Telling Stories

Dæmons, His Dark Materials, and all relating to it. I am no longer doing form analyses, but I do enjoy questions, so ask away! Call me Dusty, the dæ is Raz, settled mountain lion

[dustyard]

How does it change people's perceptions when it's an ugly person with a beautiful daemon or a beautiful person with an ugly daemon

Honestly? Humans are very prone to showing preferential treatment to the things we find pretty, so it would definitely have an impact, but I think it would be a bit complicated. Very attractive people with good-looking or appealing dæmon forms would obviously be the sort of Hollywood standard, but in real life I think the appearance of the human counterpart would be most important. I can imagine very attractive people being able to "get away" with having a less appealing dæmon form because hey, they're hot. I wonder if that platitude about "it's what's inside that counts" would be changed to something like "it's how your dæmon is that matters". Do I think dæmon form would sway people's opinion? Definitely, but unfortunately I don't know that we as humans are quite detached enough from our sense of vanity to elevate a conventionally unattractive person to be considered beautiful on the basis of their dæmon. To be fair, I am a bit of a pessimist, but I have found in my own life that while looks don't always matter, they certainly can, especially if we're looking at trends as opposed to individual situations/people.

However, considering how quickly body types go in and out of fashion (especially with the internet around) I'm sure there would be cycling trends of fashionable dæmon forms, so a person might be treated differently by someone older than they would by someone younger because the different generations have contrasting perspectives on how attractive a lemur dæmon is. Equally, despite my bitching, beauty is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, so while a handsome young man with a sea hare dæmon might raise a few eyebrows, that doesn't mean they would be constantly or notably treated worse.

[dustyard]

Can daemons leave behind pieces of themselves like a feather or a tuft of fur or do they turn into dust. What if you had a feather from your lover's bird daemon.

What a lovely thought, to hold onto a keepsake of someone's soul. I don't know canonically, but I like to think that dæmons can gift little pieces of themselves to people they love. Once human and dæmon are gone though, I think they would crumble into dust. It would make that kind of symbol fleeting, but all the more impactful because of it.

[dustyard]

Sorry I haven't been around for a while guys, sometimes I have to sit and stare at a blank wall for six months

[umblebumble]

Pirates of the Carribean daemons

I don’t know what possessed me to make this but here it is. As a note, I use The Daemon Page (link) as a good reference when looking for daemons, but I mostly use it as a starting point for animals I’m unfamiliar with. Largely my selections are overall general vibes plus some things I think would be great plot/story wise. I also tried my best to avoid the ‘typical’ wolves, Big cats, and birds of prey because I find they’re often overused for main characters to add impact.

Captain Jack Sparrow - Ring-billed Gull. This one I feel pretty good about. Initially I thought a sparrow would be funny, but sparrows and gulls are similar personality wise and gulls just have the wandering-adventurer vibes I wanted. Gulls are wandering, freedom loving creatures, like Jack. He goes where the wind takes him. Gulls are also bold and brash and clever. They’ll march right up to someone and take their food while staring them dead in the eye. They’ll definitely flee from fights whenever possible, but they’re crafty and adaptable and clever and resilient.

Captain Barbossa - White-headed Capuchin (aka the monkey Jack). I thought about looking for something other than the obvious, but it just really worked. Capuchin’s are clever, mischievous, and also very aggressive. Monkeys usually have social hierarchies, and when a monkey is at the top it will do everything it can to stay there. I also just feel like the energy with the two of them is too perfect, I couldn’t imagine anything else that works as well.

Elizabeth Swann - Siamese cat. This one was harder, but it just felt right. Siamese are regal and elegant looking, and can be a little snooty and stuck up at times. But these cats are smart as a whip, get bored super easily and always seem to be on the look out for something exciting or new to learn. I like the thought of a pampered pretty cat at the beginning of the series growing and becoming less polished as Elizabeth roves off at the open sea. I also think it would be a funny bit of foreshadowing for the third movie bit with Singapore. Also, Siamese are loud and bold and dramatic. I mean this in the best way but Elizabeth is also loud and dramatic and will throw herself around to make her point which feels exactly like a Siamese who is trying to get something.

Will Turner - Magpie. Will was the hardest for me to pick. I wanted a bird for him because despite his humble blacksmith beginning he is a pirate in his soul, an adventurer and that to me says wings, flight, and freedom. Magpies are very smart and clever, and Will is a strategist, though sometimes socially obtuse but that’s his charm. Magpies are protective of what is theirs and will throw down to defend their territory. Also, I kept being drawn back to that line in the first film “… and you’re completely obsessed with treasure” and I just think a magpie is a very good thematic representation of that pirate-soul Jack is talking about. This one was mostly vibes and plot/thematic devices but I like it.

