Esme Hardcastle, formerly Esme Philpott, is an Ascended Shadowhunter from the early 1900s.
Biography[]
Academy[]
In 1899, Esme was one of the first students who James Herondale met on his first day at the Academy. She joined James and another mundane student, Mike Smith, in the dining hall when she overheard that James's mother had been raised a mundane, incorrectly assuming that she Ascended. She curiously asked him about her Ascension, and he deflected the question by talking about his aunt's Ascension instead.
Esme expressed interest in changing her name—even her first name, which is not typical or necessary after Ascension.
During the following weeks at the Academy, she and Mike became friends with James, keeping him company during lessons when he had nobody to sit with. However, after James showed his ability to Change into a shadow, both Esme and Mike began avoiding him and whispering behind his back. When James began to spend more time with everybody's favorite Shadowhunter Matthew Fairchild, however, Esme apologized to James for her and Mike's behavior. She also asked him to put it a good word about her to Matthew as she apparently liked him. She later visited him at the infirmary when James got expelled and promised to "look him up" once she had become a Shadowhunter.[1]
Ascension[]
She later Ascended and joined the London Enclave.
In 1903, Esme attended the engagement party for James and Cordelia Carstairs at the London Institute, where she danced several dances with Thomas Lightwood.[2]
After her Ascension, she began thoroughly researching the history of the London Enclave for a book. In the process, she became known to annoy people at parties by demanding information about their family history.[3] At Rosamund Wentworth and Thoby Baybrook's engagement party in December 1903, she was seen telling a disinterested Piers Wentworth about said book.[4]
Appearances[]
- Nothing but Shadows (first appearance)
- Chain of Gold (mentioned only)
- Chain of Iron
- Chain of Thorns
Trivia[]
- In writing her book about the London Enclave's history, she asks people extremely personal questions that annoys them and makes them end up lying to her. By writing this down and including their incorrect future plans, it seems to have resulted in the inaccurate found family tree.[5]