Races and creatures in His Dark Materials
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This is a list of fictional races and creatures in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.
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[edit] Armoured Bears (panserbjørne)
The word "panserbjørne" (italicised and not capitalised in the books) literally means "armoured bears" in Norwegian and Danish, and it is used either as the entire race as one unit or as a pluralized form of the singular "panserbjørn." In early editions of the book, Northern Lights, the name was spelled "panserbørne" and in the film, The Golden Compass, they are also known as "ice bears." "Panserbjørne" is pronounced "pan-sur-byur-nuh."
[edit] Description
The panserbjørne are a race of sentient, talking polar bears that have opposable thumbs on their front paws. Despite their large digits and immense strength they have remarkable dexterity. This, together with an innate sense of metallurgy, makes them exceptional metalsmiths, and they are capable of creating and repairing metal items far beyond the capabilities of human smiths (in the parallel universe that the panserbjørne live in).
While they mainly speak English in the books, they have been known to speak in a number of indigenous languages.
[edit] Society
Panserbjørne are generally solitary creatures, but have a loose society centred on Svalbard. They are governed by a king who is usually determined by bloodline, but can be elected by unarmed combat; Iofur Raknison and Iorek Byrnison are the only two kings seen in the books.
Some bears occasionally hire themselves out to humans as mercenaries or labourers, but only in the Arctic regions, and it is implied that bears who do this may be shamed in some way. Lands further to the south have little contact with the bears, though their existence is widely known.
During the books the bears seem to be struggling to maintain their own culture and traditions against the intrusion of human society. This is most visible during the reign of Iofur Raknison, the usurper king of Svalbard in Northern Lights. He tries to force the bears to become more human-like, attempting to build palaces and universities, decorate their armour, and even acquire dæmons. Iorek Byrnison eventually defeats Iofur and returns the bears to their usual state; however, later in the series he begins to feel human feelings such as doubt, especially in connection with the subtle knife. Iorek, however, decides there is a line between bear custom and human behavior.
[edit] Armour
Armour is extremely important to the panserbjørne; they consider it the equivalent of a dæmon or soul.
A bear fashions his own armour using 'sky-iron', a rare metal collected from meteorites which the bears discover on, or buried in, the ice. Although the magical metal described in Pullman's works is fictional, the native peoples of the Arctic do value meteorites (particularly the Cape York meteorite) as an invaluable source of iron for toolmaking (although iron from meteorites is actually weaker than terrestrial iron, not having impurities like carbon, which contribute to its strength).
[edit] Angels
The first, oldest, and most powerful angel was the Authority, worshiped as God. In pages 31-32 in Chapter 2 of The Amber Spyglass, the angel Balthamos said to Will Parry:
- The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves – the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dust, and the Authority was the first of them all. He told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie.
The fallen angels that fought against the Authority in the first war (i.e. Adam and Eve) became what is now known as Dust, the source of a person's daemon's power. Even in universes without the physical existence of daemons were absent, the humans' souls were in actuality the fallen angels. The alethiometer was a device that allowed a form of communication with the angels who knew all the truth, along with Dr. Mary Malone's dark matter machine. Angels cannot be seen by the naked eye in the day and only their outline at night. Also, angels long for a body, which Mrs. Coulter used to her advantage in the Amber Spyglass.
[edit] Gyptians
Gyptians are a fictional ethnic group, of the universe where Lyra Belacqua comes from, and are roughly analogous to Gypsies. The name Gyptian, like Gypsy, is derived from Egyptian, the original English name for the Roma.
They are divided into large families, the heads of which make up the gyptians' Council, the head of which is the King of the Gyptians, and which includes the wise Farder Coram. Their culture, while widely spread, is described as being tightly knit. Gyptian children are described as being extravagantly loved, and looked after instinctively by other members of the culture if they are to stray. Their ethnic group is small enough for all gyptians to know each other by name, yet large enough to supply 170 men to travel north on a rescue mission.
