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[Character name] Isabelle 'Izzy' Lightwood
[Age] 16
[Canon] The Mortal Instruments
[Point in time taken from canon] End of City of Ashes, following the battle on the ship.
[Height] Described as tall, Isabelle is likely close to 5'7.
[Sexual Orientation] Straight.
[Eye Color] Black
[Hair Color] Black
[Other Physical Descriptors] As a Shadowhunter, like the rest of her family, almost her entire body is covered in the small white scars of used Marks - runes burned into the skin for protection, healing, strength, and other such uses. Before battles, Izzy also gives herself fresh Marks, notable by their darkness when compared to the faint white of the older Marks.
[Clothing] Isabelle tends to wear fashionable things, both on and off the battlefield; she wears at one point, a long, old-fashioned white gown that covers her nearly head to toe - likely to hide the scars from Marks, new and old - and thigh high boots. When in the presence of Shadowhunters, or those she doesn't need to hide the Marks from, she wears slightly more showy clothing - tight and clingy items that show off her enviable body. She likes to dress like the flirt and tease she is.
[Background]
The middle child, and the only daughter of Maryse and Robert Lightwood, Isabelle is used to being the most prominent one of the family. Her family was once a very well-known and respected Nephilim family, prior to the Uprising when Maryse and Robert chose Valentine’s side over the Clave, having believed him to be the more correct side in the war. As their punishment for betraying the Clave, the Lightwoods were forced to flee Idris, their home, and move to New York. Because they chose to make penance to those betrayed by hunting down the other members of the Circle - Valentine’s rebel group - their punishment was less harsh than it otherwise might have been. As such, Isabelle received education from her parents and Hodge Starkweather at the Institute where they resided in New York City, alongside her family and Jace Wayland.
Having lived with her brothers and Jace for years while they grew up together, she’s very much used to mediating, a particular role that befell her as the middle child, between her brothers and Jace Wayland, a trait that comes in later when Jace has a tendency to bicker incessantly with Simon Lewis. Being from a family of Shadowhunters, Isabelle got a young start to the world of hunting demons, particularly alongside her older brother, Alec, and his parabatai, Jace. It is through one such demon-hunting mission that they meet Clary Fray and her friend, Simon, and end up being brought into far more than they anticipated.
Being loyal to her brother primarily, especially over a mundane, Isabelle doesn’t take well to Clary’s presence, seeing her as a ‘stupid mundie’, a sentiment she shared with Alec. When it comes to restoring Clary’s memory of being of Nephilim blood, Isabelle’s nature to fall in with Downworlders inevitably leads her and her friends to the warlock Magnus Bane, whom her brother ends up having a secret relationship with. Without Isabelle, the goal likely wouldn’t have succeeded nearly as easily as it had.
Over time, she ends up getting closer to Clary, even going so far as to admit that she doesn’t often get along with girls the way she does boys. For the most part, she simply sticks around as back up power in times of need, generally found fighting alongside Alec, if not also Jace. She’s extremely protective of her older brother in a way, especially when Clary figures out he’s gay, and wonders why he isn’t more open about it; she keeps his relationship with Magnus a secret as long as she needs to, never making a comment about it. It's also noted through conversation that she tends to act the way she does to protect Alec, or draw attention away from him; this is further proven by how polar opposite the pair of them are.
[Personality]
Being the middle child, Isabelle has a neat tendency to draw all the attention in a room to herself, both via her outgoing personality and her extreme good looks. She is not only a beautiful young girl, she very much knows it. It leads her to be very popular with the boys, but also to have rather rocky relationships with girls. She also tends to be fiercely loyal to her family and the Clave; however, if there’s a toss-up between the two, her family always comes first. She’s extremely close with her brothers and Jace, whom she also considers a brother despite the lack of biological ties. Isabelle is noted to act exactly as a sister should, even to Jace - happy and loving. She has an excellent sense of familial bonds that extends to even the Clave, which acts as a larger family to her, in a sense.
An extension of her unending loyalty to the Clave is her somewhat ‘religious’ personality. While not devout, per se, her upbringing has left a clear imprint on her, giving her underlying tendencies that stem from both the strong individuals she’s unwittingly surrounded herself with and the nature of living in the Institution with her family to almost pray in a time of need, drawing on things around her for her strength, even if it’s not necessarily to a higher being. She also tends to not take the Lord’s name in vain, sticking with phrases like ‘goodness’, instead. The Clave plays a large part in her life, teaching her respect and kindness that she doesn’t often show; when the need arises, however, she is more than willing to show the wisdom far beyond her years and demonstrate the respect deserved. Her strong sense of family comes from this, as well as her ability to simply be a regular girl, with a passion for men and fashion alike.
