With ABC Family's official rebranding as "Freeform" comes a new supernatural series with so much built in lore that you might as well start making flashcards now. There are tons of fun creatures, locations, weapons, and terms to learn from Cassandra Clare's universe. For example, what is a "mundane" on Shadowhunters ? You'll hear that word a lot when the series, directed by McG from Charlie's Angels and Supernatural, premieres on Freeform this Tuesday — so here's everything that you need to know in preparation.
Basically, a mundane is just like you and me. The new series, which is based on the Mortal Instruments novels, is about the "Shadoworld," which is populated by witches, angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, the Foresaken (kinda like zombies), Downworlders (who are part demon), and Shadowhunters (who are part angel) themselves. The mundanes are just the regular, boring (mundane) mortal human beings who are blissfully unaware of the fantastical world below and around them. They can be glamoured to ignore the supernatural beings if they get too close. Unless, of course, they are turned into one of the afore-mentioned creatures. Just because you are born a mundane in this universe doesn't mean that you have to stay one. Some of the characters on Shadowhunters, like Clary and Simon, may think that they are mundanes but learn otherwise in the future.
Mundanes are sometimes called "mundies" — as in, "I've got a real case of the mundies," probably. But really, if you're familiar with fantasy novels and Harry Potter in particular, there's a much easier to explain what this term means. They're muggles. Basically. This is the Shadowhunters word for muggles. Or, of course, "no-maj" if you live in the United States. You may notice a lot of similarities to your favorite fictional worlds in this series, which happens a lot in fantasy worlds.
See? Even if you're not a Mortal Instruments fan, you already know a little bit about Shadowhunters, which should make the epic world even easier to dive into.
Image: John Medland/Freeform
