Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass) Main article: Northern Lights (novel) Northern Lights (published in some countries, including the United States, as The Golden Compass) revolves around Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who lives in a world in which humans are constantly accompanied by dæmons: the beloved animal embodiments of their inner-selves. Dæmons shift their shapes frequently when people are young but begin to settle into one, fixed, animal form as children reach puberty. Lyra, whose dæmon is named Pantalaimon, is brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, where she accidentally learns of the existence of Dust—a strange elementary particle discovered by Lord Asriel, whom Lyra has been told is her uncle. The Magisterium, the powerful Church body that represses heresy, believes Dust to be related to Original Sin. Scientific discoveries show that Dust is less attracted to children than to adults. A desire to learn why and to prevent children from acquiring Dust when they become adults leads to grisly experiments, carried out to separate kidnapped children from their dæmons. The experiments are directed by Mrs. Coulter and conducted in the distant North by experimental "theologists" (scientists) of the Magisterium. The Master of Jordan College, who has been raising Lyra, turns her over to Mrs. Coulter under pressure from the Church. But first he gives Lyra the alethiometer, an instrument that can reveal any truth and can answer any question when properly manipulated; the alethiometer harnesses Dust to produce its knowledge. Lyra, initially excited at being placed in the care of the elegant and mysterious Mrs. Coulter, discovers to her horror that Coulter heads the secretive General Oblation Board, who are rumoured to be the ones kidnapping children throughout England for experimentation; they are known among children as the "Gobblers." (The name comes from the initials of the group's official name: General Oblation Board.)[12] The Gobblers kidnap the children and perform the experiments. Learning of Mrs. Coulter's Gobbler activity, Lyra runs away. Gyptians (analogous to our world's gypsies), who live on riverboats, rescue her from pursuers. From them she learns that Mrs. Coulter is her mother and Lord Asriel is her father, not her uncle. Taking Lyra along, the Gyptians mount an expedition to rescue the missing children, many of whom are Gyptian children. Lyra hopes to find and save her best friend, Roger Parslow, who she suspects has been taken by the Gobblers. (The name Parslow comes from the butler and friend of Charles Darwin.)[13] Aided by the exiled panserbjørne ("armoured bear") Iorek Byrnison and a clan of witches, the Gyptians save the kidnapped children, including Roger. Lyra and Iorek, along with the aeronaut Lee Scoresby, next continue on to Svalbard, home of the armoured bears. There Lyra helps Iorek regain his kingdom by killing his evil rival, King Iofur Raknison. Lyra then continues on to find Lord Asriel, exiled to Svalbard at Mrs. Coulter's request. She mistakenly thinks her mission all along has been to bring Asriel her alethiometer, when in fact she was destined to bring him a child: Roger. Lord Asriel has been developing a means of building a bridge to another world that can be seen in the sky through the northern lights. The bridge requires a vast amount of energy to split open the boundary between the two worlds. Asriel acquires the energy by severing Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger in the process. Lyra arrives too late to save Roger. Asriel then travels across the bridge to the new world in order to find the source of Dust (and thus the source of all death and misery) in order to obliterate it: "I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die." Lyra and Pantalaimon follow Asriel into the new world.