ANGELS:
OUR MYSTERIOUS PATRONS
also terrifying
No “If You Meet an Angel” section, Codex? You are not helpful to me at all.
About angels little is known, much is conjectured, and few who might speak knowledgeably live to do so. Of all the supernatural creatures discussed herein, we know the least about angels. They are the great absent generals of our army, having left us a thousand years ago 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.
And yet their blood runs in the veins of every Nephilim, your-self included, 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 invocations, and in the names of our most holy weapons.
In truth no one knows why angels are so distant from the events of our world. The first great heretical question of Nephilim history is one that has probably already occurred to you: If Raziel and his angels were so determined to wipe the demonic 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 remain an ineffable foundation upon which our lives and our mission are built.
Writings about angel sightings through history are notoriously unreliable. The general consensus is that angels are shaped like humans, but are much larger, winged, and glowing with heavenly fire—but many authors have suggested that when angels do manifest in our world, they take whatever shape witnesses will recognize as angelic. Today the Clave is dubious of claims about angel appearances and mostly declines to investigate them. This attitude has been firmly in place ever since an embarrassing episode in 1832 during which a Prussian farmer and Shadowhunter, Johannes von Mainz, called the entire Clave to his farm to witness the “angel” he had summoned to his cow barn. Awe quickly turned to chagrin when some of the neighbors recognized the “angel” as Johannes’s son Hans, covered in gold leaf and bellowing pronouncements in a vulgar mix of Latin, German, and what appears to have been a nonsense language of Hans’s own invention. The angel’s wings turned out to be a mix of goose, duck, and chicken feathers haphazardly pasted to a wooden frame. Johannes retreated to his farm in humiliation, and Hans was no longer able to so much as go into town without receiving catcalls and being pelted with feathers. Since then most Shadowhunters have been very cautious in either making or checking claims of angel appearances. Oh, Johannes, what will we do with you?
THE ANGEL RAZIEL
Teacher? I did an independent study, does that count?
Yes. You may skip this section. Enjoy your newfound sixty seconds.
The Angel Raziel holds, of course, a special role as the patron of the Shadowhunters and the creator of the Nephilim. His role in that creation is discussed thoroughly elsewhere in this volume; here we address what is known about Raziel himself.
Raziel is believed to be of the rank of archangel, within the heavenly chorus. In Jewish mystical traditions he is often called the Keeper of Secrets and the Angel of Mysteries. Interestingly, Jewish mysticism includes what appears to be a distorted version of the Gray Book, known as the Book of Raziel and containing a strange amalgam of kabbalistic teachings, angelology, glosses on the Jewish creation stories, and corrupted forms of demonic incantation. The book also contains a large number of runes, most of them totally invented but some of them corruptions of true Marks (but without any instruction on how they might be used or what their purpose might be). Extant copies of this text exist in both Hebrew and Latin today but only as historical curiosities. The movement during the mundane Renaissance in Europe against magic of all kinds labeled the book a dangerous work of dark magic, and its use was suppressed by mundane religious authorities, to the benefit of the Nephilim.
It is difficult to make any clear statements on Raziel’s earthly appearance; we can go only from the earliest art and text describing and depicting the birth of the Nephilim. From that, we can put together, as it were, a composite sketch. We can say that the Angel is consistently depicted as many times the size of a man, as having long hair of silver and gold, as being covered in golden Marks not found in the Gray Book, and as a being whose appearances “fled from the mind and memory as quickly as they were seen.” Many depictions show him with large golden wings, each feather of which contains a single golden eye.
Unfortunately, when speaking of the first meeting of the Angel Raziel and Jonathan 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 Jonathan himself or even by anyone who personally knew Jonathan—all depictions 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, (b) terrifying, and (c) displeased to be dragged into human affairs, preferring for us to use the tools granted us to solve our own problems. There are many (possibly apocryphal) stories through Nephilim history of unfortunate Shadowhunters attempting to summon Raziel, only to be quickly smote and reduced to ash for wasting the Great Angel’s time. The Mortal Instruments are meant to summon Raziel and provide protection so that the summoner will not, in fact, suffer a swift death. Unfortunately, Raziel is unlikely to look kindly upon those who summon him in response to a problem that is not global and truly epic. In addition, the question is merely theoretical, since the Mortal Mirror is lost to the Shadowhunters and has been for hundreds of years.
