#hdm meta: oakley street

[lordeasriel]

I am curious what you think, but it always struck me that George Popidimtrou seems more in charge than Oakley Street’s second in command. He really runs the show when Hannah is invited over until dinner until he cedes them floor to Nugent. I just feel like this is an odd dynamic. But maybe I’m reading it wrong.

I've given this some thought, mostly because I realised I would end up writing a whole piece on this if I could right now. I think this whole dynamic boils down to how Oakley Street actuallys works as an agency from the government and as an enemy of the Church. In canon, this isn't easily pinpointed because Pullman doesn't quite write about the intrincasies of OS, he just lays it there and hopes for the best! (Which is also what I do when I have to try and figure out what the fuck is going in the books lol).

Why is Papadimitriou more actively doing things than Nugent? Well, we have that perception because we follow Hannah and she is closer to him than she is to Nugent, story-wise. But if we look further, I'd say we see him taking charge more often because he represents the informal branch of the agency.

How does Oakley Street work, in reality?

If we take all the facts — and there aren't that many facts to draw upon — we can see roughly how the agency is supposed to function. First and foremost, despite the shady business and the informal vibes we see 90% of the time in LBS, Oakley Street — known officially as the Intelligence Division of the Office of the Private Purse — is, by all means, an official government agency, always led by a Privy Counselor. This means that at the end of the day, they represented the Brytish Parliament and they had to answer for their actions before a chancellor of their branch — the Private Purse. However, we know quite well that despite having official agents working under the public banner of Oakley Street, a lot of the agents that belonged to the agency weren't official government employees — Bud and Anita Schlesinger, for example, were New Danes; Coram van Texel was a gyptian man; Malcolm, Hannah, Papadimitriou, they were all civilians, scholars completely outside that government bubble.

So, with that in mind, I think separating official OS from unofficial OS is what can explain why Papadimitriou seems so much more in charge than Nugent at certain times. Up until that dinner, Hannah didn't even know who belonged to the agency, but she knew what she was doing as an Alethiometrist — and that her work probably went against the Magisterium, although it had never been disclosed to her before. Her only contact had been with informal Oakley agents, such as Harry Dibdin and Papadimitriou himself, who not only recruited her, but seems to work as a regional handler. There is, I'd safely bet on this, a varied stream of regional handlers for different places; Nugent can't be everywhere at once, and he certainly does not have the time to deal with every single problem that every single cell has, hence why men like Papadimitriou would exist.

And on top of this, we can look at TSC and see how important this separation from official and unofficial was. In TSC, we follow the official agents more closely — in this case, Godwin in particular — and when the agency is disbanded, only the official agents are immediately affected. While the entire agency requires support to work —  financially, morally, socially as well especially from the King — the official agents are immediately placed in other government jobs, while the informal branch is cut off for just a moment as Godwin had antecipated such a thing might happen. She rearranges her network, ensuring that the informals are not found or directly damaged by this setback, and Oakley Street remains working despite this massive blow to leadership.

Men and women working as Papadimitriou did would ensure that secrecy between cells of informal and formal agents would be kept in cases such as the disbanding, making sure they all are safe should anyone be compromised and they would assist as the head of Oakley Street fights head-on the Magisterium and Parliament —  which is Godwin’s following move in TBOD3, apparently — because the leader of Oakley Street is publicly known (or as publicly as one can be as a government agent from a shady division, kinda like Marcel as La Maison Juste’s leader) to head the agency and they are, ultimately, meant to draw attention from the rest of the group as they continue their work.

[lordeasriel]

Whether or not Charles Cape is truly an ally of OS, he raises an interesting idea: there must surely be a number of "believers" in the organization who are simply opposed to the magisterium for political or theological reasons. I was wondering if you have any thoughts on if there are any other OS members in the books who are likely christian, just not in a conventional magisterium way. Personally I could see Godwin and maybe Nugent.

Oh, the chances of a great deal of Oakley Street being Christian are very high, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more of them opposed the Magisterium for thinking they misrepresented their views of the religion. I can Godwin being a christian woman, not a fervent believer, but she certainly would be the sort of woman who believed in God and went to Church on Sundays and had a cross necklace, for sure. She is a practical woman, so she wouldn’t let these beliefs get in the way of her sharp mind, but I can see her as a catholi, easily; it probably became a more recurrent thing after her son and husband passed away (we don’t know but I got the feeling she is all alone now, so maybe being more faithful or more church-inclined was her way of trying to get closer to them.

Nugent I think would be more of a christian by convenience. He is definitely a man who fears God, and he does everything he does keeping in mind that if there is a Heaven, he will be punished and rewarded accordingly and he can live with that. As a politician and a Privy Council member, I imagine that being a Christian by baptism, at the very least, would be considered a common sense thing. He would probably attend Church every now and again, and mostly be bored as he is more inclined to hate the Magisterium as a whole than Godwin is, in my opinion. But I can see him believing in God and being very angry with God over the bullshit the Magisterium does in His Name.

