Faith Beyond the Surface

What does it mean to truly believe something – and how should that shape a character’s every breath?

Recently, I interviewed Arthur C. Clarke and Hugo Award winning author, Adrian Tchaikovsky in which we discussed his recent book Bee Speaker and the Dogs of War series. During the conversation the matter of faith and religion came up as it inevitable does in my podcast. Adrian said something to the effect that many fictional characters wear their beliefs like costumes. Real belief, especially religious belief, should be fully embodied by the character, in every action, thought and perspective. Join me for a deeper look at how to develop authentic characters of Faith in Fiction.

Belief as Worldview

Picture this: a warrior is dressing for battle, pulling on and tightening the straps of his breastplates, greaves and pauldrons. Right before he leaves his tent, he kneels before a small altar and prays for victory. That is only time in the story that we see him praying. This is superficial treatment of belief. Instead, if the story first explores his reasons for going to war, perhaps a calling from a religious order to defend the realm against heathen savages, some introspection and perhaps doubt about whether he is serving the Lord’s Will, or whether the order is manipulating the state to their own ends. Perhaps he stops periodically through the day to kneel at the altar and pray to God for guidance and forgiveness for the lives he has taken and will soon be taking. This is a much more embodied treatment of faith and belief as the character is trying to grapple for meaning in his actions.

Ned Stark in Game of Thrones has strong beliefs around Honour, with his actions guided by these beliefs. His sons visit the old Wierwoods to take their oaths, but that is as far as their religious convictions go. On the other hand you have Dothraki who are portrayed as having a primitive religion but are guided by prophecy and their wise women about how to best serve their Gods. Many of their actions can be ascribed to their religious beliefs.

I’ve previously written and spoken about writing Muslim characters. A Muslim, even the most wayward, is constantly reflecting on their place in the world, about repenting and seeking forgiveness, talking to God about their hopes, fears, desires and wants. For a practicing Muslim, everything, every interaction and decision, is seen through the lens of Islam. What is permissible and impermissible, what are the boundaries and limits of daily life. For example, is it okay to shake this woman’s hand, or should I explain to her that as a Muslim I cannot do that? Is this sandwich I am buying permissible to eat? Does this Kombucha drink have alcohol in it, is a trace amount of alcohol permissible? For a Muslim, religion isn’t just something you do on Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday. Its an everyday, everywhere and everything consideration. Another central theme for Muslims is the concept of Tawwakul, trust in the Will of God. A Muslim must accept that everything that happens is God’s Will, whether it is good or on the face of it, bad, it is from God so we accept it and hope that some good will come of it eventually.

Let me give you an example from The Changeling King.

Sultan crossed his legs beneath him. He drew his hunting knife as quietly as he could and laid it before him. The tiger’s ears twitched slightly. Sultan closed his eyes, no less aware of his surroundings than the tiger, and began to meditate on the path that God had laid before him.

The tiger stood suddenly, facing the exit. Every line in its body illustrated alarm. The yipping barks of a team of dogs carried over the distance to Sultan. The tiger threw an accusatory look at him. He had led the hunters to its lair. The beast dropped to its haunches.

The hunters thrashed about for several hours. The hunting dogs had gone mad the minute they had picked up the tiger’s scent. The beast stayed low but remained alert. Sultan knew it was just a matter of time before they came upon the cave.

When a hunter finally exclaimed over his discovery, the tiger churned out of the cave and attacked. Sultan pressed himself further back into the shadows. The hunter screamed in terror, but was abruptly silenced. Shouts of alarm were followed by the clatter of arrows against rock. Sultan listened quietly, picturing in his head the beast’s struggle for survival. The big cat snarled and snapped bones. Men cursed and cried out in pain. ‘Muskets,’ someone shouted, ‘shoot the damn creature!’ They opened fire. The tiger roared.

Silence.

Something primal rose up in Sultan’s stomach, urging him to charge out like the tiger and face his enemies. Sense soon prevailed, and he remained hidden where he was. Above him, the hunters debated who should take the tiger’s head and hide as a trophy.

‘What about the cave?’ asked a man with a gravelly voice, interrupting the debate.

‘What about it?’

‘Shouldn’t we check it?’

‘Why? Do you really think you’ll find anything alive in the lair of a man-eating tiger? The prince is a seasoned hunter and would have steered well clear of a tiger’s hunting ground.’

‘Maybe he’s counting on us thinking that, but really he’s hiding nearby.’

