99 Fun Facts About The Mortal Instruments

What is Cassandra Clare's real name?

Judith Lewis. Born Judith Rumelt, she took her pen name from The Beautiful Cassandra, a Jane Austen story she had turned into an epic novel in high school.

By what other name are the Shadowhunters of The Mortal Instruments known?

Nephilim. The books take the name from the Bible, where the Nephilim are often read as the offspring of humans and angels, because Shadowhunters carry angel blood.

Which line is the recurring theme of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter books?

All the stories are true. The line is the ground rule of Clare's world, and it is the reason vampires, werewolves, faeries and warlocks can all turn up in the same books.

Where is Clary when she first sees Shadowhunters at the start of City of Bones?

The Pandemonium club. Clary follows a blue-haired boy into a storeroom and watches three teenagers kill him, then finds that the bouncer Simon fetches can't see them.

Which order do Clary and Jace consult in a sanctuary beneath a cemetery in City of Bones?

The Silent Brothers. Their Silent City is the City of Bones of the title, and Valentine massacres them there in the next book to steal one of the Mortal Instruments.

What object does Jace use to prove Clary has Shadowhunter blood?

A stele. After a demon poisons Clary, Jace draws a Mark on her with it and she comes to no harm, a real gamble because powerful Marks drive ordinary humans mad.

Which sacred object does Clary's mother hide in City of Bones?

The Mortal Cup. Jocelyn painted a tarot deck for her neighbour Madame Dorothea and hid it inside the Ace of Cups, and Clary draws it back out of the card.

What does Simon turn into after drinking a blue potion at Magnus's party?

A rat. Vampires at the party mistake him for one of their own and carry him off to the Hotel Dumort, so Clary and Jace have to break in to get him back.

Where does Jace take Clary for a midnight picnic on her sixteenth birthday?

The Institute's greenhouse. They share their first kiss there, but running into Simon straight afterwards leaves Jace stung and cold towards her.

Which demon possesses Madame Dorothea in City of Bones?

Abaddon. The Greater Demon wears Dorothea's body as a disguise to ambush Clary as she recovers what her mother hid, and it takes Simon's arrival to get her out alive.

Who betrays the Shadowhunters by handing an unconscious Jace over to Valentine in City of Bones?

Hodge. The tutor is bound by a curse that stops him ever leaving the Institute, and he bargains with Valentine to be freed from it.

What special ability sets Clary apart from other Shadowhunters in The Mortal Instruments?

Creating new runes. In City of Ashes she blows Jace's cell open with an amplified Opening rune, then devises a Fearless rune that no Shadowhunter has seen before.

Under which false identity did Valentine raise Jace?

Michael Wayland. When Jace was ten, Valentine staged his own murder as Wayland in front of the hidden boy, who grew up believing he had watched his father die.

Who is revealed to be Jace's biological father in The Mortal Instruments?

Stephen Herondale. Jocelyn reveals it at the end of City of Glass, overturning Valentine's claim that Jace and Clary are brother and sister.

Who is Jace's parabatai in The Mortal Instruments?

Alec Lightwood. The oath makes them battle partners for life and forbids only one bond, romance, yet in City of Bones Alec believes he is in love with Jace.

What weapon does Isabelle Lightwood carry?

A gold electrum whip. It once saves Jace's life: Isabelle arrives just as he is about to be killed and takes off his attacker's hand with it.

Which vampire brings the dying Simon to the Institute in City of Ashes?

Raphael Santiago. He tells them Simon must either be staked or be buried to rise again, so his friends bury him and Simon is reborn a vampire.

What does Simon become after drinking Jace's blood in City of Ashes?

A Daylighter. It means a vampire who can walk in sunlight, and in the next book a suspicious Clave throws Simon in prison to find out how he does it.

Who is the Inquisitor who has Jace imprisoned in City of Ashes?

Imogen Herondale. She offers Valentine a trade, Jace's life for the stolen Mortal Instruments, and after he refuses she dies throwing herself between Jace and a demon.

In which country is the Shadowhunter capital Alicante?

Idris. City of Glass moves the story there when Clary goes looking for a cure for her mother, and one of the country's lakes proves to be the missing third Mortal Instrument.

Which Lightwood sibling is killed by Sebastian in City of Glass?

Max. The youngest Lightwood dies in the attack on Alicante, and years later his brother Alec names his adopted warlock son Max in his memory.