Other faithful members I can think of are Bud and Anita Schlesinger; they’re more like Godwin too; probably attended Church most Sundays, but they prefer the smaller churches, with less of a grandieur feel about them. As New Danish, I think that their relationship with Christianity is different than the European members of Oakley Street. I personally think that the Americas are less policed by the Magisterium due to the distance issues, so how Christianity spread there is fairly different than how England behaves or the rest of Europe do. I think Anita and Bud are more focused on the celebratory aspects of the Church; Christianity for them is cooking stuff for Easter, and Christmas, and finding solace in the wisdom of the Bible they were taught as children. It’s more about the rebirth and renovation other than the punishment and deprivation messages of Christianity - which the latter seem to be more of the focus in European Christianity.

I think Hannah Relf was probably was a believer in God, but she didn’t care so much about the rituals of the Church, which may cause her to be seen as an atheist here and there. She probably attended Church every now and again, mostly out of habit, and she would probably get bored for many of the sermons that she felt weren’t interesting - she’d probably be more interested in New Testament stuff, probably messages about knowledge and kindness and common courtesy - but she probably just attended Church because it was something people did, especially in St. Sophia’s. Most of the colleges had chapels, and while I can see Jordan not having many religious men due to them all thinking they were atheists and better than everyone else for it lmao St. Sophia’s is different because it’s a girls’ college, and most of these girls attend there so they can be on route to finding a proper husband, so common social stuff would be usual in their routine, like going to the church on Sundays and so on. So I can see Hannah attending on Easter, and maybe the Christmas Eve night or the morning after, but her belief is not reliant on ritual.

And the Al-Kaisy couple probably were also Christian. They are said to look like they were North-African, and I’m torn between this because I can’t tell if this meant to describe them physically or if Philman meant geographically, but either way I’m going with geographically because I think it would make sense regardless (Dr. Al-Kaisy has an accent in the audiobook, but I’m also cautious of that because they don’t explain the decision behind accents and all that, so this is hardly canon, but I take it because I like Michael Sheen’s narration a lot). As a I said, being North-African means they probably came from either a colony or a former colony (It’s tricky knowing what is what in Lyra’s world, thank you for nothing Philman lmao), which means that Christianity was probably enforced on their country and that could be in many ways. Usually former colonies have a very fanatical, fervent take on religion, especially because the Church took advantage of these people being abused and oppressed, and they just made things ten times worse, but this depends on where you’re from and when the colony period ended and a lot more than just Evil Church + Colonialism = Fanatics. But, I think the Al-Kaisy couple is very likely Christian, Yasmin probably more of a believer than her husband. I can see her attending Church and being more inclined towards faith, wearing religious jewelry, and so on. She is more cautious and fearful than the rest of the Oakley Street people at her home, and I can see how being part of a shady group like that would wear her down, especially if she believes strongly in God and Sin. Adnan would not be a strong believer; if you asked him if he believed in God, he’d probably say yes, but he is also a Scholar, and like Hannah he would be more interested in the historical value of religion than in the message itself. Whatever rituals he would participate, would probably just to satisfy his faithful wife.

After I wrote all of that - and I’m sorry about the length lmao - I feel the need to say, that like most things, I believe that Faith is very fluid, much like I described the people above. And the Magisterium is very tricky, because it has so many different variant of religious branches that I can see some people saying they’re Christian meaning group A, but other people saying they aren’t True Christians because they don’t follow group B and so on. At their core, they can all be Christian, but they are non-conventional, like you pointed out. I think that of the above, Yasmin Al-Kaisy would be the one closer to convention (aside from Charles Capes, of course, but he is like. A priest lmao) but I also think about how she isn’t European and how perhaps the Magisterium group that had a bigger hold on her country may not have been the same as the Church of England and how that would affect how people saw her. The least conventional is probably Nugent, I think.

Thank you so much for this ask, I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I hadn’t know how to put it into words. I hope this at least answers you ask, cause I usually go on a tangent ashjhashjkash Sorry for the big, long post!

[lordeasriel]

Do you think Oakley Street has a governing committee or is the head totally in charge?

I think in canon, Oakley Street sort of answers to the Private Purse Chancellor, but I think that in general terms, the head is totally in charge of the nuances and details of the jobs happening.

The head is aware of everything going on - which seems crazy but it is, in a way, a crazy job - and while I think they'd have other leaders, like when I talked about Papadimitriou being a regional handler in Oxford, they'd definitely not have final words on anything. They all obey the orders from headquarters, and headquarters is solely the director. There should be a hierarchy that helps the director run the agency officially and unofficially, but the director's decision is final and overrules anything that might need to overrule. For example, we have - canonically - a director and a deputy director, and moving lower down the hierarchy, we'd have handlers who'd distribute assignments, then we'd have agents who would work in the field in all sorts of ways; you have insulators who are messengers, mostly, and you have alethiometrists, information brokers, moles. It works kinda like a spider's web: they all connect somehow but the center is what keeps it all together and functional, so the director is the first and last opinion to ever be taken into consideration.

