#Panserbjorne

[his-dark-materials-trilogy]

A good bear! 🐻‍❄️

Once Upon a Time in the North

Illustrated by Chris Wormell

[communistkenobi]

i was gonna read lotr but it’s dense enough that it’s basically a fictional version of all the course readings I have to do so I’m rereading golden compass instead. and man there is a lot of orientalism in this book that I did not pick up on as a child

[ftafp]

[melded-galaxy]

Fantasy race poll 3

[blackjackkent]

All right, returning to the increasingly chaotic adventures of Rakha in Act 3... we left off with the gang breaking her out of prison after she slipped and attacked the guards at the checkpoint.

Our girl's not really having a good day.

This is the first time I've ever had the PC go to prison and I was curious if there was any way to break Rakha out WITHOUT picking a fight with everyone in Wyrm's Rock (given that ostensibly the next story beat is going upstairs and getting scooped up into Gortash's coronation).

The answer is... yes, but it's complicated.

After having Jaheira unlock the cell door, this notification pops up on the side of the screen.

(This was followed by a brief segue in which I wondered what happens if the whole crew gets caught trying to pick the lock; it turns out, nothing, but they do all look pretty funny all stacked up in jail together.)

The "Fugitive" debuff lasts 17 turns (just over a minute and a half in real life time); however, the popup is telling the truth that by simply having Rakha step outside the cell and then immediately triggering a short rest, the debuff is cleansed and the guards once again cease paying any attention to us.

However, since this doesn't really make any sense from a story perspective, and also given that Jaheira has already smoothtalked a Flaming Fist once in this playthrough, I choose to interpret this as her once again looking straight into a cop's eyes and lying through her teeth.

She tells them that she has been sent to orchestrate a prisoner transfer on Gortash's orders, and Gortash's current rise in power has everyone so jumpy and confused that no one is brave enough to question it. (Sort of a combination of Star Wars' "prisoner transfer from Cell Block 1138" and Lyra's playing mind games with the panserbjorn in His Dark Materials. XD )

This also helps when, in the moment after Rakha steps out of her cell... Wyll realizes that Florrick is sitting in the next one over.

[betsib]

I made up a His Dark Materials AU over on twitter, where Law runs into exiled panserbjorn Bepo after escaping Doflamingo.

[lightyakami]

the au in my heart and also on my freewrite btw is one in which light is a severed child who has lived long past his expiry date and L is a panserbjorn he clings to because he makes him feel almost as if he has a soul. thank you for your attention.

[hauntedfalcon]

I don’t think any adaptation of The Golden Compass has bothered with the scene where Lyra runs into a Gloucester scholar in the panserbjorne dungeon and wields academic rivalry to get information, and that’s a real shame

[viciousgold]

I knew I was forgetting something in that guide; terminology of marisa's world (this also isn't all of them, just some basic ones, I also took out the places and people bc we already covered that in the guide)

general terminology:

Aeronaut: Balloonist. Obsolete term. From the Greek aer 'air' and nautes 'sailor'.

Alethiometer: "The Golden Compass". Literally meaning 'Truth Measure'. From the Greek alethes 'truth' and meter 'measure'. Compare to the modern English philosophical term alethiology 'study of truth'.

Anbaric: Electric. From the Arabic anbar 'amber' and the Latin electrum 'amber'. Electric was originally adopted to describe objects that develop static electricity when rubbed, a property first observed in amber.

Atomcraft: Research into particle physics, specifically using uranium.

Cauchuc: Rubber. From the Quechua caoutchouc, meaning 'natural rubber or latex'.

Celestial geography: Celestial navigation.

Chapel: Scientific Laboratory.

Chaplain: Head of a Scientific Laboratory.

Chocolatl: Chocolate. From the Nahuatl chocolatl 'chocolate'.

Chthonic Railway Station: Underground Railway Station. From Greek chthonos 'underground'.

Cloud-pine: A type of wood used by Witches for flying.

Coal-silk: Nylon. A synthetic fibre made from coal that was invented as a substitute for natural silk.

Dæmon: The physical manifestation of a human soul in Lyra's world. This distinct spelling is intended to evoke the older sense of an "attendant spirit" and thereby distinguish it from the Judaeo-Christian use to refer to an evil spirit or devil.

