Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

Those two images were the seeds of this story, and the reason I named my fictional kingdom after the orisha. It was the first time I’d seen blackness depicted in such a beautiful, fantastical, and sacred way, and it made fireworks go off in my imagination. I saw an image of Sango - a dark-skinned black man breathing fire - right next to Yemoja, a beautiful black woman commanding the oceans. The first time I encountered the orisha, I was in a gift shop in Salvador, Brazil.

I’ve been a lover of magical stories and worlds since I was a kid, but I went through my entire childhood and early adulthood without ever seeing someone like me in one of those settings. What led you to make this world, and the different maji, the way they are? Tomi Adeyemi: The world of Orïsha is a blend of my Nigerian heritage, the rich religions and mythologies that stem from the orisha, my favorite fantasy worlds, and a desire to see a fantastical setting that celebrates blackness. Teen Vogue: It's always fascinating to hear from the creator of a fantasy universe, about how they concocted the various systems of culture and magic that we, as readers, love to geek out on.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi