| Maleficent, a powerful fairy, lives in the Moors, a magical forest realm bordering a corrupt human kingdom. As a young girl, she meets and falls in love with a human peasant boy named Stefan, whose affection for Maleficent is overshadowed by his ambition to better his station. As they grow older, the two grow apart, and she becomes protector of the Moors. When King Henry tries to conquer the Moors, a grown Maleficent forces him to retreat. Fatally wounded in battle, he declares that whoever kills Maleficent will be named his successor and marry his daughter Leila. In response, the grown Stefan visits Maleficent in the Moors, where he drugs her but cannot bring himself to kill her. Instead, Stefan uses iron, which burns fairies, to cut off Maleficent's wings. He then presents them to the king as evidence of her death. Maleficent awakens to find herself wingless. Anguished by Stefan's betrayal, she declares herself Queen of the Moors, forming a dark kingdom with Diaval, a raven to whom she gives human form. He acts as her wings, spy, and confidant.
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