#hdm worldbuilding

[hatters-workshop]

His Dark Materials Masterpost

Because as we know, the tumblr tagging system is shockingly bad, to the point where searching word for word tags on my page do not, in fact, return all items that are tagged with those exact words, I thought it would be a good idea to make a master post for the His Dark Materials content that I have put out, and pining it to the top of my blog. Ngl i was surprised when collating this how much there was, and even then I've only included things i think people would actually want to read. There's a lot here that I'm quite proud of and so would prefer it not to be lost to eeby deeby.

Fic:

The post that became a longer fic on Ao3

I am not there. I do not sleep. On Ao3

Artwork from my Northern Lights illustration project

I've given a link here to a post that should have working links to all the other images on the series

And here collected into smaller views and includes my Subtle Knife design

Mrs Coulter analysis:

Miscasting the Golden Monkey

TV series Mrs Coulter is not book Mrs Coulter (and that's okay)

Is she a witch? (Adding to someone else's theorising)

TV series general posting:

Alamo gulch scene

Women with a good work ethic

World building/theorising/meta:

Daemons and stage performances

Alethiometer reading

Was Yambe-Akka originally just a Witch's personified death?

Can daemons have venom?

Daemons that change over their life cycle

Could Asriel's photos have been developed with rose oil from the secret commonwealth?

Additions to others' posts:

Daemons fighting of their attackers in Bolvanger

Mispronouncing Iorek's name

Lord Asriel's age and complaining about hair again

Things that are normal to include for Daemons in Lyra's world

(This link features both my current screen name and my old one, sake-chan) Naming the golden monkey and analysis

Theorising about the abyss

Book suggestion of Mrs Coulter being separated from her Daemon

Inconvenient daemons

Complaining about Pullman's vague rewriting:

Asriel HAS BLACK HAIR??

He gave April an extra day???

Why would Mr Coulter recognise blonde Lyra as the child of black haired Asriel??

Meme jokes:

Sometimes a family...

Will: What in the Jesus Chris was that??

Lyra: WHAT IN THE JESUS CHRIST WAS THAT??

This sh*t is bananas let's be honest

#his dark materials #hdm #mrs coulter #lord asriel #lyra silvertongue #lyra belacqua #daemons #golden monkey #analysis #worldbuilding #hdm art #hdm fanfic #masterpost #his dark materials bbc #iorek byrnison

[lordeasriel]

TSC Analysis: Talbot vs Brande

Or “Why philosophy is so powerful in a world filled with fear and ignorance?”

I have been meaning to write this piece for a long, long time; both concepts are among the things I have enjoyed the most from TSC and the new dæmon lore. Brande is certainly my favourite aspect of them both, so know that this will be harsh on Talbot’s opinion in general, though I shall try my best to be as impartial as humanly possible.

Spoilers for The Secret Commonwealth and, just to be safe, anything prior to that book.

We start TSC and right at the beginning we get slapped in the face with Brande’s The Hyperchorasmians, followed closely by a very succinct description of Simon Talbot's The Constant Deceiver. These two books shape, not only Lyra’s early adulthood and her plights through the plot, but the lore of the world and they are responsible for a considerable intellectual shift in the youngest generation of scholars. They are responsible for the devastating presence of dreary philosophy as Lyra struggles with her melancholy, Delamare reshapes the Magisterium and Olivier Bonneville delves deeper into the mystery of the new method of reading the Alethiometer.

These three represent the core of the greater plot, and should (theoretically) be followed and concluded. But we are here today to question the haunting presence of these philosophies in a world that is facing enormous and intrinsic change.

What made me decide to finally write this was a moment in TSC when Pan is talking to Sebastian Makepeace, and they are discussing Brande.

“If he’s a philosopher, why did he write a novel? Does he think the novel is a good form for philosophy?”

“He’s written various other books, but this is the only one he’s famous for. We haven’t—Lyra hasn’t read any of the others.” (TSC, ch. 10)

Makepeace has a good point. Why choose the novel as the medium for his philosophy? Is it really the best way to pass on your thoughts? Pan’s answer is equally interesting: The Hyperchorasmians are the most popular book of Brande's, but there were others he didn't know about. We see, when Pan is with Brande, that he is dictating his new work and his speech sounds very technical instead of literary prose. So why did he choose to use a novel?

Who is Brande and what do we know about him? He is a philosopher of some renown, his work is popular among the youth, his main ideia is that nothing is more than what it is. The Hyperchorasmians are not fully described but we see the main ideia of the book, which is a young man setting off to kill God, an action he does out of reason.

