the infernal devices

The Infernal Devices is a new series of novels by author Cassandra Clare, centering on a number of races, collectively known as Downworlders, introduced in her The Mortal Instruments series. This series takes place in Victorian England, ten years after the peace treaties between the demon-fighting Shadowhunters and Downworlders (vampires, faeries, werewolves, and warlocks) was signed. As Shadowhunters consider themselves superior or purer than Downworlders or demons, they may have no qualms about killing either. The first book in The Infernal Devices is entitled Clockwork Angel and begins the story of Tessa, an orphaned teenage girl who discovers she is an Eidolon, or shape-changer, with unique powers. But these new-found abilities plunge her into a world she never knew existed, and she will have to learn to master them if she wants to find her brother, and to do this she will have to forge an alliance with some Shadowhunters if she wants to survive in this dangerous world. Many of the family names of the Shadowhunters used in the first series are introduced in this series. Another character, Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, plays a part in this Victorian England series. 129 years later, he is a part of the Mortal Instruments series.

Books:

Clockwork Angel (published)
Clockwork Prince (published)
Clockwork Princess (not published)

Characters:
William “Will” Herondale: Seventeen-year-old Will is the sort of young man nice Victorian girls are warned against. He drinks, gambles, and enjoys the company of ladies of questionable virtue—at least, as much as he enjoys anything. Will hates everyone and everything, with the possible exception of Jem, and even that is occasionally in doubt. When he finds himself oddly drawn to Tessa, his friends begin to hope that the Downworlder girl will prove Will’s unlikely salvation, but as Tessa grows closer to the bleak secret that makes his life a prison, danger threatens to destroy them both if she finds out the truth. He is quite tall, around six foot, has black hair, and stormy blue eyes. We learn in Clockwork Prince that he thought he was under a “curse” by a demon his father had kept in a Pyxis, which is why he is so rude, sarcastic, and implusive toward people he loves. Later on in the book, we learn that the “curse” is a fake and Will has wasted five years of his life hiding his loving emotions from others. He tries to show Tessa near the end that he loves her but soon finds out that Tessa and Jem are engaged. He is left shell-shocked at the end of the book due to both the fact that Jem and Tessa are engaged and that his younger sister, Cecily, comes to the Institute to become a Shadowhunter, which Will is against.

Theresa “Tessa” Gray: Sixteen-year-old Tessa has spent the last thirteen years of her life being stiflingly overprotectd by her aunt after the death of her parents in a carriage accident. She lives almost all her life in books, dreaming of having the kind of adventures the heroines she reads about do — until she is summoned from New York to London by her brother, Nathaniel, after her aunt dies, only to find that he has gone missing.The Shadowhunters of the London Institute may be Tessa’s only hope of finding Nate, but their mysterious world of demons and Downworlders holds many dangers for her, especially when she realizes she might be more a part of it than she’d thought. Tessa is tall, taller than most boys, has curly dark-brown hair, and has sea-gray eyes. Many consider her to be a “Downworlder”, specifically warlock, but she bears none of the usual irregularities. In Clockwork Prince, we learn from Jessamine, who under the influence of the Mortal Sword, that her mother may have been a Shadowhunter and that her father was a demon, yet we don’t know whether or not this is true. Also, near the end of Clockwork Prince, Jem proposes to Tessa and she agrees. To those who read the Mortal Instruments series, Tessa is shown so briefly near the end of City of Glass and is also mentioned by Magnus in City of Fallen Angels. It is hinted by Cassandra Clare that we will learn where Tessa is now, and who she is staying with, in the Mortal Instruments at the epilogue of Clockwork Princess.

