- "I don't think you don't believe you can die. I think, just like I always did, you believe there are things worth dying for. You tell Valentine he'll never have the Cup!"
Jocelyn Fray is the very beautiful, warm, protective, and bold mother of Clary Fray and, formerly, wife of notorious Circle leader Valentine Morgenstern.
According to her friend Hodge Starkweather, Jocelyn was originally one of the best active Shadowhunters to have ever lived and a member of the Circle with her husband, but after discovering her husband's heinous and cruel acts, she abandoned the cause and became a key orchestrator against the Uprising.
Turning her back on the life of a Shadowhunter, Jocelyn escaped the life of Shadowhunters to live a safe mundane life in New York for over a decade, hoping she could likve in peace with her daughter, Clary, so she could protect her.
Her kidnapping sets her daughter off on a quest in the world of demon hunting with mysterious Shadowhunter Jace and her best friend Simon.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Jocelyn Fairchild was born to Adele Nightshade and Granville Fairchild II. She grew up an only child in the Fairchild manor in Idris, where she developed a close friendship with Lucian Graymark, as well Lucian's older sister, Amatis.
When they were old enough, she and Lucian went to Alicante to attend Shadowhunter Academy and complete their training. During this time, Jocelyn became good friends with Madeleine Bellefleur. Jocelyn was a natural Shadowhunter, while Lucian struggled and found great difficulty in his training until he began training with Valentine Morgenstern, a popular student who was a year older than them.
Meeting Valentine[]
When many of the students began to flock to Valentine, Jocelyn joked that the Circle consisted of a bunch of fanatics—that the group was "Valentine's fan club". However, when Valentine's father died, Jocelyn and Valentine grew closer; Jocelyn was around sixteen when she fell in love with him. The pair got engaged soon after and married when she was eighteen after school. Though her parents were still slightly disappointed that she opted to marry so early, everyone was still happy for her, as they thought Valentine was a good man. Her friend Madeleine, though, saw through Valentine's facade and expressed her doubts as soon as she was told about their engagement, which Jocelyn dismissed as mere jealousy.
The couple moved into her family's manor and lived happily for the first few years of their marriage. Circle meetings continued, and through it all, Valentine told Jocelyn that he needed her presence and opinions in the group; though she knew Valentine was merely flattering her. Eventually, she became pregnant, and both were thrilled.
A member of the Circle during its formative years, Jocelyn was married to its leader Valentine Morgenstern. However, Jocelyn had already began to notice Valentine's strange behavior and his activities beneath their house; she noticed him staying in their cellars for extended periods of time and heard cries and screams in their house. She had also grown more skeptical and scared of the direction he was taking the Circle, which no longer revolved around reforming the Clave but began to involve hurting innocent Downworlders, Valentine finally acting on his anger towards Downworlders, which he had had since his father's death. Jocelyn soon told Lucian her fears, and when he asked Valentine about it, Valentine somehow made Jocelyn forget.
And then Lucian was turned into a werewolf. The morning after he first transformation, he came to their house; Jocelyn had wanted to console him, but Valentine stopped her, apparently worried for their unborn baby, and took Lucian to the woods. When Valentine returned, he claimed that Lucian had killed himself. Grief-stricken, Jocelyn fell into depression and isolated herself from their friends, with Valentine insisting that she was only having a difficult pregnancy. Unbeknownst to her, Valentine had already began giving her doses of demon blood in the form of sleeping drafts, which gave her nightmares.
Her mother, Adele, was with her when she gave birth. As soon as Jocelyn gazed into Jonathan's eyes, she knew that there was something very wrong with their son, immediately recognizing that it was inhuman, though uncertain why. She also felt guilty for being unable to love her child and had become suicidal.
Sometime later, Ragnor Fell sent her a message, telling her that Lucian was still alive and had become the pack leader in Brocelind Forest. She almost immediately went looking for Lucian, and when she finally saw him, she realized that Valentine had lied to her and began to "truly hate him".
Being reunited with Lucian made Jocelyn decide to try and love Jonathan. That night, however, she was woken by the cries of a child; a bewildered Jocelyn was hopeful that it was Jonathan, since he strangely never cried. However, when it turned out to not have been Jonathan, she went looking for the source and heard that it came from their unused cellar. Growing up in the manor, Jocelyn knew how and where to find the key; in their old cellar, she discovered the space Valentine had made for himself for his experiments, where she saw demons and Downworlders being tortured and notes of his observations. Then she saw that Valentine had been experimenting on himself, and her, particularly Jonathan while still in her womb, whom she then realized was demonic.
The Uprising[]
Still worried for her, Valentine began mixing angel, particularly Ithuriel's, blood into her food, hoping to alleviate her despair. While it did affect her slightly by giving her the focus and strength to go on, and certain abilities, it also unwittingly contributed to their unborn daughter's powerful rune-making skills.
