Races and creatures in His Dark Materials facts for kids

His Dark Materials is a group of three exciting fantasy novels by Philip Pullman. The books are called Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. This article tells you about the amazing fictional creatures and people you'll meet in these stories.

Armoured Bears (Panserbjørne)

The panserbjørne are powerful creatures that look a lot like polar bears. They have special thumbs on their front paws, which means they can grab things very well. Even though they are huge and super strong, they are also very skilled with their paws.

These bears are amazing metalsmiths. They have a natural talent for working with metal and can make and fix metal items much better than humans can. They mostly speak English, but they can also speak other languages.

It's usually very hard to trick a bear. However, one bear named Iofur Raknison was tricked because he wasn't acting like a true bear. Bears' livers are poisonous, just like in real life, because they have a lot of a certain vitamin.

The word "panserbjørne" means "armour-bears" in Danish. In the 2007 movie The Golden Compass, they are also called "ice bears."

Bear Society and Rules

Panserbjørne usually live alone, but they have a loose society centered in a place called Svalbard. They are led by a king. Two kings you'll read about in the books are Iofur Raknison and Iorek Byrnison.

Sometimes, bears work for humans as helpers or workers, but only in the cold Arctic areas. Bears who do this might feel a bit ashamed. People further south don't often meet the bears, but everyone knows they exist.

Being an outcast is the worst thing that can happen to a bear. An outcast has to leave their home. If they try to come back to Svalbard, they will be shot from far away with special fire weapons. Bears believe dying by fire weapon is dishonorable. An outcast cannot take part in a formal fight, and any other bear can kill them without getting in trouble.

Formal fights, called duels, are important events for bears. They usually don't end in death. When a bear knows they will lose, they must show that they give up. But sometimes, an issue is so important that one bear has to kill the other. This happened in the duel between Iorek Byrnison and Iofur Raknison. Iorek won and became king again. Normally, an outcast like Iorek wouldn't be allowed to duel, but Iofur was tricked into letting him. Usually, a bear who kills another in a duel becomes an outcast.

In the books, the bears try hard to keep their own ways and traditions, especially when human society tries to change them. This is very clear when Iofur Raknison is king. Iofur tries to make the bears more like humans. He wants them to build fancy palaces and universities, decorate their armour, and even get dæmons. Even the marble used for the palace goes against the bears' way of life. Decorating armour is even worse because they believe armour should only be made of 'sky-iron', which is very special. Iorek Byrnison defeats Iofur and brings the bears back to their old traditions.

Armour and Weapons

Armour is incredibly important to the panserbjørne. They see it as being like a dæmon or soul, but it's something they make themselves.

A bear makes their own armour from 'sky-iron'. This is a rare metal found in meteorites that the bears find in the ice. This magical metal is fictional, but real Arctic people did use meteorites to get iron for tools. Sky-iron is super strong and has only been damaged by the Subtle Knife, which can cut through it easily.

A bear's main weapons are their huge strength, powerful jaws, and sharp claws. They use these in close fights or when dueling other bears. However, against human enemies and outcasts, bears use 'fire hurlers'. These are like a mix of flame throwers and catapults.

Witches

In Lyra's world, witches are always female and live in the far north. They worship their own nature gods and goddesses. They also know about the idea of "Mother Eve" from the Bible. Every witch described is very beautiful. They stay young their whole lives but also look very wise. Some witches live to be over 1,000 years old. They wear ragged black silk and are always barefoot. Witch queens often wear a crown they made themselves. Serafina Pekkala wears a band of red Arctic flowers that never die, and Ruta Skadi wears a crown made of Siberian tiger teeth. Their crowns, like their dæmons (which are always birds), show what kind of person the witch queen is.

Witches are known for being excellent archers and always carry bows. They lower their bows to the ground as a sign of friendship when needed.

Witches sometimes choose human men to be their special companions. All of a witch's sons will be human, and all of her daughters will be witches. For a witch, the lives of humans are very short. Even though some witches feel sad when they lose those they care about, they accept that they cannot change who they are.

