History Literature / TheDarkArtifices

* TheAgeless: Warlocks tend to be this, and Los Angeles High Warlock Malcolm Fade is no exception - he appears to be in his twenties, but is actually over 160 years old. Tessa Gray is also repeatedly noted by Emma to look like she's around 19, despite being born in the mid-nineteenth century.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Ty's personality quirks are understood by his brothers and sisters, even though their Uncle Arthur berates him for relying on headphones as a coping mechanism during training sessions. WordOfGod and an offhand line from Kit in ''Lord of Shadows'' confirm that he's on the autism spectrum.
** In universe, it's explained that Shadowhunters are forbidden from partaking in mundane medicine, including anything related to mental health. So while Arthur's "lunacy" has a lot in common with schizophrenia, and Mark displays many traits of C-PTSD, it's never stated in the text itself because the majority of the characters wouldn't recognize the terms.

** Kit to Ty in ''Queen of Air and darkness'', while trying to stop Ty from [[spoiler: raising Livvy from the dead, complete with crying, which makes it all the more sadder when Ty treats it like nothing.]] Kit ends up [[spoiler: moving to Devon with Tessa and Jem out of hurt and humiliation from the rejection. To be fair, he's a Herondale. Kid's literally got liquid drama running through his veins.]]

* StrongFamilyResemblance: The Blackthorns tend to have brown hair and blue-green eyes, as Emma notes several times. The exceptions are Helen, Mark and Tiberius - the first two have blond hair because they're half-faerie, while the latter simply has black hair and gray eyes. This might be to make him stand out as different from the rest of his siblings, or to emphasize his UsefulNotes/HighFunctioningAutism.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Ty's personality quirks are understood by his brothers and sisters, even though their Uncle Arthur berates him for relying on headphones as a coping mechanism during training sessions. WordOfGod confirms that he's somewhere on the autism spectrum, which Kit guesses in ''Lord of Shadows.''

* PromotionToParent: Julian for his younger siblings. He's not the oldest, but his older sister Helen was exiled by the Clave and his older brother Mark was kidnapped by the Wild Hunt; therefore when their father died in the war, Julian, at the tender age of twelve, had no other choice but to step up and take care of the rest of the Blackthorn brood. By the time the series started, Julian has come to accept the role and sees Ty, Livvy, Dru, and Tavvy more as children rather than siblings.

* CoveredInScars: Shadowhunters tend to be like this, due to their strenuous training regimes and inherently dangerous job of hunting demons and rogue downworlders - while they can heal themselves with runes, scars often remain. Emma mentions repeatedly that her body is scarred because she tends to be reckless about her own safety. [[spoiler:She's left with even more scars after she takes a whipping from the Faeries in order to protect Mark and Julian.]]

** The warlocks began dying off one by one as the effects of the Blight became pronounced. Magnus turned into a demon, [[MercyKill forcing Alec to kill him]], before [[MurderSuicide turning the sword to himself]]. By the time Emma and Julian arrive at Thule, Tessa Gray is the last surviving warlock in the world, meaning Catarina Loss is dead as well.

* TheyDo: The story details Simon's and Isabelle's engagement party.

* Myth/TheScholomance: This is the school where Shadowhunters are trained. While there's no indication that one student has to be sacrificed to pay the tuition of the others, other elements of the Scholomance myth (including the brutal curriculum) are retained.

* Myth/TheScholomance: This is the school where Shadowhunters are trained. While there's no indication that one student has to be sacrificed to pay the tuition of the others, other elements of the Scholomance myth (including the brutal curriculum) are retained.

* {{Magitek}}: When Faerie steeds are taken from the land of the fey, because "their substance is magic," they are able to change in order to fit into the mundane world. Much like the flying vampire bikes of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' series, Mark's stee takes the form of a flying motorcycle - or, as Emma would aptly put it, a "pony-cycle."

** The Clave is so overly-concerned with upholding the law that they often forget or willfully overlook the terrible consequences following the law might bring to Downworlders or even Shadowhunters themselves. Actual LawfulGood Shadowhunters often have to bend the law, skirt around it or find loopholes in it, in order to do what they believe is right and fair without incurring the anger of the Clave.