‘That is possible. Fine, set up a patrol in this area, in fact you can lead it yourself. Take three days provision and see if anyone will volunteer to join you. If the prince doesn’t show up by then, return to Azamabad and report to His Excellency, Abdul Fadl. The rest of us will press on and see if we can pick up his trail on the way to Kashmir.’

Sultan silently cursed the man for his obstinacy. He would have to skulk in this cave for a while longer. Eventually, the main body of the hunting party moved on up the mountain. Gravel Throat, as Sultan decided to call him, had remained behind with three other footsore lancers. To his disgust, the four lancers set up camp a few meters above the cave mouth and began exchanging crude jokes while they ate. Sultan returned to his meditation.

As time wore on, he began to realise the full extent of his troubles. Gravel Throat and his select group of slackers had no intention of commencing a patrol. They seemed fully intent on lazing on the mountainside for the three days they had been given.

Sultan’s stomach cramped from hunger, but he was resolute not to touch the now maggot infested leavings of the tiger. The Sheikh had taught him that a Salik, a true seeker of enlightenment, with practice, could sustain himself on the remembrance of God alone. When Sultan questioned how this was possible, the Sheikh had responded with a riddle.

‘The sustenance of every man, woman and child is a responsibility that God has taken upon Himself. So, whether one believes that he is providing for himself, or is being provided through another, it is God who really is the Provider.’

‘I do not understand. How is one sustained without provision?’

‘My child, sustenance, as with many other things, does not have to be seen, smelt or indeed tasted for one to receive it.’

Even then Sultan had not understood, but chose not to press the Sheikh any further on the matter. Over time, he had begun to understand that there was much more to the world than could be perceived by the five senses. The Sheikh had opened his eyes to this hidden world.

Sultan settled into a cross-legged position, back straight and hands resting, palms up, on his thighs. Slowly his body temperature fell to match that of the cave. His heartbeat slowed until it was in-step with his breathing, as he silently chanted the Lord’s Names of Power.

The alternation of day and night soon lost meaning for Sultan. His ears no longer registered sounds, and the stench of engorged maggots was inconsequential. Sultan travelled ever deeper inward; cocooned from the hurts and aches of the world around him. Emptiness filled his mind as his spirit soared high above the mountain, the clouds and the cosmos beyond.

After two and half days of sleeping and eating, Gravel Throat’s curiosity overcame his laziness. As Gravel Throat lowered himself through the cave opening, Sultan crossed space and time, until he entered the atmosphere of a distant world.

Gravel Throat ducked into the cave and toed through the bones of the tiger’s last meal.

Sultan’s spirit rushed to the surface, towards an island that lay west of a large continent.

Gravel Throat peered into the gloom of the cave, wishing he had brought a torch with him or had waited until morning.

Sultan hit water and went under. His mouth filled with foul liquid and mud. He lurched awake, coughing to clear his lungs.

Gravel Throat crouched at the back of the cave. There was nothing here. Disappointed, he made his way out and told his fellows that they would leave for Azamabad in the morning.

Sultan looked about. He sat hip deep in a bog, far removed from any mountain. A large dollop of rain splashed hard on the crown of his head. He looked up as an alien night sky crackled with the energy of an oncoming lightning storm.

The reeds that grew on the edge of the bog parted. The massive head of a horned reptile snaked towards him. Sultan yelled in terror and scrambled backwards. Lightning flashed as the lizard stalked forward, revealing a demon mounted upon its back. Sultan shrieked once again.

In this scene, Sultan, a Mughal Prince, is being hunted by armed men. He has taken refuge in cave and falls asleep. However, when he wakes up he finds that the cave is the lair of a tiger. The tiger is wounded and dangerous. Sultan puts his dagger before him and places his trust in God’s Will. If he is meant to die there, then he will die there, though he will fight the tiger to the end. To his surprise, the tiger shows no interest in him. As time passes, Sultan reflects on his spiritual training and turns to meditation through Dhikr, remembrance of God, to sustain him instead of eating the carrion left by the tiger. Towards the end of the scene, the hunters have dispatched the tiger and finally venture into the cave only to find it empty. Through the Will of God, Sultan has transported himself bodily through the cosmos to another world.

Ritual and Daily Practice

At the end of Season 1, I did a podcast on rituals and how they anchor belief. A writer on Substack made an excellent point about worldbuilding, suggesting that writers often make the mistake of trying to tell their readers how amazing their fantastical realms are, instead of showing it to them through small actions, daily rituals and practices. For instance, I could describe in great detail how in a desert city, the king has shown his power by decorating the boulevards and parks with water features, or I could show women rising early in the morning to wash clothes at large cisterns, using soap made from animal fat, olive oil and fragranced with honey and mint. This shares piece of information shares a daily ritual in the lives of the people, the availability of water as a convenience even though it is a luxury in a desert country, and some of the local produce, including olive oil, honey and mint.

