Jace Wayland, whose parents are Stephen and Celine Herondale, had his blood tampered with by Valentine when he was still in his mother's womb. When Stephen died, Celine committed suicide while she was still pregnant. Desperate to save his experiment, Valentine retrieved Jace from his dead mother's womb and raised him as his own, making Jace believe his name was Michael Wayland, whom he killed. Valentine treated his son both lovingly and harshly, teaching him that to love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be the one destroyed , even giving Jace a pet falcon, which he taught to love him and to be kind, only to have it killed by Valentine for that very reason.When Valentine staged his death again as Michael Wayland, Jace was sent to live with the Lightwoods at the New York Institute, because Robert Lightwood and the actual Michael Wayland were parabatai. No one knew that it was not Michael Wayland's son that walked through their doors. Years later, after Jace meets Clary at a club called Pandemonium, he falls in love with her, and literally believes something is wrong with his heart. When Clary is later attacked by a Ravener demon, Jace draws an iratze, a healing rune, on her, not knowing if she was a Shadowhunter or not and risking her turning into a Forsaken.Jace's personality changes after he meets Clary. Before, he was extremely confident in his looks and charms, and very arrogant, believing he was the best Shadowhunter. Isabelle claims at some point that he had been living a half-life before he met Clary, and then he woke up. He becomes arrogant only to those who he seriously doesn't like, although he still is confident in his looks and charms, and can be both teasingly and insultingly sarcastic. Before Clary, Jace only cared about the Lightwoods. Jace's passionate love for Clary had both Alec and Isabelle shocked that he was capable of loving someone so deeply.Jace is described as incredibly handsome by everyone including himself. He is all gold: his hair is dark gold and curly, and his long eyelashes are a shade lighter than his hair. He has smoldering golden eyes, at one point described as luminous (by himself). He is said to be around 5' 11 , in height, almost a foot taller than Clary. He is well-built, long and lean, and has a slight chip in one of his front teeth that, as Clary states, keeps him from looking too inhumanly perfect.Jace, along with Clary, has a little more angel blood in him than normal Nephilim, thanks to Valentine, which means he can do more than the average Shadowhunter, including jumping thirty feet out of a Malachi Configuration. He is covered in runes, white if they are no longer in effect, black if he has just put them on, and he has a star-shaped scar on his shoulder, which proves that he has come into contact with an Angel. Jace has also died and been reborn, the latter thanks to Clary, and his name changes a few times: from Wayland to Morgenstern to Herondale, and then finally to Lightwood. Show less «