Which angel does Valentine try to raise at Lake Lyn in City of Glass?

Raziel. Clary rubs out Valentine's name in the summoning runes and writes her own, so the angel strikes him dead and grants her one wish: Jace's life back.

What does Alec do in front of his parents in City of Glass?

Kisses Magnus. During the fighting he had promised to introduce Magnus to his family if they both survived, and the kiss is how his parents learn he is gay.

What is Magnus Bane's title in The Mortal Instruments?

High Warlock of Brooklyn. At the end of City of Bones it is his magic that heals the young Shadowhunter poisoned in the fight with a Greater Demon.

Who is Magnus Bane's demon father in The Mortal Instruments?

Asmodeus. He is a Prince of Hell, and in City of Heavenly Fire a desperate Magnus calls on him to get his friends home, knowing the price will be ruinous.

What does Magnus do for Clary every two years on Jocelyn's orders in The Mortal Instruments?

Blocks her Sight. Jocelyn wants her daughter raised as an ordinary girl, safely out of Valentine's reach, but the spell is already wearing thin when the story begins.

How did Luke Garroway become a werewolf in The Mortal Instruments?

Valentine led him into a trap. He took Luke hunting at a werewolf nest, and once the bite had turned him, handed him a dagger and told him to do the honourable thing.

In The Mortal Instruments, what was the Circle?

Valentine's anti-Downworlder faction. Its young Shadowhunters attacked the signing of a peace treaty with the Downworlders, and the Uprising failed because his own wife had warned the other side.

Jocelyn's adopted surname Fray blends which two names in The Mortal Instruments?

Fairchild and Gray. Jocelyn joined her maiden name to that of the warlock Tessa Gray, who had stood in at the infant Clary's protection ritual, as a thank-you.

What did Valentine secretly feed Jocelyn while she was pregnant with Jonathan in The Mortal Instruments?

Demon blood. Valentine mixed it into her food in the hope of breeding a stronger warrior, and the son it produced grew into the series' cruellest villain.

Which demon is behind the events of City of Fallen Angels?

Lilith. Posing as a band promoter called Satrina, she takes control of Jace with a rune and tries to force Simon to bring Sebastian back from the dead.

What does Clary draw on Simon in City of Glass that strikes down anyone who attacks him?

The Mark of Cain. The vampires had demanded Simon's death as their price for joining the battle, and the Mark, taken from Genesis, turns any attack back on the attacker sevenfold.

Which sword does Clary drive into Jace in City of Lost Souls to break his bond with Sebastian?

Glorious. Simon bargains with an angel for the archangel's sword, and its heavenly fire burns away the bond without killing Jace.

Which demon realm do the heroes enter in City of Heavenly Fire?

Edom. Sebastian is holding Magnus, Luke and Jocelyn hostage there, so Clary and her friends force the Seelie Queen to open the way in after them.

What does Simon trade to a demon so his friends can get home in City of Heavenly Fire?

His immortality and memories. The demon first asks for Magnus's life, so Simon offers himself instead and goes home human, with no idea who Clary is.

Which future series lead appears as a child in City of Heavenly Fire?

Emma Carstairs. She escapes Sebastian's raid on the Los Angeles Institute, is questioned under the Mortal Sword in Alicante and breaks down until Clary comforts her.

What are the Shadowhunters corrupted by Sebastian called in The Mortal Instruments?

The Endarkened. He turns them by making them drink from the Infernal Cup, and when it is destroyed at his death every one of them dies with it, Luke's sister included.

Where is the prequel trilogy The Infernal Devices set?

Victorian London. Tessa Gray sails from New York in 1878 to join her brother, is seized on arrival by the Dark Sisters and ends up sheltering with the city's Shadowhunters.

What is the first Infernal Devices book called?

Clockwork Angel. The title is the pendant Tessa brings from New York, a keepsake of her mother's that springs to life to shove an attacker away from her.

What is the sequel trilogy set five years after The Mortal Instruments called?

The Dark Artifices. It moves the story to the Los Angeles Institute, where its two leads are sworn parabatai who fall in love, the one bond their law forbids.

The Bane Chronicles novellas were co-written with Sarah Rees Brennan and which author?

