| “ | He has always been his own worst enemy, seemingly determined to ruin his own life. | ” |
–Cordelia about Alastair, Chain of Iron | ||
Alastair Carstairs is the son of Elias and Sona Carstairs, and the older brother of Cordelia.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Alastair and Cordelia were very close as children, since their family was always moving and never stayed in one place long enough to make friends. At a young age Alastair became aware of his father's alcoholism and took on the responsibility of cleaning up after him and fetching him when he passed out in a tavern. Alastair and his mother agreed to hide this from his sister so that she could have a childhood and respect her father as he never could. When Elias was hung over or particularly inebriated, he would tell her Elias was ill and then direct her attention elsewhere.
Academy days[]
At the Shadowhunter Academy, Alastair found himself the victim of bullying; the other kids often mocked him for countless reasons including his family's constant moving. Eventually he came to the decision that the best way not to be bullied was to become the bully; though he later confided to his sister that he hated it.[1]
So when James Herondale came to the Academy in 1899,[3] during his last year at the Academy,[4] Alastair and his friends immediately began terrorizing him and other family friends that were also new students: Matthew Fairchild, Christopher and Thomas Lightwood. Alastair mostly bullied James, pointing out his odd, yellow eyes and giving him the nickname "Goatface Herondale" that stuck with the boy for weeks.
After James's ability to Change into a shadow was revealed to the whole school, Alastair and his friends decided to play a prank on him. During one of the training missions in the Brocelind Forest, they placed a bigger rogue Vetis demon into the Pyxis that was only supposed to contain a small, harmless demon. The prank went horribly wrong, however, when his friend Clive Cartwright was killed by the demon. Alastair and their other friend freaked out and hid but was pursued by James in his shadow form, who then threatened Alastair with a sword. James then scared the pair enough to make them flee.
Afterwards, James was expelled for their misdoing. Alastair approached James as he was about to leave the Academy and begrudgingly apologized.[3] His father did not arrive at the Academy after the incident, whereas most of the students' parents came in concern. Matthew, James's friend who had been with him when they saw Clive's corpse, found him with Thomas later that day. In his frustration, Alastair sent Thomas away so he could taunt Matthew with a disgusting rumor he'd apparently heard: that Matthew was Gideon Lightwood's bastard with Charlotte Fairchild.[4] Matthew enacted his revenge—for James and for himself—by placing all of Alastair's belongings in the south wing, which he and Christopher had just rigged with explosives.[3]
Post-graduation[]
At one point, Brother Zachariah, a former Carstairs reached out to him. Alastair rejected him,[5] making it clear that he should stay detached even from them and stick to his life as a Silent Brother.[4]
For his travel year, Alastair chose to go to Paris because he remembered the city as somewhere he and Cordelia had been happy growing up.[5] There he met Charles Fairchild, who was managing the Paris Institute at the time, and fell in love with him. The two had agreed to keep their relationship secret, as Charles wanted to secure his political career. Shortly before he was set to leave, Alastair ran into Thomas Lightwood who was taking a small break in his travel year. The two spent some time together and seemed to enjoy each other's company, parting on fairly friendly terms.
Move to London[]
In 1903, Elias was arrested and awaiting trial in Idris. In order to save the family from disgrace, Sona moved the family to London to make powerful relationships with the influential families there. While Cordelia busied herself with attempts to try to prove her father's innocence, Alastair scoffed at her—believing them to be useless and their father guilty—and focused his efforts on politics; attending all of the local Enclave's meetings.
He also spent his time with Charles. Alastair began to grow frustrated with keeping their relationship secret and upset that Charles seemed to plan to follow through with a marriage to Ari Bridgestock. Though he still believed Charles—even after ending his engagement to Ari while she was unconscious and engaging himself to Grace Blackthorn—that he was doing it all for them to be together.
