In our society, we don’t think of these sorts of books as religious fiction-we don’t even think of Chronicles of Narnia as religious fiction. That being said, Children of Blood and Bone is, quite honestly, religious fiction. The interesting thing about this book is that the magic system is actually based on existing deities from African mythology. In this story, magic is a gift from the gods certain gods give you certain magical abilities and the more you worship that god, the stronger your abilities will be. Characters in this story are born with white hair, which symbolizes their ability to use magic. The first is used in the popular series, Children of Blood and Bone. There are a couple different ways you can incorporate this idea. With a Christian Power System, you won’t need an illness or a birthright to determine your abilities-your powers will simply come from God. In each of these bestsellers, the power system is based on a human condition-you are either born that way, or your supernatural abilities developed after a naturally occurring illness. In Red Queen, children born with silver-colored blood also possessed superhuman skills. In The Young Elites children developed strange abilities after surviving a serious illness. In Frostblood, children are born with abilities to manipulate ice or fire. Power systems are the same across secular and Christian fiction-the only thing that truly changes is the source of the power. There is more to Christian fiction than yet another story of salvation, yet another romance, or some other less interesting rehash of Left Behind. Having Christ as the center of your work does not mean you need to tell a certain narrative. For some reason, Christian publishers and agencies have become convinced that Christian fantasy cannot be as immersive, as open-world, or as creative as secular fiction and that’s simply not true. In a faith where we serve a God of all power, why isn’t anything possible?Ĭhristian publishers seem to have fallen into a box when it comes to fiction-they are no longer interested in publishing works as adventurous as Lord of the Rings, or as imaginative as Chronicles of Narnia. Yet, for some reason, people seem to forget this fact when they pick up Christian fantasy. The thing about fantasy that makes it so exciting is the idea that truly anything is possible. Faith is a really good way to incorporate powers because it immediately tells readers what to expect.ĭo your characters worship the god of fire? No surprise when they start shooting flames from their fists.ĭoes your story take place in a city oppressed by users of dark powers?ĭoes your main character come from a temple dedicated to honoring Jehovah Rapha (the God of healing)? No surprise when powers of healing manifest in your protagonist. It isn’t uncommon for Christian fantasy to include elements of supernatural abilities-we’ve all heard of Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, but you can find other examples of CF on this list of good Christian fiction I composed last year, click here to read it. What better place to demonstrate the extent of the power of Jesus Christ? What better place to truly show off the fantastical beauty of our faith? I believe fantasy was made for CF-it is the only place where the true power, majesty, and wonder of our Father God can really shine. How do you weave this into your writing as a Christian author? But today we’re going to explore superpowers/abilities. Click the titles to begin reading.Ĭhristian Fantasy is my favorite genre, we’ve discussed it quite a few times here on the blog- Writing Christian Fantasy and Worldbuilding Christian Fantasyare two of my favorite articles on the subject. If you aren’t familiar with power systems, or need to brush up on the subject, I highly recommend reading through my other articles, Writing a Hard Magic System, and Writing a Soft Magic System. The Lord Jesus blessed me to sit down and categorize as many different forms of superpowers/abilities as I could into just THREE different systems that can be applied specifically to Christian fantasy/fiction. So, from this point forth, I will refer to our ‘magic system’ as a power system. They come from God and are in fact the power of God. In fact, in Christian fantasy/sci-fi, our powers aren’t magical at all. I’m not talking about witchcraft and whatnot, by ‘magic’ I simply mean supernatural powers/abilities-these don’t have to have anything to do with ‘magic’ whatsoever. Did you know there are three different types of Christian Magic Systems? YES, there are!įirst, I want to begin by saying that I don’t mean ‘magic’ in a traditional sense.
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