Witch Powers and Abilities

Witches can feel the cold, but it doesn't bother them. They can handle the coldest temperatures on Earth easily. Because they don't wear heavy clothes, they can feel the lights of the Aurora on their skin.

There's a special wasteland far north where no dæmons can go. Because of this, witches can learn to be far away from their dæmons if they want. Since all witch dæmons are birds, they can easily fly off to deliver messages, spy, or do other tasks for their witches. This often surprises people who have never seen a person and their dæmon separated. When Lyra and Will go to the land of the dead, their dæmons also learn to be separate from them.

If a witch has a branch from a special cloud-pine tree, she can use it to fly. Humans can't fly this way, but a witch can carry another person on their cloud-pine if needed, usually someone no bigger than a child. When many witches fly together on their cloud-pines, they can even pull an airship that doesn't have its own engine and can help control the winds.

Witches can also make themselves completely ignored by focusing hard. When they are in the right mindset, a witch can become so unnoticeable that she is almost invisible. People will look at her and move aside without saying anything, as if she were just part of the wall. However, Mrs Coulter seems to be immune to this trick. Some witches can see the future and knew that Lyra would be like a second Eve. They have special spells and potions for healing, and they can keep flowers fresh or stop bodies from decaying until someone has seen them. They also seem to have a limited form of telepathy. For example, Serafina Pekkala could know where Lee Scoresby was by giving him one of her crown's flowers to use when he was in danger. Her dæmon can also unlock padlocks using snow and his breath.

Witches have an amazing sense of direction and can remember the way to a far-off place even if they've only been there once.

Witch Clans

On his travels, John Parry (also known as Stanislaus Grumman) listed 9 witch clans.

• The first and most northern clan are the witches of Lake Enara, led by Serafina Pekkala.
• The Slavic witches of Lake Lubana are the most southern, led by Ruta Skadi, who was a companion of Lord Asriel.

Witch clans often fought among themselves. Some witches even helped the Magisterium at Bolvangar, but most changed sides when they found out the truth.

In another world that Lord Asriel uses as his base for war, there are different witches who can be male or female and live only as long as most humans.

Angels

In the books, angels were first formed from Dust, though it seems other conscious beings can also become angels. They look like winged humans with a light shining on them that has no clear source. Like witches, they appear both young and old at the same time. Angels are organized in a hierarchy based on their power. The more powerful they are, the brighter they shine. Lower-ranking angels can't be seen clearly during the day and are best seen in dim light. Humans can only see them clearly when they are surrounded by smoke. Angels really want to feel what it's like to have a body, which Mrs Coulter uses to her advantage in The Amber Spyglass.

The first, oldest, and most powerful angel was the Authority, who was worshipped as God. As the angel Balthamos tells 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."

—Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Chapter Two, pages 31–32

Arctic Foxes

Seen in The Amber Spyglass, Arctic foxes are somewhat intelligent and playful creatures. They can only understand things happening right now, which causes a lot of confusion when they listen in on others.

For example, an Arctic fox once said: "Bear must go south! Swear! Witch is troubled! True! Swear! Promise!" This happened after the fox heard Iorek Byrnison and Serafina Pekkala talking about the armoured bears moving because of something like global warming. The fox was trying to trade this information for its life with a cliff ghast that was threatening to eat it.

Gyptians

Gyptians are a fictional group of people in Lyra Belacqua's world. They are similar to the Gypsies in our world. The name 'Gyptian', like 'Gypsy', comes from 'Egyptian'.

Gyptians are people who travel by water. They mostly live on boats, moving along the canals and rivers of 'Brytain'. They seem to earn their living by trading as they travel. Lyra says they are "coming and going with the spring and autumn fairs". Gyptians are proud of how good they are at card games. John Faa's group of Gyptians come from "Eastern Anglia," which is like East Anglia in our world.

They are divided into large families. The leaders of these families make up the Gyptians' Council, which is led by John Faa, the King of the Gyptians. The Council also includes Farder Coram. Gyptians sometimes gather in a "byanroping," which is a meeting or gathering of families. Their society is very close-knit, even though they are spread out geographically. Gyptian children are loved and looked after by other members if they wander off. Their group is small enough for all Gyptians to know each other by name, but large enough to gather 170 men for a rescue mission to the north.

