Ezmia, commonly known throughout the kingdoms as the Enchantress, is the titular main antagonist of The Enchantress Returns (the second book of The Land of Stories series).
She started out as a magical little girl, born in the Otherworld. Once she was introduced to the Fairy Tale world, she wanted to be a Fairy Godmother. She lost interest in becoming a fairy after she had been mocked by everybody due to her power, beauty, and status.
Because of this, she wanted to take over the world. She tried taking over the world before but was poisoned and thought to have been killed. When she came back, her power was stronger than before.
Now with a plan to take over both the Fairy Tale world and the Otherworld, Ezmia would stop at nothing to make sure all of her goals are complete. She is the inspiration for the Enchantress from the story ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
Personality[]
When she was a little girl, Ezmia witnessed her family and fellow villagers get killed by some soldiers and so she was scared and used her magic to burn down the soldiers and village. This traumatized her. When she first saw the Fairy Tale world, she felt that she was placed in her rightful home. Ezmia felt bad using too much of her power, once the other fairies were jealous of her skills. Her heart had been broken many times when her lovers rejected her. She would cry for hours before realizing that she should punish everybody in the fairy tale world, rather than forgiving them.
After she recovered from the poison, she changed entirely, she was a sadistic psychopath who only cared about power. She didn’t care for anybody, except for her only friend Rumpelstiltskin. She didn’t care what would happen to the people, whose homes were destroyed by her and she had no problem killing them. Ezmia is also wrathful, she was about to destroy a whole territory and kill everybody inside just because Trolbella didn't surrender to her. She got angry when the leaders of The Happily Ever After Assembly didn’t surrender, even though she had a whole Kingdom in peril.
History[]
Ezmia was born in the Otherworld, she lived in a village, during the dark ages. Once her village was raided by a group of soldiers, they killed Ezmia’s family and were going to harm her. Ezmia unleashed a wave of magic, which caused the village, and the soldiers in it, to burn. One day, a sparkly old woman arrived in the destroyed village. She was the Fairy Godmother, and she was surprised that somehow magic had come all this way to the Otherworld and went into this child. The Fairy Godmother took Ezmia to her home, the Fairy Tale World. Ezmia was happy to see the kingdoms and the unicorns, she felt that this was her true home. Ezmia was chosen to be the Fairy Godmother’s heir, so she would one day be the next Fairy Godmother.
Ezmia had great skill in magic, her power was stronger than most of the fairies in the world. This caused the other fairies to grow jealous and they made fun of her for this reason. Ezmia felt bad and didn’t use as much magic as before. She eventually became a member of the Fairy Council, and therefore a member of the Happily Ever After Assembly. However, due to her being rejected by her peers, she wanted something more than respect from the world, she wanted to be romantically loved. She dated a man, who broke her heart, and she would travel to the woods and lay down near a tree, where she would cry on for hours. She dated four other men, each one of them breaking her heart. She tried telling her fellow fairies about these problems, she hoped they could make her feel better, but they mocked her instead. She learned that, part of being a Fairy Godmother, meant that she shouldn’t complain about what horrible things people say about her. Ezmia’s heart was broken for the last time. She traveled back into the woods, and cried for many days. While she was crying, she inhaled some evil dust; placed by the Snow Queen and the Sea Witch. This dust changed her view of the world. She no longer cared about the world, she didn’t want to be a Fairy Godmother anymore, or even be classified as a fairy anymore. During a Happily Ever After Assembly meeting, Ezmia suggested that they kill all of the Trolls and Goblins, by drowning them. The Fairy Godmother didn’t like this idea, and knew that Ezmia could never be the one to lead the Assembly. She appointed Emerelda as the leader of the Fairy Council, leading Ezmia to feel betrayed.
