As part of his comic The Sandman, writer Neil Gaiman planned a small arc involving William Shakespeare entering a deal with the Dream King to write plays that would live on after him.

The Books of Magic miniseries showed Titania in her kingdom, meaning Gaiman had to create the realm of Faerie in more depth than he had previously shown it.

Gaiman also showed an ambiguous section that was interpreted by some to suggest that Queen Titania was the mother of the comic's main character, Timothy Hunter, which ensured that the realm of Faerie was further explored when the mini-series became an ongoing series.

[8] When he was chosen to replace Gaiman as the writer of the ongoing The Books of Magic series, John Ney Rieber discovered that a gaming guide to the DC universe had listed Titania as Hunter's mother: he also knew that a key part of the character's appeal, however, was that he was a normal teenaged boy.

Instead of simply denying the possibility of Tim being part Faerie, Rieber decided to use the idea as one of his ongoing storylines, whilst gently debunking it.

[8] This meant utilizing Titania and her cuckolded husband Auberon as supporting characters for most of his run on the comic,[9] which in turn meant frequent visits and explorations to Faerie: the first storyline in the book showed Tim visiting a forgotten corner of the realm and introduced the idea that the land was slowly dying since it had been cut off from the Earth,[10] and later storylines delved deeper into Faerie's past and present to build up a clearer picture of the Twilight Kingdom.

[7][11] Such was the importance of Faerie to Rieber's version of The Books of Magic that when its popularity caused DC to release a spin-off miniseries, they decided that a three issue mini-series about the early history of the kingdom (and Titania's rise to power) would be most suitable.

King Magnus came to the throne, instigating a dark time for the carefree realm: he believed in the innate superiority of pure-blood faeries and this led to the persecution of the other races, with Brownies becoming little more than slaves in the royal household.

[15] Ironically, Magnus' dalliances with other faeries did lead to a birth – an illegitimate and unrecognized son called the Amadan[16] who grew to become Fool to the Seelie Court and mastermind of a thousand intrigues and manipulations.

This left a power vacuum in the Court that was eventually filled when Lord Obrey sought out the rightful heir to the throne, a young boy faerie called Auberon who was being looked after in the outskirts by his cousin Dymphna and brownie nursemaid Bridie.

[15] Aware of the growing danger,[16] the boy-king ran away from the Court to find his missing sister, leaving Obrey as his Regent to look after Faerie and her subjects.

Obrey slipped into the role of king unchallenged, his own position made stronger by his marriage to Auberon's cousin Dymphna,[15] and the two ruled for several years, reversing some of Magnus' more prejudiced practices to bring all the races of Faerie together.

Eventually, the intervention of Tamlin brought an Opener (Timothy Hunter, who was possibly Titania's abandoned son) to the realm whose spilled blood restored its previous vigor.

[18] When Lucifer decided to quit his realm, Titania and Auberon hoped that they could convince the new owners to forfeit the tithe Faerie owed[14] - their own son and heir Prince Taik having been claimed as payment - but this didn't come to fruition.