Jace Morgenstern

**Jace Herondale** , formally known as Jace Wayland, is a lethal and expert Shadowhunter—a skilled soldier in their war against demons.

Other Versions* Alt Jace

## Biography

#### Early Life

Disregard most of this. Whoever wrote this us an idiot and obviously never read the books.

Jace was born to Jocelyn Fairchild and Valentine Morgenstern. After the Uprising, Valentine faked their deaths by setting fire to the Fairchild Manor. For years after finding out about his "death", his mother Jocelyn mourned for him. She kept a box of his things with her, and she would take it out once a year and cry over it.

Jace was raised by Valentine in a secluded cabin in Idris, but was led to believe that he was the son of Michael Wayland—whom Valentine posed as in his childhood by using the shape-shifting rune and that his mother died when he was a baby. Valentine raised him like a warrior, training him like most Shadowhunters, with a touch of harshness and cruelty. He was taught Valentine's values and was raised to believe that love was weakness.

When he was ten, Valentine faked his death, leading the young Jace to believe he was killed by Valentine and partly because of the Circle's Uprising.

Jace was then taken in by the Lightwoods and has since been raised at the New York Institute with other Shadowhunters. He arrived in New York on the day of Isabelle Lightwood's 10th birthday. He gifted her a copy of A Treasury of Tales for Nephilim. He and the Lightwood children have since come to treat each other as siblings, and he was treated like a son by their parents, especially Maryse. He became particularly close to Alec Lightwood, who was the first friend he made. When he was younger, he was often the prey of horrible nightmares that woke up his siblings.

Still believing that his father, Michael, was killed, Jace made it his life mission to seek revenge on the people responsible.

When Isabelle was having doubts about her parabatai ceremony, Jace helped her get over them and go through with it.

#### Helping Clary

One evening, Jace decided to track one of the shape-shifting demons that has been killing mundanes, and draining them of blood. Alec wanted to get approval for their mission from the Clave, but Jace insisted that it wasn't necessary. With Alec and Isabelle, he followed the demon to the Pandemonium club.

Outside, Jace encountered a girl who saw him, despite the glamour that would make him invisible to mundanes. His interest was piqued, even more so when the girl continued to follow them into the club. With Isabelle as a distraction for the other demons, Jace confronted the blood-peddling demon; it refused to tell him about his employer, and a fight broke out. Jace kept the girl away from harm's way, and after he, Alec, and Izzy defeated the demons, the girl ran off. Since a seraph blade lit up upon her touch, he became confident that she was a Shadowhunter like them.

Alec and Izzy tasked him to deal with the girl after they were done at the club, so Jace followed her and tracked her to her house, where she was being attacked by a shapeshifting Ravener demon demanding the Mortal Cup. He saved her and, noticing that she had been stung and potentially poisoned, took her back to the Institute. Almost certain that she was a Shadowhunter like them, he Marked her with an iratze, just knowing that she would be able to bear it. Alec disapproved of his decision to take her in, but Jace insisted.

Jace then decided to introduce her to their trainer and ex-Circle member, Hodge Starkweather, to enlighten them about the circumstances.

In an attempt to unlock her seemingly blocked memories, Jace suggested that Clary be taken to the City of Bones. Though the others were initially reluctant, Clary agreed. Jace accompanied her in, and Clary learned that she was Valentine's daughter. She also saw that a man named Magnus took her memories as a child. The group lured Magnus out of hiding with a party and while the warlock initially refused to help them, he eventually agreed when the group helped him fight off Circle members that attacked their safe haven. Magnus told them that he fed Clary's memories to a memory demon, Valak whom they subsequently summoned. When Alec surrendered a memory of "the one his heart ached for," Alec panicked when it showed a memory of Raj. Because of the broken summoning seal, the demon attacked and grabbed Jace. With his life at risk, Clary decided to sacrifice her memories and banished the demon to save him.

With Luke's help, they were eventually able to retrieve the Cup for the Clave.

During one incident, Jace, Clary, and Isabelle helped the Seelie Meliorn escape from the hands of the Shadowhunters who were taking him to the City of Bones for interrogation. Indebted to them, Meliorn helped them find Valentine with Clary's Portal Shard. He opened a door to another dimension that would lead them to Valentine. Though Meliorn had Jace stay behind at first, when Alec messaged Jace that the Cup was the only way to save Izzy from her sentence of High Treason, Meliorn allowed him to follow Clary. They found the Portal leading to Valentine's hideout just in time, but Jace impaled himself on a piece of metal covered in demon venom as they landed. Once there, they found Jace's father, Michael Wayland, imprisoned. They freed him, and together they Portaled to the Jade Wolf to ask the Downworlders for help to heal Jace.

In their search for Valentine and Jocelyn, Michael told them that Valentine was hiding out at Renwick's. There, the deception was revealed when, after being found out by Clary, Valentine revealed his shape-shifting rune, and told Jace that he had been his father, merely disguised as Michael Wayland, all along. He told Jace and Clary that they were both his children and thus were siblings.

This caused a severe crisis for Jace, who suddenly was afraid that finding his blood family would cost him his found family, the Lightwoods. He was however reassured by Izzy, and even had a heartfelt talk with Alec about their relationship as a family, and Alec's sexuality.

When Hodge betrayed them by giving the Cup to Valentine, Jace and the others hunted him down. Jace met with Valentine but was unable to bring himself to kill him. When Valentine later returned and threatened the lives of Clary, Alec, and Isabelle if he didn't join him, Jace agreed, feeling as if he had no choice but to do as he asked.