Seems obvious once you know the secret, huh?
It’s a little embarrassing now, I won’t lie.
OTHER ANGELS KNOWN TO THE SHADOWHUNTERS
It is a common question among young Nephilim: If angels never appear in our world, and cannot and should not be summoned 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 and so we learn their names out of respect. Also, of course, we name our seraph blades after them, and it’s believed that 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 powerful of angels out of worry that such angelic power might overwhelm and destroy the wielder of such a weapon.
Hereafter follows a basic lexicon of angels known to the Shadowhunters, to be used to name seraph blades. More thorough information on each angel can be found in the official angel handbook, Be Not Afraid, 1973, Alicante.
A handy tip: When angels say “be not afraid,” you should be afraid.
Also, as I said earlier, we have to memorize angel names because Jonathan Shadowhunter wanted us to have to memorize angel names.
They sure like to end angel names in “el.”
Means “of God” in Hebrew, Clariel.
You two are just adorable.
Adriel
Ambriel
Amriel
Anael
Arariel
Ariel
Asmodei
Atheed
Barachiel
Camael
Cassiel
Dumah
Eremiel
Gabriel
Gadreel
Gagiel
Hadraniel
Haniel
Harahel
Harut
Israfiel
Ithuriel
Jahoel
Jegudiel
Jehuel
Jerahmeel
Jophiel
Khamael
Lailah
Malik
Marut
Metatron
Michael
Moroni
Munkar
Muriel
Nakir
Nuriel
Pahaliah
Penemue
Peniel
Puriel
Raguel
Raphael
Raqeeb
Raziel
Remiel
Ridwan
Sachiel
Samandriel
Sandalphon
Saraqael
Sealtiel
Shamsiel
Taharial
Uriel
Yahoel
Zadkiel
Zaphkiel
Another handy tip: Do not name a seraph blade “Raziel.” Legend says he doesn’t like it.
What would happen?
Just . . . don’t do it. Nothing good.
DO NOT SUMMON ANGELS
Wait, I’m confused. So I . . . should summon angels? Is that right?
One of the lessons learned most quickly by Shadowhunters is that life is deeply unfair. Most unfair is the truth that while our vocation and mission are given to us by Raziel, we have essentially no direct access to angels or their powers [which we the editors hesitate to refer to as magic; the faculties of angels are rather beyond the ken of even the most powerful warlock, for example]. As a young Shadowhunter you may have considered that the best weapon against the demon threat might be an equal opposing angel threat, and you have thought in your idle moments of summoning an angel yourself. Perhaps you have even sought tales or grimoires on angel summoning in your Institute library.
The Shadowhunter art is an ever evolving one, and yesterday’s forbidden methods are tomorrow’s accepted norms. However, there is a rule that remains globally true:
You should not attempt to summon an angel to your aid.
There are several major reasons for this. The first, and least interesting, is that it is most likely a waste of your time. Angels do not respond to summonings in the same way that demons do. For one thing, they cannot maintain a corporeal form in our dimension for long, any more than other non-demon creatures can in a dimension not their own. And the summoning rituals that claim to bring angels to us are obscure, difficult, and unreliable; they have been accomplished so rarely that we don’t have much evidence for what does and does not work. The risk of disaster, injury, or death from a misunderstood or misapplied summoning ritual is very high.
The second reason not to attempt an angel summoning is that there is no way to oblige an angel to cooperate with your needs. An angel cannot be bound in the way that a demon is bound, except by the application of forbidden and blasphemous rituals, the performance of which are among the worst violations of Law that a Shadowhunter could commit.
Finally, even if a summoning is successful, you and any companions you persuade to assist you will die, and die quickly. Unlike demons, angels do not want to be on our plane of reality. They do not like manifesting here, they do not like helping humans, and they are not known for their mercy. They are on the whole deeply indifferent to the travails of the mortal realm. They are not merely messengers but soldiers: Michael is said to have routed armies. They are not patient or tolerant of human vicissitudes. You must put out of your head images of naked winged babies draping someone in robes. Angels are great and terrible. They are our allies, yes, but make no mistake: They are utterly alien and inhuman. They are, in fact, far more inhuman than the most monstrous demon you will encounter. Angel blood we may carry in our veins, yes, but pure heavenly fire will burn and consume us, as surely as demonic poison will.
