, he will kill anyone who gets in his way and not feel remorse for it as long as it benefits him. He sees everyone around him as nothing but pawns and will always attempt to conspire behind any scene to give himself the upper hand with no concern for anyone else.
  • Paper Tiger: A literal tiger, Shere Khan, asserts he is this, and proves it, in very bloody fashion.
  • Smug Snake: Loves making the Fabletown brass grovel every year for his sizable donation to their government. And treats everyone in general like ignorant paupers that are beneath him in every respect. His assumed air of superiority and infallibility proves his ultimate undoing at the hands of Prince Charming.
  • The Starscream: Planned, alongside Shere Khan, to become this to King Ambrose, usurping his rule of Haven.
  • Wicked Cultured: Bluebeard's high intellect and wicked nature gives him the capacity to spew out some delightfully edgy and witty curses and/or threats.
    "Settle down, every God-cursed one of you, or I'll gun the lot of you down where you stand!"
    • Also:
      "What in all the hells?"
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: His ghost, alongside that of Shere Khan, was last seen joining the Empire and was undergoing treatments to restore his body. It's unknown what happened to them after the fall of the Empire, but seeing as how restoring Bluebeard and Khan's corporeal existences was probably very low on the Imperial warlocks' list of priorities later on, they both probably remain bodiless spirits, haunting old Imperial environs.

    Bufkin 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i108_bufkin.png
"I'm a good monkey! I hardly ever throw my poop anymore!"

"That's when Bufkin the Brave sets out with his doughty lieutenants, and he overthrows the upstart Emperor of Oz, freeing its people from dire bondage, and putting all of the mean turd stinky heads to the sword." - Bufkin
One of the Flying Monkeys from Oz, he now serves as a librarian in the Woodland's Business Office.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Armors up and confronts the fearsome witch of legend Baba Yaga and a phenomenonally powerful D'Jinn, expressing his intention to take them both out. Their reaction? Laughing their respective asses off.
  • The Alcoholic: Loves taking a quick nip every now and then. Drove Mayor Charming crazy by breaking into his liquor stash and drinking it dry.
  • An Arm and a Leg: During one of his many adventures after overthrowing The Nome King, Bufkin loses his left arm. It is later regrown (along with his wings) by a Dr. Karlo Von Kongmacher, as part of a diabolical scheme against Bufkin.
  • Babies Ever After: Hundreds of years later, Bufkin and Lily have many more adventures, as well as a handful of instances that enable them to mate and birth children. They eventually have hundreds.
  • Badass Boast: When asked what he will do if Baba Yaga returns from the dead, looking for revenge, Bufkin replies:
    "If she's suicidal enough to come back, we'll just deal with her again. Because no one threatens my people in my house!"
  • Badass Bookworm: As Boy Blue stated, "Bufkin reads everything", making him basically an expert on everything.
  • Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: After Prince Charming threatens to have executioner Jack Ketch decapitate Bufkin for refusing to do his job, Bufkin falls in line and becomes a diligent worker again, but from that moment on refers to Charming as the "mean, Mr. Nasty Mayor" "Mr. Terrible Nasty Mayor", and other such epithets.
  • Guile Hero: Displays this quality when he tricks a Genii back into his bottle.
  • Handicapped Badass: Loses his wings in a fire during the climactic battle with Baba Yaga. This does not stop him from later overthrowing the Nome King.
    • Hundreds of years later, Bufkin also loses his left arm somehow. But an evil scientist later grows both the arm and his wings back.
  • Interspecies Romance: Lily Martagon, one of the Barleycorn Brides who helped defeat Baba Yaga, tries to strike up one with Bufkin. She even cites Snow White and Bigby's relationship as proof one can work. They eventually do hook up, and have many, many children.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Stabs a sentry during his invasion of the Nome Kingdom.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Hurls this gem just before killing Baba goddamn Yaga"
    "No, lady, it's doom! The great monkey of DOOM!"
  • Secret-Keeper: Despite his love of booze and hatred of Prince Charming, despite a couple of near-slip ups, he never reveals to anyone the near-but-not-quite affair the Mayor nearly engaged in with Deputy Mayor Beauty.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Trapped in the dimensionally displaced Fabletown Business Office, with his back against the wall, Bufkin singlehandedly recaptures a D'Jinn and, with the help of a lot of allies, uses the Vorpal Blade to kill Baba Yaga.

