morgenstern

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Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was born to Jocelyn Fairchild & Valentine Morgenstern on April 4th. He is the older brother of Clarissa Morgenstern Clary Fairchild, though he was unaware of his younger sister until he was an adult. During Jocelyn's pregnancy, Valentine gave Jocelyn doses of Lilith's blood as part of his experiments.Jonathan's body bonded well with this blood, & as such he was born with a unique blend of both angelic & demonic traits - most noticeably black eyes & was eerily quiet as a small child This horrified Jocelyn, & became something she couldn't move beyond regarding his firstborn.After the failed Uprising, Valentine, hurt by what he perceived as an ultimate betrayal by his wife & his parabatai (Lucian Graymark), took Jonathan & fled. Valentine faked their deaths by burning down the Fairchild manor with Michael Wayland & his son in their stead, along with Jocelyn's parents, Granville and Adele, to cover his tracks. This lead the Clave to believe the two of them dead, though Jocelyn suspected otherwise.Afterwards, he would go to raise Jonathan in seculsion a remote cabin in Idris. It was during this time that Valentine gave him a chemistry set & taught him the basic laws of physics. He also received his first seraph blade at the age of eight.When he was young, he once asked Valentine about his mother. Valentine told him that his mother left because he was a monster, and that she was never coming back to dissuade him from asking any further. Valentine furthered his psychological abuse and manipulation by telling him that no one except him could ever love a monster like him. This further unbalanced the boy & would lead to severe attachment issues that he would only begin to delve into much later in his adult life.It was also during this time that Valentine took to hitting Jonathan - lashing him in the back with a demon metal-tipped whip to remind him of the "perils of obedience" among other measures meant to mold the boy into his vision of the perfect soldier.While Jonathan was raised by his father secretly & in seclusion - cut off almost entirely from the rest of humanity - he knew of Jace & that Valentine was raising/training for the same purposes. Unlike the other, Jonathan was fully aware of his father's plans & even knew when the other boy finally failed Valentine enough to prompt him to send the boy away.Despite all of his training, & every measure Valentine took to instill control, Jonathan's demonic blood & its influence eventually became uncontrollable in Valentine's eyes. After keeping him shackled in the basement of the cabin out of fear he himself might become the next victim of his son's violent tendencies, Valentine eventually sent him to Edom.Edom & time under LilithHe was greeted by Lilith, in her human form, on his arrival. She introduced herself as her mother as she felt it was her blood that made him something special. In her eyes, this made her more of his mother than Jocelyn could ever be - especially given her absence. She would go on to reshape him in her own image of the perfect son by burning his skin, one layer at a time, & allowing other powerful demons to join in in making him something more akin to their world as his human face was considered too beautiful for their world.The passage of time in Edom is 120x the passage of time in the human realm, causing Jonathan to age significantly between being banished & clawing his way out. His demonic blood guards him against showing the effects of this.These changes didn't just have physical effects - in re-shaping him, Lilith taught him how to draw on the power of his demonic blood while in his natural form. He additionally learned other skills from the masters of hell themselves as Lilith would summon them to act as a sort of demonic tutor for her heir. He would later memorize her exact summoning ritualto use for his own benefit once he made the decision to escape.He spent his years in Hell clinging to memories & hopes of freedom. His incredible willpower coupled with the last vestiges of angelic/nephilim blood was the only thing that helped him retain any shred of his deteriorating humanity, thus allowing him to escape by using his mother's own summoning ritual to call the Greater Demon Azazel out of Duduael & bargain with him.return to earthAfter escaping Edom, Jonathan had hoped his humanity & remanants of his former life would flood back into him & he was bitterly disappointed when this didn't happen. Because of his time in Edom, the cold became wholly unbearable to him.To blend in, Jonathan took the identity of Sebastian Verlac, a Parisian Shadowhunter, & used it to further his personal goals. His endgame was to send his father, along with the Mortal Sword, to Edom as revenge for the torture he endured.Before venturing further into the world he had been forced to leave behind, Jonathan spent some time in the seelie realms, developing a sort of relationship with the seelie queen as he tried to navigate & adjust to his body outside of edom. unknown to him, it was during this time his son, ash, would be conceived.He orchestrated an attack on Isabelle Lightwood by Azazel so he could plausibly bill himself as a hero & someone she could trust. He hoped this would eventually lead to him the doorsteps of the Institute, & after some time, it did with unintended side effects.The more time he spent around the other Nephilim, his long-dormant emotions begun to surface. Being at the Institute also allowed him to meet the younger sister he never knew he had, as well as his own mother, as well, though he kept his identity secret from the two of them.Further complications came to his plan as he began to bond with Clary, helping her overcome the block preventing her from using her runic abilities. Their proximity & his distance from Edom began to trigger further change. The emotions that had felt just out of reach began to fully