Princess Nastoya
Princess Nastoya is the ancient, elephantine matriarch of the Scrow tribe in the Thousand Year Grasslands, a figure of immense physical presence and spiritual authority who lives under a self-imposed enchantment that gives her a human form. She is the filthiest, least-educated princess anyone has ever seen, yet she possesses an undeniable dignity that commands respect from even the most ardent democrat among the travelers. Her encounter with Elphaba during the Grasstrail Train's journey is a pivotal moment of revelation and guidance, offering the Witch a rare moment of clarity about her own nature and purpose.
Identity and Appearance
Princess Nastoya is a huge slab of an old woman, carried in a palanquin hung round with tambours, amulets, and gauzy veils. She has an overhung lip that doubles back on itself like an upside-down spout on a pitcher, and her eyes are ringed with kohl. On her shoulders sit two dyspeptic-looking crows, their feet shackled in gold links attached to loops in her ornamental collar, into which she has dribbled traces of fruit. Her shoulders are speckled with crow droppings. When she reveals her true form, she is an Elephant, shaking the very hair off her head as it uncoils down her back and disappears. Her feet move massively, seeking the best purchase like columns or pillars of stone, and she drops her arms forward, her back becoming a dome. She is naked and old and strong, and what had seemed like boredom is revealed as patience, memory, and control.
The Encounter with Elphaba
When the Grasstrail Train arrives at the Scrow camp, a delegation of Scrow dignitaries invites a small band to the Scrow shrine. Elphaba is told to join Oatsie Manglehand, the rafiqi, Igo, and a financial adventurer named Pinchweed. They travel by camel to a plantation of trees, carefully tended in the devastating openness, and pass through a circular pattern of the Scrow encampment, moving from outer to inner circles lit by oil lamps. Within, at the center, is the Princess Nastoya, girded in a native costume of leather and grass, standing distracted and breathing heavily, leaning on stout walking sticks. Around her, sarsen stones like gapped teeth resemble a stone cage through which she can hardly pass given her bulk. The guests join the hosts in eating, drinking, and smoking on a pipe with a bowl carved like a crow's head, while crows range all around on the tops of the sarsens. When the drone dies out, the Princess Nastoya raises her head and reveals her true form as an Elephant. She speaks through the rafiqi, who has obviously seen this before, though with the alcohol he stutters and has to search for words. One by one she asks the intentions of the travelers. When it is Elphaba's turn, she speaks her truth: "To retire from the world after making sure of the safety of the survivors of my lover. To face his widow, Sarima, in guilt and responsibility, and then to remove myself from the darkening world."
Wisdom and Guidance
The Elephant tells the others, except the rafiqi, to leave. She raises her trunk and sniffs the wind, her rheumy old eyes blinking slowly and her ears moving back and forth, raking the air for nuance. She pisses hugely in a steaming flow, with dignity and nonchalance, her eyes firmly latched on Elphaba. Through the rafiqi, the Elephant then says, "Daughter of the dragon, I too am under a spell. I know how it may be broken—but I choose to live as a changeling. An Elephant is a hunted thing in these times. The Scrow approve of me. They have worshipped elephants from the time before language, the time before history began. They know I am not a goddess. They know I am a beast who chooses magical incarceration as a human over the dangerous liberty of my own powerful form." She explains that when the times are a crucible, those who are the most themselves are the victims. She tells Elphaba, "But the choice to save yourself can itself be deadly." She offers Elphaba three crows as her familiars, saying, "You are in hiding as a witch now. That is your guise." When Elphaba asks why she is doing this, the Princess replies, "Because no retreat from the world can mask what is in your face." She also reveals that she knows Elphaba caused the bees to kill the cook, saying, "You did, on some level. You are a strong woman. And I can hear bees, you know. My ears are keen." When Elphaba asks to stay, the Princess curls her trunk around Elphaba's face, feeling its contours and truths, and says, "Go and do it." She refuses to answer whether Elphaba may return, and as she tires, her trunk goes back and forth like a pendulum on a clock. Then the great nose-hand comes forward and sets itself with wonderful weight and precision on Elphaba's shoulders, curling a bit around her neck. She says, "Listen to me, sister. Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny." Elphaba cannot answer, so shocked is she at the touch.
Thematic Significance
Princess Nastoya embodies the novel's central themes of identity, choice, and the nature of evil. She is an Animal who has chosen to live as a human for safety, a changeling who has accepted a magical incarceration over the dangerous liberty of her own powerful form. Her wisdom directly counters the deterministic narratives that have shaped Elphaba's life—the idea that she is cursed, that her destiny is written, that she is merely a pawn. The Princess's declaration that "nothing is written in the stars" and that "no one controls your destiny" is a radical assertion of free will in a world dominated by the Wizard's tyranny, Madame Morrible's manipulations, and the fatalistic prophecies of the Clock of the Time Dragon. Her gift of the crows as familiars further cements Elphaba's identity as a witch, a guise she must adopt to survive and act in the world. The Princess's own story—a powerful being choosing a diminished form for survival—mirrors Elphaba's own trajectory and offers a model of strategic self-preservation without complete surrender. Her role as a mentor figure is brief but profound, providing Elphaba with the only clear, untainted guidance she receives in her adult life, a moment of blessing and clarity before she descends into the final, tragic phase of her journey.