Gyptians have a unique look, which Lyra tries to copy. They also have a special accent and words from "Fens-Dutch." Their Dutch connections also show in their love for drinking "jenniver" (Dutch jenever), their Dutch names (like Dirk Vries, Raymond van Gerrit, Ruud Koopman), and their use of Dutch words like "landloper." "Landloper" is an old Dutch word meaning "land-walker." It's also a negative word meaning 'tramp', and Gyptians use it to refer to anyone who isn't a Gyptian.

Gyptians are honorable people. They seem to feel they owe Lord Asriel for helping them with a proposed Watercourse Bill in Parliament. When they learn about the bad things happening at Bolvangar, they do their best to stop them. Even though they are honorable, mainstream society sometimes sees them negatively. While they trade fairly, they are described as doing "incessant smuggling and occasional feuds" where they might even kill other Gyptians. Teenagers who are not Gyptians hint that Gyptians steal horses and don't care if a Gyptian child disappears. At a party, Lyra says that Gyptians "take kids and sell 'em to Turks for slaves", but this is probably one of Lyra's made-up stories.

The Gyptians believe they are "hit worse off than most" by the child abductions in Northern Lights. This might be why they decide to plan a rescue mission together. It could also be because Gyptians have little other help in society, as they are described as having little standing in the law.

Some Gyptians and half-Gyptians, like List of His Dark Materials characters#Bernie Johansen, take jobs on land, but this seems to be a small number. Some hide their Gyptian background while still sharing information with the Gyptian leaders.

Serafina Pekkala's witch clan, based at Lake Enara, are friends with the Gyptians. This friendship started because of the relationship between Serafina and Farder Coram. Farder Coram once saved Serafina's life and became the father of her son (who has already passed away by the time of the books).

Spectres

Spectres are also known as the Spectres of Indifference. They are spirit beings that have escaped from the space between universes. Most often, a Spectre is created each time a new window is opened by the Subtle Knife. They appear in the second and third books, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

Spectres feed on the Dust that makes up a person's soul. When they attack, a person is left in a still, zombie-like state. Spectres are invisible to and do not harm children before they reach their teenage years, because Dust has not yet settled on them. When traveling, all groups of people in Cittàgazze must have a man and woman on horseback ready to run away and protect the young ones if a Spectre attacks. Spectres usually don't fly, so traveling by air over Cittàgazze is the only safe way for an adult to cross the city. Cittàgazze, a city full of Spectres, has no adults and is filled with groups of children.

When the effects of a Spectre attack on a human are explained to Will, he wonders if they, or similar creatures, might also exist in our universe and cause mental illness. He thinks this because his mother seems to suffer from paranoia and other symptoms like schizophrenia.

Spectres cannot be killed by any physical means, but there are many ways to fight their attacks. Angels can stop Spectres, and ghosts can fight them. Humans whose dæmons have been removed through a process called intercision can pass Spectres without being attacked. Humans can also push them away with the Subtle Knife. Stanislaus Grumman uses his skills as a shaman to control one and send it onto a church airship to attack the pilot, causing the ship to crash. Mrs Coulter convinces a group of Spectres that following her commands would give them more chances to feed, so she can control them and even make them "forget that they were earthbound" (so they can fly). Because of this, at the end of The Subtle Knife, Will and Lyra's witch guards are surprised, and most have their Dust consumed by Spectres while flying.

During the final battle of The Amber Spyglass, Spectres fight against Lord Asriel's forces. They corner Lyra and Will's dæmons to get rid of the children who have caused so much trouble for Metatron. But ghosts (including Lee Scoresby and John Parry) hold them back while the children and dæmons escape to the Mulefa world.

Mulefa

Mulefa are intelligent creatures who live in a different Earth in the novel The Amber Spyglass. "Mulefa" is the plural word; one of them is called a "zalif" (which is pronounced slightly differently for a male or female).

