This article is about Armand from the novel or film. You may be looking for Armand from the AMC adaptation.
Armand is a major character in the Vampire Chronicles, first appearing in Interview with the Vampire, and featured as the titular character of the sixth book of the series, The Vampire Armand. Originally named Andrei, then renamed Amadeo as an amnesiac in Venice by his maker Marius de Romanus, Armand chose his name out of options given to him after he was forcibly kidnapped and inducted into the Children of Satan. He appears to be a youth of seventeen, and is often referred to as angelic, with the face of a cherub. By the time of the events of The Queen of the Damned, he is over five hundred years old.
"And there I saw beauty, beauty which has always been my downfall, beauty in a new and celestial form. Heaven had cast down upon this stone floor an abandoned angel, of auburn curls and perfectly formed limbs, of fair and mysterious face. His soft reddish hair was loose and tangled. His flesh was pale and the bones of his face only faintly sharpened by his Slavic blood."
"This was a boy, as I had said, and he had a head of long curly hair. But his face was shining white, and perfect, the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes."
Armand has a calm and mysterious exterior, which hides a highly emotional and erratic personality. Originally a monk, Armand seeks an external source of control and guidance to give his life meaning, and is prone to extreme or violent acts when this desire is threatened. Armand swings from periods of hedonistic denial of a higher power to bouts of zealotry, devoting himself to the dogma of the Parisian coven and later throwing himself into the sun after seeing Veronica's Veil. Armand in many ways has never matured from the teenager he was when he was turned; he is still prone to impulsive and extreme acts, often described as seeming "lost" when his actions spiral into events beyond his control.
Beyond his extreme actions and zealotry, Armand's natural personality is sharp witted and often sarcastic, and he enjoys taunting others, both to achieve his own ends and also more playfully. Armand is intensely interested in understanding and being part of human society, and has a fascination with new technology, art, theater, and films. A former coven leader, Lestat remarks on Armand's ability to create gathering places that become homes to other vampires, including Night Island and Trinity Gate.
Armand is a notably strong user of the Mind Gift, and uses it extensively to create illusions, spellbind, and communicate telepathically. Unlike most vampires, Armand is able to see what he believes to be the ghosts of some of his victims.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Born in the city of Kiev around the year 1480, Andrei was a talented young boy who could write wondrous ikons, which his father boasted were "not made by human hands". Andrei believes it was through the power of the Christian God that he can write the ikons, and takes no credit for himself. At a young age, Andrei chooses to commit himself to life as a monk in the Monastery of the Caves, intending to serve God by creating ikons before eventually dying of starvation. When he is fifteen, Andrei's father demands he leave the monastery, believing his talent and life are being wasted in service to the monks, and takes Andrei with him to deliver an ikon the Prince. On the way, they are surprised and attacked by Tartars, and Andrei is kidnapped and taken by ship to be sold into slavery in first Constantinople, and then Italy. Andrei arrives in Venice and is taken to a brothel, where he refuses to do anything he is told to do. The keepers of the brothel beat Andrei and abandon him to his death in the basement with no memory of who he is.
He is found and rescued by Marius de Romanus, who purchases him after hears his cries to God for death telepathically from outside of the brothel, and is given the name Amadeo, meaning, "Beloved of God." Marius nurses him back to health, and Amadeo is educated amongst Marius's group of young apprentices who live with him at his palazzo. Despite being a talented painter, Amadeo refuses to paint again during his education, though he cannot fully remember why. Amadeo rapidly picks up language and proves to be a brilliant student. During his time with Marius, Amadeo notices odd things about his master, who interacts with him sexually and bites him, but appears to have no sexual desire. When Amadeo becomes ill with a severe fever, Marius gives him his blood to heal him, and Amadeo becomes addicted to drinking Marius's blood. Amadeo feels no revulsion towards Marius's nature; instead, he begs to be told his secrets and to be allowed to become like him, believing him to be some kind of magician.
When he is seventeen, Marius sends Amadeo to brothels to be serviced by women and men as part of what Marius believes to be an education of the ways of being human. Amadeo becomes close to Bianca Solderini, a friend of Marius's, and spends much of his time at Bianca's parties, in her home, and occasionally in her bed. Amadeo becomes increasingly frustrated with Marius's refusal to tell him his secrets, and Marius shows him his true vampiric nature. Rather than being disgusted as Marius expected, Amadeo only becomes more certain of his desire to become like his master and stay with him forever.
