God-gifted Stones?

[veritasseeker90]

At first, this may sound totally crazy...and slightly Lord of the Ringish...but for December's book, I have that God, or the 'Ancient One' gave the leaders of seven tribes each a stone which he allowed them to give one gift to that would help them rule their people.

So you have:

-The Healing Stone
-The Remembrance Stone
-The Fire Stone
-The Water Stone
And come to think of it, I never came up with the other three

But anywho, the one rule he gave was that only their Keeper's could use them and ONLY for good. If they were used by anyone else they would break.

So my question is, I don't want the stones to have the power, and I don't want the powers to really be in the "people"...so how could I make this work? I want it more as a symbolic thing that they had to rely on God and the stone symbolized that.

BUT, later on, people use the stones and they don't truly believe in God, so I'm a bit confuddled here...

[duchessashley]

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far has the LORD helped us.'" - 1 Samuel 7:12

[tris]

Try Stone of Light or Clarity (for true sight in dark places [note all spiritual implications as well ]), Stone of Discerning, Stone of Vitality (for making plants grow).

There are also references in scripture that God used the casting of lots (or dice or stones) in selection processes.

But since this is fantasy, it shouldn't be a problem. The Ancient One can still gift the gifts even when the users cease believing in Him, simply because He is God and has plans for good and not evil.

Trickery does not imply that truth does not exist (see the whole story of Pharaoh's magicians mimicking Mose's rod and serpent sign.

One of the nice things about fantasy is not having to completely explain everything.

[Divides the Waters]

I'm not sure that this is an apt analogy, but I think of all the times that God has instituted a ritual (far less often than we might think, I might add). They are always to remember what He has done. The Duchess's example is excellent. Think, also, of the institution of the Passover meal, or Sabbath, and the handful of other times He has established a tradition in order to commemorate something special about Himself.

Now, the idea of using the stones only for good is interesting, because when you have the characters face a truly difficult moral choice, where there is no right answer, but perhaps one that might be "more wrong," what happens? Not to bring up the "do you lie in order to save a life" thread again, but that's a good example of a situation where you might wonder, as you use the stone, whether it would break as you tried to use it.

[kirstymca]

Hi Veritas,
Have you ever read The Tower of Geburah by John White? I think it's that one - one of the Archives of Anthropos anyway.

They're kids' books. Similar sort of genre as the Narnia books. Not as well written, and not as solid a world, but not bad, and they bring in some good stuff that Narnia doesn't.

Anyway, in it there are some magic/powerful stones. The good guys use them on a number of occassions, sometime for the right reasons, but sometimes for the wrong reason/in the wrong way, with interesting results.

I can explain more if you like, but didn't want to put spoilers!

[mongoose]

In Ted Dekker's Circle series, there is a ritual that, for part of the series, actually accomplishes something good. At some point that ritual becomes unnecessary and ineffective, but some of the people, ascribing more significance to the ritual than to the meaning behind it, continue to try to use the ritual. Eventually they realize it doesn't work any more, so they fall off the religious wagon, and become like everyone else. Meanwhile, those who found the true meaning behind the ritual no longer use it, but they continue to remain true.