[lordeasriel]

oakley street during his dark materials

let’s talk about oakley street. as if I needed a reason to do that, but it’s mostly curiosity plus some headcanons, you’re welcome to add your thoughts to it. BEWARE SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY, LA BELLE SAUVAGE & THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH. there is no way I can write this without spoilers, so, sorry about that.

What we know of Oakley Street is fragmented at best, but there are some facts that we can use to pinpoint their moves during the events of His Dark Materials. For that I am using some basic concepts that we learn from both books of The Book of Dust.

They have members all around the globe, from different social classes and careers. Some of these members aren’t even British, despite the official sanction that Oakley Street is part of their secret service (which would be weird in different circumstances; can’t have a foreigner in your secret service). Examples of this are Bud Schlesinger and his wife, Anita; they’re both New Dane (essentially Americans, according to maps and their accent in the audiobook, but I’m bad with accents, so take this with a pinch of salt) and Bud states to Lyra he isn’t a full time Oakley Street agent. He is a diplomat, a position that is quite beneficial to their practice and he helps them under this banner; during La Belle Sauvage, it is known he visited the witches of the North to learn more about the prophecy surrounding Lyra. In Smyrna, he mostly works as a diplomat and reports his findings to Oakley Street. We do not know for sure that Anita is a member, but she is a journalist and she is aware of their work.

A great deal of their members consists of scholars, academics and free speech advocates. Hannah Relf and Malcolm Polstead are just two of the many members that belong in Academia. As a government agency, though, Oakley Street is often headed by a member of the Privy Council, as Nugent used to be and they have plenty of government employees, because once they’re dismantled in The Secret Commonwealth, most of its official members will be reassigned to other departments. We also know they do employ people without connecting them to the agency, like they did with Malcolm when he was young. They also have agents amongst the Gyptians, which is a natural thing, given that the gyptians suffer the most under the CCD. It’s unclear whether Asriel was a full-member or an ally like Bud Schlesinger, but he did have ties to them, enough that Nugent was in charge of protecting Lyra and had contact with Asriel. His address was also in Chelsea, the same place where the actual Oakley Street is. (This isn’t exactly an argument, but I thought it was cool fun fact).

Their efficiency depended on the current government. When they were first founded, they were meant to be a direct opposition to the Magisterium forces during the Swiss War, with full backing from the King; during The Secret Commonwealth, Oakley Street was struggling because the current king wasn’t happy with them and eventually they were officially dismantled. Their funding came from the Defense department, meaning they could be concealed from public knowledge as most Defense fundings go with no disclosure.

Their operations are mostly from the shadows or happening in the background. We know that they’re acting because we have their POVs, sometimes, but essentially their work is from the shadows or behind the scenes. Malcolm and Alice are never aware that they are being sought after by Oakley Street and if not for their intervention, Lyra would have been captured or killed. That means whenever something important is happening, Oakley Street is likely countering it or promoting it.

With that in mind, the first thing we need to remember is that His Dark Materials is the original story and Oakley Street’s first appearance is on the new trilogy. That means we have absolutely no hard facts when it comes to them, but it’s possible to guess and theorise and that’s what I am doing now.

Lyra in Oxford: We know that the gyptians, according to Ma Costa, watched Lyra as a favour for Lord Asriel - they even had a half-gyptian man, Bernie Johansen, reporting on Lyra from inside Jordan. I don’t think the reports on Lyra reached only Asriel, in fact, I think the reports went through Oakley Street to get to him. Given the gyptians quarrel with the CCD, it’s easy to assume they might have spies with Oakley Street (other than Coram, of course) - we know they had spies of their own - and those spies mostly reported what the gyptians knew about Lyra. Asriel is often abroad too, so learning about Lyra’s welfare through Oakley Street agents is much more suitable and reliable. They had agents everywhere, people that could give him telegrams and the photograms he required. We need also to remember he forbade Marisa from getting anywhere near Lyra, so I imagine any time she set foot in Oxford, Asriel was quickly warned.

Oakley Street’s interest in Lyra was beyond appeasing Asriel, though; she was a target of the Magisterium, so protecting her was in their best interest. During her youth, stuck at Jordan and protected by Scholastic Sanctuary, they didn’t have to bother themselves, but as soon as Mrs. Coulter takes her away, they now have to find Lyra and protect her.

