The Chosen One is a staple trope of fantasy and epic narratives. This theme surfaces in religious and spiritual traditions around the world—for example, in tales of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed from the Abrahamic religions, as well as classical and contemporary literature and film, such as Neo from The Matrix. The protagonist, the Chosen One, is special due to a set of unique talents, destiny, lineage, or other inheritance of distinction. Sometimes the Chosen One is set apart at birth; more often, they grow up in obscurity and their status is revealed in some surprising manner.

Typically, the Chosen One is the only being who possesses the power to avert an impending disaster or defeat a great evil menacing their world. Other examples include Anakin and Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and King Arthur, who reveals his identity by pulling a sword from the stone (in other versions, he is gifted a magical sword from the Lady of the Lake, as is Keegan in this novel). L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth, The NeverEnding Story, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, George R. R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire, and Erin Hunter’s Warrior Cats series all engage with the Chosen One theme.