Akasha

No description.

Armand

As a boy, Armand, born Andrei, was abducted in the southern steppes of Russia by Tartars (1400s). He was then sold to a brothel in Constantinople and later bought by Marius. Amadeo (as Marius called him) became Marius' mortal child. He learned to read and write, play the lute and to sing songs. Armand also took his Master's paintings to churches and chapels, collected payments and bargained for the pigments and oils.

Armand let himself be seduced by a drunken Englishman (the Earl of Harlech), who later came for Armand one night, slaying Marius' other young mortal children who got in the way. Armand, relatively inexperienced with fighting, was able to fatally wound the Lord with a dagger. Armand received wounds to his face and left arm — with poisoned blades. Riccardo, another of Marius' mortal children, finished off the Lord. Marius told Armand that he would not live as the poison had travelled too deep, far and wide. And so, at the mortal age of seventeen, Armand was born to immortality.

Armand and Marius often took the same victim, Armand the throat, Marius the wrist, and being new, Armand had a thirst every night, but he learnt to kill at least every fourth night before he became weak. Kills seemed more thrilling and paralysingly delicious with each and the mere sight of a bare throat stirred unrestrainable urges in Armand. Marius also took Armand back to his homeland to see his family. Armand's father, whom he had thought was slain in dishonour in the wild fields by the Tartars, was alive, mourning for a son who not only lived but prospered.

Then one night, a satanic coven of vampires, led by Santino, took Armand from Marius. Many more of Marius' mortal children were also taken from him, put aboard a ship away from Venice. While the other children were burned alive, Armand, thinking Marius dead, was put in a wall and starved for five nights. On the sixth, he was bought a male victim. The victim was Riccardo, but Armand did not realise this until after he had drained him.

For twenty weeks Armand was left in the misery of a cell. Following this, he hunted with Santino and Allesandra (another member of the satanic coven). He became Santino's pupil and was taught the Great Laws, rituals, incantations and folklore. After six months, Santino told Armand he was being sent to Paris to become the new leader of a coven there. Allesandra followed him.

For 300 years, Armand was faithful to the Old Ways of Santino, even after Santino himself disappeared. Then one day, a vampire named Lestat tore the Parisian coven apart. Armand began to destroy his coven, and Lestat later gave Armand the theatre that became the Théâtre des Vampires, which Armand occasionally took exquisite pride and pleasure in managing.

In the 1870s, the vampire Louis (accompanied by Claudia) walked into Armand's world, coming to Paris in search of answers to an unknown existence. Armand fell hopelessly in love with Louis.

It was for his love for Louis that Armand tried to grant Claudia her fondest wish — that she have a body of a woman. He attempted this by slicing heads from bodies of female vampires and transplanting Claudia's head onto the more mature body. When Armand's coven destroyed her, she was herself again, hideously wounded, a botched reassemblage of the angelic child she'd been before hand. Claudia's image haunted Armand for many years — her girlish head fixed awkwardly with gross black stitching to the body of a female vampire whose discarded head he'd thrown into the fire. He never revealed this horror tale to Louis.

After Louis destroyed Armand's coven and the theatre, Armand and Louis wandered the world together for many years, but time eventually withered their love for one another. Later, Armand fell in love with the mortal Daniel and made him a vampire. He also created another coven — "The Night Island", a modern resort hotel and shopping palace off the coast of Miami, with secret illegal gambling casinos, overheated swimming pools, crystal fountains, … , and of course secret deep underground crypts — which many of the vampires known to Armand visited and stayed at from time to time.

Armand went into the sun after he saw the face of Christ on Veronica's Veil. As the sun blackened his skin, Armand saw visions and heard the piano Sonata 'Appassionata'. He saw an Arab boy, Benjamin, praying for a demon to take his soul if only to save his Sybelle (the young woman whom played the Sonata), save her from her clever, viscous-tongued and tone-deaf brother.

In an unexplainable way, Armand killed Sybelle's brother.

