Pastoria
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Pastoria is a fictional character mentioned in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and his successors. According to The Marvelous Land of Oz, Pastoria was the king of the Land of Oz before being removed by an evil witch named Mombi and superseded by the Wizard of Oz. Eventually Pastoria's daughter Ozma came to the throne of the Emerald City.
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[edit] The Classic Books
Baum actually created the character of Pastoria for a 1903 stage musical freely adapted from his book. At the start of that play, King Pastoria II has been banished from Oz and is working as a street car conductor in America, with a waitress girlfriend named Trixie Tryfle. By the second act, Pastoria is restored to his Emerald City throne. Nothing of the stage character but his name made it into Baum's books.
He is mentioned as "dead and gone" (at least in dialogue; there is no narrational confirmation) in The Marvelous Land of Oz, in which it is also unclear if he ever actually ruled Oz like his father before him. Ozma later says that all rulers were named "Oz" if male and "Ozma" if female, so the personal name suggests he may not have ruled. It is stated that Pastoria's father ruled Oz and that Pastoria is the father of Ozma.
Baum's successors added more detail to the character of Pastoria. In The Magical Mimics in Oz (1946), Jack Snow wrote that Pastoria had adopted Ozma as a baby fairy; this explains why the series contains no mention of her mother. In The Lost King of Oz (1925), Ruth Plumly Thompson built her plot around a quest for Pastoria in his enchanted form as Tora the Tired Tailor; at the end of the book he returns to the Emerald City, but is happy to let Ozma keep ruling, and opens a tailor shop under his own name. Thereafter he plays little role in the series.
[edit] Modern Works
In Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novels Wicked and Son of a Witch, "Pastorius" was the widower of Ozma the Bilious, who died from an apparently accidental poisoning, and father to Ozma Tippetarius, who was approximately the same age as Elphaba. As Ozma Tippetarius was too young to take the throne when her mother died, Pastorius ruled as Ozma Regent until the monarchy was overthrown by the Wizard. Pastorius died during his subsequent imprisonment.
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| Preceded by his father, name unknown |
Monarch of Oz | Succeeded by The Wizard of Oz |
This article relating to the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" or one of their derivative works is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