Luckily he was at Charles's estate when Thomas arrived asking to use the laboratory. Charles had initially denied him entry but Alastair insisted he be let in. He stayed behind from the Enclave meeting and helped Thomas make the antidote to the Mandikhor poisoning. Upon their arrival at Highgate Cemetery, he found Cordelia badly injured with a broken leg. As others began to arrive, Alastair picked up his sister and carried her to the carriage to return home.
At some point Alastair informed the Clave of Sona's pregnancy. Given Cordelia's status as a hero as well as an expectant baby, they decided to resolve Elias's charges. Following Cordelia's announcement that she was engaged to James, Alastair decided to end things with Charles and wrote him a letter. At the engagement party, when confronted by Charles, Alastair explained that he did not want to hide anymore and he realized Charles would never love him more than his career. Later at the party he tried to befriend Matthew and the others but Matthew would not hear of it, ignoring Thomas's protests. Matthew informed the others of the rumors Alastair had spread about him being Gideon's bastard and Thomas told him never to speak to him again. Alastair fled the ballroom crying.[1]
Over the coming months, Alastair kept his distance from the Merry Thieves and focused on supporting his family: his sister with her upcoming marriage and his mother with her pregnancy. When his father finally came home, Alastair was not welcoming and made no attempt to hide it. Regardless, he still found himself covering for his father's relapse at Cordelia's wedding. In the following weeks, Alastair took over the duties of his family and made appearances at social gatherings while he making excuses for his parents' absences.
Murders[]
It soon became evident that a murderer was plaguing the Shadowhunters of London, and new precautions were put in place to protect those patrolling. At some point, Alastair became aware that Thomas was ignoring these initiatives and going out on his own and not reporting it. Worried about his recklessness, Alastair began following Thomas whenever he went out alone, keeping his distance as best he could as not to be discovered.
Not long after, news came that Elias was the latest victim of the murders. Because of their unresolved issues, Alastair had mixed feelings about his death and felt he couldn't mourn him properly. Instead, he took it upon himself to be the support his mother and sister needed in the situation. It also gave him the new mission to be everything his father now couldn't be for his future sibling.
Some nights later, while following Thomas, he came across the scene of Lilian Highsmith's death. He then saw Inquisitor Bridgestock arrest him and he followed them back to the Institute. There he eventually made himself known and spoke of his knowledge of the other's innocence. It was then decided by the Consul that both boys would be held in the Sanctuary overnight so that they may be questioned in the morning by the Mortal Sword. The boys talked through the night, working through some of their issues and confessing their feelings for one another. This resulted in them kissing for the remaining majority of the evening.
The next morning, Tom was tried by the sword and proved their innocence. As the Inquisitor began ranting about how they could still be at fault, the Institute was attacked by the Prince of Hell Leviathan. They rushed out to the courtyard to fend him off, Alastair fighting alongside Christopher and even saving Thomas at one point. The battle did not last long, as the gateway the demon had slipped through closed, and the group returned inside for an Enclave meeting. While James recounted his story of finding and stopping the murderer, Alastair couldn't help but comment to his sister that he felt they were hiding something, though he did not press for information. They were interrupted by Matthew telling Alastair that his brother was badly injured and requesting to see him. Alastair reluctantly agreed to visit Charles but was waylaid on his way to the infirmary by Thomas. Thomas expressed concern about him but Alastair broke things off between them, stating that his friends justly hated him and he did not want Thomas to have to choose between the two.
That night, Alastair packed a bag to spend the night with Charles in the infirmary. While doing so, he was asked by Cordelia to hold on to Cortana. Though he had rejected her asking before when she was feeling unworthy, he agreed this time.[6]
London Under Siege[]
In the days that followed, Alastair continued to avoid Thomas while caring for Charles. While on his way to the Lightwood house, a piece of burning paper materialized in front of Alistair calling him an idiot. Alastair realized it was from Thomas, who was experimenting the invention of fire-messages.
