Dorothy of Kansas

Witchslayer, Queen, Hero

Dorothy "Witchslayer" Gale is the fearless leader of the rag-tag group of adventurers that ended Magda-Lane's tyranny of the Dwarven stronghold of Winchester. Her first adventure is a tale of empowerment and conquering extreme circumstances that is told all across the lands of Pastoria. During Dorothy's adolescence, she developed an adventuring streak that caught the attention of Queen Ozma Pastoria, who had just restored the Pastorian Royal line to the throne of Viridia. Eventually, the two fell in love, and Dorothy became Queen Consort. After Queen Ozma's death in 1339, Dorothy served as the sole monarch for Viridia until her son, Angelo Pastoria, ascended to the throne.

Early Life

Dorothy was born in a place unknown to the mortals of Pastoria, called Kansas. Her mother, Elizabeth Gale - who was unwed - died during childbirth and so Dorothy was raised by her maternal uncle, Henry Gale, and his wife, Emily Gale. Dorothy grew up without the company of other children and became very close with the family dog, a black russian terrier named Toto.

Alone and Misunderstood

Because of her isolated childhood, she developed social quirks that sometimes made it difficult to interact with other people when the rare occasion of social interaction with someone other than her Aunt, Uncle, or Toto came up. She tended towards being candid with strangers about her thoughts and feelings and didn't always understand when something she was saying was considered rude. These situations frustrated Dorothy in her childhood because, in her mind, it didn't make sense when people expected her to act a certain way when there was no precedent for it. She was doubly frustrated when someone scolded her and didn't tell her how to alter her behavior for the next time.

Becoming the Witchslayer

When Dorothy was 10 years old, a mysterious cyclone transported her house to the archipelago of Aaskrordius in Pastoria and with it Dorothy and Toto. The crash destroyed an entire neighborhood of the city of Gafyros. Despite not having control over this incident, Senator Vakra Batweaver, the town leader, sentenced the child to death.
Although the citizens of Gafyros were frustrated with the city's destruction, many of them agreed that the child did not deserve to die. A group of citizens pleaded with a vigilante known as The White Witch to free Dorothy from prison before the execution. With her companion Crow's help, The White Witch freed Dorothy and urged her to escape from Aaskrordius. She also gifted Dorothy with a pair of silver shoes and told her, rather cryptically, not to lose them. Crow joined Dorothy on her journey across The Yellow Bridge.

A Stranger in Verdantport

Crow and Dorothy made their way to Verdantport, where they were offered shelter by a compassionate Artificer named Nimmie Amee and her construct companion Nick. Nick took Dorothy and Crow aside privately and told them that the Great Oz, who ruled Viridia, may help Dorothy get back to Kansas. He also confessed that he was looking for a reason to go to the city himself, so he could find medicine for Nimmie, who had a terminal heart condition. Dorothy and Crow agreed to sneak out of Nimmie's home with Nick, who left her a sentimental letter confessing his romantic affection for his creator.

The Emerald Forest

On their way to New Viridia, Dorothy and her companions came across a violent battle between a monstrous Kalidah and a Mizbasha. Dorothy and Toto acted as a distraction to the fearsome Kalidah, while Nick decapitated the beast with his axe. Crow assisted the Mizbasha in escaping to a hidden area in the forest nearby until Dorothy and Nick signalled that the trail was safe. They learned that this Mizbasha's name was Cajay. After being saved from certain death, he told the group that he owes them a life debt and vowed to protect the group on their journey.

Meeting With The Wizard

After arriving in New Viridia, Dorothy and her friends were forced to deal with the agonizing bureaucracy of arranging an audience with The Wizard King, Great Oz. Fortunately, this gave them enough time to find a healer of some renown who knew how to cure Nimmie Amee's heart condition. When the healer informed the party of his price, Dorothy was forced to calm down a distressed Nick.
Eventually, after hearing that The White Witch had gifted Dorothy the Silver Shoes, Great Oz agreed to meet with Dorothy and her friends. After hearing her story, he recited a long monologue about how he wished he could help and rather condescendingly told her that he had to deal with more important political matters. Dorothy did not accept this. She pressed the Wizard King further about what was keeping him so busy. The Wizard explains that Winchester, a Dwarven Fortress and ally of the Viridian Monarchy, was being ruled by a tyrannical evil witch named Magda-Lane.
Dorothy immediately offered to kill the witch in exchange for the Great Oz's assistance in returning home. Oz dismissed this as nothing but a clever child's attempt at manipulation and did not take her bargain seriously in the slightest.

Defeating Magda-Lane

After leaving New Viridia, Dorothy and her new friends moved west to Winchester. When the party approached the dwarven fortress, Magda-Lane sent a swarm of Acid Bees to thwart their path. The battle was excruciating and left Dorothy injured.
The young girl tried to convince her party to continue their journey and repeatedly told everyone that she was "fine." Toto could see through her act, and it was ultimately his sympathetic whimpering that forced Dorothy to take a rest.
The over-confident Magda-Lane thought she had bested the young girl and her friends and did not send more threats to thwart their approach to Winchester after Dorothy had recovered from her injuries. The group convinced some of the dwarven slaves that they were sent by Great Oz. These dwarves helped Dorothy and her friends make their way into the fortress without Magda-Lane or her guards noticing.
Eventually, the group stealthily made their way to Magda-Lane's private quarters, where Dorothy snuck up behind the witch and pushed her out of a tower window. Magda-Lane transformed into a horrifying acidic bee-woman and flew back towards the window. Quick on her feet, Dorothy grabbed a nearby pail of water and tossed it on the buzzing monstrosity. The water damaged Magda-Lane's wings, and she fell to her death.
Dorothy and her friends rushed downstairs to the witch's body and plucked the soggy wings to show to The Wizard King that they had completed their task.

