My world Mythica was originally inspired largely by L. Franks Baum's books about OZ and other "fairy lands" where the impossible was possible simply because it was a "fairy land" and magic was not so uncommon as it is here. For instance, a walking talking scarecrow was not only possible, but actually existed in the land of Oz (Jack Pumpkinhead).

Basically speaking, the "magic of Oz" was more like Cobha (as I understand it) a natural part of the created world. It was amoral, neither good nor bad, but could be used for either depending on the user. As far as I could tell (I've not read all but the books, but I have read several), their were no "magical" individuals, rather they learned magic from spell books or such. Much more common than spells, were innately magical items (the magic slippers, the magic cap, Ozma's Mirror, need I continue?). On occasion, magic was used as the explanation for why characters of inanimate makeup were able to be alive (i.e. the scarecrow, the tin woodsman, the patchwork girl, the glass cat, etc.) On other occasions magic was used as the explanation for why a place was the way it was. For instance, there was one kingdom in one of the books, where the inhabitants were all humanoid, but they were vegetables (in the sense that they grew from plants and were "picked" when they were "ripe") and you could walk on the air as if it were the ground and this was simply explained by the fact that it was a "fairy country." But rarely was magic the sombre, significant, force or ability that many fantasy writers use it as.

As a kid I loved this idea (though at the time, I didn't really understand it in a way I could verbalize), and it gave birth to my world of Mythica, where there were such places as a city suspended halfway between the ground and the sky, an underwater city where everyone could breathe underwater, a city along a riverbank where the river naturally bubbled soap bubbles, a city on top of a rainbow, from which all the world's dyes came from, an underground city built in the midst of a giant network of roots, a city in the middle of a gigantic patch of thorny plants, and (my all-time favorite that I've always been reluctant to change) a forest where all the trees and animals and people were made out of metal (even the river flowing through it was cold liquid metal that turned to water once the river left the forest).

Later, Tolkien's works, Norse mythology, my adaptation of pokemon (my parents hated pokemon and kept me away from it but the idea of animals with special powers fascinated me so I worked out my own version), Lego's Bionicle, fairy lore, Greek mythology, and a host of other influences crept into Mythica and changed it to the point that the Oz-like feeling has been altogether lost.

But I saw a post here on Tolkien's concept of magic and thought it might be interesting to see what y'all thought about Baum's concept which I was at one point enamored with.

In Christ,
Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

I think you're right. There should be limits to what all is possible in a fantasy world. I'm fairly sure that Baum had some kind of limits in his mind if not in his writing, though it's been years since I've read his books so I can't be positive. Keep in mind that Baum was writing a new generation of fairy tales for a new generation of children, most of an age that would accept that scarecrows could come alive, and princesses switch heads like clothing, and animals talk in a magical land.

I am personally suspect that my prolonged inability to ever settle on a single "feel for"/concept of/premise for Mythica may have been linked to (among other things) the loss of the Oz-like qualities which it began with.

Yeah, but for a lot of kids it works. It's only when ya get older that you look back and think: "I actually liked that?" And besides, weirder isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Yoohoo! People who can have the power for such things, please archive this topic. I think it's time to let her R.I.P. Thanks.