** When [[spoiler:Julian finally admits to Emma that he's been in love with her all along]], there is much anguish about how he wishes he weren't, because their love is against the law and can have grave consequences for both of them. In ''Lord of Shadows'', it’s taken UpToEleven, when [[spoiler: Julian finally breaks down and very angrily tells Emma just how hard it is love someone who you shouldn’t and who doesn’t even want you back. After she realizes all her efforts to make him fall out of love with her haven’t worked, Emma delivers a much less angsty one to Julian in response.]]

** Taken UpToEleven in ''Lord of Shadows.'' A new faction in the Clave called the Cohort thinks the treaty at the end of the Dark War didn't go far enough, that Alec Lightwood isn't gay and is just under a mind control spell from Magnus Bane, and wants to begin actively registering all Downworlders.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Take the first book for example. On one hand, you get a villain who terrorizes mundanes, Shadowhunters, and Downworlders alike for selfish reasons. And yet what drove him to do what he does is because of the Clave, supposedly a bastion of justice in the supernatural world, upholding the Accords so that all the races of the downworld can live in peace and the [[{{Muggles}} Mundanes]] can be protected but at the same time exhibiting FantasticRacism toward most of the Downworld races, and in the case of TheFairFolk they push it to the point of disavowing them from the aforementioned Accords due to their involvement in the war and even go as far as to exile or punish completely innocent individuals just for being half Fey.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Ty's personality quirks are understood by his brothers and sisters, even though their Uncle Arthur berates him for relying on headphones as a coping mechanism during training sessions. By the beginning of ''Lord of Shadows'' Kit notes to Julian that Ty is somewhere on the Autism spectrum and that he's interacted with Autistic kids in Mundane schools.

*** [[spoiler:Diana Wrayburn is a male-to-female transgender. Her birth name is David Laurence Wrayburn.]]

* {{Transgender}}: [[spoiler: Diana was once called David, but transitioned from male to female several years ago while recovering from a demon attack in Bangkok. Catarina Loss encouraged her to use mundane medicine instead of magic for the transition (magic can be reversed, after all), and Diana took the advice. She refuses to lead the Institute because taking such a position requires her to hold the Mortal Sword and answer the question: "What is your birth name?" She is not too keen on being publicly outed to the whole Clave.]]

* {{MacGuffin}}: The titular Dark Artifices is the Black Volume of the Dead, which contains some of the most powerful and dangerous spells in the world. It contains a spell which can bring someone back from the dead as well as one which powers up someone to be immune to the effects of angelic weapons. It used to be stored in the Cornwall Institute, but was stolen by Malcolm Fade and Annabel Blackthorn when they attempted to elope. Malcolm kept it for nearly two centuries until he resurrected Annabel, whot akes it. After Julian kills her, nobody knows where the book is now, though it will presumably be explored in ''Literature/TheEldestCurses''.

** ''Lord of Shadows'' introduces Durendal, made of the same embers that forged Cortana and no less lethal. Emma is able to cut the thorns and vines surrounding the Unseelie Tower with it.

* SilentMajority: [[spoiler:After the climax of ''Queen of Air and Darkness'', the Cohort try to rally up the Clave against Alec Lightwood as Consul, since he rejects the Downworlder Registration. Instead, most of the Clave decide to stand with Alec and leave Idris altogether, leaving the country to be populated by an extremely small number of Shadowhunters who support the Registration.]]

A YoungAdultLiterature, UrbanFantasy trilogy by Creator/CassandraClare. ''The Dark Artifices'' is the sequel to ''[[Literature/TheMortalInstruments The Mortal Instruments]]'', her six-book, bestselling writing debut, as well as the third series (or fourth in chronological order) in the overarching ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' universe.

* WeddingDay: ''Queen of Air and Darkness'' ends with [[spoiler:Alec and Magnus' wedding in front of the Los Angeles Institute]].