Armand fell from the sky onto snow covered rooftops, where he lay deeply encased in the snow, listening for Sybelle's music and hearing Benji's calls. He lay there for many nights. Eventually, he realised the full horror of his state so he shut his mind off, save an attempted rescue by immortal strangers. He sensed Marius and Santino thinking of him as the two of them destroyed evidence of the vampires that had gone into the sun.

Armand began to wonder how he could have killed the evil brother of Sybelle. Armand thought it an illusion when he had gone into the sun, and he worried that Sybelle and Benji were a dream too, so Armand called Benji to rescue him from the rooftop.

Both Benji and Sybelle came to rescue Armand. In the days following, Benji helped Armand by coaxing evildoers to their apartment for blood Armand's black-scarred body badly needed in order to heal. Armand became happier than he had ever been in his entire immortal existence. He gained strength from his mortal companions and lavished his wealth on them.

Armand became determined to drink blood from Lestat (as he lay in a coma-like sleep) and search for visions of Christ. Armand ignored all warnings from his immortal brother's and sister's. Risking his own destruction, Armand put Benji and Sybelle in Marius' care. He then drank from Lestat, seeing visions of Christ in a torn and bloody white robe. Marius took Sybelle and Benji away.

The following night, Armand searched for his companions by listening for Sybelle's Sonata. When he found her music amongst the world's other noises, Armand noticed a different quality to Sybelle's interpretations. He then realised that Sybelle was no longer Sybelle. Marius had made both Sybelle and Benji vampires. Marius told Armand he did it out of love: his love for Armand and Sybelle and Benji's love for Armand.

Claudia

Claudia, found in a deserted house with her dead mother one night by Louis, was Louis' first human victim in four years. Lestat gave her immortal life at the young age of five, in 1794, in an attempt to keep Louis from leaving him.

Described as 'the infant death' by Lestat, Claudia becomes resentful that Lestat and Louis treat her like a doll, rather than acknowledging her intellectual maturity. Being a child, she is unable to develop her powers.

When she discovers that Lestat had taken away her mortal life, giving her immortality in such a helpless form, she plots to kill him, and does this by enticing him with two mortal boys poisoned with absinthe and laudanum. When Lestat drinks from one of the boys, he becomes weakened and Claudia gashes his throat, then, with the help of Louis, dumps his body in swamp lands outside New Orleans.

The murder attempt fails, and when Lestat returns for revenge, Claudia flees with Louis to Eastern Europe, where they discover a vampire described as being a mindless corpse. It is in Vienna where Claudia decides she and Louis must be with their people, their language — they go to Paris.

After first meeting the Parisian vampires, Claudia forms a steel hatred for them. She realises she is in danger and that Armand (one of the vampires they encounter there) wants Louis as his companion.

Fearing Louis will leave her to be with Armand, Claudia demands Louis make Madeleine (a Parisian doll maker) into a vampire, therefore giving her not only a protector but also a mother.

Claudia and Madeleine are locked in an airshaft in the Théâtre des Vampires, where the rising sun burns both of them to death. This takes place after Lestat arrives in Paris and accuses Claudia of attempting to kill him.

Years later, after Claudia's death, her image haunts Lestat after he loses Akasha during the worldwide destruction of vampires. In a separate incident, Claudia's diary is found, by Jesse, in the New Orleans townhouse that Lestat, Louis, and Claudia once inhabited. Following this, Jesse sees Claudia's ghost on several occasions.

David Talbot

No description.

Enkil

In mortal life, Enkil was an ancient Egyptian king. One of the First Brood, he was the first vampire made by Akasha after the spirit Amel fused with Akasha's blood.

Initially, it was believed that Enkil housed the vampire spirit and that destroying him would destroy all vampires. This was proved not true by other vampires over the centuries. Akasha destroyed him after she awoke from her trance-like state.

Gabrielle de Lioncourt

As a mortal, Gabrielle (Lestat's mortal mother) was a lady who kept mostly to herself and possessed a hatred for castle life and her family's attitudes. She helps Lestat to go to Paris where she later follows him.

In Paris, Gabrielle finds a 'changed' son and accepts his offer of immortality without hesitation. At the time of Lestat's offer, Gabrielle was suffering from a fatal disease. The year was 1780, the same year Lestat became a vampire.

