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The Magic of Oz


On the Nature of Oz

As this is a post on Liir's magic (and by extension, the magic of Oz), I'd like to take a moment to address the nature of the place itself. I happen to think, and I think both canons (Wicked/Son of a Witch and Tin Man) support, that Oz is a land apart from whatever world it exists in.

The world begins by tiniest of strokes,
Significance a later, sadder goal.
The dazzle of a burning sky at night,
When salty stars will polka and gavotte,

Is not an origin, but a result.
The orange rolls; a hand must push it first.
Will is the smallest indivisible muscle.
Will is a spider willing itself to skitch

Sexless, childless, thoughtless, on the spine
Of time: the dragon in its cave. The itch
Provokes a stretch, the stretch provokes a scratch
Of golden dragon claws against the cave,

Against the nameless rock, provokes the burst
Of whitened sulfur spark! The fuse is lit!
The dragon's furnace starts to roar and ride
And time, being dreamt within, begins outside.

This section, taken from the Oziad (a collection of the often contradictory and utterly bizarre creation myths of the land of Oz) includes many portions which I feel are of significance. I'll only be covering one of them.

Starting in the first stanza and the beginning of the second (enjambment itself an interesting choice in the beginning of a creation myth, as if to indicate something made incomplete or, if read another way, overdone), we are told that Oz began from something small, accidental: "not an origin, but a result." It was the act of pre-existing creatures within a pre-existing world; much like Dorothy's own home United States, Oz is a world apart created "new" from what was already there. Most importantly (for our current purposes), the magic does not come only from the Time Dragon (or later, Lurline or Kumbricia) but from the reaction.

It is the combination of the original world and something indescribably Ozian which allows the magic of Oz to come into being. From Lurline to Kumbricia, the ones who shape Oz, the ones of the greatest power and influence are outsiders. And yet we hear nothing of them outside of Oz. Huge, world-changing magic is laid at the feet of these outsiders and yet whatever outside world they go to or come from seems untouched by the same magic as Oz. They leave or disappear but it is neither asked, nor answered, nor even concerned with where they go or what they do.

On the Nature of Ozian Magic

It is my belief that, looking at both the examples within Wicked and Tin Man, that the greatest magical potential exists within the combination of Oz and the other world. As if an echo of the original spark, those beings and people who function straddling both worlds are the ones who seem the most powerful.

Case 1: Elphaba
She was the daughter of a Munchkinlander woman and the Wizard, who was from another world. While there are hints that this world was Earth, we honestly have no idea of where the Wizard originally came from. It is a place with magic as the Grimmerie is from this world and the Wizard chose to come to Oz to retrieve it. He committed some magic to accomplish this, placing magic within the other world. That said, we have no evidence of the Wizard being able to wield magic within Oz; the only magic done that we know of (other than Elphaba's) is Madame Morrible's manipulations and these are not defined in any way or even explained.

Case 2: Dorothy (re: Tin Man)
Dorothy, according to Tin Man started the royal line as it exists. The women of the royal line (as proved by DG and Azkadellia and the Queen) possess magical ability. Dorothy, however, is never proven to have this ability. So how would this ability enter the line? Her offspring would possess it, being children of two worlds. And no doubt, as there were other Slippers (visitors), this refreshed the bloodline and the magical connection. It would also explain those things that were visible/findable to those of the royal line but not to others; in Wicked, Elphaba is the only one who can read the Grimmerie due to her mixed heritage.

Case 3: Azkadellia and the Queen
One thing that confused me while watching was that the Queen was aware of Azkadellia's possession but seemed unable to act to correct it. Why would a superior sorceress be unable to take action against her daughter? Because Azkadellia and DG are the daughters of Ahamo and as such, the connection to the other world is fresher, stronger. While (as I will cover in a moment) I don't think that this is the SOLE determination of strength of magic, I think it's an important one.

But what about Glinda's magic? What about all the magic in Oz? What about--

Getting there.

