Begin at the Beginning
It all started as things this way do. Which is to say: it was a completely unremarkable night, with nothing seeming to be out of the ordinary. Alice Liddle, a Victorian girl of just 12, was fast asleep in her room, cozy, and sheltered from the chilly autumn night. Sadly, her peaceful repose was not to last.
Alice awoke coughing, her room suddenly blisteringly hot. Pushing open her door, clutching the family cat Dina to her chest with one arm, she found the hallway outside full of smoke, flames advancing quickly up the stairs. She could hear her mother and father shouting, calling for her and her two sisters, and she could hear her sisters crying. She tried to call back, but choked on the smoke. It would seem they were all trapped in the burning building. And indeed, Alice would not have survived the blaze, were it not for a panicked jump from her second story window. The fire brigade found her later, a few yards from the smoking remains of the house, unconscious, but miraculously unharmed.
Her family was not so lucky.
After the fire, something was not quite right with Alice. Always a precocious and stubborn girl, Alice took to escaping to fantasy more and more, as she was shuttled around from cousin to cousin. She began to speak of her fantasies, truly mad things, which landed her in an asylum. And there she stays to this day, no longer a girl of twelve, but a young woman, just nineteen years old, staring into space, and speaking to no-one... or no-one real, at least.
Or so it would seem.
The truth is, Alice is a very special girl. When she dreams, entire worlds are created and populated with her thoughts and feelings turned human(ish). Though the world resides within her mind, it is very, very real. A bump on the head or prick of a needle in Alice's world prove to be every bit as painful as they would in the 'real' world. Likewise, the slash of a blade would prove itself just as deadly.
Dubbed "Wonderland" by her childhood self, Alice has no more control over her world than any has over a dream... or nightmare. It is her world, but she is just as much at the mercy of it's laws as those created to dwell in it. It is because of this that Alice found herself captured by one of her more deadly creations, The Jabberwocky, unable to return to the "real" world.
Now, Wonderland is a dark caricature of what it once was. Ruled with an iron will by Queen Redd of Hearts, the once whimsical, but generally harmless world has turned into a land of tricks and traps. Many remember the land for what it was before, and wish to return to those chaotic, but ultimately peaceful times. These individuals have formed a resistance, with the goal to free Alice. This is easier said than done, as only two people in all of Wonderland know where she is... The Jabberwocky and the Cheshire Cat. But while a cat may look at a king, in the end it's just a cat, and the Jabberwocky is not letting his prisoner go so easy.
Stumble!