Dear Jonathan Stroud,

I really enjoyed the books, though i admit that i only made an account on this site to look at the answered questions page.

Question: How are demons born? I mean in the other place they are all one, and Barty mentions something about giving name, indiviuality and form. So does that mean magicians GIVE demons names? Or is it something else?

Hello -

Good question - yes, you're right. To begin with the essence that became known as Bartimaeus was simply part of the Other Place. At some point early in the history of human civilization, a magician or magicians drew a certain amount of essence across and by doing so separated it from the OP: by naming it they made it something that it wasn't before: even when B goes back to the OP and becomes part of its chaotic swirl again, he is still in some way a little bit distinct. As he is summoned again and again over the years, his individuality increases... his history, his character... it's all really because of his experiences and adventures in our world. And part of him rather likes this, even though he hates it too...

J

So is it possible for a magician to perform a summoning using a made up name? By this I mean bringing more essence to Earth and giving it a name, creating a new spirit?

umbreo wrote:So is it possible for a magician to perform a summoning using a made up name? By this I mean bringing more essence to Earth and giving it a name, creating a new spirit?

Yes, JS had said that modern magicians were too lazy to break off another piece of essence of the OP and create another spirit.

Nero wrote:

umbreo wrote:So is it possible for a magician to perform a summoning using a made up name? By this I mean bringing more essence to Earth and giving it a name, creating a new spirit?

Yes, JS had said that modern magicians were too lazy to break off another piece of essence of the OP and create another spirit.

I got the impression they didn't do it more because of the risk involved than pure laziness.. They do for very weak spirits like mites because they're expendable (and apparently not even named), but for anything bigger they look up spirits in books. (They might still create new imps though..)

I thought that the method was lost, or something.

That's what they said about golem magic...

I don't recall that being said anywhere, just that they didn't do it for safety/power (you have to be significantly stronger to create a spirit than to merely summon one of the same power) reasons.