Only Shadowhunters can create Marks. A mundane or Downworlder can hold a stele, and it will not hurt them, but they cannot use it to create Marks; no lines will appear from the end of the stele, no matter what surface it is drawn against. Among Shadowhunters the strength of a given Mark is based on the inscribing Shadowhunter’s talent for runic magic. That is, a rune to hold against pursuit will do so in relation to the strength and accuracy of its Mark.
Some Marks are applied to the bodies of Shadowhunters, and some are applied to physical objects. It is usually not dangerous to draw a body Mark on an inanimate object—a rock that has been given the Voyance rune will remain the same inanimate rock it was before. Applying object Marks to a Shadowhunter is somewhat more dangerous, as they will apply to the person’s body as a physical object. This is occasionally useful. Note that Marks intended for inanimate objects, like all Marks, cannot be placed on mundanes or Downworlders, as the usual risks of madness, death, or becoming Forsaken still apply.
A Mark’s power can be minimized or broken by the Mark’s being disfigured. Shadowhunters should pay special attention to this potential target on their bodies; some more intelligent and well-informed foes may attempt to burn or cut Marked skin in order to deprive a Shadowhunter of the benefits of those Marks.
What happens if you Mark a dead body?
Nothing.
Really? Nothing undead or creepy?
Nope.
Well. I am disappointed.
SPECIFIC MARKS
It is a common misconception that the only Marks used by Shadowhunters are those of battle. While we are warriors—and as such, conflict is part of our lives—we also make use of many Marks that speak in gentler tones. There are Marks for funerals, that tell of healing, grief, and comfort, and there are Marks for celebration, that tell of joy and gratitude. And, of course, there are the Marks that most Nephilim will never encounter, those arcane runes accessible only to Silent Brothers and other runes accessible only to Iron Sisters.
All Marks have names in the Gray Book; only the most common are typically referred to by their true names—iratze, for instance—rather than by informal descriptive names (e.g., “strength rune”). But the names of Marks are meaningful: They are in the language of Heaven and are, in fact, the only words of the language of Heaven we have ever been permitted to know. They are our most direct communication with the angels who gave us our lives and our mission.
There are literally thousands of Marks. We offer here a sampling of their designs and basic functions, but the Codex should not be used as a definitive source from which to learn runic manuscription. Please consult the Gray Book and your tutors for help.
Some of the Marks you will likely want to learn early in your education include:
• The Voyance Mark—This is the most basic and permanent Shadowhunter Mark, found on essentially all Nephilim, typically on the back of the right hand. It serves to focus the Sight and enable Shadowhunters to see through glamours and, with training and practice, to identify Downworlders on sight.
• Opening Marks—There are several variations on these, and it would be wise to learn a few of them before you begin your active duty. These Marks ensure that no mundane lock, in theory, is closed to the Nephilim. Unfortunately, this also means that many demons and Downworlders will shut things away behind more magical locks.
• The Tracking Marks—Another set of indispensible runes for the pursuit of demons, these Marks are easy to learn to draw but difficult to use correctly. They are used as follows: An object possessed by the subject to be tracked is held in a fist in the non-stele hand. Then the tracking rune is drawn on the back of the hand. If the rune is used successfully, the Shadowhunter should see visions of the subject’s location. Usually these visions will be accompanied by a knowing sense of orientation: Even if the place seen is unfamiliar, the tracker will have the knowledge of where it is, and in what direction it lies. (A common question about this process: What defines “possession” of an object? “Possession” is here defined literally. Someone is understood to possess something if they can be said to own it or if it is within the place where they live. Thus someone who has sold their house and its furnishings to a new occupant cannot be tracked using those furnishings, which are now in the possession of the new occupant.)
• Healing Marks—There are also several of these to be learned. The first is the iratze, the basic healing rune, which closes cuts and wounds in Shadowhunters. Note that this means that an iratze is not always the best treatment for an injury—for instance, if the Mark would cause the skin to heal over an embedded claw or thorn that needed to be removed. The iratze also raises the body temperature temporarily, helping to burn out infection in much the same way a fever does. This rune is mostly ineffective against demon poisons and injuries caused by demonic runes. In these cases the injured should be quickly brought to a Silent Brother, but in the meantime it can be useful to apply a mendelin rune, which strengthens the victim’s constitution, and/or an amissio rune, which slows blood loss and speeds natural blood replacement.