As a vampire, Gabrielle quickly abandons her gender type, dressing and cutting her hair like a man. She leaves Lestat due to his attachment to mortals and even predicts the rising of a being that will rein torment on the mortal world.

Gabrielle survives Akasha's worldwide destruction and joins with the other immortals to stand against the ancient queen. Armand describes her as a vampire hated by everyone and so cunning and cold that she has forgotten what it ever meant to be human or in pain.

Jesse Reeves

With long curly red hair, Jesse is a mortal descendant of Maharet, with an extraordinary ability to perceive the spirit world. Jesse was found by the side of a road minutes after the car crash that killed her seven-month-pregnant mother and her father — a baby spontaneously aborted from the dying womb.

Maharet came for Jesse, identifying her as the sole survivor of the Reeves family. She was then taken to New York where she grew up in the care of relatives. Maharet wrote her before she was old enough to read and also provided for her.

Jesse studied ancient languages and art at Columbia, and through her late teens, Maharet arranged for her to meet cousins the world over: Europe, Russia, England. Jesse did not meet Maharet herself until her third year at Columbia, when Maharet invited Jesse to the Sonoma compound where Jesse studied family records kept by Maharet.

She joined the Talamasca where she found a new family, and her life begins a dramatic change when she is asked to investigate a New Orleans town house believed to have once been inhabited by vampires.

She finds evidence of vampires in the town house which was previously the residence of Lestat and Louis; the fire that almost destroyed Lestat, a mural and Claudia's diary. Following this discovery, Claudia's ghost appears to Jesse several times.

Jesse begins to endanger her own life as she strives to discover and learn more about vampires. She is eventually removed from the investigation and later quits the Talamasca, after twelve years of service.

After reading the book, The Vampire Lestat, Jesse begins to believe Maharet is a vampire. Jesse goes to Lestat's rock concert to find if he is, in appearance, like Maharet. She manages to reach the stage, and even comes in contact with the rock star.

However, Jesse's life seems certain to end when a vampire grabs her from Lestat and throws her, breaking her back. She does lose her mortal life (of thirty-five years), but receives immortality from her own ascendant, Maharet. Jesse later becomes one of the vampires that stands against Akasha.

Khayman

As a mortal, Khayman was the steward for King Enkil and Queen Akasha. Enkil orders Khayman to rape the witches Maharet and Mekare to prove their spiritual impotence. Following the rape, the evil spirit Amel tormented Khayman.

Khayman was made a vampire by Akasha after Maharet tells Akasha her thirst for blood will decrease as more vampires are made. Later, he makes Mekare a vampire so she can gain the power to fulfil her prophecy of Akasha's doom.

When Akasha awakens in the late twentieth century, she appears to Khayman, bringing back all memories from the past that he had forgotten. Khayman was not only surprised by the technological feights of this time, but also by his own powers. He survived Akasha's destruction and was one of the immortals that gathered at Sonoma to take a stand against Akasha.

Lestat de Lioncourt

Lestat was born in 1760 to an indigent marquis and his wife, Gabrielle. He was the seventh son, of which only three survived to adulthood.

During one cold winter in his late teens, Lestat single handedly kills a pack of wolves that are depleting the food storage of his village. The villagers lavish Lestat with gifts, among those gifts a coat lined with the fur of the wolves he had killed. Nicolas de Lenfent, the son of a local merchant, gave this gift to Lestat. The two quickly become friends and escape to Paris with the help of Lestat's mother. In Paris, Lestat and Nicolas find work in a theatre.

In Paris (1780), a vampire, looking to pass his immortality on to a worthy predecessor, discovers Lestat during one of Lestat's performances where his thoughts are filled with his experience with the wolves. The vampire, Magnus, kidnaps Lestat because of the courage he showed when fighting the wolves and forces Lestat into a world of immortality. Magnus then commits himself to the fire, leaving Lestat to discover and learn about his new existence alone.