While riding the carriage together, Thomas and Alastair talked out their problems and reaffirmed their feelings for one another moments before they realized something was wrong with the city. Cyril mysteriously walked off despite their calls, and all mundanes and Downworlders fell into a weird trance.
When the Shadowhunters all agreed to retreat to Idris rather than stay behind to fight, Thomas, Alastair and the rest of their friends remained behind. Thomas and Alastair were tasked with patrolling the city while the others worked on their separate missions. Alastair was injured during battle against a Watcher, but they figured out a way to force the demon out of a body in the process.
Alastair was there to help Cordelia break through the horde of Watchers in order to reach James, who was now possessed by Belial. In the time that followed Belial's defeat, London was freed. Alastair and Cordelia met their newborn brother, Zachary. Alastair was so fond of his baby brother that he was often found holding or playing with him. In the months that followed, Alastair decided to relocate to Tehran with Sona and Zachary. Thomas decided to join him, to his joy.[7]
Personality[]
Alastair has an abrasive personality. During his time at the Academy, he turned into a bully, rather than allow himself to be picked on; which took him a while to come back from, though he is trying. Still quick to anger and often aloof, Alastair does not have many friends and keeps mostly to himself.
However, he is also fiercely protective of the people he cares about; as shown by his attempts to cover up their father's alcoholism for Cordelia and his attempts to dissuade her from becoming romantically involved with James.
Physical description[]
Alastair has brown skin, expressive eyebrows, black eyes, and black hair that he typically dyes blond. By the end of summer of 1903, he had decided to dye it back to black.
Skills and abilities[]
- Nephilim physiology: Being Nephilim, Alastair possesses a myriad of enhanced physical and mental abilities granted to him by the blood of Raziel in his veins and also by the angelic Marks of the Gray Book. This includes enhanced strength, agility, stamina, coordination, and many others which improve over time and practice.
- Runic magic: Due to the angel Raziel's 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.
- The Sight: As a Shadowhunter, Alastair is able to easily see through most magical illusions and layers of glamour over reality.
- Use of heavenly weapons: As a Nephilim, Alastair is also able to handle heavenly weapons with effect, since this would normally not work for other species. In particular, these are weapons made of adamas and forged by Iron Sisters, such as seraph blades.
Possessions[]
- Daggers: Alastair collects daggers. According to Cordelia, they are the only beautiful thing she recalls him paying special attention to. Most are inlaid with stones or designs.
- Pishqabz: This particular dagger he has on display above his washstand and is carved from a single piece of ivory.
- Khanjar: He also has a khanjar dagger that has an inscription in Persian which reads: "I wanted so much to have a gleaming dagger, that each of my ribs became a dagger." This blade passed to him from his mother's family.
- Spears: Aside from daggers, Alastair’s other primary weapon are spears. His collection of spears contains some that can be folded up and easily kept inside one’s pockets or coat lining. He claims to never leave home without one.
- Other basic Shadowhunter gear, including: steles, seraph blades, and a witchlight.
Relationships[]
Romance[]
| “ | And you can have whatever you wish, Charles. You just cannot also have me. I wish to live my life, not hide in the shadows as you engage yourself to a series of women in an attempt to conceal who you really are. If you choose that for yourself, it is your choice, but you cannot choose for me. | ” |
–Alastair to Charles when ending their romantic relationship., Chain of Gold | ||
Alastair and Charles met some time before 1901. They truly fell in love in Paris, although they flirted prior to that. They agreed to keep their relationship a secret in order to protect Charles's political career. When Charles became engaged to Ari Bridgestock, Alastair stayed with him; believing him when he said it was a temporary political alliance and that it would not actually lead to marriage. However, as time passed and Alastair noticed Ari expected the marriage to follow through, Alastair began to doubt Charles's insistent claims that it was all so they could be together. When Charles became engaged once again to Grace Blackthorn, knowing how much it would hurt him, Alastair realized that Charles only cared about his career and broke up with him. He avoided him when he came by the house and at his sister's engagement party, he told him off for good.
