Righty ho, I'm new here, so forgive me if I act like an idiot.
First of all, what do demons look like? In the Amulet of Samarkand, you say that Faquarl has "too many tentacles" so does that mean his shape on the seventh plane or his real shape? If they aren't the same thing, that is.

And do higher entities like Ramuthra have forms on the lower planes which they can assume by choice?

Do you have a favourite book, not one you've written?

What IS magic in your world (I mean Bartimaeus' world). For example, in Harry Potter, magic is done by wands and long words that remind you of the binomial system. In the Abhorsen Trilogy, magic is done by Charter Marks plucked out of the never-ending flow. In Barti's world, magic seems to be done by demons, but then Jessica Whitwell does her own magic too by casting the Mournful Orb etc.
If Magicians can do their own magic, why get demons? Is it because they're too lazy to do things themselves? Do demons have a higher understanding of magic?

Also, objects like elemental spheres: how do they work? Is a spell inserted into the article and compressed until it is broken, or is the spell ON the item?
I thank you dearly for answering, if you can make sense of the outlandish twaddle up there.

Oh, and since I'm ranting on anyway, can you also tell me if all demons are just made out of essence? Is essence like matter? Is there anti-essence like anti-matter?

Did you write the captions for the Where's Wally books? Some website said you did. If so, you were my favourite author since I was five.


---


Pentacles are the Pagan symbol for the Sacred Feminine (I read the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons). It's supposedly the shape which Venus traces every eight years. It's been associated with Pagan magic and warped into the sign of the Devil.
Why did you choose this as a summoning circle? Is it because of the deep roots in magic or pagan rituals?

And about the Coptic thing. Perhaps it's different in Barti's world, but a documentary on the Discovery Channel said that around only 4-5 people in the WORLD know fluent Coptic. But then again, Nathaniel has to check the Coptic dictionary which wouldn't really exist unless someone was very articulate...
I promise this would be my last question...for today.
How does the pentacle bind the demon? Who used it first?
Good luck answering the questions. I seem to have a lot.


All Questions merged, and edited to remove previously asked ones. Check the failed Questions forum for the answers to the questions that have already been asked.- Gladstone, Admin

Hi Gwin,

Blimey, what a lot of questions! I'll do my best...

1. Faquarl's shape: Like Bart, Faquarl's 'real' shape - his form in the Other Place, that is - isn't really a shape at all, but is constantly shifting essence. When he is summoned over to our world, however, he tends to take on certain prefered forms - the cook being an example on the lower planes. On the higher planes, he is something a lot less savoury. Bart too will look pretty odd and definitely non-human on the higher planes.

2. Ramuthra: I suppose that if he could be bothered, Ramuthra might be able to assume other guises on the lower planes, but (a) it would be beneath him, (B ) it might be that the sheer power of his essence would continually overcome such 'ordinary' shapes - distorting them, or making them glow or vibrate in such a way that his true nature shone through.

3. I don't have one particular favourite. I like and admire lots. Something like Treasure Island by RL Stevenson is a model for me in some ways, because it's a great adventure and a fine literary novel.

4. In Bart's world, all magic comes from the spirits; if Whitwell or Nat or any of the other magicians appear to do stuff on their own, they are not - ultimately they are employing the abilities of a hidden slave. None of the magicians are born with magical powers - they are ordinary people, albeit with high intelligence and the ability to learn complex/dangerous formulae. Magic is entirely bound up with the essence of the spirits, and can only be employed by humans when they enslave one or more entity.

5. Items like elemental spheres or the Amulet of Samarkand are manufactured by human magicians and derive their power from one or more trapped spirit inserted, imprisoned or otherwise squeezed into the object concerned. If the magician is powerful and able to control powerful spirits, the object can become hugely potent, like the Amulet. In modern Britain, some of the less powerful weapons are mass produced in small factories.

6. Hmm. All spirits are made from essence, which by nature is constantly in flux. In this endless movement and inclination towards chaos it might be considered the opposite to ordinary physical matter, which is inclined towards stasis. (Mind you, I'm not a physicist, so I'm treading warily here!)

7. Well, my first job was as an editorial assistant at Walker Books who were turning out the Where's Wally books in the early 1990s. I never worked on the proper Wally books, but my first ever job (and published 'writing') was dreaming up fantastic facts etc to go in some Wally spin-off books, called things like Where's Wally, the Really Remarkable Activity book etc. They were a bit dodgy, really, because even the Wally pictures weren't drawn by the true artist, Martin Handford...

8. I confess I haven't read the Da Vinci Code so I don't know what assertions are made there. I used pentacles/summoning circles because they're a well-known method in European folklore/legend for magicians to summon up something they shouldn't (either spirits of dead people or demons). In a way it's a kind of literary shorthand - they're familiar to most of us, so I don't need to go into too much detail about the magic Nat actually uses (which might get a bit dull).

9. In Bart's world, Coptic (together with Sumerian and Aramaic and other ancient tongues) is known by a fair number of magicians, since ultimately a lot of the formulae they use to summon spirits derive from the work of their ancient predecessors. Magicians aren't great innovators (apart from Makepeace); they are content to use traditional methods, and that includes the languages involved.

10. I'm not sure exactly how the pentacle works; together with the right runes, words, incense etc, it acts as a 'wall' or 'prison' for the summoned spirit. It was first devised by some nameless magician way back at the dawn of Civilisation. Bart claims to have been summoned to our world for over 5,000 years, so that's going way back to the Mesopotamian period...

Phew! That's it! I'm going to lie down...