She decided to take over the kingdoms. She trained a dwarf named Rumpelstiltskin, who didn’t want to be a miner and taught him magic and gave him orders. Ezmia needed a child of royal blood, for a special project she had heard of. This project would allow her to create a portal to the Otherworld, her birth home. The project required many goals, a child of royal blood included. Ezmia told Rumpelstiltskin to kidnap a young Princess Sleeping Beauty. Ezmia was a member of the Fairy Council at the time, and she didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing. Rumpelstiltskin failed and turned himself into Pinocchio Prison. The Fairies learned that Ezmia was the one who wanted Sleeping Beauty, and so they didn’t invite her to attend the princess’s celebration. Ezmia was angry and cursed Sleeping Beauty to die when she touches a spinning wheel. This would also kill everybody in the Eastern Kingdom. The Fairy Godmother converted the curse into a sleeping curse, and so the whole kingdom slept for a hundred years.
Ezmia ran away from the fairies and kept a low profile. She founded an abandoned castle, located in the Eastern Kingdom (now called the Sleeping Kingdom). She needed a way to take over the kingdoms. She learned that a woman, who claimed to be royal, had died giving birth in a village. Ezmia decided to kidnap the child and use her for the spell. Ezmia killed the girl’s adopted parents and kidnapped her. She learned that the girl’s name was Evly and was disappointed to realize that she wasn’t a child of royal blood. Ezmia knew that Evly could still be useful to her. There was a Prince, who ruled the Northern Kingdom, and if Evly could marry him and have a child, Ezmia could use the royal child for her plan. However, Evly already had a crush, a boy named Mira, a poet who sneaks to her cell and delivers her poems. Ezmia was angry at this. She thought of killing Mira, but knew that Evly would stop listening to her if she killed him. So instead, Ezmia trapped Mira into a Magic Mirror, so that Evly could at least see him. Evly was furious and created a poison, strong enough to kill plant life for miles after a few drops. Evly dipped a knife into the poison and stabbed Ezmia. Ezmia’s power was drained and she was mortal. She was weak and ran away from the castle, fearing Evly would finish her off. Evly stayed behind in the castle, hoping to find a way to free Mira. Ezmia ran into the woods and was presumed dead by everyone in the Fairy Tale world.
Ezmia was weakened by the poison, she felt so much pain. She ran to a cottage that was occupied by a witch named Hagatha. Ezmia begged Hagatha to help her from the poison. Fortunately, Hagatha recognized the poison, and so she treated Ezmia with care. In return for helping her from the poison, Ezmia had to be Hagatha’s apprentice. Hagatha told Ezmia how to open up a portal to the Otherworld. Ezmia had to master the seven deadly sins and conquer the past, present and future. Ezmia longed to complete her mission, but she didn’t have her powers, and to make matter worse, Hagatha treated Ezmia like an animal. Hagatha would always make Ezmia smooth the thorns off of branches with her hands and kept Ezmia outside of her cottage to sleep. Ezmia hated Hagatha and wanted to get rid of her. Ezmia and Hagatha visited a thornbush pit, where they would collect thorns so the cottage could be hidden and defended. Like before, Hagatha made Ezmia collect the thorns and smoothe the branches with her hands. Ezmia was receiving many cuts from this, and finally had enough. She pushed Hagatha down the thornbush pit, and Ezmia felt completely different. She had recovered from the poison completely, so her magic was back. Unlike before, Ezmia’ powers didn’t originate from good and couldn’t be reverted from any fairy in the world. She cursed the thornbush pit to drag anyone who comes near it, and returned to hiding. Ezmia went to collect the souls of her lovers, so she could master the seven deadly sins. Out of all of the sins, Ezmia valued her “pride” above all. She knew she would have to wait for the right moment to conquer the kingdoms, so she laid low for the next ten years.