    Mrs. Sprat/Leigh Duglas 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1230228_sprat_large.jpg
"I hate you all. All you pretty ones."'
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1881895_sprat.jpg
As "Leigh Duglas"
"I suppose I only want what every woman wants. My way. My unencumbered way." - Leigh Duglas

The wife of one Jack Sprat, the obese and unpleasant Mrs. Sprat was originally head nurse at the Knights of Malta hospital in Fabletown. She has since joined Mr. Dark's side, who has offered to make her beautiful, get revenge on all the other "pretty" Fables, and find her a prince to be her true love.


  • Ascended Extra: Before she was just the head nurse at Knights of Malta hospital and regarded as quite unpleasant. As of issue #100, she's joined Mr. Dark's side, and since that time she has slimmed down and has trained to invoke a few nasty surprises on her old "friends".
  • Battleaxe Nurse: This was her entire character before issue #100.
  • Evil Makeover: Initially, Mr. Dark magically and drastically reduces her weight, toning her body, to the female ideal of beauty. Eventually she gives herself dark hair and clothes, declaring herself the bride of her late benefactor.
  • Foreshadowing: Way back at the end of the "Animal Farm" storyarc, Boy Blue (visiting Snow White in the hospital), observes that "that fat nurse" (Mrs. Sprat) is scary. Years later, Sprat's neglect, if not outright abuse of an injured Blue who is under her care, would aid in his death.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from rude nurse to dark witch. Her depredations lead to the deaths of many prominent Fable characters.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Rose Red takes her out, with her sword Thorn.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: She says the only reason she became a nurse was so she could have a chance at getting any of the more beautiful Fables completely at her mercy.
  • Killed Off for Real: Killed by Rose Red in issue #146 to steal the glass ring.
  • Little Black Dress: Becomes fond of wearing these after her magical makeover by Mister Dark.
  • Meaningful Rename: Her maiden name, Leigh Duglas, translates to "stranger from the dark meadow" or "dark stranger from the meadow."
  • Narcissist: She only cares for herself as she doesn't care if the other Fables suffer as long as it has nothing to do with her. She even sides with Mister Dark just to gain beauty and power which results in her eventual demise.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Pre-issue #100, not so much afterwards.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Snow White gives her a decidedly brutal one in retaliation for her treatment of Beast and Beauty, during the latter's troubled labor. Key points include how a pleasant personality can go a long way towards making someone less than physically stunning more attractive, and how Sprat lacks in both categories.
  • That Man Is Dead: She states that "Sprat" is from a dead past, and goes back to using her maiden name.
  • Unholy Matrimony: As part of Mister Dark's promise to give her a husband, he plans to become her husband, as The Dark One sees no better suitor than himself.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Attempts to direct a possessed Bigby to murder his own cubs.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When the other Fables return to Fabletown, Leigh and her fencing instructor made it look like Mr. Dark was keeping them prisoner all this time to gain their trust.

    Kay 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5172052_fables_21.jpg
"There's no fooling these eyes..unfortunately."
"Christ's holy pecker, you've gouged out your eyes again." - Bigby Wolf

A Fable who, due to the splinter of magic mirror stuck in his eyes, is able to see all the evil anyone has committed in their lifetime.


  • Blessed with Suck: Possesses the ability to see any and all the dark secrets people have hidden deep within their hearts. But these secrets are often so horrific, they torment him beyond tolerance and compel him to blind himself to escape further psychic agony.
  • Eye Scream: Is so tormented by the evil he sees in people's souls, he routinely cuts out his own eyes so he won't have to see anything else. But, being a Fable, his eyes always grow back eventually.
  • Killed Off for Real: At the hands of Mr. Dark, when he is pulled from the wreckage of the Woodland Building. He becomes a Witherling slave that is later dispatched for good by Bellflower.
  • Living Lie Detector: The Fabletown brass use him to screen strangers and ferret out moles/spies.
  • Magic Mirror: Fragments of one that belonged to The Snow Queen are embedded in his eyes. This is the source of his powers (and torment).
  • Secret-Keeper: Knows the true source of Frau Totenkinder's power in the modern day, as well as the extent and nature of her moles and sources of information in the Empire. But promises to keep all that secret, as long as Frau reveals what the Adversary and his forces are planning to the Fabletown government.
  • Willfully Weak: Keeps gouging out his own eyes, blinding himself, because he can't stand seeing all the evils people have perpetrated. But his eyes always regenerate after a while.

    Grimble 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4458945_i41_grimble_human.jpg
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/30102_20141104181917_char.jpg
"I hope so, or I might have to take a direct hand. It'll get bloody for sure if that happens."
"You'd be surprised how much registers with him, even when he's sawing logs." - Bigby Wolf

The troll under the bridge from The Billy Goats Gruff tale, he now serves as security for the Woodland Building.


