Click to meet some of the characters of the Dark Artifices!

The cycle hit the beach and spun out. Emma went into a rolling crouch as she flew free of it, keeping her elbows in, pushing the air hard out of her lungs. She turned her head as she hit the sand, slapping her palms down to roll herself forward, absorbing the impact of the fall through her arms and shoulders, her knees folding up into her chest. The stars wheeled crazily overhead as she spun, sucking in her breath as her body slowed its rolling. She  came to a stop on her back, her hair and clothes full of sand and her ears full of the sound of the wildly crashing ocean….

Los Angeles, 2012. It’s been five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs lost her parents. After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child, Emma has dedicated her life to the eradication of demons and being the best, fastest and deadliest teen Shadowhunter since Jace Lightwood. Raised in the Los Angeles Institute, Emma is paired as a parabatai with her best friend, Julian. As Emma hunts those who caused the death of her parents, the trail they’re following leads back to those they’ve always been taught to trust. At the same time, Emma is falling in love with the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by Shadowhunter Law to love. Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.

The first book of the Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight will be published in 2015. There will be three books in total: Lady Midnight, The Prince of Shadows, and The Queen of Air and Darkness.

You can read extras about the characters and plot of the Dark Artifices here, compiled by Cat.

 Quoted from Cat’s link above, here is the latest about The Dark Artifices:

Emma Carstairs

• main character in TDA
• her parents are both American
• is an orphan, her parents died in 2007, “her father was a violinist” (The Mortal Instrumentstimeline; scroll down the page to The Dark Artifices)
• Julian’s parabatai -> “they’ve known each other forever. They can communicate almost without talking. They sleep in each other’s beds. They fight together.[…] Julian grounds Emma”
• has been friends with Julian since they were five years old
• Emma and Julian “are bonded together in part by the traumatic events of […] City of Heavenly Fire”
• 11 or 12 years old in CoLS/teen in TDA
• is blonde
• has blue eyes
• for a full description of Emma’s appearance click here
• likes to fight and train and kill things (it’s her passion)
• “very determined, she’s very good at what she does”
• “has met some Shadowhunters from NYC who fought in the Mortal War”
• wants to be ‘as badass “as Jace Lightwood”’
• is “as sarcastic and arrogant as Jace” and “a bad girl”
• is “the fiercest warrior and most skilled young Shadowhunter since Jace Wayland” -> she doesn’t have special Shadowhunter powers, she just works every hard
• weapons: the repeating crossbow, wind-and-fire wheels
• “probably more technically skilled than Izzy”
• has feelings for Julian
• there is “a scene at the end of Clockwork Princess that connects directly up with Emma.” -> SPOILER FOR CLOCKWORK PRINCESS! Will and Tessa meet Emma’s ancestor Elias Carstairs (Jem’s uncle). Her sword Cortana once belonged to Elias.
• Emma is petrified of the ocean (she actually “has nightmares about being pinned down at the bottom of the ocean with thousands of tons of black water on top of her”) and we’ll find out why in City of Heavenly Fire
• According to Emma, she has had dozens of boyfriends.
• you can see her tarot card here

• main character in TDA
• one parent is American, the other is British
• Emma’s parabatai -> “they’ve known each other forever. They can communicate almost without talking. They sleep in each other’s beds. They fight together.[…] Julian grounds Emma
• has been friends with Emma since they were five years old
• Julian and Emma “are bonded together in part by the traumatic events of […] City of Heavenly Fire”.
• 12 years old in CoLS, 17 in TDA
• has brown hair
• Cassie imagines Julian as really lanky and fine-featured
• Cassie is “thinking of Julian as dark-haired, a little vulnerable, a painter, someone who wears all black, bites his nails and is likely to pull his sleeves down over his hands.”
• “is really tall and thin”
• “has brown hair and blue-green eyes”
• for a full description of Julian’s appearance click here
• “paints in oils mostly, some watercolor […] a fine artist”
• “Julian sits on the roof of the Institute and paints the ocean. He paints the things he loves, mainly.”
• Julian’s favourite sibling is Tiberius, he calls him “Ty”
• “is allergic to compound fruit”
• is very different to Will and Jace
• “Jules is thoughtful and stubborn, perfectly confident but not someone who opens up to a lot of people. . He has a huge responsibility that sits on his shoulders and to which he is beholden and that makes him very different than both Will and Jace. He is funny, but not like Will or Jace are funny”
• “takes care of all his younger brothers and sisters and they basically have no one else”
• Julian is also sweet
• Julian is sexier than all the other Shadowhunter boys. He’ll be a sex-god->”Julian is sexy […] but not in the same way Will or Jace or Jem is”
• weapons: throwing knives, seraph blades
• Julian’s tarot cards here and here

