#→ céline herondale // meta

[machiiatto]

The Institutes, & Modernization.

An Institute is an asylum for Shadowhunters, and in some cases Downworlders and mundanes under their protection, and a safe house meant to lodge and assist Nephilim from around the world in their quest to kill demons. They are found in every major city across the world and are often located in churches or built on holy ground.

Every Institute is run by a Shadowhunter or a pair of Shadowhunters with the position of head or co-heads of the Institute, respectively. Institutes serve as the local power bases of the Nephilim, functioning like the embassies of mundane governments. They are the authority force of all the Nephilim in the city in which they reside and they oversee all tactical missions.

There are some features common to all Institutes. They are built on hallowed ground and are heavily warded, constructed to repel demons and to prevent the unhallowed, particularly vampires, from entering. Their doors remain locked to anyone lacking Nephilim blood, and open to those possessing it. Materials with certain elements or magical properties are also used in its construction: the mortar for the buildings’ stones are mixed with the blood of Shadowhunters, that in and of itself being a powerful protection, the wooden beams are of rowan, used to ward off malevolent spirits and enchantments, and for its density and strength, and the nails and metal rods are of silver and iron, protecting against werewolves and faeries respectively, or electrum. ( source. )

Given my blended canon, & the fact that the books tend to show the Institutes as significantly less technologically inclined, I wanted to address the jarring differences between the Institutes as presented in the books & in the show.

The modernization of the Institutes is a recent trend that started as research done by the Silent Brothers demonstrated proof of something those more directly on the front lines could already have known - the Incursion, Lilith’s incursion, was getting worse with every passing year. Somehow, more & more demons were slipping through & with a growing world with an exploding population in urban areas, something had to be done to match this explosive growth as well as return the edge the Nephilim had long maintained against the demonic hoards.

Tokyo was the first Institute to modernize with the discovery of the technology that would allow them to harness heavenly fire as reusable energy in the form the angelic cores. imbued with the same energy that gives their seraph blades their power, the cores could single handedly power the institute with an energy source that allows them to operate even in the event of earthquakes or other severe weather scenarios without risk of fire, or power outage.

Not wanting to be left behind, the Institutes in South Korea’s largest cities - Seoul & Busan - both requested the technology as well, perfecting it & implementing it across the board in even the significantly smaller, but densely populated Institutes. After that, everything began to snowball. The Institutes in Germany, Israel, & Russia implemented the technology across the board & it was finally made an international requisite for each Institute to be fitted with a core. By the time this was made a decision to be implemented across the board, other Institutes had already sprinted ahead in other ways - London implemented a digital archive & cataloging system, & Tokyo had implemented significant upgrades to its war room,

The New York Institute took both of these ideas & expanded on them, bringing the op center into prominence as the most advanced network to oversee a city the Clave had seen, & their library’s digital archive connects directly to Alicante & London, so that any resource not readily available in-house is easily accessible. In 2017, this database was updated to include a significant index of the botanical inventory of the Institute’s greenhouse.

Not all have embraced these upgrades - there are still glimmers of the Institutes’ pasts down the hallways & in its residential areas. Gas lamps can still be seen, & not everyone prefers the tablets or gadgetry as a general means, but for larger cities, it’s imperative to give them an edge, so many adapt while finding ways to preserve the Institutes as they remembered them in other ways.

Now other Nephilim are welcome to borrow time at the Institute so they can be trained on this technology, & hopefully take it back to their own Institutes.