Gregory Maguire - A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, Book 3)

Augmented with notes about selected incidents of interest to students of modern history

THE OZMA YEARS

• The matrilineal House of Ozma established.
  The Ozma line descends from a Gillikinese clan. It originally claimed legitimacy through a purported divine relationship with Lurlina, fabled creatrix of Oz. Depending on the claim, history records between forty to fifty Ozmas and their regents.
• The last Ozma, Ozma Tippetarius, is born of Ozma the Bilious.
  Ozma the Bilious expires through an accident involving rat poisoning in the risotto. Her consort, Pastorius, becomes Ozma Regent during the minority of Ozma Tippetarius.
• Pastorius rules over central Oz.
  He renames the hamlet known as Nubbly Meadows, near the ancient burial ground of Open Tombs, as the Emerald City (EC). Declares the EC as the capital of united Oz.
• The Great Drought begins.
• By air balloon, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs arrives in the Emerald City.
  Diggs successfully mounts a palace coup dtat. Pastorius is murdered, and the infant Ozma Tippetarius disappears. She is presumed slain, perhaps in Southstairs Prison (built over the Open Tombs), though an evergreen rumor claims she lies enchanted in a cave, to return only in Ozs darkest hour. Diggs becomes known as the Wizard of Oz.

THE WIZARDIC YEARS

• The Emerald City renovation is completed.
• The Wizard of Oz orders expansion of the Yellow Brick Road.
  This serves as a highway for the armies of the EC and aids in the collection of local taxes from previously independent populations, especially in Quadling Country and on the eastern flanks of the Great Kells of the Vinkus.
• Animal Courtesy legislation enacted (known also as the Animal Adverse laws).
• Munchkinland secedes from Loyal Oz.
  Under the rule of Nessarose Thropp, Eminence of Munchkinland, the secession is conducted with a minimum of bloodshed. The breadbasket of Oz maintains an uneasy commercial relationship with Loyal Oz.
• Nessarose Thropp dies.
  The arrival in Oz of a visitor, a Dorothy Gale of Canzizz (sometimes transcribed as Canzuss or Kanziz), results in the death of the Eminence. Speculation suggests her sister, Elphaba Thropp, will return to Munchkinland to mount a more aggressive campaign against the EC than Nessarose ever did.
• Elphaba Thropp is vanquished.
  The so-called Wicked Witch of the West, onetime agitator, now recluse, is subdued by the powerful Dorothy Gale.
• The Wizard of Oz abdicates the throne.
  The Wizard had held power for almost forty years. The reasons for his departure remain a matter of speculation.

THE TWIN INTERREGNUMS

• Lady Glinda Chuffrey, ne Upland, is briefly installed as Throne Minister.
  The Animal Adverse laws are revoked, to little effect; Animals remain skeptical of their chances of being reintegrated into human society in Oz.
• The Scarecrow replaces Glinda as Throne Minister.
  The Scarecrow, a figure of uncertain provenance, is often assumed to have been installed as Throne Minister by palace apparatchiks sympathetic to Shell Thropp, an ambitious upstart engaged in mercenary espionage. The Scarecrow proves to be a weak figureheada straw man, figuratively as well as literallybut his tenure allows Shell Thropp to avoid having had to challenge the popular Lady Glinda for the leadership. The Scarecrows whereabouts following the end of his abbreviated realm are never revealed.
  Some historians hold that the Scarecrow serving as Throne Minister was not the same Scarecrow who befriended Dorothy, though this assertion is unverifiable.

THE EMPEROR APOSTLE

• Shell Thropp installs himself as Emperor of Oz.
  The youngest of the three Thropp siblings, Shell claims rights of ascendancy through an adroit manipulation of Palace power brokers.

from Wicked

I N CAME A BOY from Three Queens rolling a table like a tea tray. On it, crouched as if to make itself as small as possible, was a lion cub. Even from the balcony they could sense the terror of the beast. Its tail, a little whip the color of mashed peanuts, lashed back and forth, and its shoulders hunched. It had no mane to speak of yet, it was too tiny. But the tawny head twisted this way and that, as if counting the threats. It opened its mouth in a little terrified yawp, the infant form of an adult roar. All over the room hearts melted and people said, Awwwwww.

Hardly more than a kitten, said Doctor Nikidik. I had thought to call it Prrr, but it shivers more often than it purrs, so I call it Brrr instead.

The creature looked at Doctor Nikidik, and removed itself to the far edge of the trolley.

Now the question of the morning is this, said Doctor Nikidik. Picking up from the somewhat skewed interests of Doctor Dillamondwho can tell me if this is an Animal or an animal?

Elphaba didnt wait to be called on. She stood up in the balcony and launched her answer out in a clear, strong voice. Doctor Nikidik. It seems to me the answer is that its mother can. Where is its mother?Why is it taken from its mother at such an early age? How can it even feed?