Great Power

Great Power
Species Information
Status	Extant
Distinction	Powerful, magical beings who embody abstract concepts
Related species	D'jinn Fable
First issue	Fables #10 — "Twilight of the Dogs: Part Five of Animal Farm" (in Colin's form)
Last issue	Fables #150 — "Farewell" The Unwritten #54 — "The Unwritten Fables, Part 5: The Sacrifice" (alternate universe)

“	Creation cannot abide a permanent loss of this force. It's like that with any of the Great Powers -- the Spirit of the Morning, of the North Wind, whom you claim to know personally. If they died, others would take up the mantle. Someone else would fill those roles, just as someone must always embody the Spirit of the Dark.	„
	~ Dunster Happ to Bellflower in Fables #98 — "Red Dawn, Chapter Five of Rose Red"

The Great Powers are representations of natural concepts that have been around since the very beginning, and as such are nigh-indestructible. None of the Great Powers can truly be killed, although it is said that should their current incarnation be destroyed, a replacement may arise in its place. They are also considered the most powerful magical beings in the universe, beyond the abilities of any sorcerer to match.

Each Great Power possesses a magic box artifact that seemingly serves as a method of suicide if they grow tired of existence and wishes to "retire" so that someone else may take their place. Each artifact is tailored to the nature of the Great Power who possesses it (e.g. Hope's artifact is the Pandoran Jar, the North Wind's is the Cask of Ancient Winds and Mister Dark's artifact is the Vault of Primal Darkness). These artifacts are normally hidden away in other-worldly places that only their owners can access. While initially hypothesized that these artifacts erased their owners from existence once used, this seems to be inaccurate; after the North Wind saved the members of Fabletown by pulling himself and Mister Dark into the Cask of Ancient Winds, Frau Totenkinder claimed that the two were entombed inside, rather than dead or non-existent.

List of known Great Powers

• Hope
• Lady of the Lake
• Lady Riftheart
• Mister Dark †
• The Mountain King
• North Wind †
• Shadow
• The Silent Man
• The Sin Eater
• Sorrow
• Spirit of the Morning
• The Three Women Below the Tree
• Winter Wolf (she succeeded Boreas Frostheart as the North Wind)
• Witch of the Red Keep

The Unwritten Fables

The following characters appeared in The Unwritten Fables crossover event and thus exist in a continuity outside the mainstream Fables Universe.

• Air
• Britannia
• Hope
• Kondili
• Lord Rowan
• Pallas Athena
• Sequana
• Shiva
• Yaponcha

Trivia

• Mr. North claimed that he and the d'jinn are distantly related creatures. The exact connection between the Great Powers and the d'jinn is not explicitly known, aside from the fact both are incredibly magical.
  • Frau Totenkinder backed up this comment by claiming Mr. North was of the d'jinn's ilk.
• In Fables #99 — "Dark City," Mr. North, during his attempt to diffuse the battle between Mister Dark and Fabletown, claimed that Frau Totenkinder had accumulated so much power over the centuries that, while not officially recognized among the Great Powers, he considered her to be at least a threat to the Dark Man. In Fables #105 — "The Wind That Shakes the Worlds: Chapter Four of Super—Team," Mr. North believed she was on the cusp of becoming a Great Power, an archetype of witches perhaps, but in her duel with Mister Dark she spent over a millennia's worth of accumulated power and reduced herself to being ordinary.