A window from Will's world to the world of Cittàgazze
Carlo Boreal travelling through a window
- "It looked as if someone had cut a patch out of the air, about two metres from the edge of the road, a patch roughly square in shape and less than a metre across. If you were level with the patch so that it was edge-on, it was nearly invisible, and it was completely invisible from behind. You could only see it from the side nearest the road, and you couldn't see it easily even from there, because all you could see through it was exactly the same kind of thing that lay in front of it ont his side: a patch of grass lit by a street light."
- —Will Parry describing a window in Oxford[src]
A window was an opening or portal created between two different universes,[1] typically through use of the subtle knife but one was also opened by a machine built by Lord Asriel.
Physical description and making[]
A window was a cut in space that led to another universe. They could travel into different terrain, underground, underwater and in the air. Windows were primarily made by the subtle knife. Using its special edge, the bearer could feel loops or snags in the fabric of the multiverse. When pierced and expanded, a window was formed. An experienced bearer could distinguish which world a loop would lead to by its feel.[2]
A window could be closed, simply by grasping it properly and pulling it back together.
Consequences[]
Windows to other worlds all contained an extremely minute gap into the void between worlds. Thus, open windows continously and slowly caused Dust to be lost from the universes. The existence of windows was responsible for the slow decline of Dust in the worlds. Eventually, if left unchecked, Dust would be gone, and sentient consciousness along with it. Additionally, each use of the subtle knife to create a window created a new Spectre, which also consumed and removed Dust. This is why the world of Cittàgazze had such a large number of Spectres. [3]
Xaphania and her angels decided to close all windows in the universe, except the one in the land of the dead to allow ghosts to return to the universes. The creative endeavours and loves of conscious species would, all together, be enough to balance the loss of Dust from this one remaining window.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ The Subtle Knife, Chapter 1
- ↑ The Subtle Knife, Chapter 8
- ↑ The Amber Spyglass, Chapter 37