James “Jem” Carstairs: Seventeen-year-old Jem was born and raised in the Institute in Shanghai, China, and is of Chinese and British parentage. Jem’s parents were killed by a demon called Yanluo, who allowed Jem to live—but with a terrible price to be paid: He now has to take a drug that slowly kills him. And even through the help of the Silent Brothers, it is impossible to wan him off the drug unless he wants to die a quicker death. He moved to the London Institute shortly after the death of his parents at the age of eleven. Frail and silver-haired, Jem seems an unlikely demon-killer, but his skills and swift intelligence make him a formidable foe. He finds a kindred spirit in Tessa as both of them feel they are torn between two worlds, neither belonging completely to one or to the other, causing him to eventually develop a strong affection for her. Jem is described as having pale skin, silver hair, and almond-shaped silver eyes but when he first arrived at the London Institute, Charlotte describes him with inky black hair with eyes to match. He has been in love with Tessa for quite a long time and at the end of Clockwork Prince proposes to her. She agrees and two are engaged to get married. He is also oblivious to Will’s feelings for Tessa.

Jessamine “Jessie” Lovelace: Jessamine’s parents, like Will’s, were Shadowhunters who left the Clave. Their deaths in a fire orphaned her, leaving her to be brought up in the Institute by Charlotte and Henry. Jessamine detests everything about being a Shadowhunter, from the training to the danger to the existence of demons, which she deems “smelly and disgusting.” Armed with a razor-edged parasol and an equally sharp tongue, Jessamine can be dangerous if she wants to be — to herself as much as to the supernatural creatures she’s sometimes forced to encounter. She has completed very little of the obligatory Shadowhunder training. In Clockwork Prince, Jessamine betrays the Institute by telling Nate, who tells Mortmain, about what the Institute has been doing to find Mortmain. The Mortal Sword, yes the same one from the Mortal Instruments series, is used on Jessamine and she is sent to the same cell that Jace was locked up in in City of Fallen Angels where she is now jailed. Also, it is known that she was “married” to Nate, Tessa’s older “brother”, but we find out that this is a lie. She is described as “a pocket of Venus” with curled pale blond hair, chocolate brown eyes, and pale skin.

Henry Branwell: Absent-minded and brilliant, Henry spends his waking hours in the crypt of the Institute, inventing fabulous machines and weapons out of cogs, cams and gears. Unfortunately just as many of Henry’s inventions don’t work as the ones that do, and Henry is as likely to set himself on fire as he is to invent something new and amazing. When Tessa finds herself followed by a silent band of assassins who turn out to be automate—human beings made from clockwork parts—it is Henry who must decipher how they work in order to find the demonic mechanical genius at the heart of the most evil plan London’s supernatural world has ever seen. He truly loves Charlotte, despite what he may think. He is described with curly ginger hair and matching hazel-greenish eyes.

Charlotte Branwell: Twenty-three-year-old Charlotte runs the entire Institute with a capable hand. Kind and loving, she does her best to care for the orphaned Shadowhunters who live under her roof whilst hiding her loneliness from the absent-minded husband she loves. It seems as if there’s nothing Charlotte can’t manage — until Tessa’s search for her missing brother begins to uncover a web of corruption and deceit in London’s Downworld that threatens to tear London’s Enclave of Shadowhunters apart. It is referenced that she once had to deal with relatively severe (and rather unladylike) anger issues. At the end of Clockwork Prince, we learn that Charlotte is pregnant with her first child, a boy. She is described with curly dark hair and brown eyes. She is also related to Jocelyn and Clary Morgenstern from the Mortal Instruments.

Nathaniel “Nate” Gray: Tessa’s charming, roguish, and handsome nineteen-year-old brother, whom she has journeyed to London to live with following the death of their Aunt Harriet. She is concerned by his mysterious disappearance, and enlists the aid of the Shadowhunters to help find him. However, the truth behind his disappearance may be more than Tessa can handle. We find out at the end of Clockwork Angel that Nate has been helping Mortmain and deceived the Shadowhunters. In Clockwork Prince, he is “married” to Jessamine, but it turns out to be a fake and has used her to get information about what the Shadowhunters have been doing to find out more about Mortmain. Also, we learn in Clockwork Prince, that he is not related to Tessa since his mother is Aunt Harriet and has disowned her. He dies at the end of Clockwork Prince due to an explosion caused by one of Henry’s inventions used on a robot created by Mortmain. Apparently he still wants Tessa to wear her clockwork necklace, but we are unsure of his motives. Nate is mundane with long blond hair, pale skin, and blue eyes.

