Background
Ezmia is an original character from the Land of Stories series, though her backstory is tied in with the classical fairy tales of Sleeping Beauty and Rumplestiltskin. Long before the events that take place in the books, Ezmia tried to take over all the kingdoms in the Land of Stories and put the Sleeping Curse on Sleeping Beauty's kingdom.
In The Enchantress Returns, she is back to take over all of the Kingdoms in the Land of Stories - and beyond.
Appearance and Personality
"Once upon a time, there was an enchantress," the Evil Queen began. "She was unlike all the fairies and witches that had ever lived before her; she lived without consequence and lived on desire and desire alone. She gave herself anything and everything she wanted, never caring how or who she hurt by doing so."[1]
"Standing in the doorway was a tall and beautiful woman. She had long magenta hair that floated and rippled above her like slow-moving flames. Her eyes were violet with long feathered eyelashes like moths' antennae. She wore a long purple gown with matching gloves and a high collar. A ghostly cape flowed around her and through the halls like a thick sheet of smoke."[2]
Relationships
Ezmia has close ties to the Fairy Godmother and the Fairy Council. (See Story)
She has been quite unhappy in love, and has taken revenge on her former lovers through magic. She has captured their souls and keeps them in jars.
Ezmia had a special place in the woods where she'd go and cry - the tree her tears fell on grew taller than the trees around it, and she cursed it to grow curvy and looped instead so it wouldn't stick out (see Curvy Tree).
Story
Ezmia was taken into the Land of Stories when she was five years old, after the Fairy Godmother found her all alone in a forest. Her village had been attacked and she was the only survivor because she had managed to protect herself with magic. She became a fairy in the Land of Stories, a kind, honest, loving young woman who loved to help others. She became the apprentice of the Fairy Godmother and was supposed to become her successor and head of the Happily Ever After Assembly. But the more successful she became with her magic, the more the other fairies became jealous and resented her. She became lonely and estranged from the others.
Ezmia fell in love with a baker from the village, only to find out his affections for her had been a ruse, a joke he played on her with the other village youths. When she demanded his apology, he refused. To punish him, she enchanted a gingerbread man. The uproar this caused made the baker's family lose their bakery. Ezmia's next relationship was with a locksmith; their relationship is described as an abusive one, with Ezmia's self-esteem at such a low point that she thought she deserved no better. After this she fell in love with a musician, who was more in love with the idea of being with the future Fairy Godmother than with Ezmia herself. Trying to hold on to him, she gave him enchanted gifts, but he still cheated on her. As a punishment, she turned his lover into an instrument. Then she had a relationship with a soldier, who kept their affair a secret out of shame for the sake of his career. She cursed him, destroying his career forever. Then she fell in love with a king, who became her best friend, but did not return her love romantically. She tried a love potion on him, but it didn't work, and after an argument, she bewitched him.
The most powerful villain of all
All of Ezmia's heartbreak changed her, and she no longer wanted to help the people around her. When she suggested dealing with the "troll and goblin problem" by flooding their territory and drowning them, the Fairy Godmother changed her mind about naming Ezmia her successor and promoted Emerelda instead. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Ezmia abandoned the Fairy Council and became an enchantress.
Ezmia then made a plan to take over the fairy tale world, and needed a child of royal blood to do so. Her plan using Rumplestiltskin to kidnap Sleeping Beauty failed, and being confronted with the Fairy Council about her actions made Ezmia furious and she cursed the princess to die. The Fairy Godmother was able to convert the deadly spell into the Sleeping Curse. Then, Ezmia found another royal child that was soon to be born. She made a deal with Evly's mother to give her the baby, but the mother refused. After finding out Evly was not of royal blood, Ezmia decided to train her to seduce Prince White and create a royal baby that way. However, Evly fell in love with someone else. Ezmia captured Mira and locked him away in a mirror so she could control Evly, but Evly plotted Ezmia's death by poison dagger. Ezmia was saved by Hagatha, who then took her on as an apprentice but treated her badly. As a revenge, Ezmia pushed Hagatha into the Thornbush Pit and cursed the vines. Then, she bid her time to strike again.
In The Enchantress Returns, Ezmia reappears and kidnaps the twins' mother from the Real World (thinking she is Alex Bailey) and Princess Hope from the Land of Stories. She also chooses symbolic things to destroy in each Kingdom in order to undermine their rule and make them surrender. ("It's not casualties the Enchantress wants, it's souls."[3]) It is all part of a spell to create a portal to the Otherworld so she can conquer that too. When Ezmia is about to succeed and the Fairy Council and all of the kingdoms' monarchs have surrendered to her already, Alex takes away her power by taking away its source: her anger. This way, when the Wand of Wonderment is destroyed, Ezmia's magic fails and she perishes.
In Beyond the Kingdoms, it is revealed that the Snow Queen and the Sea Witch conspired together and cursed Ezmia, causing her to feel all of her emotions much stronger. They put the idea of trying to conquer the Otherworld in her head.[4]
Quotes
"People only love you as long as they're getting something out of you, but the minute you say something they don't want to hear or do something they don't want to see, all the admiration drains from their hearts."[5]
"I don't want the world to understand. I want it to grovel."[6]
"I stopped pretending I belonged among them. For the first time I began to say and do what I wanted to, rather than what I was expected to. If the other fairies were going to condemn me regardless of what I did, I figured I might as well give them valid reasons to."[7]
"I decided from then on if the world was going to speak of my name it would be whispered in fear rather than mocked with envy. If the world was going to take all the joy from me, I would simply take away all the joy from the world."[8]
"The cruelest thing you can do to someone is to force them to hurt alone- and you left me hurting on my own many times."[9]