Maureen Johnson. Her first story for the series, The Runaway Queen, has Magnus try to rescue Marie Antoinette from the French Revolution, with a hot-air balloon for the getaway.

Which author's characters Val and Luis make a cameo in City of Bones?

Holly Black. Clare confirmed that the pair Jace and Clary pass on their way downtown come from Black's Valiant, a nod between friends who had edited each other's novels.

Who played Clary in the 2013 film City of Bones?

Lily Collins. She signed on in December 2010 and stayed attached for more than a year while the project lost its first director and, for a time, its studio partner.

Who directed the 2013 film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones?

Harald Zwart. The director of the 2010 Karate Kid remake came aboard in 2012 because Scott Stewart had left to make a TV series of his own film Legion.

Who played Jace in the 2013 film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones?

Jamie Campbell Bower. The film took about $95 million worldwide on a $60 million budget, so the City of Ashes sequel that had already been announced was shelved and then cancelled.

On which US network did the Shadowhunters TV series premiere in January 2016?

Freeform. The series was ordered by ABC Family, which dropped that name and became Freeform on the very day the first episode went out.

Who played Clary in the TV series Shadowhunters?

Katherine McNamara. Her Clary is older than the heroine of the books: the series opens on her eighteenth birthday, where the first novel builds up to her sixteenth.

Who played Magnus Bane in Shadowhunters?

Harry Shum Jr. He came to the part from Glee, and when the show was cancelled in 2018 its network still ordered a two-hour finale so that the story could be finished.

Which bird did the young Jace train, only to see it killed for learning to love him?

A falcon. He had been told to make the bird obedient, not loving, and the lesson he took from its death was that 'to love is to destroy'.

Which actor, famous from Old Spice's television adverts, played werewolf Luke Garroway in Shadowhunters?

Isaiah Mustafa was 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like', and had spent time on NFL practice squads before the adverts made him famous. As Luke he was Clary's stand-in father for three seasons.

Which German composer does the 2013 film City of Bones reveal to have been a Shadowhunter?

Johann Sebastian Bach is named as one of the earliest demon-hunters in a brief aside. A one-star Telegraph review called it one of only two things about the film that stuck.

Cassandra Clare's pen name comes from The Beautiful Cassandra, a short story by which English novelist?

Jane Austen's story gave its title to an epic novel Clare wrote in high school to amuse her classmates. The name stuck years later when she needed a pen name.

Film studios asked Cassandra Clare to rewrite City of Bones heroine Clary as what, a request she refused?

A boy was what several studios wanted, because they were wary of a film led by a girl. Clare refused to switch, and Clary stayed the lead of the 2013 film.

Which Game of Thrones star played Clary's mother Jocelyn in the 2013 film City of Bones?

Lena Headey shot the part while starring as Cersei Lannister, in the same year she appeared in The Purge. Her Jocelyn is a former Shadowhunter hiding her past from her daughter.

What single wish does Clary ask the Angel to grant after Valentine is killed in City of Glass?

Jace brought back to life is all she asks. Valentine had stabbed him to complete the summoning, then lost control of the Angel when Clary scratched her own name over his in the sand.

What do the Shadowhunters of The Mortal Instruments call humans who know nothing of demons?

Mundanes, or 'mundies', cannot see demons or the hunters who fight them. Clary is assumed to be one until she starts seeing things that nobody around her can.

Which streaming service carried Shadowhunters outside the US, a day after each American airing?

Netflix bought the global rights in December 2015, a month before the premiere. Most of the world therefore met the series as a streaming original, not as cable television.

Which Canadian city stood in for New York during filming of the TV series Shadowhunters?

Toronto and its suburbs doubled for the streets of Manhattan, with cameras first rolling in neighbouring Mississauga in May 2015.

Cassandra Clare first found online fame in the early 2000s writing fan fiction set in the world of which book series?

Harry Potter fandom knew her first, for The Draco Trilogy, which she posted online until it was complete in 2006. She later recycled many of its ideas into The Mortal Instruments.

What does the warlock Magnus Bane regularly hold in honour of his cat, Chairman Meow?

Birthday parties are a promise kept. Magnus found the kitten abandoned in an alley, and its name is a pun on China's Chairman Mao.

Which governing body of the Shadowhunters signed the peace treaty known as the Accords?

The Clave is the authority Jace distrusts in City of Glass. He tries to stop Clary travelling to its capital because he thinks it would turn her into a weapon.

