Which Old Witch? The Wicked Witch!

(This one has been in the hopper since 2012. It was intended as a companion to another couple of blog posts from that time. I really don't know why I didn't publish it at that time. Maybe I was looking for some sort of concluding thought that never came. Even without that, I think this holds up just fine.)

I think this will be the last of the Witch blogs, at least for now. I do have some things related to the IRC chat that I want to expand upon.

Of all the Witch blogs I've done, I think this might be the one that Tim was really waiting for. I've talked about witches as player-characters and as story motivators, but now I'm going to talk about witches as antagonists and villains.

First let me reiterate: Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead! It's a cliche of Oz fiction by now, so I will not be talking about bringing back the Wicked Witch of the West in any way, shape or form. One thing I particularly liked about The Jaded City of Oz (the sample adventure in the AiO rulebook) is that the Winkie Country scene deals with the legacy of the Wicked Witch of the West without requiring her to be present.

There are other Witches to use in your adventures.

Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North. Even after she was removed from power in the Gillikin Country by the Good Witch of the North, she still kept the captive Princess Ozma in the body of the boy Tippetarius. Once Ozma was freed and set upon the throne of Oz, Glinda removed Mombi's ability to work magic. This doesn't remove her completely from villainy, however. She may not be able to cast spells, or create magical items, but she can still use magical things that already exist in Oz.

(Mombi does return in the Famous Forty. The Lost King of Oz is her search for Princess Ozma's father, who she had hidden away so the Wizard could rule Oz. Since Ozma orders her melted (I always thought of the Wicked Witch of the West as a special case when it came to water, but Ruth Plumly Thompson apparently thought differently) at the end of that story, you might want to set your Mombi stories in between those two appearances.)

Blinkie, the (presumed) Wicked Witch of the South. Although she is not acknowledged with the full title of Wicked Witch of the South in her appearance in Oz canon, she is referred to as a Wicked Witch. Oz history tells us that Glinda had to unseat a Wicked Witch of the South in order to rule the Quadling Country, so many Oz fans presume Blinkie to be this Witch.

Again, the story ends with Blinkie having her powers removed by Glinda. Though this time, she's also been greatly reduced in size. But she was the leader of a coven, so some of her sister witches might turn up in your stories. They might even be trying to restore Blinkie to her old size and power.

Mrs. Yoop. Technically, she's a Yookoohoo, but she could make for an interesting villainess. Trapped in the form of a Green Monkey since her last appearance in the stories, she may be down, but it's still too early to count her out. I detailed a couple of possible ways she could get back to her old form in the AiO rulebook, but even as a monkey, there are lots of ways for her to get into mischief.

Interestingly enough, Red Reera, the other Yookoohoo to grace the original novels, would probably make a very effective antagonist. She's not evil, but she is powerful and irritable, which is almost the same thing. There must be something about becoming a Yookoohoo that makes a person misanthropic. For the moment, it seems that all she wants is to be left alone. I almost feel bad for anyone who might be foolish enough try to conquer her little cottage. Almost.

Mombi the Yookoohoo?

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.

The Cardinal Witch Project

Now that I've gotten a certain amount of baggage off my chest, I think I'm ready to say something constructive about Witches.

In my last post, I mentioned the "Cardinal Witch Theory" and how I didn't care for it. The main reason I dislike it is that it is mostly used as an excuse to bring back the Wicked Witch of the West so that the writer can recreate that particular Oz story dynamic in their own work. Unfortunately, over the years it has become a cliche of groan-worthy proportions.

What can be done to rescue this tired, worn out plot device? Let's take it to its logical conclusion. And rather than using it to tell the same tired story, let's use it to open up new story options.

If the Cardinal Witch Theory were true, then the Mantles of the East and the West would both need new hosts after Dorothy's first adventure. Who are these replacements? There's no guarantee that the replacements would be Wicked. Both the North and South had Wicked Witches that wound up being replaced with Good Witches, so it's not a sure thing.

Here's an idea that would make for an interesting roleplaying scenario: Your party has discovered the next Witch of the West wandering around the Winkie Country. But she (or he!) is new to the power and hasn't decided if they are a Good Witch or a Wicked Witch. So the things your characters do and teach her will influence which side she eventually settles on. If a player wants to have a Sorcerer character and is interested in a roleplaying challenge, this could be a fun role for them.

And what about the North and South? We've met both the Good Witch and the (deposed) Wicked Witch of the North, so death or destruction is not necessary to pass on the Mantle of a Cardinal Witch. What circumstances are required to cause the power to move from one person to another? Can it be triggered deliberately? Or does the Mantle itself make the decision for reasons only it knows?

What if Glinda stopped being the Witch of the South? Would she still be able to use magic? Would she still be allowed to rule the Quadlngs? Why did she lose the Mantle? Who is her successor?

All of these questions can fuel several stories, whether you choose to write them down or play them out.

Ever since Tim Brannon was kind enough to post his review of Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, I've wanted to repay the favor by blogging about one of his favorite subjects: Witches. It's actually a subject that I haven't touched on very much and every time I stared at this screen trying to write that blog, I've been confronted with all the reasons that I haven't gone into depth of the witches of Oz.

1 ) Book vs. Movie. One of the most famous of the Oz witches is, of course, the Wicked Witch of the West. This is due to the very memorable performance of Margaret Hamilton in the classic MGM film. But the book version of the WWW is a different character with a smaller role in the story. I could go into depth, but that's one of the blogs I've been trying to avoid writing. Because if you've read the book, you know all of that already. If you haven't read the book, it tends to come off as movie trivia ("Look at all the things you don't really know about the Wicked Witch of the West!").

2) Cardinal Witch Theory. This is the idea that there must always be a Witch of the North, South, East and West. People tend to like this idea because it lets them put the Wicked Witch of the West back into play. But it's not supported by the rest of the series. Once the Wicked Witch of the West is defeated, the Tin Woodman takes over ruling her territory and does so for the rest of the series. There is also no successor to the Wicked Witch of the East. But of course, since all we see of her is a pair of feet under a house, we don't care about her as much.

3) There's more to Oz than the Yellow Brick Road. Look at the top of your screen. That's what this blog is called. Because one of the things that I wanted to do from the beginning was to reinforce and encourage the idea that Wizard is only one story of Oz. Not only are there several other Oz stories out there (that are a fantastic joy to read), but AiO is about creating Oz stories of your own. So my objective is to give you a broad range of ideas, rather than stick you with one story, one format, one style.