TABLE OF SELECTED MARKS
ABUNDANCE
ACCELERATION
ACCURACY
ACTION
AGILITY
AGONY
ANGELIC POWER
AWARENESS
BIND TO
BRIDGE
CALM ANGER
CLARITY
COMMUNICATION
COURAGE IN COMBAT
CRAFT
CREATION
DESTINED
DEFLECT/BLOCK
ENDURANCE
ENLIGHTEN
EQUILIBRIUM
EXPECTATION
FIREPROOF
FLEXIBILITY
FORTITUDE
FORTUNE
FRIENDSHIP
GIFT
GOOD LUCK
GUIDANCE
HEAT
HEIGHTENED SPEED
INSIGHT/FORESIGHT
IRATZE-HEAL
KNOWLEDGE
LOYAL TO
MANIFEST
MENTAL EXCELLENCE
MNEMOSYNE
NOURISHMENT
OPPORTUNITY
PERSEVERE
PERSUADE
POWER
PRECISION
PROMISE
PROSPERITY
PROTECTED
QUIETUDE
RECALL
REMEMBRANCE/MOURNING
SHARING
SOUNDLESS
SPEAK IN TONGUES
STAMINA
STEALTH
STRENGTH
SUCCESS
SURE STRIKING
SUREFOOTED
SWIFT
TALENT
TECHNIQUE
TRANSMISSION
TRUE NORTH
TRUST
UNDERSTANDING
UNSEEN
VISIBLE
VISION
VOYANCE
WATERPROOF
WEDDED UNION
WINGED
* * *
WARDS
You’ve probably heard your fellow Shadowhunters talk about the “wards” of your Institute. Wards are, put simply, magical walls. They are the simplest magic we know of, other than glamours. All Shadowhunter wards are pale reflections of the great wards of our world, the protections that largely prevent demons from entering at whim and that are believed to have been put in place by Heaven, long ago, before the measuring of the passage of time. It is these wards that were somehow “thinned” by the combined power of Sammael and Lilith, to allow the Incursion that prompted the creation of the Nephilim. Although these wards still stand, protecting us from a complete invasion, they allow a steady stream of demonkind that shows no sign of slowing and in fact may be increasing.
In the earliest days of the Nephilim, the first Silent Brothers performed rituals all over the world, intending to bolster these wards by adding our own lesser wards to their power. But wards exist at all levels of power
, down through the more everyday wards we use to protect our Institutes, to simple wards that might protect a single room or even a single object, such as a locked chest. Today wards can be quite complex, and specific as to who is warded and who is allowed through.
Demonic magic, of course, has its own wards, which work similarly.
DEMONIC MAGIC
We use the term “demonic magic” to encompass all magic whose origin lies in the Void. This includes the magic employed directly by demons, which is mostly beyond our mortal understanding; the supernatural powers possessed by vampires and werewolves; and the complex but organized magic researched and performed by warlocks.
Demonic magic is by nature chaotic. Whereas the magic of Heaven is given to us whole and complete, the magic of Hell is a slippery, dangerous, growing beast. It is not known what limits might exist on demonic magic, in terms of either what it can do or how powerful its effects can become. There is much that has been discovered, and much knowledge that can be relied upon in dealings with demons (or warlocks), but never forget that—unlike our Marks, which begin and end with the bindings of the Gray Book—the edges of the demon world are full of magic unknown to us.
Shadowhunters are categorically unable to learn demonic magic, or to inscribe or even to read demonic runes. It is as if our knowledge of the Marks of the Gray Book prevents our minds from successfully being able to comprehend the Marks’ demonic cousins, however we might study them. Nephilim who are expert at the reading and writing of Marks often say that trying to read demonic runes is like trying to understand someone speaking a language that sounds tantalizingly similar to your own but is too different for you to grasp the meaning.
Different kinds of demonic magic have different weaknesses—ways the magic can be neutralized—but almost all magic can be disrupted with running water. More powerful magic can sometimes overcome this, but on the other hand, larger bodies of running water are more disruptive and require more power to overcome. Thus, many powerful warlocks could successfully perform magic in the presence of a babbling brook, whereas only the most powerful in the world, or the most powerful Greater Demons, could successfully perform magic on the open ocean.
Has the Clave considered fire trucks?
Just drive around the world hosing demons down?
Doesn’t really work that way. You can’t just spray a demon with water like it’s a bad cat.
DARK MAGIC VERSUS DEMONIC MAGIC
It is important to understand that all “demonic magic” is not evil, at least not when it is used by creatures other than demons. Warlocks are in their essence human, and therefore have the same free will as all other humans. Vampires and werewolves have a demonic source for their powers but are also human and possess free will. All may choose to use demonic magic for good or for ill.
We use the term “dark magic” to refer to that demonic magic whose purpose or orientation is essentially evil. This would include such things as necromancy, the summoning of demons, the domination of an intelligent mind against its will, and so on. Dark magic is generally outlawed under the Law, although exceptions may be made for dark magic that is performed out of necessity in the course of Shadowhunter business—for example, summoning a demon in order to interrogate it.