When Marius is out of town, Amadeo is told he is being sought out by Lord Harlech, an Englishman who claims to be madly in love with him after the two had a brief affair. He breaks into Marius's palazzo, killing some of Amadeo's fellow apprentices in the process, and Amadeo defends himself in a swordfight. Lord Harlech is killed, but leaves Amadeo mortally wounded by a poisoned blade. He is taken to Marius' room and looked after by Bianca until Marius arrives. Marius finds Amadeo slipping away, believing he is seeing a vision of heaven. Fearing he'll lose Amadeo forever, Marius has no choice but to give Amadeo the Dark Gift, turning him into a vampire.
Life As a Vampire[]
Marius teaches Amadeo how to live as a vampire and to only hunt evil doers. Having regained some memories of his homeland during his vampiric transformation, Amadeo asks Marius to take him back to Kiev. There, Amadeo sees his mother and siblings and gives them his jewelry to help them financially, and his mother insists he take a painted egg back with him to Italy. He finds his father, who has been mad with grief since his disappearance, drinking in a tavern, and thanks him for taking him away from the Monastery of the Caves, knowing it was not where he was meant to die.
Amadeo's happiness with Marius is short-lived, and a few months later, Santino and his coven break into Marius's palazzo, setting it on fire and taking Amadeo and his fellow apprentices prisoner. The apprentices are burned alive in front of Amadeo, and he is kept imprisoned and starved. His captors trick him into drinking from and killing his best friend Riccardo, who he did not know hadn't been burned. Believing Marius to be dead, Amadeo eventually joins the Children of Satan and learns to follow their rules and beliefs, quickly becoming fanatically committed to their ways. Amadeo is renamed Armand and is sent to rule over the coven in Paris under the Les Innocents cemetery.
Armand leads the coven for almost three hundred years, enforcing the strict ways of the Children of Satan even as his faith dwindles and he is overcome by despair. When Lestat is turned into a vampire and attempts to coexist alongside humans, the Children of Satan torment him, eventually kidnapping his former human lover, Nicolas. Armand confronts Lestat and Gabrielle inside Notre Dame Cathedral and attempts to coerce them into coming with him, but is ultimately forced to physically capture them. Taken under the cemetery, Lestat argues with the coven and manages to persuade them that Armand's beliefs are ridiculous and petty. Armand realizes that the coven can no longer survive as it did before and forces the majority of his followers into a fire.
Armand begins behaving erratically, systematically reading all of the books in Nicholas's abandoned apartment and telepathically trying to seduce Lestat into killing Nicki and Gabrielle and becoming his companion. Armand finally comes close to Lestat using the Spell Gift at a ball, but the spell is broken when Armand bites Lestat, and Lestat beats Armand nearly to death, finally relenting out of pity. Armand appeals to Lestat and Gabrielle and asks them to stay with him and teach him how to live in the world. They refuse to stay with Armand, but put him in charge of newly vampiric Nicki and his Théâtre des Vampires. When Nicki begins compulsively playing the violin and attacking humans in broad daylight, Armand attempts to bring him under his control by imprisoning him and cutting off his hands, and ultimately helps Nicki when he asks for help ending his life during a ritualistic Sabbat.
Armand stays in the theater in Paris, finding little joy in his new role, until Louis and Claudia arrive. Armand is instantly drawn to Louis, whom he sees as an emblem of the modern age, and promises to teach Louis more about his vampire nature. Armand influences Louis into making Claudia a companion by turning Madeleine into a vampire, thus freeing Louis from any obligations he may have had to care for Claudia, but Louis hesitates to abandon her. Lestat arrives seeking help for his injuries, which Armand refuses to give, and forces the weakened Lestat to testify that Claudia tried to kill him. This testimony gives the vampires a reason to kill Claudia, and Armand arranges for her and Madeleine to be executed. Before they are killed, Armand experiments to see if he can attach Claudia's head to Madeleine's adult body, but the procedure is unsuccessful. Once Claudia is dead, Armand confronts Lestat, enraged that he did not return to be with him, and pushes him from the top of Magnus's tower, leaving Lestat seriously wounded.