Norrington - Dalmatian. So for Norrington I always knew a dog would be for him; he’s loyal, determined, and hardworking. Plus I like the thought of dog daemons being a common thing for people in military/navy/etc type positions along the same vein as ‘servants have dogs’. Dalmatian was my choice of specific breed but I could definitely see other working dogs as his daemon as well. I chose Dalmatian because they are working dogs, they’re loyal and obedient but have a more independent streak in them as well which could translate to his leadership position. Norrington sees the world in very black and white terms, and while I chose Dalmatian half for the joke, they do have selective hearing where they sometimes just don’t hear commands they don’t want to listen to. So I’m taking that as a closed-mindedness that Norrington expresses in his worldview.

Gibbs - Old English Sheepdog. This one was half analysis and half pure vibes. Sheepdogs are friendly and a little rolly-polly, but they’re also guardian dogs which makes them fiercely protective of those under their charge and they will fight when pressed. This suits Gibbs so well, he is so loyal and will take care of Jack or Elizabeth or whoever he decides is under his care. I also think it would be an interesting plot thing that a lot of ‘official’ sailors would have dogs because of their loyalty and willingness to follow others/orders.

Tia Dalma - Saltwater Crocodile. This one I came upon accidentally but fell in love with it immediately. Crocodiles are enigmatic and powerful creatures. They have an ancient powerful energy to them that matches Tia well. They wait for their prey to come to them because they know the deer have to cross the river eventually - Tia knows they will come to her, eventually everyone will want her help and then she will have them. Deceptively serene but able to attack in a moments notice, a crocodile will not enjoy being contained or confined and while it may look content, it will not be satisfied until it has no restrictions. Plus, a crocodile when Tia Dalma lives in a river/swamp is thematically amazing to me.

[dustyard]

Capturing the modern soul.

[secretdazedragon]

Have Lee and Hester in this fine evening

[dustyard]

Imagine a famous youtuber that never puts their daemon in their videos. They love keeping people guessing what their daemon is. People keep demanding they do a daemon reveal but they refuse.

Oooh I do like that.

Media presence deals so much with appearance that not knowing what someone's dæmon looks like would be a huge point of interest. The comments would probably be split three-way into the people who think it's smart for privacy reasons, the people who don't like it because they think it's weird and problematic to hide your dæmon, and the people who are just having a blast guessing animals left and right. There would probably be debates about the youtuber's personality, and whether how they appear on-camera is how they act in real life. I wonder how long you'd be able to keep the game going before somebody in real life ratted you out tho lol.

[fawndoodle]

i think i was feeling a little more extroverted than usual when i took the daemon quiz and got an emu, but now i’m attached to the idea of him. i need a huge bird familiar to remind me not to care what people think and also to kick people for me if the need arises

[dustyard]

First Meeting

I was thinking about John Parry, and what it would be like to witness the manifestation of your dæmon. So I decided to imagine it for myself.

[old-daemon-farts]

Peacock dæmon form alternatives based on aesthetics...

Consider pheasants, pigeons, and birds with crests or flashy and exaggerated plumage.

[cannotescape]

hmmm this his dark materials fanmade animated trailer is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen this year… wow

Directed by Louis HOLMES, Agathe LEROUX and Léa REY—MAUZAIZE

[antiqueanimals]

Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin

[dustyard]

Imagine; dæmon care

Imagine a man and his Great Pyrenees dæmon sitting on the floor of their bathroom after a bath. The man is carefully blow-drying his dæmon's neck fur with one hand, and picking through the knots of her fur with a comb in the other. With so much fur, this grooming session will take a while, but neither the man nor his dæmon mind.

Imagine a girl leaving the window to her apartment open on a warm, rainy day so her Amazonian tree toad can sit on the sill, soaking the raindrops into his skin. The girl is reading a long book that keeps dropping her into a doze. The two aren't speaking but contentedness swells between them. Far from the distance, a rumble of thunder creeps in to say hello.

Imagine a magpie dæmon covered in pollen from the sudden influx of spring. Their person gently rubs them down with a damp cloth, separating each feather for cleaning. The magpie is perfectly capable of preening themself, but they don't want the taste of pollen in their beak for the next few hours. Usually it's easy for bird dæmons to avoid getting dirty, but the days are getting hotter and the magpie has been increasingly less inclined to fly, so they were riding on their human's shoulder when they ran into a tree. Karma? Perhaps.

