Avater with daemons

[Ashen Key]

(note: I figure this is the right place for this, given I'm talking about a crossover/fusion and not just Avatar by itself)

Basically, for those who have read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, I've been tossing around the idea of writing a take on Avatar as if all the human characters had daemons, both for kicks and also to play with the implications. For those who haven't read the books, this an explanation of daemons:

Dæmons (pronounced: Dee-men) are the physical manifestations of the souls of humans in Lyra's world. Although dæmons are a separate identity to their humans, together, both are considered to be one entity. Therefore, both the human and dæmon will die simultaneously, if one is killed.

Dæmons assume the forms of animals. During the childhood of a human, the dæmon can shapeshift into any kind of animal depending on whim or circumstances; after the child has attained maturity, their dæmon will settle into a permanent form, often reflecting the nature of their human. A person's dæmon is usually the opposite sex, although it is possible for both to have the same sex. It is a taboo for a person to touch another's dæmon; similarly, a dæmon cannot touch another person...

The separation between a human and their dæmon is very painful and emotionally afflicting. Excluding the dæmon belonging to witches, who could travel great distances away from each other, death would usually follow the separation due to the severe trauma.

(for further explanation, here is the wikia page, and here is the wikipedia page)

My questions aren't really what daemons you think the characters would have (although that IS fun, and partly why I'm trying to do this: this page has some awesome speculating on different animals and why they'd be someone's daemon), but more I've run into some issues that I'm not sure about how to fix.

The first is pretty basic - what to do about Pandora's atmosphere. It kills humans - I'm GUESSING it would also kill their daemons, but what do you think? And if the air does kill them, what do you think happens when the humans have to be outside - the bigger daemons could probably carry their own filter packs and masks, but I'm not sure what to do with the smaller ones, or birds. Any ideas?

Second question is to do with the Avatar drivers and their daemons - namely, what to do with the daemons. Would the daemons stay with the human body, or follow the mind with the Avatar body (or would Avatar drivers have to go through a similar separation to witches, in order to cope with the separation)?

Any thoughts on this would be utterly awesome and helpful

[Advent]

Quite an interesting idea.

If I could candidate one... Parker. He'd have a puppy. One of those small, but constantly mooching and annoying ones.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by Advent

Quite an interesting idea.

If I could candidate one... Parker. He'd have a puppy. One of those small, but constantly mooching and annoying ones.

*snerk* Actually, he doesn't strike me as the dog kind - I'm giving him a hare. On this page it has a section on rabbits, hares and pikas - also, I figure that like Lee and Hester in the books, Parker's daemon would be able to hide how she/they felt by staying still.

(And for my fic, Quaritch = wolfhound, Trudy = tiger, Norm = otter, Grace = hawk, Jake = cattledog/sheepdog/mix-thereof, still working on the remaining characters and extras and OCs)

Still have no idea what to do with the Avatar drivers or the Pandoran air, though

[iron_jones]

Perhaps Quaritch would have a gerbil??

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by iron_jones

Perhaps Quaritch would have a gerbil??

He doesn't strike me as the rodent-type, and I AM actually trying to match characters with daemons that make sense, not just for the lols or assigning a silly daemon on account of my own feelings for the character.

No one has any suggestions on if daemons have filter-masks, or how to deal with the Avatar drivers?

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

As far as air goes maybe they could have implanted glands that secrete antidotes to the toxic comonents in the air. Then even a humming bird would be good to go.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by Vawm tsamsiyu

As far as air goes maybe they could have implanted glands that secrete antidotes to the toxic comonents in the air. Then even a humming bird would be good to go.

Ooh, that's a cool idea - although my problem would be why they haven't done the same for the humans.

Sci-fi is suddenly much harder with daemons, it seems...

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

You could day that the animals were genetically altered before birth to have the glands but the humans were already born and would have to have them added on and the humans can't afford that when they can get by with a far cheaper exo pack