Lost in Oz

A guide through L. Frank Baum's Oz

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An army of women once conquered the Emerald City and overthrew the King Scarecrow with nothing but knitting needles. They ripped up all of the gems ornamenting the city to keep for themselves and made the men do the domestic work.

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The Dainty China Country. Deep in the great forest of the Quadling Country sits the China Country. There everything is made of china, even the ground, and it is surrounded by a tall sleek wall of china. Inside the population is made up of small living china figurines, people and animals. They take great care not to be broken and have a mender on hand to glue them together. If they leave their land they become inanimate.

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Four horned cows can be found in Oz.

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Kalidahs! In Oz you can find many strange creatures found nowhere else. Kalidahs are fierce beasts with bodies of bears and heads like tigers. They dwell deep in forests of Oz.

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Giants in Oz. Not as big as you’d expect, but giant none the less, these creatures can be found in Oz. Yoop and his wife lived in a valley in the Gillikin country, but Mr. Yoop terrorized the people of Oz and was imprisoned in a cave in the Quadling Country. In the Winkie Country is a town called Herku where the people keep 20 ft. tall giants as slaves. The citizens take a substance called zosozo which gives them the strength to subdue the giants.

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Oz has many curious creatures and people that live hidden in its wild landscape. The hammerheads are men with no arms, and necks that stretch out and heads like hammers. They live in a mountain range in the Quadling Country and will head-butt anyone who comes up their mountain.

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The Hip-po-gy-raf is almost like a half-hippo half-giraffe once found in a remote part of the Munchkin Country. He loves to eat straw and tried eating the Scarecrow!

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Woozies are square shaped beasts who can shoot flames from their eyes when angry. There is only one publicly known in Oz who loves to eat bumblebees much to the annoyance of Munchkin farmers.

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A rare known fact is in Oz food and items can grow on trees and bushes. Like the lunch pale trees in Ev, books, ice cream, caramels, even guns can grow on trees in Oz.

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Flatheads and Glinda giving them complete heads!

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Mountaineers aka Flatheads: Mountaineers used to be known as Flatheads, for it was as if their heads had been cut off above the eyes and ears and we’re flat and bald on top. They lived in a valley/basin on top of a plateau of sorts. They originally had no brains but when Lurline enchanted Oz, she felt sorry for them and gave them each brains in a can. They are great miners, masons, and metalworkers. Their buildings are all stone and their clothes are made from cloth fashioned from precious metal disks and they all are violet eyed. Everyone is known as a dictator of something and once had a corrupt Supreme Dictator. An invisible wall stood in front of the door in the mountain that led to a troublsome staircase that took you to the top. They were ruled by the Three Adepts before the three became fish and resumed their rule once they were turned back. Glinda eventually poured the brains onto each Flathead’s head and caused a full head to grow over the brains. With heads like yours and mine they were renamed the Mountaineers.

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The Yookoohoos! A yookoohoo is a different type of magic user who heavily involves transformations. Reera the Red lives isolated in the Gillikin Country and loathes visitors. The last thing she wants is for people coming to bother her to do magic for them. She lives with a host of animals who she transforms into other animals to suit her moods. To preform this magic she uses a powder she keeps in a drawer and touches it to herself or others to transform. She often lives in animal form herself so she doesn’t have to wear clothes. Her natural shape is a red head but she doesn’t like it. The only other known Yookoohoo is the giantess Mrs. Yoop. She spent her days transforming people or creatures into things that amused her or into food. She claims once she transforms something it can’t be turned back, but Ozma proved her wrong. Mrs. Yoop’s magic relied heavily on items she wears: a magic apron, hair pins, jewelry, etc. She was turned into a monkey eventually and lost all magic ability.

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The Wizard of Oz. Once he was just a balloonist and a ventriloquist from America named Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. His nickname was Oz. In a time when Oz was ruled by four wicked witches, he came down from the sky. Everyone thought he was a Wizard and seeing his name was Oz, the traditional name of Oz's kings, he went along with this trick and was proclaimed ruler. He then had the people build the Emerald City in the center of Oz. Once exposed by Toto, he returned to his home country to work in the Circus again and became a stage magician. Upon his return to Oz he trained under Glinda and became a real Wizard and lives in the palace with Ozma and Dorothy. He carries a black bag of supplies and without it he can do no magic.

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Queen Coo-ee-oh! Queen of the Skeezers, she learned magic from the Three Adepts. She altered what she knew and created her own style of magic even Glinda did not understand. She fancied herself as the only Kumbric Witch in the world. Now I’m not sure what that means, but my guess would it refers to her style/way of magic she developed, or a type of witch that uses magic to power and control technology and mechanics. With her magic she controlled and propelled boats, submarines, doors, bridges, and could raise and sink her island kingdom. She was a cruel ruler and transformed the adepts into fish, but was cursed that if the fish were to be destroyed she would lose her powers. Eventually she was turned into a diamond swan and lost all knowledge of magic.

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Some lesser known magic users in Oz are the Three Adepts. Not witches nor sorceresses....they are simply adapts in the art of magic. They live in the Gillikin Country and ruled over the Flatheads. They befriended Queen Coo-ee-oh of the Skeezers. They taught her magic and she transformed the three into fish. Another magic user eventually returned them to their proper shape. After meeting Ozma they agreed to stop practicing magic and resumed their rule over the Flatheads.

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Dr. Nikidik vs. Dr. Pipt the Crooked Magician. There are two different accounts given as to who Mombi got her powder of life from. In the first it is said she went to see a wizard whom lived in the mountains. Dr. Nikidik. In a false bottom of the powders box were his wishing pills. Much later the Munchkin Ojo visits Dr. Pipt who lives in the mountains with his wife. Pipt claims to be the one to give Mombi the powder and was currently in the process of making a new batch. He was called the Crooked Magician because his limbs were so limber and twisted out of shape. He used his legs and feet just like arms and hands. The Wizard of Oz straightened him out and Ozma had all his magical tools taken away.

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Magic in Oz! Performing magic in Oz is a learned art and skill. It is knowing the secrets of nature. Certain plants, words, hand gestures, symbols, and items have magical properties that the magic user utilizes with tools and formulas to make magic. Without these, magic in Oz cannot even be performed. Oz was filled with witches, magicians, and sorcerous people once. Ozma made a law that only Glinda and the Wizard may practice magic ( but what of the Good Witch of the North?) so now people have either quit, practice it in secret, or do not know of Oz’s law.