[Shadowhunter] Encyclopedia

✺ Nephilim

Species: Half-human and Half-angel

Residence: Worldwide

Occupation: Demon-hunters and Enforcers of the Accords

Base: Idris

"And Nephilim—we tend to love very overwhelmingly. To fall in love only once, to die of grief over love—my old tutor used to say that the hearts of the Nephilim were like hearts of angels: They felt every human pain, and never healed."---- City Of Heavenly Fire.

The Nephilim's motto is "Facilis descensus Averno," or "Descensus Averno facilis est," which means "The descent into Hell is easy" in Latin. It was taken from Virgil's poem, The Aeneid.

The Clave is the collective name for the political body of all active Nephilim. Shadowhunters become members of the Clave upon reaching adulthood at the age of eighteen when they decide to declare their allegiance to the Clave. Members of the Clave all have rights to contribute to any Clave issue under discussion. They keep and interpret the Law and have the right to help decide on important matters that affect the Nephilim.

The Covenant is the Law upheld by the Clave. It provides the rules of conduct for Shadowhunters and Downworlders. The Covenant protects the rights of Shadowhunters to enforce civilized relations among the Clave, Downworld, and the mundane world, and also protects the rights of Downworlders so that they may not be maltreated by Shadowhunters. It is also the Covenant that guarantees that the Shadow World remains shadowed from the mundane world. The Covenant also elaborates on the legal system of the Shadowhunters.

The Accords acts as amendments to the Covenant agreed to be taken as the law of the land by all of the Shadow World, a treaty that ordains how Shadowhunters and Downworlders interact with mundanes and one another, as well as each group's rights, responsibilities, and restrictions. With the Accords, groups of Downworlders also in peace with the Accords agree to the same oath to never reveal the truth of the Shadow World to mundanes. The Accords are revised and signed every fifteen years by representatives of these groups.

The goal of the Nephilim is to fight, and someday end, the plague of demons on Earth. They are dispatched to every place on Earth to fight against demon hordes. The fight even continues after death. Their bones and ashes are used, as the bones of demon hunters are powerful protection, to fortify important buildings, and to supply power to the Silent Brothers.

Parabatai is the term for two Shadowhunters who fight alongside each other. These Shadowhunters are partners and are particularly close to each other. Shadowhunters have the option to choose their parabatai before they turn 19, after which the option will no longer be available to them; in fact, having parabatais is quite uncommon among the Nephilim.

A tradition in Shadowhunter weddings involves a significant person to the bride and groom: having a suggenes who would "give away" the bride/groom to her/his partner—similar to the mundane tradition of "giving away the bride"—and welcome the other into the family. The suggenes would be a significant person—a father, mother, sibling, child, friend, parabatai, or an elder who symbolized the whole family—chosen by the bride/groom. It is not always necessary or even possible to have a suggenes.

When proven guilty of a violation of their important laws, Shadowhunters may be stripped of their Marks. This is mostly done when a Shadowhunter chooses to leave the Clave to marry a mundane and become one in the process. Another act of treason to receive this punishment is by consorting with demons; this grave act may even be accompanied by the forceful transformation of the violator into a Forsaken mundane, as well as the removal of the family's Marks and the removal of their family name and records from Nephilim history.

Colors mean different things to Shadowhunters than they do to mundanes. Black is the color of their gear; white is for mourning; gold for weddings and red is ceremonial. According to Raphael Santiago, the demon towers also light up different colors depending on certain messages: gold for celebrations, red signifies magic, which can also be interpreted as danger, and blue as the color of the Accords. Red Marks are also used for mourning, and was the color used by the Endarkened.

Idris is the homeland of the Shadowhunters and is protected by the demon towers, forcing demons out and protecting the city, the only way to bring them down is to wipe demon blood on them from the inside—an almost impossible feat.

In 2007, Valentine returned and planned to wipe out the current Shadowhunter race, at least those who would resist his proposal for change, and finally refresh their numbers by calling upon the angel Raziel once again. He summoned a demon army and set them on Alicante and a great battle, referred to as the Mortal War, took place, once again ending in death on both sides. Valentine was ultimately defeated, brought down by Raziel himself.

For the betrayal of the Fair Folk during the war, the Shadowhunters forced a treaty with the Seelie Court that the faeries pay reparations for damages dealt to the Nephilim and the Praetor Lupus, and that there no longer be fey warriors or armies, that any of them seen bearing weapons, without consent from the Clave, can and will be lawfully killed. The terms drew the ire of their kind, and fierce criticism and condemnation from the Council warlock representative Magnus Bane; nonetheless, the faeries begrudgingly accepted. Their agreement came to be known as the Cold Peace. The Scholomance was also reopened for this reason.

Article by ItSmYwAyToDoThInGs