Demons, being purely demonic and possessing none of the human about them, are considered to be performing dark magic no matter what they are doing. Technically, manifesting themselves in our world at all under their own will is an act of dark magic and is punishable under the Law.
Dark magic may be identified by some of its telltale markers. Its practice leaves behind a lingering aura that can usually be detected by a warlock, and often there is a persistent reek of brimstone and rot that even an untrained Shadowhunter can identify (although it will be typically glamoured away from mundane detection).
DEALING WITH DEMONIC MAGIC
The biggest danger of demonic magic for Shadowhunters is that, because its boundaries are soft and unclear, it can be difficult to understand the parameters of the magic one is dealing with, or what the capabilities of a magic user might be. There is no substitute for experience, of course, but we offer here some thoughts on common demonic magic and basic knowledge that may be useful for the new Shadowhunter.
DIMENSIONAL MAGIC
You will rarely encounter dimensional magic; the ability to perform it is very rare. Demons encourage the idea that they are constantly popping in and out of dimensions on a whim, but in truth none but the most powerful Greater Demons can do this. Demons travel to our dimension not through their own magic but by making use of the holes and worn spots enhanced and highlighted by Sammael a thousand years ago; as far as we know, none of the common demons have the power or knowledge to continue the thinning magic he performed. Some Greater Demons may have the power to teleport themselves to different locations within our dimension, and some may be able to open temporary weak dimensional Portals, but a demon who claims to have power over the spaces between worlds is almost certainly lying to you.
Warlocks who can perform dimensional magic are even rarer, although they do exist and are frequently able to charge exorbitant fees for their services. The most dangerous dimensional magic that warlocks may possess is the ability to create dimensional “pockets”—small spaces between dimensions, where objects or people may be hidden and kept concealed from tracking magic.
NECROMANCY
For as long as there have been warlocks, there have been tales of supposed necromancers, magic users who were capable of returning the dead to life. Do not be fooled by these tales: There is no way for the magic of Hell to return the dead to the world of the living. That is magic that is reserved for Heaven and its servants—not the Nephilim, for we are but the servants of servants, but the denizens of Heaven itself.
Necromantic rituals do exist in some more obscure and forbidden texts of magic; these, variants on the classic mundane folkloric “bell, book, and candle” method of summoning the dead, produce a semblance of life but not a living creature. These revived beings, in theory, can range from a mindless, shambling revenant to a corpse able to repeat its soul’s last living words, but in practice such things are rarely, if ever, seen. Necromancy is among the darkest of dark magic. It is punishable by death, but most warlocks are never punished by the Clave, as they almost never survive their attempts.
HELLMIST
Hellmist, or hellsmoke, is a weapon sometimes used by demons, and occasionally by powerful and evil warlocks, to aid their attacks. It is very dangerous for the unprepared Shadowhunter. It is a kind of conjured demonic fog that mutes the effects of magic. Hellsmoke is able to mute both the angelic magic that Shadowhunters use with our Marks and also other demonic magic. Luckily, few kinds of demons can produce it easily, and those that do will make use of it only rarely, since demons are often dependent on demonic magic to grant them power in our world. For instance, a demon with no eyes who needed magic to see their foe would work against themselves in releasing hellmist.
Hellmist becomes much more dangerous when used to cloak a physical attack, but demons rarely engage in even such simple tactical planning. A coordinated attack of that kind would almost without fail suggest the involvement of a Greater Demon or a powerful dark magician. And . . . what should you do about that?
When the Codex doesn’t give you a thing to do, assume its advice is, “Run!”
CONJURING OBJECTS FROM NOWHERE
This is not possible. Something cannot be created out of nothing. Warlocks who claim to be able to produce new objects from nowhere, or who appear to do so, are in fact merely teleporting the objects from some location known to them. This is still powerful magic and potentially dangerous, and it may well represent a violation of Law. Warlocks, for all their power, may enjoy fooling mundanes and more credulous young Shadowhunters by claiming more abilities than they have. Do not be deceived.
* * *
THE SUMMONING OF DEMONS
While the practice of dark magic by warlocks is an unf
ortunate reminder of the continued threat demons pose to our own home dimension, and is generally forbidden, such magic is permitted in the course of assisting a Shadowhunter investigation—for instance, when a specific demon must be located or interrogated. In those cases generally a friendly warlock is employed; this has become much more common since the Accords eased the formerly tense relationship between Nephilim and warlocks. Read this to Magnus, he says “ha!”
Shadowhunter’s Codex Page 13