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Jaceclean
“How like Downworlders... expecting the Clave to clean your mess up for you.”

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That is love, son of thorns. We welcome its cruelest blows and when we bleed from them, we whisper our thanks.

– The Seelie Queen to Julian, Lord of Shadows

The Queen of the Seelie Court, also simply referred to as the Seelie Queen, is the queen of the faeries of the Seelie Court.

Biography[]

First Heir[]

At one point in the midst of the Seelie Court's war with the Unseelie, she and the Unseelie King had a secret truce and sealed it with a union, and she soon conceived a child. They agreed to have their offspring unite and inherit the Seelie and Unseelie thrones, but when she gave birth to a daughter, Auraline, the King was displeased. Nonetheless, the King kept her with him in his Court, much to the Queen's frustration.

When a prophecy about the First Heir came about, one in which all of Faerie would fall under shadow when they reached their full power, the Queen feared for her, due to being scared of what the King would do given his wrath. Her daughter soon fled their world, seeking refuge in the world of mortals, and the King had her and her family hunted down. The war with the Unseelie Court has since then worsened.[1]

Sides[]

In 2007 the Queen, through her personal knight Meliorn, requested an audience with the Shadowhunters of the New York Institute to discuss the impending war with Valentine Morgenstern. Meliorn used his connection to Isabelle Lightwood to pass the message on through her.

Uoon their arrival, seeing that the apparent siblings Jace and Clary were in love, the Queen then tricked Clary into ingesting food from the Court, thus tethering her to the Court until she decided to let them go. The Queen told her that she would release her if she kissed "whom she most desired", knowing it was Jace.

After their discussion, the Queen agreed to help them should they strike against Valentine, provided Jace asked him about his experiments. Later, after the battle on Valentine's ship, the Queen sent nixies to rescue the Shadowhunters from the river at Jace's request.[2]

Favor[]

Though she had not initially wanted her people to fight in combat for the Nephilim, she eventually came around and sent her people to battle in the Mortal War. Some time after, she showed herself to Clary and asked her for a favor—one she would owe her and return if she needed it in the future. She asked her to suggest to Luke to make Meliorn the Council representative of the fey. Clary refused, not wanting to risk her trickery and insisted that she already had everything she wanted.[3]

Despite Clary's refusal to help, Meliorn was still assigned the Council seat, and the Queen once again offered an exchange of favors with Clary. Through Kaelie, the Queen arranged for Clary to receive a bell that Clary should simply ring once her need for the favor arose. Clary reluctantly accepted the "gift", though she was determined to never ring it.[4]

Dark War[]

After Jace went missing, Clary became desperate enough—just as the Queen had predicted—to come to her and ring the bell. She offered to help Clary and her friends find him if she retrieved a pair of faerie rings—which she claimed to have belonged to her father—from the New York Institute. Clary agreed to do it but decided to keep them to use in her own crusade to save Jace, just as she had expected.

Clary went on to join Jace and Sebastian Morgenstern as a spy. While Clary and Simon, the keeper of one of the stolen rings, used the rings to communicate, the Queen listened in on their plans through her own connection to the rings. She later sent Meliorn to meet Sebastian in Prague to tell him that they will fight with him. The Queen and Sebastian then began to secretly communicate through Clary's ring.[5]

The Seelie Queen, always on the lookout for an opportunity, decided to form an alliance with Sebastian Morgenstern and even began a sexual relationship with him. She supplied Sebastian with necessary information, forces, and other favors. During the siege of the Adamant Citadel, she provided Sebastian with a means to enter the land of the Citadel, to conceal the greater part of his Endarkened force and himself, as well as a means to retreat.

Later, when Jace, Clary, Isabelle, Alec, and Simon secretly Portaled into Faerie to find a way into the demon realm that Sebastian is based out of, they finally discovered from a conversation between the Queen and the leader of the Wild Hunt, Gwyn ap Nudd, that she was allied with Sebastian. When Meliorn alerted her to the presence of the hiding group, she lost her composure and, in a rare instance of emotion showed genuine surprise and anger, and once more when Alec killed Meliorn.

Nevertheless, the Queen agreed to escort the group to the path that would lead them to Edom, knowing that leading them to Sebastian would be taking them to their deaths. At Jace's demand, she promised neither she nor any in her court would by word or deed reveal that the group came to Faerie. After their departure, she used her enchanted fey mirror to contact Sebastian and informed him that the group has left and are on their way, and as fey cannot survive in Edom, he must exact vengeance for them both.

