List of Familiar spirits in popular culture

Familiar spirits, animal-shaped spirits who serves for witchery, have appeared many times in popular culture.

In many modern fantasy stories, a magician's familiar is a magical creature.

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman features dæmons, which fulfill several of the roles and traits of the traditional concept of familiar spirits.

In the television series Twin Peaks, Killer Bob, a malevolent spirit entity, was said to be the familiar of another, more powerful entity named Mike; although Bob sometimes appeared in the form of an owl, he most often took the form of a long haired human man.

In the anime Bleach, villains called the Bounts use a type of familiar called "Dolls" with personalities entirely separate from, but may be considered the reverse of their masters. For example, the gender of a Doll is the opposite of their master or mistress. Dolls also wield a wide variety of abilities that help them do the dirty work for their master.

In Role Playing Games such as Runescape, Familiars are a part of the 'summoning skill' Where you can summon a familiar and have it follow you around and help you with different tasks.

Modern references to familiars include the television series Charmed. In the series, a cat named Kit watched over the sister witches until they could ward off evil without warning.

• Familiars were mentioned in Shakespeare's Macbeth, wherein the witches summoned their familiars.
• The intelligent flying reptile Loiosh, in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, is a familiar.
• In the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, djinns and other demons are summoned and serve as a passive manifestation of a magician's power, which is derived solely from the demon's presence rather than from any true arcane skills.
• Familiars have appeared in several fantasy role playing systems, most notably as the companions of wizards and sorcerers in recent versions of Dungeons & Dragons.
• In vampire fiction (Salem's Lot, Blade, etc.), familiars are humans who were promised immortality by a vampire lord in exchange for services of some kind (generally services vampires are unable to accomplish, such as going out during the day).
• In Gregory Maguire's "Son Of A Witch" Novel, Liir has his own familiar.
• In the Disney Animated series Aladdin, the villain Mozenrath has an eel familiar named Xerxes.
• In The WB television series Charmed, the star characters possessed a familiar for the first half of the series named Kit the Cat, who was a white Siamese with blue eyes.
• In the film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Elvira possessed a familiar named Algonquin, or "Gonk" for short, who took the shape of dogs and mice.
• In the manga series Sugar Sugar Rune two of the main character's familiars come as a mouse and frog. The first, Chocola, owns the frog named Duke. Vanilla, Chocola's best friend and second main character, owns the mouse named Blanca.
• In the Sailor Moon metaseries, the main characters possess familiars, in the form of cats, named Luna, Artemis and Diana.
• In the first of the Earthsea books, the wizard Ged is accompanied by a mute, mink-like creature called an "otak", which is fiercely loyal and perpetually faithful to him. There are references to several other familiars, including ravens and boars.
• In the Harry Potter series there are a number of characters possessing beloved pets similar to familiars, though the term is never used. Note that the four pets students are allowed to have in school are an owl, a rat, a toad, or a cat, four common types of familiars. The patronus that characters conjure for protection can also be thought of as a familiar.
• The DC Comics character Klarion the Witch Boy has an orange cat familiar named Teekl, as does the character Morgana whose black cat was named Frimost.
• In the Philip Pullman book series His Dark Materials, dæmons are similar to familiars, though only the witches of the story use them as such.
• In the animated television ReBoot, the character Hexadecimal had a "verminous" familiar named Scuzzy.
• The Marvel Comics character Satana had a familiar named Exiter who died while trying to save his mistress.
• In the British comedy programme The Mighty Boosh, Bollo, who is the "oldest ape in captivity" is the Shaman Naboo the Enigma's familiar.
• In the Karin (anime), Karin's sister Anju controls a horde of bat familiars that watch over Karin throughout the day. She is also accompanied by many doll familiars, most notably "Boogie" whom she often carries around with her.
• In Rob Schrab's "Twigger's Holiday", Twigger has a humanoid familiar named Josh who often barks like a dog. Twigger's girlfriend Michelle also has a humanoid familiar who meows like a cat.
• The plot of the Japanese visual novel Fate/stay night, tells the story of a war between magicians and their "servants", heroic spirits which can be rendered as familiars.
• In the Japanese anime Zero no Tsukaima, all of the 2nd year students must summon their own familiar. The heroine's familiar turned out to be a human a "commoner", who she promptly falls in love with.
• In Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Sabrina Spellman had a black cat named Salem, though he was in fact a warlock changed into a cat as punishment for attempting world domination.
• In the game Warhammer 40,000, space marine librarians, chaos sorcerers, and inquisitors can choose familiars as equipment.
