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The Golden Compass upcoming new movie releases starring Eva Green, Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliott and Daniel Craig
The Golden Compass Movie Official Cast: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards Movies
Lyra's World - The World of The Golden Compass
Lyra's world is a world very much like ours, in a parallel universe. Much of it would be familiar to us - the continents, the oceans, Brytain, Norroway, and the North Pole. Much is shockingly different. In Lyra's world, a person's soul lives on the outside of their body, in the form of a daemon - a talking animal spirit that accompanies them through life, always close to its corporeal half. A child's daemon can change shape, assuming all the forms that a child's infinite potential inspires; but as a person ages, their daemon gradually settles into one form, according to their character and nature. The bond between human and daemon is extraordinarily powerful - a person without a daemon in Lyra's world would be seen as horribly mutilated - and interfering with this connection is taboo in the extreme.
LYRA
is a twelve-year-old girl who has been left by her Uncle Asriel to be raised by the scholars and fellows of Jordan College, Oxford. A proverbial wild-child, a teller of tall tales and an adventurer at heart, she also has the makings of a true lady. When the mysterious Mrs. Coulter arrives in Oxford and offers her a chance to go North in the footsteps of her uncle, she leaps at the chance. But things are not as they seem, and Lyra's resolve and spirit are tested as she struggles against the powerful forces she encounters - including the Magisterium and the Gobblers - and seeks to fulfill her destiny.
MRS. COULTER
is the beautiful, powerful, enigmatic woman who takes on Lyra as her protege. Equally at home in the salons of London and the icy wastes of the North, she is an alluring patroness, but her ruthlessness belies her charm. With nothing less than the fate of the universe at stake, Mrs. Coulter is single minded in the pursuit of her mysterious mission.
LORD ASRIEL
, Lyra's uncle, is an explorer, scholar and soldier. Having been away for ayear in the frozen North, Asriel returns to Jordan with news of his discoveries about themysterious Dust and a hole in the universe at the top of the world. His radical ideasearn him the enmity of the Magisterium and the admiration of Lyra, who dreams offollowing him when he returns north to renew his adventures.
LEE SCORESBY
is an aeronaut from the country of Texas. He and his hare daemon Hester have traveled far and wide as his contracts and his airship take him through war and espionage. Lee encounters Lyra on her trip Northwards with the Gyptians and enlists her aid in a risky venture.
IOREK BYRNISON
is an ice bear, or as they are known and feared throughout Lyra's world, a panserbjorne. Iorek has fallen from grace. His armour - which to a bearrepresents his very soul - has been stolen, and he has become a dissolute prisoner of corrupt officials in a remote encampment. In a last-ditch bid for redemption, Iorek reluctantly agrees to guard Lyra on her dark and dangerous quest.
FRA PAVEL
is an official of the Magisterium whose aim it is to thwart Lord Asriel in his designs to investigate Dust and the other worlds whence it comes. Devious and brilliant, he will make any sacrifice to maintain the Magisterium's power.
SERAFINA PEKKALA
is the Queen of the witches of Lake Enara. More than three hundred years old, she has the longevity and vigor of her kind, with the appearance and energy of a woman in her twenties. Like all witches, she has the power of flight and is privy to arcane knowledge of the tundra she inhabits in the far North, where the barrier between worlds is thin.
JOHN FAA
King of the Gyptians, FARDER CORAM, his chief adviser and elder, and MA COSTA are GYPTIANS, nomadic traders and smugglers on the waterways and coasts of Eastanglia and the Netherlands. They and their brothers from farther-flung clans venture northwards to rescue the children who have been abducted by the Gobblers and taken to Bolvangar.
JORDAN COLLEGE
is the oldest, richest and grandest of the colleges of Oxford in Lyra's world. A bastion of critical inquiry, scholarship and free thought, Jordan often runs afoul of the Magisterium, not least when Asriel's expedition to the North is approved by the College Council. Jordan has been Lyra's unlikely home since infancy, and her childhood has been spent prowling the roofs and rattling through the streets of Oxford, much to the dismay of the fellows and servants of the college.
THE MAGISTERIUM
is the supra-national cult of authority and dogma that dominates the politics and society of Lyra's earth - Brytain and beyond. It has established an iron grip on the culture and policy of the nations of the world, through means both direct and covert. The Magisterium views Asriel's discovery of the mysterious and powerful Dust as a threat - and possibly an opportunity to conquer the unknown universes whence it flows.
