Steles are the tools used by Shadowhunters to draw runes onto their skin, weapons, and other materials. They are made of adamas and crafted by the Iron Sisters.
Description
Steles look like long, slender twigs, though the length and style vary and may depend on the owner's preferences. There are many different models of steles, the appearance evolving depending on the times. Steles have a sort of aura to them, a ghostly imprint of their owner's personality.[1]
Since steles are not designed to be used in direct battle against demons, steles do not harm them, though demons tend to recoil when exposed to a stele due to the material it is made of—the heavenly metal adamas.
Only Shadowhunters can use steles to create Marks; steles will not even produce a line when used by mundanes or Downworlders, but it will cause no harm to them.[2]
History
The first stele is believed to have been a rough oblong of adamas used by Jonathan Shadowhunter to inscribe the first Marks on his own skin.[2]
In 2007, Luke gave Clary Fray her mother's stele while the latter was still in a magically-induced coma,[3] but Clary ultimately lost it when she accidentally Portaled into Lake Lyn in Idris.[4]
Gallery
TV series
Steles used by different characters in Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments.
Film
Steles used by different characters in the The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
