Demonologie 

Demons, the great trespassers into our universe, are the reason why the Nephilim exist. They are the shadows that we hunt. Though our work managing and maintaining the carefeul balance among Downworlders and mundanes often feel like the majoirty of our responsibility, it is secondary.  It is the work we do when we are not fighting demons. The primary task of the Shadowhunter, the mission granted to us by Raziel is to eliminate the demon scourge by returning the demons once and for all to the Void from whence they came.

What Are Demons

The very word "demon" is problematic. Its etymology in English has nothing to do with evil spirits at all; it is used to describe these creatures only because translation confusions in the early days of Christianity, many years before the Nephilim began. We use the word "demons" to describe the creatures we fight because Jonothan Shadowhuner used the word based on his own religous history. Most human belief systems have some concdept that represents what we call demons: Persians daevas, Hindu asuras, Japanese Oni. To keep terminolgy uncoplicated we refer to them as demons, as do most Nephilim.     Demons are not living beings in the sense that we usally understand. They are alien to our universe and are not sustained by the same kind of forces that sustain us. Demons do not have souls, instead they are powered by a roiling demon energy a vitalizing spark that maintains their form in our dimension. When demons die, this energy is separted from its physical body, and that body will be yanked quickly back inot its home dimension. To human eyes, this disapperance can take many forms depending on the species of demon. Some explode inot dust, some fade from view, some crumple inot themselves. In all cases, however no remnant of the demon's physical self ramins in our world. 

What Do Demons Want With OUr World? Why Do They Come Here? 

Nephilim folklore says that demons are originally from our world before banished. So perhaps they are wseeking to take it back for themselves. On the other hand, our stories also tell us that the demons were desturctive and wicked from the beginning that is why they were banished. So they may instead represent the spirit of evil in our world, in some fashion. At an individual level, demons seem to come to our world in order to wreak havoc. Sometimes they coome in serch of pwer- power over other creatures, more powerful magic, and the like but that power seems to have no ultiamate purpose beyond it's own existence, other than to wreak more havoc upon our world. Many have argued for more philisophical origins of the demons' hate for our world-that they hate our ability to create which they lack. The arugment is often used to explain why demons create warlocks: it is the only act of creation of which they are capable, and even then they must accomplish by stealing our own act of creation from us. But we must for now throw up our hands and admit that it remains a mystery why demons come to our world. All we can say for sure is that they are here to do us violence, and that they have no intrest in truces or treaties 

What Do Demons "Really" Look Like? 

The relationship of demons' bodies in our world to their "reality" in their own is a secret we may never discover. We believe that demons have no choice about the physical form they take in our world, but other then that, their true form is a mystery. We donot know if terms like "appearance" even apply in ther Void from whence they come. One popular theory holds that when a demon travels to a dimension, a body is created for that demon that can survive in that dimension, and that this is the reason that demons are the only creatures that can move freely between worlds. This is mere conjecture at this point in time. 

How Do You Recognize A Demon In The World?

Recognizing demons, unless they are shapeshifters is normally not difficult. Demons always take on monstrous forms in our world, and can usally be discerned by the uncanny nauseating feeling that billows around them like a dark aura. In rare cases of uncertainty, positive identification can be made via the demon's violent reaction to holy items and places or via a Sensor's violent reaction to the demon. In addition to their general hideousness, demons often carry with them a scent of death that can be very strong. Shadowhunters asked to desbribe it usualy reach for terms like "rotting", "Spoiled", "brimstone" or "burning hair"  to name a few. The affects can be debilitating to the unprepared Shadowhunter. 

How Do You Kill Them?

