Simbad

Simbad may refer to:

See also

SIMBAD

SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France.

SIMBAD was created by merging the Catalog of Stellar Identifications (CSI) and the Bibliographic Star Index as they existed at the Meudon Computer Centre until 1979, and then expanded by additional source data from other catalogues and the academic literature. The first on-line interactive version, known as Version 2, was made available in 1981. Version 3, developed in the C language and running on UNIX stations at the Strasbourg Observatory, was released in 1990. Fall of 2006 saw the release of Version 4 of the database, now stored in PostgreSQL, and the supporting software, now written entirely in Java.

As of 12 December 2015, SIMBAD contains information for 8,028,670 objects under 22,589,372 different names, with 312,792 bibliographical references and 12,529,307 bibliographic citations.

Familiar spirit

In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits (sometimes referred to simply as "familiars" or "animal guides") were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to the records of the time, they would appear in numerous guises, often as an animal, but also at times as a human or humanoid figure, and were described as "clearly defined, three-dimensional… forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound" by those alleging to have come into contact with them, unlike later descriptions of ghosts with their "smoky, undefined form[s]".

When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, while when working for cunning-folk they were often thought of as benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases). The former were often categorised as demons, while the latter were more commonly thought of and described as fairies. The main purpose of familiars is to serve the witch or young witch, providing protection for them as they come into their new powers.

Familiar (disambiguation)

A familiar is a supernatural entity believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic.

Familiar may refer to:

Familiar (Dungeons & Dragons)

A familiar is a fictional creature in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. A familiar is based on the concept of the familiar spirit or familiar animal, and serves spellcasting characters as a magical companion and servant.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

In both first and second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a familiar was summoned through the use of the spell find familiar.

Third edition Dungeons & Dragons

Familiars are companions of wizards and sorcerers. A Druid or Ranger cannot summon a familiar, but can summon an Animal Companion instead. Familiars can be summoned once per day. Multiclass ranger/druid with arcane user can summon both a familiar and an animal companion. These can be normal animals like panthers and pigs, but they can also be the strange creatures (Imps, Mephits, pixies, giant spiders, eyeballs, small dragons, etc.) Unlike creatures summoned by arcane or divine spell (Elementals, Planar Allies, Undead...), familiars do not unsummon while player is resting. They remain summoned until they are killed or unsummoned by player. When familiar is killed, his summoner receives some damage but he can summon new familiar, if he rested before combat.