Canon information.

[lionheart]

Basic information on the Shadowhunters world, as well as the various items Alec uses in his hunting if your character ever wants to remark on them or bring them up.

I figured since The Mortal Instruments has its own set of vocabulary and world laws -- and considering most of my posts will refer to one or the other -- I'd write an informational post for reference.



THE WORLD

Shadowhunters:

Also referred to as the "Nephilim" and the "Children of the Nephilim". They are a race born of combining a human with angel blood. The entire race is derived from one common ancestor -- a man named Jonathan Shadowhunter. A human who summoned an angel, he begged the angel Raziel for the strength to defeat demons in order to protect humanity. He drank from a legendary holy artifact called the Mortal Cup, wherein Raziel mixed human and angel blood.

As a second gift, Raziel gave Jonathan the Book of the Covenant, which listed the angelic runes. It has been translated into the Grey Book.

Shadowhunters often belong to one of the main families, all of which are originated in Idris. Idris is the Shadowhunter homeland, a small country located between Germany and France that is warded so completely that any human attempting to walk through it will be transported to the next border without noticing.

Idris is so small it only has one city, called Alicante, also known as "The City of Glass".

Downworlders:

These are the "monsters" of the canon. They are comprised of four main groups: Werewolves (Children of the Moon), Vampires (Children of the Night), Warlocks (Children of Lilith), and Faeries (the Fair Folk). There are other small groups of Downworlders, including ifrits, nixies, and mermaids, among others. Essentially, all the Downworlders are beings that are part human and part demon.

Vampires and werewolves are both the result of demonic diseases. Faeries are the product of demon and angel blood, while warlocks are the product of human and demon blood. Everything else falls in the middle somewhere, or shadowhunters don't care enough to recognize them.

Shadowhunters and Downworlders have an uneasy truce as part of the Accords, a treaty signed between Downworlders and the Clave.

The Clave:

The governing body of the Shadow World (basically, the other side of the world where the monsters and shadowhunters are.) Comprised of only Shadowhunters, who deliver orders to various Institutes around the world, which act as shadowhunter headquarters for their regions.

The Clave is made of three parts: the Council, the Inquisitor, and the Consul.

The Accords:

The name of the peace negotiations between Downworlders and the Clave. As long as the rules stated in the Accords are not broken, shadowhunters will make no attempt to interfere in the daily life of Downworlders. They are signed every fifteen years. The Accords have been in effect for over 150 years.

WEAPONS

Runes:

Also referred to as "marks". They are angelic symbols that are drawn on shadowhunter skin with a pen-like tool called a stele. The translations are mostly literal of what the mark symbolizes. Most marks are temporary, though every shadowhunter is first marked with a permanent eye-like Voyance Rune on their hand that gives them the Sight -- allowing them to define Downworlder from human at a glance, and to see through glamours.

When a mark's power is thoroughly used, it disappears and leaves behind a faint white scar. The marks themselves look like thick, black tattoos. The closer they are placed to the heart, the more effective they are.

Marks placed on any other race besides Shadowhunters either poisons them or kills them. If powerful runes are placed upon humans, they turn into mindless monsters called Forsaken.

Stele:

Steles are a necessary tool for shadowhunting: they allow the Nephilim to draw the runes on their skin, which is what imbues them with so much power. Drawing runes with anything else will not typically result in anything but a neato design. The stele won't do anything in the hands of someone without Nephilim blood. Characters can pick it up and poke things with it, but nothing will happen. Alec will never draw runes on anyone who isn't a shadowhunter, as it can poison and/or kill them.

Seraph blade:

A primary weapon of a shadowhunter, crafted especially by a sacred group called the Iron Sisters. The blade is crafted out of adamas, and is the only weapon that can actually slay a demon. They appear white and translucent, and glow with a soft white light in the hands of shadowhunters during battle. And also if they need a flashlight, I guess.

Typically Alec does not use a seraph blade as he is The Archer of the group. He's mostly concerned with distanced fighting and backing up the front-line fighters, but he can use a blade if necessary.

Bow:

(credit to curiour for the great gifs!)

Alec's bow is practically another part of him (and is also referenced by another character as just about being the second-most important thing to him.) It has been runed along the riser, and Alec has runed the string so it will not break. Each arrow itself has also been runed, and has been shown in canon to be strong enough to break through concrete easily.

In shadowhunting, bows are a highly respected weapon as they take so much skill to wield and to wield well enough to fight demons. Alec is a seriously trained archer and it's where a good majority of his skill lies.

He can glamour both bow and quiver to be invisible until the time calls for him to use them.

Specific runes:

These are the most frequent runes Alec uses and are typically on his body. Some are permanent and never fade. He can draw others (there are, after all, thousands of runes) but they are not often used or are merely symbolic (such as wedding runes). Generally runes are applied to his own body, but some of them can be used on objects in the world, like Lock/Unlock, Fire, etc. Other people cannot draw runes on Alec to help him unless they are also a shadowhunter.

Equilibrium: for balance
Fortitude: mental/emotional strength, meant mainly for battle
Heightened Speed: on top of their already naturally heightened speed (this has shown to be fast enough that, in battle, they can appear to move as a blur to normal people)
Soundless: silent footsteps/stealth increase
Promise: this is a "mental" rune and is meant for emotional/mental strength
Bridge: tracking, the tracking marks are described as a way to find a specific object. The rune will help give him a direction in where the object lies
Block/Deflect: faster reflexes in blocking/dodging in battle, but also prevents him from being tracked magically, this one is permanent and is visible on his neck
Accuracy: self-evident, in battle
Recall: mental recall
Expectation: this is symbolic and doesn't have power
Angelic Power: a rune all shadowhunters have somewhere on their body, and is symbolic but also a means of strengthening the natural abilities having angel blood gives them
Agility: generally
Iratze: healing, doesn't do much for demonic poisons
Calm Anger: another mental/emotional one

Pretty much the runes do what they're named for. Some of them are permanent, like angelic power, deflect, and the parabatai (the bonding rune with Jace) rune, on his left hip under his rib. Generally the runes are always active unless they need to be directly activated; this is shown as the shadowhunters can have an iratze (for healing) drawn on them, but don't have to activate it until they are actually hurt.

There is also:

Fire/Heat: used on physical objects to light them up, used on the body to keep it warm
Nyx: sight in the dark
Courage in combat: like fortitude
Endurance: in combat
Flexibility: yoga master extraordinaire
Precision: in combat, this would also be applied to his arrows
Mendelin: strengthens constitution, meant for healing
Amissio: slows blood loss/speeds up natural blood replacement
Unseen: puts a glamour over him that rends him invisible to those without the Sight or who can't tear down glamours themselves
Visible: become visible again after using Unseen
Mnemosyne: for memory/memorizing things
Stamina: for battle and in general, lets him fight longer
Unlock: this is meant to be for mundane locks so shadowhunters can go wherever they need to, it can be applied directly to a door or a lock to unlock it; the only thing it doesn't work on is magical wards/locks
Lock: does the opposite of Unlock, can be used on doors/windows/etc., but they can obviously still be broken or destroyed

Eventually I will grab a picture of what ever rune looks like, but today is not that day.