Post by Stirling on Sept 11, 2006 19:55:43 GMT 1
The first two vampires made, Akasha and Enkil. Akasha was the first vampire and she came into being when a spirit, Amel, passed into her mortal body through a fatal wound and fused with her heart and blood. In turn, Akasha made Enkil a vampire as he lay dying. As immortals, they were soon worshiped and envied. They did make other vampires, but they contained the process so that Egypt would not become solely a race of Blood Drinkers. They mythologized what had happened to them with the tale of Osiris, believing they were meant to be gods. A cult grew up around them to try to use their power for good, although some priests wanted to steal from them the secret of immortality. Khayman, Akasha and Enkil's court steward who was the third vampire made, was largely responsible for the spreading of vampirism. Among these early Blood Drinkers there were often battles for supremacy. Some of them imprisoned Akasha and Enkil beneath heavy stones in order to steal the powerful blood, but eventually Enkil and Akasha broke free. As the centuries passed, the King and Queen grew silent and immobile, taking victims only occasionally and changing their position when no one could see the movement. Legend grew that all vampires were connected to Akasha and Enkil, the Mother and Father, and that their destruction would mean the end of the whole vampire race. Thus, the priests who worshiped them began guarding them, and eventually these two came into the care of the Elder, an Egyptian who reluctantly took on the burden of protection. Some of the vampires surmise that Akasha's and Enkil's silence is a result of their being overwhelmed by the noise of all the voices--the endless cries of the world--which come to them by virtue of their magnified sense of hearing. Vampires have to learn to screen out these voices or go mad. Akasha basically confirms this supposition when she tells Lestat of the trance that came over her and how only his voice came over all the rest to wake her and motivate her to rise. The Elder comes to dislike Akasha's and Enkil's silence and lack of response. He begins to doubt the legends, so he decides to place them in the sun. He wants them to react, to move to save themselves. He also desires to see if anything would happen to him and the other vampires if these two were harmed. The legend proves true. In the sun their skin turns a deep bronze, while all other vampires are either disintegrated or terribly burned; only the oldest ones survive without calamity. The Elder then removes them from the sun. After the burning, Marius is made a vampire. He is drawn to Egypt, where Akasha comes to him to ask him to become the new guardian. Shaken by the knowledge that what happens to these vampires happens to him, he takes her and Enkil out of Egypt and erects temples of secrecy and protection for them all over Europe. After Lestat searches for Marius for ten years, Marius comes to him and brings him to an island where he has built a fortress of stone on the cliffs. In a chilly room deep inside the cliff he shows Lestat 'Those Who Must Be Kept'. The vampire progenitors sit silently on thrones, dressed in fine white linen. In three hundred years they have not taken a drink, although Marius has drunk from them. They seem like stone, simultaneously dead and alive. Marius admits he does not know whether they are at peace or simply locked in silence, but he keeps things in their room beautiful for them in case they can see. The room is full of flowers and torches, and he has painted on the wall a mural of Egypt. A huge gold tabernacle engraved with Egyptian designs dominates the room. Lestat is upset at the thought of becoming like them one day and urges Marius to leave with him. But Marius tells him to talk to them, and Lestat tells Akasha she is beautiful. The next night, Lestat goes to them and plays a violin in the hope of waking them with music. Akasha awakens and urges him to drink from her. He does and so she bites him, drinking from him at the same time. Enkil intervenes, almost killing Lestat in the process, and Marius sends Lestat away, extracting from him the promise never to tell anyone about what he has seen or heard. However, two centuries later, in 1984, Lestat writes about this adventure in his autobiography. He also records the images, legends, and names in his music videos. Marius, who has taken Those Who Must Be Kept to an ice fortress in the north, plays the music videos for them. In response, Akasha rises, kills Enkil, traps Marius under ice, and abducts Lestat from Carmel Valley. It becomes clear to the vampires that the vampire spirit resides only in her, and the Enkil was irrelevant all along, except to be her companion.