Hi! Me again.
I'm just curious on your headcanon ages for most of the Oz characters. Or just how old you think they'd all realistically be after the 14th book
I'm curious since canonically, (in the og books) physically aging is impossible in Oz and everyone in the land can live to over 100 and beyond that (paired with the ability to not die, everyone's essentially immortal)
– @rag-doggy
Ooo thank you for sending this, this is a fun one.
I have literally been working on it every morning before work since I got it.
I had...a great deal of fun with this. And ended up writing a lot more of my personal lore to Oz in it.
Long post incoming.
Aging in Oz is weird since this is one of Baum's contradictions. Going from literally talking about aging to no one ages at all.
I do usually go with the headcannon that, without the aging spell, everyone is immortal unless killed. So their aging process may seem slow to others.
In most of my AUs the frozen age spell has to get undone since it got to the point of affecting the growth of food. So it goes to what's said above of, everyone is immortal unless killed. So their aging process looks a little different.
Somewhere I put in here that time I tried to figure out how long the book series took place over with Ballina's eggs and came up to 27+ years just between two of the books, not even the ending book...maybe for another post.
But! Everyone's age. Or rather mental age, directly after the books.
Starting with the inhuman characters. They're a little different on already a different thing since they are created as adults and seem to reach mental maturity within some hours or 1-2 days.
Scarecrow - Mentally about mid to late 30s. He'll be stuck in that range for awhile. If he ever leaves it or how much farther he goes depends on details and his mentality later in life.
Scraps - Mid 20s. She is technically the youngest of the inhuman group, but again that's a little blurry for the doll creatures. She may mentally age a little more but then will be stuck there for awhile. It depends.
Jack - Mid 20s. While technically older then Scraps, this is where it's a little blurry with doll creatures.
The doll and inhuman characters, how they age after reaching adulthood is, a little odd. Somewhat, it is really up to them and if they decide themselves it. Life experience as well, of course. Even more so just, the maturity of their personality. But for ease it's best to say above.
Human/fae characters.
Since this question is specifically right after the books, I'll say the kids as still kids. But I should say again in most my AUs the frozen aging spell is usually broken so they usually age to adulthood.
But! Directly after.
Ozma - in about the 12-13 range. I usually put her here as a middle ground for Baum saying she was Dorothy's age, then saying she looked 15-16, then going back to saying she looked Dorothy's age again. Physically she's been around 100+ years. Most with Mombie.
Dorothy - First book she was about 8, by the time she gets to Oz, stops aging and the end of the books about 11-12.
So before I keep going, I should probably say in my head for the lore of Oz age groups is really broken up into 3 generations. Now, that's just what they're called, in reality one generation has multiple groups of generations in it. But it's how they separate it.
First generation - Born during the time of Lurline. Either fae born in her following or after when she created Oz and for the time she resided in it.
Second Generation - Spans the time between Lurline's leaving and when the Wizard rules. Now, this is the majority of Oz and actually holds multiple generations in it. It's just because for the longest time they had a "before and after" mentality.
Third Generation - Spans the time around the middle to end of the Wizard's rule and Ozma's rule. Really this was made due to how much they both changed Oz.
Additional mention. During the time the frozen age spell begins, no one is born. If anyone was unknowingly pregnant, that froze as well and then progressed after the spell was reversed.
Btw I swear I call it something better then "the frozen age spell" in my actual stories but. I'm in my ramble zone right now.
Last knowledge point. As I will go into explaining some parentage I wish to mention some of the humans that get mixed with the fae creatures here. How this happened is pretty much until the time of the wizard it wasn't unusual for the Ozites to practice some very fae like activities. Such as kidnapping humans for pets.
In the way they do. Tricks, wordplay, fairy circles, changeling infants being left (when a fae switches a human baby with a fae infant that looks exactly the same) many other ways as well.