* BiTheWay:
** Mark Blackthorn. He left behind Kieran, his Faerie boyfriend in TheWildHunt, but is also attracted to Cristina. He easily admits to being bisexual when Emma questions him about it.
** Most Faeries are bisexual as they view love and lust differently than mundanes. Kieran starts the series being in love with Mark, but he later comes to love Cristina in a romantic angle as well.
** It's also heavily implied that Kit is bisexual. He expresses interest in and kisses Livvy in ''Lord of Shadows'', while in ''Queen of Air and Darkness'' [[spoiler:falls in love with Ty, who sadly doesn't seem to regard their relationship as anything other than platonic.]]

# ''The Queen of Air and Darkness'' (December 2018)

** Speaking of Blight in Thule, thanks to Sebastian winning the Dark War, demons ran rampant and spread the effects of the Blight quickly, resulting in Thule becoming a sort of proto-Edom. Most of the land is dead, both the sun and moon glow a dim red light, the rain is hazardous, thick fog abounds, and the sea is colored black.

** Time in Faerieland doesn't make sense to humans. It's sometimes faster (Ash grew to around double his age in five years time), sometimes slower (Mark stays the same age from when he was kidnapped until he is released, again within the span of five years). The only way for people to escape its influence is by wearing a certain angelic medallion, one of which is possessed by Cristina thanks to her family's connection with faeries.
** When Annabel and Ash enter the portal to Thule, they are sent to five years in the past, right after Sebastian won the Dark War. When Emma and Julian enter the portal mere moments afterward, they are sent to two years in the ''future'', so when they meet Ash, he has gone from a boy to a late teenager.

* VocalMinority: The Cohort. They claim that they have the Clave's SilentMajority who support their cause. [[spoiler:When the Cohort attempt to rally the Clave to support the Downworlder Registration law, most of the Clave decide to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere leave Idris altogether]], making it clear which side has the actual Silent Majority.]]

* ActionGirl: Emma, Cristina, Livvy and basically every female shadowhunter because they were all trained to fight demons and other threats from a young age. Emma is specifically said to be TheAce is hoped to become the next Jace Herondale.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Robert Lightwood and Livvy, courtesy of Annabelle Blackthorn.]]

** It's also heavily implied that Kit is bisexual. He expresses interest and kisses Livvy in ''Lord of Shadows'', while in ''Queen of Air and Darkness'' [[spoiler:falls in love with Ty, who sadly doesn't seem to regard their relationship as anything other than platonic.]]

** ''Lady Midnight'': [[spoiler:Malcolm is (supposedly) killed and his plans are stopped. However, Emma, having had known that forming a relationship with a parabatai is dangerous, decides to stay away from Julian and strikes a relationship with Mark to put him off, even though both are suffering because of it.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}:
** ''Lord of Shadows'' ends with [[spoiler:Annabel murdering Robert and Livvy before taking off with the King of the Unseelie Court to parts unknown, leaving Julian to cradle Livvy's body.]]
** ''Queen of Air and Darkness'' features an epilogue set from the perspective of [[spoiler:the Queen of the Seelie Court, who meets Jace Herondale of Thule and her son Ash. Jace offers to hand Ash back to the Queen, in return for her help to arrange him a meeting with Clary.]]

Since her parents were killed DuringTheWar, Emma Carstairs has been living at the Los Angeles Institute alongside the Blackthorn family - her parabatai and [[ChildhoodFriend best friend since childhood]], Julian, and his four younger siblings - under the tutelage of their uncle Arthur, who is the head of the Institute. The Clave, which is the governing body of the Shadowhunter community, believes Emma's parents were casualties of the war. Emma has spent the five years since convinced they were killed for different reasons, and conducting an investigation of her own.

When she comes across a series of supernatural murders with the same signature as her parents', it will cause the [[TheFairFolk Faeries]] - a group of downworlders disgraced in the eyes of the law for their involvement on the wrong side of the war - to insert themselves into the investigation. Now the Blackthorns have to solve the murders on a tight deadline and under top secrecy if they want to get their older brother Mark back, and Emma will come closer than she's ever been to the truth behind her parents' murder. Her quickly deepening feelings for her parabatai don't make the situation any easier.

