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08-24-2024, 12:03 AM

In the "His Dark Materials" series, everyone is born with a daemon. A daemon is an external representation of your soul in the form of an animal. So basically, whatever animal would best represent you as a person. They are typically (but not always) opposite-sex from their people, can speak (though they seem to exclusively speak with their person alone), and have personalities and names. Some names are very fancy and esoteric, like Pantalaimon and Ozymandias, some are more common or plain, like Hester and Ratter. So basically. . .if your character had a daemon, what animal would they be and why? Bonus points for name inclusion too! And how about YOU and YOUR DAEMON? Ok, so I haven't figured Wanda's out yet, and Catseye is just....obviously she's a cat of some type. She's her own daemon. But as for Darkstar and Shaw--- So, my first choice for Sebastian Shaw's daemon is a black female ox named Opis. Oxen are associated with hard work, and he's a self-made man who prides himself on having been born dirt-poor and become a multibillionaire through sheer hard work, determination, and intellect (note, I write COMICS Sebastian Shaw, not the XMCU one who is a VERY different guy) Oxen are also noted for their incredible strength, and Shaw is a huge strong guy, as well as very strong in spirit. He never gives up, which unfortunately contributes to his villainy. Cattle are also often associated with anger; a charging bull is a terrifying thing, and Shaw very much resembles that during a fight. Basically, Shaw is a man who embodies both the good AND bad symbolism of the ox, so of course he has one as a daemon! As for her name, Opis was a Roman earth goddess, the counterpart of Rhea (mother of Zeus). Her name is based on both the Latin word for wealth and riches as well as the word for work, so it’s hard to think of any better moniker than that for an animal that’s meant to be Shaw’s soul made flesh. She's female because TYPICALLY daemons are opposite-sex from their people. Not always, though. It's stated very early in the books that sometimes people have a same-sex daemon, and Pullman, last I checked, has a very "draw your own conclusions" attitude towards it. Fan theories range from it indicating an LGBT identity to indicating some kind of second sight. Shaw is canonically bisexual, but he's also just very very masc, so I made his daemon female since like...if your average cishet guy has a female daemon, that's probably what Shaw has. While a black ox is my own choice, quizzes have given me different results for him, and I also like them enough to mention. The official website for the BBC television series based on the HDM books has a quiz that gave Shaw a kingsnake when I took it for him, and describes a kingsnake daemon as indicating someone who is powerful and independent, who makes their own rules with their own ideas of what is right and wrong, and is ambitious, respected by others, and not to be crossed. I think that fits. Plus, kingsnakes bear a royal name, and they’re a notoriously cannibalistic species, preying on other snakes, which I think suits Shaw well in terms of being a treacherous ally and as selling out mutantkind for his own gain. Another quiz gave him a wild cat, specifically a snow leopard. Interestingly, this is the daemon that Lord Asriel has, and Lord Asriel's first description is really not dissimiliar to Shaw! "a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seemed to flash and glitter with savage laughter. It was a face to be dominated by, or to fight: never a face to patronize or pity. All his movements were large and perfectly balanced, like those of a wild animal, and when he appeared in a room like this, he seemed a wild animal held in a cage too small for it.” His interactions with Lyra in the first chapter are dead-on Shaw too, lol Anyway, here's the result copy-pasted, with the Shaw-accurate parts bolded: "Your daemon would take the form of a wild cat! Those who have wild cat daemons are proud and confident people who radiate strength. They aren’t necessarily the most talkative, but they have the largest presence in the room wherever they go. As natural leaders, the companions of these individuals know it’s their way or the highway. Your daemon would take the form of a snow leopard! You are an intuitive and self-reliant individual who maintains a balance in their life. More so than others with wild cat daemons, those with snow leopards are know for their independence and quiet wisdom. They are often socially removed, deeply internal and concerned with philosophy or big picture issues." The first paragraph is dead-on Shaw, the second one less so but still with some bits! Finally, I know they're a total meme at this point, but <a href='https://daemonpage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22845' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>THE HONEY BADGER</a> I think Darkstar’s would be a wolf. I realize that’s such a cliche