Adèle Starminster: This is probably the easiest thing to guess. Adèle infiltrates Mrs. Coulter’s cocktail party and is in the company of an unnamed scholar, who has some sort of interest in her. She is approached by Lyra, who then speaks of the gobblers and catch her attention. Adèle even questions if Lyra is Marisa’s daughter, before being interrupted by Marisa herself and quickly leaves the party. There are some possible scenarios here:

Adèle is just a journalist trying to write a piece on Mrs. Coulter. Marisa has a social life, but in general, she is quite the mysterious figure. Ignoring inconsistencies, most people don’t even know she had an affair with Asriel; she’s also known to be the director of the Oblation Board, it’s public knowledge, at least in some circles. So, if Adèle wanted to write a piece on Marisa, infiltrating the party would make sense. A good way of knowing Mrs. Coulter, by talking to friends, associates and of course, her young child assistant. This scenario is, without the second trilogy, essentially the original scenario.

Adèle is a journalist who was paid by Oakley Street to investigate Marisa and act as an informant. Oakley Street had dozens of agents and they also used informants, like Malcolm, to reach places a formal agent couldn’t go for various reasons. In Mrs. Coulter’s case, her guests were unlikely to be related to Oakley Street; the members are often recognisable people from academia, people Marisa would be familiar with; so Adèle is a good pick because she is unknown. She might do this for various reasons: interest in writing a good piece about this unreadable figure, doing for noble reasons or simply because she needs the money.

Adèle is actually part of Oakley Street. She’s either a member or an ally, like Bud. As a journalist, she probably had to deal with the Magisterium’s censorship and everything, so people in her profession had cause to fight them, they fit the profile. She was probably assigned there, officially, so Oakley Street could find out more about Lyra (maybe even rescue her) and about Marisa. A quick reminder that, despite fighting the Magisterium, Oakley Street prioritised the CCD given that they were one of the most violent of the groups, but they certainly kept tabs on Marisa, especially because Lord Nugent knew who she was, at least, as Lyra’s mother and a threat to her. Adèle asks Lyra several questions about Marisa and before that, she asks if Lyra is related to Marisa. This could be Adèle trying to figure out what exactly Lyra knew about herself. Had Mrs. Coulter told her the truth or not? Then she asks about Marisa’s nature, to know how Lyra feels and if she’s being well cared for. This was information valuable to Oakley Street, given the nature of Marisa’s business and Lyra being the Magisterium’s enemy number 1. (There is some plot holes in this scenario because this book can’t have possibly guessed the existence of Oakley Street, but I like it, so I’m keeping it.)

Adèle is forced to leave the party early, but the impression I have is that Marisa eavesdropped on the conversation or was tipped off, because she knows Adèle is a journalist, yet she does not know her name. And Lyra’s first impression of her is that she might be a student, so there is nothing on Adèle that shows she is a journalist. The scholar with her is escorted out as well, as Lyra sees it happening. The implication is that the man brought Adèle with him; he doesn’t look like he has a secret agenda, so I suppose Adèle convinced him to take her to the party or she was picked for that infiltration based on an invitation she already had.

On the run: After Lyra escapes Mrs. Coulter and ends up with the gyptians, she’s back on the Oakley Street radar. Marisa and the CCD have pretty much every authority in England looking for Lyra, but the gyptians evade them by hiding Lyra. To pull that off, they had to have help from Oakley Street, and probably needed it, because the gyptians suffered a lot under the Magisterium rule and had almost no rights when it came to the CCD. Oakley Street could have helped them by interfering in multiple ways, such as misinformation or obstructing their messengers in land, while the gyptians did their best to avoid docks and ports on their way to the Fens, where a treaty protected them from the Church.

When Lyra is with the gyptians, Oakley Street can worry about other matters. The gyptians use their own men to spy on the Gobblers; it makes sense for Oakley Street not to care so much about the GOB because their sole focus was to disrupt the Magisterium and the GOB was privately funded, and it wasn’t tied to the Church publicly. My guess is that they had their eyes there, mostly because Marisa was responsible for it, and the rest of their efforts were elsewhere. Other agencies of the Church were rushing against time to learn about Lyra and capture her, so it makes sense that Oakley Street would stick to tailing the College of Bishops and the violent CCD.

It’s possible that Oakley Street was aware of what was happening during Bolvangar and Svalbard thanks to Farder Coram. So, 1) They knew Lyra had gotten capture and likely brought to Bolvangar and 2) They also knew Lyra escaped Mrs. Coulter again by going to Svalbard in an air balloon. That is where their information source pretty much dies. Lyra is left with Serafina and Lee Scoresby, and Iorek, and as far as I know, Serafina and Lee stick together after the events of NL, so no one goes back to warn Oakley Street; it’s possible neither of them knew about it to begin with.

