Queen Zixi is the ruler of the Land of Ix.
Description[]
She is a vision of radiant beauty and charming grace. Her hair is like spun gold, and her eyes are raven black. Her skin is fair as a lily, except for a blush of rose in her cheeks.
In appearance she looks no more than sixteen, but at the time of the ascension of King Bud of Noland, she was six hundred and eighty-three years old. Using witchcraft, the Queen is always able to appear young and beautiful to others, but her reflection in a mirror shows her as an ugly old hag, bald, wrinkled, and toothless. For this reason she has no mirrors in her palace, and depends upon her maids.
Although Queen Zixi is skilled in the art of witchcraft, she is by no means an evil person. During times of war she had lead her armies, clad in golden mail and helmet, to victory in a hundred battles. During peace time she teaches her subjects farming, metalworking, and construction. She is fair in her collection of taxes, and is well respected by her subjects.
History[]
Soon after King Bud became ruler of Noland, Quavo the minstrel came to Queen Zixi's palace and sang tales of the Magic Cloak. Zixi vowed to secure the Cloak within in a year, knowing it was far more powerful than her own witchcraft.
She disguised herself as Miss Trust, a teacher of witchcraft, and set up an academy near Nole. Princess Fluff and her maids enrolled in the class, but became suspicious of Miss Trust's overt interest in her Cloak.
When that plan failed, Queen Zixi returned to Ix and declared war on Noland. Her superior army was defeated however, by a wish made on the Magic Cloak.
In her next attempt at securing the Cloak she again disguised herself, boiling a potion of lilac bark, roots, and butterfly-spots in a cup made from the leaf of the tatti-plant. She called herself Adlena and went to Nole, where she begged to be one of Princess Fluff's maids. She summoned imps to create an exact duplicate of the Magic Cloak, switched it with the real one, and then escaped into the woods. She wished that her reflection would show her young appearance to her, but since the Cloak had been stolen, the wish was not granted.
This final failure caused Zixi great distress. In her disappointment she wandered through the forest where she met three unhappy creatures: an alligator who wanted to climb trees, an owl who wanted to swim, and a little girl who wanted to be a man. Reflecting upon their common distress, Zixi resolved to be content and stop wishing for the impossible. She returned to her kingdom and ruled wisely there for many more years. (Queen Zixi of Ix)
Queen Zixi later visited the Emerald City of Oz to attend a birthday party for Princess Ozma. (The Road to Oz)
In adaptations[]
In The Legend of Oz: Wicked West spinoff series Legends of Oz: Tik-Tok and the Kalidah, Tik-Tok and his mount Kali bring a mysterious girl with an enchanted emerald bullet embedded in her chest to Queen Zixi for protection, believing the bullet and the girl to have a connection to a prophecy surrounding the lost Ozma.