In Maguire’s version of Oz, religion plays a significant role in the actions of individual characters and governmental forces alike, and Liir encounters a barrage of people who define themselves and their worldviews through the lens of their religious faith. Although Unionism is the primary faith featured in Son of a Witch, its tenets and morals are debated by different factions. While Shell uses it to style himself as Emperor Apostle and pursue an authoritarian path of conquest and control, others, like the maunts, use it as inspiration and justification for resistance and rebellion. On either side of this conflict, religion and faith are used to construct unique worldviews that influence people’s individual actions and their views of others. 

When Liir first meets Shell, the future religious leader is, at this point, a cynic with no ties to any faith at all. Despite coming from a devoutly Unionist family and having two high-profile siblings—Elphaba and Nessarose—who are now championed for their respective beliefs, Shell refuses to give credence to even the idea of martyrs. When Liir asks about Shell’s relationships with the agnostic Elphaba and the zealously Unionist Nessarose, Shell explains, “Martyrdom implies a religious faith, and Nessarose had so much faith that no one else in the family could breathe. Elphaba affected a salty agnosticism; I never knew whether it was genuine or not. For me to consider them martyrs, I’d have to have faith, and I don’t” (108). While Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the East, was fiercely religious and used her faith to lead Munchkinland, Elphaba refused to put any faith in a higher power. Though others now see both women as martyrs and use them as symbols for their own ends, Shell cannot bring himself to view his siblings in such lofty, abstract terms. Because he has no faith, he cannot apply a moralistic perception to his siblings; he sees them for who they were as people, not as leaders of movements.

However, this encounter comes to hold a certain degree of irony, for despite Shell’s early atheism, Liir eventually discovers that his maybe-uncle undergoes a major transformation. Later, when Liir returns to the Emerald City, which Shell comes to rule in his self-styled role as the “Emperor Apostle,” Liir sees a man who uses his supposed faith to seize political power and change the course of the world. Evidence for this pattern abounds in Shell’s many propaganda posters, such as the one depicting “a male foot in an open, leather-strapped sandal stepping out of a cloud,” and a “painted landscape” showing that “wherever the Apostle had already set his foot, communities like miniature Emerald Cities spr[a]ng up” (246). As Emperor, Shell deliberately forges an association between faith and prosperity, positioning himself as the one figure whose faith and morals have brought about the prosperous boom in the Emerald City. This portrayal also serves to justify Shell’s wish for further expansion, for by this logic, if his morals and faith can transform the Emerald City, then the city and its government have the duty to impose their will on others. Thus, despite his own lack of faith in a higher power, Shell cynically uses religion as a form of psychological manipulation in his quest to create an empire.