One of the major players that AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe has been teasing since season two of Interview with the Vampire, Queen Akasha, will soon arrive as a character on The Vampire Lestat. She’ll be played by The Woman King’s Sheila Atim, and is sure to wreak much havoc. Many fans only know Akasha thanks to her portrayal by the late Aaliyah in the film version of Queen of the Damned. But that iteration only scratched the surface of her character. Before Akasha arrives on The Vampire Lestat, here’s the millennia-spanning existence of the Queen of the Damned.
Akasha Is First Introduced in The Vampire Lestat Book
In the Anne Rice lore, Akasha was first introduced in her 1985 novel The Vampire Lestat. Our titular undead narrator learns about the fabled Mother of all Vampires from her keeper, Marius de Romanus, who has tended to her care for nearly two millennia. She is an enigmatic figure in The Vampire Lestat, and doesn’t say much. Or even move much. But the follow-up novel, The Queen of the Damned, featured Akasha in a far more prominent role. And in that novel, she nearly destroyed the world as we know it.
The Mortal Life of Queen Akasha in Ancient Egypt
Akasha was born into mortal life over 6,000 years ago in the Kingdom of Uruk, in what is now present-day Iraq. At a very young age, her father married her off to the King Enkil of Kemet, which is now Egypt. This was long before the first pyramids. At the time, some local tribes practiced ritualistic cannibalism, which meant eating their dead in elaborate funeral feasts. Akasha considered this act barbaric and banned it. But this angered some of those tribes, and one of those tribes had two resident witches, red-haired twins named Maharet and Mekare.
How Akasha Became the First Vampire
The red-haired twins, Maharet and Mekare, were able to communicate with powerful spirits who would obey their commands. When Akasha and Enkil’s forces attacked their village, the twins got their revenge by calling on a particularly powerful entity, Amel, to attack their kingdom. After Amel caused much destruction, there was a rebellion among Akasha and Enkil’s subjects. Mutinous soldiers stabbed the King and Queen in an assassination attempt. But as they lay bleeding, the spirit Amel entered Akasha’s body, fusing with her blood. She was not alive or dead, but an entirely new being. Akasha, we learn in The Vampire Lestat, became something we now call a vampire.
Queen Akasha and King Enkil Become “Those Who Must Be Kept”
Akasha now had an uncontrollable thirst for blood, one which she could not contain. She discovered that by spreading her blood to others, her hunger became less, as the spirit of Amel spread across more and more people. Akasha made her husband Enkil into a vampire right away, and then together they made more and more. But the more vampires she created, the less she herself needed to drink blood. But Akasha was vulnerable to the sun and fire. Eventually, she and Enkil were captured by the very vampires they created. These vampires kept them locked away because, it turns out, Akasha is the holy source of all vampire power. As the source, if Akasha dies, all other vampires will die as well in the world of The Vampire Lestat. And so Akasha and Enkil “Must Be Kept,” in order to keep all of vampire kind alive in Anne Rice’s world.
Akasha and Enkil Become Isis and Osiris in Egyptian Mythology
Most vampires don’t know that Akasha is the source of their power and the keeper of their existence. In Anne Rice’s universe, Akasha and Enkil pass into legend, mythologized as Isis and Osiris. The vampires who are aware of this facet of vampiric existence kept both Akasha and King Enkil locked away for centuries, believing both of them to be the fountains of vampire power. In this state, Aksha and Enkil eventually stopped feeding, and then they stopped moving entirely. They were still alive, but essentially became frozen, like statues. Once again, in this state, they are the legendary “Those Who Must Be Kept.” Akasha and Enkil need to be kept, because should they get destroyed, their entire race would instantly die along with them.
Akasha Spends 2,000 Years in the Care of the Vampire Marius
One of Akasha and Enkil’s keepers in the late Roman era finally went mad after observing them for centuries, and watching as neither ever moved an inch. One day, he left them out in the baking Egyptian sun. However, Akasha and Enkil were too old and powerful to die by the sun after 4,000 years. Instead, their skin became darkened and hard, furthering their appearance as statues, not living beings. But while they did not die, younger, less powerful vampires all across the globe burned up and were destroyed. Only those as old as Akasha also survived. Akasha rose from her centuries-long sleep and killed her keeper, but soon, she and Enkil had a new guardian, the newly made Roman vampire, Marius.
Marius cared for Those Who Must Be Kept in a secret shrine, moving them from country to country. He did this for over 2,000 years. In the 18th century, Marius decided to entrust the young vampire Lestat with the truth about Akasha and Enkil, under the promise that he would never reveal the truth to anyone, vampire or mortal. As Akasha was the source of all vampires’ power, she needed protection from the outside world. Marius swore Lestat to secrecy. He could tell no vampire or mortal the secrets of the undead lineage, or where their power truly was contained.
The Vampire Lestat Awakens Akasha (Temporarily)
On his last night with Akasha, Lestat played the violin for her. This woke Akasha from a centuries-long slumber, and she allowed Lestat to drink her blood. This act made Lestat far more powerful than any vampire of similar age. But this short-lived lovefest between Queen and Brat Prince ended when a jealous Enkil also awoke and tried to kill Lestat. Marius was able to save him, but told him to run away from the secret sanctuary as fast as he could. He wound up in New Orleans not long after, encountering Louis for the first time. All with deep secrets he could tell no one, living or dead.
Queen Akasha Begins Her Reign of Terror in The Queen of the Damned
In the modern era, which we now see in AMC’s The Vampire Lestat series, Lestat finally threw caution to the wind and revealed all his long-held secrets about Akasha through song and music videos as a rock star. This eventually awoke the Queen again—this time permanently. First, she killed her husband Enkil with one swift blow. She then used her Fire Gift to set nearly every vampire in the world ablaze. Akasha spared only those who were too old (which took far more effort) and those Lestat loved, like Louis, Gabrielle, and Armand. The vampire race was reduced to a mere handful. She made Lestat her new Prince Consort, seeing him as the only vampire equal to herself in terms of ambition.
However, Akasha’s true intent was truly heinous. She planned to use her Mind Gift to kill 99% of all men on Earth, because, as she saw it, men were responsible for every grand injustice for the last several thousand years. She would keep just enough alive to continue breeding the species, and she would name herself “Queen of Heaven” and rule over humanity. A humanity where only women ruled. The remaining vampires find a way to stop her genocidal plan, all while keeping the source of the vampiric existence intact. But we won’t spoil that yet, as that is the literal plot of Queen of the Damned. We’ll see if Akasha’s story unfolds as it did in Rice’s novels in The Vampire Lestat series. Assuming we get a fourth season (perhaps with a new name).
Akasha’s Future in AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe
In AMC’s The Vampire Lestat, it remains to be seen how much we’ll see of Akasha outside her unmoving, frozen form. For now, she hasn’t yet arrived in the narrative, although Lestat has dropped the fact that he has “the blood of Akasha inside of him” more times than we can count.
We imagine we’ll see Lestat awaken her by playing the violin, and her feeding her own powerful blood to him. But if there’s a fourth season adapting Queen of the Damned, then she’ll soon have a starring role. We can’t wait to see what Sheila Atim brings to the role and witness her onscreen chemistry with Sam Reid’s Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.
Eric Diaz is a staff writer at Nerdist and a life-long Anne Rice fan. Yes, he is a member of the OG fan club.
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