History Main / UnknownCharacter

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', somebody has made level 5.5 of Impel Down using his Devil Fruit ability. Later chapters and an [[AllThereInTheManual SBS]] reveal him to be Morley, an okama giant and [[spoiler:West Army Commander of the Revolutionaries]], whose ''Oshi Oshi no Mi'' powers allow him to [[DishingOutDirt mold earth]].

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'' pays plenty of attention towards Hao Asakura's original mother, but his father is never mentioned.

* In Disney comics Huey, Dewie and Louie's father was only mentioned in the very first stirp they appear in. Even Don Rosa fameus family tree has his face and name covered by the tree branch. Even the newer animated adaptation of Duck Tales that feature the boys mother Della, 100% ignored the father and never spoke of him. He is by far series biggest enigma and one no one wishes to touch on.

* Like the above, ''{{WesternAnimation/Shrek}}'' mentions a witch who put a curse on Fiona, causing her to [[spoiler:turn into an ogre at night]]. This sets up the entire plot of the first movie and affects her and Shrek's entire relationship, but we have absolutely no idea why she did it (unless one goes with [[WildMassGuessing the theory]] that she was [[TheChessmaster the Fairy Godmother]] trying to arrange a marriage with [[PrinceCharmless Charming]]).

* ''VideoGame/{{Nier}}'': Father Nier's wife and Brother Nier & Yonah's mother. All we know of her is that she seemingly used to hold some knowledge about the [[spoiler:Gestalt Project and the apocalyptic events that led to it]] and is dead of Black Scrawl in the present day.

Compare TheGhost, who functions as any other character would (and might even be part of the main cast) but is simply never shown on screen (they can overlap; the main difference is that characters who fall under this trope don't have any characteristics, while the ghost can still be a fully fleshed out character), PosthumousCharacter for already dead characters who are still important to the plot, and the FeaturelessProtagonist, who can become this trope in sequels. A BadassBystander will often become this if they don't appear subsequently and aren't given any characterisation beforehand. If they become a recurring character in later works or adaptations, they will often evolve into HeWhoMustNotBeSeen or TheGhost as a nod to their earlier characterisation (or lack thereof). Contrast LowerDeckEpisode and DayInTheLimelight for when less developed characters are fleshed out by the plot. Often overlaps with a CrypticBackgroundReference or DiabolusExNihilo (for malicious examples).

* In ''Literature/TheBible'', Cain had a wife, but her very existence is a notorious theological mystery, since Adam, Eve and the murdered Abel are the only other humans mentioned from creation until that point. Later verses do mention his parents having other kids aside from Seth offering a non-linear answer. Sometimes Cain's wife and the [[IncrediblyLamePun closely related]] issue of [[BrotherSisterIncest everyone having the same parents]] are offered as reasons to not read Genesis literally. WildMassGuessing can include God whipping her up offscreen for Cain and more. Discussions on who is right are best left to other venues. She doesn't even get a name, even though both wives of Cain's great-great-great-grandson Lamech are named.

* In ''Literature/TheBible'', Cain had a wife, but her very existence is a notorious theological mystery, since Adam, Eve and the murdered Abel are the only other humans mentioned from creation until that point. Later verses do mention his parents having other kids aside from Seth offering a non-linear answer. Sometimes Cain's wife and the [[IncrediblyLamePun closely related]] issue of [[BrotherSisterIncest everyone having the same parents]] are offered as reasons to not read Genesis literally. WildMassGuessing can include God whipping her up offscreen for Cain and more. Who's right is [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement best left to other venues]]. She doesn't even get a name, even though both wives of Cain's great-great-great-grandson Lamech are named.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': Manfred von Karma's family. He mentions having a 7-year-old graddaughter in case 1-4 and states that he has a wife (and that he considers her cooking to be on par with professional chefs) in ''Investigations II'', but the only other von Karma we meet is his daughter Franziska, who isn't the mother of his granddaughter.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has Ash's father. Mentioned a few times in universe, even as recently as Movies 20 and 23, he's never been seen, named, or described in any canon source. A few non-canon sources have said a thing or two about him, but they conflict pretty badly. The original head writer [[LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation suggested he was a loser failure who skipped out of town]] while later head writers would suggest he's a trainer of some skill. While there have been interest by writers to make him more known, over twenty years later and occasional references are all we have of him.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Played with in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]]. The Doctor goes on a shuttle, and socializes with everyone in the cabin except the hostess. It's bitterly lampshaded at the end when he realizes no one knew her name [[spoiler:after she [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself to protect everyone]] from the MonsterOfTheWeek]].
** A later episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen "Listen"]], gives this to the MonsterOfTheWeek, an entity that the Doctor theorizes is the perfect hider, so much so that nothing at all is known about it. By the end of the episode [[spoiler:it is unclear if the creature even exists or, if it exists, if it had appeared in the episode]].

