#yookoohoo

[quotes-from-oz]

I love how Baum was just like oh, she's not a witch, she's a yookoohoo. with no explanation. and then several chapters in was like yeah yookoohoos can read minds btw. sure why not. he is 'yes, and,'-ing this whole book

[lostinoz3]

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.

[adventuresinozrpg]

Mombi the Yookoohoo?

(copypasted from my blog for those of you who don't like following links)

Back when I was designing AiO, I went through the stories in significant depth to make sure that everything that happened in the books was possible in the game. But there were still some things that didn't quite fit. "Edge cases" we call them. And one of them was Mombi. For those who haven't read the novels, Mombi is the former Wicked Witch of the North. Before she was replaced by a Good Witch (who was not Glinda), she hid away Princess Ozma so that the Wizard could assume the throne of Oz. We first meet her in The Marvelous Land of Oz where she has been reduced to a mean old woman who dabbles in magic. But the kind of magic that she does is kind of surprising. Most, if not all, of her magic is shapechanging, or as it is called in AiO, Transformation. But that's a power that Sorcerers (the most common type of spellcaster, based mostly on Glinda and the Wizard) don't get. For a while, I thought that she might have it as a unique power of some kind, sort of the like literary Wicked Witch of the West and her telescopic eye. It only came into focus within the last week. Maybe it was talking with Pete about the magic system and explaining exactly what a Yookoohoo is. Maybe something on the Adventures in Oz Tumblr. We may never know. I realized that even though Mombi didn't fit well into the mold of a Sorcerer, she fit being a Yookoohoo nearly perfectly. The only magic that she uses that isn't a Transformation of some kind is using the Powder of Life, which is a magic item, anyway.  Does this make her any less of a Witch? I don't think so. Remember that Glinda was described as a Witch in Wizard, but afterwards, she is generally known as a Sorceress. My personal theory is that Glinda was given the title of Good Witch because she was a magic user who was opposed to the Wicked Witches who ran the east and west. With the defeat of the Wicked Witches, Ozian politics was more able to accept nuance and Glinda asserted herself as a Sorceress, a practitioner of Sorcery rather than Witchcraft. Therefore, I find it perfectly reasonable that Mombi took the title of Wicked Witch (or had it given to her) because it suited her role regardless of her precise powers.