Lord Asriel - History Within The Novel

History Within The Novel

Lord Asriel was a highly respected member of the British (Brytish) aristocracy. He was an explorer and did work in experimental theology, through which he acquired much power, land, and money. But after having an affair with another politician's wife (Marisa Coulter), that resulted in a child, his life changed. Mrs. Coulter's husband, Edward Coulter, went after Lyra and her foster mother with clear intent to harm and possibly murder her. Lord Asriel killed him in a duel. When the church found out, Asriel was tried in court and lost all his money and property. Lyra was sent to a convent. Lord Asriel, who hated the church, arrived one day and took Lyra to his alma mater, Jordan College, where she was placed in the care of the Master.

After travelling to the South, Lord Asriel visited Jordan College where he was almost poisoned by the Master, who read his alethiometer and saw that Lord Asriel's actions would be dangerous. Asriel was saved by Lyra, who secretly watched the Master pour the poison into Lord Asriel's wine glass. Asriel raised money for an expedition using photograms of Dust and a city in the sky, as well as the extra shock value of a decapitated head that he said was Stanislaus Grumman's. He traveled to Svalbard but was imprisoned and guarded by the bear warriors known as the panserbjørne led by Iofur Raknison. This action was ordered by the General Oblation Board, one of Asriel's enemies and headed by his ex-lover, Marisa Coulter. He received hospitable treatment, and waited for a child on whom to perform intercision (a process to detach a child's dæmon that, without the proper equipment, results in the murder of the child in the process), to open a window in the aurora with the help of witches. Eventually a child arrived: Roger Parslow, unwittingly brought by Lyra.

Asriel entered Cittàgazze and, after a battle, allied himself with the rebel angels under Xaphania. He traveled to an empty world and built an enormous basalt fortress, gathering armies from many different worlds to start his rebellion against the Kingdom of Heaven (making him a symbolic Lucifer/Satan). Ruta Skadi found him, and he told her his plan, also getting her clan's support in the war.

Later, he had his allies, King Ogunwe and Lord Roke, find and retrieve Lyra, the second Eve, from Mrs. Coulter. They captured Mrs. Coulter, but Lyra and Will escaped with two of Lord Roke's agents. Lord Asriel then attended to Mrs. Coulter and tried to influence Lyra and Will, as they held the key to renewing the Dust flow. Lord Asriel let Mrs. Coulter escape in an Intention Craft and had Lord Roke follow her to gain information from the Consistorial Court of Discipline. They learned that the Church made a bomb to kill Lyra, and Lord Asriel rescued Mrs. Coulter just in time, as well as destroying Saint-Jean Les Eaux (the location of the bomb) a moment too late with his Intention Craft.

Lyra survived, and Lord Asriel had his army search for her and Will's dæmons so the Authority's armies would be unable to control them. When Lord Asriel found that the bomb had blown a hole under all the worlds into the Abyss, he devised a plan to defeat the Authority's powerful Regent, Metatron. As his forces fought the armies of the Authority and the Church, Mrs. Coulter tricked Metatron into trying to kill Lord Asriel and take Lyra's dæmon. As they were standing on the Abyss' edge, Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter sacrificed themselves, falling into the abyss and taking Metatron with them. They become ghosts for eternity.