Angels are our mystical source of power, and the origin of whatever righteousness we possess. They are not, however, our friends.
Yes, yes, ha ha, it’s all very funny, this is actually important advice here.
What are the odds this is going to come up again?!
ON ANGEL BLOOD
Nephilim are raised knowing that in their veins flows some of the blood of angels, and thus angel blood is a substance about which many stories and tall tales have been told—that it grants superior strength, that it cures any disease, that it lengthens the human life. All of these claims must be considered less than credible, if only because stories claiming the appearance of angels in our world are, to our knowledge, universally false. A Downworlder who claims to be selling angel blood, or anything derived from angel blood, is lying to you. Shadowhunters should be too smart to be taken in by such claims, but sadly over the years a number of young Nephilim have shaken in Institute infirmaries, recovering from the ingestion of whatever substances have been mixed together to give the semblance of angel blood. There are no vials of angel blood floating around that grant superpowers. None. Do not fall for this ruse. Ahem.
I guess this is another one where I get credit for real-life experience.
I believe so, yes.
MUNDANES
Oh, I can’t wait.
The mundane world is the world you know. It is the world from which, new Nephilim, you have come, and its people, the mundanes, are the people you knew and the people you yourself were, until recently when you were changed. We often speak of the mundane world as though it is a minor aspect of our lives and our world, but in truth we exist by necessity because of mundanes. When Nephilim say we are protectors of the world, what we mean is protectors of the mundanes. They are our charges and our responsibility. Chumps!
Mundanes live their lives in ignorance of the shadows surrounding them, and it is our job to protect that ignorance and, as much as possible, maintain it. As you walk the streets of your cities and towns, as you patrol, you will be surrounded by mundanes living their lives, celebrating and mourning, knocked about by happiness and sadness and anger and sorrow and joy. These emotions you see may be at odds with what you, with the true Sight, know to be the truth. Sometimes drastically at odds. 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 of smiling, oblivious mundanes. This is one of the burdens we bear. It is our job to bear it appropriately.
Mundanes are, of course, not allowed into Idris, or into any Institute, under normal circumstances. The Law allows for Shadowhunters to offer mundanes sanctuary if they are in imminent danger from a demon or Downworlder attack, or danger from the results of a demon or Downworlder attack. Note that the Law does not obligate Shadowhunters to do this. The Nephilim’s holy mission is to protect mundanes, but not at the expense of our own safety. Shadowhunters must judge whether a mundane can be given sanctuary without compromising the larger secrecy, and therefore safety, of the Shadow World.
It is easy to feel contempt, and even envy, for mundanes. They are, after all, in danger from a demonic threat of which they know nothing. They go about their lives complacently; they have the luxury of not knowing the truth of the great battle of good and evil that looms over their world constantly. They have the luxury of not being in a state of constant war, of knowing that each of your friends, of your family members, is in battle every day from which, every day, there is a chance they might not return.
We urge you: Have compassion for the mundane world. It is our lot to fight for them and for them not to know of our sacrifices. This is not their fault.
Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. They want us to be kind to mundanes!
Those poor bastards. I pity them. Just . . . pity them.
MUNDANES WHO ARE NOT ENTIRELY MUNDANE
They are somewhat cool. But not as cool as Shadowhunters.
Lays it on a little thick though. Shadowhunter doth protest too much, methinks.
Methinks too.
There are, of course, mundanes who are not entirely mundane—whose families have, somewhere in their history, faerie blood, or werewolf blood, or even, rarely, Nephilim blood. This blood persists through generations, and these mundanes may be identified by having the Sight and by being able to see through some glamours. (Most, however, still never notice any supernatural activity, because they are not prepared to see it. An important rule of glamours: For the most part people see what they wish to see. (See “.”) Even Sighted mundanes will often look past strange appearances and explain them as illusions or misunderstandings.)
Many of these mundane-yet-Sighted families used to act as the servants and caretakers of various Institutes and wealthy Shadowhunter families; however, in most parts of the world, the practice of keeping servants has long gone out of fashion, and these families have ceased their relationships with the Nephilim. Several generations have passed since this happened in North America and Europe, and most living members of these families no longer even know that their ancestors once served the Nephilim.