Lestat later learns of his dying mother, Gabrielle, whom he had been extremely close with. With his mother's permission, Lestat makes Gabrielle a vampire. The two of them then encounter a Parisian coven of vampires, led by Armand. Following this, the coven strives to bring Lestat's existence to an end as his behaviour goes against their rules and rituals. However, Lestat ends up breaking the coven free of their religious superstitions. Armand then tries to join Lestat and Gabrielle, but they leave him in Paris where he joins the Théâtre des Vampires.

Lestat and Gabrielle eventually part and Lestat goes in search of an old vampire named Marius, leaving messages for the ancient vampire everywhere he goes.

Lestat's search is unsuccessful and, after a decade, he despairs and goes underground. He is then revived by Marius, who takes him to his island hideaway. Marius tells Lestat about the origins of the vampire race, the Father and Mother, Enkil and Akasha, who sit as statues in a tomb on Marius' island. Lestat bravely drinks from Akasha, receiving a wealth of power, and is sent away by Marius. He goes to New Orleans.

In New Orleans (1791), Lestat falls in love with one of the local plantation owners, Louis de Pointe du Lac. Louis' despair and self-destructive nature seduces Lestat into making him a vampire.

The two live together for a while until their relationship is strained by Louis' resentment for Lestat. Three years later, when Louis threatens to leave Lestat, Lestat makes five-year-old Claudia a vampire, a child Louis thought he had earlier killed.

Lestat, Louis and Claudia live as a "happy family" for nearly seventy years when Claudia becomes enraged at Lestat for trapping her inside the body of a child for eternity. She plots revenge for herself and Louis by poisoning Lestat and dumping his body in swamplands.

Much to the surprise of his two fledglings, Lestat returns just as Louis and Claudia are about to make a trip to the Old World in search of other vampires. Bad luck again befalls Lestat when his fledglings set fire to him and their town house.

Lestat survives the attack and follows Louis and Claudia, seeking the assistance of Armand to regain the strength and beauty he once had. Armand, still bitter at Lestat for dismantling his coven almost a century ago, uses Lestat to destroy Claudia, in hope of luring Louis to his side.

Lestat returns to New Orleans (1929), living off the blood of animals, and again goes underground to allow his body to heal. In 1984, Lestat rises to the sound of rock music. He becomes obsessed with the music and joins a band, writing songs about vampires and his adventures. The band is transformed into an overnight success, and a public concert is scheduled, in a ploy to gather all the vampires from around the world.

Lestat's music wakes a powerful being, a being bent on destroying populations the world over, bent on world domination. At the concert, vampires surround Lestat in an attempt to kill him, but the vampires then burst into flames as Akasha swoops in, abducting Lestat and taking him on her quest.

During his time with Akasha, Lestat learns the true strength of his powers: he is able to fly through the air, move or burn things telepathically, survive the sun and survive without drinking blood.

Meanwhile, the ancient vampires (and the vampires they protect), gather at the Sonoma compound to discuss the fate of Akasha. Akasha and Lestat make their way to Sonoma where Mekare destroys Akasha.

Following Akasha's death, Lestat befriends a member of the Talamasca, David Talbot. Lestat becomes attracted to David, who continually refuses Lestat's offers of immortality.

A body thief, Raglan James, then convinces Lestat to temporarily swap bodies, giving Lestat the opportunity to experience life as a mortal again. Lestat soon yearns to have his vampiric body back when Raglan James flees, intending to keep the body permanently.

Fortunately for Lestat, Raglan James fails badly with his newly acquired body, leaving easily traced paths of death. Together with David Talbot, Lestat reacquires his body, and in the process, David acquires the body that Raglan James had previously swapped with Lestat.

Unable to resist the temptation of danger and new adventures, Lestat then embarks on a special journey that takes him to heaven and hell and back again, a journey with the devil himself, Memnoch.

Louis de Pointe du Lac

Louis, born in 1766, was a plantation owner in New Orleans. Grieving his brother's death, Lestat gave Louis immortal life at the mortal age of 25, in 1791. Initially, Louis is amazed by the world he sees and hears around him, but he begins to question his new existence. Following his encounters with Babette Freniere, Louis shuns mortal life.