After Sebastian and his army's demise, the fey were left in a tenuous position and were sued for their involvement with Sebastian. Her handmaiden, Kaelie Whitewillow, arrived at the Council meeting as the new Faerie representative. On behalf of the Seelie Court, she was forced to agree to a humiliating and crippling peace treaty for the faeries, with their only advocate against the unfair terms being the warlock representative Magnus Bane.[6]

Some time after, the Queen seemingly vanished,[7][8] having remained secluded in her Court for years.[9]

Cold Peace[]

In 2012, the Queen finally showed herself to the Shadowhunters who spent the night in her Court after escaping the Unseelie Court with the King's son, prisoner, and execution candidate Kieran. She first sought out Julian Blackthorn, who could be the hardest to convince without her scheming. Wanting to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead, she convinced Julian of taking her deal by showing him, through her scrying glass, what was happening outside the Faerie lands; his uncle Arthur Blackthorn had confronted Malcolm Fade and Julian watched the warlock kill Arthur and successfully resurrect Annabel Blackthorn, only to be killed by her. The Queen explained her reasons for showing that to him, and surprised and further convinced him by revealing that she knew of his feelings for Emma Carstairs and also knew of a way to break the parabatai bond.

The next day, the Queen spoke with the rest of the Shadowhunters and offered them a bargain; in exchange for finding and retrieving the Black Volume in order for her to rescue a stolen member of her Court from the Unseelie King, she would pledge her aid to the Clave to help them defeat him. As the Clave would not refuse her help, this would result in the Cold Peace being ended, and Helen Blackthorn returned from exile. She then appointed Kieran as her envoy to convince the Clave and suggested Adaon as the future King of the Unseelie Court when they defeat and dethrone the current king. Swayed by the potential outcomes she raised, they agreed, and the Queen led them to a group of faerie steeds waiting to take them home.

As the Shadowhunters were leaving, the Queen made a remark about Mark and Kieran to Emma, who turned on her and stated that she was untrustworthy. Surprised by Emma's remarks, the Queen let her anger and viciousness show and retorted about Emma's desire to protect the Blackthorns the way she wasn't able to save her parents. Emma calmly confirmed her statement, not insulted, and left the Queen's presence.[9]

A few days later, the Queen's subjects Fergus and Nene spotted Julian and Emma making their way towards the Seelie Court. They requested an audience with the Queen, claiming to have a copy of the Black Volume for her as agreed upon. What he presented the Queen with was a photo-copied manuscript of the Black Volume; as well as a request for help in locating Annabel in Faerie rather than the previous terms as many of them were no longer needed. While the book was being inspected she asked for Emma to leave so that she may speak with Julian alone and tell him how to break all parabatai bonds—doing so to hopefully weaken their armies. Once alone she taunted him at first and then told him the effort was useless as the only way to destroy the bonds was with the Mortal Sword which was now broken.

After she dismissed him, the Queen betrayed their agreement, considering it to be null and void since he did not give her the original copy of the book. She made plans for a procession to bring her to the Unseelie Tower, where she would trade the book to the Unseelie King for her son Ash Morgenstern—whom he had kidnapped some time ago—back.

The King attempted to try to get the Queen to join in his plan and allow him to keep her son, to use the Black Volume on him to make him powerful enough to help rid the world of Shadowhunters. Despite her distaste for Shadowhunters, the Queen refused wishing only for her son's return. While he continued to try to persuade her, Annabel grabbed Ash and dashed into the Portal to Thule. Enraged that he had caused the second of her children to their death, she flung herself at the King and stabbed him. Following a fight, as the King lay dying from an elf bolt thrown by Kieran, the Queen chose to steal one of his other sons, Adaon, in revenge.

Janus[]

Though the Queen felt victorious since the King's death and in having his favored son now as a close adviser and friend, she was still stricken in grief over the loss of Ash. However, soon Ash was returned to her by the Jace Herondale of Thule. He arrived in her courts and asked only that he may remain with Ash while he grows up and her assistance in him getting Clary.[10]

The Queen happily obliged: answering all his questions about Clary and the others and granting he and Ash a house far from both courts and prying eyes, to keep her son safe and secret, where he could remain as his guard. Yet as time passed, Janus—the new name Jace of Thule had chosen by her request—realized he would not be able to easily swap places with the Jace of this world as he had thought. He lashed out at the Queen claiming she knew his plans would fail all along and did not warn him, but she simply smiled and helped him craft new, more destructive, plans.[11]

Personality[]

She likes to be on the winning side of things, the Seelie Queen.