It told the story of a young man who set out to kill God, and succeeded. But the unusual thing about it, the quality that had set it apart from anything else Lyra had ever read, was that in the world Brande described, human beings had no dæmons. They were totally alone.

(...) At the end of the novel, as the hero looked out from the mountains at a sunrise, which in the hands of another writer might have represented the dawn of a new age of enlightenment, free of superstition and darkness, the narrator turned away from commonplace symbolism of that kind with scorn. The final sentence read, “It was nothing more than what it was.” (TSC, ch 6)

Artistic characters are written as useless and reason is exalted, the ending being the main character successful in his task, defeating God and watching the sunset, knowing that no hidden meaning existed anymore, that nothing was more than what it was. More importantly - and in truth, perhaps the most important thing - is that the story has no daemons. It's not a world with missing daemons, but a world where having no daemon is the innate Truth.

You've read TSC, you know where this is going.

How ironic that a man whose daemon is not his own, a man who probably was abandoned by his daemon, should write a story about a world where people have no daemons!

While we don't understand how he lost his daemon, it's easy to think that the abandonment was a blow to him. He struggles with the Fake Cosima, he is haunted and in suffering, Pan's compassion signals that quite clearly. And I think this is where the reason behind The Hyperchorasmians being a novel lies; it's an idealised vision, an idea of a universe where Brande can belong to. The people in his world “were totally alone”, just like Brande, but unlike him, they were in their natural state and content.

Talbot's work, on the other hand, is more tangible in the real world and has greater influence because it's not seen only as enjoyment literature, but an active form of study.While Brande creates a world devoid of daemons - a concept that it’s virtually inconceivable realistically for people in Lyra’s world - Talbot takes advantage of the existence of daemons and twists and creates a different understanding around them.

This is where Brande and Talbot diverge.

You see, Brande's popular novel is certainly a powerful way to create a movement, and it has affected a great deal of people because of its choice to be written in novel form. Novels are more commonly read than academic theses, anyway. That aspect allows Brande to reach a greater number of people, but it forces his work to be scrutinised by the academic community, who prefers a much more solid (and somewhat elitist) approach. His work is also very arid, even if it's quite powerful (he is a man of strong convictions), which makes it a hard read, given it's a 900-page manifesto on why reason and logic supersede anything else. Which is bullshit, but the man is in denial.

Talbot's work is meticulous, charismatic; unlike Brande, who shuns his creative or intuitive side as a whole, Talbot is a sort of charlatan. He half-lives his Truth, bound by convention, by ambition, by a desire to belong just as much. His book is rooted in scientific jargon, but in a way that is approachable, even reasonable. He is often described as a clever and charismatic man; ultimately, he is a hypocrite, but that doesn't change the fact The Constant Deceiver has a great and powerful impact on society at that crucial moment.

His book is a scientific article on the nature of daemons, but not just that. Talbot's main belief is that nothing means anything and that society is entirely made out of pre-conceptions, including the most ingrained things, such as daemons. Therefore, since everything is imagined or just a delusion, nothing has any meaning at all and so, actions have no consequences.

From what we see or hear of Talbot, however, it's clear he is not as feverish about his beliefs. Nowhere near as much as Brande seems to be. Not only does he seem to function appropriately with his daemon, but he is very much aware that actions do have consequences; he sees that very clearly when he talks to Marcel about Malcolm's presence in Geneva and he fails to deliver accurate information because he is biased towards Mal’s simple manners.

Capes and Godwin’s daemon also say that, if Talbot meant his philosophy, he shouldn’t have anything to do with the Magisterium because they wouldn’t have common ground. Which is quite shown when we learn that, not only he is involved with the Magisterium, he does specific and quite illegal schemes for Marcel. which i would also do frankly but u know, not the point at all

“Do we know of any connection between him and Geneva?” asked Malcolm.

“No,” said the whisper of Godwin’s dæmon. “There could hardly be any common ground, if he means what he says.”

“I think the point is that he says nothing means anything very much,” said Capes. “It might be quite easy for him to play at supporting the Magisterium. I’m not sure they’d trust him, though.” (TSC, ch 13)

The book - through Narrative, through Pan, through Lyra sometimes - tries to tell us that Brande and Talbot are two sides of the same coin. And while I think they do share some common ground, I wholeheartedly disagree that they represent the same thing.

Here's the thing: both men use reason to unravel their theories.