  • Blood Knight: Is positively exuberant at the prospect of shedding his human guise and unleashing his full troll fury during the Battle of Fabletown, and does more than his share of damage to the enemy, with great gusto.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Appears to be just another dozing, clock punching rent-a-cop, but when a threat arises, he is the first to take command of the situation, ready to use lethal force if necessary, either with his gun or his natural troll abilities. He pointedly lectures the less experienced Fabletown brass how to properly cover the enemy with guns and how to shoot them so that they stay down. And above all else, it is Grimble who destroys Prince Brandish's heart, killing him once and for all.
  • Friendly Rivalry: During the Battle of Fabletown, he and Hobbes (Prince Charming's goblin butler) have a competition to see who can collect the most wooden soldier heads.
  • Hidden Depths: One instance shows him admonishing Boy Blue about being impatient and harsh with Red Riding Hood, suggesting that Blue doesn't appreciate how traumatic it is for her to drop her previous life in Fabletown to adopt a whole new one in King Ambrose's Haven. He also observes that Blue's difficulty in dealing with Riding Hood stems from the fact that "Ride" was the template for two women Blue fell hard for, and ultimately lost, and that Blue is further conflicted by his feelings for Riding Hood, and his friendship with Flycatcher, who Riding Hood is clearly carrying a torch for. Keep in mind through all this that Grimble is a goblin.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Prince Brandish turns him into a bird. This act later contributes to Brandish's ultimate downfall.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He only appears to be perpetually asleep at his post, but in reality he is very much aware of everything that's going on in his vicinity.
  • Quit Your Whining: Tells King Cole, in the most respectful way possible, after Fabletown collapses due to Mr. Dark's undoing of its binding spells to snap out of his despair, pull his head out of his ass and lead the community he's the leader of.
  • Sherlock Scan: Makes a handful of simple but crucial observations to discern that "Mr. Holt" is not what he seems.

    Ichabod Crane 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ichabod_crane.jpg
"As the rules of civility once taught, 'let your discourse with men of business be short— and comprehensive.'"

"All stuff and nonsense. Snow White made some...accusations. I liked to run an egalitarian office, but she claimed to be uncomfortable with the degree of familiarity. Stuff and nonsense, I said." - Ichabod Crane
The first and former Deputy Mayor of Fabletown. He resigned in disgrace and later tries to betray his fellow Fables to the Adversary.
  • 0% Approval Rating: Even before Bigby killed him, no one liked him and was hated heavily by the Fabletown community after stealing money from Fabletown, abusing his position, and sexually harassing Snow, so it's safe to assume that no one's going to miss him.
  • A Man Is Always Eager: "The Wolf Among Us" reveals that Crane regularly patronizes prostitutes. And Cinderella states that Crane is a very enthusiastic lover.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: As an egotistical, snide, uppity, imperious, and all around repulsive sack of hook-nosed, bony flesh, he was this to Snow White, for decades. Exaggerated with the disturbing events depicted in "The Wolf Among Us".
  • All Men Are Perverts: As mentioned above, Crane visited prostitutes frequently, sometimes during working hours. And of course, he actually took the time to write an extensive and graphic revenge manifesto about raping Snow White, his former assistant.
    • If his interactions with Abigail depicted in "A Wolf Among Us" are any indication, he preyed upon several of his young female students as headmaster of the Fable school in Salem, Mass.
  • Bad Boss: Crane, as Deputy Mayor of Fabletown, abused his power in various ways, whether it be belittling sheriff Bigby Wolf, or making lewd overtures to his assistant Snow White.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Pulls this with Bigby Wolf of all people, in his capacity as School Headmaster, slamming his pointing stick on Bigby's desk, calling him an "oafish fewmet of a hare" a "mongrel dullard" and other such unflattering epithets, and even strikes him at one point. Does this to a far lesser extent when he is Deputy Mayor and Bigby is Sheriff, (Crane definitely never touches Bigby again), but the pretentiousness and air of superiority is there.
  • Dean Bitterman: In his capacity as Headmaster of the Salem Fable School, he went out of his way to make life miserable for Bigby Wolf.
  • Death by Irony: Bigby splatters his brains with a small statue of his old nemesis, The Headless Horseman.
  • Dirty Old Man: "The Wolf Among Us" miniseries shows that Crane regularly patronized escorts, and for extra "skeevy" points, had them "glamoured" to resemble his assistant, Snow White.
    • Tries to force himself upon Snow White, his assistant, behind closed doors. This incident gets him removed from office.
    • Years later, has a sexual relationship with Cinderella, which she only engages in as part of a sting to expose him as a traitor.
  • Fan Disservice: To each his own, of course, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who found the image of Ichabod's naked, hunched, bony frame sexy. Poor Cindy...
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The bespectacled former schoolteacher is a cold-hearted, bitter, utterly nasty person.
  • Honey Trap: Cinderella exposes his treachery and takes him down with this tried and true espionage tactic.
  • Narcissist: Before he joined the Adversary, he abused his position at Fabletown for his own benefit and didn't take care of the community unless his job was on the line, after that, he sold them out and did it just to save himself from the Adversary's wrath.
  • Number Two: To Mayor King Cole, as Deputy, for many years.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Actually documents, in full, graphic, extended detail, his fantasy of sexually compromising Snow White. As if Bigby didn't have reason enough to kill him...
  • Stealing from the Till: It's revealed during "The Wolf Among Us" that Ichabod Crane, in his capacity as the Deputy Mayor, had been committing embezzlement, probably for years.
  • Stealth Insult: Cindy calls him "Icky", which she presents as a supposed Affectionate Nickname, but actually reveals how disgusted she is by having to sleep with him. Crane misses the inference and just expresses his disdain for "diminutives".
  • Wicked Cultured: Loves using his considerable vocabulary to insult people, usually behind their backs, in the fanciest way possible.
    "My wit is a rapier, you sour cuss. It's only that I must wield it like a stone cudgel before it pierces your monkey skull!"