Two Types of Magic

Borrowing just a little from one Raymond Feist, it's my thought that there are two kinds of magic within Oz: low level, what Liir would call sorceries or charms (what's taught at Shiz) and high level, what Liir calls magic (what the Witch/Queen/Azkadellia do).

Low Level magic draws upon the ambient magic of Oz, the magic that's steeped into various creatures and materials and the land at large and, to some degree, the people themselves. Certain phrases with certain rhythms when directed with a certain amount of will produce results; know the charm, you can do the charm. There's no one who 'can't' do this kind of magic, only people who don't know it and/or refuse to do it for religious reasons and/or aren't all that good and mistake unremarkable results with none at all. This magic can be used for a variety of reasons and uses, even to activate something made/made of high level magic (such as Father Vue leaving the mark on DG's hand). When Liir speaks of charms or sorceries, like the kind Glinda did not to burn her hands on toast, or the binding charms that were used to keep Liir's wounds closed (in canon), that's low level. The talents of the Quadlings fall into this category as well.

High Level magic is another beast all together. It's the magic of Witches, Kumbricia and Lurline and the Time Dragon. It's the echo of the original lit fuse, the original spark. This is serious business magic, bending or breaking the rules of established reality. The magic is drawn from the caster but in a deeper sense, from the synergy of two different worlds within the caster. It is this magic which can defy gravity, make winged monkeys, manipulate memories, etc. Stealing a little from Eddings and also from modern magical theory, this magic is accomplished not through pre-established charms and the like but through an act of concentrated Will with distinct Intent, for all intents Believing the universe to be different according to your needs and doing so so strongly as to make it so. It's not quite as direct as Edding's version of sorcery, however. That said, there is no specific manner of working required for High Level: people tend to find their own ways to it. Further, to some extent, the psychological profile of the user shapes the expression of the magic.

Raw talent is required for this, a thorough understanding of existing reality (you can't bend something you don't understand and the better you understand it, the better you can break/bend it) as well as a mind suited to the work, quite a lot of work training such a mind and, well, as Tutor always says... concentration.

Oz and Ends

These are just some little observations that don't fit in anywhere else.

• Making something is easier than changing something: energy and matter can go back and forth without much trouble, especially in the magical sense. The difficulty is in knowing an item so well that you can make it from the energy at hand. Changing something, on the other hand, is infinitely harder because you're battling reality as it is to change something from one thing to another; something that the Universe has made as it is, you're trying to disagree with. Also, you need to know two things well enough to make them as you need to guide the transformation from one to another. SO much harder.
  
• Affecting change itself is simple enough; getting that change to be what you want it to be without the universe warping in the midst of the work? THAT is the hard part. As Elphaba's carrier pidgeon dove and impaled itself on the iron, doing magic is easy enough. Liir's remembering shows that as well. Making it do what you want it to do, on the other hand, is the hard part. That's where most of the focus and the concentration goes and even then, once you 'wobble' the fabric of reality, sometimes the crimps meddle with the pattern in such a way you can't quite fix it. Doing something is simple enough; doing something specific, however, is where it gets hard.
  
• Unlike some magic users who might flare when upset or have objects go flying or any manner of things, when an Ozian magician has heated emotions the result is more along the lines of a wobble in reality than anything specific. A slightly enhanced probability field. The closest way to put it is a somewhat more active Murphy's law that can go both ways: good and bad. Sometimes, the results are a combination of both. It can be directed but in Liir's case, it probably won't. (see: Elphaba and the icicle; Elphaba and the bees; Liir and the dragons)
  
• Ozian magic will work in the most subtle way possible to achieve it's ends.
  
• Ozian magic is an act of prodding reality. Proficiency in it requires knowledge of different ways one can 'wobble' reality, so to speak, towards your ends as well as a knowledge of that same reality. This is one of the reasons why children of two different worlds and/or those who cross from one world to another can have so much impact: they are, in themselves, a wobble to reality. They are something that blurs lines.
  
• (more to come when it occurs to me)

So what's the bottom line here?

*looks up at the massive post*

...magic is pretty. Liir do it. I really do like pie.