Chapter 1 of House of the Nameless
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Names hold power. They hold the very essence of who a person was, is, and will be. Names are an entity entirely of their own.
Wonderland understood this concept, twisted it, and turned it into a weapon.
Call the Queen of Hearts what you will: A dictator, a tyrant, a monster.
Her name was all of these and more, a blend of fear and authority, stitched into the very fabric of Wonderland. To speak her name was to invoke an entire history of power—of red roses dipped in blood and a reign marked by the constant cry of “Off with their heads!” The name itself was a blade, sharpened by years of terror and wielded with a cruel precision that could silence dissent or spark a rebellion.
In Wonderland, names weren’t just identifiers; they were living, breathing forces. And along with being known as overall cruel, she was also intuitive. Brilliant in every sense.
Somewhere between when she began her reign and when she decided that she had enough of the disrespect that came from Auradon, she discovered that as names were freely given, they could be taken just as easily.
If your very identity were to be taken from you, leaving you lost and dazed, begging for purpose until she decides to— if she decides to give it back to you, which is highly unlikely— execution might not be the worst thing after all, is it?