The Republic of Heaven

This is something I thought of a long time ago when I 1st read the books. If a murderer were to kill a daemon, the daemon would vanish, the person would die, and the murderer would escape w/out leaving a single trace of the murder or even how he died. It seems like the crime rate would be way higher in that world than in ours,because they wouldn't be caught....

I´ve never thought of that!
Don´t daemons bleed?

I believe they do leave blood, and you can also pull their hairs and such, but I suppose these trails disappear along with the dæmon itself.

I suppose there is just so much of a taboo that even prevents murderes from abusing dæmons to kill people. On the other hand, if someone died without any evidence to the cause of dead, it would be pretty clear that someone shot the dæmon

Well, if it's something that people just take as a given that you never touch anothers daemon, then there might not be much daemon murdering...

Look at Japan...people leave their car keys on the roof of their car in a parking lot so that if their car is blocking another car, the person who owns the other car can move it.

Cous the person dont wanish the police would know if they do a surgery on the body and theyd know it was not poison or a heartattack. So... eventualy theyd know...

eloquent wrote: kids just went out and wandered around all day looking for stuff to do. That would never happen now.

I definitely still do that! I wander around town all day, but ususally it's with in a group. And this one girl's house is never locked- when I need a drink or something I go right in. They don't mind.
back to the point....
I think in Lyra's world it is such a taboo about hurting people's daemons that they wouldn't even consider it. Like, ever. I think someone over there, tho, should kidnap someone's daemon and hold it for hostage. Think how much money you could make $.$

that would be very hard...

Easier with a witch's daemon...but then you've got a witch (and presumably her clan) to deal with...

Well, I dun think there is a taboo, cause Farder Coram, when saving Serafina Pekkala, killed the other daemon that was pursuing Serafina... and I dun think anyone figured out that he did that, cause he ent in jail

Well, he shot the Dæmon eh? So he wasn't touching it, and he didn't know it was another dæmon 'til after. It would be hard to take a dæmon hostage though, the person can't go very far from it...and stuff...

Mmm, but Farder Coram didn't realise that bird was a dæmon. He wasn't used to witches dæmons and how they can go away from them. Remember how afterwards he was lamenting the shooting?

LifeDaemon wrote:Well, I dun think there is a taboo, cause Farder Coram, when saving Serafina Pekkala, killed the other daemon that was pursuing Serafina... and I dun think anyone figured out that he did that, cause he ent in jail

i think the taboo only applies in physical contact.

Of course it would be hard to kidnap a daemon but you could do it. If you wanted to break the taboo. Just snatch it and run. But, the daemon would obviously fight for it's life and if the person was weak, they might not be able to take the pain and just die. *shrugs* but that would have to be a risk you'd be willing to take.
I don't think witches are subject to the same law as the rest of the people of Lyra's world. I mean, they kill each other a lot, right? and they don't go to jail for it. They have their own government.

The witches have a goverment? or were you speaking metaphorically or something?

Well, why would you want to kidnap it... you just point a gun at it and the dude will do anything you say...

la bohemia wrote:Of course it would be hard to kidnap a daemon but you could do it. If you wanted to break the taboo.

nets.

LifeDaemon wrote:Well, why would you want to kidnap it... you just point a gun at it and the dude will do anything you say...

the daemon could easily move away from the direction the gun is pointing at/

TonyOn wrote:The witches have a goverment? or were you speaking metaphorically or something?

well they had a meeting as a group (serafina's)... you could call that a government. serafina was a queen with governing powers. and they had an embassy in that town where the gyptians found iorek.

I don't think LifeDaemon was talking about witches going to jail, but Farder Coram. I agree though, witches have a very different system. Each clan would have a different person or something, wouldn't they?

Uh, I forget where to go to get to my signature...where do I go to change it?

Maybe by the nature of people in Lyra's world, you'd have to be a horribly evil human to intentionally hurt/kidnap/kill a dæmon.

Yeah, but you have to be a pretty horrible person to rape/torture someone and we manage that quite often here. (as in this world, not this board)

very very true.
I believe it's just that taboo (we don't have any absolutely unbreakable taboos here, it's a little sad) is so strong they would never move against it. But I guess sometimes they do, like in Bolvangar when those men grab Pan. but that was only when they were about to sever him, anyway.