Talbot is meticulous, charming, explaining every detail that needs explaining, answering all the questions that need answering in order to prove his point. He has acquired a following because his scientific thesis vibes make him quite popular and together with his bonhomie nature, he has a considerable reach. He is said to be a sterling lecturer, he has the character traits to succeed publicly and socially. Mild, witty, a “flashy writer”.

Brande, on the other hand, is less concerned about his reach and following. His novel is, despite its fictional nature, a depiction of a place that features things from his reality. When we take the themes of TSC into consideration, we can see that he is a man trying to assimilate Truth, not develop it. By writing The Hyperchorasmians, Brande speaks of a world where people like him can fit in, without shame, without being treated like second-rate citizens in a society bound by superstition.

So much of daemon lore is superstition, created and developed by society as it evolved. In LBS, Malcolm thinks that the touching taboo was perhaps learned not innate. He is, perhaps, correct; in a world shaped by the Magisterium, how much of daemon conduct wouldn't be dictated by religious bias?

So, how do the three main plots connect with these philosophers? How do they affect the world around them?

Well, Lyra is the most obvious one. She represents our understanding of Talbot and Brande, their ideas shaping her relationship with Pan and the world. She has become narrow-minded, following reason too closely, incapable of projecting another view on subjects because she shuts down the things around her that bring memories of a life she should let go of.

On the other hand, because Lyra is so blindsided most of the time, she can't really see The Hyperchorasmians or The Constant Deceiver for the potential they bring to her world. The more I read TSC, the more I realise how much Pan and Lyra would benefit from independence from each other. Much of their misery comes from the preconception that they should love each other, that they should share each other’s views, that they should be happy together. These Truths about daemons create a schism in her world, it's why so many people exist that have lost their daemons.

As opposed to Lyra, who clings to reason in order to survive her melancholy, Olivier escapes these novels’ ideas. Instead of bowing to their shallow principles of reason and logic and dryness, he finds his way around the new method by experimentation, renewing his perception in order to master the new method. I think this is why Olivier is such a strong contrast against Lyra; you never even see him think about the philosophers, he is simply not interested. He cares only about improving his reading method, and about his Alethiometer.

And then we have Marcel, by far the most engaged with the philosophies, which is rather ironic, given who he is. He warrants a separate analysis because a lot of his character ties both scholars into his actions in TSC, but the main idea is that Marcel is a combination of Lyra and Olivier’s resolve. He is willing to experiment and try new perspectives to achieve his goals; he proposes heresy to his mother regarding the roses, he believes Truth is malleable - not only that, but he believes it is possible to shatter a previous concept of Truth and teach a new one.

Marcel, however, always acts through reason, but because he is not - so far - blinded by his ambition, by a lack of perception (which is how they talk about imagination), he is able to navigate the world more successfully and share the strongest points of both current philosophies.

He doesn’t shun the roses and the oil as mere superstition; he tries to reckon with it and that’s why he can do things so easily.

Do I have a point with all this? Maybe not, but I wanted to organised my thoughts and this is, well, close enough lol

#the book of dust #the secret commonwealth #hdm meta: worldbuilding #hdm meta: daemons #hdm meta: gottfried brande #hdm meta: simon talbot #meta by effie

[daemonismguide]

Daemon Au guide

Daemon AUs were inspired by the book series His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. You might have watched the movie The Golden Compass, or the tv show His Dark Materials. Pullman himself was inspired by the ancient greek practice of daemonism.

Daemon AUs got popularized in fanfic following the books, since they are essentially about talking animal familiars. Thinking of that, I decided to make this guide, to inspire new ideas for your fandoms and fics

Here's some trivia from the series, which you can pick and choose from at your own tastes when making your AUs.

- Daemons are the physical manifestation of a person's soul.

- A daemon's personality is influenced by their human's subconscience, and is often a balance of the human's personality. For exemple, someone more outgoing might have a daemon who is more shy.

- When you're kids, it changes forms between various animals. As you mature into adulthood, it settles on a single one and never changes again. The age can vary from individual, but it's a milestone of growing up.

- The species of the animal they settle as is a metaphor for their person's personality. You can make much symbolism about that.

- Daemons have more fantasy-sounding names that are very different from human names, and often have lots of meaning.

- The parent's daemons name the child's daemons.

- Daemons are usually the opposite gender as their human, but that is not a rule.

- Daemons can talk. Their main role is to talk to and advise their humans.

- Daemons will usually only talk to their humans or between other daemons, but it's not forbidden for a daemon to talk to another human.

- They are not actual animals, and therefore not driven by animal instincts, but they can have animal abilities like hearing, smelling, etc.

- Daemons can't be too far apart from their humans, they walk together at all times.