Over the next months, Charles sent him a number of letters but Alastair threw them away unopened.
At Rosamund Wentworth's engagement party Charles tried to approach Alastair but Cordelia intervened when she noticed her brother's unwillingness. A few weeks later, after Charles narrowly escaped getting killed by Belial, he requested to see Alastair in the infirmary, and after some persuasion from Matthew, Alastair agreed.
Alastair and Thomas in the Sanctuary
| “ | I didn't see you—you were this boy, following me around at school, and then I met you in Paris and you'd grown up and turned into Michelangelo's David. I thought you were beautiful. | ” |
–Alastair to Thomas, Chain of Iron | ||
Alastair and Thomas first met at the Shadowhunter Academy. At the time, Thomas looked up to Alastair and followed him around, much to Alastair's annoyance. Years later, they met again in Paris during their travel years. They spent several days together seeing the sights and chatting over meals. They parted ways on decent terms.
The following year, during the investigation of the Mandikhor demon attacks, Thomas and Alastair worked together and grew even closer. However, during James and Cordelia's engagement party, Matthew told everyone about the rumors Alastair had spread involving Thomas's father and Charlotte Fairchild, as well as a few unsavory comments he'd made about his mother. Though Alastair tried to apologize, Thomas threatened to throw Alastair into the Thames if he ever spoke to him again. Hurt, Alastair ran away crying.
After keeping his distance for months, he approached Thomas at Cordelia's wedding reception. He was not well received and only Cordelia's reprimanding diffused the situation and prevented Thomas from going through with his earlier threats.
For the next few weeks, Alastair trailed Thomas—who was patrolling unofficially to find the serial killer of London—without letting the latter know. When Thomas was arrested as a suspect, Alastair snuck behind them into the Institute and declared that he had been following Thomas all along and could attest to his innocence. The pair were kept in the Sanctuary overnight, where Thomas confronted him about his behavior. They had an eye-opening discussion about Alastair's time at the Academy—him originally being bullied by the older class and turning into a bully to avoid being targeted again, envying the Merry Thieves for their friendship and subsequently carrying forward rumors. Eventually they both expressed their attraction to one another and shared their first kiss.
The next morning, after being proven innocent, they fought Leviathan together. Post battle, Alastair went to see Charles on the latter's request, but not before telling Thomas that they could not pretend all that had happened in the past hadn't occurred and that he would not force Thomas to choose between his friends and Alastair.Family[]
| “ | You have no idea what I've done for my sister. | ” |
–Alastair to James Herondale, Chain of Gold | ||
Growing up, Alastair and Cordelia were very close, since they traveled a lot and had few friends. Alastair looks out for his sister and attempted to shield Cordelia from the truth about their father's alcoholism, wanting her to have a more carefree childhood and a better respect for Elias.
Though the pair may bicker, Cordelia and Alastair support one another wholeheartedly. Once Cordelia learned about his sexuality and relationship with Charles, she wanted him to know that she accepted him. She later stood by his side during their break-up and helped him stand up to Charles on more than one occasion. Alastair in turn supported her through her love for James, and offered to beat him up should he hurt her. When their father came home, they did their best to be there for one another in their mixed feelings with him, and later, with his death.
In December 1903, Cordelia came to her brother with feelings of unworthiness in regards to her sword Cortana. Alastair reassured her that her worries were for nothing as she was definitely worthy of her blade and that if there was an issue, it was with the sword not her. She accepted this but later came back to him confirming she was not worthy. He once again tried to put her doubts aside but eventually agreed to her request that he hold on to the blade for her for a bit.
| “ | It had been a long time since he had felt an uncomplicated love for his father, but there was no ease in knowing that. | ” |
–Alastair after Elias's death, Chain of Iron | ||
Alastair had a tense relationship with his father. He views him as weak for his alcoholism and does not respect him. He resents him for having put such responsibilities on himself at a young age like fetching him when he passed out in a gutter and cleaning up his messes.