In the same way, I could describe the mosques, churches and temples of the city in great detail, suggesting that religion is present in the world. Or I can show my character performing his ablution at a fountain and then joining the throngs of people heading to the mosque. If I want to take it further, I could have the character reflecting on how the ritual purification helps ease some of his tiredness and puts him in a meditative state, and have him feeling uplifted during the prayers and grounded in his role as a servant of God. This reflection is based on my own thoughts and feelings when I come home from work, change into my traditional clothes, perform the ablution and offer my prayers.

Belief in Conflict

It is important to acknowledge in your character that belief is not always consistently high. There is an ebb and flow to the level of belief, that causes a person to doubt themselves, worry that their faith is weakened. Whether your character is girded warrior about to enter battle or a spaceman embarking on long voyage into the cosmos, they are going to be conflicted about what they are about to do. The warrior knows that the men (or women) that they are likely to kill that day have families, maybe even dependants that will mourn them and then struggle to sustain themselves. The act of killing is naturally abhorrent to our nature, and yet throughout history we have engaged in murder, death and destruction. Faiths normally dissuade their adherents from engaging in violence, though on occasion they allow it, or even extol it if the cause is considered righteous, e.g. defending the weak from oppression, fighting in self-defence, or protecting holy sites. There are people who would happily go to war to protect the innocents that are being slaughtered and starved to death, however, they are conflicted because of international and regional laws, the threat of sanctions and persecution from the powers that be. In the case of our erstwhile spaceman, he may be conflicted about embarking on his mission because he is not only leaving behind family, but the planet that is key to his faith. If he is a Muslim, he will have to consider how he would perform his daily prayers. Makkah is on Earth and the timing of the prayers is dictated by the position of the sun. This is not an impossible problem, but the solution would still cause him a dilemma that he is compromising on his faith. He would face in the direction of Earth whilst doing his prayers and spread his prayers out using whatever artificial timing they are using aboard their vessel. If they should reach another planet, then the sun would dictate the prayer timings, unless the day cycle is extreme (like Barrow in Alaska, which gets two months of complete darkness every year). The same goes for fasting in Ramadan (when is Ramadan if you are no longer in our solar systems?). The struggle of an astronaut to perform his or her ablution in zero g and to perform their prayers would also make for an interesting scene in a novel.

Crafting Authentic Characters of Faith

The key to crafting authentic characters of faith is to make sure you research the lived experiences of believers. Even if you are writing fantasy, the faiths and religions tend to be analogues of Earth religions. Study the daily rituals, the dilemmas of living in countries where those religion are minorities. These will give you clues about what similar experiences look like in your fantasy world. Sf gives you even more scope to explore these dilemmas, whether your story is post-apocalyptic, set in a future where religion is all but forgotten, or deep space where no one can hear you do the call to prayer. Through research you will be able to avoid falling for those old, staid stereotypes that still crop up in Hollywood depictions of people of faith. Don’t forget there is also a funny side to religion too. Think about frustrating it will be praying in zero g. Every time you go to prostrate, you accidentally push yourself into a spin. Your characters don’t have to be solemn or overly rigid either, take them through all the sad and joyous occasions that are officiated through religion, e.g. births, marriages, deaths and Bar mitzvahs. Belief and faith are constantly changing and evolving, just as we are constantly changing ourselves. Faith can be gained, lost, deepened, inspiration can be found, enlightenment achieved in stages and epiphanies won through study and spiritual experiences. Test your characters with trials to see if they embody the qualities required of them by their faith, for instance, a Muslim should show patience in the face of adversity, fortitude when their kindness and generosity are tested, and gratitude when they achieve their goals or receive some heavenly boon during their hardships.

Conclusion

Religion and belief should be embodied by your characters, not paid lip service to in a superficial way. Reveal your character’s world through the daily rituals they take part in. Show the tension between observance, tests of faith and moral dilemmas. Have a think about your characters embody their beliefs. How can you enrich your story through their dilemmas and experiences? If you are willing, share your thoughts in the comments and I will do my best to provide you with some feedback.

Next week, we have James Barclay on the podcast. James is a UK Fantasy Fiction writer, who is often compared to the late and great David Gemmell. He has written 10 books and is known for his Chronicles of the Raven series. If you haven’t already, please do Like and Subscribe as it will help me reach a wider audience. And as always, keep dreaming, keep writing and let your stories shine.