this show is magical and totally awesome. im glad i caught this show today. personally i like the witch the best. hahas. thats weird i noe as she doesn't play a big part in the show. i love the show 'charmed' and there're witches in there. since then im curious bout wicca and stuff related. lol. wonder if its real.
anyway back to this show. the courage and spunk u see in this little girl lyra is unbelievable. she hates ppl ordering her ard. the Magisterium, the so called government in this show, dun wan the ppl to have a mind of their own. they want to be in control of this world and even the other worlds in the universe. lyra is the chosen one to use the golden compass and she's the only one who's able to.
anyway. read below for more.. (:

Lord Asriel

Lyra Belacqua

Mrs Marisa Coulter

Lee Scoresby

There are infinitely many parallel universes; eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua, an orphan-ward of Jordan College, Oxford, lives in one in which a person's soul resides outside the body in the form of a "daemon", which is visible as an animal. The story begins when Lyra and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, save her uncle, Lord Asriel, from poisoning by a representative of the Magisterium. They learn that the motive for the attempted murder was to prevent Asriel from presenting evidence that elementary particles called Dust were flowing from a parallel universe into our own, in the far North. In spite of the Magisterium's official insistence that Dust does not exist, Asriel obtains funding from the university to mount an expedition to explore the phenomenon. It is later revealed that the Magisterium is aware of Dust, which it links to original sin, and that its scientists are working on a means of inoculating children against its effects.

Shortly after Lord Asriel goes north, Lyra's friends Billy Costa and Roger Parslow disappear, and she believes that the folkloric "Gobblers" have taken them away to the North. Lyra has vowed to rescue Roger, and finds her chance when a visiting woman of great importance, Mrs. Marisa Coulter, offers to take Lyra north as her assistant. Lyra assents, but before she leaves is entrusted with a priceless object by the Master of the College: an alethiometer. Resembling a golden compass, it is a device able to reveal the answer to any question asked by the user. Although initially unable to read or understand its complex meanings, Lyra takes it with her to Mrs Coulter's flat.

Mrs. Coulter arouses Lyra's suspicion when she delays in taking her north. Lyra explores a room of the flat she was forbidden to enter, and discovers that Mrs. Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board – the real "Gobblers" who have been kidnapping children. She then returns to her bedroom to find the alethiometer in the hands of Mrs. Coulter's dæmon, the Golden Monkey. She manages to to steal it back, and flees intro the streets of the city.

The "Gobblers" pursue her, but she is saved by the Gyptians, a nomadic boat-people. She learns that many Gyptian children like Billy have disappeared, and that the Gyptians will be taking her to the North on a rescue mission. A Gyptian and Serafina Pekkala, the queen of the witches, help her understand how to use the alethiometer.

In a Norwegian port, Lyra befriends Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut, who advises her to hire him and Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear. She visits Iorek, who is in fact an exiled prince of the armoured bears, and uses the alethiometer to learn where the townsfolk have hidden the armour they stole from him. In return, he pledges to serve her until she has a victory.

Later in the journey north, the alethiometer guides her to Billy Costa, who has escaped from the Magisterium. She finds him dazed, and without his dæmon. With the help of Iorek, she returns Billy to the Gyptians. Soon after, the group is attacked, and Lyra is captured and taken to the king of the armoured bears. She manages to trick Ragnar Sturlusson, the usurping bear-king into allowing Prince Iorek to engage him in combat for the throne. Iorek wins and becomes king of the armoured bears. He accompanies Lyra to Bolvangar, where the abducted children are held, to rescue Roger. However, they are separated when an ice bridge collapses, and Lyra chooses to continue, ignoring Iorek's instruction to wait for him and Lee Scoresby to return with the airship.

Lyra is warmly welcomed into Bolvangar. She immediately locates Roger and builds up a plan of escape. Lyra eavesdrops on a group of scientists talking with Mrs. Coulter about the experiments they do on the children, and is caught after Mrs. Coulter leaves the room. The method of preventing Dust from entering a child is to sever his or her bond to the dæmon. To silence Lyra, the scientists begin the procedure on her and Pantalaimon, but Mrs. Coulter intervenes at the last moment.

Mrs. Coulter explains that she is Lyra's mother, and that Lord Asriel is her father. When Mrs. Coulter asks for the alethiometer, Lyra deviously incapacitates her mother. Then she destroys the severing apparatus, and leads the other children out of the facility. The military guard of the facility tries to block the escape of the children, but Gyptians, Iorek the armoured bear, witches, and Lee Scoresby arrive to fight them. The guard loses the fight, and most of the children return home with the Gyptians.

Lyra and Roger, however, choose to travel with Lee Scoresby, Iorek Byrnison, and Serafina to find Lord Asriel. The witch foretells a great war.

Lyra's adventure continues throughout these three books, and the first is about to be told.