* The BigBad of ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' is one "Keyser Soze", who very few people have ever met firsthand and lived to tell about it -- the only one the police have tracked down is a mutilated Hungarian sailor babbling nonsense. We see him with his FaceFramedInShadow, but even that is only within the {{flashback}}s of a [[UnreliableNarrator questionably-reliable narrator]]. We hear his OriginStory, but it's the kind of unlikely, mythologised tale you'd expect of a FolkHero. The only contact he has with any character is via TheDragon, Kobayashi. The final [[TheReveal Reveal]]? [[spoiler:The narrator ''is'' Keyser Soze, so far as such a man exists.]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', somebody has made level 5.5 of Impel Down using his Devil Fruit ability. Later chapters and an [[AllThereInTheManual SBS]] reveal him to be Morley, an okama giant and [[spoiler: West Army Commander of the Revolutionaries]], whose ''Oshi Oshi no Mi'' powers allow him to [[DishingOutDirt mold earth]].

** In the episode "Embraced by a Disguised Net – CAPTIVATED", a member of an OrganTheft gang accidentally kidnaps the daughter of a politician who was denying their existence. The rest of the gang are never shown, but it turns out the entire episode's plot was orchestrated by [[spoiler: a rival who had given her a list of kidnapping targets which included the girl so she'd be branded a traitor.]]

** There's a more recent example that's been subjected to several memes: the identity of [[spoiler: the Sage of the Six Path's father.]] The final arc contains a lengthy backstory about [[spoiler: the Sage, real name Hagoromo, who was the son of Kaguya, an extraterrestrial princess and the first person to awaken chakra, which she used to bring world peace. However, the story then cuts to her giving birth to her twin sons, Hagoromo and his brother, Hamura, exactly with whom is never addressed. This predictably gave birth (no pun intended) to such EpilepticTrees as the beau being also an alien like her, a mere human, or even ''Jashin'', the evil god that Hidan worships. While there are still others who get this treatment, Kaguya's beau is the most significant because he's supposed to be the equivalent of the companion of the person who gave independence to a world and the father of the person who would revolutionalize the same world forever, and yet the readers know ''nothing'' about him. At least before he was introduced in anime filler.]]

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has [[spoiler:many of the Witches- but not the characters themselves, but the girls they once were, as the mystery of who they were has never been answered. What were their names? What did they wish for? What weapons did they use? How did they witch out? Only the staff know, and they’ve kept it a huge secret.]]

* The BigBad of ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' is one "Keyser Soze", who very few people have ever met firsthand and lived to tell about it -- the only one the police have tracked down is a mutilated Hungarian sailor babbling nonsense. We see him with his FaceFramedInShadow, but even that is only within the {{flashback}}s of a [[UnreliableNarrator questionably-reliable narrator]]. We hear his OriginStory, but it's the kind of unlikely, mythologised tale you'd expect of a FolkHero. The only contact he has with any character is via TheDragon, Kobayashi. The final [[TheReveal Reveal]]? [[spoiler: The narrator ''is'' Keyser Soze, so far as such a man exists.]]

