Races

Races that you should be aware of in the Mortal Instruments World

Shadowhunters, also known as the Nephilim, are a secretive race of beings who are humans born with angelic blood. They are the appointed warriors on Earth of the Angel Raziel. They are appointed specifically to control and preside over the Shadow World, as well as over the demons and Downworlders who inhabit it. They have fought the demonic forces valiantly for well over the span of a thousand years, creating their own culture and civilization within human society. Their mandate is to keep the peace in the Shadow World and keep it hidden from the mundane world while protecting the inhabitants of both worlds.

Despite their ancestry, Shadowhunters are mortal and therefore vulnerable to old age and death; however, their angelic blood endows them with special abilities that allow them to achieve feats beyond humanly possible through the application of angelic runes.
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Mundanes, also called mundies by some, are regular humans who are oblivious to the existence of Shadowhunters, Downworlders, demons, and the rest of the Shadow World.

Mundanes can be be infected with what are considered to be demon diseases: lycanthropy and vampirism; they can be turned into werewolves or vampires when bitten, and fed blood for the latter. They can also become Forsaken when runes are Marked or applied on their skins. Human children can also be turned into Shadowhunters with Mortal Cup.

When Nephilim, demons or warlocks put up glamours, it is so that mundanes cannot see them. The mundanes see either something they would understand or nothing at all. These glamours can be put down willingly, though.
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Faeries, also known as the Fair Folk or fey, are an extremely cunning immortal race of Downworlders. They have both angelic and demonic blood, attributing to both their beauty and their malevolence.
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Vampires, also known as the Children of the Night, are a species of Downworlders. Along with werewolves, vampires are humans infected with a demon disease. However, unlike the former, vampires are considered "undead"; that is, their bodies are no longer alive in the sense that living humans' are. Their undeparted human souls reside within their own animated corpses, kept intact and animated by the demon disease and energy.
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Werewolves, also known as Lycanthropes and the Children of the Moon, are a species of Downworlders. Like vampires, werewolves are humans infected with a demonic disease, which gives them the ability to transform into wolves and gain their inhuman strength and enhanced abilities.
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Warlocks, also known as Lilith's Children, are the immortal race of Downworlder offspring of demons and mundanes. Warlocks who cannot cast magic are called ifrits.