surface, threatening his own mental stability until he was able to find ways to cope.While he was working through all of this, he managed to win over the trust of others at the Institute & was assigned to the team hunting Valentine. After an attack on Valentine prompted the Clave to arrange for Valentine to be portaled to Idris, Jonathan hijacked the portal & took the two of them away to the remote cabin he had been raised in.While he had Valentine captive in the cabin, Jonathan recounted his time in Edom. Unexpectedly, Valentine took the blame for everything that happened to him & told Jonathan that he grew to regret sending him away. Jonathan refused to believe him & continued to prepare for the ritual that would send Valentine and the Mortal Sword to Edom.This plan came to a grinding halt when Valentine used the Sword to prove the veracity of his statements. Feeling the splinters of emotion clawing their way to the surface, Jonathan abandoned his plan to send him to Edom for the time being & instead returned the two of them to his apartment, currently located in New York.During his time away, Clary & Jace were made aware that the real Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was alive & well by the angel Ithuriel, though they remained ignorant of his cover as Sebastian Verlac. Clary, Izzy, & Jace make it to the cabin only after Jonathan & Valentine have left, are able to find the journal outlining Valentine's experiments on his firstborn son... as well as Jace.Unaware of Jonathan lurking under Sebastian's identity, he helps them work towards finding the Mortal Mirror on their return to the Institute. Watching his father's methods & feeling conflicted as his returning emotions & new-found if unknowing connection to his sister, Jonathan begins to step back from is father once again.Meanwhile, Clary & Jace have begun to suspect Sebastian could be Jonathan Morgenstern. A tense exchange with Valentine deals what would grow to become the fatal blow in the cleaving of their relationship, & Jonathan returns to the Institute. Looking through the memory box in Alec's office that had Jocelyn kept, he's caught by Max & hesitates in striking a fatal blow - allowing the boy to escape.Instead of fleeing, Jonathan makes his way back to the apartment. Stepping inside, he finds what would amount to the final straw in his decision moving forward - a letter from the Seelie Queen, announcing the birth of his son, an event sped up by the variance in the passage of time between realms.remembering the cruelty his own father had shown him as a child, & the torture he had endured at the hands of Lilith, this ultimately would push him to make what would become his most pivotal decision. Cutting Sebastian Verlac, who he'd kept comatose, loose, he allows the other to leave without further harm & remains in the apartment until Clary, Jace, & Izzy arrive.a switch in allegianceAllowing his sister to burn a truth rune into his skin, he tells them that he will officially surrender - to no less than the head of the Institute - once they've stopped Valentine. He's taken back to the Institute & locked into the cells while the others decide how to proceed.With alliances breaking down, & Valentine slipping through every precaution to leave his whereabouts unknown, there's little choice but for Jonathan to be allowed to help Jace & Clary in tracking his father through his blood & the combined strength of Jace & Clary's angelic abilities. Jonathan eventually reveals his father had once had a plan to use the Seelies - something he learned early in his return to Earth - to slip through the wards & head to Lake Lyn with the other two Mortal Instruments.He remained confined to the cells under the Institute while Clary & Jace portaled to Lake Lyn to find Valentine. After the events at Lake Lyn, he was officially placed under what amounted to house arrest with runes placed on his skin to bind him within the Institute & prevent him from touching adamas until his fate could be decided.These runes were later rescinded after an eleven hour interrogation by the Mortal Sword shed light on the horrors he had endured at the hands of Valentine, & the sincerity of his desire to become something better than what his father had tried to make him into - if only for the sake of his own son.He was allowed to return to the New York Institute with his freedom, where he still resides.

Valentine had never planned to send Jonathan to Edom, but when it became apparent his son was out of his perceived control, he made a split-second decision that would have long-lasting consequences. An open portal & a misspoken incantation sent Jonathan hurtling through the realms. He never made. Instead, Lilith poured every ounce of power into her boy, bringing him back to life in the image of what she wanted - the morning star, reborn.All he ever wanted was to make his father proud. Unable to curb the worst of his impulses, Valentine was eventually forced to chain his son to the basement of their remote cabin. Eventually, even that was no longer enough. In an attempt to send Jonathan somewhere his blood could be contained - living up to his promise to Lilith that should Jonathan become something ore than even Valentine anticipated, no harm would come to her son - Valentine sought to send Jonathan to Edom. The ritual went awry, & Jonathan was killed before it could be completed, his blood boiling in his veins before he body vanished.Unbeknownst to Valentine, the ritual was a success. Lilith found her son on the banks of Cocytus & carried him home. Brought back through his blood connection to his mother, & given a taste of the waters of Lethe, Jonathan was reborn. Leaving his humanity behind as the last vestiges of angelic blood dried on the riverbanks, he's become not only the very thing he was taught to hunt, but he has finally grown into his very name itself; a Greater Demon, the Morning Star reborn.

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