- When you hurt a daemon, it's human feels the same pain, and vice versa.

- When you kill a daemon, it's human also dies, and vice versa.

- It's the biggest taboo in the series to touch a daemon who is not your own - but sometimes the AUs adapt it to being lesser degrees of serious, or to mean a shared moment of deep intimacy. You can decide what it means for your AUs.

Attention: from here on, the list is heavily taken from the books' lore and worldbuilding, so it may contain spoilers.

- The HDM series has a multiverse that can be travelled across, and the world where people have daemons is only one of those universes.

- Characters from worlds without daemons will get their own if they travel to one who has.

- Daemons, are made of Dust - the most basic subatomic particles that also constitute the universes, and they grant sentience and drive to living beings. When when they die, the daemons scatter away into a pile of Dust.

- There is a ritual that makes it possible for people to walk apart from their daemons. In the series, the Witches do it as a tradition, even if it's described as being very emotionally painful. But then once it happens it's over, though.

- Another way to do it is separating from your daemon while a living person at the Land of the Dead - the dimension all people go when they die, and where daemons are not allowed.

- The ritual of separation is different than cutting off someone's daemon. In this case, the soul is separated from the body, rendering both human and daemon mindlessly traumatized, never able to be a full, complete being again.

#book stuff #daemonism #his dark materials #the golden compass #daemons #aus #tropes #fic ideas #au ideas #ideas #reference #fanfics #fandom #sfw #blorbos #blorbo from my shows

[grayintogreen]

melting point on the soul!!

THIS ONE SOUNDS LIKE IT SHOULD BE HAZBIN, but it's actually a Bleach/His Dark Materials crossover that is so high concept I have only daydreamed about it so hard I gauve myself covid about it.

I see so many HDM fusions that aren't set in the HDM UNIVERSE but are rather "canon universe with demons in" which fine, but I had just finished watching the first season of BBC's HDM series and I was feeling nostalgic for that world and since there's next to nothing about Nippon in any of the books (I need to read the newer ones to see if they go into it there since I hear they're a lot denser about worldbuilding stuff), I thought well free real estate, so I worked out a whole idea for what HDM Japan is like. Are they under control of the Magisterium? If they aren't, how are they avoiding it and what do they do instead? Ultimately, it led to building Soul Society By Gaslamp with the Gotei 13 acting as both governing body and police force with each division having the similar specifications as they do in canon, and centers around Urahara joining after a stint in Oxford, following a series of mysterious incidents where people continued living in a strange, violent state after having their daemons killed.

It effectively retells the Hollowfication Incident by making it a more pulpy vintage horror story. Like I said, EXTREMELY high concept, extremely full of vibes, but very fun to daydream about.

Also everyone's daemons are their Zanpakuto.

WIP Ramble Game.

#ask game #my asks

[issuedsideways]

okay so i haven't worked on it in several years and i am absolutely in no place to go rewriting it right now because i am in the middle of other fics!! but. i do have like 30k of a draft of a Tony Stark/Artemis Fowl daemon AU/HDM fusion that i am unbelievably serious about.

unfortunately i probably need to overhaul the entire plot but it has some serious promise. the gist is that Tony meets Artemis and they get along immediately, which completely accidentally spirals into the two of them dismantling the disaster Howard got himself into with the Magisterium. (he is involved with intercision privately, and publicly he is a big name in the scientific community re: Dust. as well as owning the only transatlantic airship line) (this is all vitally important to the plot)

Tony is mostly kept out of these things. but Artemis, who is very interested in Dust for magical reasons as well as scientific reasons, takes meeting him as opportunity to make a connection and gets an invite to their home and everything (which is absolutely not for theft reasons.) except then they actually end up getting along (not the plan.) so now all of a sudden they're attached. and Artemis starts questioning things that Tony has no answers to and together they get too suspicious.

there's a whole thing about both of them having male daemons and how that plays out for both of them different in a fantasy homophobia kind of way, because i think that's so compelling and i want to give Artemis a gender crisis (ask me about my trans girl Artemis headcanons)

and there is so much daemon touching in this fic (consensually and otherwise) because it's so interesting to me. give me unique and strange kinds of intimacy and violation that absolutely cannot exist in the real world and i start biting. plus i'm so invested in the Howard drama i have invented for him. there is something to the worldbuilding in the HDM universe that makes me go feral i stg

#speaking of issues #daemon au meta #not sure if i have things in that tag already but i might start just dumping thoughts out here because why not #artemis fowl #tony stark #marvel #af #howard stark #listen i'm just obsessed with this au i want artemis and tony to kiss!!! #i want them to feel safe enough together that they can touch each other's daemons despite all the complications they may have! #i want them to be too close in a weird way. you have no idea

[essayofthoughts]

Turnabout's fair play, 👀👀👀👀

It is fair indeed.

