Blessing

Bless your mess!

"Be open to the blessings, whatever their form."

— Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order, Flavor Text for Nature's Blessing, Magic: The Gathering

Phenomenal gifts that are bestowed upon a person, usually by a supernatural being. These supernatural beings can be magical or even divinity. This is often bestowed by a Patron God in exchange for worship and works done in the deity's name. Blessings can be bestowed through a proxy, such as a priest or some other type of holy person, usually through rituals. A blessing can be a passive attribute, but others may come as an active power or magic. A Good Luck Charm or a Protective Charm can be a result of one of these. This can be one reason why someone is Born Lucky. Sometimes, a blessing could be used to counter a Curse. They are, of course, valuable to the character, but there are other times that characters can be Blessed with Suck.

Compare with Bargain with Heaven, Good Fortune from God, Make a Wish, and Touched by Vorlons. May also overlap with Religion is Magic and/or Physical Religion.

Can be a form of Supernatural Aid, Divine Intervention, an Answer to Prayers, or just a perk of being Pals with Jesus.

Inverted Trope to Curse.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bleach: Mimihagi, the right hand of the Soul King, blessed Captain Ukitake with extended life after sacrificing his diseased lung.
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: Priests use Goddess Magic through holy scriptures, and those with natural talent are said to have 'the Blessings of the Goddess,' which also makes them resistant to curses.
• In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, Father is said to possess the ability of "Miracle Amplification", making the miracles he wields as powerful as God's. The pope sees this power as a blessing bestowed by God to his champion that will deliver mankind from the threat of the demon lords of Hell.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: The Supreme Deity gave four blessings called Graces to four Goddesses, the Four Archangels, each with a unique power while increasing their other abilities. These blessings were made for the Goddess Clan, which means that any other person who isn't a Goddess is bestowed on them; their body will degrade with every use.

Comic Books

• Wonder Woman: Diana's classic origin has her being created from clay by various goddesses, with each one bestowing a particular power or attribute onto her, i.e wisdom from Athena, beauty and a loving heart from Aphrodite and empathy with animals from Artemis.

Fan Works

• Blessed with a Hero's Heart: Izuku Midoriya dies due to an encounter with a Villain and meets with Aqua, who gives him a chance to be reincarnated into another world, Belzerg. With the reincarnation, he is given a 'cheat' where Aqua is chosen by accident. Both of them are sent to Belzerg, and on their adventures, they achieve feats of heroism.
• In the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf novel, Papa Smurf finds out from reading books about Smurf birthmarks that a Smurf that is born with a star mark on his forehead (which his son Empath is born with) is "truly blessed by the stars, for it is this smurf who shall possess abilities beyond all imagining, beyond all the five known senses...abilities that only the strong of minds can harness." This blessing, as it turns out, is the ability of telepathy and telekinesis.

Film — Animated

• Turning Red: The red panda transformation was first granted to Sun Yee as a way to protect both her family and her village. Sun Yee later passed this ability on to her descendants, considering it a blessing.

Film Live-Action

• Dogma: The golf clubs of Cardinal Ignatius Glick were blessed to help him win the golf game but were unknown to Azrael when used by Silent Bob to kill the demon.