However, we know Marisa had alerted the CCD or at best, she forgot to hid her tracks, so they knew where she was headed and assumed there was where Lyra was too. It’s safe to assume Oakley Street had eyes in Magisterium ruled places, so when the Muscovite Army was assembled and sent to the North, they probably knew Lyra was there with Asriel too. It’s also possible that they knew that before it happened, given that spywork is mostly about avoiding things rather than actively countering them.

They likely knew Asriel had been captured way before Lyra went to him, so the fact Asriel remained in prison is intriguing. Main scenarios for this:

Oakley Street knew about Asriel’s plan. They kept him there because even if he failed, the chaos he would cause was enough to disrupt the Magisterium for a while, the sort of moment Oakley Street could use to cause a lot of damage, even take down important agencies of the Church. If they knew exactly what he planned or not, it’s difficult to say, but Asriel at some point said to Lyra “I did not send for you.” That means he had means to communicate outside of Svalbard and that he had someone to contact when he needed a child. We know it’s not Marisa, she clearly wouldn’t give him a child because she was trying to stop him from doing his thing. So, his most solid allies have to be Oakley Street. At the time of Northern Lights, Thomas Nugent was director, and he is ruthless, so if Asriel came to him with a proposition that could shake the very core of the Magisterium, he wouldn’t hesitate to allow it or even help him.

Oakley Street couldn’t help Asriel. Going to Svalbard would be a challenge, let alone break him out of an armored bear prison, especially because Iofur was supporting Marisa, and by association, the Church. They also had better things to work on, and Asriel was not captured on a mission here, he maybe wasn’t even an actual member of Oakley Street to begin with. There is also the chance they contacted him and he was like “No, I’m good. I even have a fireplace here.”

As a spy agency, Oakley Street wouldn’t have exactly frowned upon Asriel’s handiwork. He was a man of greater good aspects and the agency was used to work from the shadows and resorting to not-so-noble means to achieve their ends. They were small in numbers, weak by the ageing of the members and very desperate, each day struggling against the massive force of the Church, so I wouldn’t put it past them to help Asriel. However, whether they knew about it or not, they definitely took advantage of whatever chaos came from Asriel’s deeds.

After the Bridge to the Stars, we know that Asriel eventually builds an Army and a fortress, but we know that no one in Lyra’s world is aware of what happened. They know he fucked up the sky and the weather and that he was on some sort of heretic rampage but that is all. His fate isn’t even known by Lyra and many others; people think he and Marisa disappeared, including Oakley Street, who at TSC has very little knowledge of Lyra’s importance or so it seemed based on Godwin’s request to hear more about it. That probably indicates that the agency took no part in Asriel’s war, but they likely kept fighting the Magisterium as they began to build an army themselves to follow Asriel.

There isn’t much happening in the Subtle Knife for any speculation, I think they’ll mostly stick to doing their average procedures, investigating the Magisterium’s army, checking what they’re doing and why they’re doing and sabotaging what they can. If anything, I think Grumman could have been associated with them, he was a Scholar and then as a shaman, he could provide valuable information about the state of where he was living. They also probably kept tabs on Marisa, but maybe lost track of her when she went to another world; Lyra was still a person of interest for the CCD, and Oakley Street was likely looking for her, but there is also the chance that they assumed she was with Asriel, so they chose to focus on the other matters.

The thing about Asriel’s war is that it was very focused in one point; the world still kept on existing after he went to fight the Kingdom, it continued to exist normally. The weather was crazy, but that was about how people perceived the change. So, saying Oakley Street still maintained their objectives is appropriate I think. Under the chaos, there was room for a lot of damage to be done.

In the Amber Spyglass, Asriel has his own spies, so Oakley Street’s work here is a bit more clouded. I haven’t read this book enough to actually break it down to this level, but maybe when I do, I will do it in another post.

This was fun! If you guys have any theories or corrections, feel free to add them!

[lordeasriel]

hdm’s world setting headcanons

i’ve been setting these up for my current fanfiction, because I needed some solid worldbuilding with just enough canon to make it look plausible. would these even configure as headcanons? or is it meta? is there even a difference? i’m too old for tumblr lol i can never tell.

The Magisterium in the World

Although powerful and influential, the Magisterium has a far tighter grip on Europe and Central Asia than it does on the rest of the world. Its violent nature makes it difficult for them to spread to different countries with different religious beliefs, because they do not go unchallenged, despite their ultimate propaganda. Despite it’s tyrannical and intolerant policy, they have nothing to gain from conquered a dead country, so it’s pointless to wage war when their best tool is subterfuge and shady schemes.

For decades they struggled to take over the Americas and the African continent due to their particularly traditional views on religion, often born in the roots of the indigineous natives of these countries, and considered highly herectical and blasphemous in the eyes of the Holy Church. They had taken over many countries in these regions before, when the Pope still existed, their influence subtle in the everyday life of the citizens, but when the papacy was abolished, and in its place came the collective known as Magisterium, the members of other religions saw an opportunity to rise amidst the chaos. Once the traditional religions of these regions became stronger, the Magisterium had to pick its fights more carefully.

