Queen Akasha
Part One follows the events surrounding different people happening at the same time over several days. Familiar ones include Armand, the boy reporter whose name is now known to be Daniel Molloy, Marius, Louis, Gabrielle and Santino. All vampires at this time are experiencing a series of dreams of red-haired twin sisters. Also, an awareness is spreading that a powerful being is killing vampires around the world by manner of spontaneous combustion.
Marius trapped in a case of ice, uses the Mind Gift to send a telepathic call for help and is rescued by Pandora and Santino. Marius informs them that Lestat has formed a rock group and his rebellious music has awakened Akasha from her slumber. Feeling rejuvinated by Lestat, Akasha kills her husband Enkil. When Marius finds what Akasha has done, she imprisons him in ice, then flees, hatching a plot to rule the world. It is realized that Akasha is the source of the destruction of the vampires in the world.
The twins Maharet and Mekare.
Part Two takes place at Lestat's concert. Jesse Reeves, a member of the secret Talamasca and descendant of Maharet, is mortally injured at the concert and is taken to Maharet's Sonoma compound where Maharet makes a her a vampire. They are joined by vampires who survived Akasha's onslaught. The only vampires not present are Akasha and Lestat. Akasha has abducted Lestat and takes him as an unwilling consort to various locations in the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who they feel have oppressed them.
Part Three takes place at Maharet's home in a Sonoma forest. There, Maharet tells the story of Akasha and the red-haired twins, revealing the twins are her and her sister Mekare, to Pandora, Jesse, Marius, Santino, Eric, Armand, Daniel, Louis and Gabrielle. Mael and Khayman who know the story, are also present.
In Part Four, Akasha confronts the gathered vampires at Maharet's compound. She explains her plans to kill 90 percent of the world's human men and to establish a new Eden in which women will worship Akasha as a goddess. She offers the vampires a chance to be her 'angels' in her New World Order. When they refuse to be part of Akasha's plan, she prepares to destroy them, but Mekare appears on the compound and attacks Akasha by severing her head. Mekare quickly then consumes Akasha's brain and heart, thereby taking the core essense of Amel into herself, saving the vampire race from destruction by becoming the new Queen of the Damned.
In Part Five, the vampires leave Maharet's compound and assemble at Armand's resort, the Night Island, (according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island) in Florida to recover. As told in The Tale of the Body Thief, they eventually go their separate ways.
Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London. After their brief visit with Talbot they depart into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee.
The Origin of Vampires
The novel The Queen of the Damned, deals with the origins of vampires. The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as a pre-Egyptian queen, in a land called Kemet (later to be known as Egypt), many thousands of years ago. During this time, two powerful witches, Maharet and Mekare, live in the mountains of an unnamed region. The witches are able to communicate with invisible spirits and gain simple favors from them. During this period there is a bloodthirsty, invisible spirit known as Amel who continually asks the two witches if they need his assistance, although they prudently decline the offer. The witches' village is destroyed and they are incarcerated by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge. The witches answers their questions which aren't to their liking, offending Akasha, who condemns the twins. Enkil then orders his chief steward Khayman to rape the twins in front of the whole court, which they believe would prove their lack of power. Afterward, the witches are cast out into the desert. While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen by invoking the spirit Amel. Amel would then inflict such torment on Akasha and Enkil as punishment for what they have done to the twins.
Conspirators, unhappy with the young king's policies, attempt to assassinate the royal couple in Khayman's home while they were attempting to exorcise Amel, who had been tormenting Khayman. While the king and queen lie dying, the evil spirit sees its chance to ensnare the soul of the dying queen and pulls it back into her body. The spirit combines itself with the flesh and blood of the queen, making her into the world's first vampire. Akasha allows the king to drink her blood, which heals his wounds and makes him the world's second vampire. They then order Khayman to find the witches and bring them back to Egypt so that they could use their knowledge of spirits to counsel them, as their thirst for blood is insatiable. The witches tell them that the spirit of Amel is so large within them that they must make more vampires to dilute Amel's spirit to lower the couple's bloodlust. When the witches' answers to further questioning don't satisfy the monarchs, Akasha orders the mutilation of the witches. Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue. Afterward, Khayman, who had been made into a vampire by Akasha to test the twins' claim, comes to the witches' cell and makes Mekare a vampire who in turn, does the same to Maharet. The three flee together, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers. Khayman manages to escape, but Maharet and Mekare are captured. The witches are put into two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water. They are only reunited when Mekare arrives at Maharet's Sonoma compound in 1985 during the final confrontation with Akasha.
In Mekare's absence, Maharet returns to watch over her daughter and her descendants. Maharet's descendants become what she calls the Great Family. A maternal line, as it is the only way to be certain the descendants are truly Maharet's, the Great Family includes every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race. The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what Akasha would destroy with the creation of her New World Order.
As the living progenitor of all vampires, Akasha is connected to them by the blood and spirit they collectively share. In an experiment by one of the first caretakers known as the Elder, Akasha and Enkil were exposed to sunlight when they are several thousand years old. This merely darkened their skin. However, the result on all other vampires is extreme, as young vampires being the weakest are destroyed as though they were exposed to direct sunlight, while the older surviving vampires are severely burnt, thus confirming the legend that anything that happens to Akasha will also directly affect all of her progeny.
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