Which weapon does Alec, the eldest Lightwood sibling, favour in The Mortal Instruments?

A bow and arrow is his weapon of choice, yet for all his skill as a warrior Alec has never killed a demon when the story begins.

The newcomer calling himself Sebastian Verlac in City of Glass turns out to be which relative of Clary?

Her brother Jonathan had been posing as Sebastian while spying for Valentine. The same revelation frees Clary and Jace, who had believed that they were siblings.

In City of Ashes, what does Clary consume that stops her leaving the Seelie Court until Jace kisses her?

Faerie food binds whoever tastes it, and the Queen will release Clary only for the kiss she most desires. Simon volunteers first and is told, in front of everyone, that he is not the one.

Which actor from the 2014 film Vampire Academy went on to play Jace in the TV series Shadowhunters?

Dominic Sherwood was the first actor announced for the cast, in April 2015. In Vampire Academy he had played Christian Ozera, his first notable role.

In the TV series Shadowhunters, what day job does werewolf pack leader Luke Garroway hold in New York?

Police officer Luke works NYPD cases beside a partner who is secretly one of his pack. It is a change from the novels, where he owns a bookstore.

Whose wedding, held months after the Dark War, closes the final Mortal Instruments novel City of Heavenly Fire?

Jocelyn and Luke had been friends since their youth and engaged since the fourth book. The war against Sebastian forced them to postpone the day.

How does Jocelyn end up in the coma that keeps her unconscious through the first two Mortal Instruments books?

She drinks a potion, brewed for her by the warlock Ragnor Fell, so that Valentine cannot interrogate her about what she has hidden. Waking her takes until the third book.

Which Modern Family star played the Seelie Queen in the second season of Shadowhunters?

Sarah Hyland shared the part with child actress Lola Flanery, and a third performer took over as the adult Queen in the final season.

Lake Lyn is revealed in City of Glass to be which of the three Mortal Instruments?

The Mirror had been hiding in plain sight. A prisoner reveals the secret to Clary and Jace during the attack on Alicante, and Sebastian kills him moments later.

Which grimoire, hidden years earlier by Jocelyn, holds the cure Clary needs in City of Glass to wake her mother?

The Book of the White is Magnus's price as well as the cure. He asks Clary to find it for him in return for his help waking Jocelyn.

Which former lover of Magnus Bane offers Simon a place in vampire society in City of Fallen Angels?

Camille Belcourt claims she was usurped as leader of New York's vampires and wants Simon on her side. In the next book a rival kills her to take over the clan.

What do the two faerie rings Clary takes from the Institute in City of Lost Souls let their wearers do?

The pair let two people speak mind to mind. Clary promised them to the Seelie Queen, then kept them so that she could report to Simon while living with Sebastian as a spy.

What is the name of the abandoned building where New York's vampires take the kidnapped Simon in City of Bones?

Hotel Dumort was once the glamorous Hotel Dumont. Someone painted an R over the N on its sign, so that the name now reads 'of the dead' in French.

In season two of Shadowhunters, which drug made from vampire venom does Isabelle become addicted to?

Yin fen is prescribed to Isabelle for a wound that will not heal. She learns what it is made of only when a trial that detects demon impurities rejects her.

Under which bird-themed alias does a possessed Jace stalk New York in season three of Shadowhunters?

The Owl is first suspected to be Jonathan, by Jace himself. A demon can control Jace only while he sleeps, because his love for Clary is too strong when he is awake.

What does Clary lose in the Shadowhunters series finale as punishment for defying the angels?

Her powers and memories fade after she draws one final mark to kill Jonathan. A year later Jace watches her, unseen, at her art show, and she starts to recognise him.

The surname Morgenstern, borne by Valentine and his children, means what in German?

Morning star is the literal translation, and the TV series used 'Morning Star' as the title of its first-season finale.

In City of Bones, what does Jocelyn hand-paint as a gift for neighbour Madame Dorothea, hiding a secret inside?

A tarot deck kept Jocelyn's secret safe in the flat downstairs. She left clues that only her daughter could decipher, and Clary eventually works out which card to reach into.

Which Montreal-born actress, a runner-up on Nuestra Belleza Latina, played Isabelle Lightwood in Shadowhunters?

Emeraude Toubia grew up in Texas and won several beauty pageant titles as a teenager. Jemima West had played the part in the 2013 film.