** She isn't named in the Bible, but she is named elsewhere. According to the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, [[http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/jub16.htm she was Cain's sister ’Âwân]]. According to both the Jewish Midrash and the [[http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/abel-cain.html Muslim tradition]], Cain and Abel both had twin sisters, and each of them was supposed to marry the other's twin. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel#Motives Aclima, Cain's twin sister and Abel's promised wife, was lovelier than Abel's twin sister and Cain's promised wife, Jumella]], and Cain didn't want to agree to this arrangement. The sacrifices mentioned in the Bible are, in this version of the story, supposed to determine which one of them God deems more worthy of Aclima. After Cain murders Abel, Aclima leaves with him and becomes his wife; Jumella ends up wedding Seth...who isn't even born until after Abel dies.

* {{Literature/Skulduggery Pleasant}} features The Man With the Golden Eyes. He spends seven and a half books as an unknown, even with POV chapters, manipulating events behind the scenes and removing the memory of anybody who knows about him. In the eighth book, [[spoiler: he is revealed to be major character Erskine Ravel]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'' has a couple, the most obvious one being [[spoiler:the unknown man who seduced and betrayed Zia, which lead to both her surviving the catastrophe...and to her father setting it off.]] Another example would also be whoever ended up with The Kid's [[spoiler: money, which he'd been sending back to his mother (who was already dead). Forcing him to take another tour of duty as a Mason (although with the loss of his mother he might have done so anyway) and surviving the catastrophe.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler: The ancestors of the Belforan Trolls, also the pre-scratch selves of the Alternian Trolls we're more famliar with, are this due to their existence being entirely a technicality and the only one who is directly brought up is Meenah's (Feferi's AlternateSelf).]]

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': The members of the main and secondary casts are all descendants of characters that were shown in the DistantPrologue, that takes place ninety years earlier. As such, having the main characters exist at all required one or two generations of people simply being born, finding a mate, and having children of their own. With the cast consisting of six different families taken together, this creates plenty of these. [[http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=629 A family tree published after Chapter 12 fills most of the gaps]].

** Reynir's parents are very likely to have used the same genetical material donor or pair of donors for all four of their older children, [[http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=292 considering how similar they look to each other]]. Whoever that person or pair of people is, Reynir owes them the existence of his siblings.

** There's Rainer. From what we do know, he created the titular ''Petscop'' game and he has some connection to Marvin but that's about it. [[spoiler: His real name is actually Daniel Hammond]]]
** Jill is someone Paul knows and she has a connection to the Wife in-game but we know nothing about her. Later in the series, [[spoiler: we found out that she is his and Care/Carrie''s (if she exists outside of the Petscop game) aunt and that the Proprietors are his other relatives that she's leading in some scheme]].

* Everybody knows that Barbara Gordon is the daugther of Comissioner Gordon, but remarkbly little is known about her mother. She only makes sporadic appearances and recieves little characterization, and even then her presence doesn't affect the story in any significant way. Perhaps because of this, some adaptions opt to have her dead from the start or just never mention her altogether.

** The [[FanNickname Rat Man]] who has scrawled graffiti all over the place (although he might be closer to TheGhost, given that he's essentially interacting with the story still). A comic given out with the game's sequel fleshes out this character.

* In Disney comics Huey, Dewie and Louie's father was only mentioned in the very first stirp they appear in. Even Don Rosa fameus family tree has his face and name covered by the tree branch. Even newer animated adaptation of DuckTales that feature the boys mother Della, 100% ignored the father and never speak of him. He is by far series biggest enigma and one no one one to touch on.

* In Disney comics Huey, Dewie and Louie's father was only mentioned in the very first stirp they appear in. Even Don Rosa fameus family tree has his face and name covered by the tree branch. Even newer animated adaptation of DuckTales that feature the boys mother Della, 100% ignored the father and never speak of him.

** There's Rainer. From what we do know, he created the titular ''Petscop'' game and he has some connection to Marvin but that's about it.
** Jill is someone Paul knows and she has a connection to the Wife in-game but we know nothing about her.

* The [[FanNickname Rat Man]] in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' who has scrawled graffiti all over the place (although he might be closer to TheGhost, given that he's essentially interacting with the story still). A comic given out with the game's sequel fleshes out this character.