| “ | They call this the mundy world because magic is scant here. The most powerful and ambitious have ignored this land because of that. Dismissed it as insignificant. But I believe we were all mistaken. I suspect this is, in fact, a place of vast magic, hidden and deep. It exists here in a particular form, unrecognized. In this one world we have something of a small-scale map of all the other known worlds. Why is that? In this one world the many hidden facts of our lives leak out, to be told and retold by these mundys. How do they uncover such secrets? This is a world of observation and, what? Pondering? In any case, there's something powerful at work in this world among all the others. | „ |
| ― The North Wind describing the mundane world to Mister Dark in Fables #99 — "Dark City" |
The mundane world,[1] or mundy world[2] or the mundy[3] for short, is the Fables' name for Earth, and is home to the people referred to by Fables as the "mundys." It is so called because magic is scarce there. For hundreds of years, the mundane world served as a secret sanctuary to Fables who were forced out of the Homelands by the Adversary.
Description
Miniature homelands
The mundane world seems to contain miniature versions of every Homeland world Fablekind originally come from.[4][5] For example, in the mundane world there is a small island nation called England that mirrors the entire world they once knew as Albion; the country called Russia is a rough sixteenth-scale sketch of the vast old world of The Rus; Ireland resembles the world of Erin; and infant America slowly grew into an approximation of Americana. For some as yet undiscovered reason, or perhaps for no reason at all since some truly remarkable things do seem to be the result of mere (or possibly mighty) chance, the mundane world has turned out to be a map of sorts for all the much grander ones the Fables had left behind.[5]
Fable stories
| “ | This is a world of story makers. They tell tales about us here, unlike in any other world. Why? | „ |
| ― "Stinky" to Frau Totenkinder, Fables #82 — Waiting for the Blues (An Epilogue of Sorts for The Dark Ages)" |
The mundane world is the one and only world where stories about Fables are told, with Stinky the badger referring to it as a world of storymakers.[6] According to the North Wind, lots of hidden information about the Fables' lives leak out into the mundane world, to be told and retold by the so-called mundys; calling it a world of observation and pondering.[4]
World without magic
| “ | My minions worked so hard over the ages, locking the magic away. Resulting in a place where all of the pretty little boys would come to me pure. Innocent. Untainted by the vulgarities of the so-called higher arts. | „ |
| ― Peter Pan to Geppetto, Fables #152 — "The Black Forest Chapter Two: Pandemonium" |
According to Mister Revise, when he first came to the mundane world it was filthy with magic, and had witches, angels, devils and pagan gods everywhere. He and his team nearly had that world completely free from magic when Fablekind arrived.[7] Werewolves and witches also used to exist in the mundane world, but Revise successfully purged them from existence.[8] Peter Pan also states that his own minions worked hard over the ages, locking the magic of this world away.[9]
Despite being classified as a world of scant and miserly magic by modern times,[4][10] there exists some cases of native mystical phenomenon, such as Nick Slick,[11] Grandfather Oak[12] and dryads,[13] and the minimal arboreal magic present in the trees of the mundane world all flows into and accumulates in Grandfather Oak, culminating in a formidable magical strength.[12] Furthermore, some of the discarded toys[14] from the mundane world[15] live through the belief of children[16] and are somehow washed up on the shores of Toyland[14] because they were indirectly responsible for the deaths of the children and infants they belonged to.[15] Stinky the badger wonders if a very specific magic related to storytelling is at work in the mundane world,[6] while the North Wind is convinced that the mundy world is actually a place of vast magic, hidden and deep, in a particularly unrecognized form.[4]
After Fabletown falls, magic slowly begins to creep back into the mundane world, and a few humans and animals start to develop magical abilities.[17]
Fables in exile
Many of the Fables in exile live in a secret community called Fabletown in New York City.[1] Another group of Fables, from the Hidden Kingdom, live in hiding in Tokyo, Japan.[18] There is also network of other hidden Fable communities scattered in other places throughout the world, such as China and Russia. This network is known as Shadow Fabletown.[19] A new Fabletown for Arabian Fables, called Fabletown East, is in the process of being planned after Sinbad's visit to Fabletown.[20]
The Adversary
For long, the mundane world was the one world the Adversary seemed to take no interest in.[21] The reason for this is that Mister Kadabra cast a spell on Geppetto that made him take no notice of any land Kadabra chose to inhabit;[22] and Peter Pan ordered Geppetto to leave this world alone, as Pan had designated it as his exclusive personal hunting sanctuary.[9]
Boy Blue believes that Napoleon's armies sweeping across Europe in the mundane world in the early nineteenth century was caused by some sort of sympathetic magic — perhaps not intentional — as it reflected what the Adversary's legions were doing to the Homelands at the time.[2]
However, three centuries after the fall of Fabletown, Geppetto has been gathering the wild magic awakened in the mundane world, planting satellite groves of Grandfather Oak's sapline across all forest in the world in preparation of world domination. Thanks to Grandfather Oak, he now commands an army of dryads armed with modern weapons and geared towards conquering the mundane world. His first target is the United States, where his disowned son Pinocchio is president.[23]
Points of interest
Asia
Asia is one of the mundane world's continents.