Unlike real-world Roma, gyptians are water-travellers. They mainly live aboard boats traversing the canals and rivers of England. The gyptians' primary source of income appears to be through trading goods as they travel, and Lyra describes them as coming and going with the spring and autumn fairs. Furthering this gypsy stereotype, Gyptians are said to pride themselves on their ability at card games.
Gyptians have a distinctive accent, and their vocabulary contains 'Fens-Dutch' words which appear to be generally unused by hegemonic society. They also have a distinctive physical appearance, which Lyra attempts to assume. There are also references that the Gyptians might be equivalent to the Dutch watergeuzen, a confederacy of nobles and other malcontents, who in 1566 opposed Spanish rule in the Netherlands. The most successful group of them operated at sea. They came from a broad heritage, Dutch as well as French and English people, and were based in English ports. One hint to the part Dutchness of the Gyptians is their preference for drinking "ginniver" (Dutch genever), then many Gyptians carry Dutch names like "Dirk Vries", "Raymond van Gerrit" and "Ruud and Nellie Koopman", and they are using Dutch terms such as "landloper", which is actually an old Dutch word literally meaning "land-walker", but it is also a degenerative term because it means vagrant. Note that the Gyptians also use it de-generatively to address anybody that is not a Gyptian.
Gyptians sometimes gather in a byanroping, meaning a summons or muster of families. They gather in the fens of Norfolk to discuss and decide important matters. John Faa identifies his group of Gyptians as coming from "Eastern Anglia", a place in Lyra's world most likely a counterpart of our world's East Anglia.
Gyptians are an honourable people, and appear to owe debts to Lord Asriel for defeating a proposed Watercourse Bill in Parliament, amongst other things. When they are made aware of the excesses of the Church researchers at Bolvangar they do their best to stop them.
Despite their honourable nature, they are sometimes perceived negatively by hegemonic society. Although they trade fairly, they are described as partaking in "incessant smuggling and occasional feuds" in which they may kill other gyptians. Non-gyptian teenagers that Lyra talks to insinuate that Gyptians steal horses, and are not worried by the disappearance of a gyptian child. At a party held by Mrs. Coulter, Lyra states that gyptians "take kids and sell 'em to Turks for slaves", although this is more likely to be an example of Lyra wild inventing.
The gyptians believe themselves to be "hit worse off than most" by the spate of child abductions in Northern Lights, and this may be what prompts them as a collective culture to plan a rescue attempt. This could also be a result of gyptians having little other recourse in society, as they are described as having little standing in the law.
Some gyptians and half-gyptians, such as Bernie Johanses, take up employment on land, although it appears that this is a cultural minority. Some hide their gyptian heritage while still reporting information back to the gyptian leaders.
Serafina Pekkala's witch clan, who are based at Lake Enara, share a friendship with the Gyptians. This friendship is born from the relationship between Serafina herself and Farder Coram: Farder Coram once saved Serafina's life, and became her lover and father of her (at the time of the trilogy) deceased son.
[edit] Spectre
Spectres are also known as the Spectres of Indifference. They are beings of spirit escaped from the void between universes. Most commonly, a Spectre is created from each new window opened by the Subtle Knife. They appear in the second and third volumes, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
Spectres feed upon the Dust that makes up a person's soul (their dæmon), leaving the person as a lifeless zombie-like entity. They are invisible to and don't harm pre-adolescents, as Dust has not yet settled upon them. When traveling, all human groups in Cittàgazze are required by law to contain a man and woman on horseback to flee and look after the young in the case of a Spectre attack. They are normally not air-borne, so air travel over Cittàgazze is the only safe means possible for an adult to cross the city (they can actually fly if instructed to properly, however). Cittàgazze, a city infested with them, is bereft of adults and filled with gangs of children.
When the behavior of humans as they are attacked by Spectres is described to Will, he hypothesizes that they, or similar creatures, may also exist in our universe and cause mental illness. This opinion is formed by the case of his mother, who seems to be suffering from paranoia and other symptoms resembling a disorder similar to schizophrenia.
