Three Reasons Why I Write About Religion

If you’re familiar with my work you know I often dabble in religions both real and invented. Here’s a few reasons why:

It can add depth both to a character and a setting. In Wolfbreed , the main antagonist, Landkomtur Erhard von Stendal, is a member of an order of monastic warriors, the Teutonic Knights. (Think Templars, just crusading in Northern Europe.) Erhard’s character is driven by his faith, which helps ground the book in 13th Century Prussia, as well as being a source of conflict between him and the Pagan locals.It can add an otherworldly speculative element, especially when the tenants of the faith diverge from what the reader is presumably familiar with. In Broken Crescent the chief deity of my secondary world, Ghad, is actively hostile to mankind. Instead of offering blessings, the people say “May Ghad avert his eye.” It doesn’t help that Ghad is a particularly Lovecraftian interdimensional entity.It can be a wellspring of conflict and thematic elements. In my Apotheosis Trilogy the main thematic conflict is encapsulated on one side by Nickolai, a descendant of genetically engineered warriors who has the gnostic belief that creation is an act of false divinity perpetrated by a fallen creature, man, and on the other side by Adam, a post-singularity AI that views itself literally as God.