That "Hogwarts" AU. Like it's barely a Hogwarts AU at this point, because I've smushed together so much of my own specific HP Worldbuilding with snippets of CR canon so... it's very much it's own thing and I've got a bunch of ideas but it's also very messy? And for me to really go into what I'd be doing would involve me going into that divergent worldbuilding but... hell that's what this is for so: a person's ability to perform magic is tied to a few different things, but the essential parts are the production of magic, the transference of magic and the use of magic. Some people can produce and transfer magic around their bodies, but can't meaningfully use magic. Some people just don't produce magic but have the transference ability and may or may not have the potential ability to use it (in theory they could channel ambient magic in a ritualised context, as they are "hollow" of magic). Some people don't have any of those three parts and regardless, they're considered "tacit" - quiet in magic. Grog is the former kind of tacit - he has magic, he just can't use it meaningfully. It makes him very strong and hardy, but useless at spellcasting. Percy, meanwhile, is not tacit. Percy was born with magic, not much of it, but very precise transfer and use ability. He was from a very old Pureborn family, magic all the way back, Poludnitsa having married into the family to give them an inborn touch of sunlight. This makes them very interesting to, say, a vampire that may not be entirely happy about the restrictions of their new unlife, the vampire's magical researcher wife, and their pet general researcher. Except. Magic gets fucked up by trauma. Percy's magic - never much to begin with - has been warped and suppressed due to him not wanting to give Ripley any kind of information and so now he is, functionally, tacit. He has magic, he just can't meaningfully use it. Vex is perceptive. Things get interesting. (No one likes Ripley.)

Elaina Lives AU - See the thing is I have actually written some stuff for this and I have ideas for it and I really like it, it was genuinely one of my first ideas I had when watching CR (before Perc'ahlia devoured my brain) but also it's centered on a minor/background character who's dead before canon begins and so it probably won't get much attention if I do write it? Because people always prioritise ship content over genfic (which infuriates me). But anyway, in this AU Elaina survives Thordak's attack, and, for reasons I shall not get into, ends up at the Raven's Crest in Vasselheim. Perhaps the party has another cleric when they go to Marrowglade. Perhaps a different deal is struck over Vex's cooling body. After all, it is not the brother's duty to protect their sibling. It is the parent's duty to protect their child.

Daemon AU - Look, you can have so much intimacy with daemons and the touching/not touching thereof, and Separated daemons and- look, I really want to write this but again, this is one of those small minor AUs that isn't ever going to be as long as the others (crosses my fingers and hopes to hell and back) so even if I do get to it, it probably wouldn't be terribly long. I do think that in Exandria you could have a lot of fun with immense cultural differences of opinion about daemons, about whether those daemons are their same or different genders to their people (in HDM they're usually a different gender, but not always), about people with daemons who Settle in the same form, about Separated daemons. And also - longer lived, slower maturing races, would the existence of daemons change perspectives on shorter-lived races? Daemons Settling earlier indicating these shorter-lived groups are still mature by the metric of daemons, even if an elf of the same age is a child? Without the Magisterium in play and a multitude of gods there's also the idea of clerics who have daemons that are linked to or in some way symbolic of their gods - does Pike's Settle as a bird of some kind, in honour of Sarenrae's wings? Do members of the Grey Hunt tend towards wolf daemons? Does planar ancestry affect daemon manifestation - do tieflings have infernally touched daemons while aasimar or genasi have celestial or elemental ones? How does the existence of daemons intersect with summoned or pacted familiars? There's so many possible questions to dig into and I just don't have the time. But suffice to say, Percy as a magpie is an idea I have loved for a long time, and as everyone knows - one for sorrow. Also, if daemons are Dust and Dust is souls, and demons and devils feed on souls, obviously infernal deals drain away the Dust of one's Daemon. It's not gone, per se - that would have nasty consequences for the person - but it is... held in escrow (ha!), as it were, tied to the deal. Percy might think his daemon has fled him after all their trauma and loss, but mostly she's just furious with him.