In its intent to conquer these regions, they chose the Americas over Africa due to the size of the African continent, but also because its diversity in tribes, religion and civilization was far too much for the Magisterium’s grasp. And although they did had a presence in New Denmark and Texas, it was of minimal size and not nearly as scary and controlling as their presence was in Europe and Central Asia, but by the time Lord Asriel visited Jordan, things were changing drastically and not for the better, so his entire expedition to the North after that was well-timed, diverting the Magisterium’s gaze from these places so they could focus on their main problem in the North.

The Holy Church’s eurocentrism had its perks to those that, in another world, would end up colonised and converted by them. While they tightened their grasp around the edges of Central Asia up until Brytain, to the farther corners of the North, the rest of the world managed to salvage most of its original culture. The dialects spoken in South America alone were the result of years of an ideological battle against the Magisterium, nearly safe from its destructive intent. The African continent, still a bit more devastated than the Americas, maintained a great deal of its african languages and a hundred dialects, though the closer one gets to the borders with Europe, more one listens to English, French and Russian instead of Swahili, Yoruba and Arabic.

With its intimate relationship with the Muscovite Guard, the Magisterium’s presence makes French and Russian the official languages of almost the entire european continent. Although this is a rule for the collective influence of the group, they also make it mandatory for English to be known by their members, and depending on the group, they can also demand knowledge of yet another language.

Daemons Around the Globe

Speaking of religion, the Magisterium’s views on daemons were short-sighted and delusional, clouded mostly by their prejudice and intolerance, hence the taboo’s extremes conditions That means that in places where its chastising wasn’t as violent, their views were less strong and less followed than most people believed.

Despite this, touching another person’s daemon still is a matter that requires consent and different levels of relationship, depending on where you are and where you come from. In certain countries, such as in Texas, High Brasil or the Kingdom of Auster, due to the hot and humid weather, daemons and human were used to touching each other only when required, especially with daemons with fur, since it was disconcertengly unconfortable to constantly hug your daemon in a 40ºC summer day.

Also, because of the overpopulation, and the loose leash of the Magisterium in these places, it was common for daemons to accidentally bump into a leg or slightly brush themselves when hovering over crowded situations like these (unless, of course, the daemon was porcupine, but the cry would be of pain rather than disgust) and with a quick apology either from the daemon or the human to which they were part of (or both, you never know), all was settled.

Depending on the region, and according to the amount of influence the Church holds over them, some people had the tradition of accesorising their daemons. In certain places it was because of religion, in other it was purely aesthetic. It could be bracelets, rings or collars with pretty gems, permanent or removable tattoos in different colours of ink, in different shapes and places. Daemons with straighter fur or no fur at all were easier to be painted, and amphibious had a prefference for jewelry, since they often have delicate skin. All of these customisations, however its purpose, was never, ever made without the daemon’s consent.

Under the religious aspect of it, they would often paint tribals and symbols on the daemon and the human, if it was for a ritualistic aspect. In places such as High Brasil, Peru and the Kingdom of Auster, countries that retained a certain freedom but still fell prey to the christianism of the Holy Church, would imbbed these herectic behaviour to their christian rituals, such as Easter and Christmas, and even in weddings or baptisms. So every once in a while, when a religious date came closer, and they had service to attend, many people (including the priests, sometimes) would paint different designs on their faces and arms, and paint sacred symbols of old or recent indigenous religions on their daemons, if possible. This started as a way to mix different beliefs in families into one single ceremony, but ended up as a symbol of resistance as the Magisterium frowned upon the practice, then censored it altogether.

feel free to add anything to this!

[lordeasriel]

Effie’s Meta for His Dark Materials: a Masterpost

Per an anon request (sorry for the delay, I actually write A LOT lmao) here’s a masterpost to all the meta and analyses and other stuff I’ve written for HDM and TBOD in the past two years. Usually I add spoilers when I write analyses (and I point out which books are being spoiled), but be warned that there may still be some hints about The Book of Dust in these posts.

This will be updated in case I write new things, so you can bookmark it if you want to.

Analysis and other meta posts about His Dark Materials & novellas.

Why Asriel requires no redemption arc?

Thoughts on ‘Uncle’ Asriel.

Oakley Street during His Dark Materials.

The Three Satans: Mary, Asriel & Xaphania.

Why Marisa lied to Lyra about their relation?

Thoughts on Lyra and Asriel’s similarities.

Lyra’s relationship with Asriel.

Thoughts on Ruta Skadi.

Thoughts on the Witches.

More on Witches in Serpentine.

Mary’s role as Serpent.

On Jordan College being conservative.

Analysis and other meta posts about The Book of Dust.