However, when she realized just how far Valentine was willing to go to achieve his goals, Jocelyn stole the Mortal Cup from him and left. She turned her back on the life of Shadowhunting to raise her daughter, Clary, away from the dangers of their world.
The realization of just how monstrous Valentine really was and just how far Valentine was willing to go to achieve his goals, and with the determination given to her by the angel blood, made Jocelyn decide to finally put a stop to him. She began secretly meeting with Lucian, and, together, they plotted against Valentine and the Circle's planned Uprising. They warned the Downworlders of the Circle's plans, telling them to prepare for battle.
Jocelyn also stayed with Valentine, pretending nothing was wrong, to get as much information as she could. During that time, Jocelyn would bring Jonathan to the Lightwoods' home and let him play with Alec. She also realized that Valentine had also been experimenting on Céline Herondale's unborn son, just as he was doing to her.
Scared that Valentine might discover her betrayal, she went to Ragnor Fell and asked him for a potion that would put her into a coma, to prevent her from being able to say anything in the event that Valentine capture her to torture answers out of her. To protect her, she then hid the Book of the White, which held the cure to her potion, in a cookbook in the Wayland manor one evening during a party. As a backup plan, Jocelyn also told her old friend, the only one who hated Valentine to never betray her to Valentine—Madeleine Bellefleur.
At that point, Jocelyn had also realized that she was pregnant again. Though she wanted to leave, she could not bring herself to, knowing that Valentine would follow them if she did and came to the realization that he had to die.
When the day of the Uprising came, Jocelyn and Valentine rode to the city together, with Lucian and his pack following their trail. When the Circle rose to bear arms against the defenseless Downworlders and Shadowhunters, Jocelyn opened the Hall doors for the armed Downworlders lying in wait, and the battle began. Despite the need to have Valentine killed, she could not bring herself to do it, and when Lucian and Valentine fought against each other during the conflict, Jocelyn stopped them, only to be used by Valentine as leverage against Lucian. Valentine escaped with her and took her as far as the river. Worried for Jonathan, whom she then still saw as her son despite everything, she went to the Fairchild manor, only to find it set on fire. In the ruins, she and Lucian found the skeletons of her parents and what everyone thought were Valentine and Jonathan's skeletons. Jocelyn, knowing Valentine more than anyone else, knew that he would never give up easily and was still alive.
Mundane Life[]
At that, Jocelyn decided that, to protect Clary, she no longer wanted anything to do with Shadowhunters or the Clave, and that they would start a safe, hidden, mundane life together.
With Lucian, Jocelyn left Idris and went to Paris. When she told Luke about her pregnancy, he offered to marry her and take care of them. Thinking he was merely being a good friend, she refused. Telling Lucian that she knew Valentine was still alive, she then left Paris and moved to New York.
They first lived in East Village, Manhattan, where Jocelyn met neighbors who had a son named Jonathan Clark. At one point, Jocelyn, who had become an artist, was commissioned to paint their son. Jocelyn kept the man's photo and used it as a cover as Clary's dead father, in case she ever asked. Jocelyn had also kept a box of Jonathan's things, including a baby's shoe and lock of his white-blond hair, which she took out once every year. Jocelyn also supported her and Clary's life by selling paintings and, when they ran low on money, the Morgensterns' ancestral jewelry Valentine had given her.
Jocelyn hoped that Clary would have a blind Inner Eye since some Shadowhunters need to be trained to see the Shadow World. However, that was not the case; Jocelyn realized Clary could see the Shadow World perfectly fine upon seeing her teasing a pixie when she was around two years old. Jocelyn then went to the local High Warlock Magnus Bane in hopes of having him remove her Inner Eye. However, Magnus warned her that doing so would most likely kill Clary or, in the least, drive her to insanity. Instead, he came up with a spell that would make her forget anything of the Shadow World as she saw it—a spell that had to be recast every two years or it would begin to fade.
The same day, Jocelyn also met Tessa Gray. When Magnus suggested for Clary to have a protection ritual, usually performed on Shadowhunter children by an Iron Sister and a Silent Brother, performed on her, Jocelyn refused, not wanting to risk letting the Clave know. Tessa, however, volunteered to perform the ritual in the place of an Iron Sister, and recommended a Silent Brother, presumably Brother Zachariah, that will not tell the Clave about them. Jocelyn and Clary then took the surname "Fray", a portmanteau of Fairchild and Gray, which Jocelyn chose for the relationship of the Fairchilds, Jocelyn's "lost family", and Tessa.
