The Queen of Nothing is the third and final book of Holly Black’s Folk of the Air trilogy, following The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King. How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories is a companion volume to the series. The series is inspired by Celtic and British folklore and legends around faeries. Told as ballads, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories, this lore has traditionally focused on the fey, that is, magical creatures who live in the shadows, hills, and bogs of the human world. Faeries are different from benevolent fairies in that they are often associated with tricking and tormenting humans.

Black takes inspiration from these legends to create the fictional world of Faerie in her series. Her Faerie world broadly consists of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. These courts are mentioned in Scottish, Welsh, and German folklore. Seelie courts are comprised of the relatively benign fairies, while Unseelie courts consist of wilder and more malevolent folk. In Black’s trilogy, Elfhame is the chief among the Seelie courts, while kingdoms like the Undersea and the Court of the Teeth are among the Unseelie. At the start of the series, Elfhame is ruled by High King Eldred, direct descendant of Queen Mab Greenbriar.