Dust: An elementary particle. Known as shadows, shadow-particles or dark matter in Will's world, and sraf in the mulefa world. The name Dust was chosen in Lyra's world based on an interpretation of the end of the Third Chapter of Genesis in the Bible, where God curses Adam and Eve for eating the fruit of the tree.

Fire-mine: A geothermal vent in which the panserbjorn work in metallurgy; supposedly impenetrable to humans and witches.

Gyropter: Helicopter. Obsolete term. From the Greek gyros "spiral" and pteron "wing".

Marchpane: Marzipan.

Naphtha: Oil. A petrochemical like kerosene.

Peaceable Ocean: The Pacific Ocean. Name given in the 16th century in recognition of the calm seas experienced by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. A direct translation of the Latin pacific 'peace-making, tranquil' into English.

Photogram: Photograph. Obsolete term. From the Greek photo 'relating to light' and gram 'something written'.

Experimental Theology: Physics.

Tokay: A rare golden wine. Probably based on the Hungarian wine Tokaji.

[cateyedfox36]

Why... why does he look like a guy in a bear suit? Or like a furry version of a panserbjorn?

Do you have any bears to celebrate the Ides of March?

[his-dark-materials-trilogy]

Once Upon a Time in the North

Illustrated edition by Chris Wormell

[boredgamehg]

Panserbjorn is a perfect example on what I wanted for my project. Although I didn't have enough time to do the armour, I did gain a lot of inspiration from the character.

They did an amazing job on creating the bear. Especially how the armour fits onto the body of the character. If I can I would also use armour like this, but wouldn't use the segmented design as I think thats quite impractical and personally, I don't really like it aesthetically.

[nevermindigotthis]

I can only imagine how amazing cuddling a bear would be, so here‘s me living vicariously through art 😂

[absolxguardian]

Ok I know that most daemon AUs are just "what if our blorbos had animals that represent their souls" instead of actually engaging with HDM lore, but honestly it could add so much to the Terror (to prevent geopolitical, social, and technological butterfly effects making the story unrecognizable, instead of having it take place in Lyra's world, it takes place in a dimension with the same history as ours and her world's metaphysics. Except no witches and panserbjorn, because I feel like that would make the Arctic too crowded. Heck, the Golden Compass/The Northern Lights make it seem like Tartars (equivalent to indigenous Russians in our world) are the only humans in the north, which could be because the panserbjorn prevent proper circumpolar settlement or just because the book took place in Siberia))

Many members of the crew have aquatic daemons, which keep them from going on land (actual lore in the series). Lets say that daemons can't be killed by the elements as long as their humans live, so someone with a tropical fish daemon can have her swim in the arctic waters. Them getting ice overed causes some psychological problems, but they're otherwise fine. However, these crewmembers cannot travel overland or over particularly thick ice. Things get worse for them when there's the second level of ice. (Unbeknownst to European science of the time, they would survive being served from their daemons forcibly by distance and trauma, it would just really fuck with their heads). Concern for these crew members provides another, actually valid reason, to not start marching over land right away.

Because the Tuunbaq eats souls, I think it would be interesting if when it directly kills people, their daemons don't disappear right away. They hang around, unable to speak, and over the course of like a week become increasingly listless and then disappear. The crew can be haunted by the apparent ghosts of their dead comrades. Crozier assumes command with Sir John's daemon still hanging about the place.

When the Tuunbaq does steal someone's soul, it does so by eating someone's daemon. So Goodsir is able to theorize that the comatose victims have had part of their souls destroyed earlier. It also makes them look even more like corpses than somewhat living humans.

In that vein, instead of cutting out one's tongue to create a connection with the Tuunbaq, you instead have to slaughter and offer up your daemon, the trauma of which renders one mute. I read the cutting off the tongue as needing to sacrifice something that makes you human to become more animalistic, which works even more when you replace the tongue with a daemon. It's also super creepy to the crewmembers that Silna's dad and then Silna doesn't have a daemon.

Fitzier Daemon AU.

Francis has an arctic fox named Ciannait (perfectly matched to JCR’s red fox daemon). James has a high strung cheetah named Eulália. The daemons have always like one another despite prostest

[biwonderland98]

I... I really feel that this little image of a panserbjørn in my copy of Northern Lights doesn't quite do the armoured bears justice... just me?

[dark-and-endless-sky]

Bridge to the Stars. (The Northern Lights/The Golden Compass)