Even those mundanes who do not possess the Sight may often find themselves drawn to places of magic and power, though they will not understand why. Sometimes they will find themselves compelled to make some physical mark on such a place—to build barriers separating it from the places around it, to decorate it, even to deface or vandalize it. This can be annoying to Nephilim and Downworlders who need to make use of these sites of power, but again we urge you to have patience and pity for these mundanes. There must be some magic deep within the collective memory of all humans, for otherwise how could we (and Downworlders) make use of any magic, even with the addition of angel or demon blood? We must, all of us, have at least the potential to be of the Nephilim. That magic spills out into all the world, and it is part of our responsibility as Shadowhunters to maintain it.
(See also: “” )
Just your everyday run-of-the-mill demonic cult.
A NOTE ON MUNDANE RELIGION
Many new Shadowhunters come to us from their own religious history and want to know which religion is “right.” This knowledge is not something that Shadowhunters possess any more than mundanes do. Shadowhunters proudly originate from all points of the globe, and we naturally see and think about the Shadow World within the context of our personal beliefs.
This diversity may seem like a weakness, keeping Shadowhunters separated from one another, just as mundanes are by their beliefs. But these mundane religions have much to teach us. Encased in their mythologies and legends are practical truths about angels, demons, perhaps even Downworlders. We include all of them in our researches.
Also, mundane religion represents the moral and ethical beliefs, and spiritual insights, of our species, and we have much to learn from these as well. We ignore the teachings of the wisest of mundanes at our peril. If all the stories are true, we must remember that those stories have mostly been written down by mundanes.
The world’s religions always have assisted, and will continue to assist, the Nephilim in our mission. Religious communities and holy buildings are universally available as havens for Shadowhunters, and often contain secret caches of weapons and tools for Shadowhunter use. The agreements concerning these caches often go back five hundred or more years. In fact, the oldest continually operating Nephilim weapons cache in the world can be found in Milan—one of the largest mundane trade cities closest to Idris—in the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio. The Milanese Nephilim claim that this cache was established by Jonathan Shadowhunter himself, late in his life, in what was then the new bell tower of the church.
Traditionally, entrance to caches was effected by the recitation of the so-called Martyr’s Creed:
In the name of the Clave, I ask entry to this holy place. In the name of the Battle That Never Ends, I ask the use of your weapons. And in the name of the Angel Raziel, I ask your blessings on my mission against the darkness.
Today most caches follow the more expedient method of opening to the presence of a Voyance rune, but the traditional method still works in most places, for those Shadowhunters who prefer a little more drama.
I actually have to memorize that, don’t I. I’ve heard Jace say it.
Yep. You have to memorize a million Marks, too, you know.
But that is eeeeasy. This is haaaard.
THE FORSAKEN
There’s no whining in Shadowhuntering!
Oh, you know that’s not true.
It was only shortly after the creation of the first Nephilim that humanity came to know, to its detriment, what happens if you Mark a person who does not have Shadowhunter blood, or who has not been made a Shadowhunter by drinking from the Mortal Cup. A single Mark is likely only to cause a burning pain where it has been inscribed on the skin, but a number of Marks—and it does not take many—will drive a mundane to agonizing pain and mindless, insane rage. The Mortal Cup, or inherited Shadowhunter blood, steels the body against the overwhelming strength of angelic power that flows through the Marks, but an unprepared mortal will die.
Okay. Here’s my question, Codex. Why did Valentine stop using Forsaken? Why doesn’t every bad guy create a giant Forsaken army?
They do not eat or sleep, and they ignore their injuries and wounds. As a result they are short-lived creatures, and it is only a matter of chance whether they are killed off first by starvation, exhaustion, or infection.
IF YOU MEET A FORSAKEN
Killing Forsaken is, in short, a mercy. Do not, however, take on a Forsaken one-on-one. It is easy to underestimate their strength and cunning. If necessary, flee and return with backup.
The only known method of ending the agony of a Forsaken, other than killing him, is to make him drink from the Mortal Cup, whose power will eliminate the unfathomable pain of the Marks. Technically this will turn the Forsaken into a full Shadowhunter. There are, however, zero recorded cases in which the sufferer survived the dual shock of becoming Forsaken and then becoming Nephilim, so it is best to consider them beyond help.
WHERE DID FORSAKEN COME FROM?