When he came across Claudia, he could not understand the pity he felt for the small mortal child. Claudia became Louis' first human victim in four years. When Claudia is made a vampire (in 1794), a whole new world opens up for Louis. He treats her like a child, despite her intellectual maturity, and when Claudia tries to kill Lestat, Louis flees to Europe with her.

In Paris, Louis notices a change in Claudia. She was no longer the 'lost child' or 'orphan' to her victims, but something wicked and shocking to the passer-by that succumbed to her.

After the Paris coven destroys Claudia (in 1862), Louis' world once again changes dramatically, and he clings to Claudia's memory. Louis gets revenge by burning the covens lair, the Théâtre des Vampires, to the ground.

Following this, Louis spends many years with Armand, and they eventually return to New Orleans. Back in New Orleans, Louis begins to follow a vampire and is led to Lestat's hideout.

Akasha spares his life in her worldwide destruction and when the immortals gather at Sonoma, he remains a mostly inactive observer.

When Lestat comes to him in a mortal form, Louis refuses to make him a vampire, reluctant to give anyone the immortality he resents so much.

Above all, Louis refuses to learn how to use his vampiric powers to there full extent. For this reason, he becomes known as one of the most human and predatory of all immortals, killing almost anyone who crosses his path, not just evildoers like Lestat does.

Louis' is the first vampire to tell his story. Told to a mortal reporter, named Daniel Molloy, it explores Louis' life before Lestat gave him immortal life and the subsequent life that followed. His is the story that becomes the first volume of The Vampire Chronicles, titled Interview with the Vampire.

Mael

Mael, a Druid priest, became a vampire during the Roman Empire, by drinking from a vampire himself. Before he became an immortal, he teached Marius the customs and laws of the Druids.

Two millennia later, he becomes protective of Jesse and even tries to make her a vampire. Jesse first describes Mael as being a tall overpowering man with long blond hair and deep-set blue eyes.

He survives Akasha's worldwide slaughter and is one of the immortals that stand against her at Sonoma. Mael later destroys himself in the sun after Lestat returns, from his journey, with Veronica's veil.

Maharet & Mekare

Maharet and Mekare possess powers to attract and communicate with spirits. The first born of the red-haired twins, Mekare is more powerful and outspoken than her sister, Maharet.

Mekare and Maharet are called before Akasha's court to answer questions about the nature of their sorcery. Soldiers slaughter their village and the twins are taken to Egypt. During the long journey, Khayman (the King's chief steward) looked upon the twins with compassion and did everything he could to ease their pain.

Akasha and Enkil later order Khayman to rape the twins when they do not provide clear answers to the King and Queen. The twins are ordered before the court a second time only to discover that the King and Queen have been transformed into something not human. When the twins explain to Akasha and Enkil about their new existence, the twins are sentenced to die.

Akasha orders that Mekare's tongue be torn from her mouth for her evil lies and discourse with demons, and that Maharet's eyes be plucked out for the evil which she envisioned and sought to make the King and Queen believe in. Before her tongue is removed, Mekare speaks her prophecy to destroy the "Queen of the Damned" at the hour of her greatest menace.

The twins are imprisoned to suffer together before they are to be burnt. Khayman (now a vampire) comes to them and makes Mekare a vampire after she is imprisoned with her sister. Mekare later gives Maharet immortality.

The three of them escape together, but the twins are later captured by the King and Queen's soldiers. The twins are then separated, put into stone coffins and set adrift on rafts in the great oceans. When Maharet's raft comes ashore, she begins her unsuccessful search for Mekare, borrowing the eyes of her human victims to see.

When Akasha awakens, dreams begin to haunt immortals worldwide. Mekare is the source of these dreams, and Khayman believes Mekare is moving to fulfil her prophecy — that she will be the instrument of Akasha's downfall.

Mekare does fulfil her prophecy. At the Sonoma compound, where the immortals confront Akasha, Mekare pushes Akasha into a glass wall, severing the Queen's head. Mekare then becomes the new "Queen of the Damned" when Maharet gives her Akasha's brain and heart — the root of the vampire spirit.