Returning to Kansas

Dorothy and her friends returned for a second audience with The Wizard King, where she presented him with the wings of Magda-Lane. Great Oz was both horrified and impressed at the child's feat and became silent. He dismissed the child and her friends and instructed his servants to pamper them until he could reward them properly.
During this time, Great Oz rewarded Dorothy's friends. He made Crow his royal advisor and gave Nick the medicine for his creator, Nimmie. Cajay was given the title of Knight, which he accepted, and offered a position in the Royal Army of Pastoria, which he respectfully declined. Even Toto was gifted with a pretty green ribbon before Dorothy heard any news about how Great Oz had planned to help her return to Kansas.
After several weeks, The Wizard King finally called Dorothy into his chambers, where she was surprised to see The White Witch who had helped her escape Aaskrordius when Dorothy had first landed in Aaskrordius. It was then that The Wizard King confessed that he was, in fact, not a wizard but an inventor from Kansas. He did teach himself some magic since arriving in Pastoria but was nowhere near as powerful as the people believed him to be.
The White Witch revealed that the Silver Shoes's charm was, in fact, Dorothy's way home and could take her wherever she wished so long as she focused hard enough. While Dorothy was frustrated that she was not told this when she was gifted the shoes, she followed the witch's instructions and was transported back to her home in Kansas.

Further Adventures

It soon became evident that Dorothy had some form of connection with the world of Pastoria. Throughout her youth, she returned on many occasions developing further connections with the land and its peoples. All around Pastoria, tales of her heroism were spread, and sometimes it can be difficult to separate the fact from the fiction.
One of the most popular stories comes from her third time in Pastoria when Dorothy was fourteen years old. A member of Queen Ozma's court, Jellia Jamb, had been kidnapped by a cult living in the Burzee Jungle. To aid her on her quest, Ozma transformed Toto into a Dire Wolf so that Dorothy may use him as a mount and cross the Shifting Sands. During this treacherous journey, she fell into one of the planar sinkholes that gave the desert its name.
How Dorothy and Toto survived varies each telling. Some say that Dorothy fell into the sinkhole and Toto saved her at the last minute; others say she was rescued by Zamazenti, the Moon Dragon. Another variant of the story claims she was rescued by Nico the Generous, who took Dorothy and Toto to Burzee as passengers in his magical carriage.

Duchess of The Gale

When Dorothy was twenty years old, she decided to permanently move to Pastoria after being offered a position as Duchess of the region to the north of the capital that borders the Frozen Beyond. Dorothy named her duchy The Gale to honor her family back in Kansas.
Because the Gale was primarily farmlands and responsible for most of the crop production of New Viridia, Dorothy felt right at home. Dorothy worked with legislators in the Royal Court and met with Queen Ozma to develop new laws to protect The Gale's farmworkers.

The Human Queen

Over the course of the six years that Dorothy served as Duchess of the Gale, her relationship with Queen Ozma transformed from friendship to romance. During this time, their relationship was kept as private as possible, but one can't always escape prying eyes. After a particularly unflattering photograph of Dorothy was printed in the Viridian Gazette, Dorothy proposed that the couple "give the people what they want."
Three months and a gorgeous ceremony later, Dorothy of Kansas was crowned as the first human Queen Consort the nation had ever seen. While the majority of Viridian citizens adored Dorothy, most of the aristocracy ranged from skeptical to vengeful. Despite this, Dorothy remained true to her principles and advocated on behalf of the middle and lower classes.

The Death of Ozma

In the year 1339, Queen Ozma was assassinated while on a diplomatic mission in the duchy of Katlin. This was devastating to the Viridian people and left a hole in the country and Dorothy's heart.
The question of succession was left up to the people: Should Dorothy take the throne and become the first human queen, or should it fall on Dorothy and Ozma's son, Angelo?
Despite the historical precedent for child rulers in Pastoria (Ozma rose to the throne at thirteen years of age), the public of Viridia voted for Dorothy to stay on the throne. During Dorothy's rule, she brought in waves of political progress. She signed the Gafyros Agreement, which granted independence to the archipelago of Aaskrordius. Dorothy also invited members of various Manitober tribes to act as ambassadors in the capitol and help improve relations with them.

Legacy

From the moment her house crashed in Gafyros to her actions as Queen of New Viridia, Dorothy of Kansas has been leaving her mark on the world of Pastoria. Legends of her heroism and advocacy will be told for generations to come.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

The world of Pastoria is inspired by the works of L. Frank Baum, especially the first three entries in his Oz series, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz. Thanks to iconic film portrayals such as MGM's classic, The Wizard of Oz, and Disney's 1985 nightmare fuel of film, Return to Oz, we have seen some of Baum's fantastic characters come to life on screen.
His heroine for the bulk of the series is Dorothy Gale, a humble girl from a Kansas farmhouse who is whisked away to a magical world. In Dorothy's first adventure, published in 1900, she is a child around the age of ten. Eventually, after subsequent adventures in the Land of Oz, she moves herself and her family (Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, and little Toto, too) to the magical world.
I always wondered what Dorothy's life was like as she grew up in this strange fantastical world. In Baum's works, we never get the answer because, in Oz, there is an enchantment that the faeries created that prevents aging and most kinds of disease and death.
This brings us to Pastoria, a world that the fae gods have abandoned. In Pastoria, Dorothy relocated to Oz with her trusted companion Toto, and she grew old. In Pastoria, Dorothy's heroism begins with her childhood adventures in this strange realm, but it is her actions as an adult and monarch of Viridia that earn her a place in the Pastorian tales of legend.