#### With Valentine

After over a week of being MIA and with Valentine, Jace came back to the shore to hunt vampires. Under the eyes of Clary and Simon, Jace killed a vampire woman, Maria, much to Valentine’s approval. Jocelyn then tried to kill him, believing that he was evil. He escaped with a wounded Valentine, returning to the ship.

Jace struggled with his moral compass and knowledge of the world and right and wrong after Valentine manipulated him into killing a vampire.

When Clary was brought onboard Valentine's ship, Jace was briefly convinced after a spellbound Clary told him that he was the key to saving the world from Downworlders, but the pair escaped with the help of Clary's warlock friend, Dot.

Despite their escape, they were separated and washed up at distant shores, with Jace ending up near Gretel Monroe, a werewolf Valentine killed. Seen by a mundane, Jace became the primary suspect in her death and was hunted by Gretel's pack for justice.

Jace was able to escape the wrath of the werewolves—particularly that of the persistent Maia Roberts— but he was arrested after this.

#### Prisoner

Jace was imprisoned in the City of Bones to await questioning and trial. Alec came to visit, but Izzy did not. Two weeks after he was arrested, Clary came to visit him. He pushed her away violently, not wanting to drag her down with him.

He was then interrogated by Victor Aldertree with the Soul-Sword. Because Jace told him—compelled by the sword to tell the truth—that he would be unable to pledge unconditional loyalty to the Clave, and that he believed in some of Valentine's goals, for his testimony, Aldertree told him that he would recommend to the Clave a life imprisonment sentence for him.

Later, Valentine infiltrated the City of Bones and killed the Silent Brothers to get the Sword. Jace was unable to go after Valentine as he prioritized saving Aldertree, and the pair returned to the Institute after.

#### Pariah

For this, Jace was exonerated of his crimes. Nonetheless, his fellow Shadowhunters at the Institute began to look at him with contempt, believing Valentine's claim that he had demon blood. Jace was benched by Aldertree and assigned to ichor duty—a menial task typically given to newbie grunts.

## Personality and Traits

Seen as narcissistic, determined and an expert Shadowhunter, Jace is headstrong and often prefers to act first and ask permission later. Tough, resourceful, and confident, Jace takes slaying demons in his stride, often admiring himself while he does so.

He is incredibly loyal to his allies and will stop at nothing to help and save them when necessary. Jace is prepared to risk his life and standing with the Clave to protect others, easily doing so to prevent harm to others. As the adoptive son of Maryse and Robert, he has a fierce love for his adoptive family, especially his adoptive siblings Alec and Isabelle, whom he can be quite protective of.

Like most of his kind, Jace was raised to view love and feelings as a distraction from their sacred mission, though he was not completely averse to it either, specifically after Clary's presence and influence.

Jace is usually sarcastic and humorous. He is also incredibly stubborn, as seen with his recurring arguments with Alec. He can be impatient and easily annoyed when things are not moving forward, or when his skill is called into question. Beneath the humor lies a darker side, one where Jace has always felt like an outsider and was further driven to believe he was tainted after Valentine's lie. He is prone to excessive drinking and indulging in sex to distract himself from more negative emotions, preferring those outlets to talking about his feelings with someone.

## Physical Appearance

He has blond hair. He has heterochromatic eyes, brown and blue. He's often considered very handsome, though people also call him 'bland' or 'white boy pretty'. He has a broad muscular build, broad shoulders, and stands tall.

## Skills and Abilities

* **Nephilim physiology**: Being Nephilim, Jace possesses a variety of enhanced physical and mental abilities granted to him by the angel blood of Raziel in his veins and also by the angelic Marks of the Gray Book. This includes enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, and coordination, which continue to improve over time and practice.
	+ **The Sight**: As a Shadowhunter, Jace is naturally and easily able to see through most magical illusions and layers of glamour over reality.
	+ **Runic Magic**: Due to the angel blood in their veins, all Shadowhunters are able to apply runes on their skin without any real danger. These Marks, in turn, give varied effects that serve to benefit the wearer.
	+ **Use of heavenly weapons**: As a Shadowhunter, Jace is also able to perform tasks unique to their species, such as the ability to use and call on the power of angels for their seraph blades as well as to handle any heavenly weapons or objects with effect, which would normally not work for other species. In particular, these are tools made of adamas and forged by Iron Sisters.
* **Expert hand-to-hand combatant**: Jace is highly skilled in armed and unarmed combat.
* **Expert swordsman**: Jace is highly skilled and proficient in swordsmanship.
* **Skilled pianist**: Jace is highly proficient in playing the piano, from being under the tutelage of Valentine Morgenstern during his childhood.

## Possessions

* Basic **Shadowhunter gear**, including: a stele, seraph blades and a witchlight.

## Appearances

All chapters of Shadowhunters 2.0. Discovery

Shadowhunters 2.0. Dive

* This Guilty Blood Part 2
* A Door Into the Dark Part 1
* A Door Into the Dark Part 2
* Lover Lost Part 1
* Lover Lost Part 2
* Lover Lost Part 3
* Blood of the Covenant (Flashback)
* Day of Wrath Part 1
* Day of Wrath Part 2
* Day of Wrath Part 3
* Dust and Shadows Part 1

## Trivia

* Jace has PTSD from his upbringing. It is characterized by a tendency to lie, violent outbursts of anger, and promiscuity as a coping mechanism. Asa result, he also has a sometimes skewed moral compass.
* Jace was named after Jonathan Shadowhunter, the first of all Nephilim.
* As the heir to the Morgenstern name, the first born of the family, Jace could petition the Clave for ownership of Phaesphoros, the Morgenstern Manor and the Morgenstern Family Fortune.
* As the first born of Jocelyn Fairchild, Jace could petition the Clave for the ownership of any property, heirloom as well as the Fairchild Family Fortune, despite it being the mother's blood.