So while Oz is primarily fae creatures of various types, as this has been happening since the time of Lurline, incredible few humans have also lived there. So of course these humans mixed with the fae. Normally this has no affect on the bloodline, except for special occasions.
The Wizard tried to outlaw this practice, he failed. Ozma was much firmer about it, but it was more Oz being more or less cut off that slowed it down a great deal.
That said, it's still part of them. And a part of debate as some people don't wish to let go of these particular practices. Pipt in particular, still bitter about Scraps being freed starts a little campaign about "the old ways"...but we're going off topic into other stories.
Margolotte does eventually leave him in my stories and essentially he blames Scraps and Ozma for it, there's a lot more to this. This also having to do with mentioned before Pipt attempting to recapture Scraps as well as attempting to kill her multiple times later.
Anyway.
Nick - After the books late 30s to early 40s. He was early 20s when he turned to tin.
Physically he is over 200+. But since his parents are mixed with human and fae blood. Normally, this doesn't have affect, and while his parents were not fully human, as Nick isn't either, they had much closer human heritage then most do. They were a rare case of being more human then fae.
That is why his parents eventually had a more natural death.
If Nick had never been turned to tin, he would have had a long lifespan but eventually could have had a natural death as well.
Ojo - 8-9. Physically 20+. He's considered quite young. He was born during the time of the Wizard, so he is right in the beginning of the 3rd generation.
Unc Nunkie - Mentally in his mid 70s. Physically 700. Second Generation.
Dr. Pipt - Mentally 50s. Physically also around 700, and part of the second generation. He was actually born about the same time as Unc Nunkie, but their mental age difference is due to the odd aging and how much their mental state affects it.
Margolotte - Mentally also mid 50s. Physically about 600, second generation. I have a joke somewhere of her saying, (talking about Dr. Pipt) "Well there's only about a hundred years difference between us, that's hardly anything."
Jesseva Pipt - (A Baum's movie/plays character that I've put in my general Oz stories) She was conceived right after the Patchwork Girl book. You know...right after Pipt finished having to constantly tend to the powder of life project every day and night and his wife was returned...don't think too hard on it.
Though I have some AUs where Pipt used a little magic to let her be born during the frozen age spell, most times Margolotte was one of those people who gave birth right after the spell was reversed. Mentally, Jesseva is about 18-19, and due to the odd state of things she actually matches that both mentally and physically. Aging is odd here.
Dashemoff - Mentally early 20s. She is 3rd generation, she was born in the middle-ish of the Wizard's rule. Physically about 70.
Jellia - Mentally a very stressed person in her late 20s. Though 3rd generation, having been born in the Wizard's rule. Even with her mental age she still has some issues in the palace being one of the younger workers there. Physically around the 80s-90s mark.
Oscar - He said he was a young man when he came to Oz and was older when he left. Oz clearly had an affect on him and allowed his lifespan to grow longer (this affects Dorothy and the other humans too even after the frozen age spell is reversed). He ends the series mentally in his late 60s. Physically he's now lived little over 180 years.
Glinda - Mentally mid 40s, or so she acts. Physically she's well over 7,000, most likely older but she doesn't tell her age. First generation. While she didn't rule then, she was around before Oz was created, during the time of Lurline.
Her blood is a mix of witch and fae, it is believed she may be a product of the followers of Lurline and the earth based fae of the land. No one knows this for sure. As well as, no one knows for sure if Glinda met Lurline or not, she will never give a direct answer.
The North Witch - Mentally in her 80s. Physically she is also in around Glinda's range, if a little younger, of about 5,000. First generation, in the time of Lurline. Though she says she never met her, if you ask.
This is the whole a "generation" actually spans multiple and a great amount of time.
The Wicked Witches of the East and West - Putting them together. Both of them are human but affected by Oz land magic.
West was a captured human as a child, accidentally found a fae trap. Weirdly, aside from these circumstances, the fae who raised her were fairly kind if traditional, she didn't have a particularly bad childhood. Sometimes people are just evil.
