However, it transpired that his conversion to human form had not cured Pinocchio of his wanderlust and the boy repeatedly left on adventures, often disappearing for years at a time, leaving Geppetto behind to wait in lonely solitude for his return.

[3] Geppetto's solution seemed obvious, to create new children, initially older sons, operating under the assumption that they would prove more mature than Pinocchio, then turning his hand to daughters.

Having also been hurt by Pinocchio's vagabond nature, she altered her magic to include bonds of loyalty to Geppetto and of fealty to hearth and home.

Despite initial misgivings, as the plan clearly had to involve the murder of the real Count, the switch was made and sanity settled back into the land.

As time passed, the process became habitual, and it wasn't too long before every major ruling official within range had been replaced by one of Geppetto's duplicates, and thus, through the Blue Fairy's magic, all of them were loyal to him.

During her next visit, he solved that problem by attacking her and hooking her up to a system that allowed him to create elixirs from her body that could turn his duplicates human.

Expansion became the key to maintaining his empire, and Geppetto had by now developed a taste for ruling, taking the view that it was better that he should be in charge than someone who might prove to be less benevolent.

Geppetto himself tends to stay out of direct control, allowing his sons and daughters, now numbering in the tens of thousands, to handle the day-to-day running of the empire.

He sent them under the command of Baba Yaga, masquerading as Red Riding Hood, who he announced to the denizens of Fabletown was his Imperial Envoy, who would work to achieve reconciliation between them.

Escaping with ease, he attempted to kill Geppetto, but failed due to the sheer number of protective spells that surrounded the older Fable.

Bigby Wolf infiltrated the Homelands and broke into Geppetto's cottage, where he explained that Fabletown would be adopting what he referred to as the Israel template.

Bigby then demonstrated this policy by using plastic explosive to destroy the grove of magical trees that Geppetto used to create the wooden soldiers, in retaliation for their assault on Fabletown.

After these events, Geppetto finally decided that Fabletown had to be dealt with, and called a conference of the Imperial elite to discuss possible options.

He dispatched Hansel to Fabletown, ostensibly as an official envoy, but really with the mission of retrieving Baba Yaga and the surviving wooden soldiers and return them to the Homelands.

The Empire dispatched armies to destroy the newly formed land, but found themselves disabled as the spirits Flycatcher brought with him in the journey overwhelmed them.

Making matters worse, the fallen soldiers jumped at Flycatcher's proposition to become citizens of Haven since the alternative would have been to return to the Empire to be killed for failure.

The loss of the soldiers, a number of them having been sons he had constructed in the past, caused Geppetto to fall into a deep depression, cared for only by one of his enchanted daughters.

Geppetto maintained the protection spells that kept him from being harmed by their attack, but the animals then decided to bury him alive deep in the middle of the forest.

He is currently attempting to put a small wooden soldier spy in the new Sacred Grove so that he may learn its secrets and use it to replenish his power and salvage his Empire.

Upon his arrival in Fabletown and signing of the compact that granted him immunity for his past actions, he is frequently condescending or hostile (albeit nonviolently so), often treating others as though he was still an emperor.

While not physically strong, Geppetto has learned a great deal of magic over the years from the various wizards belonging to the lords under his control, to the extent that he should probably be considered a sorcerer of considerable power.

He remains a talented woodcarver and while he had access to his magic grove, he continued to make new children at a rate that he estimated to be around twenty per year.