Why put Christianity in your Dark Fantasy

The answer is simple: I love fantasy. I love books/movies like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Sabriel and The Seventh Tower. All these and more inspire me towards fantasy, as does it to many others. But why add Christianity? Is it compatible with fantasy?

Well, yes, quite so; God is everywhere; He inspires us, He protects us, He is the light in the dark. But evil is a whole other thing. Technically, evil is anything that’s against God. So I created creatures like the Fae of the woods in Death by Exorcist and the Goblin Duke in Blood Rose. I made these creatures not only sentient but also able to choose their own path. Yet they choose evil.

As a Christian, I created a challenge of faith for one of my characters in particular, Jacob Kane, an exorcist with a dark past. He is flawed like the heroes of the Bible, like Noah, Samson, and Peter. Or Thomas, David, and Solomon. I could list all their feats and just as great their overcoming their flaws. Jacob has welling emotions towards evil. Anger, hate, mistrust. Who do we know that hasn’t felt that while watching the news? Yet he is a man of God, doing works in his name. And that’s the thing about the bible its full of flawed men and women. All brought up by the one true God. Disagree if you like, but the heroes journy is biblical. An ideal hero would be King David against the odds; he slew a giant, grew favor in the great king of the land, Saul. And later took up his throne. Only later to fall from favor in a sin of lust and murder. Sounds like a modern tale to me. And yet God said that David was a man after his own heart. You see, even after the hero falls, he rises to God a hero, and we all know his name. This is why a Flawed hero is a strong choice for a faith-based hero.

Goblins Goblins Goblins

Yes I have goblins in every story included in my book In A Dark Light. Most notably in Blood Rose and Goblin Boy. To start off, why not talk about the first story. Blood Rose is about a woman who's more than she seems, in fact one that’s used to doing the dark deeds of a hero. In this story, we have a world run by goblins. The goblin king who sent his hordes throughout the world, conquering and devouring all mankind. And if you but take a look in my story, you’ll see how corrupt the world really is. The goblins need to eat the living is a foul contrast to the hero's journey. They are cruel and callous things. Throughout the story, you see the fear and hate of these creatures from the victim’s point of view

The Hell Cerena goes through with all the intent I could put is the darkest, most painful suffering I could manage as a first story. Whether you find it too dark or not ill leave it up to.

Now to turn those ideas right on their head, I present to you the final story in my collection, Goblin Boy

His name is Rags, a young boy taken in by goblins in his infancy. Now, how do these goblins compare to the mighty goblins of Blood Rose? For comparisons in size and intelligence its oparent The red Goblins of Goblin Boy are rather small and weak. But their redeeming factor is in what is simply known as Love and companionship. They raised food to be their friend. How strange is that? Not that strange at all if you look at it from a more familiar point of view; we have pets. We even have pets the same species as the food we eat. Like fish, we eat tuna and salmon, but not goldfish. Thankfully, Rags is not a goldfish, or his friends Brigs and Thasher, particularly Thasher, would have gotten him into more trouble or worse.

Why Dark Fantasy?

This is a good question. Why do I choose to use Dark fantasy in my stories instead of just fantasy? While I’d love to have something as pure as C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. I have some pieces of it, but I don’t know enough to be confident enough to put that much weight of faith and goodness in a story. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m currently writing a light-hearted Christian Fantasy Adventure. More to be said later on. But why do I go towards the darkness? It’s very simple: after a certain age in my childhood, I craved something with greater stakes. There’s a difference in children’s stories now and from the 80s-90s. I watched the X-Men that had dark, gritty elements in a kids’ show. People died, or at least were thought to be. The pilot has this very element I won’t spoil, but the dark tone was there. Or from another show/movie, watching your hero die, like in Transformers: The death of Optimus Prime, which hits heavier now with His voice actor Peter Cullen’s passing this week. They did it again in the Live action Movies and it did hurt, but not like the first time. The death of Optimus Prime was more drawn out and emotional in the children’s cartoon, and even as a kid, it hurt. Though that being sci-fi does drag from my point. But still, inspiration comes from pain. And joy can be found in the dark.

Game of thrones youd think, would have been a great influence on me, but it really wasn’t. Game of Thrones has themes of lust and corruption, lewdness and debauchery. This didn’t interest me. But violence is always interesting. People love watching a god fight. Look at gladiators; they fight for the crowd’s favor and even sometimes to the death. It’s all about popularity, and dark fantasy is getting very popular.

Though that may not be the type I like, I love fantasy with dark themes, like Lord of the Rings and The Wizard of Oz. You might not have noticed, but you see good and evil. But it’s written lighter than it seems. I like swords and monsters and adventure. What man wasn’t a little boy who didn’t want to go out into the woods with a sword and a bow? There are many of us. Much more than you’d think.

The Dark in the lord of the Rings is all about threat and worry. But you have big, tough companions you can imagine yourself to be. Honestly, look at The Legend of Zelda; it’s the same idea and has been going strong for forever.

Did you know that The Wizard of Oz is Dark? Why yes, it is. There’s the cowardly lion who has to eat, and that nature is explained to Dorothy in their encounter. There’s the Hungry tiger that just wants to eat a baby. Yes, very strange. I remember one scene where this dragon was on the other side of a cave, unable to reach young Dorothy. He pleaded and begged for Dorothy and friends to come closer so he could eat her, and in the most deadpan way, Dorothy says something. Like “NO I don’t think I’d like that” (I’m paraphrasing). You see, the story is dark, but the hero reacts as a child would about having broccoli. That’s something I love: dark with light brought together and made for six-year-olds. How outstanding. The books are free on YouTube; I laugh at how childlike yet dark it is. Basically a scary story written whimsically.

Now that you know why I like it, tell me why you like a little dark in your fantasy in the comments

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Christians and Goblins: A Look at Inspirations and Faith

How I Wrote It. In A Dark Light.