electricalgwen

His Dark Materials is a trilogy by Philip Pullman, set in multiple universes. In the one in which it starts, people have companion animals known as daemons. It's essentially their soul/self in physical form. Children's daemons can change form constantly, but settle on a permanent form during puberty. The animal often reflects the personality of the human. Daemons dissolve when a person dies (in the book, they simply vanish; in the movie, they dissolve into a swirl of golden dust). They are usually the opposite sex of the person's physical body.

It is taboo to touch another person's daemon. If someone does lay hands on your daemon, it makes you feel weak and sick. There are exceptions: we learn in The Amber Spyglass that lovers may touch each other's daemons, and that this may be a trigger for the daemon to settle.

Witches live a long time. Their daemons can travel a long distance away from them; most people stay very close to their daemon, and it hurts if you get too far apart.

It is possible to cut a human and its daemon apart, by a process called intercision. This leaves the person apathetic and damaged; they are thought to be ghosts, and they might as well be.

Dean's daemon is a black and white tabby named Molly. Sam's was a red fox named Tsafira. Lisa's is a swallowtail butterfly named Dax; Ben's hasn't settled yet but favors a lizard or hawk. John's was a wolf, Mary's a bird. Bobby has a raccoon, Rufus a rattlesnake, and Jess had a lion. They don't appear in the story, but I needed to know. :)