Her tendencies to prefer male company over female likely stem from growing up with a strong-willed mother, whom she resembles greatly in terms of personality, and the three males in her biological family; despite being a proud young woman, she harbours some level of jealousy towards other females, regardless of whether or not she has a stated reason or not. It’s often a rather unstated reason, in fact, and simply an unrealised need to be considered better than other girls that plays off her beauty. She uses this very endowment to secure her role as the ‘eyes and ears’ between her brothers and herself and Downworlders, such as the Seelie Court, among notable others. At the same time, there’s a point at which she is specifically described as looking much like a fairy tale princess, something that makes her very hard to like; being a girl who can visibly take care of herself and look fantastic at the same time, she practically creates jealousy wherever she goes, whether it’s intentional or not.
Isabelle is very much a compulsive flirt. It helps her get places, largely with Downworlders, though whether it’s actually intended to simply irritate her Nephilim parents isn’t understood fully. However, despite coming off as unattached to those she dates, she does actually expect something like affection from them. Her expectations not being met usually leads to an interesting, and almost out of character, show of disappointment, though she hides it well. She also hides pain incredibly well, likely as a defense mechanism for being seen as just a weak hanger-on to Alec and Jace; the few times she is recognised as in pain or injured, she reacts with just a small whimper, barely audible.
One thing she doesn’t hide well, however, is her innate appreciation for the finer things in life, such as sleep. Interrupt her beauty sleep for any reason less than life or death, and the reaction is always the same: exasperation to the nth degree. It’s possible that even if it were life or death, she would act as if it were an inconvenience to some extent. If it’s a matter of the heart, though, Isabelle sees it as even more exasperating in nature - further proof of her natural superiority.
Just like her compulsive flirting, Isabelle is a social butterfly with an innate appreciation for shoes; her personal motto is ‘nothing less than seven inches’ is used to reference both her slightly off-colour wit and her adoration for beautiful footwear. She loves to go to parties and nightclubs, which helps her meet all of those she isn’t supposed to know.
[Abilities]
Isabelle is a Shadowhunter, like the rest of her family, and is rather skilled when it comes to fighting. She uses a golden whip, normally concealed around her wrist as an intricately designed ‘bracelet’ of swirling lines inked into her skin, that she can utilise at any given moment. Like other Shadowhunters, she also uses a stele - used for Marking - and a Seraph blade, as well as a pair of daggers. Her use of the stele is often that of healing for her family and friends. Her Nephilim blood also provides her with naturally occurring strength, agility, stamina and coordination, in addition to whatever runes she might be Marked with, such as those for balance, strength, and healing.
[Affection]
She's relatively willing to show affection to men, being a compulsive flirt, though she's very hard to get to know on a deep level. Particularly towards women, Izzy tends to come off rather hard to deal with.
[Fighting]
Izzy standardly utilises her natural Nephilim talents in fighting to help Alec and Jace out in battle; she fights most prominently with a golden whip or in hand-to-hand combat with her enemies via blades. Though she is more well-versed in battle with the whip, she is an excellent asset with a pair of daggers as well. She works by the Accords, only fighting if necessary, or provoked.
[Other important stuff]
Isabelle, like her family, is of the Shadow World, a realm that runs parallel to the mundane realm, but hidden from those without the Sight. Generally speaking, ‘mundies’ - mundane folk, or those without the Sight - are oblivious to the existence of the Night Children, Fair Folk, Children of the Moon and Lilith’s Children, otherwise known as Downworlders. Any creature with a supernatural background is widely regarded as a Downworlder, though the aforementioned are the most well-known and largest categories one can fall into. While for the most part peaceful, and willing to follow the words of the Accords, there are some rogue Downworlders who prefer to kill other Downworlders, Shadowhunters, or mundanes; these are the ones often dealt with by the Nephilim.
Also killed by Shadowhunters are demons, creatures that are summoned into the realm and hold no affinity for Nephilim, Downworlders, or mundanes, attacking arbitrarily. As such, they are dispatched quickly, disappearing off to their own realm upon death. Similar in nature, but not actually demonic in nature are the Forsaken, mundanes that had been Marked and, consequently, went insane. They act now as slaves to those who forced the Marks upon them, killing whatever happens across their paths.