The most important weakness of demons is of course their vulnerability to Angelic Power and Heavinly Fire. Like the Downworlders they brought into being, they cannot easily be harmed by normal earthyly weapons. For this reason you will find even themost basic Shadowhunter weapons to be Marked to strengthen them against demons and you will find the Seraph Blade to be the most important of your tools in combat. In addition to being repelled by direct Seraphic Energy most demons can be warded off with holy symbols of all kinds. Very powerful demons however sucha s Greater Demons may be caused only  discomfort by the presence of holy symbols rahter then actual harm. So a Shadowhunter should not depend exclusivley on these symbols to protect themselves. Like vampires, demons cannot stand in dircet sunlight or their skin will burn. That being said it does not mean that demons can't come out in the day time. They can stand our artificial lights with no ill effects, and unlike vampires demons have no need to pretend to tolerate sunlight. It is possibel to destroy a demon with light but the Shadowhunter will need to somehow entrap the demon in a situtation where sunlight cannot be escaped which can be difficult. A Seraph Blade to the throat or heart is usually the most reliable attack. Finally one great thing advantage that we have in our fight against demons is that they are unable to preccieve the difference between mundanes and Shadowhunters. They are unable to sense the working of Angelic magic. This enables us to hide from them using glamours unil such time as we are ready to fight them. Demons can however detect the presence of other demons and Downworlders. 

Downworlders 

If demons maruading arcross our world were the only creatures that had to be kept in check by Shadowhunters, our lives would be notbaly easier. Demons excpet for the rare shape-shifting varieties are usually inhuman. They are conveintly malevolent. In the realtions between humans and demons there are no politics no negotiations. There is just war. simple, they attack; we defend. But the whole of the world is not that simple. Once demons began to trespass into in lives of humans, the waters of good and evil became muddied, and the muddied waters of humanity became Downworlers. Some Downworlders-Warlocks and the Fey-redate the Nephilim by untold years. But the youngest Downworlders, Werewolves and Vampires are a relatively recent pheomenon. The result of femon diseases previously unknown that have crept into the human race and it seems ar with us for good.

Werewolves

The earlier of these demon diseases is Lyconthropy. Which is believed to have first appeared in the forests of Central Europe soemtime in the thirteenth century. Lycanthropy is believed to have spread rapidly through Europe and then more slolwly to the rest of the world. Persecuting and publicly burning werewolves was in vogue late in the fifteenth century and early in the sixteenth century, which corresponded to a familiar fashion for burning so-called witches. Lycanthropy transforms humans into a werewolf, a demi-human whose demonic infection causes them to tranfrom inot a large and dangerous wolf under the light of the full moon. Wors, werewolves in their lupine form are not merely wolves. They possess unnatural-demoinc-strength and speed and their claws and fangs are able to slash through a chain-link fence or bite through a padlock. Without help and training a werewolf can be a very dangrous creature. When Lycanthropy is at its worst, a man lives what appears to be a normal mundane existance only to become a vicious uncontroled, murdering beast, roughly three nights each month. Retaining no memoyr of his own evil acts. There are no known wolf packs other then the wolf packs of New York and the wolves in the Brocelind Forest in Idirs. 

Vampires 

Vampires are victims of another demonic infectionm, which turns them into drinkers of blood. They possess retractable razorlike fangs that are deployed when their bloodlust is roused. These they sink into a furcace vein of their victim and then the vampire consumes that vicitm's blood to his or her satisfaction. The act of drinking blood brings a rush of energy and vitality to the vampire. Experieneced vampires can resist this rush and sease their drinking in orcer to leave their victims alive and able to recover. New vampires however may have trouble controlling their urge to drink their victims to the point of death. Worse, after the initial sting of a vampire bite, the poision  contained within the vampire saliva dulls the victim's pain and may make the experience pleasurbale for the victim. The poision acts as a muscle relaxant some say even euphoric. Even the strongest of Shadowhunters can of course retain there consciousness much longer than a mundane, but there is sitll a heavy risk associated with being bitten. Unlike werewolves, vampires are considered to be "undead" that is, their bodies are no longer alive in the sense that ours are. Their human souls reise in animated corpses, kept intact and animate by the demon disease. They cannot bear children and can create new vampires only by their infecting bite. 

