Cinderella

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

### Cinderella: Once Upon a Time...

Arabella Fresne, or "Ella" for short, was the daughter of two wealthy parents, Charles Fresne and his wife Isabella, from the Iron Realm of Fryslân. Unfortunately, Isabella died shortly after Ella's birth due to complications resulting from the birth. Charles raised his daughter as best he could. The two developed an intense bond but no matter how strong their relationship was, Charles felt inadequate to the task of raising a daughter on his own. Believing that his little Ella needed a female role model, Charles rushed into a marriage with a widow without any intimate attachment to the woman, Iphigenia Rhodes.

Ella's new stepmother was a cruel taskmaster who only cared about securing Charles' fortune. Shortly after the marriage, Charles died under suspicious circumstances and Iphigenia fired all the manors' servants in order to stretch out the use of Charles' fortune. Because neither Iphigenia nor her own daughters, Clorinda and Tisbe, could be bothered with the upkeep of the home, Ella was tasked to act as their in-house servant and maid.

Given the cruel nickname Cinderella, Ella did what was asked of her. She had no problems with using her hands or working up a sweat. As she worked, she dreamed of the day she could take back her home.

Cinderella discovered she could communicate with animals after she rescued three mice from a neighboring farm. The mice had their tails cut off and had been blinded by the farmer's sadistic wife. Cinderella took them and cared for them. Not only could she speak to the mice and they to her, but her presence also healed their wounds, allowing their tails to grow back and their sight to return. Though they could now see, the three mice became blindly devoted to Cinderella.

When the prince of the kingdom invited all women to a royal ball, Cinderella believed this was her chance to make a good impression on a suitor and escape the servitude that had been placed upon her. Her animal friends salvaged fabric for her and she made a modest gown, but despite this, her stepmother refused to allow her to go to the ball and destroyed the gown before leaving with her own daughters.

While Cinderella sobbed, she was visited by a fairy who claimed to be duty-bound to Ella's maternal bloodline. When the fairy heard of Ella's predicament, she transformed the rags to a silver gown and made a golden carriage from a pumpkin, turned a dog into a horse, and the three mice into a coachman and footmen. The fairy Vindemia also changed Cindy's simple shoes into glass slippers. She then warned her to hurry to the ball for the enchantment would only last to midnight.

At the ball, all eyes were on the mysterious beauty, including those of Prince Charming. When Cinderella fled in the middle of a dance with the prince as midnight loomed, leaving behind a single glass slipper, Charming was even more captivated by this woman. He insisted he had to have her for his wife and sent his men to scour the kingdom for the mystery woman. When he found her, Charming and Cinderella were married and her stepmother and stepsisters were given a taste of their own medicine, forced into servitude for as many years as they had punished Cinderella.

But it wasn't all happily ever after as the classic story would tell you...

### Supplemental Reports

* (*Submitted by Four-Eyes*) Since coming to the Mundie world, Cindy has taken on the special role of a Tourist, a special agent of the Fabletown Sheriff. Though she also works as the owner of a boutique shoe shop, Cindy travels the world on the orders of Bigby undertaking important missions to protect and preserve the existence of Fabletown.
* (*Submitted by Four-Eyes*) Cinderella escaped the Homelands when the Queen of the Silver Realm, fearing she would lose her kingdom in the Dwarven Revolution, made a pact with the Sheeda and used her kingdom as staging ground for an invasion of the Dwarven Undercities, the Hesse, the Magical Forest, the Golden Realm, and the Iron Realm. The combined might of the Sheeda and the Evil Queen's forces proved to be too much of a challenge for Charming's Iron Army and he issued a call for an evacuation of the realm. As the prince's consort, Cinderella was among those given priority but she repeatedly gave her preferential treatment to orphans, young lovers, the elderly, the crippled, and the sick. She stayed behind until it was too late and the city was captured. Cinderella lived behind enemy lines for many years, fighting the Sheeda occupiers with guerrilla tactics until she also escaped after a massive jailbreak, freeing many other Fables.

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* **Fable Physiology:** Cindy is a human-looking being of Vorpal energy.
	+ ***Immortality:*** Cindy lives without aging.
	+ ***Resurrection:*** Due to her popularity with the "Mundies", Cindy can survive almost anything, including absolute death — though she still feels pain and does her best to avoid such harm.
	+ ***Magic:*** As a princess of the Homelands, Cindy has a highly developed empathy with animals — particularly those most regard as vermin. She can communicate with them and heal their wounds.
* **Spy:** Cindy is an expert infiltrator, disguise artist, locksmith, markswoman, and martial artist.
* **Fairy Godmother:** Though Cindy does not like to rely on it, she has a rather potent psychic link to a powerful fairy sorceress named Vindemia Faye.

### Analytics

* **Physicality:** 3 — Trained / Exceptional
* **Occult:** 3 — Trained / Exceptional
* **Weaponry:** 6 — World-Class / Superb
* **Expertise:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
* **Range:** 5 — Master / Remarkable
* **Strategy:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
	+ **TOTAL:** 70
	+ **RANKING:** Moderate Threat

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* It's quite likely Iphigenia (actually the Baba Yaga Gothel) murdered Charles when he discovered her true nature. Rather than killing the doctor's daughter, Gothel made the girl her servant and tortured her with endless chores and harassment (as this stepdaughter was descended from a maternal bloodline Vindemia was fond of).
* When fighting the Sheeda Charming had sex with many women to scratch his itch. When he told Cinderella, as they were fleeing the Homelands, she forgave him but when they settled in the new world, their marriage was obviously strained.
* Her mice have a rivalry with Mowgli's animal companion Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. The four of them will often bicker and compete, even in the midst of vital assignments. They are also Puss-in-Boots' nemeses.

### Notes

* Cinderella is a character from *Fables*.
* Her mouse friends are composited with the Three Blind Mice. Here, their names are Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer. The names are a reference to the Oxford Martyrs, possible inspirations of the Three Blind Mice nursery rhyme.
* Her aliases Aschenputtel, Cendrillon, Cenerentola are names of Cinderella in German, French and Italian.
* In the comics her parents, stepmother and stepsisters are unnamed.
	+ Fresne is a reference to lai (written poem) *Le Fresne* which is a variant of the Cinderella story.
	+ Clorinda and Tisbe are a nod to Gioachino Rossini's 1817 opera "La Cenerentola".
	+ Rhodes is a nod to Rhodopis, the ancient Greece version of Cinderella.

## Links and References

* Appearances of Cinderella

1. ↑ Network Files: Cinderella
2. ↑ Network Files: Mother Gothel
3. ↑ Network Files: Prince Charming
4. ↑ Network Files: Mowgli
5. ↑ Network Files: Puss-in-Boots