A girl raised among the scholars of Jordan College, Oxford, in a world where every human soul takes the form of an external animal companion called a daemon. Reckless, gifted at deception, and possessed of an instinctive ability to read the alethiometer, she embarks on a journey north to rescue missing children that becomes something far larger - a journey that places her at the centre of a war for the nature of consciousness across all worlds.

A guide, interpreter, and former professor of mathematics at the University of Alexandria (real name Rashid Xenakis). He guides Lyra from Seleukeia through Aleppo and beyond, with deep knowledge of Dust and the Rusakov field.

A teenage kitchen girl at the inn near Oxford who is drawn into Malcolm's journey during the flood in La Belle Sauvage. Prickly and initially hostile, she proves courageous and resourceful under pressure.

Malcolm Polstead's daemon, who can still change shape as Malcolm is a child. A loyal and perceptive companion who helps Malcolm navigate dangerous situations.

A botanist who previously visited the red building and returns to the ruined Tashbulak station from the desert. His daemon is a lemur named Cariad.

A stocky military officer with a Franz Joseph beard who serves Delamare by destroying the openings between worlds using tonnerre double explosives.

A former cleaner at the Tashbulak research station who teaches herself science from surviving equipment. Her daemon is a small desert fox named Samal.

Elder statesman and advisor to the Gyptian people, and former lover of Serafina Pekkala. Old and physically frail but sharp in mind, he guides Lyra and counsels John Faa throughout the northern journey.

The Director of Oakley Street, a secret service department opposed to the Magisterium. A capable woman in her fifties whose daemon was paralysed by a tropical fever, she coordinates the fight against the Magisterium's growing power.

A small gryphon living under a curse that has kept her cat-sized for far longer than any gryphon expects to remain so. She befriends Pantalaimon during his travels and serves as intermediary between humans and the gryphon nation.

An Oxford academic and alethiometrist who works as an agent of Oakley Street. She serves as a mentor to Malcolm and a crucial link between academic Oxford and the resistance against the Magisterium.

A former particle physicist from Alexandria and Ionides's former lover. She infiltrated the men from the mountains to stay close to Dust research. Her daemon is a sand-coloured snake named Darab.

An eleven-year-old boy who works at his parents' inn near Oxford in La Belle Sauvage, whose care for the infant Lyra during a catastrophic flood shapes the rest of his life. Curious, observant, and morally serious, he grows into a scholar and agent of Oakley Street by the time of The Secret Commonwealth.

The Secretary General of La Maison Juste in Geneva, a powerful and calculating man who orchestrates a conspiracy against Lyra and seeks to control the Karamakan rose oil. His daemon is a snowy owl.

A powerful merchant based at Marletto's Cafe in Aleppo with a vast trading empire. He extends Lyra particular and well-considered help during the Aleppo leg of her journey eastward.

A young alethiometer reader employed by Marcel Delamare at La Maison Juste, and the son of Gerard Bonneville. He uses a controversial new method of reading the alethiometer that causes nausea but allows him to spy on events in the present.

Lyra's daemon, capable of changing form at will until adulthood fixes his shape as a pine marten. Pantalaimon functions as Lyra's conscience, companion, and other self - a manifestation of her soul that can speak, reason, and feel independently.

A gryphon prince who carries Malcolm to Damavand and leads the gryphon forces in alliance against the Magisterium.

The queen of the gryphons whose palace sits atop Mount Damavand. She commands with steady authority and tasks Malcolm with repairing an alethiometer.

A witch queen who forges an alliance between witches and gryphons against the Magisterium. She heals Malcolm's bullet wound using bloodmoss.