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Emma's sword, Cortana, proves to be one. It kills [[spoiler: one of the Seven Rider, who were previously thought to be un-killable]] and shatters weapons, including [[spoiler: The Mortal Sword]]

* AffectionateNickname: Emma has been calling Julian "Jules" since they were kids.
** Played with: When Emma and Julian [[spoiler: have sex, and later admit their feelings for each other, Emma calls him Julian. Then, upon learning about the curse, she tells him she loves Mark, not him, and goes back to calling him Jules. Julian starts hating it, and missing when she called him Julian.]]

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: When [[spoiler:Julian finally admits to Emma that he's been in love with her all along]], there is much anguish about how he wishes he weren't, because their love is against the law and can have grave consequences for both of them.
** In ''Lord of Shadows'', it’s taken UpToEleven, when [[spoiler: Julian finally breaks down and very angrily tells Emma just how hard it is love someone who you shouldn’t and who doesn’t even want you back. After she realizes all her efforts to make him fall out of love with her haven’t worked, Emma delivers a much less angsty one to Julian in response.]]
** Kit to Ty in ''Queen of Air and darkness'', while trying to stop Ty from [[spoiler: raising Livvy from the dead, complete with crying, which makes it all the more sadder when Ty treats it like nothing.]]
*** Kit ends up [[spoiler: moving to Devon with Tessa and Jem out of hurt and humiliation from the rejection. To be fair, he's a Herondale. Kid's literally got liquid drama running through his veins.]]

* BackFromTheDead: The main villain in ''Lady Midnight'' had the ultimate goal of bringing his dead lover back to life. [[spoiler:It worked.]]
** [[spoiler: And that villain comes back from the dead ''again'' in Lord of Shadows... for a very short while.]]
* BiTheWay: Mark Blackthorn. [[spoiler:He left behind a Faerie boyfriend in TheWildHunt,]] but is also attracted to Cristina. He easily admits to being bisexual when Emma questions him about it. Most Faeries are bisexual as they view love and lust differently than mundanes.
** [[spoiler: Kit]] makes a few statements and observations that imply this throughout ''Lord of Shadows.''
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Clave is a bastion of justice in the supernatural world, upholding the Accords so that all the races of the downworld can live in peace and the [[{{Muggles}} Mundanes]] can be protected. At the same time, they exhibit FantasticRacism toward most of the downworld races, and in the case of TheFairFolk they push it to the point of disavowing them from the aforementioned Accords due to their involvement in the war and even go as far as to exile or punish completely innocent individuals just for being half Fey.

* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Averted. [[spoiler:While an intimate scene between Julian and Emma is left ambiguous, it doesn't take more than one chapter for Emma to admit to Cristina that they did have sex.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: As of Lord of Shadows, a new faction in the Clave called ''the Cohort'' is pushing an agenda of registering all Downworlders and half-Downworlders like Mark and Helen Blackthorn. As Kit says, "Have NONE of you read an X-Men comic?"
* TheFairFolk: Two of the Blackthorn children are half-Faerie, with Mark being a main character of the series. Some members of TheWildHunt and the Unseelie Court are key to the plot of ''Lady Midnight'' and the Clave's FantasticRacism toward Faeries is a big theme in the story.
* FantasticRacism: The Clave towards mundanes and downworlders, particularly TheFairFolk as they were revealed to have been working on the opposite side during the war. This resentment extends even to individuals who are half-Faerie/half-Shadowhunters, such as Helen and Mark Blackthorn, who were just children during the war and completely innocent, yet were still punished on the basis of their blood alone.
** Taken UpToEleven in ''Lord of Shadows.'' A new faction in the Clave thinks the treaty at the end of the Dark War didn't go far enough, that Alec Lightwood isn't gay and is just under a mind control spell from Magnus Bane, and wants to begin actively registering all Downworlders.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Mark's relationship with Kieran.
---> '''Iarlath:''' ''[to Kieran]'' You've always been partial to blondes.
*** Mark has blond hair.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Parabatai are ''supposed'' to be this. It is even illegal for parabatai to love each other "in the manner of eros" and should only love each other "in the manner of philia or agape" - that is, as friends or family. Breaking this law can lead to the two Shadowhunters being stripped of their marks and exiled.
* IntimateHealing: Emma heals Julian from a fatal injury while they're cramped together in the back seat of a car. She even notes that she's straddling him. [[spoiler: It's even this on an emotional level, as the only reason Julian's wound was able to be healed was because his and Emma's romantic feelings for each other enhanced the power of the healing runes.]]
* InsultOfEndearment: Emma and Cristina tend to call Diego Rosales "Perfect Diego" because he seems to be good at ''everything'', which they find highly annoying. [[spoiler:He is, but he also turns out to not be as bad as Emma initially thought he would be, and was actually very helpful.]]
** Goes back to an insult and as bad as they remember in ''Lord of Shadows.'' [[spoiler: Diego was concealing the fact that he was engaged, right up until the moment his fiance shows up at the LA Institute. His fiance, Cristina, and the Blackthorns are not amused.]]
* InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler:Malcolm Fade, a warlock, and Annabel Blackthorn, a Shadowhunter.]]
** Diana and Gwyn in ''Lord of Shadows.''
* LawfulStupid: The Clave is so overly-concerned with upholding the law that they often forget or willfully overlook the terrible consequences following the law might bring to downworlders or even Shadowhunters themselves. Actual LawfulGood Shadowhunters often have to bend the law, skirt around it or find loopholes in it, in order to do what they believe is right and fair without incurring the anger of the Clave.

** Tiberius is like this. Despite being highly intelligent, he often doesn't understand slang or figures of speech until they're explained to him, and he doesn't see the purpose of certain societal conventions such as looking at people in the eyes when you speak to them. He will do it if he feels it's necessary, however, because he understands that these conventions are important to people. Kit notes that Ty seems Autistic, and Julian acts as if he's never heard of such a thing.
** Mark, having spent a long time in the LandOfFaerie, seems to be out of practice when it comes to interpreting figures of speech, as well.
* LoveDodecahedron: [[spoiler:Kieran]] is in love with Mark, who loves him back, but at the same time is starting to fall for Cristina. She, for her part, reciprocates the attraction but is still in love with [[spoiler:Diego]]. And just when you're thinking the main pairing might manage to remain completely removed from this love polygon, [[spoiler:Emma decides to fake a relationship with Mark in order to make Julian fall out of love with her. Considering Julian spends much of ''Lady Midnight'' being jealous of Mark for no good reason other than "the way Emma looks at him," it might just work - or lead to feelings on Emma's part that will make these emotional entanglements even more complicated.]]
** In Lord of Shadows, [[spoiler: this settles. Emma and Mark decide they have no romantic feelings for each other and she and Julian commit to each other despite their relationship bring forbidden. Meanwhile, Mark continues to have feelings for Cristina and Kieran, who both seem to be interested in [[OneTrueThreesome both him and each other]].]]
* {{Magitek}}: When Faerie steeds are taken from the land of the fey, because "their substance is magic," they are able to change in order to fit into the mundane world. Much like the flying vampire bikes of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' series, Mark's steed takes the form of a flying motorcycle - or, as Emma would aptly put it, a "pony-cycle."
* MomentKiller: Nosy siblings and angry Faeries, among other things, repeatedly interrupt [[spoiler:Emma and Julian]] as they are attempting to confess their feelings in ''Lady Midnight''.

* {{Nephilim}}: As expected for a series that is part of [[TheVerse The Shadowhunter Chronicles]].
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: [[spoiler: When Emma has seemingly been stabbed to death, Julian holds her in his arms and begs this word for word.]]
* PleaseWakeUp: [[spoiler: After Livvy is killed, Julian repeatedly begs her to open her eyes.]]