Sebastian to Clary about the Seelie Queen, City of Lost Souls

As a faerie, the Seelie Queen displays her people's nature of manipulating quite well, wherein since they cannot lie, they weave words together without giving the whole truth, leading others to give in to the faeries' demands. She is the type of woman to manipulate people from the shadows, and while many, including Nephilim and some Downworlders, view her as a villain, she does what she thinks is right for her people.

She sees no point in liking things or people—she knows the value of both loving and hating but simply liking has no use for the Queen.[3] Her interactions with Jace and Clary, and Julian and Emma, show that it gives her some level of pleasure to mess with people who are in love, playing tricks on them for no purpose other than to show them the extent of her power and knowledge.

However, despite her initial statements and view on love, the Queen has showcased several instances of genuine affection, love and attachment to others. This is fully seen in her maternal love and care for her two children, Ash and Auraline. She was seen to have stopped at nothing in order to retrieve Ash after he was taken by the Unseelie King, expressed deep despair and pain upon him being sent to Thule, and showcased immense joy seeing him returned to her by Janus. Later, the Queen was seen to show genuine longing and pain when talking about her daughter, Auraline, and was implied to feel immense sadness upon her death. As seen when she expressed immense anger and contempt for the Unseelie King due to his part in getting their daughter exiled and blamed him for her death. The Queen was also known to have genuinely liked and cared for her knight Meliorn and expressed visible pain and grief upon him being killed.

Physical description[]

The Queen is said to be a majestic, beautiful slender woman with long scarlet hair, and clear, blue eyes. She has slightly pointed ears like most faeries.

By 2012, the Queen has grown thin to the point of gauntness, though she is still beautiful, and wears an intricate golden circlet for a crown.[9]

Skills and abilities[]

  • Magic: As a faerie, the Queen has access to the strange and old magic unique to their species. She is also able to cast powerful glamours and enchantments on herself and others that even the Sight has trouble piercing.
  • Longevity: Like all full-blooded fey, the Seelie Queen is extremely long-lived and seemingly ageless. Though not immortal, she can live for hundreds upon hundreds of years and has the ability to choose when she will die.[1]
  • Strategic mindset: Having been the Queen of Seelie as long as she has, she has remarkable skill at navigating the diplomatic workings of the world and strategizing her every move. Being long-lived, the Queen plays a very long game when it comes to getting revenge and striking against others.

Relationships[]

Allies[]

The Seelie Queen had both an alliance and a sexual relationship with Sebastian Morgenstern during the emerging Dark War. She noted that he was her first mortal lover in ages—and the first in a long time to make her smile. She regarded their relationship as a lovers' relationship, though one in which they each kept a dagger at one another's backs, ready to stab and betray if needed.

It's unclear if the Queen actually loved him or mourned his death but she did later bear his child. She gave him his father's last name and did everything in her power to keep him safe from the Nephilim.

The Seelie Queen was one of Meliorn's few true allies. Despite the fact that he was half-human, the Seelie Queen took a liking to him and made it known that he was welcome at her court, which he never would have had without her. She treated him as a full faerie—better, even—and swiftly punished anyone who treated him badly. The Seelie Queen is known for being cruel, but this was one instance in which she showed something close to kindness, and Meliorn repaid her with his undying loyalty.[12] She was visibly distraught at his death.

Though she initially kidnapped the prince Adaon out of spite and revenge against the Unseelie King, the Queen quickly grew fond of him and he became one of her most trusted advisors. It is rumored that the pair are sleeping together and Adaon believes he can use this relationship to convince her to become cordial with his brother Kieran as the new King of Unseelie.

Jace Herondale of Thule appeared in her courts to return her son Ash to her. Grateful, she granted what he wished from her—a place to live with Ash in solitude and her assured help in claiming the Clary of this world for his own. He later changed his mind on the latter plan, and the Queen agreed to a partnership of sorts. He now hunts for her while being something of a guardian for her son.

Family[]

The Queen has great love for her son. She spent his early years raising him in secret and away from most people in order to keep him safe. When he was kidnapped by the King of Unseelie, she tried to rescue him. Eventually she was able to obtain what the King wanted in exchange for Ash but the King had no intent on returning him. When he was pulled through a Portal to another world by Annabel Blackthorn, she became enraged and violently attacked the King, before returning to her court to mourn him.

She was grateful to have him returned by Janus but secluded him once more, further away from her, to keep him protected.

The Queen loved her first child greatly and mourned her long after her disappearance. She never forgave the King for his response to his daughter or his actions that took her away from her.

Gallery[]

See more here

Appearances[]

Trivia[]

  • The Queen can be deprived of her powers if her crown is ever stolen.[8]

References[]

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