A lot had changed since Ezmia had been hiding. The curse of the Sleeping Kingdom had finally been lifted, when Prince Chase Charming kissed Sleeping Beauty, and the spell was broken and everybody woke up. The kingdom had been struggling for ten years to stay awake when the citizens finally stopped being sleepy, they celebrated a large ceremony. The Kingdom was renamed into becoming the Eastern Kingdom again, and they felt proud of themselves for being strong enough to fight off the lingering effects of the curse. Ezmia knew this would be the perfect time to strike, so she conjured a spinning wheel in the air, and made it burn. Then she summoned a wave of thorns to attack the Eastern Kingdom and attempted to capture Queen Sleeping Beauty and King Charming. Her thorns were able to surround the whole Kingdom, exactly at the border. Ezmia was able to hold Chase, and all of the citizens, hostage with thorns. Sleeping Beauty was able to escape and traveled to the Fairy Kingdom.
The news of Ezmia’s attack had left everyone in the kingdoms under fear. They barricaded their homes and barely came outside. Ezmia had begun her plan to take over the kingdoms. She knew she needed the Fairy Godmother’s granddaughter, for she needed the heir of magic for her spell. So she stole the Land of Stories book and conjured up a spell to bring her the Bailey girl who lived in the town the Fairy Godmother’s precious family resided. She was able to capture Charlotte Bailey, the mother of Alex and Conner Bailey (the main protagonists). Alex was in another town studying for her school work, so Ezmia took the wrong Bailey girl. Charlotte realized that Ezmia was after her daughter, so she pretended she was the Fairy Godmother’s granddaughter. Ezmia was tricked by this and decided to wait until she makes her next move.
Ezmia attacked Pinocchio Prison, where she planned to free her only friend Rumpelstiltskin. When she was reunited with him, she was angry with him for not kidnapping Sleeping Beauty as a baby. She does plan on using him again, as an act of redeeming Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin wondered why did Ezmia hate Sleeping Beauty so much. Ezmia told him that she only wanted Sleeping Beauty, due to her portal project. She told Rumpele about why was she absent for so many years. When she finished her story, she told Rumpele to kidnap Princess Hope, the daughter of Queen Cinderella. Rumpelstiltskin said goodbye to a flower, who he considered a friend, and left his cell. Ezmia was angry that something so small and puny could be loved. She killed the flower behind Rumpelstiltskin's back.
Once Rumpelstiltskin kidnapped Princess Hope, the Charming Kingdom was in deep sorrow. The Happily Ever After Assembly held a meeting to discuss what to do about the Enchantress. The Fairy Godmother told all of the royals that Ezmia was unstoppable, due to her source of magic not coming from a heart of joy. Ezmia intruded the meeting and taunted the Assembly. She told everybody that she kidnapped the Fairy Godmother’s granddaughter (who is really Charlotte Bailey). Ezmia told everybody that since she had a whole kingdom hostage, as well as keeping Charlotte and Hope hostage, she wanted all of the royals to surrender their kingdoms. The Fairy Godmother, who knew that Ezmia took the wrong girl, told her that they would never give up her thrones; and that ‘somebody hid’ would stop her. Ezmia was angry at the stubbornness of the royals, regardless of what she had done to them. So she took the Fairy Godmother’s soul and left the meeting. This made the Happily Ever After Assembly lose all hope.
Ezmia went back to her secret hideout, which used to be the cottage that one belonged to the late Hagatha. Ezmia was furious and disappointed, the night she waited for a long time didn’t happen the way she wanted it to be. She saw Charlotte with Princess Hope, she snapped at Rumpelstiltskin for giving Charlotte the princess. Charlotte asked her why was she so cruel. Ezmia told her the story of when her heart was broken by her five lovers. When she finished telling it, she told Charlotte that it’s better to punish the ones who hurt her, rather than simply forgive them. Ezmia decided to take a rest, she needed lots of energy before attacking the rest of the world.