Marcel’s plans during The Secret Commonwealth

Thoughts on Pantalaimon’s feelings during The Secret Commonwealth

Islam (and other religions) in Lyra’s world.

Some thoughts on TSC.

The work of La Maison Juste.

Thoughts on the New Master of Jordan.

Is Simon Talbot very gay for Marcel? (the answer is yes. ok maybe. possibly. very likely.) (2)

The timeline for Lyra’s world. (2)

Did Lyra and Will have sex? (the answer is no)

The Magisterium’s power in Lyra’s world.

Lyra’s future career.

Is the Patriarch a creep? (very likely)

Lyra’s loss of her reading skill.

Does Lyra’s world have Christmas?

The Kings in Lyra’s world. 

The New Alethiometer reading method.

Is Lyra’s portrayal sexist? (2)

Asks with specifics questions/prompts for meta and analysis.

How much influence the King has in Lyra’s world?

Thoughts on Marcel and Marisa’s similarities

Thoughts on Marisa and Asriel raising Lyra.

Does Asriel love Marisa?

Magisterium in the Americas.

Marcel’s Hobbies.

Faithful people in Oakley Street.

How I imagine the La Maison Juste building.

Asriel as a politician.

Marcel meets Asriel.

How Asriel perceives Marisa. (2) (3)

Asriel & the Golden Monkey.

Asriel’s age.

Asriel’s last name.

Asriel’s title. (2) (3) (4)

How poor was Asriel?

If Northern Lights never happened.

Marcel vs Godwin.

Does Jesus exist in Lyra’s world?

Asriel as a narrative tool. (2)

Is Mrs. Coulter a true believer?

Asriel’s (dead) brother.

Lord Asriel vs John Parry.

Nugent vs Godwin. (2)

What happened to Delamare, the father? 

Is Jordan College Asriel’s alma mater?

Mrs. Coulter and the Delamares.

Agatha van Helsing/Dracula vs Masriel.

What are the best and worst thing Asriel has ever done?

Shift of political power in Lyra’s world.

Asriel’s degree.

Lyra’s zodiac sign. Mrs. Coulter’s zodiac sign. Lord Asriel’s zodiac sign.

Bud Schlesinger’s Doctorate.

Worldbuilding in HDM.

Why does Marcel idolises Marisa?

Malcolm as an Historian.

Does Marcel believe in God?

Why Hannah doesn’t live on St. Sophia’s grounds?

Marcel’s accent. (2) (3) (4) (5)

Marisa in The Collectors.

Is Marcel religious?

Thoughts on Dr. Carne & Lord Asriel. (2)

Thoughts on Thorold.

Thoughts on Marcel Delamare. (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

Thoughts on Madame Delamare.

Thoughts on Lyra & Pan.

Thoughts on Lord Asriel. (2) (3)

Thoughts on Malcolm Polstead.

Thoughts on Glenys Godwin.

Thoughts on Hannah Relf. (2)

Thoughts on Hannah Relf/George Papadimitriou. (2)

Thoughts on George Papadimitriou. (2) (3)

Thoughts on Charles Capes.

Thoughts on Father MacPhail.

Thoughts on Dr. Carne. (2)

Thoughts on Lord Nugent.

Thoughts on Malcolm and Lyra.

Hannah Relf’s messy timeline.

Theories concering all the published works.

Thuringia Potash belongs to the Delamares

Dust is Actually Harmful

The unspoken rule of visible daemons in Lyra’s world.

Mrs. Coulter is separated from the Monkey (aka Water is Wet lol)

Mrs. Coulter is separated from the Monkey, part 2 (feat. @cozcat and @the-blog-of-dust )

Lyra’s world for independent daemons.

Parallels between The Book of Dust & Roda-Viva.

Daemon Forms Analysed (from a book perspective, not daemonism).

Snow Leopards.

Birds of Prey.

Cats.

Coyotes.

Emperor Tamarin.

Wolverines.

Marcel Delamare’s owl.

Glenys Godwin’s civet cat. (2) (3)

Lord Asriel’s Stelmaria.

Madame Delamare’s lizard.

Father MacPhail’s lizard. (2)

Pierre Binaud’s daemon. (2) (3)

Mrs. Coulter’s golden monkey.

Marisa & the Golden Monkey. (Follow up with Book of Dust spoilers.)

Malcolm Polstead’s Asta.

Ruta Skadi’s Sergi.

Dr. Carne’s raven.

Marisa & Hannah’s similar daemons. (2)

Schlesinger and Marcel’s similar daemons.

What daemons portray.

The change in relationship with the daemon as one grows up.

Daemon touching.

Physical Appearance of Daemons. (2)

Cat daemons on the series.

Same gender names.

Some daemon headcanons.

Stelmaria, the monkey and the owl’s settling.

What daemons represent.

Asta, Sophonax & Kirjava.