Spectres cannot be killed any physical means, although numerous methods of countering their attacks exist. Angels have some means of neutralizing Spectres, and ghosts may be able to combat them as well. Humans whose dæmons have been removed from them via intercision can pass them without being attacked, or can repel them with the Subtle Knife. Stanislaus Grumman uses his skills as a shaman to control one and send it onto a church zeppelin to attack the pilot, causing the craft to crash. Mrs. Coulter tells Spectres that following her command would give them more access to prey and is thus able to control them, teaching them to forget that they are earthbound (so that they can fly). Consequently, at the end of The Subtle Knife, Will and Lyra's guard of witches is taken by surprise and most, if not all, have their Dust consumed by Spectres while flying.
[edit] Deaths
These creatures are only mentioned near the end of The Amber Spyglass. Much like a dæmon, they accompany a person throughout his or her life, serving to gently alert the person of their time to go to the underworld. Deaths are described as humanlike in appearance, yet unnaturally quiet and able to blend into the background with uncanny ease. However, as most people do not wish to see their death, the deaths are described as courteous enough to hide from their humans. Deaths are presented as caring yet stern creatures, showing no pity for a person's dæmon which must vanish upon death. Deaths are present in a physical form in some worlds, much like dæmons can be seen in Lyra's. It is not clear what becomes of a person's death when that person reaches the underworld.
[edit] Mulefa
The Mulefa (singular zalif) are a fictional race of sentient beings who inhabit a parallel Earth in the novel The Amber Spyglass.
The Mulefa evolved in a radically different fashion from humans. They possess an anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton lacking a spine, have four legs, short horns, and a flexible trunk that functionally takes the place of hands. Signing with the trunk is an integral part of Mulefa language. They form close-knit communities, closer than most human groups met in the novel. One of the reasons for the closeness of their communities is that, lacking two hands, it usually requires two or more Mulefa trunks working together to accomplish complex tasks like tying knots.
A notable feature of the Mulefa is their use of large, disc-shaped seed pods from their world's enormous "seed-pod trees" in locomotion; the pods fit neatly onto a spur on their front and rear legs when each zalif is grown enough to use it. They propel themselves using their two side legs, like a cyclist without pedals. Ancient lava flows solidified into smooth rivers of rock running across the land serve as roads to ease transport. The Mulefa have a symbiotic relationship with the seedpod trees - their use of the pods on the "roads" allows the extremely hard exterior to crack and the seeds to emerge. These are germinated by the Mulefa, allowing the wheel-pod trees to survive. As the book notes, it is the three combined elements of seed-pod, spur, and rock formation which leads to the current Mulefa existence.
From a technological point of view, the Mulefa's civilization is considerably backward, reminiscent of humanity in the stone age. Mulefa live in wattle-and-daub villages and use simple tools - there is no evidence of any form of mechanisation in their world. They do not use metal for any purpose other than ornaments. Reference is made to their domestication of the grazer herds, their non-intrusive use of trees to make lacquer, and their distilling of acid from rocks. One of their few natural enemies are huge white birds called tualapi which habitually destroy settlements with chilling ferocity, and which the Mulefa have no real defense against (save retreating further inland). The Mulefa also appear to lack any sort of organized government; they appear to live in village groups with little or no contact between settlements. The Mulefa's less advanced technology may be due to their limited trunks - the duality and dexterity of hands, and independence of hands from most human speech gives humans an advantage; their state of symbiosis with their natural environment (to the extent that it supplies them with everything they need) may also preclude much need for further development.
The Mulefa view the world differently than humans, and by their own admission to Mary Malone they have much slower thought processes and do not easily visualize abstract concepts such as mathematics, or establish links and patterns. They do have an extraordinary race memory, remembering all of their history starting 33,000 years ago. That is when they first interacted with the wheel-pod trees, symbolized in a story that is their equivalent to the Adam and Eve story of humans, although Mulefa see the enlightening event in a very positive light. The period of 33,000 years coincides with the time frame given in the books for the awakening of human consciousness in other worlds, as evidenced by Mary Malone's anthropological research regarding Dust. Mulefa are also able to see Dust directly without the aid of an instrument such as the amber spyglass. The oil from their pods allow them to "grow up", making them more self-aware and able to see Dust.
