The central theme of Red Prophet is the same as that of Seventh Son: the struggle of humanity to build up and maintain a sphere of orderly life within the great lawless dark of the universe. Card has said that this is the purpose of God and of human life. While Seventh Son concerns mainly the struggle for order within the individual and the family. Red Prophet expands from this center to the larger communities of nation and humanity. The various social forces that struggle to impose their stamp upon the political and social order of the Midwest—the whites, the French, and the American Indians—see themselves as creating a territorial unit. Within each group, there are different visions of what that order should be. Central characters in the story represent these visions.

In an "Author's Note," Card says that William...