We cannot know the horror of the first Forsaken, whose story is lost to history, but it must have been early in the spread of Nephilim through the world. As early as the mid-1200s, not long after the believed death of Jonathan Shadowhunter, we have notes from the Silent City suggesting that the Brothers were seeking a cure for the Forsaken. Forsaken are mentioned by that name in the first written version of Covenant Law, by the first Consul, Edward the Good and Ready, and are condemned as illegal and in fact blasphemous.
The real problem with Forsaken is that in their madness they are dangerously suggestible, and they have some affinity for the one who has Marked them. This enables the wielder of the Mark to command them. They can be made to survive for longer than normal by being ordered by their master to eat, drink, and sleep, and they can understand other simple commands. They are thus occasionally used as slave labor, but their unending rage and pain make them mostly useful only for committing violence. Forsaken are unable to build or construct anything, and they are unable to speak.
There have been surprisingly few attacks by Forsaken recorded in our history. They are certainly a threat to mundanes, but they are not actually very strong. Despots do not raise Forsaken armies, because Forsaken make terrible soldiers: They can’t wield weapons, and they can’t implement tactics or defend themselves. They are much less intelligent than human soldiers, and they require the same resources to maintain. They are easily neutralized as a threat by prepared Nephilim, or indeed by a powerful warlock or a significant force of werewolves or vampires. Because of all of these aspects, most Forsaken we know of were the result of errors, such as a mundane foolishly trying to turn himself into a Shadowhunter. There have also been isolated occasions in which being made Forsaken was used as a punishment, but it has always been against Nephilim Law to do so, and those Shadowhunters who were caught doing this would have been arrested and imprisoned in the Silent City for their crime.
Note that we do not see parallel “demonic Forsaken.” Demonic magic, of course, has its own runes that could be theoretically inscribed on a person’s flesh. In practice, though, these runes tend to produce an effect not unlike a strong demon poison. Thus we do not find, say, warlocks using them to enhance themselves; these runes cause not the mindless rage and pain of the Forsaken but the wasting collapse of the poisoned and are of no real use in practice.
Well, ten points to you, Codex. You answered my question: no Forsaken army because they fall apart and they are really stupid. Fair enough.
GHOSTS AND THE DEAD
Ghosts and spirits rarely appear in usual Shadowhunter business, but nevertheless for many Nephilim the Sight includes the ability to see, hear, and speak with the spirits of the dead. You may have it yourself! This aspect of the Sight is entirely hereditary and cannot be enhanced with Marks.
Even those Shadowhunters who cannot actually speak to or see the forms of ghosts can nevertheless usually sense their presence nearby, by noting the existence of an unnatural cold feeling. When ghosts manifest themselves in our world, they must draw energy from around them in order to maintain their ectoplasmic form, and thus suck the heat from their surroundings.
The strongest ghosts may in fact be able to manifest themselves into a close semblance of life. We can, however, always tell a ghost by its eyes: They will be hollow and empty.
Sometimes, in the case of the strongest spirits, the eyes will have flames flickering in their depths, but this is fairly rare.
The prevailing theory of ghosts is that they are trapped in our world by some wrong or crime they are seeking to resolve; they are literally “restless” and seek the talisman that will allow them to pass out of our world and into theirs fully. It takes a certain amount of strength for a ghost to be aware enough of itself and its former life to identify its talisman, and ghosts have no magical knowledge of what that talisman might be or what act might put them to rest; they are, in most cases, just guessing, and may be wrong, or too demented to accurately comprehend their situation.
Wait wait wait, we could have been dealing with ghosts all this time too?
Where are the ghosts? Bring on the ghosts! You don’t actually want that. New York has some bad ghosts. Trust me.
Things to ask Jace about the existence of
You left this blank. What do you want to know about?
The book leaves a bunch of things out! Like mummies. Tell me about mummies.
Mummies exist. The Egyptians mummified people.
Mummies that get up out of their cursed tombs and walk around do not exist.
Do cursed tombs exist?
No. Sometimes you get a tomb guarded by a demon.
Zombies?
The voudun kind, yes—the braaaaaaiiiiinnnnsss kind, no.
Oh, oh, I’ve got one. What about a haunted car? Can you have a haunted car?
Do you count a demon-powered motorcycle?
No, like, the car talks to you and tells you to kill people.
Then no.
Leprechauns?