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History[]
(Submitted by Four-Eyes)
Rapunzel: Once Upon a Time...[]
A sorceress raised a girl in a tower with a lock and chain kept around the child's ankle as soon as she could walk. The child was Rapunzel and her hair grew fast (even faster when she was emotional) from the potent primal magics contained in the young girl. When her hair was cut, it would quickly turn to essence. The longer the hair when plucked or cut, the more volatile and potent was the magical transformation.
When Rapunzel reached puberty, Gothel left her in the tower and magically removed the tower's stairs. Gothel had left to set up shop in the capital city of Gascogne, intent to use her magic to become a royal mage and then eventually conspire to gain the crown itself.
After she had set up shop, Gothel enchanted her home's hearth and that of the tower to create a portal she could use twice a day (at noon and midnight) to cross the distance between the two hearths in an instant. Several times every week, Gothel would arrive at noon to bring Rapunzel supplies, collect some of the girl's hair in special vials that contained the essence, and teach Rapunzel to create little trinkets and charms. When the portal opened at midnight, Gothel would leave Rapunzel with an order of trinkets she expected completed when she returned. With these charms, powered by the magic of Rapunzel, Gothel planned to gain favor in the court of the king.
Prince Darling grew suspicious of Gothel's intentions. The court mage, Vindemia, shared these concerns and told the prince to ride out to the East, towards Septimane, near the Twilight Lands. She told him to look for a farmhouse in the shadow of a tall tower and there he'd find what he sought. Darling found the farmhouse overgrown and abandoned. While investigating, he found two rotting corpses and an empty crib. As he searched the area for more clues, he heard a voice singing coming from a nearby tower. When the prince could not find a door to the tower, he scaled its walls and discovered Rapunzel.
Darling and Rapunzel became friends... and then more than that. Prince Darling stayed in the farmhouse while he continued to visit Rapunzel after midnight. But as the prince tried to convince Rapunzel that Gothel was up to something evil, Gothel discovered the relationship between Darling and Rapunzel when she recognized that Rapunzel was pregnant. The midnight portal opened and Gothel shoved Rapunzel through it while she stayed behind.
At Gothel's home in the capital, Rapunzel saw hundreds of vials of her hair being stored. Rapunzel grabbed what she could and ran all night to the tower. She arrived in the late morning, finding her prince in the old farmhouse, blinded and near death from a push from the tower's height. Rapunzel saw the old crib in the house and had a realization.
Knowing Gothel would still be in the tower, Rapunzel took the vials of her hair and piled them at the base of the tower. Her rage also causing her hair to grow long and thick, wrapping around the base of the tower. Over Gothel's distant cries, Rapunzel smashed one vial, causing them all to explode in a brilliant magical blast that destroyed the tower.
Weeping over her prince, Rapunzel's tears became supercharged with her internal magic. The tears healed Darling, but happily ever after isn't how this story ends...
Rapunzel's outburst had weakened the walls of reality. Though she and Darling remained in the farmhouse until Rapunzel could deliver her son and daughter, the emotions and pain of childbirth caused the magic in her to dwell at levels that her hair could not contain. The excess magic leaked into the environment and was drawn to the weakened partition in reality where the tower once stood. Just hours after Rapunzel and her husband welcomed Hansel and Gretel to the world, the Sheeda came bursting from the hole in reality. Darling put Rapunzel and his children on a horse-drawn wagon and told them to flee to the capital of Gascogne.
When Rapunzel reached her destination, the city was also overrun by Sheeda. Rapunzel turned the wagon North, to the Golden Realm. There she raised her son and daughter near the Magical Forest. All the while, Rapunzel was unaware that Gothel still lived and hungered for revenge. [see Network Files for Hansel & Gretel for more information]
Another invasion of the Sheeda prevented Rapunzel from rescuing her children and instead she focused on finding a way to avoid the Sheeda forever. This search brought her to the Hidden Kingdom and after finding love once more, she found a way to our world, where she was eventually brought to Fabletown.
Today, Rapunzel is a valued member of the Fabletown community by virtue of her low-cost glamour business catering to non-human Fables.[1]
Supplemental Reports[]
- (Submitted by Four-Eyes) Rapunzel must get regular haircuts to abide by the rules of Fabletown. When Fabletown was in NYC, she had to receive at least two per day. Now, with Danny's frequent globe-jumping, Snow White is happy with Rapunzel getting weekly haircuts. As seen below, Rapunzel's hair grows fast (and can grow much faster when she's emotional).
- (Submitted by Four-Eyes) The smell of strange herbs from Gothel's garden enticed a pregnant mother to insist her husband steal from the garden of their neighboring sorceress during the night. The husband did as told and mixed the stolen crops with rampion leaves to make a salad for his wife. This was meant to be a one-time incident but became the first of many nightly thefts. The sorceress, Gothel, learned of this theft. When she confronted the peasant couple, she had expected to find they were selling her magic herbs to another sorceress or alchemist, or were destroying the crop for payment from her long-time rival. Instead, when Gothel learned that the wife had eaten these herbs (which were not meant for consumption), and was not only still alive but thriving, she became fascinated. After an examination of the pregnant woman, she decided that payment would be deferred until after the child was born. The parents assumed this was the sorceress being merciful, but when the child was born, Gothel asked the couple to give the child to her as an apprentice. When the couple refused, Gothel killed both of them and stole the child from her crib, naming her Rapunzel - a name derived from the rampion leaves.
Threat Assessment[]
Resources[]
- Fable Physiology: Rapunzel is a being of extra potent Vorpal energy.
- Immortality: Rapunzel lives without aging.
- Resurrection: Due to her popularity with the "Mundies", Rapunzel can survive almost anything, including absolute death - though she still feels pain and does her best to avoid such harm.
- Hair: Rapunzel's hair grows rapidly and when it is cut or plucked, it shortly turns to potent essence.
- Sorceress: Rapunzel is a novice sorceress, having been trained by Dame Gothel in the dark arts. Rapunzel's most powerful magic is particularly nasty stuff, so she prefers to use the simple tricks.
- Glamourist: Rapunzel makes a living selling cheap glamours and simple potions to Fables who can't afford the prices of the 13th Floor Mages.
Weaknesses[]
- Emotional: Extreme emotion causes her hair to grow faster.
Analytics[]
- Physicality: 3 — Trained / Exceptional
- Occult: 6 — World-Class / Superb
- Weaponry: 2 — Basic / Typical
- Expertise: 2 — Basic / Typical
- Range: 4 — Expert / Enhanced
- Strategy: 2 — Basic / Typical
- TOTAL: 46
- RANKING: Low Threat
Trivia and Notes[]
Trivia[]
- She settled in Hamelin in Hesse and during this time Gothel tried to enact her revenge.[2]
- She's the mentor of Conner Wolf.[3] He discovered the journal of Mother Gothel and Snow White asked her to train him.[4]
Notes[]
- Rapunzel is a character from Fables.
- Her Earth-27 origins are more similar with the original tale of Rapunzel.
- Being Hansel and Gretel's mother is Earth-27 original. In the comics she gave birth to twin daughters.
- The name of the witch in the Fables responsible for Rapunzel, Hansel, and Gretel's problems is Frau Totenkinder.
- Her aliases are references:
- Maid Maleen - a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.
- Okiku - a Japanese ghost story. Rapunzel is also called Okiku in Fables.
- Persinette - French version of the tale.
- Petrosinella - Italian version of the tale.
- Saulé - Baltic solar goddess with possible connection to the story.
Gallery[]
Network Files[]
Links and References[]
- Appearances of Rapunzel