Eros & Psyche Perc'ahlia - Look. Look. It is the original Beauty and the Beast story. I love it so much. And part of the story is that Psyche was forbidden from looking upon Eros. Orthax's smoke is very good at obscuring Percy's face. There's a lot of bits and pieces of this I haven't yet fully hammered out, but I love this AU, I love it so much, I love the visuals I can try to tease out as Percy's glasses flash through the smoke when he sits in sunlight with Vex, the smoke no longer roiling shadow because he's soothed and calmed by her company, so it steadies. She glimpses him even if only fragments at a time, before the first time the smoke peels back entirely and she gets to see him for real. (It is still as much a shock as it was in the myth. There are still challenges to overcome.)

Send me a “👀” and I’ll ramble about an au I have but don’t know if I’ll ever get to writing it.

#the 'Hogwarts' AU #elaina lives au #daemon au #eros & psyche au #blorbologist #fic things #ask game #ask

[eerna]

Do you have criticism of the hdm show other than how it changed Lyra's characterization and removed the humour? I loved the show but I do tend to agree with your opinions on things so I'd be interested to hear them if you want to share. And it's been a while since I last read the books so watching the show I didn't have the specifics of them in mind so I could well have missed a bunch of things. Something was off with Iorek I think, though beyond his voice being weirdly Patrick-Page-from-Hadestown for no discernible reason, I'm not sure why. Maybe that comes down to the show making itself grittier too. Like in the book he is tough and incredibly capable and fearsome but he's also kind and compassionate and a fluffy polar bear friend. And then obviously LMM wasn't a great choice for Lee Scorsby, I think most people agree on that point. And they cut way too much worldbuilding with the mulefa in s3 and I get that sure, it's not the most action-packed thing and maybe would've made sense to cut when you're on a time limit but good god Mary playing anthropologist is my favourite part of that whole book I really would have watched a whole season just building out that world and society without any action or conflict. Also it was such a weird choice at the climax to make Will open a box and that box had god in it and god just kind of evaporates and that's that. Like that was the grittiest part of the book maybe! or ballsiest, at least. He literally stabs god! Why would they cut that?! they clearly haven't been watering anything down up to this point to try and pander more to christian sensibilities so why on earth would they chose this most important moment to water something down. k I kind of went off there and probably I'm forgetting some things but overall I really do adore it as an adaptation.

Go off!! I shall listen, I'm curious what happened bc I haven't finished s1 and have only seen maybe 2 eps of s2. I am sad to hear they removed the mulefa parts because those are my fav too… Idk if we're gonna agree on this one, but here goes. The only thing I remember abt it is that it was just insanely boring to me, I would pick up my phone a million times during episodes and I NEVER do that. I reread the books either during its first season or right beforehand, and I couldn't stop feeling like the show made everyone into dolls with sly faces, walking around and calmly stating their lines, instead of the memorable characters they are. The book has so much heart and color in it, but the show is gritty and gray and SO BORING. LIKE GOD. Every scene lasts 100 hours with Important Glances and Long Silences everywhere, interrupted by expositiony dialogue. And I am so sorry, I know she's a kid, but Dafne Keen wasn't good enough to be a lead on a show, especially in one as devoid of any other things that could distract from the acting as this. I liked Amir Wilson and the rest of the cast, but I was never able to believe her.

#eernask #signawyvern #eernask talk hdm

[penny-anna]

What's the daemon thing from? Sounds fascinating

it's from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. you don't really need to have read the books to understand most daemon fic as it generally doesn't engage w any of HDM's other plot or worldbuilding - fanlore has a pretty informative page on the subject and wikipedia also has a page on daemons as appearing in HDM.

[erinptah-admin]

I've aired your Republic of Heaven Community Radio series since I first discovered it several years ago, but I'd never actually finished His Dark Materials, so I knew I was missing a lot. I just started rereading it again after finally reading all of HDM, and I'm understanding so much more of how your worldbuilding builds on and meshes with it! It's like rereading something as an adult that you'd last read as a child and noticing way more of the background plot. It's very exciting.

Very cool to hear, thank you! <3

#Ptah's fic #Ptah's inbox #Welcome to Night Vale #His Dark Materials

[petersthree]

February Stats Books Read: 16 Average Rating: 3.44 Top Genre: Mystery & Thriller My storygraph if you wanna follow me and see my reviews (though I’ll link them for each book in the ratings) :) Currently Reading: Perfect Ruin by Claudia Tan, The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, and The Trials of Kate Hope by Wick Downing.

Standouts: So standouts for me don’t have to be positive, or even my highest ratings - they’re books that just Stood Out to me one way or the other, are in my memory, etc. so here we go lmao 

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris: 2.5/5 Like I said not every standout can be great and alskj;faksdf;j this is one of them. What really got me the most was how much these characters didn’t speak like real people. There was no depth, no real characterization, and the writing felt stilted and overly formal at times. But it left an impression I guess so yay for that?

