Races and creatures in His Dark Materials

This is a list of fictional races and creatures in the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman.

Armoured Bears (panserbjørne)

The word "panserbjørne" (italicised and not capitalised in the books) literally means "armoured bears" in 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."

Description

The panserbjørne are a race of sapient, 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 at least; other universes explored in the novels have facilities superior to the bears).

While they mainly appear to speak English, they have been known to speak in a number of indigenous languages.

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 suffering from an outside context problem, 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 daemons. Iorek Byrnison eventually defeats Iofur and returns the bears to their usual, more primitive state; however, later in the series he begins to feel human feelings such as doubt, and is asked if creating armour was a human action itself. Iorek, however, decides there is a line between bear custom and human behavior.

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).

Gyptians

Gyptians are a fictional ethnic group. In the world where Lyra Belacqua comes from, they 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 King of the Gyptians, John Faa, is also in this council, as is 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 from their mother. 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 dogsleds.

Unlike real-world Roma, gyptians are water-travellers. They mainly live aboard boats traversing the canals and rivers of England. They also have connections with salt-water sailors. The gyptians' primary source of income appears to be through trading goods as they travel. Lyra's description of them as coming and going with the spring and autumn fairs could be seen as making them additionally analogous to carnival folk, but this could also be coincidence. 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.

Gyptians sometimes gather as an almost entire culture, and this is called 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 wildly inventing as she likes to do.

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. It appears that this is a cultural minority though. Some hide their gyptian heritage while still reporting information back to the gyptian leaders.

Serafina Pekkala's witch clan, who are based at the fictional Lake Enara, share a friendship with the Gyptians, which is extremely during Lyra's struggles. This friendship is born from the mutual understanding that Serafina herself shares with the gyptian Farder Coram. For Farder Coram once saved Serafina's life, and also became her lover and father of her (at the time of the trilogy) deceased son.

Spectre

Spectres are also known as the the Spectres of Indifference. They escaped from the void between worlds. Most commonly, a spectre is created for each new portal that is cut open with the Subtle Knife. They appear in the second and third volumes, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

Spectres feed upon Dust. As a result, these beings are invisible and cannot harm pre-adolescents, as Dust has not yet settled upon them. To adults, they appear as slight shimmerings in the air, and move with malevolence. If they catch an adult, they consume the Dust that makes up the person's soul, leaving the person as a lifeless zombie-like entity. As such, Cittàgazze, a city infested with them, is bereft of all adults. 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. Dæmons, also being composed of Dust, are vulnerable to being attacked by Spectres. They are normally not air-borne, so air travel over Cittàgazze is the only safe means possible for an adult to cross the city.

When the behavior of the Spectres is explained to the character Will, he hypothesizes that they, or similar creatures, may also exist in our universe and cause mental illness. This opinion is informed 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 by humans (or any physical entities at all; any weapon used on one will simply pass through it), but are warded off by the Subtle Knife. 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. 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.

Mulefa

The Mulefa are a fictional race of sentient beings who inhabit a parallel Earth in the novel The Amber Spyglass.

The mulefa are sentient beings who evolved in a radically different fashion than humans. An individual is referred to as a zalif. They possess an anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton lacking a spine, have hide, short horns and a trunk. Lacking hands, the mulefa make much use of trunk-gestures in communicating - small movements and "flicks" are an integral part of their vocabulary. The creatures simply referred to as "grazers", and appearing to be genetically similar to the Mulefa, are a source of milk, meat, hides and other materials to the mulefa. 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 circular seed pods from their world's "wheel-pod trees" to travel around their countryside; the disc-shaped pods fit neatly onto a spur on their front and rear legs when each zalif reaches a certain age. They then propel themselves using their two side legs, like a cyclist without pedals. Ancient lava flows (now solidified into smooth rivers of rock running across the land) serve as roads to ease transport. 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 civilisation is considerably backward, reminiscent of humanity in the stone age. Mulefa live in wattle-and-daub villages and use hand tools - there is no evidence of any form of mechanisation in their world. They do not use metal for any technological purposes (it is only used as ornaments). However, 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. Reference is also made to their culling 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, something the Mulefa have no real defence against (save retreating further inland where the Tualapi do not go). The Mulefa also appear to lack any sort of organised government; they appear to live in village groups with little or no contact between settlements (which also seems to prevent any large scale warfare in their world). The reasons for the Mulefa's less advanced technology are probably their less dexterous hands and their slower thought processes; their state of harmony 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 so easily visualize abstract concepts such as mathematics or establish links and patterns. They have an extraordinary race memory though, remembering all of their history from the previous 33,000 years. At that time, it seems that they first interacted with the wheel-pod trees, symbolized in a story that is their equivalent to the Adam and Eve fable, although they see the 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). They are able to see Dust directly without the aid of an instrument such as the amber spyglass. The oil from their pods, awash with Dust or sraf as the mulefa call it, make them aware that they are mulefa, conscious beings with the ability to reason and remember.

Gallivespians

Gallivespians are a fictional humanoid race that appear in the second and third volumes of the trilogy.

These creatures are essentially humanoid, but also very different from a normal human, and they come from an alternate universe; they have been crossing between universes by use of windows either manually made, or by the use of the subtle knife.

Gallivespians are tiny, no higher than the width of a man's hand. Both genders have spurs on the backs of their heels which can be dug into an enemy to deliver a poison that will paralyse and cause intense pain for many days. This poison builds up in their heels over time, and so cannot be used frequently.

Gallivespians due to their size are used invariably by Lord Asriel of the books as spies. They have been crossing the universes to join Lord Asriel under his banner in the rebellion against The Authority. They come from a world where "big people" (humans) and "little people" (the Gallivespians) are constantly at war. The humans in their world, most of which serve the Authority, have been trying to exterminate the Gallivespians for ages, believing they are demonic.

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 a fictional species of dragonfly for their transport. They carry larvae with them, which may be cultivated into a fully grown dragonfly in a short time. Once it has grown, they may ride on its back until the end of its short life. Gallivespians themselves also have a very short life, living no more than about ten years.

In The Amber Spyglass, the two Gallivespians that are most important are the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, male and female spies respectively. They are sent to protect and watch Lyra, the protagonist, and Will Parry, the second protagonist, Lyra being Lord Asriel's daughter. They are also instructed to bring them back to Lord Asriel, especially considering that Will is the bearer of the subtle knife, which is said to be the only thing that can win Lord Asriel's rebellion. Tialys and Salmakia eventually befriend and help Will and Lyra before they die. The only two other named Gallivespians in the story 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.

Name source

The name appears to be derived from that of an insect, the gall wasp, and the word "vespa", which is Italian 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.

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 we know of not to take sides, merely waiting to feast on the casualties.

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. The mulefa have no defence against Tualapi; they must retreat inland during attacks (although Father Gomez, a human who entered the Mulefa world was able to kill Tualapi with his rifle). Tualapi attacks generally result in total destruction of Mulefa habitats and can cost the mulefa greatly. Like most animals from the universe of Mulefas, 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. Tualapi live in groups.