General Oblation Board

Where childhood ends and servitude begins, severed by steel.

The General Oblation Board, referred to colloquially as the Gobblers, is a secret Church-funded project in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, headed by Marisa Coulter. It kidnaps children and experiments on them by severing the bond between human and dæmon, a procedure called intercision. This process, known as intercision, was initially attempted by simply tearing the child and dæmon apart, but this method generally resulted in the subjects dying of shock. Mrs Coulter tells Lyra that intercision prevents the onset of troubling adult emotions.

Quick Facts

Primary objective: Intercision (the separation of child from daemon)

Lore & Background

Victims are transported to remote research facilities like Bolvangar in the far north. There, amidst sterile isolation, they employ specialized apparatuses to perform intercision. Early attempts generally resulted in subjects dying from shock due to the extreme pain and distress caused by separation. The most detailed account in the books describes pulling a human and dæmon apart as torturous both physically, like "an iron hand pulling one's heart out between one's ribs", and emotionally." If the bond between a child and their dæmon is severed, both the child and the dæmon will eventually die.

Reader's Guide

The General Oblation Board represents the ultimate antagonist of authority without conscience. Lyra and the children held at Bolvangar are rescued by Lee Scoresby, Iorek Byrnison, the Gyptians and Serafina Pekkala's flying witch clan. While separation usually kills both human and dæmon given enough distance, trained individuals like witches can survive it.

Did You Know?

A permanent separation releases a huge burst of energy, which Lord Asriel used to blast a hole between two overlapping universes.
Normally a person and their dæmon must stay within a few yards of each other; separation causes extreme pain and distress for both and, given enough distance, results in death.