Description[]
"Mael was beautiful. The beauty was the sum of the faults - the hawk nose, the too prominent jaw, the leanness of the face with the wild wavy straw-colored hair around it. Even the eyes were too deep-set, yet all the more visible for it."
- Jesse from The Queen of the Damned
"Tall and gaunt always, with a high bridged nose and deep-set blue eyes and long blond hair from his servitude in the Sacred Grove."
Biography[]
Mael is mentioned briefly in The Vampire Lestat. Along with Marius de Romanus and Pandora, he is one of the legendary ancient vampires. When Marius tells the young Lestat the story of his life, he says that Mael was the druid priest who abducted him to become the new God of the Grove but Marius manages to escape. Mael later returns in The Queen of the Damned. He is the companion to Maharet and also seeks to protect her mortal descendant Jesse. Mael is present during the events at the Sonoma compound when the vampires prepare for Akasha's arrival and her death by Mekare.
The third appearance by Mael is at the end of Memnoch the Devil. Lestat traveled to Heaven and Hell with the Devil Memnoch, and he brought back Veronica's Veil, causing chaos among mortals and bringing out many of the ancients. Mael tells David and Lestat that he is going to burn himself in the sun for God. Mael is an ancient and thereby too strong for the sunlight to kill him ordinarily, but he believes that the presence of the Veil negates his preternatural powers but not his vulnerabilities. The final implication is that Mael dies as the novel ends, but it's revealed by Marius in Blood and Gold that Mael's suicide attempt is unsuccessful. "He was badly burnt and brought low, as can happen with us who are very old, and after one day in the sun, he hadn't the courage for more suffering. Back to his companions he went and there he remains."
He appears in Blood and Gold when Marius tells Thorne about his life, in which Mael is included.
Marius has just left Pandora when he meets Mael and his maker Avicus in Rome, the city he moved to. When Marius had escaped and the previous god Teskamen was believed to have been killed when they had Marius to replace him, Mael is chosen to become the new God of the Grove. The druids find out about Avicus in England and travel there. When they arrive, Avicus uses the Mind Gift on Mael and learns about Marius's escape. In exchange for giving Mael the Dark Gift, Avicus wants a victim and freedom, but it all ends with Mael being made into a vampire and they escape together. Mael and Avicus become companions and eventually meet Marius in Rome, where they reveal all this to him.
There is a lot of anger between Mael and Marius while Avicus tries to keep them from fighting. They come to a peace where they all live in the city. Mael and Avicus keeps the city clean from The Children of Darkness, but one night Mael is injured by being beheaded by a sword by a rowdy group of mortal men and Marius answers their call to help. After properly reattaching Mael's head, Marius must give Mael his blood so he can heal but through Marius's blood, Mael sees visions of Those Who Must Be Kept. Gradually their knowledge increases, and Avicus appears to have been made by Akasha before becoming a God of the Grove. Mael is furious that Marius kept such an important secret to himself, that Marius destroyed his druid belief system and jealous about the connection between Avicus and Marius. Marius eventually takes them to Those Who Must Be Kept where Mael tries to drink from Akasha. Enkil objects to this attempt and Marius saves Mael from being killed by Enkil. Later when Rome is falling, Marius goes to sleep and they try to wake him but do not succeed. A hundred years later they decide to leave for Constantinople and finally successfully awaken Marius. In Constantinople, they separate, and Mael later becomes Maharet's companion.