One of the reasons I have a love/hate relationship with fantasy is due to my faith. My testimony is long and winding, and with some strange bumps that even I don’t understand why I experienced them or could prove if they were real. Suffice it to say, it’s very strange that I’m writing fantasy at all, and here’s why.
I came from a background where I was raised Lutheran, had my faith broken completely and fell into paganism and new age occultism for 7 years before being born again, I saw and experienced some things I could not place in the natural. I knew in my heart of hearts that the supernatural existed, and that becoming Christian again did not erase those experiences. No, instead it made the Bible become that more alive to me! I saw how the supernatural worked from the wrong side of the tracks to some degree, and then learned even more about the spiritual war that we live in. You may not believe in the supernatural, and that is fine. Just know I believe in a reality that is more complex and irrational than what you might dream of in your philosophy. And that’s cool.
“Yes, but M.D., what does this have to do with your distaste for fantasy?”
I’m getting to that, oh precocious one.
Because of my experiences, I’m very open and constantly fighting against temptations and experiences I was opened to from sinning in these areas. Palmistry, divination, sorcery… Or one big dose of self delusion as well, I need to guard my mind all the more. A portion of my life that well, I have lots of scars and weak spots from so I have to avoid it a lot. This means some of my favorite fantasy books, or games are ‘no-go zones’ now. They tempt me far to greatly no matter how well they’re written, or awesome or whatever. That means I never have, nor never will read Harry Potter among many other things. Pick your jaw up.
I also stay away from a lot of horror and sxi fi. It is part of why I will not read any Transhumanist SF and quit participating in a shared Transhumanist collaboration. Plus other supernatural things for just that reason. It gets in my head and messes with me, but the love of the genre is there. At least some of the best selling fantasy series of all time are Christian.
…so … there’s that, I guess.
“The point is…..?”
The point is that this is part of why I started to be inspired to write this series. I liked the challenge of creating a fantasy world where there was all the ‘sorcery’ and ‘magic’ like flavor, but it was based on Scripture and in alignment with God’s Word. For many years I struggled with this very thing when it finally hit me.
“Hey…. ” I sez to Me. “What about the Gifts of the Spirit?”
“Bwuh???” Me responds. “What about them?”
“Well,” sez I. “Miracles and healing, and prophecy and all that stuff is pretty spectacular cinematic goodness, right?”
“Yeah,” Me sez skeptically.
“And demons and angels manifesting would be pretty wild. Plus you’ve experienced some weird stuff in the form of inanimate objects and seen the possessed be delivered before. That’s some crazy-ass stuff too, right? Just as good as flinging around fireballs and lightning bolts.”
“Well… it could be if you turned the special effects of it up to eleven.” Me agrees.
“So why not do that? You know that’s what you want.” I sez.
“You know what?” Me agrees. “That’s a bloody fine idea as long as we keep it to stuff founded on scripture and be very careful about it.”
That conversation blazed through the head, and I realized I had a very different way of looking at magic as compared to what I had seen in RPGs and some of the fantasy books I knew from the past. So the whole philosophy I took to the book is the supernatural is about spiritual authority and relationships. It’s not like so many games where you find magic lying around like coal or electricity: an impersonal power for you to mine out of the ground or hunt like deer just to bend it to your own will… or even your own supercharged willpower like in another RPG that created the most terrifying “realistic” magic system and view ever. If I get enough people to ask about it, I’ll explain that. Post below of you really want to hear me riff on it. The magic number is 10 comments.
See what I did there?
So, The idea in the novel is that supernatural comes from God or Satan. God can impart power directly through the Holy Spirit, while Satan sends minion demons to connect you to power from him or his minions. That means knowingly or not, you pick a side. There is no neutral. If you want to know power, you need to follow your master, be it God or Satan.
So that’s the big underpinning of all the metaphysical stuff going on in Akiniwazi.
For the TL:DR.
- It’s a relationship between you and either God or Satan.
- There is no neutral party or self empowerment to gain supernatural power.
- Your source is your master.
- Even if you do not have supernatural power, you chose a side even by doing nothing.
There will be more to come. Again, comment below if you want me to expound more on something that caught your eye.
Oh, as a reminder I will be on vacation next week so I will be not posting anything big I think… But who knows? Something cool might happen.
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