The Ozsquad/Setting

The characters belonging to the Ozsquad exist in a universe in which their backgrounds are in a particular interpretation of the land of Oz itself, which may not be the same in the canons of Ozian OCs that do not belong to this group. This subpage exists to consolidate information about the in-universe setting of the Ozsquad's shared stories.

(Much of the original Oz books is a pile of problematic everything and the tag #ProblematicOz is not an exaggeration by any means. This page contains discussion of issues pertaining to gender, race, sexuality, and neurodivergences.)

Emerald City Academy
Emerald City Academy (also known by its abbreviation, ECA) is the centralized high-school for the districts of Oz and its neighboring territories, located (as its name implies), in the scenic heart of the Emerald City. Much like Ever After High, it is a boarding school with its own on-campus dormitories. The two schools share a very similar class structure and, indeed, offer many of the same classes to their students.

The central hallway, as a hearkening to the story, has a yellow-brick pattern across the floor.

Founded 36 generations ago by a Wizard of Oz during the exceedingly lengthy disappearance of Princess Ozma LXII, Emerald City Academy has a rich history of alumni. Prior to its founding, Ozian students attended Ever After High with the rest of the fairytale world, or engaged in some form of homeschooling. In recent years, there has been something of a tradition for heirs of certain destinies to attend the faraway EAH like their ancestors of old, in order to prepare them for destinies involving distant journeys.

A fair percentage of the Ozsquad members who do not attend Ever After High are enrolled at Emerald City Academy instead-- although students are attempting to transfer out in ever-increasing numbers as Headmaster Oz's iron fist closes even tighter around school rules.

Headmaster Oz, the Wizard of Oz
"He's like the Ozian equivalent of America's current president, Donald Trump. Except it's going to take waaaaaay more than four years to kick him out."

- general consensus among Ozsquad OC creators

Having come into power after the departure of Princess Ozma XCVII, the previous Wizard of Oz is presently headmaster of Emerald City Academy. He seems constantly full of self-importance and bravado, and seems to fear only loss of control over Oz-- and, subsequently, all of the perks involved with being head honcho. He is not above expelling students who seem inclined to rebel, and has proposed ideas about "building a wall" to prevent the "dangerous seeds of rebellion" from entering Oz.

One of his more questionable decisions has been to intentionally compound the insecurities among those who may be destined to inherit the fates of Dorothy's companions-- the Tin Woodsman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow-- by sending them abroad to Ever After High, where the culture shock would take care of making them feel effectively "heartless," "cowardly," and "brainless. He expected that this would make them more pliable to their destinies and easier to manipulate, although it seems to have had the opposite and unintended effect of exposing them to "rebel culture."

He also pretty much left his kid in Omaha, Nebraska in order to go be leader of a faraway land. There's that, too.

The Ozian Storybook
Much like Ever After High guards the Storybook of Legends, Emerald City Academy holds within its keeping a tome known to Oz citizens as the Ozian Storybook, its chapters comprised of all of the characters that have ever made an appearance in one of Baum's Oz-related fairytales. Most notably, however, is that not every filler chapter and every side-story bears repeating each generation... and there are, indeed, fairytale families deeply concerned with their legacy roles being forgotten.

Though the two books were once upon a time one and the same, the same Wizard of Oz who founded ECA managed to magically unbind Ozian pages from the original Storybook of Legends with the help of a certain Good Witch Galinda I. These pages were then carefully and magically re-bound into a separate storybook, though they are still yet linked to destiny in much the same way as the original. As a symbol of goodwill, however, and a reminder of Oz's role in the greater fairytale world, the pages belonging to the four primary protagonists of the first novel-- Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion-- were left within. It has evermore since been tradition that those four first-travelers journey to Ever After in order to leave their signatures in the original Storybook of Legends.

Other students who were expected to sign the storybook in Ever After had their pages carefully removed from the Ozian Storybook, placed in a bulletproof case, and brought to Ever After with an armed hero guard escort. This means that, unlike the “fake book” Apple White and other students signed, these Ozian storybook pages were the real deal, and were not involved in being unbound in Wonderland. As these pages were re-bound into Headmaster Grimm’s very convincing fake book, they are presently also intact, and have been shipped back to Oz in their present state, signed or unsigned, via armed hero guard escort.

There are, however, four characters for whom the choice is indeed "in their hearts," whose pages remained in the real Storybook of Legends from generations prior-- those characters for whom journeying is so quintessential to their roles in the Ozian fairytale. Raven Queen unwound the pages belonging to Damon Gale, Cordelia Chopper, Barley, and Leontine Timorous during her trip to Wonderland.

Social Climate
Due to the nature of sharing a story with not only one or two, but an entire countryful of people, there is a constant social pressure to follow the tale as written. Everything and everyone is connected and interdependent, and the older generations in particular were raised on the idea that following one's destiny is the only thing standing between civilized Oz and the collapse of society altogether.