Armand leaves Paris with Louis to travel the world for several decades until Armand realizes Louis has been changed by Claudia's death and will never recover. Armand leaves Louis in New Orleans after making sure he has everything he needs to survive, and returns to Lestat, where he is once again rejected. Armand remains in New Orleans while Lestat sleeps underground.
In the 20th and 21st Centuries[]
Armand illustrated by O.J. Cariello in Queen of the Damned by Innovation Comics
In 1973, Armand encounters the reporter Daniel Molloy, who recorded Louis' story in Interview with the Vampire, looking for Lestat in his old townhouse. Armand captures Daniel and listens to the tapes of the interview, and decides to let Daniel live so he can follow Daniel wherever he goes in the world and learn about the twentieth century. After several years of chasing Daniel and confronting him with constant questions about world, Armand falls in love with Daniel. At the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, Armand drinks Daniel's blood for the first time and gives Daniel his own, cementing their relationship as lovers. Daniel and Armand live together first in London and then in New York, chasing Armand's various whims as he becomes obsessed with technology, appliances, airplanes, computers, movies, and becoming part of the human world. When Armand decides he wants to become massively wealthy, the two move to Miami, and Armand acquires riches by reading the minds of criminals, stealing their wealth, and by recovering lost artifacts from shipwrecks. Armand constructs the shopping complex Night Island in Daniel's name and the two move into the villa attached to it, their relationship becoming strained by constant arguments about whether or not Armand will make Daniel into a vampire. Daniel begins leaving Armand for months at a time, usually returning due to his addiction to Armand's blood.
Daniel is finally made a vampire the night before Lestat's concert in San Francisco in 1985, when Armand sees that Daniel is rapidly dying due to his vagabond lifestyle and alcoholism, and realizes that he doesn't want to allow that to happen. Armand and the fledgling Daniel attend The Vampire Lestat's concert, and see several vampires killed by an unseen force that does not pursue them when they run away. They go to Maharet's compound in Sonoma to unite with the other surviving vampires, and Armand reunites with Marius for the first time in 500 years, presumably only having learned that he was still alive when The Vampire Lestat was published a few weeks prior. When Akasha is destroyed and Lestat is safe, all the vampires travel to Night Island and form a happy coven for a brief period of time. Eventually, everyone leaves Night Island, and at some point, Armand and Daniel separate. Armand explains in The Vampire Armand that Daniel grew to hate him once he was confronted with the true price of a vampiric existence and how it was different from his romantic ideals, concluding, "Our souls were out of tune, our desires crossed and our resentments too common and too well watered for the final flowering."
Armand and David Talbot both mention that Armand occasionally spies on Lestat without Lestat's knowledge after this point, though Lestat claims he knows and simply chooses to ignore Armand. In the mid-1990s, Armand becomes fixated on Shakespeare, and is in England when he is summoned to counsel Lestat about the offer Memnoch has given him. He watches over Dora with David in New York while Lestat is on his journey through heaven and hell. After Lestat returns and reveals the Veil of Veronica, Armand, believing completely in all that Lestat has seen, tries to kill himself by walking into the sunlight in the name of God. In Pandora, the titular character mentions that he may have survived.
In The Vampire Armand, it is revealed that Armand's suicide attempt was unsuccessful, leaving him seriously injured and burnt after seeing a brief vision of heaven. He kills Sybelle's brother to save her from him, though still ends up trapped on a snow covered roof afterwards, too injured to move but covered by enough shade to not be killed by the sun. Sybelle and her young companion Benji, both mortals, are thankful for what Armand has done and don't seem to care what he is or how he looks, taking him into the hotel where they live to recover. They offer to help him regain his strength by bringing him people to kill, which they do until he has the strength to go out and find victims for himself. Armand becomes close to Sybelle and Benji and spoils them with riches, planning to watch over them and help them for the duration of their human lives.