    Rapunzel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fairest_10web.jpg
"This is what happens when you're too busy trying to forget the past. You become blind to what's going on around you."
"The past is a dead dog. You need to leave it in the gutter with the wet leaves and used condoms and trash. Walk away. Don't look back. That way you can't see it padding after you." - Rapunzel

A resident of Fabletown with a Dark and Troubled Past. Not to mention a curse of supernaturally fast growing golden hair.


  • Affectionate Nickname: Her close confidant and potential love interest Joel Crow calls her "Punz".
  • The Apprentice: Sold as a child by her birth mother to Frau Totenkinder for gold and rapunzel leaves to fill this role.
  • Ascended Extra: Was only mentioned in passing until her arc in Fairest, where she becomes the central character.
  • Changeling Tale: Her twin daughters were stolen at birth by the Fairy Godmother and replaced with lifeless dolls. Different from most versions as she is perfectly aware the dolls are not her children and that real ones are still alive.
  • Curse: Her wildly, out of control, ever-growing hair, courtesy of her adoptive mother Frau Totenkinder.
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: When she became pregnant by her prince, Totenkinder wanted her to take an abortive drug, but she refused, which is why Totenkinder threw her out.
  • Happily Adopted: By Totenkinder... that is, until she became pregnant.
  • Interspecies Romance: As Tomoko was a "Kitsune" (animal spirit), Rapunzel's relationship with her could be considered this.
  • Mind Wipe: Frau Totenkinder gives Joel Crow a serum that will magically erase all memory of her daughters, Tomoko and the hidden kingdom from Rapunzel, sparing her the pain.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Her "bezoars" were plentiful and powerful enough to destroy the Celestial Palace of the Hidden Kingdom (back in the Japanese Homelands), and threatened to do the same to Tokyo.
  • Retcon: In her earliest mentions, it appears Totenkinder locked her in the tower for being a "slutty little girl" and was only her enemy. When her backstory in Fairest is told, however, it is revealed Totenkinder was her adoptive mother and treated her well enough until her pregnancy happened.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Is adopted by Totenkinder to be her apprentice and falls in love with a prince, only to be kicked out by her mother after becoming pregnant. Tries to find her prince, but he can't acknowledge her or the children under threat of his life, leaving her to beg and forage for food. Gives birth to her daughters, only to have them stolen and then have nobody believe they were stolen. Runs away to another kingdom to find happiness, only to have her lover banished and be caught up in a conspiracy by some of the court members. Years later, when it seems she has finally found her daughters, it is simply a trap by her old enemies to lure her to them. Her memory of all of this is then erased thanks to Totenkinder.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of her daughters is never revealed, even after the Fairy Godmother becomes good again.

