Glamour

**Glamour** is the form of magic that conceals the Shadow World.

## Information

The general purpose of glamour is to hide the Shadow World from mundanes. It makes things look different from how they truly are. Performed correctly, it creates a perfect semblance in the mind of the observer and perfectly obscures the true shape of the thing glamoured.

Having what is referred to as "the Sight" enables one to see past glamours to a thing's true nature. Most Shadowhunters and some mundanes are born with the Sight, and it also comes naturally to Downworlders. However, this does not guarantee that they can see through all glamours. For some, seeing through basic glamour may still require some training or experience. In other cases, glamour may be reinforced and more powerful than typical glamour.

Glamours may put a "false skin" over something, disguising whatever it is placed on, such as Institutes, which is sometimes glamoured to blend in with the surroundings. Nephilim also often glamour themselves into invisibility, to move undetected through the mundane world. Similarly, demons may glamour themselves into nonspecific forms, so that a mundane attacked by a demon will perceive it as something generic, like a dog or another random mundane.

The glamour is considered to be one of the simplest and most widely and extensively used magic in existence. It is one of the few kinds of magic available to all magic users—it is found in the Gray Book, in demonic spell books, in the researches of warlocks, and among Seelies.

An important rule of glamours is that, for the most part, people see what they wish to see, and things that they can make sense of. Sighted mundanes will often look past strange appearances and explain them as illusions or misunderstandings.

## Among Downworlders

The origin of glamour magic is a subject that has puzzled generations of magical researchers. There have been various theories, the most common of which historically has been that glamour magic originally belonged to the fey and was "stolen" from them by other creatures somehow.

Most glamours are easy to see through for any magical being, and they usually hide things only from mundanes. Vampires, Seelies, and warlocks all may use more powerful glamours to hide their activities not just from mundanes but also from Shadowhunters and from one another.

The unusual features of Downworlders, particularly of warlocks and ifrits, can be glamoured into invisibility or normalcy. And since ifrits are incapable of doing magic to hide their marks, they usually acquire magical artifacts that provide them with a permanent glamour and live away from the magical world.

With the recent rise in popularity of body modifications, some beings do not need to use Glamours anymore.

## Among Shadowhunters

Another prevailing theory among the Nephilim is that there are at root two types of glamours—the angelic glamours that Nephilim use, produced by the inscription of Marks, and demonic glamours, used by everyone else. It is assumed that Raziel granted Shadowhunters the power of glamours and the power of Sight.

The Voyance rune helps Shadowhunters focus their Sight. In some cases though, they need to be trained to see through glamours. Usually, it is sufficient to deliberately show children glamours of various kinds and their revealed true shapes; however, more complicated glamours are more difficult to see through.

Shadowhunters perform glamours in situations where the Shadow World is in danger of discovery by the mundane population. They often glamour themselves into invisibility, to move undetected through the mundane world.

The Visible Rune is the rune used to undo their glamours.