How I Blended Biblical Beliefs with Ancient Myth and Symbolism in My Mermaid Fantasy World

Honouring the Sacred While Crafting Original Fantasy

“Too often, the Born and the Made alike look only at the surface of things, but Elyon inhabits every part of his design. It is easy to love what is beautiful and see God in what pleases us, but it is difficult when we don’t like what we see. When people see me, their reaction reveals their true character. It shows which side of the war of Creation they are currently on.”

— Reverend Berian, The Undine's Tear by Talena Winters

When I started writing my Rise of the Grigori mermaid epic fantasy series, I didn’t just want to create a magical world—I wanted to build a spiritual one. One that felt old, rich with layers of symbolism and shaped by belief systems that have been echoing through human history for millennia.

While mermaids were always going to be central to the story, I soon realized they were only one piece of a much larger puzzle. My supernatural races had deep roots—roots anchored in biblical myth, ancient cosmologies, and developed from a lot of unexpected questions.

(Links in this article go to Wikipedia for further exploration, if you wish.)

A World That Respects the Sacred

One of the trickiest parts of building a fantasy world that draws from real spiritual traditions is this: how do you treat the sacred with respect while still telling an original story?

Even though not all the texts I drew from align with my own faith tradition, I’ve always believed there’s something powerful about the myths people have held sacred across cultures and time. So I took care—whether working with biblical stories, the non-canonical Book of Enoch, or ancient Mesopotamian mythologies—not to simply “borrow” cool imagery. I wanted to explore how these ideas might fit together in a world where magic and spirit overlap.

The winged bull lamassu form of one of the series characters.

The Serpent of Fire and the Guardians of the Deep

In my world, the dragons are based on the biblical seraphim—a word that means burning ones and serpents—a race of spiritual beings often associated with God’s throne and presence. Drawing on the Book of Enoch, I split the figure commonly referred to as Lucifer (a word found only once in the Bible, and only in the King James Version) into two separate beings: Semyaza (also known as Kesbeel), the leader of the rebellion against God, and Azazel (also known as Gadreel), his accomplice who tempted Eve in the garden, as described in that text.

Note that Lucifer and satan—the latter originally just a title meaning “accuser”—have become synonymous in Christian tradition, even though they were distinct in earlier texts. Both are often described as a dragon, and the deceiver in the Garden appeared as a serpent. These overlapping motifs made it an easy leap to imagine the seraphim as dragons.

The fallen seraphim in my world are trapped beneath the sea, bound by the very element that opposes their nature—water. They were cast into the Abyss—one of the circles of hell—and entombed within a great stone, guarded by undines (my version of mermaids). These undines were divinely designed as psychopomps—guides of lost souls at sea—and as protectors of those in peril on the waters.

The undines are one of the few races I completely invented, though I drew heavily on mermaid and siren mythologies in their creation. They are shapeshifters between human and mer-form and are unique in that they exist naturally in both the spiritual and material planes. In that way, they act as a bridge between the elements, but also between the sacred and the human.

Some dragons are more terrifying than others…

Wings, Wheels, and Sacred Technology

Cherubim in my world are a hybrid spiritual race called lumasi that I based on ancient Assyrian lamassu and the multifaceted cherubim described in the Bible.

While descriptions of their appearance vary—from having four faces and six wings to being covered in eyes—I chose a blend of literal and metaphorical interpretations. The many eyes described in Ezekiel 10:12 became the ability to perceive multiple perspectives, things near and far (with the aid of their technology), and frequencies of energy rather than having literal eyeballs everywhere. And I interpreted their multiple faces and pairs of wings as the ability to shape-shift between different forms (each with only a single face at a time). But what remains constant is the role of guardianship that cherubim and lamassu traditionally held.

To ground this in my world’s structure, I gave the lumasi technologies that reflect their abilities: gyroscopic “chariots” that bend space to teleport, “finders” that detect and enhance spiritual frequencies, and “mindovers” that adjust consciousness and memory. These technologies aren’t meant to modernize the supernatural but to bring the awe and mystery found in passages like Ezekiel’s vision of the throne of God into a fantasy realm set on a realistic Earth.

Abela, a sphinx-lamassu cherubim in human form found in my Rise of the Grigori series, walks on a Caribbean beach at sunset. Her golden eyes are a key indicator that she is either a seraphim or cherubim in human form in my world.

Princes, Powers, and the Seventy Nations

Another layer of inspiration came from a passage in Deuteronomy 32:8, which speaks of God dividing the nations according to the number of the “sons of God”—or “sons of Israel,” depending on the translation. (The Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint support the “sons of God” reading.) This verse, paired with Genesis 10’s list of seventy nations and the Old Testament use of “sons of God” to refer to angels, became the backbone for a system of spiritual governance in my world.

I imagined that seventy spiritual beings—the Watchers, also known as the Grigori, in the Book of Enoch—were originally assigned as guardians over the world’s peoples. But over time, many of them fell, becoming the corrupted princes referred to in Daniel 10.

This opened the door for me to weave in ancient god and goddess figures through syncretism. Semyaza became tied to the Assyrian storm god Hadad (and, by historical syncretic association, to Zeus, Jupiter, and Bel). Tamiel, another of the fallen, is portrayed as a female water dragon syncretized with Atargatis (the mermaid goddess often paired with Hadad) and Ishtar (Inanna)—divine feminine figures connected with fertility, water, and power.

This kind of mythological blending is an echo of how spiritual stories evolve across cultures while pointing back to a possible shared supernatural origin.

Abela in her lumasi form.

Walking the Line Between Faith and Fiction

Although this is a fantasy series, I built its spiritual system on foundations I personally respect. I don’t claim to present doctrine, and some of the theological choices I made—like how cherubim appear or how angelic beings interact with matter—may not align with any one tradition (or any tradition at all). But these decisions were never careless. Every change I made was in service to the story and world I was building, while still striving to honour the deeper truths I believe these stories point to.

So if you’ve ever found yourself drawn to stories that echo something deeper—something that feels older than myth, rooted in longing, faith, or wonder—you’re not alone. I hope the world I’ve created speaks to the sacred mystery within us all and gives you a sense of something just beyond the veil—and hints at one way our world’s varied belief systems might have a common origin.

About the Rise of the Grigori series:

How’s facing the original Father of Lies for epic stakes? :-)

Mermaids. Magic. And a search for redemption that could tear the world apart…

Three thousand years ago, a Mad undine healer sank Atlantis. Ever since, the Heartstone that protects the undines’ island has been failing and they haven’t produced a single boy. As the most powerful healer in three millennia, Calandra is the last hope of not only her people, but the entire world. Because if she can’t figure out how to undo her ancestor’s mistake, the Father of Lies will unleash hell on Earth.

Packed with complex characters, lush world-building, gritty action, and impossible odds, this intricately woven epic fantasy series presents mermaids and dragons like you’ve never seen them before.

Join Calandra in a search for redemption that could threaten the very fabric of the universe!

Discover the Series

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If you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes of my mermaid fantasy world, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What myths, spiritual stories, or symbols have stayed with you? Do you enjoy books that blend sacred tradition with the fantastical? Let’s talk about it. Let me know in the comments!