When Armand has recovered, he takes Benji and Sybelle to New Orleans, where Lestat is lying in a chapel unconscious, surrounded by other vampires. He leaves them both with Marius while Armand attempts to drink the blood Lestat's blood, hoping to see the truth of what happened on his journey with Memnoch. Against Gabrielle's warnings, he approaches Lestat and is allowed to drink his blood, and briefly sees a vision of Lestat's encounter with Christ before being thrown across the room by an invisible force. Armand returns to Marius and finds, to his horror, that Sybelle and Benji have been turned into vampires. He shows Sybelle and Benji unwavering love but confronts Marius about his actions while they are preoccupied. He accuses Marius of changing them as an act of spite because Armand could not be the fledgling Marius wanted him to be. He and Marius have a lengthy argument where Armand explains his viewpoint on the Incarnation of Christ as a symbol for humanity, a philosophy he claims Marius will never understand. Armand finally decides to move forward with the new fledglings who need him, and is present when Lestat is awakened by Sybelle's piano playing.
By Merrick, Armand, Benji, and Sybelle have left New Orleans after helping Lestat clear troublesome fledglings out of the city. Armand appears briefly in the contemporary timeline in Blood and Gold when he is called by Maharet because Marius wants revenge on Santino, which Armand appears puzzled by.
Between the events of the The Vampire Armand and Prince Lestat, Armand purchases three row houses in New York City which he remodels into one large building referred to as "Trinity Gate." By the events of Prince Lestat, he lives at Trinity Gate with Benji, Sybelle, and Louis, and the home becomes a defacto meeting place for the numerous vampires looking to Lestat for guidance. After the resolution of the events of Prince Lestat, Armand is seen briefly with his arm around a tearful olive skinned ghost with dark curly hair accompanying the Talamasca, which is implied to be his human friend from Venice, Riccardo.
After the formation of the Vampire Court, Armand's home in Germain-des-Pres in Paris serves as the Court's Paris headquarters, and Trinity Gate as the royal residence in New York. In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, Armand captures the replimoidGarekyn in New York, but is forced to allow him to escape after he attacks Eleni, a former member of the Théâtre des Vampires. Armand travels to France and is one of Lestat's counselors for the remainder of the novel, advocating for the destruction of the Replimoids. Early in the novel, Armand and Lestat discuss Louis and Lestat's reconciliation, and later it is mentioned that Armand and Daniel Molloy have reunited, and are eager to return to Trinity Gate.
Armand is summoned to the Chateau de Lioncourt as one of Lestat's advisors at the beginning of Blood Communion, and continues his role as an advisor in the final novel, advocating for the destruction of both Rhoshamandes and the Replimoids. When Louis and Marius are presumed dead, Armand and Lestat have a confrontation in Armand's apartments at the Chateau, where he is staying with Benji and Sybelle. Armand professes that he both, "has loved [Lestat] more than any being in all the world whom I've ever loved" and that he understands "the very definition of 'hate' when he thinks of [Lestat]." When Marius returns, he and Lestat discuss that Armand's heart is "finally no longer shut against him," but Lestat in his narration states that he does not know what went on to be said between Marius and Armand.
In Marius's mural, Armand appears after a group of unspecified Children of the Millennia, and next to Bianca.
Inspiration[]
In The Vampire Companion by Katherine Ramsland, Anne Rice cites two sources of inspiration for the character of Armand in Interview with the Vampire:
Frankenstein: The True Story, starring Leonard Whiting as Victor Frankenstien and Michael Sarrazin as the Creature.
"If there was an inspiration for Armand, it might be in a movie called The Tales of Hoffman. I saw that in my childhood, and there was a companion to Hoffman who had beautiful red hair and was very angelic. The character was played by a woman, but as a child, I don't remember realizing that it was a woman. I remember the character as a transcendent person, and I thought it was Hoffman's guardian angel. Movies like that had a stunning influence on me. They were starbursts in a childhood like mine."
"The 1973 miniseries, 'Frankenstein: The True Story,' was also a seminal influence. I was inspired by the monster and Dr. Frankenstein going to the opera together. If there was any romantic, swooning influence for Armand, it probably came from that piece, from its ambience. I remember when I was writing about Armand, I kept seeing that image."
In the musical Lestat, Armand was originally portrayed by Jack Noseworthy, but was replaced by Drew Sarich about a week into the initial San Francisco production. Drew Sarich later portrayed the character in the Broadway production.
Armand is played by Assad Zaman in AMC Television's Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. Zaman was originally announced as having been cast in the role of Rashid and was credited as such for the first season, his character's true identity only being revealed in the final episode.
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