THE GOBBLERS
are a sinister band of kidnappers rumoured to be prowling London and now Oxford. They abduct the children of the poor and the marginalized - orphans, servant children, Gyptians - and take them north, for unknown purposes. When her friend Roger is lost to the Gobblers, the intrepid Lyra journeys north with her Gyptian allies to find them - and reveal their evil intentions.
GYPTIANS
are the far-flung descendants of itinerant warriors and traders from the east. Along their millennia-old journey, they have intermarried and bred to the extent that there are now six tribes, harking back to all corners of the globe, and countless clans and families. Lyra falls under the protection of the Western Gyptians of Fens of Eastanglia. Together they voyage North to rescue the children abducted by the Gobblers.
WITCHES
live in the tundra and forests of the North. They are all female and possessed of an attunement to nature regarded as magic by other mortals. Witches live to a great age - centuries - but retain their compelling beauty and youth. Occasionally they take lovers from amongst he men of the lands beyond their own; often with tragic ends; for they invariably long outlive their mates.
ICE BEARS
live on the island of Svalbard, at the very edge of the earth. Fierce warriors, they hire themselves out as mercenaries. They are also famed as metal-workers, making their own armour of the sky-iron they extract from the falling stars that land in Svalbard. Known in their own tongue as panserbjorne, the ice bears live according to a rigid hierarchy with a king at the top, and are known for being aloof, violent, and true to their word.
THE ALETHIOMETER
is an extraordinarily intricate device fashioned by a metaphysical scientist in the sixteenth century. Also known as the Golden Compass, the alethiometer's needle seeks out, instead of true North, Truth itself. The ornamented face of the device is divided into 36 arcane symbols, each of which may convey different meanings in combination with any of the others and according to the subtleties of the machine's motions. By setting the dials on its side, one can ask any sort of question imaginable. Reading the alethiometer, however, is a difficult task - so difficult, in fact, that no-one now possesses the ability. Except perhaps Lyra.
THE ALETHIOMETER
- "It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you'll have to learn by yourself."
How to Read the Symbols - To use the alethiometer, the user directs three needles to lie over certain symbols on the face of device, and forms a question in his or her mind. The fourth needle then responds to the question, swinging over different symbols to form answers. Any given symbol may have numerous meanings.
The 36 symbols and just some of their meanings:
1. Hourglass, Time, Death, change.
2. Sun, Day, Authority, truth.
3. Alpha and Omega, Finality, Process, inevitability.
4. Marionette, Obedience, Submission, grace.
5. Serpent, Evil, Guile, natural wisdom.
6. Cauldron (crucible), Alchemy, Craft, achieved wisdom.
7. Anchor, Hope, Steadfastness, prevention.
8. Angel, Messenger, Hierarchy, disobedience.
9. Helmet, War, Protection, narrow vision.
10. Beehive, Productive work, Sweetness, light.
11. Moon, Chastity, Mystery, the uncanny.
12. Lady, Motherhood, The feminine, worship.
13. Apple, Sin, Knowledge, vanity.
14. Bird, The soul, Spring, marriage.
15. Bread, Nourishment, Christ, sacrifice.
16. Ant, Mechanical work, Diligence, tedium.
17. Bull, Earth, Power, honesty.
18. Candle, Fire, Faith, learning.
19. Cornucopia, Wealth, Autumn, hospitality.
20. Chameleon, Air, Greed, patience.
21. Thunderbolt, Inspiration, Fate, anger.
22. Dolphin, Water, Resurrection, playfulness.
23. Walled Garden, Nature, Innocence, order.
24. Globe, Politics, Sovereignty, fame.
25. Sword, Justice, Fortitude.
26. Griffin, Treasure, Watchfulness, courage.
27. Horse, Europe, Journeys, fidelity.
28. Camel, Asia, summer, perseverance.
29. Elephant, Africa, Charity, continence.
30. Crocodile (caiman), America, Rapacity, enterprise.
31. Baby, The future, Malleability, helplessness.
32. Compass, Measurement, Mathematics, science.
33. Lute, Poetry, Rhetoric, philosophy.
34. Tree, Firmness, Shelter, fertility.
35. Wild man, Wild man, The Masculine, lust.
36. Owl, Night, winter, fear.