When Lestat returns from his journey with Memnoch, Maharet returns his missing eye. The eye comes with a note from Memnoch, describing that Lestat performed well for him, implying he was a puppet to the Devil. Fearing Lestat would cause great damage as a result of Memnoch's letter, Maharet binds him in chains.

Marius

Born around BC30, Marius De Romanus grew up an illegitimate son in a rich Roman household. By age twenty, he had become a scholar and chronicler. In his fortieth year, he was writing a history of the world that had taken him on a journey through all the great cities of the Empire.

In the Roman Gallic city of Massilia, a Druid knocked him out and took him to an enclave of the ancient Keltoi. The Druid's believed he was an extraordinary human being and wanted him to become their new god. The Druid priest (the mortal Mael) tells him that he will be taken to the sacred grove where he will drink the Divine Blood and become a father of gods. Mael teaches Marius about customs of the Druids, preparing him for the night of the Samhain, when he would become their new god.

Marius is taken to an oak grove where the Druid Vampire (God of the Grove — burnt badly when Akasha and Enkil were put into the sun) tells Marius lessons of the vampires. He urges Marius to escape the Druid's and go to Egypt to find the answer as to why vampires were burnt or destroyed the world over. The Druid Vampire makes Marius a vampire, exchanging blood with Marius several times to ensure his strength.

Marius escapes the Druid's and goes to Alexandria, where a blackened figure appears to him. Marius is lead to the Elder, an ancient Egyptian vampire who is the guardian of Akasha and Enkil. The Elder tells Marius why vampires were burnt and destroyed, and how the Mother and Father (Akasha and Enkil) became the first of their kind.

Five nights after seeing the Elder, a magnificent bronze-skinned Egyptian woman, who spoke only these words before vanishing, visits Marius: 'Marius, take us out of Egypt'. The woman was Akasha.

Marius is led to an underground chamber where the Mother and Father are kept safe. He learns that the Elder was the one who put Akasha and Enkil in the sun, seeking to destroy them. Marius takes Akasha and Enkil from their chamber.

When the Elder discovers Marius' intentions, he attacks Marius. Akasha then destroys the Elder, crushing his entire body beneath her feet. Following this, Akasha allowed Marius to drink from her.

From Alexandria, Marius takes Akasha and Enkil to Antioch. Here, Marius falls madly in love with a beautiful Greek courtesan named Pandora — Marius had previously met Pandora fifteen years earlier through Pandora's father. Pandora enchanted and dazzled Marius.

Marius gives Pandora immortal life after a vampire, named Akbar, attacks Pandora in his attempts to see and drink from the ancient couple, Akasha and Enkil. For two hundred years, Marius lived and fought and loved with Pandora. Feuds, however, eventually drive Marius and Pandora apart. They did not meet again until a single precious night, in Dresden, in the late 1600s.

In the fifteenth century, Marius buys the mortal child Armand from a brothel in Constantinople. Marius, an avid painter living in Venice in the company of many mortal children, teaches Armand to read and write. An English Lord attacks Armand and Marius gives his mortal child immortal life.

Six months later, a satanic coven of vampires, led by Santino, takes Marius' mortal children (as well as the immortal Armand) from him for being servants of a pagan. The vampires set Marius alight, but Marius manages to escape to his island hideaway where Akasha and Enkil are kept. Marius did not see Armand again until 1985 in Sonoma.

Years later, a vampire named Lestat comes in search of Marius. Marius revives Lestat from his underground stupor, and takes him to his Greek island hideaway. Marius tells Lestat about the origins of the vampire race, the Mother and Father, Akasha and Enkil, who sit as statues in a tomb on Marius' island. Marius is later forced to send Lestat away after Lestat bravely drinks from Akasha, stirring the ancient couple.

In the twentieth century, when Lestat rises from another underground stupor and becomes a rock star, Marius plays Lestat's music videos for Akasha and Enkil. In the morning prior to Lestat's concert, Marius checks on Akasha and Enkil, only to discover Akasha missing and Enkil an empty husk, the last drop of life drawn out of him. Marius then realises that Akasha must harbour the primal power and it was she who did this to Enkil. Akasha re-enters the shrine and begins to mock Marius, speaking to him the words he himself had spoken to people that morning.