Daemon’s different personalities. (2)

Are people attracted to specific types of daemons?

Different reactions to separation.

Does the enviroment affect daemon settling?

Do daemons’ personalities also affect their form?

What Songbird daemons mean?

Crows & Ravens

Questions and critiques for the show, film and other adaptations.

Lyra’s colour palette for the film and show.

Masriel in the BBC Show.

If the Film had not been cancelled.

Thoughts on the Film. (2)

More thoughts on the Film.

Lots of thoughts about the Film.

I Have Too Many Thoughts About The Golden Compass 2007 dir. Chris Weitz

The Film’s colour palette.

Mrs. Coulter’s lie.

“Who is Lyra Belacqua?” (aka weird dialogue in the show).

Things I prefer from the film.

Things I hated about Lord Asriel in season 1.

Too much Will in season 1. (2)

The show’s poor worldbuilding.

Asriel’s original casting for the show. (2)

Apparently I have a soft spot for the film and it’s true.

MacPhail not being the head of the CCD in season 1.

Costumes in the Film.

Marisa’s costumes: film vs show.

John Faa & Ma Costa.

How well did the show do on season 1? (this was prior to the s3 announcement btw)

Season two costumes. (2)

Should you watch His Dark Materials? (for non-book fans).

Bird daemon gear on the show.

The cloud pine twist on season two.

The Cardinal in the show.

Main problems with the show.

All my issues with the BBC adaptation.

Asriel’s pinky ring.

MacPhail on the show.

Unifying the Magisterium in the show.

How the show portrays Lyra.

[lordeasriel]

Do we have s confirmed year or so for LBS? Because I've always factored in time working differently between our world and Lyra's. Especially since The Collector's definitively confirmed that, with I think some meta confirmation from Philman. It had Marisa travelling to our world in our 40's and 50's at about age 20 or so, in a story told in our 70's, and then meeting Will in our 90's. I always felt that established that their world had a different timeline and were on different year nymbers》

[2] Entirely. But I do feel like I remember the year being mention in LBS, even though I just half read it (not reallt interested in Malcolm. Give me Marisa or Asriel, or buzz off). Might have just seen it on a Wiki, though. Not to mention they do say in TDC that the Tokay is a ‘93. So you would have to assume it’s much earlier in their century. A good wine would be treasured, not gobbled up in a few years. Y'all their world’s timeline is wonky is hell. Hell, we could easily assumw that the flood》 [3] In LBS *was* the flood of 53, unless otherwise indicated

There isn’t a confirmed year, I believe the wiki used to say it LBS happened during 1986, placing Lyra’s birth somewhere in August 1985. However, there isn’t a number explicitly said, so from what I gathered, the person who wrote the wiki likely just did math with Lyra’s age, probably assuming HDM happens in the 90s (as it does in Will’s world.) As for The Collectors, according to the wiki, the painting was finished around 1890 and the story is set in December 1970, meaning that even with a different calendar, Lyra’s world would have to move faster in time than Will’s, which as we know, does not happen. It’s also difficult to say if the Collectors can count as canon, given that Philman almost entirely dimissed every information he gave there (her last name, all the mixed up dates), so The Collectors definitely doesn’t fit in with the rest of the books.

In LBS, Malcolm overhears two guys talking about the floods and that’s when we learn the flood happens every forty/fifty years, two of the big ones had happened in 1883 and 52/53, so the Great Flood in LBS is not the Flood of ‘53. (This means either Asriel was very young when he helped the gyptians in ‘53 or the Flood mentioned as the Flood of ‘53 in NL is actually the flood of LBS and Philman just forgot the year when he was writing LBS, given that those books are newer than HDM). in order to match the pattern of the floods, the Great Flood would have been around the 90s or 00s, which wouldn’t match the original story timeline all that well, but it could, I don’t remember if there is any canon dates during TSK to validate that, we assume it’s the 90s because Philman wrote in the 90s and the enviroment indicates it’s the 90s

Your Tokay comment is very on point, but given I always assumed HDM happened during the 90s, the ‘93 Tokay always made me think of 1893. We also know that in canon, Oakley Street was founded in 1933 and that at least two kings passed away/retired between that and LBS, as the narrator says the current king is in favour of the agency, opposed to his father who was indifferent and aligned with grandfather who pratically founded the organization. It’s also said that TSC’s current King doesn’t seem to be aligned with OS, so we can assume another king passed away between the events of LBS and HDM. And again, this is speculation at best.

Mind you, all of these is mostly circunstancial, so the timeline is just simply broken because Philman doesn’t care about logistics all that much. As a fic writer, I personally like to have a timeline that it’s consistent so to build that you have to sacrifice the things that are divergent, which is a lot. And I enjoy the idea of Lyra’s world in TSC being during the 2000s cause I like modern stuff with vintage stuff lmao