[edit] Gallivespians
Gallivespians are a humanoid race from yet another universe that appear in the third volume of the trilogy. They are small in size, no higher than the width of a man's hand. As a defence to make up for their size, they have spurs on the backs of their heels which can deliver a poison that will kill at worst, and paralyse and cause intense pain at best. This poison must be given time to build up to full potency, and so cannot be used over-frequently.
In the Gallivespian universe, "big people" (humans) serve the Authority and throughout history have been trying to exterminate the "little people", believing they are demonic. Because of this, most Gallivespians join with Lord Asriel against the Authority, and due to their size and proficiency at tools capable of instant communication, are most useful as spies. Gallivespians are proud and arrogant by nature, compensating for their small size with their massive egos. They seem to possess little subtlety, and they are good spies only due to their size.
Gallivespians use various carefully-bred species of dragonflies for transport. They carry larvae of the species particular to their clan with them, which may be quickly cultivated into a fully grown dragonfly. Once grown and imprinted on their Gallivespian, the dragonflies are entirely obedient until death. Gallivespians themselves also have a very short life, living no more than about ten years, and dying in their prime.
In The Amber Spyglass, the two Gallivespians seen the most are the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia. They are initially sent to protect Lyra and Will and guide them to Lord Asriel. Lyra and Will have their own ideas, and the spies are powerless to force them into action as long as Will controls the Subtle Knife. Tialys and Salmakia eventually befriend and help Will and Lyra on their personal quest. The only two other named Gallivespians are Lord Roke, commander of the spies in Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower, the central fortress for the rebellion, and Madame Oxentiel, who succeeds to Lord Roke's position after his death.
[edit] Name source
The name Gallivespian appears to be derived from that of the gall wasp, and the word vespa, which is Latin for wasp. This creature forms a round, shiny, often colored chrysalis on a tree in the Dead Sea region of the Middle East. Although there are other explanations of the name, this object has been called the "apple of Sodom" in literary guides. So it would seem to be with a bit of sarcasm that Pullman chose this name.
[edit] Cliff ghasts
Cliff ghasts are the most prominent type of ghast to feature, the only other kind mentioned being night-ghasts: restless ghosts; a sort of personification of nightmares.
Since many of the characters grow up in the world the cliff ghasts live in, some having encountered them before the start of the Northern Lights they know what these creatures are and consequently no character at any point explains them, so we can only guess.
They can fly, and are mortal. Lee Scoresby, who hates killing sentient creatures, has no apparent qualms about killing these monsters. They are scavengers and enjoy killing. In the play adaptation they are depicted as hooded and shrouded, though in the Northern Lights they are described as having flat heads, large, bulging eyes, and wide frog-like mouths. They give off a horrible stench.
Cliff ghasts can speak, though they do not converse with any of the characters. They are heard twice: once overheard and once talking amongst themselves as they butcher an arctic fox. They are at first apparently one of the magic elements unique to the world of the Northern Lights, but then appear in other worlds. When the great war begins, they are the only being known not to take sides, merely waiting to feast on the casualties.
[edit] Tualapi
The Tualapi are the only known enemies of the Mulefa, destroying the Mulefas' villages and causing the loss of many seed-pods. They are described as large, white birds whose wings look like ship sails from a distance. Tualapi are almost always seen in groups. Father Gomez, a human from Lyra's world who entered the Mulefa world was able to repulse a Tualapi attack after killing one of them with his rifle.
The Mulefa have no defence against Tualapi; retreating inland during attacks. Tualapi attacks generally result in total destruction of Mulefa habitats and can cost the Mulefa greatly. Like most animals from the universe of Mulefa, their limbs are in a different position than those of our animals, with a single limb (in the Tualapi's case, a wing) at the front; a pair (legs) at the middle; and a single limb (again in the case of Tualapis, a wing) at the back.
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