• is the oldest child second oldest child
• he and Helen have the same mother
• Mark’s second name is Antony 
• “Mark is an odd character”
• has slightly curly white-blond hair 
• tall and thin
• has one blue eye, one gold eye
• full description of Mark’s appearance here
• is half faerie
• so far Cassie hasn’t figured out Mark’s age
• weapons: curved, single-edged blades like katanas
• here is Mark’s tarot card

• some Blackthorns have a little faerie blood in the family -> Mark and Helen’s mother was a faerie
• blue-green eyes are a hallmark of the family
• Arthur (the father) “is interested in is Greek and Roman history” and that’s why “[a]ll the Blackthorns have Greek or Latin mythology and history based names”
• Arthur’s first wife died (Mark and Helen’s mother) and he remarried (I asked Cassie)
• Helen is described as “a slim girl with pale white-gold hair that curled in ringlets” and she has eyes “a brilliant and unusual blue-green”, her ears are slightly pointed because of her faerie blood
• Click here for a full description of Helen’s appearance
• Olivia and Tiberius are twins, their nicknames are Livvy and Tibs and both are 15
• another nickname for Tiberius is “Ty” and he is Julian’s favorite sibling
• the twins are “9 months younger than Jules”
• Tiberius is older than Olivia ->Tiberius is a “few minutes younger” than Livvy -> “Ty is the slightly older one”
• Tiberius is “skinny and wants to be a detective (Sherlock Holmes) [„,] he’s brilliant and odd”
• he has “no interest in fighting; he loves mystery books”
• here is Ty’s tarot card
• Olivia’s real name is Livia
• weapons: poison darts (Livia), Tiberius doesn’t need weapons because Livvy protects him -> “Livvy is the “protector” because she protects Ty from everything, since he’s hopeless at fighting and she’s a skilled fencer and swordfighter. She also interprets the world for him when he finds other people’s behavior confusing”
• Livvy thinks it’s “her job to protect her whole family, since she thinks they’re all a bit on the hapless dreamer/starry-eyed artist side”
• “Livvy’s very practical”
• Livvy’s tarot card
• other Blackthorn children: Drusilla and Octavius
• Drusilla is called Silla and she is thirteen
• “Dru is just about old enough to have a crush, and have one she does (and an important one)”
• “Octavius ‘Tavvy’ is only six years old”
• Octavius is a family name
• “Tavvy is too young to have runes or be a Shadowhunter yet”
• Dru and Tavvy’s tarot card
• the youngest and eighth Blackthorn child is Ariadne (Ari), she is five years old
• click here for full descriptions of the characters’ appearance
• there is a connection to the Lightwoods of The Infernal Devices because Tatiana Lightwood married a Blackthorn (Cassie told me at her London book signing) -> look at the family tree inClockwork Princess

• Cristina (who used to be Carmen -> the link is gone) is Emma’s best friend. She is Mexican andcomes from Mexico City. Tina’s surname is Rosales which means rosebush, Cassie later added that Tina has two surnames: Mendoza Rosales.
• Tina has a living parent and her favourite weapons are “chain weapons like surujin”
• Cassie thinks that “Tina doesn’t drink much but that she probably misses food from home”
• for a full description of Tina’s appearance click here
• “she is shyer than Emma, but very strong and unwavering in her loyalty and morals. She wears a medallion above that says Blessed be the Angel my strength which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight”
• “is also very dedicated to her family, who are important too”
• Tina’s tarot card

“Los Angeles, 2012. It’s been five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs lost her parents. After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child, Emma has dedicated her life to the eradication of demons and being the best, fastest and deadliest Shadowhunter since Jace Lightwood. Raised in the Los Angeles Institute, Emma is paired as a parabatai with her best friend, Julian. As Emma hunts those who caused the death of her parents, the trail they’re following leads back to those they’ve always been taught to trust. At the same time, Emma is falling in love with Julian — her closest friend and, because he is her parabatai, the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by Shadowhunter Law to love. Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.” (x)

• set in 2012 in LA because of the events in City of Heavenly Fire
• surviving characters from TMI will have cameos
• There will “be love, magic, romantic confusion” but no love triangle
• the working title of the first book ‘Lady Midnight’ and its release is scheduled for 2015
• the titles for all three The Dark Artifices books are: Lady Midnight, Prince of Shadows ANDThe Queen of Air and Darkness
• “The first section of Lady Midnight is called Part One: Steel and Temper.”

• since TDA is set by the ocean there will be lots of mythical creatures “that lurk in the waters”
• there will be new runes.
• “there’s something in CP2 that is very important in TDA.” -> probably Emma’s sword Cortana
• “characters of The Dark Artifices play a dark role in CoHF”
• “there are major bisexual characters”
• Another character will be Jaime who is from Mexico like Tina