Magnus Bane: A beautiful and mysterious and rather flamboyant warlock, enlisted by the Clave to help in their quest to uncover the truth behind Nathaniel Gray’s disappearance. He is in a relationship with the vampire Camille Belcourt but breaks up with her in Clockwork Prince when he founds out that he has been cheating on him with a mundane. He later starts to go out with Woosley Scott, the founder of Preator Lupus. He is also a character in the Mortal Instruments series.

Axel Mortmain: The employer of Nathaniel Gray and Alexei de Quincey, he leads his father’s company for cogs and other such machinery items, making him very wealthy. He later turns out to be the actual Magister, despite being an ordinary mundane. He insists on having made Tessa’s birth possible, claiming she’s his “property”.

Sophie Collins: The Institute’s parlour girl. She is a mundane but aspires to be a Shadowhunter. She is in her late teens, and has a scar down the side of her face from a previous employer. Sophie initially has feelings for Jem, but soon becomes torn about her feelings for Gideon Lightwood, with whom she views a relationship impossible for many reasons, despite an obvious mutual attraction. She has dark hair and matching eyes.

Gideon Lightwood: The eldest son of Benedict Lightwood, Gideon is reserved and passive, unlike his younger brother Gabriel. Gideon first appears in Clockwork Prince after being summoned back from the Institute in Spain to assist in the training of Sophie and Tessa. Gideon dislikes his father’s ways, which while in Spain he learned were not the norm for Shadowhunters. Gideon is infatuated with Sophie. He has sandy-blond hair and stormy green-gray eyes.

Gabriel Lightwood: Benedict’s youngest son, Gabriel is Will’s archrival. He is forced to train Tessa to be a Shadowhunter. He is ignorant of the fact that their father is not behaving the way Shadowhunters should. The reason he hates Will so much is because he embarrassed both Gabriel and his sister, Tatiana, by reading Tatiana’s journal aloud to large group of people during a Christmas party and by breaking Gabriel’s arm in the process. He has dark brown hair and green eyes.

Benedict Lightwood: One of the more influential members of the Clave, Benedict is Gideon and Gabriel’s father. He dabbles in illegal practices and has a preference for Downworlder and demon women; he contracted demon pox at some point in his life and passed it onto his wife. Like Nate, he works for Mortmain in the hopes of receiving the cure for demon pox.

Lady Camille Belcourt: A beautiful, gracious vampire. She has pale blonde curls and a bright red pendant. She aids Tessa and Will in their efforts to capture de Quincey. She is in a relationship with the warlock Magnus Bane and developed a strong hatred towards de Quincey after he brutally murdered her werewolf lover. Camille is also shown in City of Fallen Angels.

Woosley Scott: A werewolf first introduced in Clockwork Prince. As the book progress, we soon find out that after Magnus’s breakup with Camille he is now with Woosley. Woosley is the founder of the Praetor Lupus, the same group that Jordan Kyle from City of Fallen Angels is in in the Mortal Instruments series.

Alexei de Quincey: Another vampire with pale blond hair. He pretends to agree with the Accords, but, in actuality, hates them. He doesn’t like “teaming up” with the Shadowhunters, and in response throws parties and kills humans to ridicule the Accords. He is mistakenly thought of as “the Magister” for a short while and is Nate’s second employer.

Cecily Herondale: Will’s fourteen/fifteen-year-old younger sister that was first mentioned in Clockwork Angel by Will. In Clockwork Prince, she is shown more than once. First, when Will, Jem, and Tessa are in the fields near Ravenscar Manor we see Cecily come out of a carriage and enter the house where Mortmain once lived in. The Herondales now live there. Also, at the very end, Cecily comes to the Institute and asks to be trained as a Shadowhunter. Will describes Cecily as a hard-headed sarcastic girl and Ragnor Fell also describes Cecily “is much like Will.” Cecily is tallish, with dark black hair, pale white skin, red lips, and violet-blue eyes.

Ragnor Fell: A warlock who assists Charlotte in keeping tabs on the Herondale family. He is also in the Mortal Insturments series but dies in City of Glass.