Akasha then destroys the shrine, with Marius inside. Marius becomes trapped in a giant crevasse, buried in ice, bones of his arms, legs and face crushed. This is when Marius calls out to Lestat, warning him of danger.

Pandora (learning of Marius' dilemma from the doomed Azim) seeks out Marius with the help of Santino. Marius joins those vampires who stand against Akasha and he later makes Armand's mortal children, Sybelle and Benji, vampires.

Merrick

No description.

Pandora

Born Lydia, the daughter of a Senator of Rome, in the year BC15, Pandora became an immortal at the mortal age of 35. Pandora took on her new name after fleeing to Antioch, following the suicide of her father and murder of her more distant family.

Before her father took his own life, Pandora, at the tender age of ten years, met the barbarian Marius for the first time. Pandora fell in love with the man who would later give her immortal life and Marius showed obvious signs of affection for the girl fifteen years his junior.

During her fleeing journey to Antioch, Pandora's dreams were filled with images of blood drinkers and a thirst for blood herself. The meaning of the dreams baffled Pandora.

Arriving in Antioch, she was left alone with her new identity and her father's wealth. She went looking for slaves and came across a Greek one-legged slave name Flavius, whom she immediately fell in love with.

Pandora's dreams eventually led her to the city Temple, where she came across a changed Marius. He later shows Pandora the ancient Mother and Father, Akasha and Enkil, where a vampire named Akbar attacks Pandora in his attempts to see and drink from the ancient couple himself. Akbar drains Pandora to near death. Marius then gives Pandora her new life and Akasha allows Pandora to drink from her, therefore receiving millennium's wealth of power.

Pandora concluded from her blood dreams that she was a vampire in a past life, destroyed when the Mother and Father were placed in the sun, then reincarnated into mortal form. She believed Akasha was the source of her dreams and that she was to restore the worship of the ancient couple, but Marius believed otherwise. Marius tells Pandora the reason she was made a vampire was to stop him from placing Akasha and Enkil in the sun in an attempt to destroy all vampires.

Around ten years later, to the disgust of Marius who, even before he made Pandora a vampire, never wanted another blood drinker made, Pandora makes Flavius a vampire as he lay on his deathbed riddled with disease.

Feuds eventually drive Pandora and Marius apart. They do not meet again until a single precious night, in Dresden, in the late 1600s. Even then Pandora remains distant, a slave to an unnamed Asian blood drinker's will.

During Akasha's destruction, Pandora fails to receive the dream of the twins as the other vampires did. She learns of the dream and Marius's dilemma (being trapped in the ice when Akasha awakens) from Azim.

Pandora continues to remain dark and distant when the vampires confront Akasha in Sonoma and later she plays in the shadows in the New York City cathedral where Lestat lays in a sleep. She does however warn Armand of Lestat's powers when he approaches Lestat in the cathedral, and cares for Benji and Sybelle, with Marius, at Armand's request.

Pandora's story is one of the most recent to be told. Written by herself after first refusing to tell her story to David Talbot, it is the first story in the New Tales of the Vampires series, titled Pandora.

Santino

Santino became a vampire in the mid-1300s — a plague took all in a town in which he'd lived and a vampire found him, foraging through the bloated corpses of his brothers and sisters.

Santino was the leader of a satanic coven in Rome. He helped to create the Great Laws and lead the attack on Marius because he (Marius) lived among mortals. The attack failed, but the coven captured Armand, who was Marius' young companion at the time.

When Akasha awakens, Santino helps Pandora rescue Marius from the ice, perhaps in search of forgiveness from the vampire he had once tried to destroy.

After Lestat returns from his journey with Memnoch, Santino, together with Marius, sets out to destroy any evidence obtained from the vampires that went into the sun after seeing Veronica's Veil.

Character descriptions contain excerpts from The Vampire Chronicles (Volume I - Volume VI) and the New Tales of the Vampires series © Anne O'Brien Rice.