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This article depicts a subject within the The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones film, and as such, it either does not play a role within or differs largely from the established continuity and canon of the books of The Shadowhunter Chronicles. |
The Mortal Cup is one of the Mortal Instruments—the holy objects of the Shadowhunters.
Description[]
The Cup is a golden and glass chalice, the size of a wineglass.
Purpose[]
Shadowhunters can be made by drinking from the Mortal Cup.
History[]
Early history[]
Painting in the New York Institute depicting the angel pouring its blood inside the Mortal Cup
The legend goes that the crusaders summoned the angel Raziel who poured his blood into a cup and those who drank from it became half angel, half human: Shadowhunters. Their succeeding generations would be as well.
Drinking from the Cup gave them powerful abilities with the purpose of restoring balance and protecting the world in the war against evil. However, it did not make them immortal.
Stolen[]
The Clave, being the keepers of the Cup, was afraid to use its power, since they knew very few survived using it.
Valentine Morgenstern gathered a group of young Shadowhunters, who he denominated the Circle to help him steal the Mortal Cup from the Clave. His purpose for stealing it wasn't to protect humanity but because he believed Shadowhunters should evolve into more powerful beings. So he began experimenting: first with the Mortal Cup and then by summoning demons and injecting himself with demon blood in order to control them. Jocelyn Fray, his wife, in an effort to prevent things from getting worse, stole the Mortal Cup from him and disappeared for many years.
Due to the Cup being gone for so long, Shadowhunters were suffering as their ranks diminished.
Hidden in New York City[]
Jocelyn and her daughter, Clary Fray, were the only ones who knew where the Mortal Cup was. However, since Jocelyn had hired Magnus Bane to protect Clary by casting a spell to block her memories, the latter did not remember the Cup's location.
One night, while Clary was at the New York Institute studying runes, she accidentally made the cup of tea she was drinking into a drawing. She was able to reach inside the paper and take out the cup from it, holding the real cup in her hands again. Hodge Starkweather, who had been watching her, told her Jocelyn was the only other person with that ability.
The tarot deck where the Mortal Cup was hidden in the Ace of Cups.
That's when she realized Jocelyn hid the cup by turning it to a drawing and putting it in the Ace of Cups tarot card of the tarot deck she had painted and gifted Madame Dorothea, their neighbor. Clary then went to Dorothea's house and was able to reach into the tarot card and pull out Mortal Cup. After being attacked by a possessed Dorothea, Clary put the Mortal Cup inside the tarot card again to protect it.
Back at the institute, Clary gives Hodge the Mortal Cup. He then uses the Institute's Portal to let Valentine in and give him the Mortal Cup. In order to verify it's the real Mortal Cup Valentine poured some of his blood inside it and watched as it formed an angelic rune. He then commanded Clary to drink from the Cup. Clary took the Cup from him as if she was going to drink from it, but instead quickly returned it into the tarot card.
Valentine attempted to force her to take it out but she refused. When Valentine was about to kill Jace Wayland, Clary threatened to send the Mortal Cup through the Institute's Portal to a location only known to her. She then gives him the Cup but kicks him into the Portal.
As it later turned out, Clary had kept the tarot card with the real Mortal Cup safe inside her jacket pocket and she had given Valentine only a replica.
Trivia[]
Statue of the angel Raziel holding the Mortal Cup in the library of the New York Institute.
- There is a replica of the Mortal Cup in the New York Institute.
- There is a statue of the angel Raziel holding the Mortal Cup in the library of the New York Institute.