Imagine a mule dæmon getting its hoof picked. "It's fine, you just have a a bit of gravel that's stuck," says the man, with his dæmon's hoof in his hands. His dæmon just huffs and tosses their head, annoyed they aren't being spoiled a bit more in such a time of distress.

Imagine a child with a dæmon that's stuck as a gosling. They aren't settled yet— they can still change shape if they focus hard enough— but sometimes, as their mother told them, people just need their dæmons to look and act a certain way for a little bit, until they feel ready to move on. Every day, the child makes certain to fill up the bathtub so their dæmon can swim for a while, ducking their downy head underwater and bobbing back up like a cork. Usually swim time devolves into splash fights; their mother has resigned herself to toweling up water for the next few weeks.

Imagine a woman herding her ewe dæmon out into the backyard, shears in hand. Lots of people don't realize that sheep dæmons need to be sheared. "What, do they think wool grows in backwards?" The ewe grumps, and the woman just shakes her head. "Make sure not to cut too close," the ewe adds, as if the woman ever does; this has been their routine for almost twenty years.

Imagine a teenage boy's hermit crab dæmon molting her exoskeleton for the first time. Both of them are more than a little alarmed. It feels strange, she tells the boy, being so soft and vulnerable, hardly able to move until her exoskeleton hardens up. The boy keeps fiddling with the different shells they'd picked out earlier from the supply store. He hopes she picks the one that's been painted black and gold.

[vifetoile]

so grateful I read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series at a young age

obviously the series has given me an awful lot, for which I'm very grateful, but particularly I'm grateful for the bit of daemon-lore that states, for most women, their daemon is male, and for most men, their daemon is female.

I think it helped me, as a young girl, internalize the idea that I had a masculine aspect in my soul, and that was a part of being a whole person. This very simple aspect of daemon-lore communicates that daemons represent the multitudes of the inner self. Your daemon is not "just" you, they're the complement to your conscious mind, and they indicate that the self is much richer than it seems on first glance.

[letsgomargaux]

We assigned an animal to each of our classmates (like dæmons from his dark materials) and i’m hopefully drawing them all for inktober ! I’ll be using blopens for this series, they have a great potential as a drawing medium and i want to master the technique………

I- Emilie + cheetah II- Sophie + cocker spaniel III- Myself + capuchin monkey

[dustyard]

Imagine there's an earthquake and your daemon gets stuck on the other side of something or underneath something and you cannot leave because they are stuck there and so are you.

Okay I know this was supposed to be like whump but all I could think about was playing marco polo with the rescue people.

I actually have thought about how having a dæmon must affect disaster relief a lot. What do you do if your dæmon gets swept away during a hurricane? Would they even physically be able to get that far away from you, or would they defy the laws of physics to stay trapped, in agony, a few dozen feet from you? Do people on adrenaline highs have the ability to be further away from their dæmons the way people lift cars off of babies? Would it be considered part of the trauma of an event like a car crash to have your dæmon handled by firefighters and EMTs, or is that something that isn’t considered traumatic because it’s necessary? It’s all so interesting and nuanced, I love to think about the weird, terrible situations dæmons could accidentally create.

[dustyard]

Imagine school picture day with daemons. Posing to get your daemon in the shot. More difficult if they are larger. Kids making their daemons take wacky or gross forms for the picture or trying to pick popular forms. Maybe there's a rule that unsettled kids have to take the same form for the picture. Maybe parents try to get their kids daemons to take a nice form for the picture but they rebel. A person mad her daemon settled into something she didn't like the day of her picture day.

Absolutely love this. I wonder if people would color coordinate with their dæmons.

I think there would be “safe” forms (dogs, cats, small birds, etc.) that unsettled kids would be encouraged to have their dæmons take, to prevent regrets or discomfort years down the road. I also like the idea that kids-- especially high schoolers-- would love trying to break this rule. Trying to sneak a sixteen-foot saltwater crocodile into the gym, when just this morning he was a pheasant. Lying through their teeth; “no, really, he just settled as a blob fish an hour ago! Yeah it’s weird, so what? Wait, no, don’t call my mom...”

I think Raz would’ve probably stuck to cat forms, maybe a snake once or twice. We’ve always liked caracals, so I think before he settled we would have gone with that for most pictures.