The Mortal Cup

The **Mortal Cup** is one of the Mortal Instruments given by the Angel Raziel to Jonathan Shadowhunter, the first of the Nephilim.

## Description

The Mortal Cup looks like a heavy golden chalice. It is primarily used to create more Shadowhunters; drinking from the Cup turns mundanes into Shadowhunters.

However, drinking from the Cup has its risks. Only certain mundanes—typically strong fighters—would survive the conversion. Others may die shortly after drinking from the Cup.

The Cup can also provide control over demons.

## History

When the Angel Raziel was summoned, he mixed his blood with that of Jonathan's within the Mortal Cup. Upon drinking from it, Jonathan became the first of the Nephilim. The Cup was left with him, and over time, more drank from the Cup; those who drank the Angel's blood became Shadowhunters, as did their children and their children's children.

Despite this, it became forbidden to use the Cup again to rebuild their forces.

The Cup became known in mundane legend as the Holy Grail when the first Nephilim arrived in Cornwall wielding the Cup.

#### The Hunts

Given its angelic alliance, the Mortal Cup has different effects on Downworlders than it does on mundanes, as a result of their demonic heritage or disease. Downworlders who drink from the Cup will vomit up its contents and possibly die of paroxysms, due to their demonic aspects warring against the angel blood they ingested. If forced to continue drinking from the Cup, the contents will eventually burn the life from them entirely.

During the Hunts of the 16th Century, the Cup was used as a form of capital punishment, in inquisitional torture and murder, on Downworlders. Back then, this form of punishment was considered by the Clave to be just and merciful, because it infused the Downworlder with angelic power before death. This barbaric practice was made illegal in the Second Accords of 1887.

#### The Circle

In the 1990s, Valentine Morgenstern advocated for the use of the Cup to create more Shadowhunters. When the Clave refused, the Circle, led by Valentine, stole the Cup—which had been put on display for the signing of the Accords as a show of power. Though he succeeded, his plan was foiled when his wife Jocelyn and his former parabatai Luke confronted him. Jocelyn took the Cup with her and went into hiding. Jocelyn, with her unique angelic power, placed the Cup into an Ace of Cups tarot card and gave it to her warlock assistant Dot. Valentine scoured the world in search of Jocelyn and the Cup, and his men only caught up eighteen years later in New York.

What followed was a wild-goose chase for the Cup as the leaders of the vampires and werewolves began vying for possession of the Cup themselves: Camille Belcourt because she wanted to control the Cup and those who want it, and Theo, because he didn't trust the Shadowhunters to safeguard the Cup and was tired of their superiority over them. Jocelyn's daughter Clary eventually figured out her shared power with Jocelyn and realized where the Cup was. They took the card, which had been in police custody during the investigation into Luke, and Clary was able to take the Cup out of the card after she was cornered by a Shax demon; she then used it to control the demon.

Eventually, the Cup was surrendered to the Clave and hidden in Lydia Branwell's office at the New York Institute, only to be stolen by Hodge Starkweather for Valentine.

Valentine then started to use the Cup create his own Shadowhunter army with his followers and other willing recruits.

## Trivia

* A replica of the Cup can be found as part of a statue of Raziel in the City of Bones.