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister: 4/5 This book fucked. It’s such an absolutely unique concept to me, not only just doing a Groundhog Day thing, but going back further and further in time until you can solve what’s happening with the murder. I found myself really invested in these characters, and I still think about them (granted it’s been like a month out, but generally doesn’t happen to me for thrillers). Everyone should read this book. And if you read it and don’t like it asdfjkl: my bad. 

All Other Books: 

The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: 4/5. So the first book is definitely a standout to me, but the other books not so much. I think the first few books are really good and then it kind of meanders off, but I also read all these books after each other and it is SO possible I was just a bit tired of it lmao. 

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky: 3/5. Releases March 28. 

You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard: 4.5/5. Releases June 13.

Read to Death at the Lakeside Library by Holly Danvers: 3.5/5. Releases August 8. Don’t be dumb like me a;sdlkfja;sdl this thing is like the third book in the series or something

All I Want for Christmas by Nora Roberts: 2.75/5

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: 3.75/5. I’m not gonna lie guys. If I didn’t know this was a Reylo fanfic I would have been all over this book. It honestly is pretty good, save for a line or two that made me howl lmao

The Night She Vanished by Wendy Dranfield: 2/5. Releases March 14. 

The Neighbors We Want by Tim Lane: 2.75/5 Releases September 5. I’m going to be honest guys out of all the books in this list I probably couldn’t tell you a single fact in here that wasn’t part of the book blurb. I read it like 10 days ago and it’s already just wiped from my memory

 End Game by Liz Mistry: 4/5. Releases April 14. Despite being the fifth book in the series I was able to get most of it! I also really enjoyed the diverse cast (despite the cop setting, which, blegh) - the author is white but the representation in this book felt pretty natural and the characters were nifty; I’m probably going to check out the other four books lmao

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman: 4/5. I really gotta check out the HDM show lmao but this was a fun time! Lots of worldbuilding here but it was worth it.

The Good Patient by Alex Stone: 3.75/5. Releases March 22

Kill Joy by Holly Jackson: 3.5/5. I mean like. It’s fine lmao.  Like read it if you love this series but I think she could have easily written a better story about something else in the AGGGTM canon 

Moonlight Can Be Deadly by Charlotte Stuart: 3/5 Releases March 14, fourth book in the series. There’s some things in this book that strongly threw me off of reading any other book in the series but if you’re interested I’d say read the others first lmao

You Are Here: Connecting Flights by Ellen Oh (and a bunch of other authors whose names I can’t find): 4/5. Releases March 7 

#janie's reading roundup #janie rambles #bookblr

[cassatine]

For the fic writers asks: 3, 17 and 23 :)

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

idk that I really have characteristic tropes but I have characteristic themes I guess? details-wise... huh. I like travelogues, a good twist, worldbuilding, the weird, character studies, meta, horror and comedy. on the less noticeable end: rule of three sentences. honestly atm I'd just say what's really characteristic of my writing is my aversion to plot... it's all vibes (derogatory).

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

well beyond the incestuous legacies obsession, I've wanted to do a hdm fic about Lyra growing up basically adopted by Ma Costa that would be mostly worldbuilding for years but 1) I don't have a story to go with it and 2) it'd take sooo much research. I'm never gonna do it.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

don't laugh but i kinda want to do an actual coffee shop au at some point, like not a straight one, one with murders or something... mostly bc it'd be a challenge to take what to me is the height of boring and twist it into something I could have actual fun writing.

#ask meme things #cass writes things #ask #thehermitsacedia #thank you dear <3 number three gave me the agonies... mortifying ordeal etc etc

[lordeasriel]

Getting to know you meme!

I was tagged by @jamlavender thank you very much!!!

Favourite time of the year: Spring-Summer, which is Brasil is essentially the same thing except spring is windy af. I like rainy days as much as the next person, but nothing beats a sunny, windy day!

Comfort foods: Pastel, which is a kind of deep fried pastry with different fillings (my fav is chicken and cheddar!) and Panettone, cause I’m a Christmas baby!

Do you collect anything: I don’t think I do. Maybe different pens? It’s not deliberate tho.

Favourite drinks: Orange juice, sprite and a good old caipirinha, which is a Brazilian cocktail featuring lime (usually, cause lemon is expensive here), sugar and cachaça(tm).