    Doctor Swineheart 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doctor_swineheart.jpg
"I'm not one to hide my light under a bushel."
"I'm the greatest military surgeon in a thousand worlds. I'll have you fixed and finished, with a minimum of discomfort, in no time at all." - Dr. Swineheart
Fabletown's chief physician, he's reputed (largely by himself) to be the finest surgeon anywhere.
  • Dr. Jerk: Never misses an opportunity to scream from the rooftops what an excellent surgeon he is; he's far more concerned with greasing his own reputation and ego than curing his patients and/or treating their pain.
  • Insufferable Genius: A pompous egomaniac, he constantly touts himself as "the greatest surgeon in a thousand worlds". If he'd paid more attention to honing his craft and the task at hand, he might have managed to save Boy Blue's life.
  • Lack of Empathy: Showed a horrific lack of tact when he told Blue his arm had to be amputated, a situation which was largely his fault. The doctor's reaction? Basically "my bad".
  • Pride: His defining character trait and flaw. Is a tremendously talented surgeon, but nowhere near as infallible as he professes to be.
  • Super Doc: He usually specifically refers to himself as "the greatest battlefield surgeon in the history of medicine", but he also seems to be a GP, as well as a baby doctor, and has acted as a coroner. This is entirely plausible, as he is a Fable and has had hundreds of years to learn and master various (if not all) forms of medicine.
  • Surgeons Can Do Autopsies If They Want: Fabletown's top physician, whose specialty is surgery, performed autopsies on Mr. Web, Prince Brandish and several other Fables throughout the course of the series.

The Thirteenth Floor Fables

    General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13floor.jpg
Fabletown's magical power brokers.
A cabal of witches, warlocks and such that are responsible for providing and maintaining the vast majority of Fabletown's magical might and defenses. They are usually led by Frau Totenkinder, the Black Forest Witch.
Tropes applying to all of them:

    Frau Totenkinder / Bellflower 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/16576_normal.jpg
"Personally, I never thought much of that 'popularity equals power' nonsense. I've tried to stay out of the stories, myself. I prefer anonymity, and my own counsel."
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fi150_bellflower02.png
As "Bellflower"