Around three years later, Lucian, whom by then was going by the name Luke Garroway, arrived at their home. Happy to see him, she let him stay the night; however, she was still slightly skeptical, apparently seeing him as a part of the past she had fought hard to escape. Wanting to be a part of their lives, Luke promised to leave his past behind to be with them.
Eventually, they moved to an apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. There, she met Madame Dorothea, a mundane woman who was adopted by the witch who looked after a Portal in the city. Still in possession of the Mortal Cup she stole from Valentine, Jocelyn, with an ability she gained from the angel blood given to her by Valentine, drew the Cup into a tarot card, the Ace of Cups, which she painted as a part of the deck she gave Dorothea.
Personality[]
Seen as beautiful, warm and protective, Jocelyn is seen as an overall kind and caring woman who do anything to protect those she loves. Jocelyn is also quite stubborn and brave, traits which her daughter also seemingly inherited. Also like her daughter, Jocelyn tends to blame herself for things that are not entirely her fault.
She loves her daughter Clary "more than words" and is also a very overprotective mother, to the point where she would readily lie and leave her life behind, as well as risk her own life, to keep her daughter safe, willing to do anything for her daughter; while at first she thought this meant keeping her hidden away from the Shadowhunter world, she eventually realized, though struggled to accept, that it was the opposite. She even treats her mundane best friend Simon as if he were her own son.
There was a time when she even loved Jonathan, her firstborn, despite his demonic nature, and had hoped to hide him away and save him as a child; at this point, her only sorrow for his son, aside from not being able to do anything about Valentine's experiments, was not killing him when she had the chance before he evolved into the evil person he had grown into.
Prior to living her Shadowhunting life behind, Jocelyn was a naturally skilled and powerful Shadowhunter. In her younger years, she was seen was influential towards other Shadowhunters and encouraged them to the join The Circle before realising just how corrupt Valentine had become. She was mindful and considerate; even when she was in the Circle's later days, when they began hurting Downworlders, Jocelyn was reluctant to conform with their activities and had since carried the guilt of her choices with her.
As a Shadowhunter, she was one of the finest of her generation. She is seen to have been skilled and believed in peace. While she was with Valentine, she was seen to be a little naive to his true nature at first before realising that he had a dark side.
Her love for Clary also adapts to her good friend Luke whom she has been in love with since she discovered Valentine's dark side and often confided in him which lead to her feelings for him surfacing. After she went on the run from Valentine, she was parted from Luke briefly before he found her and she allowed him back into her life to help her raise her daughter, Clary of whom he sees a daughter.
Physical Appearance[]
Jocelyn has a slim, compact figure, with small chests and narrow hips; she is also slightly willowy and tall. She has green eyes, long eyelashes, and sharp, well-defined features. She is often described as very beautiful and is said to look a lot like her daughter, Clary. Her long, curly red hair is a few shades darker than her daughter's.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Nephilim physiology: Though no longer active, Jocelyn is still biologically a Nephilim. She possesses a variety of enhanced physical and mental abilities granted to her by the blood of Raziel in her veins and also by the angelic Marks of the Gray Book. She also has power to perform tasks unique to their species, such as the ability to use and call on the power of angels for their seraph blades. This includes enhanced strength, agility, stamina, and coordination, which only improves over time and practice. Despite years of no longer fighting, she is still said to be quite graceful as well as lethal.
- Reinforced angelic and demonic blood: While all Shadowhunters have the angel Raziel's blood in them, Jocelyn has a bit more in her due to doses of angel and demon blood, specifically Ithuriel and Lilith's, that she unwittingly received from Valentine. Though this affected her to a lesser extent compared to Clary, this excess blood momentarily gave her the determination and focus to keep going and not commit suicide, as she had wanted to. The demonic blood of Lilith for the most part made her feel ill. These effects were temporary as when she inadvertently drank the two ichors, she was already fully grown, and over time, the effects bestowed by the ichor eventually faded.
- Runic magic: Due to the angel 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. Due to the extra angel blood she also received, Jocelyn also had the ability to use runes unknown to other Shadowhunters, though seemingly less than her daughter Clary. An example would be the rune they used to place three-dimensional objects within an otherwise flat surface or material, such as paper, by drawing or painting them into it. She is also able to withdraw the object at will.
- Swordsmanship: Jocelyn is highly skill in swordsmanship, which she is still currently from fighting members of The Circle.
- The Sight: As a Shadowhunter, jocelyn is able to easily see through most magical illusions and layers ofglamour over reality.
- Use of heavenly weapons: As a Nephilim, Jocelyn is also able to handle heavenly weapons, such asseraph blades, with effect that would normally not work for other species.
- Art: Jocelyn is a talented artist, painting mostly landscapes with such a distinct style that is recognizable by her style and brushwork.