The Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkins with terror. The Wicked Witch of the West ruled the Winkies with fire and wolves. Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, ruled the Quadlings but was largely isolationist. And Locasta? Locasta held the North—a buffer zone against the most dangerous threats from the western mountains.
“I knew Mombi long ago. She was the nurse of the royal family of the North, before the Nome King’s magic overthrew the old dynasty. She was never trustworthy. You did well to flee.” locasta tattypoo
The name “Tattypoo” is one of Baum’s most delightful inventions—part nonsense, part implied history. In later Oz books (particularly Ruth Plumly Thompson’s and Baum’s own The Tin Woodman of Oz ), we learn that Locasta is not a sorceress by accident. The Tattypoo family has served the North for generations, often intermarrying with the ruling fairy dynasties of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkins with terror
: In Thompson's later books, it is revealed that Tattypoo was actually the amnesiac Queen Orin of the Ozure Isles. Why Is She Rarely Seen? And Locasta
That is the quiet heroism of Locasta. She empowers others. She sets boundaries. She admits her limits. And then she waits, trusting that her small act of protection—a charm, a kiss, a piece of advice—will be enough to change the course of a kingdom.
And that is precisely why later Oz authors marginalized her. The post-Baum Oz canon (especially the Thompson and Neill books) favored glamour and spectacle. A elderly, pragmatic sorceress who does paperwork? Give us Glinda, with her chariot of rubies and army of maidens. Locasta faded into footnotes, appearing only in adaptations that respect Baum’s original text, like the 1985 film Return to Oz (where she appears briefly in the background of Mombi’s hall) or the 2007 comic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young.
Locasta’s true character emerges in the subtext of Oz’s recent history. Before Dorothy’s arrival, Oz was a fractured state. The Wizard, a humbug from Omaha, ruled the Emerald City through illusion. The four quadrants were each governed by a witch: two wicked (East and West), two good (North and South). This was not a coincidence. It was a cold war.