The Nome King is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum, introduced in the 1907 book Ozma of Oz.

Sally Roesch Wagner, in her pamphlet The Wonderful Mother of Oz, suggests that Matilda Joslyn Gage had made Baum aware that the egg is an important symbol of matriarchy, and that it is this that the Nomes (among whom no females are seen) actually fear.

He has his subjects dig a tunnel under the Deadly Desert while his general recruits a host of evil spirits like the Whimsies, the Growleywogs, and the Phanfasms to conquer Oz.

Fortunately at the moment of invasion, Ozma wishes (using her magic belt) for a large amount of dust to appear in the tunnel.

Shaggy, with the help of Betsy Bobbin, the Oogaboo army, some of Dorothy's old friends, and Quox the dragon, conquer the Nome King again and Tititi-Hoochoo the Great Jinjin expels him from his kingdom, placing Chief Steward Kaliko on the throne.

Soon after taking over the Oz series, Ruth Plumly Thompson brought back Ruggedo, his memory and rancor restored and living imprisoned under the city.

Finding a box of mixed magic in Kabumpo in Oz (1922), he grows into a giant and runs away with Ozma's royal palace on his head.

After threatening the Emerald City utilizing a Cloak of Invisibility, he is hit with a Silence Stone and immediately struck dumb.

In Pirates in Oz (1931), the mute Ruggedo finds a town in the Land of Ev called Menankypoo, whose people speak with words across their foreheads and seek a dumb king.

In Handy Mandy in Oz (1937), the Wizard of Wutz, the handsome but cruel King of the Silver Mountain, restored Ruggedo's proper form.

Much fan discussion has revolved around the identity of the Gnome King in Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902), a jolly rock dweller who does not believe in giving, but only in even exchange.

His gnomes watch over the rocks in the Forest of Burzee and make sleigh bells for each of Santa Claus's ten reindeer that he gives in exchange for toys for his children.

[5] Concerning the original depiction of the Nome King by L. Frank Baum, essayist Suzanne Rahn has suggested that he was a "distinctly American kind of monarch".

In this case, Baum makes his replacement Nome king sound like a stereotypical capitalist from his time period.

[8] Gore Vidal argued that Oz represents a "pastoral dream" deriving from the ideals of Thomas Jefferson, though here the slaves have been replaced by magic and good will.

Vidal concluded that "the Nome King has governed the United States for more than a century; and he shows no sign of wanting to abdicate.

In Zipes words': "Their art was a subversive symbolic act intended to illuminate concrete utopias waiting to be realized once the authoritarian rule of the Nome King could be overcome".

The inevitable conflict between the two sides is a recurring theme in the Oz tales and has in their view contributed to the enduring popularity of the series.

As in the novel, the lack of females among Nomes causes Ruggedo to be willing to take her as wife, sister, or daughter so long as she remains to brighten his kingdom, and the song has him trying out the father option.

Instead of being portrayed as an old man that looks like a mineral, Roquat is identified as being tall, rock-like with a boulder-like mass for his torso, and wears a large crown upon his rocky head.

His personality and characterization largely stays true to how he is portrayed in the original novels, being seemingly fair and courteous to Dorothy and her companions under the belief that they will fail a game he sets up for them (in which they touch an ornament from his collection and say "Oz" simultaneously, having three chances each to do so) in order to give them a chance to locate the Scarecrow, whom the Nome King transformed into an ornament shortly after their entering of his domain.

Hungry for revenge, he grows to an enormous size surrounded in a blaze of fire and tries to eat the protagonists in a scene inspired by Georges Méliès's The Conquest of the Pole (1912).

Roquat, having regained his original name, is the villain of The Oz-Wonderland War, published by DC Comics and starring Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew.

Michael G. Ploog, who was a conceptual artist of Return to Oz, wrote and illustrated a graphic novel based on The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus in which the Gnome King looked like the Nome King's likeness in the film, but whose function was greatly expanded from the novel to be the ruler of all the Immortals.

In Bill Willingham's Vertigo comic book series Fables, the Nome King has sided with the Adversary and is now the ruler of Oz.

In Blade: Trinity, Zoe is read the Oz books by her mother and she later compares Drake to the Nome King in that he is bad simply because he has never tried to be good.

In Emerald City Confidential, the Nome King is now a bartender and is mostly reformed (although he is not above using illegal magic to gain back his fortune).

Nome King attended the Imperial conference called after the destruction of the magic grove and was positively delighted by the plans outlined by the Snow Queen for the effective genocide of the mundane population.

He was killed during Bufkin's revolution when the Nome King's own hanging rope magically came to life and snapped its master's head off.

By the end of the film, Dorothy, Toto, Tom, and Jerry use the potion the Wizard gave them to help pay off Mr. Bibb and have him cancel his lawsuit against the Gale farm where he gets a larger watermelon.