These elephant-like creatures have a unique body shape. They have a diamond-shaped skeleton without a spine. They have four legs, short horns, and a prehensile trunk that works like hands. Using their trunk to make signs is a big part of the Mulefa language. They live in close communities. One reason for this closeness might be that since they don't have hands, it usually takes two or more Mulefa trunks working together to do complicated things like tying knots.

A special thing about the Mulefa is how they move. They use large, round seed pods from their world's huge "seed-pod trees." The pods fit perfectly onto a spur on their front and back legs once each zalif is old enough to use them. They push themselves along with their other two legs, like a cyclist without pedals. In their world, old lava flows have hardened into smooth rock rivers that act as roads. The Mulefa have a special relationship with the seed-pod trees. When they use the pods on the "roads," the pods' very hard outsides crack, and the seeds can come out. The Mulefa then help these seeds grow, which allows the seed-pod trees to reproduce. The book explains that the seed-pod, the spur, and the rock roads are all needed for the Mulefa to keep existing.

The Mulefa's technology is similar to that of humans in the Stone Age. Mulefa live in wattle-and-daub villages and use simple tools. There's no sign of machines in their world. They don't use metal for anything except decorations. They domesticate grazing animals, use trees to make lacquer, and get acid from rocks. One of their few natural enemies are huge white birds called tualapi. These birds regularly destroy villages with scary fierceness, and the Mulefa have no real defense against them except retreating further inland. The Mulefa also don't seem to have an organized government; they appear to live in village groups with little or no contact between settlements. The Mulefa's less advanced technology might be because their trunks are limited compared to human hands. Also, their natural environment gives them everything they need, so they might not feel the need to develop further.

The Mulefa themselves told Mary Malone that they think slower than humans. They also find it hard to imagine abstract ideas like those in mathematics, or to easily find connections and patterns. However, they have an amazing memory of their race's history, remembering everything from 33,000 years ago. This is when they first started using the wheel-pod trees, an event captured in their creation myth. The Mulefa see this event in a very positive way. The 33,000-year timeframe matches the time in the books when human consciousness awakened in other worlds, as Mary Malone's research about Dust suggests. Mulefa can also see Dust directly without a special tool like the amber spyglass. The oil from their pods helps them "grow up," making them more aware and able to see Dust.

Tualapi

The Tualapi are the only known enemies of the Mulefa. They destroy the Mulefa's villages and cause many seed-pods to be lost. 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 stop a Tualapi attack after killing one with his rifle.

The Mulefa have no defense against Tualapi other than moving further inland during their attacks. Tualapi attacks usually result in the destruction of Mulefa homes. Like most animals from the Mulefa's universe, their limbs are in different positions than our animals. They have one limb (a wing for Tualapi) at the front, a pair (legs) in the middle, and one limb (another wing) at the back. Although they are similar to birds, they don't fly. Instead, they use their wings like sails and rudders to move on rivers, and they come onto dry land when attacking the Mulefa.

After he killed the first Tualapi he met, Father Gomez watched the reactions of the other Tualapi carefully. He realized that these creatures understood death, pain, and fear, which meant they could be controlled and used for bigger tasks. Father Gomez managed to gain control over the rest of the group and started using the Tualapi for transport, suggesting he was able to tame or control them.

Gallivespians

Gallivespians are a humanoid species from another universe that appear in the third book. They are no taller than the width of a man's hand. To make up for their small size, they have poisonous spurs on the backs of their heels. These spurs can kill or cause intense pain and temporary paralysis. Their poison needs time to become fully strong, so it can't be used very often.

In the Gallivespian universe, "big people" (humans) serve a powerful being called the Authority. Throughout history, these "big people" have tried to get rid of the "little people," believing they are evil. Because of this, most Gallivespians join Lord Asriel against the Authority. Due to their small size and their skill with special communication tools (called "lodestone resonators," which use a concept called quantum entanglement), they are very useful as spies. Gallivespians are naturally proud and a bit arrogant, making up for their small size with big personalities. They don't seem to be very subtle, but their small size makes them good spies.

