The vampiric Queen, Akasha (Sheila Atim), quickly dropped the name “Amel” in her big debut scene in episode five of The Vampire Lestat, “New York,” where she awakens after centuries thanks to Lestat (Sam Reid). Additionally, we hear Lestat himself address “Amel” in his voice-over earlier in the episode, as though he’s speaking to the figure. (“But I, Amel, digress…) Fans of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series know that Amel is a being that is at the core of Rice’s vampire lore, quite literally. And Amel has powerful connections to both Akasha, the Queen of the Damned, and the Vampire Lestat himself, as this episode of The Vampire Lestat suggests. Amel’s history developed quite a bit over the decades of Rice’s 13-volume series of novels, but now that the TV series is bringing him into its fold, however obliquely, it’s time to learn more about the powerful being. Who is Amel in The Vampire Lestat? And what’s he got to do with our main characters? Let’s dive in.
Amel Is the Unnamed “Demon” in The Vampire Lestat (1985): He’s Responsible for Creating All Vampires
Amel is first mentioned as an unnamed demon in the 1985 novel The Vampire Lestat. When the ancient Marius de Romanus explains the origins of the vampire species to Lestat, as they were explained to him 2,000 years earlier, he mentions a noisy, powerful spirit that haunted the kingdom of Kemet (now Egypt) some 6,000 years earlier. King Enkil and Queen Akasha ruled this kingdom. During a rebellion and assassination attempt on the royal couple, Amel entered through the wounds inflicted on Akasha, fusing with her blood, and making her the first vampire. Yes, Amel is the entity responsible for all vampires in the world of The Vampire Lestat.
Amel Gets a Name in The Queen of the Damned (1988) and Creates Vampires
In the third Vampire Chronicles novel, The Queen of the Damned, we get the full story of Amel. We learn that a pair of young witches who lived 6,000 years ago, twins named Maharet and Mekare, could summon spirits. The spirit Amel took a particular liking to these twins. He proved his power to them, even “biting” their skin, showing he had a taste for blood. Eventually, Queen Akasha attacked their tribe for practicing ritualistic cannibalism in the form of massive funeral feasts, where the community consumed the heart and the brain of the deceased.
As revenge, the twin witches summoned Amel, who haunted the kingdom of Kemet. And by haunting, we mean Amel brought a destructive, Poltergeist-style haunting that caused actual damage. After Akasha had the twins assaulted and tortured as punishment, Amel became even angrier and fused with Akasha’s brain, heart, and blood, creating what vampires would later refer to as “the Sacred Core” of the vampire species in the world of The Vampire Lestat. It’s this sacred core that is necessary for the continued survival of vampires. But once Amel fused with Akasha, his personality went dormant, as the Queen’s personality dominated. However, he wasn’t erased. He was simply waiting for his time.
Amel Finds a New Vampire Host in Mekare
In the year 1985, the twins, who had become vampires themselves, returned to exact their revenge on Queen Akasha. But since Akasha held the Sacred Core, killing her meant destroying what remained of the vampire species along with her. To avoid this fate, one of the twins, Mekare, decapitated Akasha and ate her brain and heart. Since vampires don’t really ingest food like humans, the brain and heart remained inside Mekare, fusing with her own blood, and she became the new Queen of the Damned. Her survival, and, in a sense, the survival of Amel, meant also the continued survival of the vampire species. And thus, the vampires continued for several decades with Mekare as the holder of the Sacred Core/Amel.
Amel Reemerges in Prince Lestat (2014)
Sadly, Mekare suffered brain damage from thousands of years of lying dormant in the Earth. Within Mekare, Amel’s personality re-emerged. Amel became simply “the Voice” and began causing trouble as he telepathically urged the stronger, ancient vampires to slaughter the younger ones. Amel found one particularly ancient vampire, Rhoshamandes, and had him kill Maharet, the other twin. Amel wanted to reside within Rhoshamandes, whom he could control better. But after several developments, Mekare gave permission for Lestat to kill her and take in the Sacred Core of Amel himself. Lestat becomes Prince Lestat, and now the new source of power for the vampire species. Amel comes to live inside of him and the parasitic relationship between the spirit and his host is… an intense one.
Anne Rice writes:
Amel laughed softly inside me. “You are my beloved,” he whispered.
I stood silent, feeling a slow subtle movement inside of my body, as if some fine tangle of tendrils were moving purposefully out of my brain and down the length of my spine and then out again through my limbs. I could see this as I felt it, see its subtle golden electric pulse.
Out of the depths of my soul, my soul that was the sad and struggling sum of all I’d ever known, I felt my own voice yearning to say, And I will never be alone again.
“No, you will never,” said the Voice, “you will never be alone again.
But this change does not last very long.
Amel’s True Sci-Fi Origin Story Revealed in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, we learn Amel’s true origin. And it is quite wild. Anne Rice goes into pure sci-fi territory for Amel’s actual backstory. We learn that he wasn’t always a disembodied spirit at all. He was born a human in 12,000 BC, eventually abducted by an avian-like alien species called “The Parents.” They altered his DNA, fusing it with that of Replimoids, humanoid immortal creations made by The Parents. They sent Amel back to Earth to post listening stations for them, and to halt barbaric early humans from achieving higher technology. But Amel turned on The Parents, and decided to share what he knew with primitive humans. He created a paradise of advanced technology, which he called Atalantaya. Yes, that is the source for modern-day myths about Atlantis.
Amel and Lestat’s Bond Severed in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis
Eventually, The Parents punish Amel for his disobedience. They destroy Atalantaya, and him with it. But because of the enhancements they gave him, derived from an alien polymer called Luracastria, his essence survived. Eventually, Amel forgot what he was when he was an enhanced human, and became the invisible spiritual being that eventually fused with Akasha, creating the vampiric race.
In the modern day, the vampire doctor, Fahreed Bensali, found a way to sever the Sacred Core from Amel and from Lestat without killing off the rest of the vampires. Fahreed finds a way to replicate a Replimoid body for Amel, which looks uncannily like both his original body and a bit like Lestat, where he continues to reside and study humanity. Amel visits Lestat in Paris, where he first became a vampire many centuries ago, severing his last tie with the undead species he accidentally created.
Will we see any of the more recent sci-fi elements of Amel’s backstory appear in AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe or in future seasons of The Vampire Lestat? Many of those came from later novels. But the series has been dipping into material from much later Anne Rice novels, so anything is possible. It does seem like Lestat will meet Amel for certain. But perhaps the series will keep its origins to simply a disembodied demon. Or maybe, aliens!
In the meantime, The Vampire Lestat continues to drop new episodes on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday nights.