Favorite music artists: I shift a lot between artists, especially when they release new music, changing the vibes I met them by, but I currently really enjoy Jonathan Bree, Tom Rosenthal and CMAT. They’re very unique to their styles and I enjoy their music very much. I also really enjoy peremotka (hopefully that’s how it’s written in roman alphabet!) Their post punk vibes are smashing!

Current favourite songs: No Face by Haley Heynderickx, I Like it When You’re Gone by Tom Rosenthal, Valentine by Jonathan Bree, Peter Bogdanovich by CMAT

Favourite fics: I haven’t been reading a lot of fics recently, but I have some all time favorites to recommed!

Safe as Houses (Vera Claythorne/Philip Lombard): very good, very smutty, very sad;

Bird of Passage: The Book of Dust centric, this follows spy business from Oakley Street during TSC. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you want more to dive into Lyra’s world!

Lyra’s Uncle: some good old AU, giving Asriel a little brother and making it all very sad. Sami writes a lot of good stuff, but this is my favorite piece of hers.

Applied Heresy (Marisa/Asriel): Honestly, I love this fic to bits, I have it downloaded on my kindle and phone. It is the best Masriel experience pre-show you’ll get. The writer also delves deep into Lyra’s world pre-TBOD, but she makes it seems so believable and it’s good old worldbuilding! If you haven’t read this yet and you’re in the HDM fandom, what are you doing????

Favourite video games: I’m a massive Bioware fan, so my favorite games feature nearly everything they’ve ever done. I lovethe Mass Effect trilogy (especially the 3rd one, sorry lol) and I love Dragon Age and I have a devotion to Star Wars: The Old Republic! Been playing it strong for 8 years and I love it pieces. That is excellent Star Wars, Disney don’t interact please lol

I’ll tag @queenofnabooty @cozcat @moustache-bonnet (please feel no pressure to do this, bye)

#tagged in #effie speaks

[collgeruledzebra]

Bingo! (It's been some time since I last read HDM but I remember enjoying it)

BINGO!! hdm goes so hard for real it's like my ultimate goal to have worldbuilding that good in anything i write ever

#also 🫵 FELLOW H2G2 ENJOYER. idk if i knew that before lol #thanks for the ask!! #regicidal-defenestration #ask game

[nocturlabium]

Collected Writings in Experimental Theology, Oxford Press

The Anatomy of the Child and His Dæmon, Vol. II, RPH Medical Publishing

#hdm #my post #props #his dark materials #northern lights #the golden compass #daemons #philip pullman #experimental theology #oxford press #heather pollington #oxford university press #hdm worldbuilding

[moustache-bonnet]

My dear HDM whores, hi. Upon an approaching COVID-19 lockdown in our country, my brain has entered a manic state during which this daydream had come to me and I couldn’t stop myself from writing it down. I hadn’t eaten for two days, I’m surviving on coffee and sugar, but I had to spit it out. It’s a very, uh, purposeful (or -less) three part story about Dr Anthony John Roderick Hassall, the botanist (honestly Philman, what a mouthful) told through the eyes of an OC (what else). It is a companion story of a kind to The Secret Commonwealth, as canon-compliant as possible and with a lot of headcanon about who Hassall could be (have been) as a character. Enjoy!

#his dark materials #the book of dust #the secret commonwealth #his dark materials fanfiction #hdm fanfiction #roderick hassall #hdm meta #hdm worldbuilding #masterlist #my writing #my ocs

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

By far the most 'I deeply wish I could refute this point but the braincells it would cost to seriously consider it for enough time to construct a coherent rebuttal are not worth the cost' post I've seen on here in the past year is someone complaining that Philip Pullman's worldbuilding in His Dark Materials is inherently Inferior to JK Rowling's, because Pullman didn't know one single fact that didn't have anything to do with the actual plot of the trilogy (how are daemons born).

Eleven months later and I'm still reeling at that one.

#his dark materials #philip pullman #anti jkr #like it's not even that Harry Potter's worldbuilding is shit that infuriates me about that take #although it is #like if it weren't for the myriad of other much more serious issues that I don't want to cheapen by association I could go on a long rant #based purely on JKR's timeline alone #but the guy even called Pullman 'lazy' for not knowing this #and I'm like #dude #the last HDM book came out in fucking 2000 #I'm incredibly sorry Rowling has trained you to expect authors to be obsessed with chasing clout from years ago #but the sad truth is that most authors don't obsess over books they wrote over 20 years ago #granted that Books of Dust thing may give you some leeway #but even then there's no real reason to expect every little thing to be explained to you #especially when it DOESN'T MATTER