Still Alastair did his best to hide this from his younger sister, wanting her to have a chance at a good childhood and the opportunity to love her father since he couldn't.
At Elias's return on the day of Cordelia's wedding, he was disgruntled and made no attempt to hide it. He was embarrassed when Elias had a drunken episode at her reception party but steered him away before he could ruin the event. During his time at home in the coming weeks, Alastair did not bite his tongue when it came to his feelings about his father; even pointing out at a family dinner how Elias's past achievements that he repeatedly boasted about no longer held value as a result of what became of him.
Elias's death left Alastair with even more complicated feelings towards him. Though he felt he couldn't mourn him and seemed to feel some relief and anger at his death, he was still saddened he'd never see him again and that the baby would never know its father. With his loss came a stronger need to protect and care for his future sibling.
Alastair and his mother are fairly close; at least compared to his relationship with his father. The pair are often conspiring on what to do about Elias and how best to protect Cordelia. Sona confides in her son and shares more with him than she does with her daughter, despite her viewing them both as children. She relies on Alastair to act as the man of the house and go to Enclave meetings and the like.
After Elias's death, he supported and comforted her, and took on all of Elias's responsibilities.
At the Academy, Alastair was rather awful to James, bullying him relentlessly for his lineage and demonic eyes. His comments made James's life hellish there and inspired others to join in. His taunts also extended to James's only friends, and went on to result in a malicious trick that caused Alastair's own friend to die and have James be blamed. While James and his friends carried much hatred towards him for years to come, Alastair did not resent them; in fact, he was jealous of them and regretted his own actions.
Eventually, James seemingly forgave Alastair and the pair tried to bury the hatchet when they became brothers-in-law, forming some semblance of a friendship. Alastair even confided in him about his frustration in trying to make amends for his past but not being allowed the opportunity and James offered his advice. Later on, Alastair would go as far as to side with James against his sister's upset.Appearances[]
- Cast Long Shadows (appeared in flashback)
- Nothing but Shadows (first appearance)
- Chain of Gold
- Chain of Iron
- Chain of Thorns
- Better in Black (set to appear)
- Secrets of Blackthorn Hall (mentioned only)
Gallery[]
- See more here
Trivia[]
- Alastair reads mundane newspapers to find hints of demonic activity.[3]
- His favorite book is The Prince by Machiavelli.[2]
- Like many Shadowhunters, Alastair is multilingual. Primarily he speaks English and Persian, but he is also able to at least read Sanskrit, Urdu, Tamil, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Old English, some Malay, and a bit of Coptic.[7]
- During his childhood, Alastair and Cordelia shared a common interest in architecture. Inspired by their last name, the two collaborated to build castles out of wooden blocks.[8]
- Cordelia loved scaring him when they were younger, specifically by grabbing his ankle while hidden under his bed, resulting in an ongoing habit of Alastair's to look under beds before getting within an arm's length of them.[8]
- Alastair's middle name, Esfandiyār, is a hero in the Persian mythology book Shāhnāmeh. Interestingly, his sister's middle name is the name of this character's mother.
- His father calls him by his middle name as Alastair used to love hearing Elias read him stories from this book as a child.[6]
- His favorite animal is a hedgehog.[2]
- Alastair, like Jem, has a love of music;[5] growing up he sung and played piano.[1]
- When he is lying, he can no longer look someone in the eye.[1]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Chain of Gold
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Alastair Character Card — Cassandra Clare on Instagram
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Nothing but Shadows
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cast Long Shadows
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Q&A Alastair stuff — Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chain of Iron
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chain of Thorns
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters & Denizens of Downworld
- ↑ "Found" family tree, a Clockwork Princess extra
- ↑ ultimate monster alastair and thomas post — Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 q&a tlh, cls, gostm — Cassandra Clare on Tumblr