''"She prepared hundreds of spells in advance, linked to trigger words. She's firing them off rapidly, in succession, giving [Mr. Dark] no time to recover. Spending her power lavishly. And oh, what deep wells of power she has! I never suspected. She hid it so deftly, for so long. - Ozma, delivering play-by-play of the Totenkinder/Dark duel
The witch who once tried to eat Hansel and Gretel, as well as being many of the unnamed witches in folklore. As of the start of the series, the leader of the Thirteenth Floor Group, the resident coven of Fabletown mages. Quite possibly the most powerful mage in history by this point, after centuries of slow, careful hoarding of power in preparation for a showdown with the Adversary.
  • The Ace: Many of her fellow Fables in exile may be great and powerful heroes and villains of legend, but she outshines them all by far in terms of raw power, cunning and ruthlessness.
  • Ancestral Weapon: Hey, you know how Frau Totenkinder is always sitting in her rocking chair, knitting something with a bag that has skeins of wool in it? Well, the chair is actually the stone she performed her sacrifices on, the bag is her shamanic talisman, and the needles are her ritual daggers, all shapeshifted to innocuous form.
  • Arch-Enemy: To the Adversary, though he doesn't even realize it.
  • Ascended Extra: Was a very minor character in the beginning of the series (she wasn't even given a formal name until the "March of the Wooden Soldiers" arc; later on she becomes far more prominent, and takes her place as a prime mover in the Fables saga overall.
  • Badass Boast: During the March of The Wooden Soldiers arc.
    "I was always stronger than you thought. Killed a dozen times, but it never took. Even burned to ashes in my own oven, I came back, after a good while. How's that for a frail old biddy, eh? Now you hush and let me finish my knitting. Time to stop struggling and let the deep darkness take you. Your stories are all done, Baba Yaga."
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: She's on the good guys' side because Snow White and Rose Red saved her life, and she also seems to genuinely like Beauty and Beast, to the point of making Beauty's day by telling her that she will eventually have a baby.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Her stock in trade in dealing with enemies, or just anyone she didn't like, especially handsome, haughty princes.
  • Evil Old Folks: She's old and she's evil, though leaning into Enemy Mine for most of the present day stories.
  • Evil Sorceress: She was basically every nameless witch in every fairy tale you've read, and quite a few Fabletown Fables still bear very powerful curses of her design. The curses on Rapunzel and the Beast are her work, for starters, though it's not clear if the subjects of the curse are aware that Totenkinder is the same woman.
  • Hidden Badass: Initially we just know her as the woman who probably tried to kill Hansel and Gretel once upon a time. Eventually we learn that she's a woman who's been alive for thousands of years. During that time, she honed and grew her skills in magic to the point where she can challenge but not win a fight against one of the Great Powers in the Fables universe. She had to spend all of her centuries of accumulated power to do so however, and is left at a more or less "normal" level of magical power afterwards.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: (In)famous for this in the Homelands and legend.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Odd thing is, she willingly gave up her looks because she didn't much care for the physical desires that came with youth, and was always able to regain them whenever she wanted to.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: She has done so many utterly horrible things to innocent, or not so innocent, people, children, babies, etcetera, and never received anywhere near the same permanent fate in return. In fact, after she defeats Mr. Dark, her next action is to head off to parts unknown with her new lover, so she can have the happy married life she never did. Though said new husband eventually dies in Fairest In All the Land with no chance of being brought back and in "Farewell", Cinderella finally kills her at the cost of her own life.
  • Last of Their Kind: Eventually and utterly wiped out her whole tribe after years of plagues, pestilence and curses.
  • Meaningful Name Her name is German for "Dead Children". It's both a reference to the source of her powers (guess where they come from?) and to the fact that the very first child she sacrificed was her own son.
  • Mutual Kill: With Cinderella. She is stabbed in the head by the glass slipper, but her Fantastic Nuke and the resultant injuries take care of Cinderella seconds later.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As mentioned, her name means Dead Children. Not really someone you wanna hang around.
  • Never Mess with Granny: She's an extremely powerful witch.
  • Not Quite Dead: How Snow White and Rose Red find her, burned to bare bones inside her own oven. Her great powers enable her to (slowly) regenerate from ashes.
  • Offing the Offspring: Part of her backstory, as mentioned above and below.
  • Place of Power: Her old cottage in the Homelands. Later focused and localized into her rocking chair.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: Tapping into Blood Magic increases her mystic abilities and keeps her perpetually young (unless she actively allows herself to age); she merely has to sacrifice a drop of "the most innocent blood available" to achieve the desired effect. She's been doing this for centuries, in a variety of innocuous ways (abortion clinics among them). And it all began with her own newborn.
  • Retired Monster: While no longer actively evil and on the side of the protagonists, it is stated that she has little remorse for the many, many evil things she has done. The only thing she seems to regret is the murder of her child. It is also heavily implied that she covertly drove the original, much nicer, leader of the coven insane to become the leader herself after the amnesty.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Even nastier than Bigby, and also doesn't feel sorry in the slightest for all the horrible things she has done.
  • Unknown Rival: Has been playing a chess game of wits and strategy against the Adversary for centuries, countering spells, marshalling forces and garnering advantages in furtherance of survival and oneupmanship, but he didn't even become aware of her existence until recent years.
  • Vain Sorceress: Inverted. Her true form is a beautiful young woman, but she prefers to appear as an old crone.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can change from old to young, or twist her appearance into that of a monster, etc.
  • Worf Had the Flu: She claims that Hansel and Gretel were able to turn the tables on her because she was extremely weak from having gone too long between sacrifices.
  • Woman Scorned: She was originally the shaman of her tribe and was in a relationship with the chief's son. When he married another woman for the sake of a truce with another tribe, he had her banished because she was pregnant with his son (wanting to get rid of her, he accused her of having had dealings with demons, which had supposedly resulted in the child's conception). She then killed her baby as soon as he was born, first for defense, but then continued to use the power gained so she could enact her revenge on her former tribe (completely wiping it out) and has been killing children to use magic ever since.
  • Would Hurt a Child: She began her experiments with blood magic by sacrificing her own son, and has at the very least sacrificed thousands (or possibly millions) of children to demons to retain her youth and power. According The Unwritten crossover, she is fully willing to sacrifice every child on the planet.

    Ozma 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2749094_fables_104.jpg
"What can I say? Life is neither fair nor easy."
"I believe my task will be to do away with The Dark One and restore Fabletown." - Ozma

The former queen of Oz, and the most ambitious member of the Thirteenth Floor Gang. Becomes their leader after Frau Totenkinder retires.


  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Desperately pleads for her life when the magically controlled Bigby takes her down and prepares to rip her throat out.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Ozma is hyped up as Totenkinder's successor and a lot of dialog is dedicated to what her "great work" will be. Then she's casually killed off during the last arc of the series, without really accomplishing anything. Her death doesn't even move the plot forward.
  • Insufferable Genius: Of the sorceress variety. Extremely self-assured, with a more than healthy dose of pretension amd condescension.
  • Killed Off for Real: After underestimating the resurrected and mind-controlled Bigby in issue #144.
  • Not So Above It All: Has a cold, calculating personality in some respects, but finds herself drawn, at least temporarily, into going along with Pinocchio's ridiculous "Super Team" plot. She's somewhat enamored by her superhero uniform.
  • Not So Stoic: Usually calm, collected and ever so confident, with a patronizing air. Utterly (and understandably) loses her shit when she's about to be butchered by a possessed Bigby.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Like all of the Fables, but Ozma notably maintains the appearance of a young girl, where most female Fables appear to be in their 20s-30s and most of the women associated with the 13th Floor Gang look old.