East is the human infant in a changeling scenario. Swapped at birth with a fae infant that looks exactly like her, then taken and raised in Oz by fae (Munckin, specifically) parents. She was not as lucky in her childhood, her closest friend who she'll end up having romantic feelings for and a small relationship that doesn't end well is Nimmie. Now, don't feel too bad for her. Her response is to enslave and torture, so.
All that to say. Second Generation, both have lives about 200+ years and are more or less around in the same age. West is mentally mid 60s, East is mentally mid 40s.
Nimmie Amee - Mentally early around late 30s. Physically over 200. Nick, East Witch and her are all in about the same range of when they were all born.
I'll just throw in here while I'm already over explaining Oz lore. She has a daughter. Nick doesn't know, and Chopfyt raises her as his.
Chopfyt - I really wasn't sure where to put him as he technically can be classified with the doll creatures in the sense of a man-made creature but he's also made out of human parts. So I'll just put him with Nimmie.
Mentally late 30s, you just can't always tell from how lazy he can act sometimes, his particular attitude sometimes makes him appear a bit older as well. He'll age a little bit more mentally before hitting a stopping point that will last awhile, much like the doll characters.
Physically around 50 years. He was created little before the books started.
Urtha - The easy answer before I go full fledged ramble is, mentally early 20s. Physically about 150. By her species though she is considered to be pretty much a new adult.
...Now, I should probably put in after we pass Baum's books and we get to Ruth's in particular I am not as canon compliant. Mostly because I do not like Ruth, her stories or her treatment of characters, but if I am using the famous 40 I do not want to leave it out completely. I do have story as to why and how I allow myself to be in canon but, Urtha is fully a creature and was never human.
Oh yeah, also, in my stories, she's the Nome King's daughter.
Ozana - Mentally about 19. Physically over 5,000. She is a direct descendent of Lurline so her aging is odd and based on many factors. Being stuck watching the mimics and creating little creatures out of wood to watch over didn't help her mental state.
She is usually aged to about mid 20s mentally in most my stories but that's about where she would start after the books.
Lurline - Why not. She is a fae Goddess. She was around when earth began.
She does occasionally take a more physical form and lives a lifespan. This is kinda how I explain the whole Burzee thing and questions there. This is also how I explain some questions on parentage. She is Ozma's mother.
Non-Ozite characters
Polychrome - Mentally about 8. Physically 400+.
The Rainbow (Polychrome's father) - He is pretty much another fae God, not as ancient as Lurline but he's been around before time was counted.
I like to think he is married to a nature type Goddess of storms/clouds.
Because, you know, storms and then rainbows, and then how they produced these kids made of delicate water and light...okay I'll stop now.
The Nome King - Mentally mid 40s. Physically 5,500+. He is considered middle aged but still on the younger side of it. The earth Nomes, the ones that never see the light, are particularly long lived.
Ev Family - The Ev family, as well as all of Ev is also fae. But they are in a sense a different type then most of Oz. But that takes a longer explanation.
The Queen of Ev - Mentally 50s. Physically little over 3,500. Her husband had 2,000 years on her, as well as was a decade older mentally.
All the children of Ev range from being mentally a boy of 5 to teenagers, Evardo XV being 15 when he was freed, and about 18 by the end of the series. They were all born in an about 100 year range.
Langwidere - Mentally mid 30s. Physically, technically over 400. The thing though about her, is Langwidere in my stories is half Dullahan. (Mother was a human/fae mix, father was a Dullahan).
So in all technicality, she's undead.
By the way, her mother died giving birth to her. Langwidere has her mother's head in her collection.
While there are obviously many more Oz characters and plenty more made lore I can ramble about (I really need to finish that post about lore and character headcannons to my AU I keep promising to make) I have gone on long enough, so will stop it here.
If you read all of that, thank you so much! I love asks and this one really let me ramble on some of my lore for Oz. I do hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you so so much for sending the ask!
Have a lovely day!