Ezmia had committed multiple attacks throughout the kingdoms. She sent her vines to attack the Corner Kingdom, which destroyed Rapunzel’s tower. Next, she visited Elvina, the Empress of the Elf Empire. She wanted her kingdom, in exchange for sparing the Elves. The Elves were never involved with the Happily Ever After Assembly's problems. So Elvina gave Ezmia her throne. Ezmia realized that the Trolls and Goblins were not involved with the Happily Ever After Assembly, so she visited the Troblin territory and asked Queen Trollbella to give up her throne. Ezmia had interrupted Trollbella’s dance time, so she refused to give Ezmia her throne. Ezmia summoned an hourglass in the air. Unless Trollbella gave up her thrown by the time the hourglass’s time is up, the underground territory will be flooded with water. The hour was up and the territory was flooded. Every Troll and Goblin managed to escape, thanks to the efforts of Conner and Alex Bailey. Ezmia visited the camping grounds and taunted Gloria, the golden harp who was cursed by Ezmia. She told Gloria that she did give the troll queen a warning and that she will be happy knowing that the harp would be around to see the world under her control. Ezmia left to continue her attack.
Ezmia had poisoned all of the food in the Northern Kingdom, which is causing the citizens to starve. Ezmia decided to make her final attack. She entered the Fairy Palace, and gloated the Fairy Council for being underpowered compared to her. Emerelda told Ezmia that she and the other fairies won’t step down their power. Ezmia summoned her vines, and captured the fairies. The Enchantress created a large tower, made of root, rock, and rage, and used it as her base of operations. She summoned her vines to kidnap every royal throughout the kingdoms. Now that she had everybody from the Happily Ever After Assembly in the same room, she demanded them to give up their thrones. When they refused once again, Ezmia threatened them to give either give up their thrones, or she will throw Princess Hope and the Fairy Godmother’s soul into the fire of burning skulls. The Royals gave up their thrones, and as each one surrendered his or her throne; the fireplace was growing brighter, meaning the portal was opening. The last royal needed to give up her throne was Queen Red Riding Hood. Before Red could give up her throne, she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Alex Bailey. Ezmia was angry that she was interrupted, so she warned Alex to either back off or she will kill her. Alex was carrying the Wand of Wonderment, a wand that would grant the user to be invincible, and she needed Ezmia’s pride to power it up. Alex insulted Ezmia by calling her a brat, and that once she completed her objective, she would never be happy. Ezmia lost her pride hearing these words, so she blasted Alex away to her supposed death.
Ezmia kept telling Queen Red to give up her throne, but every time she did the flames wouldn’t get bigger. Ezmia was frustrated by the lack of results. She believed that Hagatha had lied to her about the portal requirements. Then she remembered things were going as planned until Alex interrupted her. Conner Bailey, the brother of Alex, told Ezmia that she ended up losing her pride to Alex. Ezmia was angered by this shoutout, she refused to believe that she lost her pride to a little girl. She was prepared to kill Conner, when suddenly Alex arrived on a flying horse. Alex came back, she survived due to the Wand being complete the moment Ezmia’s pride was taken away from her. Ezmia realized that Alex was the Fairy Godmother’s real granddaughter. She tried comparing herself to Alex, telling Alex that she will one day do the same horrible things she’s done. Alex refused to believe this, by throwing away the Wand of Wonderment. Alex spoke on behalf of everybody in the room, and apologized to Ezmia for what the world had done to her and forgave her for all of the havoc she caused trying to heal her pain. Ezmia didn’t accept her apology, and prepared to strike Alex again, only she had lost her powers. This was due to Ezmia’s powers coming from a heart of hate and anger. When she heard Alex’s words, the reasons for her anger had been taken away, and so her magic had left her body. Ezmia was withering and turning old. Her control on the vines had been taken away, as they released their prisoners. The flame of burning skulls was dying out as well. Ezmia grabbed the Wand of Wonderment, and her youth and powers had returned to her. She was prepared to kill Alex, with a blast of energy she shot out of the wand. Rumpelstiltskin jumped into the way of the energy ball, because he was tired of being viewed as a villain throughout the kingdoms. Ezmia was shocked, she just killed the only one she ever considered to be a friend. Conner used Goldilocks’s sword to slice the Wand of Wonderment in half and Ezmia’s powers were drained again. Ezmia was withering to dust, she knew that the Bailey twins had won. She rolled onto her back, stared up at the sky, and gave out one last rattling breath. With nothing left to validate the anger that powered her life, the Enchantress’s body and soul disappeared- a casualty to compassion.