    Morgan le Fay / Mrs. Green 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i144_morgan.png
"Don't look at me. I had good reasons for what I did last time."
"I think we can agree passions are of scant utility here, where cold reason and sound judgment must prevail." - Morgan le Fay

Hailing from the King Arthur saga, she is initially one of the less visible and vocal members of the Thirteenth Floor, although this changes. Towards the end of the series, Rose Red appoints her the official Court Sorcerer of the new Camelot.


  • Ascended Extra: Is one of the figures in assisting in Prince Brandish's defeat. She later becomes basically the new "Merlin", and plays a key role in major storyarcs towards the series' end.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: This is Morgan Le Fay, so of course it's part of her backstory.
  • Court Mage: Fills this capacity as Rose's new "Merlin".
  • Deadpan Snarker: Not above shooting off a sharp, witty rejoinder every now and then. Even Rose has to call her out on it at least once.
  • Freudian Excuse: As King Arthur's father murdered her father so he could rape Morgan's mother, not to mention Morgan's birthing of Arthur's bastard son Mordred, she understandably had some issues.
  • Hot Witch: A very attractive member of the Thirteenth Floor Sorcerers.
  • The Lancer: Acts as Rose Red's chief adviser, and as such is sorely tasked to curb her queen's more reckless tendencies.
  • Off with His Head!: Goldilocks cuts her head off with the Sword of Regret. She is resurrected later.

    Maddy 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5186213_fables_farewell_v22_014.jpg
"The time to hope things will turn out all right is gone. The time to wake up and smell the catnip is upon you."
"I'm the invisible walker. Once called the Scythian Raven, once called Medea, once called Sycorax. More to the point, I'm our acknowledged specialist in matters of hide and seek." - Maddy'

A magic-user in the form of a black cat, with a pointed, triangle-tipped tail. By far the most talented magic user among the Thirteenth Floor when it comes to concealment and perception, she is able to serve as a spy even against Great Powers like Mr. Dark without being detected.


  • Badass Teacher: Founds (alongside King Cole) the Frau Totenkinder School of Magic at the series' end, serving as its main instructor.
  • Cats Are Magic: Was probably invoking this trope when she decided upon a feline form as her default mode.
  • Deadpan Snarker: As snarky as only an ancient sorceress in the form of a black cat can be.
  • I Have Many Names: As referenced in the quote at the beginning of the entry.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Though she seems most comfortable in the cat form, she can also take the form of a raven, , a giant panther, and probably many others.

    The Fairy Witch / Mother Ardelia, Birdie, Bulah, Cherish 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cherish.png
"Here all the time. Nothing so magical as a place wilfully constructed to be ordinary, hmmmm?"
"The powerful fairy witch of years ago is gone. Her mind went when she was removed from leadership." - Ozma

The former leader of the 13th Floor Witches, and the one primarily responsible for the powerful spells and enchantments that went into the construction of Fabletown's very infrastructure. She is now a shadow of her former self, seemingly disconnected from reality and prone to (seemingly) non-sensical babbling.


  • Cloudcuckoolander: Exclusively spews random nonsense. Or is it? One of her seemingly random non-sequiturs gives Ozma the perfect idea as to how to defeat Geppetto. Furthermore, when a feral Bigby brought down all of the protective enchantments around Fabletown the 13th Floor had worked so hard to create, it was the Fairy Witch who reminded the others about the magic lying dormant in the Mundie World, shocking Maddy with her lucidness, and suggesting she is more aware of what's going on than the others believe.
  • Granny Classic: Often found sitting away from the other members of the 13th Floor, wearing a bonnet and shawl, and knitting (though in some cases without any wool or needles).
  • I Have Many Names: ....and not necessarily by choice. She seems to not be able to remember her true identity, and answers to a different name each day.
  • Klingon Promotion: It is heavily implied (at least by Ozma) that Frau Totenkinder is the one responsible for her current mental deficiencies, seeking to take her spot as leader of Fabletown's witches.
  • Non Sequitur: Prone to these, by virtue of her condition.
    "The browns and the yellows have gotten little again, did you notice?"
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Totally disappears shortly before Cinderella and Frau Totenkinder's magical duel razes much of Fabletown. It is unknown whether she perished in the destruction or not.