• A dog and cat prowl a dark alley, pausing to inspect a corpse, in the opening sequence of the 1986 horror/mystery film Angel Heart, foreshadowing the appearance of the sinister Louis Cyphre and his attorney.
• In the book "The Bridge" by Iain Banks, the familiar lives atop the barbarian's back and helps him in a few ways, ranging from spells to advice.
• Alucard from Hellsing has Cerberus-like shadow dogs for familiars, and has the ability to summon familiars of the victims of his killings.
• The Elf Wizard Vaarsuvius, from the popular webcomic The Order of the Stick, has his/her own familiar, a black raven.
• In H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House, an old witch named Kesiah Mason has a familiar named Brown Jenkin, a hideous ratlike creature with a human face.
• In the Manga/Anime Negima! the main character Negi Springfield has a white ermine named Albert Chamomile commonly called "Chamo" as his familiar.
• In the play Bell, Book, and Candle, by John Van Druten, as well as in the film adaptation, the main character Gillian Holroyd has a familiar in the form of a cat named Pyewacket. A cat of the same name appears as a familiar in sixteenth-century literature describing witchcraft.
• Mythological familiars were also portrayed as antagonists in the TV series Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba.
• In Miyazaki's animated film Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki is a young witch in training who owns a black cat named Jiji. Jiji is a small, somewhat pessimistic cat whose thoughts Kiki (and therefore the film's viewer) can understand unless Kiki's magic fades. He is used mostly as a plot device and a figure of comic relief.
• In the anime series Paranoia Agent, a plush doll of the character Maromi comes to life and advises its creator Tsukiko Sagi much as a familiar would.
• In the short story, "Puddle Head", which is no longer in print, the main protagonist, Joshua, has a familiar named "Reed Bones" given to him as a gift from his deceased father.
• In the anime D.N. Angel, Wiz (character) (or With in the English version) is Dark's familiar, in the form of a dog and rabbit cross-breed.
• In Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy, Mogget is the Abhorsen's Familiar.
• In Matty (composed by Johnny Mulhearn), Christy Moore sings about the eponymous farmer meeting his "dark familiar" before he dies.
• In Jim Butcher's novel series "The Dresden Files", White Council member Injun Joe (also known as "Joseph Listens-to-Wind") possesses a raccoon familiar named Little Brother.
• In the SciFi channel original miniseries Tin Man (a re-imagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), the sorceress Azkadellia has a number of familiars in the form of winged monkeys called "mobats".
• In the television series Double Dragon, the warrior Daj is given a young dragon to raise as his constant companion.
• In Alison Croggon's fantasy series, called Pellinor, the character Hem rescues a white crow from his xenophobic flock. This crow, named Irc, becomes Hem's sidekick and is instrumental in fulfilling the quest on which Hem and his sister Maerad have embarked.
• In an Anime series Ghost Hunt, familiars are mentioned on several occasions. Namely, character Koujo Lin has 5 familiars, which protect him. He donates them to Kazuya Shibuya in one of the last episodes, to keep Kazuya from being possessed by evil fox spirit.
• Familiars play a role in the Hollows book series, written by Kim Harrison.
• In Buffy The Vampire Slayer Witches Willow Rosenburg And Tara Maclay share a black and brown cat near the ending of season 4
• In Buffy The Vampire Slayer Witch Willow Rosenburg Takes Care of former witch Amy Who has been turned into a rat and then served as Willows familiar from the middle of season 3 to the middle of season 6 then she turns on Willow in season 7 making them arch rivials
• In the anime Magician's Academy Tanarotte and Eineus are both familiars.
• Azure Dreams, a PlayStation game, has gameplay that is centered around recovering monster eggs that become the hero's familiar when hatched.
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a PlayStation game, features several familiars that can be unlocked to aid the player, and have reappeared in the more recent games.
• GODS, a computer game, has an unlockable bird of prey familiar that follows the protagonist and attacks enemies.
• Kingdom of Loathing, a browser-based MMORPG treats familiars as pets that can be obtained to assist a player in various ways, from healing to attacking to increasing item drop rates.
• NetHack, a roguelike computer game, uses familiars for aiding the player in battle.
• Ragnarok Online has a common, bat-like monster named Familiar. They can be summoned by the MVP Boss, Dracula.
• Riviera: The Promised Land, a Game Boy Advance game, has a main character Ein who has a familiar named Rose (who looks like an ordinary black house cat).
• Runescape, an MMORPG, contains a member's only skill known as Summoning allows a player to summon a familiar to aid them in training or combat.
• Super Robot Wars game series character, Masaki Andoh, has two cat familiar spirits, a female black cat named Kuro and a male white cat named Shiro. They also help him in combat, piloting Cybuster's Hi-Familiar remote weapons.
• Summon Night, a Strategy RPG game series, contains familiars who can be summoned.
• The Sims 2: Apartment Life, an expansion pack for the popular games The Sims 2, includes witches, which have familiars, represented as cats.