In Chapter 13, Alec says “you can’t help how you’re born” (231). This is one of the few things in life people truly have no control over, but who we are born establishes were we fall on hierarchies, even when those hierarchies have no real meaning. Through the relationships between Shadowhunters and Down-worlders/humans, Valentine’s Shadowhunter cult, and the characters’ different skillsets, City of Bones shows how differences do not make someone better or worse than someone else. A person’s birth does not determine their worth, and a person’s choices do not elevate or lower them as compared to others.

Since their creation, Shadowhunters have seen themselves as a dominant race and above both Down-worlders and humans. The favoritism they received from the angels and the calling to protect the world from demons makes Shadowhunters believe they serve a greater purpose than all other races. Shadowhunters are forbidden from engaging in romantic relations with Down-worlders or humans because doing so is seen as a violation of their superior status, but while Shadowhunters elevate themselves above other races, they lack specific abilities and freedoms of Down-worlders and humans. Shadowhunters may access magic through tools (weapons and runes), but they cannot call upon power without these things.