Shadows

Introduction

DISCLAIMER:

This will have many spoilers!! Jace, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, Valentine, and Luke are all Cassandra Clare's creations. Miriam Fairfox and her whole family are mine :) I have gotten rid of Simon. Also, Clary will not show up too often. Sorry.

THIS IS JUST AN EXPLANATION OF SHADOWHUNTERS AND WHAT THEY DO. THIS EXPLAINS ALL. ABOUT THE CLAVE THE INSTITUTES AND ABOUT THE CIRCLE AND WHAT IT DID. IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS THEN YOU CAN SKIP IT.

Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, are a secretive race of beings who are humans born with angelic blood. They are the appointed warriors on Earth of the Angel Raziel. They are appointed specifically to control and preside over the Shadow World, as well as over the demons and Downworlders who inhabit it. They have fought the demonic forces valiantly for well over the span of a thousand years, creating their own culture and civilization within human society. Their mandate is to keep the peace in the Shadow World and keep it hidden from the mundane world while protecting the inhabitants of both worlds.

Despite their ancestry, Shadowhunters are mortal and therefore vulnerable to old age and death; however, their angelic blood endows them with special abilities that allow them to achieve feats beyond humanly possible through the application of angelic runes.

Runes, also known as Marks, are symbols that grant beings various supernatural abilities, with both angelic and demonic runes known to exist. For Shadowhunters, runes are a complex runic language given to them by the Angel Raziel, which grants them powers beyond those of mundanes. Runes are burned into Shadowhunters' skin using steles, and are their most common tool in their fight against demons.

While most runes are meant to be used on Shadowhunters' skin, many runes can also be applied on objects, giving a variety of effects and abilities. Many of these runes are placed on their weapons to prevent demons from healing when injured by them; others are used to lock and unlock doors, create fires, and a wide array of other abilities.

Runes are what make the Nephilim different from average humans, as they are the only beings who are able to bear the Angel's marks. When drawn on mundanes, they burn the skin; powerful marks could drive them insane and turn them into Forsaken. Downworlders who are Marked cannot bear the runes and die upon contact; the only exception is the Alliance rune, which was specifically designed to be applied to both Shadowhunters and Downworlders. According to Magnus Bane, angel runes can only be applied on the Nephilim because that's what the runes given to them are for, being part-angel themselves.

Runes are an integral part of a individuals' identity as Nephilim. When one violates the Law severely enough to warrant an expulsion from Shadowhunter society, or when one chooses to leave of his/her own accord, the Shadowhunter is stripped of their Marks, a process that is excruciatingly painful. While this will only typically turn a Shadowhunter into a mundane, the Clave has occasionally made it so that the former Shadowhunter will turn Forsaken to serve as torture or a punishment, though the latter has since been forbidden by their Law.

Though most runes have immense power, there are runes used by the Nephilim that are purely symbolic. The love rune, for example, is merely a symbol of two people's love and cannot create the actual feeling. The same can be said for the mourning rune; it cannot diminish the loss that its wearers feel and only symbolizes the pain of their loved ones' deaths.

Downworlders are supernatural beings and hybrid creatures who inhabit the Shadow World. Downworlder is the widely used term to refer to beings that are said to be part human and part demon, and are even said to be the demonic counterpart of Shadowhunters, who are part human and part angel. They include werewolves, vampires, warlocks and faeries.

Although demonic in origin and nature, Downworlders possess human souls and are counted as members of the human race by the denizens of Heaven.

The Accords is a treaty that ordains how Shadowhunters and Downworlders interact with mundanes and one another, as well as each group's rights, responsibilities, and restrictions, stating that as long as the rules are not broken, they can live in peace without bother and may even provide each other help when the need ever rises. Although the Accords keep the two parties in good enough terms to avoid slaughter between them, hostility is quite unavoidable.

The detailed legal language, rights, punishments, and penalties of Downworlders in criminal trials are also detailed and specified to prevent punishment out of proportion to the crime. Previously part of the Accords, the criminal law section is now treated as a separate document as it is now significantly longer than the entire rest of the Accords put together. It is framed by a different group of representative—ones with legal expertise—from those who write the rest of the Accords.

Mundanes are neither signers of the Accords nor are they subject to Covenant Law. This is said to be one of the most controversial parts of the Law. Every Accords proceeding has featured strident demands from both Shadowhunters and Downworlders that mundanes be held accountable for their behavior. These demands are always declined, for the simple reason that the Nephilim's charge to keep the Shadow World hidden from mundanes must be paramount.

The Silent Brothers are a powerful group of male Shadowhunters who serve as archivists and medics of the Nephilim. To strengthen their minds, they have taken upon themselves the most powerful of runes known to Shadowhunters. They are feared among the Nephilim, particularly because of their mutilated faces. They reside in the Silent City, away from the rest of their kind.

Valentine Morgenstern was the husband of Jocelyn Fairchild. An advocate against Downworlders, Valentine formed the Circle with the main goal of ridding the world of faeries, werewolves, vampires and warlocks. After his initial failure, his new objective became the reformation of the Shadowhunters as a whole.

The Circle of Raziel, commonly known as the Circle, was a group of Shadowhunters led by Valentine Morgenstern who rebelled against the Clave and set out to "purify" the world for humans.

The Clave is the collective name for the political body made up of all active Shadowhunters. The Clave keeps and interprets the Law, and makes decisions about the guidance of the Nephilim through history as it unfolds and decides on important matters that affect the Nephilim.

Idris is the Shadowhunter home country, a sanctuary hidden from the mundanes, given to them by the Angel Raziel. Its capital, and only city, is Alicante. The country is said to be surrounded by mountains with passes which can only be traversed through during high summer.

Most Shadowhunters come from Idris, and many grow up and train there. Hodge Starkweather, was cursed to never leave the Institute during his exile as punishment, he was particularly banned from Idris, seeing it as a heavy punishment as most Shadowhunters who grew up here long to be in their home country.

Idris is located in Central Europe, between Germany, France, and Switzerland. Because of the wardings placed around the country and all of its borders, mundanes who come close to crossing it are instantly transported through to the other side of the barrier; therefore few mundanes know about it. A counterpart to mundane globes can be found in Institutes' libraries, which includes other lands that are part of the Shadow Realms.

An Institute is an asylum for Shadowhunters, and in some cases Downworlders and mundanes under their protection, and a safe house meant to lodge and assist Nephilim from around the world in their quest to kill demons. They are found in every major city across the world and are often located in churches.