Legacy[]
The fairies had repaired all of the damage the Enchantress had created throughout the kingdoms. Rumpelstiltskin would be buried, and he would be remembered as the eighth brother of a proud family. Alex would become a member of the Fairy Council, before officially being the next Fairy Godmother. Alex would be controlled by the Sisterhood of witches, who were the same witches who planned on using Ezmia to take over the Otherworld. Alex would be freed from the curse, and save the worlds.
Powers/Skills[]
Ezmia had been shown to be the most dangerous foe the Fairy Tale World had ever seen. Her magic is often stronger than any fairy in the world. With this power in her hands, the fairies didn’t have the courage to fight her head on. Not even the Fairy Godmother knew how to defeat Ezmia and basically told the Happily Ever After Assembly to give up.
- Magic: Ezmia, being a fairy, had magic blood inside her body. With great training, she could conjure up any spell. Her magic had been proven to be so powerful, that whenever she tried to aim her powers at one or several people, it ends up affecting the area surrounding them. Her powers could be converted, due to her magic coming from a heart of good source. When Ezmia was poisoned, her powers became stronger. Instead of her magic coming from a source of good, it came from a place of darkness and evil. This was something the fairies couldn’t compete against, and so Ezmia’s curses could no longer be undone. Her powers were taken away from her, once Alex took away everything that caused her to be angry.
- Mastery of the seven deadly sins: As a requirement to open up a portal to the Otherworld, Ezmia had to master the seven deadly sins. She imprisoned the souls of her former lovers to signify her lust. Stripped others of their happiness to signify her envy. By having Rumpelstiltskin under her command, she connoted her sloth. Finally, by taking over the world with greed and gluttony, the world was exposed to her wrath, thus satisfying her pride. Out of all of the deadly sins, she valued her pride above everything else.
Equipment[]
- Soul jars: Ezmia kept six jars that contain the souls of the people she hated the most. Ezmia had the souls of her five former lovers, who broke her heart. Rather than forgiving them, Ezmia punished them and then captured their souls in order to complete her plan to open up a portal to the Otherworld. She captured the Fairy Godmother’s soul when she intruded the Happily Ever After Assembly meeting. The souls were released from their prisons by the fairies after Ezmia was dead.
- The Wand of Wonderment: The Wand of Wonderment is a wand, formed when combining the six most prized possessions of the six most hated people in the world. Alex and Conner Bailey built this wand in order to defeat the Enchantress. The wand was built from the Snow Queen’s Ice Scepter, Lady Iris’s wedding ring, the Giant’s golden harp, Evly the Evil Queen’s magic mirror, the Sea Witch’s jewels, and Ezmia’s pride. When Alex took away Ezmia’s power, Ezmia grabbed the wand, and it brought her power back to her. She used it to strike Alex down, but she hit Rumpelstiltskin instead. When Conner sliced the wand in half, Ezmia lost her power again. This caused her to die.
Trivia[]
- At one point, before Ezmia could kill Conner, he told Ezmia “Where I come from, everybody thinks you're green with horns." This is a reference to Maleficent.
- Had the fairies treated Ezmia with kindness and respect, she would never have felt so heartbroken. Also, had the Sea Witch and the Snow Queen never put the evil dust on Ezmia in the first place, she never would have been the Wicked Enchantress that everybody feared.
- Chris Colfer created Ezmia’s heartbreak based on his own experiences of pursuing a personal life in the public eye.