In the universe of the His Dark Materials trilogy (or the movie The Golden Compass), every person has a creature called a dæmon that accompanies them all their lives, and is emotionally and metaphysically a part of them. Dæmons are often described as sort of external souls (while the part of the personality in a human's body is the spirit).



Basic Dæmon Facts:

- They take the shape of animals
- They can talk, no matter what their shape
- Children's dæmons can change form at will; around puberty they 'settle' and become one animal permanently
- Neither the person or the dæmon chooses the final settled form, but it always reflects their personality (although not necessarily in obvious or simple ways)
- They are almost always the opposite sex as their human
- If a dæmon feels pain, so will their person, and vice versa
- Being physically apart from one's dæmon causes horrible emotional and physical pain
- Dæmons frequently talk to and touch each other, in ways that reflect or complement their persons' interactions, but dæmons talking to humans other than their own is considered strange, and touching humans not their own is extremely taboo; it generally occurs only between long-time lovers. Touching someone else's dæmon without permission is a terrible violation.

How it works:

Just design a dæmon for your muse and put as little or as much information as you like about them (shape, name, link to a picture or species wiki if you are so inclined) in a comment, with your muse's name and series in the subject. Check out other people's dæmons and let your dæmons interact too.