Gallivespians use different types of dragonflies that they carefully breed for transport. They carry the larvae (young) of the dragonflies specific to their clan. These larvae can quickly grow into a full-sized dragonfly. Once grown and bonded with their Gallivespian, the dragonflies obey completely until they die. Gallivespians themselves also have very short lives, living no more than about ten years, and they die when they are still young adults.

In The Amber Spyglass, the two main Gallivespians are the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia. These two are first sent to protect Lyra and Will and guide them to Lord Asriel. But Lyra and Will have their own plans, and the spies can't force them to do anything as long as Will has the Subtle Knife. Tialys and Salmakia eventually become friends with Will and Lyra and help them on their own journey. The only two other named Gallivespians are Lord Roke, who commands the spies in Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower (the main base for the rebellion), and Madame Oxentiel, who takes Lord Roke's place after he dies.

The name Gallivespian sounds like the gall wasp. The word gall can mean both an unusual growth and also rudeness or bitterness. Vespa is Latin for wasp. The name also reminds us of the main character in Gulliver's Travels, who meets a world of tiny people.

Cliff-ghasts and Night-ghasts

Cliff-ghasts are the more common type of ghasts in His Dark Materials. Many characters in the books grew up in the same world as the cliff-ghasts and might have met them before the story starts. Because of this, no character ever fully explains what these creatures are.

Cliff-ghasts can fly and can be killed. Lee Scoresby, who doesn't like killing intelligent creatures, seems to have no problem killing ghasts. They are scavengers, meaning they eat dead things, and they enjoy killing and teasing. In the play version, they are shown wearing hoods and cloaks, but in Northern Lights, they are described as having flat heads, big, bulging eyes, and wide, frog-like mouths. They also give off a terrible smell.

Cliff-ghasts can speak, but they don't talk with any of the main characters. They are heard twice: once overheard, and once talking among themselves as they butcher an Arctic fox. At first, they seem to have no clear idea of honor or respect, even for each other. However, Ruta Skadi, while invisible, stumbles upon the oldest cliff-ghast, a blind leader called "grandfather" by all the others who take care of him and feed him. They seem to be a magical part of the world in Northern Lights, but then they appear in other worlds too. When the great war begins, they are the only beings known not to pick sides. They simply wait to feast on those who die in battle, though they do predict that Lord Asriel's forces will win. Also, for reasons never fully explained beyond their Grandfather's old age and memory, they know about the Æsahættr (the Subtle Knife) long before any human or witch outside of Cittàgazze does. They also realize that Lord Asriel will need it to win the battle.

Night-ghasts are similar to the nightmares from old stories, which were believed to cause bad dreams.

The name "ghast" sounds like "ghastly," which comes from an old English word meaning "deathlike" or "terrifying."

Ghosts

In the books, all people have a ghost that continues to exist after they die. Ghosts have faint forms that look like the person did when they were alive. Unlike a dæmon, which disappears when a person dies, the ghost is led away by their death and becomes stuck forever in the underworld. Will and Lyra fix this by helping all the ghosts escape from the underworld. When the ghosts enter the real world, they break apart and become disconnected atoms, joining back with the rest of the universe.

Harpies

Harpies in His Dark Materials look like the harpies from myths and legends. They have human heads on bird-like bodies, including wings. In His Dark Materials, they guard the Land of the Dead, bothering the ghosts without mercy. They seem to crave information and knowledge in the form of stories. They also seem to have a supernatural ability to know when they are being lied to. They use this knowledge, and what they know about other wrong things their victims did in life, to torment them. In The Amber Spyglass, when Lyra and Will open a portal from the Land of the Dead to let the ghosts escape, the Harpies are given a new job: guiding arriving ghosts to the portal. The Harpies also have the right to question the ghosts, asking them to tell the stories of their lives and any knowledge they have gained. They can refuse to guide ghosts to the portal (potentially trapping them in the Land of the Dead forever) if the ghosts have "nothing of value" to tell (and are old enough to be expected to) or if they lie.