| “ | I'm a Fable — which means I'm not quite human, and not originally from this world. We're the legendary people youve read about in your storybooks. | „ |
| ― Jack Horner about being a Fable in Jack of Fables #1 — "The Long Hard Fall of Hollywood Jack" |
The Fables are the characters from fairy tales and folklore who originated from the magical Homelands. Talking animals, humans, fairies, trolls, ogres, goblins, dwarves, witches, giants, dragons, and other creatures are but a sample of all the kinds of Fables that exist. The lives and exploits of many of these creatures have been leaked into the consciousness of various mundy authors and therefore their stories, albeit deformed, have been told for centuries in the mundane world.
Description
| “ | Geppetto: Very well, I'll begin. We are of fact, and yet we are also of story. Mister Grandours: If we exist as flesh here, nonetheless we exist in another place only as words. Morgan le Fay: The worlds are tied into a big knot that can't be loosened. What's real in one is Fable in the next. Maddy: So now we move to summon, against the ending of days, the Fable that will save us. Ozma: […] There's a story somewhere, about a witch or wizard of near-infinite power. And since there's a story, there's also a world where that witch is real. |
„ |
| ― The 13th Floor spellcasters touching about the nature of Fablekind during a spell in The Unwritten #50 — "The Unwritten Fables, Part 1: The Summoning" |
Fables represent a class of magical beings who possess immortality,[2][3] thus resembling Literals, though they are not the same, as Literals represent a different kind of entity.[2] It should be noted that not every person originating from the Fable Homelands is a Fable; every Fable world produces a mix of mortal and immortal beings.[3] After magic leaks into the mundane world,[4] some mundys travel to Toyland to eat from the magic cauldron there, hoping that it will bestow upon them magical qualities, thus transforming them from mundy into Fable.[3]
History
Centuries ago a being known as the Adversary sought to conquer the Fables' homeworlds, and the surviving denizens massed a great exodus to Earth. They became part of an underground network of Fables and established themselves in two key locations in the state of New York. Those who could pass for human took up residence in Fabletown, an unofficial district of midtown Manhattan, many of whom began living at the unofficial Fabletown city hall at The Woodland Luxury Apartments. Others took up residence in private abodes elsewhere. Those who could not pass for human were forced to live at a locale in Upstate New York known as the Farm.
Powers and abilities
Jack, being a relatively popular Fable, could heal rapidly.
- Immortality: Based on the popularity of their respective stories, Fables gain power that manifests mainly in the form of immortality. By their very nature, many Fables are long-lived creatures, but a popular Fable can stop aging altogether and develop remarkable healing abilities that could help them survive otherwise fatal injuries. However, this doesn't mean that they are invulnerable.
- Variable invulnerability: While each Fable is immortal, it does not mean that they can't be killed. However not every Fable can be killed as easily as the other, and some are virtually unkillable. This all depend on one crucial factor, how popular that Fable is to the mundane humans. Fables who are more obscure are almost as easily killed as mundane normal beings. While others who are so popular that they are inherently part of human culture such as Goldilocks or Snow White can survive almost anything including multiple consecutive fatal wounds which they recover from through accelerated healing, or even total mutilation were they can appear whole again elsewhere.
- Individual characteristics: Certain Fables may demonstrate a wide variety of abilities depending upon their origin. Bigby Wolf for example, has the ability to transform from a wolf into a human and back again. Bufkin possesses the gift of winged flight, and many anthropomorphic beings, such as the Three Little Pigs, have acquired the power of speech.
Weaknesses
Significant damage: A Fable, no matter how popular, can be killed. Once dead, they could potentially come back from the dead, provided their story be popular enough, or alternatively the role they left could be occupied by another Fable instead.
Appearances
Trivia
- According to Beast, the Fables of Fabletown have always had difficult pregnancies since the business with Max Piper and his Spanish influenza incident.[5]
- According to Mister Revise, when a popular Fable dies permanently, a new version of the character has a tendency to appear to replace the recently deceased Fable at a random location, making it impossible for him to immediately locate and capture the new Fable before they become a menace. As such, instead of outright killing them, he instead imprisons them in Golden Boughs Retirement Village until they are eventually forgotten by the mundys.[6]
- This is further given credence by that fact that after Boo Bear is killed,[7] his mother immediately falls pregnant with his younger brother[8] and eventual replacement, Boo Bear the younger,[9] as their story is one of the most popular Fables known to the mundane world and is practically common knowledge to them.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Peter & Max: A Fables Novel
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jack of Fables #15 — "The Bad Prince, Part Four: (Enchanted) Blade Runner"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Fables #150 — "The Last Toy Story"
- ↑ Fables #150 — "In a Castle Dark"
- ↑ Fables #89 — "Baba Yaga: Chapter Three of Witches"
- ↑ Jack of Fables #4 — "Jackrabbit"
- ↑ Fables #26 — "The Battle of Fabletown: Chapter Seven — March of the Wooden Soldiers"
- ↑ Fables #27 — "In Like a Lion — Out on the Lam: Chapter Eight — March of the Wooden Soldiers"
- ↑ Fables #100 — "Pinocchio's Army"