#Revan's Raven Daemon AU

[briarruler]

Revan with a raven daemon

To be perfectly honest this started with the thought of 'Revan with a raven daemon' wouldn't that be funny, then I went, well actually a raven could fit Revan really well as her daemon.

Revan's daemon is probably a Common Raven (Corvus corax) but I didn't have a specific species in mind so her daemon could be any large, black corvus species bird.

The cultural symbolisms of ravens is powerful and varied. As carrion birds ravens are often associated with death along with warfare, ill-omen, prophecy and as messengers of tragedy or the dead. However ravens have also been seen as creator gods and protection is a surprisingly common association, both of the living and the dead. For their intelligence and sometimes playful nature ravens are seen as tricksters both mundane and supernatural. Interestingly in quite a few stories the raven starts out as a white feathered bird and becomes black, often in the course of rendering aid to another.

Revan herself fits the varied cultural associations of the raven well.

On a the biological and behavioural front ravens continue to match well with Revan. Ravens don't exhibit large differences between the sexes and so the gender of Revan's daemon is as much a mystery as her own. Ravens are a highly successful species, eating an omnivorous diet they are distributed across a wide range of habitats. Ravens are some of the smartest animals we know; capable of toolmaking, planning, lying and recognition of individuals, both among ravens and individuals of other species.

I could continue listing reasons why a raven daemon is well matched to Revan in all her aspects and these reasons would be true, but at the end of the day I did it for the name pun, so I'm releasing this post to the wild before it ends up in my drafts indefinitely.

[luxettenebra]

So, uh, my nostalgia fuckin kicked me in the face so----possibilities for His Dark Materials AU!!!! 1. Revan is a witch. Her daemon is a raven, or possibly a gyrfalcon (since all witches have bird daemons). She’s the odd one out since she keeps to herself and kinda just...wanders around and has no actual connection with any clan (she was kinda...kicked out of her clan years ago due, though nobody really remembers why). She’s also gone 90% of the time because she has a habit of slipping through tears in the universe to go into new ones (Navree is a transboy, so he’s still technically born female, and therefore a witch. His daemon is a grey plover) 2. She’s an angel, born out of Dust, and who rebelled against the Authority alongside Xaphania. Her brother is just a few centuries older than she is. While Navree sticks to one world, Seph likes to hop between worlds. Where Navree is large and powerfully built, his wings being mostly white with grey spots, Seph’s are full-on black (though she does have some flight feathers that are white). She’s a lot smaller and leaner built----she’s got the wings of a bird of prey. She’s also a much faster flier, though Navree can fly for longer periods without stopping)

[briarruler]

Malak with a wolf daemon

This started off with Revan's raven so honestly I'm choosing animals in part to work with that. Malak's daemon is a Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) to match Revan's raven daemon.

Wolves have been hated and despised, seen as creatures of evil and destruction but conversely they have also been held up as noble warriors and nurturing founders of nations. Primarily predatory carnivores who hunt large prey in packs, wolves very territorial animals with other wolves being one of the factors most likely to kill another wolf. Common Ravens and Grey Wolves are sometimes believed to have a symbiotic relationship, and regardless of if this is factually true, belief itself can play a part in daemon symbolism.

Wolves daemons are also an odd, off beat echo of dog daemons, because they are the closest kin to dogs and yet so utterly different, for dogs are domestic and wolves are wild. You might mistake a wolf daemon for a dog daemon but they are actually two very different creatures.

Wolf daemons get stereotyped as soldier's daemons and a large part of Malak is bound up in being a warrior. A wolf might not be the best fit for Malak but it is a form that works equally well for him as a Jedi and as a Sith.