Red Windmill
Red Windmill is the garrison town situated in the valley below Kiamo Ko, the mountain stronghold of the Arjiki tribe in the Vinkus. It serves as the permanent outpost for a detachment of the Wizard's reconnaissance army, whose presence is explicitly intended to keep Elphaba confined and under surveillance. The town's name derives from a windmill that becomes a site of brutal military discipline: a soldier who proposed assaulting Dorothy is stripped, castrated, and nailed to the windmill, where his body rotates as vultures peck at his entrails, a punishment Elphaba later ends by killing him herself under cover of darkness.
Strategic Role and Military Occupation
The garrison at Red Windmill is part of the Wizard's long-term strategy to control the Vinkus and monitor Elphaba. Commander Cherrystone leads the force, which remains in a state of bored readiness, staffing the outpost to report signs of invasion or trouble from the mountain clans. The soldiers conduct surveys of the passes to the Thousand Year Grasslands, mapping valleys, fording points, and beacon locations. The Wizard himself confirms to Elphaba that the army at Red Windmill exists "to keep you in check," calling it "an expense, but there you are." The town thus functions as a permanent military checkpoint between Kiamo Ko and the outside world.
Dorothy's Arrival and the Climax
When Dorothy and her companions—the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion—reach Red Windmill after their long journey from the Emerald City, they receive a royal welcome. The soldiers' banners and standards are shifted, and bugles blow tinnily up the slopes to the castle, alerting Elphaba to their arrival. It is from Red Windmill that Dorothy and her friends make their final ascent to Kiamo Ko, where the confrontation with the Witch occurs. The town thus marks the last waypoint before the story's climax, the place where the Wizard's orders to kill the Witch are transmitted and where the travelers are fêted before their deadly mission.
Symbolic Significance
Red Windmill embodies the Wizard's oppressive reach into the remote Vinkus, a constant reminder of state power even in the most isolated regions. Its garrison represents the military apparatus that has already kidnapped Sarima and her family, and that now awaits the outcome of Dorothy's mission. The town's windmill, transformed into an instrument of torture and execution, becomes a grotesque symbol of the regime's brutality—a punishment that Elphaba, despite her own violent history, finds excessive enough to intervene against. Red Windmill is thus both a staging ground for the final act and a microcosm of the Wizard's tyranny.