Literature

• The Camp Half-Blood Series: Gods such as Aphrodite, Ares, and Artemis can bestow blessings to Demigods descended by them for being beautiful, warriors, or hunters. Each god's blessing has distinct attributes like increased strength, restored beauty, and eternal youth.
• In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles the relatives of Princess Alianora attempted to invoke this. They sent Alianora into the forest with a loaf of bread, expecting her to encounter a fairy disguised as a beggar-woman who would bless Alianora. But instead of a blessing that diamonds and roses would drop from her mouth whenever she spoke, the blessing was that Alianora would never have any problems with her teeth.
• Fate/Zero: Kirei Kotomine was blessed by God with 'the right to recreate the miracles in the divine sacrament' that comes in the form of Magic Circuits despite being born from a non-Magus family lineage. This came as a reward thanks to his father's, Risei, pious worship through the divine sacrament.
• Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu: Xian Lian has ascended to Heaven as a god, but this has happened three times due to his luck. This has caused him to become a God of Misfortune although he still has a good heart and wishes to do his job as a godly official. During his second ascension, Xian asked that his good luck be divided among others throughout the world. There is an instance where he was unaffected by the Reverend of Empty words due to becoming used to his bad luck over the century.
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Falna is a blessing or grace given to the Familia of Gods and Goddesses, represented by their Status, which provides them with Magic and Skills based on their prior actions and accomplishments.
• This is the premise of tale type ATU 404, "The Blinded Bride", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the heroine is blessed at birth with the ability to produce pearls from her tears and petals/flowers with her laughter, which fascinates a prince so much he wishes to marry her. In retaliation, the heroine's stepmother, another female relative, or a false bride plucks out the heroine's eyes and takes her place as the prince's true bride-to-be. Fortunately, with the help of a kind old man (or another benevolent spirit), the heroine buys back her eyes with the pearls and flowers she produces.
  • The Rose-Beauty (Turkey) - a princess marries a poor woodcutter and gives birth to a baby girl; fairies come to bless the child with the ability to produce pearls with her tears, roses with her laughter and grass wherever she steps; later in life, the heroine draws the attention of a prince who wants to marry her; a rival palace dame accompanies the heroine and gives her very salty food, which causes her to thirst for water; the palace dame agrees to give the heroine water, in exchange for her own eyes; the heroine, now blinded, takes shelter with a poor scavenger. One day, the heroine smiles at a happy memory, then produces a rose, which she asks the scavenger to sell to the palace dame for a human eye. The scavenger brings back one eye and the heroine, even happier, produces many more roses, which her helper sells for her other eye.
• The Inheritance Cycle: Eragon blesses Elva, intending her to be protected. Unfortunately, Eragon's weak mastery of the Ancient Language grammar causes Elva to become the protector of anyone, causing her to have the compulsion to protect everyone she ever sees.
• KonoSuba:
  • The long version of the title is Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!, originally Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! (この素晴らしい世界に祝福を!, Blessing this Wonderful World!) This references how Kazuma is given a second chance at life by Heaven to reincarnate into another world called Belzerg along with a cheat item in the form of the goddess Aqua, where their adventures due good though the world would be Blessed with Suck due to the chaos that comes from their actions.
  • Blessing is a skill that Priests can use to increase the target's luck.
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Princess and lunar-high-priestess-to-be Cassandrella prays to the moon near-daily to ask and receive a re-blessing from that divine celestial object to keep using the lunar magic she wields in battle.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero: The Bless Series of the Legendary Weapons are gained by overcoming the curses of the Cursed series, which can purify and protect from curses.
• Sleeping Beauty: One version of the story has the evil fairy who wasn't invited to the princess's christening cursing her to be killed. The six good fairies already blessed the princess with beauty, dance, goodness, grace, song, and wit. The seventh attempted to reverse the curse but could only do it partially, where she would be blessed with protection that would cause her to fall asleep for a century until awakened by a prince.

Mythology & Religion

• The Bible:
  • Book of Genesis: Isaac intends to bless his son Esau, but his younger brother Jacob, helped by his mother Rebecca, passes himself off as his elder brother and receives his father's blessing.
  • Book of Judges: God gave Samson great strength, but he lost it when his hair was cut after being charmed and asked by Deliah a few times and revealing the truth to her, where his head was shaved and captured by the Philistines. When he is going to be sacrificed in a Philistine temple, Samson prays to God. He regains his strength when he collapses the whole building with the Philistines inside.
• Buddhism: According to the Buddha, blessings are healthy pursuits or attainments that progress toward a spiritual goal.
• Classical Mythology:
  • Zeus blessed Ganymede with immortality and made him the gods' cupbearer because of his irresistible charm and undying beauty.
  • When Perseus prayed to Zeus before setting out on his quest, Hermes and Athena blessed him with weapons that could defeat Medusa.
• Egyptian Mythology: Ancient Egyptians performed rituals to a deity using offerings of drink, clothing, food, and ointment in a temple by priests who acted as proxies for the Pharaoh; the offerers would consume beverages and food during the offerings they were used to gain the gods' favor.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Clerics gain power from a deity and can cast thaumaturgy.
  • One spell, Bless, gives a blessing from the Cleric's god, which means a +1 bonus to attack and morale.
  • Chant spell. For as long as the caster continues to chant, everyone within 10 yards who is friendly with the caster receives a +1 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws.
  • Prayer spell. Everyone within 20 yards who is friendly with the caster receives a +1 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws.
• Curse of Strahd: One of the few unequivocally good things that can happen to the Player Party in Barovia is the blessing of the late silver dragon Argynvost, which they can obtain by putting his soul to rest and lighting the beacon of Argynvostholt. The blessing manifests as a permanent +1 bonus to the Armor Class of every single enemy of Strahd, which persists as long as the beacon is shining (which is effectively forever).

