Portraying Christ's death in a fantastical context

[Caledvwlch]

I am in the process of writing a fantasy, entitled Kshadriya: Warrior's Heart. Magic is sometimes good, bad, or neutral. Some magic (sorcery) comes directly from the Destroyer (the devil). Other magic comes directly from God, and some is just plain old magic to be used.

Anyway, the book has a historical background to it that's an allegory to the death and resurrection of Christ. I've been struggling with how to portray that. Should I have it be a physical fight, where the devil is wounded and Yehol Xrilnal (Jesus Christ) dies but is resurrected? I've also toyed with the idea of having the Destroyer draw the life-force from Yehol.

Or should I have it be a completely spiritual thing? I really have no idea how I should do this. Any opinions, comments, thoughts, ideas?

[DanTheMan]

Here's my input. I suggest your Devil character not have direct contact with Yehol, but that he would act more as a deceiver of some. Perhaps the Devil character has the appearance of a very good and nice character - a character made of light or white? Perhaps Yehol consorts with the scum of the society, but speaks truth.
Some thoughts for you.

[Caledvwlch]

Right, I understand your point, but I was wanting this to be more of a display of who each of them really is; the battle in the spiritual sense was indeed a battle. Satan thought he had won. thanks for your input, though; i probably will have them each appear as such to others, but i wanted the actual battle to be more straightforward.

[mitch434poj]

Do you have a file of this story? I would enjoy reading it and see if I could come up with something

[Caledvwlch]

Not sure what you mean by file. I have about 35 pages of the linear story from the beginning to chapter 6. Other than that i have some stuff that goes in here and there when i get to it. And the portrayal of Christ's death doesn't actually happen in the book, it's backstory that some characters talk about.

I personally don't want to write the prequel that has Yehol Xrilnal in it; I think it'd be too hard for me to write words that Christ would have said. But I do want to have this story to go back to. Anyway, the Word 2000 doc that the current story's in is about 150 kb or so. That what you meant? Or did you mean online?

[blixbrunner]

Hi ya.
What is this battle you speak of?
The Christ of the Bible, although Lord of Creation, went as a 'lamb to the slaughter'. With that in mind I wonder if your Christ character should give him self up to be killed by your devil character (or his servants) as a ransom or some such to save a city/world/fletching society from destruction at the hands of the armies of the devil.
all the best
blix

[Caledvwlch]

Good input. Thanks a lot. I will definately consider that. hmmm.

[dafyd]

1)You read the lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis?? I don't want to encourage you to copy this story. But I think its a good idea that your Christ sacrifices himself.

2)When the story is only told by someone in your book, you need not show all what happened. You see what I mean? So that it isn't obvious for the reader what happened exactly in this fight.

I hope you understand what I mean and it helps you a little bit.
Greets from Germany, Joel.

[Caledvwlch]

thanks. i do see what you mean, and have made some progress on the story. Yehol does sacrifice himself, and i think i have it nearly figured out. but by no means stop giving input; i need all i can get.

[stevenday]

Hopefully this may help a bit, as I have also long wanted to see this story done in fantasy...

Remember that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was the means to an end. It was spiritual death (real death, separation from God) that was required to pay the penalty for sin. When he died on the cross and sin was laid upon him, in crying 'it is finished' he fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant, but the New Covenant had not been radified yet. He had not yet cleansed the heavenly utinsils of worship, he had not yet ascended as our heavenly high priest, he had not yet resurrected, so obviously the plan of redemption was not yet fullfilled, just the first part. The Bible says that Jesus conquered Satan in open combat and witnessed by all those in Hell including the demons, and that Jesus literally took from Satan the keys to death, hell and the grave that he had recieved from Adam.

So the bottom line is, there is much, much material here that would make for quite an elaborate battle sequence. Read the first chapter of Hebrews, which is the account of God the Father speaking into Hell and raising Jesus from the dead and declaring Him the risen Lord. Pretty awesome stuff... If you would like other scriptural references for all this... just let me know...

[Caledvwlch]

i've now come to the decision that i won't be using that allegory at all--it's too complicated in a fantasy context. I will probably still use God, but without delving into the Trinity. Mostly i'll be making my theological points thru morality and logic.

[ardenz]

I'll still put my $.02 in. ;D

Whenever writing an allegory of Christ, I tyr to keep in mind that the Messiah knew all along that he would die. That was his sole purpose in life; to be a ransom for many. It was laid "before the foundation of the earth". That was God's plan all along. So, unless portrayed correctly, a battle between satan and Christ might make it seem like Christ wasn't expecting to lose.

I know this probably doesn't help as you've already decided to stay away from allegory, but I just wanted to put my input.