    Mister Grandours 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i141_mr_grandours.png
"Even the most beloved traditions are often destroyed by uncomfortable change."
"Ah, so the dead wake at last." - Mister Grandours

A mage with a talent for shapeshifting. In the form of a magic bear, he was tasked to guard a trove of magical items by the Empire, but only stuck with it because he didn't really have anywhere else to go; when offered the chance to emigrate to Fabletown he gladly accepted.


  • Animal Eyes: As a "human", he still has the totally dark orbs and irises of the bear he once was.
  • Humble Hero: Has no problem telling Boy Blue and Bigby that removing part of the magical arrow that is still stuck in Blue's arm is "beyond his skills". He also downplays his huge role in making sure Bigby and Blue survived the arrow attack in the first place.
  • The Medic: Seems to be acting in this capacity (on the magical side, anyway) for Fabletown's Fort Bravo during the Homelands incursion.
  • Sorcerer King: Before the invasion of the Homelands by The Adversary's forces.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: First met in the form of a bear, and borrows a bird's wings to fly them home to Fabletown.

    Mrs. Someone 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1623325_someone.jpg
"In the one minute between the time you vanish and Briar Rose pricks her finger, who knows what dire events might befall us here?"
Boy Blue: Of course it would be easier to talk up your achievements if I knew your real name, Mrs. Someone.
Mrs. Someone: Ah, but that's my own little secret, child- tucked away where no fell power can discern it.

A nameless witch, who took her own name and "tucked it away" to protect herself from evil powers. She had very little active role in the story, until she went to the Imperial City with Hakim and Briar Rose in order to protect her as part of Fabletown's war plans.


  • Bus Crash: The Imperial City burned down with the sleeping curse still active, and it's very likely that Mrs. Someone died in the fire.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: To ensure that everything goes according to plan, she and Hakim volunteer to stay behind when Briar Rose's sleeping curse affects everyone in the Imperial capital, knowing they'd be affected like everyone else. They both apparently die in the later destruction of the city.
  • Put on a Bus: Left the Thirteenth Floor to join Briar Rose in the Imperial City.

    Prospero 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i141_prospero.png
"That's a good start, but no amount of passive evaluation will make up for hard facts."
"I'm not thinking about politics or ambition. I'm speaking of safety. We're supposed to be the power backbone of the entire community." - Prospero

Another resident of the Thirteenth Floor. More often than not, is the voice promoting caution and the most practical course of action in any given situation.


  • Bald Mystic: No hair to be found on top of his dome and has considerable magic power, on top of dispensing words of wisdom.
  • Only Sane Man: Relatively speaking. Is the 13th Floor resident who always counsels patience and practicality above all else, and is never motivated by passions or bias.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Is not seen again or mentioned after the final destruction of much of Fabletown. As it's said some of Fabletown's sorcerous residents did not survive the conflagration, it can be assumed he was one of the ones who did not.
  • Wizard Beard: A powerful wizard with impressive face follicles.

    Mister Kadabra/Karrant 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i90_kadabra.png
"Enjoy the spectacle, men. But pay close attention. I intend to make short work of him."
"A victim of his own powers, the newly rechristened "Mister Kadabra" never knew his role in protecting so many for so long, nor did any of his peers. Did his great spell begin to leak so badly over the ages, causing others to dismiss him?"

Formerly known as Lord Karrant of the Westermark, the most powerful sorcerer in his world's nine kingdoms. Appearing as a "stage magician," complete with suit and top hat, Mr. Kadabra appears to all involved to be a terminally unimportant background character. This is because before coming to Fabletown, he worked an unbelievably powerful spell directly on The Adversary himself, causing Geppetto to forget about any land in which Karrant/Kadabra dwells. The backlash of the spell has wiped away a significant portion of Kadabra's memory as well, and has caused anyone he encounters to perceive him as unimportant as well. It is likely that his spell is a major reason why the Adversary ignored the Mundy world for so long.


  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The powerful sorcerer is murdered by the mercenary Dorothy Gale, for no other reason than to put Cinderella on notice and because he just happened to be the first person she came upon.
  • Killed Off for Real: At the hands of Dorothy Gale, the notorious assassin/mercenary known as "Silverslipper", just to draw out her Arch-Enemy Cinderella.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The spell he cast causes his enemies to forget the existence of any land he dwells in.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He helped build Fabletown, and was key in laying the magicks that kept it unnoticed by the Mundanes for centuries. Most importantly, kadabra's spell to make The Adversary Geppetto not only forget his existence, but pay no notice of any land he resides in, goes a LONG way towards keeping Fabletown safe from the Empire's depredations for years.
  • Sorcerer King: Reportedly the mightiest one in the nine kingdoms back in his homeworld.

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