* PromotionToParent: Julian for his younger siblings. He's not the oldest, but his older sister Helen was exiled by the Clave and his older brother Mark was kidnapped by the Wild Hunt; therefore when their father died in the war, Julian, at the tender age of twelve, had no other choice but to step up and take care of the rest of the Blackthorn brood.
* TheReveal: Several in ''Lady Midnight'', but especially [[spoiler:Malcolm's reveal as the villain of the plot, and the murderer of Emma's parents]].
** Several more in ''Lord of Shadows,'' such as the fact that [[spoiler: Malcolm Fade was only ''mostly'' dead, Clary is seeing visions of her own death, Diego's fiance is a member of the rabidly anti-Downworlder Cohort and plans to install her father as head of the LA Institute, Gwyn has a crush on Diana, and Diana is Transgender.]]
** Many in ''The Queen of Air and Darkness'' as well. [[spoiler: The person the Lord of Shadows has kidnapped from the Seelie Queen is her son by Sebastian Morgenstern, Kit is the descendant of the lost heir, and the Annabel that is conspiring with Horace is really a demon impersonating her with help from Zara and Manuel.]] Just to list a few. There are quite a lot more.
* ShoutOut: One of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's works is central to the plot of the story, and later on he is directly mentioned to have been inspired by a conversation with a downworlder.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Julian's never felt attraction to anyone except [[spoiler: Emma.]]

* StrongFamilyResemblance: The Blackthorns tend to have brown hair and blue-green eyes, as Emma notes several times. The exceptions are Helen, Mark and Tiberius - the first two because they're half-faerie, while the latter simply has black hair and gray eyes. This might be to make him stand out as different from the rest of his siblings, or to emphasize his UsefulNotes/HighFunctioningAutism.
* SupernaturalElite: Shadowhunters fancy themselves this, and the friction this causes with the rest of the downworlder species - particularly with the Faeries - is a big theme of the books.
* SwitchToEnglish: Cristina and [[spoiler:Diego]] speak to each other in English even when no English-speakers are around, because Cristina "is trying to keep up her practice."

* {{Foil}}: Zara Dearborn to Clary Fairchild. Both are young women caught in the midst of war and its politics, and each daughter to a bigoted father with far too much power on his hands. But while Zara shares and even participates in her father's bigotry and ignorance, Clary became her father's main opposition and never treated Downworlders like they were beneath her.

* TheWildHunt: Mark was part of the hunt, and some of the other members make appearances in ''Lady Midnight'', including the leader of the hunt himself, Gwyn the Hunter.
* {{Action girl}}: Emma, Christina, Livvy and basically every female shadowhunter because they were all trained to fight demons and other threats from a young age.

* TheVerse: Part of ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' consisting of this series, its predecessor ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', prequel series ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'', ''The Last Hours'' (sequel to ''The Infernal Devices''), ''The Wicked Powers'' (sequel to ''The Dark Artifices''), ''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' (spin-off focusing on Alec and Magnus), ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex'' (guide book), ''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'' (short story collection), ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' (short story collection) and ''Ghosts of the Shadowmarket'' (short story collection), all taking place in the Shadowhunter world.

* TheVerse: Part of ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' consisting of this series, its predecessor ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', prequel series ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'', ''The Last Hours'' (sequel to ''The Infernal Devices''), ''The Wicked Powers'' (sequel to ''The Dark Artifices''), ''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' (spin-off focusing on Alec and Magnus), ''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'' (short story collection), ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' (short story collection) and ''Ghosts of the Shadowmarket'' (short story collection), all taking place in the Shadowhunter world.

* TheVerse: Part of ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' consisting of this series, its predecessor ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', prequel series ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'', ''The Last Hours'' (sequel to ''The Infernal Devices''), ''The Wicked Powers'' (sequel to ''The Dark Artifices''), ''The Eldest Curses'' (spin-off focusing on Alec and Magnus), ''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'' (short story collection), ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' (short story collection) and ''Ghosts of the Shadowmarket'' (short story collection), all taking place in the Shadowhunter world.