Gepetto fell into his role as the most voracious conquerer in the Homelands almost by accident. When Pinocchio ran away to the Mundane World, Gepetto carved new children to keep him company. The Blue Fairy obligingly brought them to life, with an added loyalty spell so that they would never run away. A group of nobles approached him about replacing a corrupt and tyranical ruler with a living puppet, and after some misgivings Gepetto agreed. The tyrant was humanely dispatched, and a puppet in his image took his place and ruled well. But another country also had a bad leader, and so he repeated the process. And then again, and still again, until all the countries around him were ruled by puppets bound to him by the Blue Fairy's loyalty spell. Any conspirators who complained were also replaced.

The Blue Fairy, for reasons of her won, went along with this for a time, but eventually grew bored. So Gepetto, who now had many court wizards to advise and teach him, learned enough magic to incapacitate the Fairy and extract the essence of her magic, which he used to make more puppets into flesh.

By now, he had enough military might under his command to conquer openly, but to protect his identity he made a vast animated puppet as Emeperor. In addition to armied of unfeeling animated wood, he had his sorcerors conjure demons and monters to add to his armies. He had become the Adversary.

Recently he has expanded his attempts into recapturing the Fables who had escaped to the Mundane World. However, Boy Blue and Bigby have taken the fight right back to him, using both powerful magic and Mundane weapons.