Japan
Japan is where most of the Fairest story arc "The Hidden Kingdom" takes place.
Tokyo
| The bustling metropolis of Tokyo, Japan serves as the main backdrop for the Fairest story arc "The Hidden Kingdom." Here, a secret community of Fables from the Hidden Kingdom, live in hiding among the city's inhabitants.[18] |  |
Europe
Europe is another one of the mundane world's continents. After arriving in the mundane world[24] during the 1600s,[25] when New York City was still known as New Amsterdam[24] (New Amsterdam was established in 1624; the name was changed to New York in 1664),[25] Hansel became a famed witch hunter in Europe and traveled the continent, gaining recognition in various continental courts as an expert witch hunter, providing testimony in numerous trials, and actively participating in the subsequent executions.[24]
Boy Blue believes that Napoleon's armies sweeping across Europe in the early nineteenth century was caused by some sort of sympathetic magic — perhaps not intentional — as it reflected what the Adversary's legions were doing to the Homelands at the time.[2]
With most of his wealth lost while fleeing the Empire[26] in the early nineteenth century,[2] Prince Charming was forced to live off the kindness of various nobles throughout Europe.[26]
France
In 1812, the secret Fabletown agent Cinderella was sent to France to retrieve a Fable who had run into trouble. While waiting to meet him, she incapacitated one of Napoleon's hussars.[27]
Paris
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North America
The majority of the events in Fables take place on the continent of North America.
United States of America
Alaska
Alaska appears in Fables #49 — "Wolves, Part 2 of 2." Bigby Wolf resides there with Sarah Tanaraq for a period in a cabin situated deep within the forest, until Mowgli tracks him down and persuades him to return to Fabletown.
California
Los Angeles
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San Francisco
| San Francisco is a sunny city in California,[28] with a population of one million people.[29] It first appears in Everafter: From the Pages of Fables #3 — "Cheating Death: Chapter Three of The Pandora Protocol." |  |
History
A group of relic thieves use stolen museum artifacts to unlock a portal to the afterlife,[29] unleashing dangerous revenants in the city of San Francisco. In order to prevent the revenants from devouring every living thing on earth, Feathertop is forced to make a deal with a group of deities representing the various Underworlds whose denizens' souls have been summoned.[30] | |
Maryland
Cinderella and Eliza incapacitating Belle Boyd
During the American Civil War, Fabletown, although having hotly debated the merits of emancipation, inevitably decided to take the side of the North during the war between the states. In Maryland in 1862, Fabletown agent Cinderella tracked down Belle Boyd, a spy for the South who had a copy of the General Order 191 — with it General McCleellan could end Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North, once and for all. Cinderella couldn't stomach slavery; as an institution it reminded her of her former marriage. Appealing to the slave Eliza, the two incapacitated Boyd and retrieved the documents.[31]
Nebraska
Nebraska appears in Fables #102 — "The Next Big Plan: Chapter One of Super Team." During a mission near Arcadia Township, Bigby Wolf is approached by Flycatcher, who asks him to come back to Haven.
New Jersey
Jersey Pine Barrens
| The Jersey Pine Barrens appear in flashbacks in Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #3 — "Part Three." After arriving in the mundane world, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodsman decided to live out on the Jersey Pine Barrens rather than staying at the Farm, while Dorothy Gale went on to live as a killer for hire among the mundys. Colin Pig encountered them in the woods during one of his occasional getaways from the Farm. He proposed to escort them to Fabletown, yet they politely refused, appearing to anticipate Dorothy's return to fetch them. Unfortunately, she never did. |  |
New York
New York: The Farm is located in upstate New York,[32] while the rest of Fabletown is located in New York City.[1]
New York City
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Appearances
References
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