animal to pick for “what my character is most like” because of the coolness factor, but that’s not why I selected them. I actually picked them because wolves are very communal and, while they don’t run on that bullshit alpha/beta/omega system, are hierarchal, and very loyal. A lone wolf is NOT a happy animal. They work together, from bringing down prey to bringing up pups. They also thrive in cold environments. Darkstar never goes solo once in her career, she seems to always need to be on a team, and she’s extremely loyal, sometimes too much so. It’s the canine loyalty in particular that made me pick wolves over any other communal animal, like horses or naked mole rats or apes or rats or any number of other critters. I almost went with a dog instead, servants are depicted as often having dogs of a breed that reflects their position (for instance, a high class butler having a fancy Irish setter, but a guard having a large guard/attack breed) but I ultimately went with wolves both because of her fighting capabilities as a superhero (even if she’s far from a notably vicious type) and because wolves don’t have the same urge to please human beings; even pet wolves won’t do tricks and shit like a dog will. And Laynia is someone who does struggles a LOT with whether to remain loyal and obedient when her conscience telling her NO, and while daemons are reflections of their person, they also often embody like…our second thoughts, or things we ignore or repress, or our “true” selves, and many people are shown to bicker with their daemons because of this. Like Lyra is very impulsive, but her daemon Pan tries to talk her out of reckless behavior, or Mrs. Coulter has quashed down all her better human qualities and as a result her daemon barley speaks because he represents that aspect of her, there’s this bad guy who seems to be a very charming seducer, but he’s actually violent and evil and his daemon is a hyena that everyone innately finds repulsive (yeah, I hate the hyena slander, but you see my point) So I think her wolf daemon would be the independent-minded part of her that keeps saying “this is wrong, make your own decisions, you care about your pack but they don’t care about you!” while she herself argues with it because of her conditioning. I like to headcanon Laynia as a closeted lesbian even though there's really no basis for it, and to that end her daemon is a female as well. She's a white wolf, and her name is Drioma after a Slavic spirit of the evening and the night. And at last...me! I think I'd probably have a chinchilla or a dormouse. Chinchillas are delicate, and they're very sensitive, over-sensitive even. They're super duper picky and hard to win over, and tend to only bond with one person. I'm a lot like that. Dormice hibernate, hence their reputation as sleepy, and I need to nap all the time. They’re solitary and seldom travel more than 70 m from their nest; I’m such a homebody that quarantine didn't impact my social life at all besides the once-a-month LARP. While I seem more social online, I still pretty much only stick to the spaces that I know, and I still seldom am the first to reach out to others. Just as dormice stay in its nest to avoid predators, I tend to flee unfamiliar interaction out of nervousness it will go wrong. It also spends most of its life sleeping, which I do a lot of as well, and just like me, it will go into torpor if the climate is especially cold or wet. It’s nocturnal though, so when it is awake, it’s at night, which I think is my natural state. They eat a wide variety of food, much of it sweet like fruits, and are in fact omnivores, occasionally preying on things like aphids and caterpillars, and I likewise LOVE TO NOM, especially sweet things, and while I’ve had people often think I was vegetarian (as one would think the dormouse would be) I actually have to eat meat for medical reasons–we both do what we gotta! That said, I took the quiz, and it said I'm a marsupial, specifically a wallaby, probably because they just didn’t have a potoroo option! If you don't know what a potoroo is, they're an endangered marsupial I am SUPER PASSIONATE ABOUT and an advocate for irl. But anyway, here's the quiz, which....basically yeah, me! "Your daemon would take the form of a marsupial! Those who have marsupial daemons are protective and giving people who typically have an unusual or quirky perspective on life. They are creative individuals good at inspiring their loved ones, notably quiet until something riles them up. Your daemon would take the form of a wallaby! You are an introverted and curious individual with a strong sense of self. More so than others with marsupial daemons, those with wallabies come across as friendly and sociable, but are slow to trust others and struggle with commitment. They are incredibly focused once something grabs their attention and tend to get tunnel vision when pursuing their goals or obsessing over their interests." CALLED. ME. OUT!!!

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