Fledglings 

A human who has consumed enough vampire blood to be themselves transformed into a vampire does not , as some popular mundane stories would have it., abruptly turn them from a living human in one moment to a vampire in the next. The human- who is known in vampire culture as a "fledling" must die, be buried, and in being reborn, make his or her way out of their grave with there own power. Like a ghost, a fledgling rising from his or her grave draws energy and strength from the living things nearby, drawing their heat and producing a distinctive cold spot around their grave. When he or she is risen he or she will be nearly feral and starving for the blood that will for eternity sustain their life. This is why fledglings are the most dangerous of vampires. Sometimes a vampire clan will turn a human to a vampire purposefully and in those cases the transition usually goes smoothly. The clan can be present for the vampires rising, can make sure he or she is able to successfully rise and can supply he or she with blood and take he or she to a safe place to recover. This is however not the way that most vampires are made, most are my by accident. In those cases the fledgling is buried by there friends or family as many mundanes would be. They rise unexpectedly in a mundane location desperate for blood and barely knowing themselves. These are the circumstances that lead to vampires attacking and killing mundanes. While such an out-of-control fledgling must be stopped. It is not the policy of the Shadowhunters to consider these feldglings rogue vampires and thus the fleglings should be turned over either to the local vampire clan or preferably to the Preator Lupus both of which are well-equipped to take care ofthe fledglings needs. 

Warlocks

Warlocks like no other Downworlders have the most complex relationships with Shadowhunters. The off-spring of dmeons and mundanes, Warlocks do not have the many unifying features of werewolves and vampires or even of Faeires. The only things that can be said to be true of all Warlocks are that (1) they possess a so-called Warlock Mark on their body that identifies them as not  merely human (2) like most hybrid speices they are sterile (3) they possess the ability to perfom magic. It is the last feature that makes them at once the most powerful of Downworlders and the most closely tied to Shadowhunters. For the whole of our history we have worked in concer with Warlocks, whether as partners (more commonly) as hired speialits, to allowe us to make sure of some of the demonic magic that our own powers exclude us from. Needless to say, Warlocks are rarely born from an effectionate relationship between a demon and a human. Instead they are created through one of the two worst depredations demons visit upon our world. Most obviously there are Warlocks bron from demons violating humans against their will. This was the predominant means of Warlock conception in the time before the Incursion when demons wer rare and normally appeared in isolation. Today, though demons are much less likely to manifest themselves openly since the presence of Shadowhunters and the much larger number of Downworlders amkes them more likely to be discovered and attacked. Therefore, today most Warlocks are the result of a different kind of violation: the coupling of a human with an Eidolon demon who is disguised as the human's loved one. Warlocks cannot be produced from the union of a demon and a Shadowhunter;' because the Angelic Shadowhunter blood and the demonic blood both normally dominate. The combination cannot create a living child. The offspring of a Shaowhunter and a demon is death. 

Warlocks & Magic 

All Warlocks are to some extent practitioners of magic. Some inherit more magical aptitute than others and those who cultivate that apitude may become quite powerful among Warlocks, as well as quite useful to Nephilim. The most gifted may find themselves able to study demonic magic in the secretive spiral labryinth. The central home of Warlock magical research and knowlege. Unlike Nephilim, Warlocks do inherently possess magic. They have invented quite a lof of new magic; in fact which is dutifully recorded and kept in the Labrinth. The location of the Labryinth is unkown even to the Nephilim and pissibly it exists in its own pocket dimension seperate from our world. Its age is alos unknown. According to our earliest Nephlimic writings it was already considered ancient in the time of Elphas the Unsteady. The magic by which one may travel there is one of the most closely guarded secrest in all the world, and its whispered that a geas placed on all Warlocks at the monet of their birht guarantees that if a Warlock reveals the Labryinths location to a non-Warlock, the result would in instant and blindingly painful death. 

