Jimi Hendrix was one of the greatest guitarists ever, and one fine musician. I think a lot of folks miss that great musicians are also great writers. Sure, their style is more poetic and concise than say, a lengthy and involved novel, but the appreciation and skill of the Craft is there nonetheless.

I thought about Jimi as I have been rummaging through a fantasy short story. He came to mind because I always thought of his music, and perhaps ‘acid rock’ as a whole as a fantasy music genre.

Now that 60s era rock was infused with drugs and imagination, and one fed the other. My fantasy world takes that and runs with it. Here, magic once never existed on the world, only faith did, along with three gods. One who made life, one of death, and their child, who value survival and self sacrifice.

But at some point, magical beings, long with their magic, fell (literally) to the world and this caused a bunch of problems.

So the source of magic is a solid element that can be refined, processed, liquefied, etc. A narcotic, used by various fantastical species to promote various effects. It’s not your typical Vancian magic where wizards simply throw out powerful effects as easily as Spider-Man lobs webs. There will be some variation of how each group utilizes this material, specific effects each can produce. I have to say, it’s been fun figuring out how this all works.

And of course, this material is a valuable, precious resource. So you can run out of it. That’s when things can get interesting.

When you read fantasy, magic has become a lot more pervasive. Way back with Tolkien, magic existed in Middle Earth, but it rarely showed up in the form of a fireball or magic missile, teleportation or shapechanging. Gandalf had it, and used it sparingly. Sauron had it. Bilbo found that one ring. But generally, magic was very low key. If I remember right, the same held true for Robert E. Howard’s Conan. Lots of combat, muscular effort, daring deeds. But magic was in the hands of evil wizards/tyrants. It might be from a strange monster. That’s it.

Dungeons & Dragons made magic increasingly more apparent with every iteration of the fabled game. Now in it’s fifth edition, almost every character class can unleash some form of magic for self defense, aid, or healing. It’s like the world became magically middle class, glutted with 1980s magical shopping malls. Seriously. Your character can shop for magic items. Way back when, I recall a magic item being super rare, kind of like surviving the game, lol.

You can see the proliferation of magic in fantasy video games as well. And I think, to me, this makes it not just ‘like superheroes’, as some have complained. It makes it a duality of really cool yet painfully plain. Dull. When magic is as common as swordplay, it loses some of its enigma.

So that’s where I stood looking at the fantasy genre when I began a story a couple years ago that has bled into this new short I’m working on now. Fantasy went from a more Western, sort of historical approach tale of high adventure and renouncing high mysticism to being a power fantasy itself, with the protagonist often being a male with a great destiny/magic they must journey to prove themselves/conquer ultimate evil. Here, power is no longer shunted or must be destroyed, but it’s to be acquired, trusting the destined hero will be wiser than that Evil Guy simply because, well, he’s nicer. Or fated to be nicer.

I love toying with power in the sphere of morality. I did it with the Rail Legacy. Power corrupts, as the saying goes, and I believe it does for the most part. But a few will do right by it. However, those that don’t will become concerned of being usurped by the good guys, and so scheme to undermine them. I feel this would be just as true in high fantasy. Mages would be fighting for more power, while a few just want to get by.

In a world where magic is as physical as petroleum, someone would try to monopolize that and get rich. Or powerful. Or become a despot. You can see the problems. Evil Guy could be several Evil Guys, or a fantasy corporation that processes said resource, leaving magical pollution in its wake.

Anyway, I’m having fun writing it out and envisioning what this will do to the world as time passes. I’ve foreshadowed a bit of it above. And the Hendrix Purple Haze helps me not only to leave the physical plane and delve deeper into the world, but the music makes me happy.

Being happy while doing anything is a true magic trick.

Keep writing, y’all.