Which singer, real name Maggie Eckford, performs This Is the Hunt, the opening theme of Shadowhunters?

Ruelle co-wrote the song specially for the series. Her music also opens another fantasy show of the same era, The Shannara Chronicles.

The showrunners who took over Shadowhunters in season two had previously run which superhero series?

Smallville veterans Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer replaced developer Ed Decter, who left over 'creative differences' shortly before filming of the second season began.

Which Hollywood veteran was announced in July 2013 for The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes, a sequel never made?

Sigourney Weaver was announced three weeks before the first film had even opened. Shooting was due to start that September, but it was halted about two weeks beforehand and never went ahead.

Which singer recorded the Diane Warren ballad Heart by Heart for the 2013 City of Bones film soundtrack?

Demi Lovato recorded the ballad specially for the film. The same album gave Ariana Grande a Hot 100 entry with the duet Almost Is Never Enough.

Which star of the TV drama The Tudors played Valentine in the 2013 film City of Bones?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry VIII in The Tudors, was cast as the film's villain, a rogue Shadowhunter who claims to be the father of both Clary and Jace.

Which bird, named Hugo, perches on the shoulder of the Lightwood children's tutor at the New York Institute?

A raven called Hugo is his constant companion. As punishment for once following Valentine, the tutor is bound to the Institute and unable to leave it.

Which new member of Simon's band, who takes him in as a flatmate in City of Fallen Angels, is secretly a werewolf?

Jordan Kyle belongs to the Praetor Lupus, a brotherhood of werewolves, and joined the band only to get close to a girl in Simon's life.

In City of Fallen Angels, Simon is caught secretly dating Isabelle Lightwood and which other girl at once?

Maia Roberts, a werewolf from Luke's pack, and Isabelle confront him together, furious to learn that he has been seeing both of them.

What does the water of Lake Lyn do to Shadowhunters, as Clary discovers when she falls in?

The water causes hallucinations because the lake is harmful to all Shadowhunters. Luke pulls the delirious Clary out and takes her to his sister's house to recover.

In which Middle Eastern capital was Cassandra Clare born, to American parents who travelled the world?

Tehran was only the first stop. She had lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten, and once spent a month in her father's backpack on a trek through the Himalayas.

Which Shadowhunter trilogy by Cassandra Clare is made up of Chain of Gold, Chain of Iron and Chain of Thorns?

The Last Hours is a sequel to The Infernal Devices, picking up in the London of 1903 with the children of that trilogy's heroes.

Under what birth name was Luke Garroway known as a Shadowhunter, before he became a werewolf?

Lucian Graymark was Valentine's best friend and second-in-command in those days. Clary grows up knowing him only as Luke, her mother's closest friend.

Which angel does Valentine keep captive for years beneath a manor house, as Clary and Jace discover in City of Glass?

Ithuriel shows them visions of Valentine's experiments on his own children, then ends his suffering with a blade they hand him.

Which item of Jace's does Clary use to kill the demon waiting in her wrecked home in City of Bones?

His Sensor is built to detect demons, not to fight them. Clary jams it into the creature's mouth, and it chokes on the runes engraved on the device.

Whom does Clary find Jace kissing in a library in Alicante soon after she arrives in City of Glass?

Aline Penhallow later admits the kiss was an experiment, to see whether any boy was her type. She goes on to fall for Helen Blackthorn.

Which sword, twin of the one Sebastian carries, does Clary claim as her own in City of Heavenly Fire?

Heosphoros is the twin of Sebastian's Phaesphoros, and the blade she later turns on Sebastian himself after pretending to agree to rule at his side.

Who coined the nickname Jace, from the initials J.C., when the boy came to live at the New York Institute?

Maryse Lightwood turned Jonathan Christopher into its initials because the ten-year-old disliked his given name.

Which faerie knight of the Seelie Court is Isabelle Lightwood's lover in The Mortal Instruments?

Meliorn is the Queen's personal knight and confidant. In the final book he turns on Isabelle's friends, kidnapping the envoys who refuse to join Sebastian.

What is the name of Luke Garroway's sister, who shelters Clary in Alicante in City of Glass?

Amatis nurses Clary back to health and warns her to stay away from Jace. Two books later, Sebastian turns her into one of his dark Shadowhunters.