Warlock Marks

Every Warlock has some form on his or her body that labelsthem as not fully human. These Marks are varied in range and from subtle to obvous. A Warlock's fate among the mundanes may well be decided not by his or herself or their origins but  whether they are Marked by strange colored eyes, blue skin, tiger stripes or a carapace. Any unusal feature can of course be glamoured into invisability, but the Warlock Mark is present from birth, and recall that most mundanes are unaware of anyting strange about hteir child until he or she is born and their Mark is revieled. Even among those parents fully aware of partially demonic parenatage of their child a Warlock Mark may be a deeply unpleasant surprise. These Marks seem unrealted to the particular type of demonic feature as the arbritary mutation of the boyd in repsonse to demonic magic coursing through them. 

Faeries 

Strange they may be alien to us, more unknown than demons themselves, but the Fey the Faeries are Downworlders. They are people- they have souls. They are the least understood of all magical peoples, the great ancient mystery of our world. They are found in coutless varieties, sizes, types and in all environtments. Most properly these creatrues are known as "Fraeries" after their homeland, the realm of the Frarie. They are known in literature by many other names, partly because of thier enermous varitey and party because of age-old superstitions about invoking them by name. Most commonly they are called the Fey, but you will also hear them named the Fair Folk, the Kind Ones, or the LIttle People. 

Fey And Magic 

The magic of the Fey is as far as we know unique in the world. It is very powerful but neither demonically or seraphacilly allied, and it cannot be learned or wielded by any creatures other then the Fey themselves. This magic is slippery and chaotic, it is not easily given to structure and rules that can be learned. Nephilim Marks exist that can protect you from Faerie glamours, but you should never, ever allow yourself to feel safe or at ease in the presence of Faeries. Believing yourself to have the upper hand in a negotiation with Faeries in sure a sign that you are being decieved and will suffer for it in the end. The biggest problem faceing the Fey in our modern world is the thinning of thier blood. Over time the problem of extensive inerbreeding leads to the weakening of family lines. For this reason Faeries spend much of their time luring humans into their world. They persue this in two ways: by creating changelings and by enticing adult humans into their revels. Much Faerie magic exists to trap these reveling humans in Fearie Forever or at least long enough for them to "go native" and forget their former lives or htey can be used to produce new Faerie children. There are ways for mundanes (and Shadowhunters) to successfully join the Faerie revels without trapping themselves. A Faerie could be convinved to give a human a token of safe passage-usually something like a leaf or a flower. A Faerie who voluntarily brings a specific human to the revels can offer his or her protection and gaurantee the human's ability to leave. These bargains however, are subject to the usual Faerie trickery and duplicity, and mundanes and Shadowhuners alike should beware. 

Angels And Men 

About Angels little is known. Much is conjectured and few who might speak knowledgibly live to do so. Of all the supernatural creatures discussed herein, we know the lease about Angels. THey are the greatest absent generals of our army., haveing left us a thousand years ago. But with their heavenly endorsement, basic marching orders and enough magic to fight for ourselves. Much has been done in their name both good and evil. Even though the number of confirmed manifestations of Angels in our world in the entire history of the Nephilim can be counted on one hand. Yet their blood runs in the veins of every Nephilim. Flowing into our bodies through the transformative properties of the Mortal Cup. Angels may be absent patrons but our patrons and spiritual parents they are, and we recognize them with our prayers, our invovations, and in the names or our most holy weapons. In truth no one knows why Angels are so distant from the events of our world. The first great heretical questions of Nephilim history is one that has probaly already occured. If Raziel and his Angels were so determined to wipe the demoinic menace from our world, why not do it themselves? Like so many other questions about the nature and purpose of Angels this one remains unanswerable and Angels reamin an ineffable foundation upon which our lives and our mission are built. Writings about Angel sightings thorugh history are noroioulsy unreable. The general consensus is that Angels are shaped like humans, but are much larger, winged and glowing with heavenly fire. 