Theatre

• A Midsummer Night's Dream: At the end of the play, Oberon and Titania send their fairies throughout Duke Theseus' palace, blessing the three newlywed couples to ensure that they will always be in love and that any children they have will be healthy and free of any birth defects.
  "With this field dew consecrate,
  Every fairy take his gait
  And each several chamber bless
  Through this palace with sweet peace
  And the issue they create
  Ever shall be fortunate,
  So shall all the couples three
  Ever true in loving be."

Video Games

• Arcanum: Altars to various gods can be found throughout the continent, and sacrificing the right item to one gives small boosts. However, sacrificing in the right sequence by deciphering the clues culminates in a much larger boost, even if it requires your character to sacrifice their own life.
• Dark Souls: Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight, has blessed many warriors as a goddess of the sun.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: "Bless" is one of the Player Character's signature powers as a Godwoken, learned directly from their Patron God. It uses Soul Power to grant an all-purpose Status Buff and sometimes has extra story-based effects, like breaking a Curse.
• Fate Grand Order: Arash's Skill, 'Bow and Arrow Creation' is the wisdom given by the goddess Armaiti. As long as he has the physical materials, he can make a bow and arrows out of Magical Energy, thus making an unlimited number.
• In Fate/Samurai Remnant, Rogue Berserker's (aka Samson's) monstrous power can be tied to his pact with the omnipotent Abrahamic God, who granted him extraordinary strength if he abstained from cutting his hair, eating unclean foods, and drinking alcohol. Due to the other characters present not being familiar with Christianity, Dorothea describes the strength of his blessing as being equal to receiving the favor of all of the Japanese gods and Buddhas at once. It's so powerful it's actually classified as an EX Rank Noble Phantasm: "Samson Agonistes: I Am the Champion of Contrition".
• In Final Fantasy XIV, the Warrior of Light was bestowed the Blessing of Light by Hydaelyn, marking them as her champion in the battle against the Ascians. Other characters make note of the strength of the Warrior's gift and it's said to increase their already impressive strength and aetheric reserves. However, Endwalker would reveal that this blessing began as a simple "traveler's ward" Venat developed against sources of aetheric corruption.
• Genshin Impact:
  • Many characters believe visions are a blessing from the Archons, but this is actually not the case.
  • Diona was blessed by the Spring Fairy to always make delicious drinks.
• Single-run upgrades in Hades take the form of Boons offered by Zagreus' Olympian family. Theseus also has access to boons, which he will use against you during his boss fight.
• Hearthstone: Several Paladin spells are called Blessings. These include the Blessing of Kings, which makes a minion stronger and gives it 4 extra Hit Points; the Blessing of Wisdom, which lets you Draw Extra Cards; and the Lightforged Blessing, which lets a minion do Life Drain attacks.
• Honkai: Star Rail:
  • Aventurine's apparent Born Lucky abilities are believed by him and his people to be a blessing from their goddess, Gaiathra Triclops. Whether this is true (and if this goddess even exists) is left ambiguous.
  • In the Simulated Universe, the Trailblazer receives "Blessings" from various Aeon paths that buff his abilities.
  • Aeon Emanators are blessed by their respective Aeons with immense power related to their path.
• Luxaren Allure: According to the Flavor Text, creating Purity Water involves the vaguely named "Divine Forest sect" by having its priestesses bless something. Probably water.
• One Step From Eden: The Spell "Blessing of Susano'o" references Japanese Mythology's god of storms and ruler of the seas. The spell Anchors the user, preventing them from moving, but adds 100 shield and allows them to fire a huge laser.
• Ruphand: An Apothecary's Adventure: Blessed Bottles are blessed by some divinity as its Flavor Text says:
  This flask, blessed by the Divine, reforms after being thrown. It can contain unique, powerful mixtures.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: The Elven Bow apparently comes with blessed arrows, as the Flavor Text implies:
  The arrows have been blessed by elven mages; SPI 75.

---