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Daemonism
the basics

As you can imagine, in order to appreciate many of the writings on this site, you will need to have some idea of what a daemon is, and what daemonism entails. However, please take note that what is written here are entirely my own beliefs and opinion and is not the general consensus of the community as a whole. There are a lot of discrepensies amongst individuals, different camps as it were, and these are simply my views. For a somewhat more official source, please direct yourselves towards The Daemon Page.

Daemonism is, to me, best described as a philosophy. Though it takes some of its specifics and terms from the popular fantasy series His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, it is in no way a simple derivitive of it. It is not a belief, as there is very little that needs to be 'believed', and it is most certainly not a religion. It is a manner of organising the mind so that the generally standard monologue instead becomes a dialogue. In other words, a thought process like this:

"I really should not have left this assignment so late. It's going to be hard to hand it in on time and still make it...well, not sucky. Maybe I should hand it in a day late. I'll lose two percent, but it's better than losing twenty percent for a dodgy essay."

would translate to something like this:

"You shouldn't have left it so late."
"I know, I know. Crap. There's no way I'll finish it on time."
"Oh, you'll finish it. It'll just suck."
"That's not comforting."
"Sitting here whining won't help. Look, worse comes to worse, hand it in a day late."
"You lose two percent per day, though."
"You'll lose a lot more if you hand in something crap. Work hard, and it'll be worth it in the end."

Both thought processes are capable of coming to the same conclusion, as shown. Both are rational. And both are normal. Daemons are not beings from the outside to be contacted. They are, always have been and always will be, you. Someone who does not talk to their daemon is not bereft of one; everyone has a daemon by way of being capable of having one. If you accuse a daemian - someone who 'practises' daemonism - of merely talking to themselves, they will likely agree with you. For that is all it is. Tell them they are therefore crazy and the whole idea is ridiculous, and they will probably proceed to ignore you.

'Things that can happen in your head' is a rather broad definition, and for a head-thing to qualify as a daemon, several attributes have been founded within the community. Once again the ties to HDM surface, but it is a matter of choice in many cases; daemians simply prefer this system of organisation. They are not bound to it, and may deviate from it, but therefore also deviate from daemonism. (This is an ongoing debate, however, and I will not go into it here.) There has also been a great deal of thought and discussion put into these specifics - it is not a matter of 'because it's cute'. The standard fundamentals are as such:

1. Name
Humans do tend to like being able to name and define things, and daemonism is not exempt. The name of a daemon tends to be unusual, but has no real boundaries. One may be named Eskashan, another Zip. The finding of the name also varies wildly. Some daemons seem to have a name already in mind, whereas other humans and daemons work together to find a name they like. I picked Killy's without any consultation on his part, but he does not seem to mind. Often a daemon will have both a formal name and a nickname - I almost never call him Kilmaeyon, and instead refer to him as anything from Killy to Muttface to For God's Sake Shut Up. Some daemons have multiple names. Some daemons remain nameless.

2. Gender
A category that ends up even looser than name, if you can believe it. Most will hold that as daemons are not corporeal they cannot have a biological sex, and therefore tend to be masculine or feminine rather than male or female. I call Killy male, mostly because it's simpler to explain and quicker to type. What determines the gender is unknown. It has nothing to do with the human's gender (though a majority end up opposite), or sexual preference, or anything of the like. I tend to think it is a mixture of expectation and personal preference; I expected opposite gender thanks to HDM, and tend to have a fondness for masculine personalities. Others claim it is a matter of balance. Again, daemons have been known to be genderless.

3. Form
This is the section that truly makes a daemon a daemon, rather than some other form of 'headmate'. As seen above, a daemon can not have a name or gender and still be a daemon. Those that have read His Dark Materials will be familiar with the notion of 'settling', and it is this notion that is applied. It follows the theory that during a human's development they will reach a point in which their personality more or less stabilises, as opposed to the impressionable fluency of a child's. Unlike Pullman's works, daemonism does not hold with the belief that it happens at puberty, because it's during the teenage years that we change the most. Nor does it look at it in quite as shallow a manner. The point of settling is to engage in introspection and hopefully gain a better understanding of oneself. It is often a long and detailed process. I am not a coyote because I have big ears, am often called a trickster, and occasionally have people shoot at me for stealing their sheep. I'm a coyote because I have a small group of friends, because I am hierarchal, because I communicate best over long distances, because I'm laid-back if insecure, and so on. You can of course lie to yourself and claim to be a wolf even though you're not nearly social enough for it, but it it defeats the point, and in the end you're only hurting yourself. Daemonism is about honesty.
Therefore, a daemon will most often hold animal forms, as they are generally considered the most, or sometimes only, viable forms for settling. Prior to settling a daemon will 'take' whatever form it wants, but afterwards it is customary for them to at least strongly favour the settled form. My own Killy is a coyote a good 97% of the time.

There are a few different camps of thought when it comes to the nature of the daemon. There are those who view it as a purely psychological phenomenan (also known as Mental Constructionism); that the human consciously decides to form this mental dialogue, and applies all the accompanying traits. They construct the daemon. On the other end of the scale, there are those who state that the daemon is the human soul (referred to sometimes as Spiritualism). In this case, the specifics are more or less predestined. I personally sit somewhere in the middle. The daemon is not the soul in its entirety - rather, it is a representation of what makes humans more than smart monkeys. It is tied very strongly to mental processes, for Kilmaeyon most certainly did not have a name or form before I consciously sought them, but at the same time indicates the presence of the soul.

Of course, what you believe is up to you.

Typically, there is greater solidarity of thought when it comes to the purpose of the daemon. And once upon a time I would have joined in the masses who claim daemons are 'what you need'. However, I have had a few experiences belying this - I have never needed the consistent and harsh criticism Killy has often provided. Daemons, to my mind, function to represent your own feelings deep down. If I am angry with myself, Killy will express this anger. It might not always be fair, for I am not always fair to myself. At the same time, it has its benefits, because to receive Killy's opinion on something is the same as understanding how I honestly and truly feel inside. It cannot be denied that daemons are almost always a positive thing.