The Angel Raziel

The Angel Raziel holds of course a special role as the parton of the Shadowhunters and the creator of the Nephilim. Raziel is believed to be of the rank of ArchAngel within the heavenly chorus. In Jewish mysitcal tradistions he is often called the "Keeper of Secrets and the Angel of Mysteries" Interestingly Jewish mysticism includes what appears to be a distored version of the Gray Book. It is difficult to make any clear art and text desribing and depicting the birth of the Nephilim. We can say that the Angel Raziel. Unfortunatley, when speaking of the first meeting of the Angel Raziel and Jonothan Shadowhunter, an act of great symbolic as well as actual significance, it is difficult to divide what is intended as factual description from what is meant as allegory. Since history has not preserved a record of this first meeting as told by Jonothan himself or even by anyone who personally knew Jonahtan all dipictions of Raziel must be assumed to have some kernel of truth but also some kernel of interpretive fiction. What is generally accepted is that Raziel is a huge terrifiying and displeased to be dragged inot human affairs, perfering for us to use the tools granted us to solve our own problems. There are many (possibly apocryhal) stories thorugh Nephilim history of unfortuante Shadowhunters attempitng to summon Raziel, only to be quickly smote and reduced to ash for wasting the Great Angel's time. The Mortal Instruements are meant to summon Raziel and provide protection to that the summoner will not, in fact, suffer a swift death. Unfortunately, Raziel is unlikley to look kindly upon those who summon him in repsonse to a problem that is not global and truly epic. In addiction, the question is merely theoretical, since the Mortal Mirros is lost to Shadowhunters and has been for hundreds of years. 

Other Known Angels

It is a common question among young Nephilim: If Angels never appear in our world, and cannot and should not be summons here, why must we learn and memorize the names of so many of them? Shadowhunters must know the names of the Angels first because we are of their blood so we learn there names out of respect. We name our seraph blades after them, and it's believed nthat the seraph blades are infused not just with the generic Heavenly Fire of Adamas , but with some of the spirit of the named Angel. This is why you will rarely find seraph blades named after the most famous and powrful of Angels out of worry that such Angelic Power might overwhelm and destroy the wielder of such weapon. 

Mundanes

The mundane world is very complex. Itn is the world where new Nephilim come from. We often speak of the mundane world as a minor aspect of our lives and our world but in truth we exist by necessity becuase of the mundanes. When Nephilim say we are protectors of the world, what we mean is of the mundanes. They are our chyarges and our responsibility. Mundanes live thier lives in ignorance of the Shadows surrounding them, and it it our jon to protect that ignorance and as much as possible maintain it. When we walk the streets of our citites and towns and patrol we are always surrounded by mundanes living their lives. Celebrtaing, mourning knocked about happiness and sadness and anger, sorry and joy. Many are the Nephilim who have been shaken by their need to run down and fight to exhaustion a demon who threatens to destroy an entire town. This is the burden we bear. It is our job to bear it appropriatley. Mundanes are of course not allowed in Idris, or into any Institute under normal circumstances. The Law allows for Shadowhunters to offer mundanes sanctuary it they are in immindent danger from a demon or a Downworlder attack. But we are not obligated to do this. The Nephilims holy mission is to protect mundanes but not at the expense of our own safety. 

The Forsaken

It is only shortly after the creation of the Nephilim that humanity came to kmow it deteriet and what happens if ou Mark a person who does not have Shadowhunter blood or who has not been made a Shadowhunter by drinking from the Moratl Cup. A single Mark is likely only to cause a buring pain where it has been inscribed, but a number of Marks and it does not take many- will drive a Mundange to agonizing pain and mindless, insane rage. The Mortal Cup or inherited Shadowhunter blood steels the body against the overwhelming streangth of Angelic Power that flows through the Marks, but an unprepared Mortal will die.