Many of them still believe in the power of old bloodlines-- though few remain wholly unbroken from the original story to this day, due to the numerous deaths and injuries prevalent in the Oz series. Though same-sex relationships are not actively persecuted, they can be a source of anxiety within older, less-broken bloodlines due to (largely superstitious) worry about the loss of family history and a lack of connection to one's fairytale roots. It is not at all unusual to hear older Ozians quoting such proverbs as "one for all and all for one" or "united we stand, divided we fall."

Oz tends to be a fairly self-contained nation where most people marry from within their borders. Due to the enormous desert that surrounds Oz physically-- and then the enormous ocean that surrounds the next nearest nations-- very few Ozians ventured outside its borders prior to the development of certain magical transportation methods.

As a largely uninformed author in the late 1800s, L. Frank Baum expressed his very limited view of matters pertaining to gender, sexuality, and race in his Oz books, often promoting problematic stereotypes and even going as far as to dismiss some identities altogether. There are those among the citizens of Oz who take this as carte blanche to view these people through Baum's depiction of their demographic in the original text, creating highly problematic (and often outright false) stereotypes that have lingered even after several generations of story repetition.

Several unfortunate impressions are perpetrated by the original story, especially in conjunction with the destiny-inherent stereotypes that are rife throughout the fairytale world-- concepts along the lines of Scarecrows being unintelligent, or the derogatory usage of the word "Tottenhot" to describe certain demographics of Winkies living near the Quadling border, or the nigh-traditional outright denial of a Tippetarius or Ozma's ability to choose which gender they would prefer to live as. There are even further issues with questioning the sentience of (obviously sentient) people brought to life from inanimate objects by magic and a fairly consistent belief that wicked witches as a demographic "deserve to die."

Although the present generation of students seems somewhat more inclined towards changing Oz, preferably for the better, prior generations reacted poorly to the idea of rebellion that was sparked by Raven Queen in Ever After. Celadon West's attempt to mimic her dangerously radical, extremist behavior in Oz itself brought the nature of the conflict to Oz's own door. Subsequently, despite their best efforts to improve Oz as a whole, the current generation is under exceedingly heavy scrutiny.

Economy
As the original Ozma, in the books, "eliminates the need for money" by constructing an essentially socialist economy, Oz does not possess any variety of formal currency at all, though casual exchange of goods thrives on. The central Ozian government has a streamlined process for collection and redistribution of the goods its citizens produce, as well as a significantly more complicated and bureaucratic application process in order to obtain goods that the Ozian government might have somehow missed.

There are systematic issues with this particular variety of socialism, in which a family's social standing and the renown of their heritage literally translates into their ability to obtain goods. As a family's "name recognition” increases, their social circle tends to expand... and the more likely they are to know enough people to orchestrate a trade for exactly the object they want.

This can cause a tangible decrease in the quality of life for families whose roles have continued to shrink over the generations, such as the Goodspells or Wogglebugs. Even further, families with bad reputations often have few trade opportunities at all, which can lead to severe issues in obtaining necessary goods and services when compounded with any lingering destiny-related prejudices.

In circumstances of international trade where the usage of currency is more or less unavoidable, all money is held by the Ozian central government and goods of approximate equivalent value are distributed to the original providers. Headmaster Oz professes to managing these funds on Oz's behalf with the assistance of Glinda XLIV, stating that "it is an unfortunate reality of doing business with foreign realms that we social servants are only pleased to handle on the peoples' behalf, that we may spare you the trouble."

A stipend from this sum is saved for the Ozian Exchange Program and made available to exchange students studying abroad-- a program which only exists so said students can return, and express how much better it is to simply stay in Oz. It is sizable enough that they are unlikely to suffer financial difficulty when attempting to purchase meals, hextbooks, or school-related technology. Many students originally from Oz have a difficult time comprehending the nature of "shopping" upon their arrivals.

Healthcare
As all healthcare is more or less covered by the Ozian government through its service redistribution system, treatment of off-chapter ailments is oftentimes as simple as locating a physician or mage who is capable of curing it. However, given the prevalence of destiny-related prejudices and general ignorance throughout Oz as a whole, mental healthcare is a grossly underdeveloped field. What other locations in Ever After might recognize as a neurodivergence, such conditions are often passed off as a "product of that family destiny" in Oz, if not ignored entirely.

Pending Sections

 * Data about all four directional counties and their inhabitants
 * Especially Munchkin County
 * The Nome Kindgom
 * The China Kingdom
 * Social Media and Celebrityisms in Oz

Trivia

 * Much of Oz is inspired by its roots as an American fairytale, with references to United States culture.
 * As confirmed in the fanfiction "The Road Out of Oz Ain't Paved in Gold" by Jade Encrusted Bugs, all practitioners of magic are required by Ozian law to wear some variety of silver or red on their shoes.
 * Elphaba West (37 generations ago) and at least one Wizard of Oz attended Ever After High. They were both members of the age-old Drama Kings and Queens club, and put on productions of Wicked and The Wiz respectively.
 * #ProblematicOz is literally the biggest mess.