#voices

Spoilers for the upcoming arcs and books - read at your own risk.

(The canon is simplified here.)

This episode both name-dropped Amel, as well made references to the thing in (Akasha's) blood which cannot be "contained in the moment".

Amel is the spirit that went into Akasha, and created the very first vampire with her. He was a spirit sent by Mekare, in revenge for how Akasha treated her and her sister Maharet.

Akasha then turned Enkil, her husband. (And the vampires multiplied from there.)

Amel is the "core"

He is the spirit base from which the "silver cords" stretch out, the one carrying the core cannot be killed without destroying all of the other vampires, if you harm them, you harm all. The thread comes with the blood. It is also the reason why makers and fledgling cannot hear each other, because they're "too close" in the spirit connection.

Amel comes to consciousness after millennia as a mindless thing, and this awakening starts with ramblings and crying in the minds of random vampires, later then turns into "The Voice", since the vampires do not yet know what he is. The name Amel is put to that voice later.

Amel "visits" various vampires, following the threads that connect the vampires to their consciousness, if you will.

He is drawn to blood and violence.

He also has an agenda when he finally rises to consciousness.

Because the ever populating vampire world "stretches him too thin", and he seeks to reduce the numbers, by taking over other vampires consciousness or influencing them to burn others. This is, in the books, the second "burning", with Akasha doing the "first" burning, likely subconsciously for similar reasons, albeit consciously to reduce the vampire numbers so she can control the remaining ones more easily.

I think the show might combine those two burnings into one event.

Amel will, in the later books, be disconnected from all the vampires, in a story arc that will sever the "silver cord".

Amel also will not stay in Akasha, he will be passed on after her death, and he will be in Lestat for a while, too. If Mekare will take him in the show or if Lestat will take him directly? We'll see.

In the books, he will then eventually get a body that is created for him, and given Lestat is addressing him in voice over in 3x05? The show is likely headed for the very same thing. (Though I am quite sure they will skip the actual Replimoids.)

Now, as said, the spirit Amel is drawn to blood and violence. He enters Akasha through wounds in her body, fuses with her brain and body on a cellular level. Turns the cells of every vampire's body more and more into what the books call "Luracastria", making them more and more into somethin like plastic, or stone, near indestructible.

And what we got of Akasha "rambling" (I don't think it was really rambling, I think it was many things at once, her own consciousness, her memories, Amel, voices of other vampires) was this, and this is, if you know the books, shock-full of lore and hints, and it is setting up what will follow already:

"It is dark, it is she, it is Amel, it is always Amel, it is often she [non-understandable], it is often she, and the old songs in the old nights and she squeezed her eyes and her arms and opened, arms that are light that are open, and are always and must always be open and in the old ways and in the old laws this was arranged, all this was arranged, and who arranged it, was it Amel? And in the long nights and in the soft dark she is (a god) and that is the answer, that is not, and that is what it means to be loved, that’s why she dies mute, and she dies not, and it is Amel, it is always Amel, it is often she, it is not, she is the past and the future and into [] and into the land where the dead are kept, where the dead are worshipped, and why in the dark, and why is she and why is she not, and why is she in here, still here as the millennia and holden, and why the days without number, and what am I for, what is this for, and what should Amel do, if it is not to answer,

Akasha is pushed down by Marius, break in monologue

And why are they throwing stones, why is she curled on the ground, and why is it wound around with rope, and why must she break and why must he break her, and why with his arms, and why with his fists, and in my eyes is desire, why is it desire, I know no desire, and why does he tell her what got her saved, and why Amel in their mouths, and why is my voice smooth, and why must I sing so low, and why is she kept, why must she be kept, and why in this place must she be kept, and what does it mean if you are not asked, and what does it mean if you are not answered, and what is it to see and to know and to be told you have not seen, you have not known, and why is her tongue cut out, and why is her death prolonged, and when will it stop, and who will stop it, and why must they must we must must I must he must they of the millennia unfold and why the girl curled, why have eyes lowered, why on the side of the road, why limp in the straw, I am the girl, I am the god, I am the voice, I am the song, I am the night, and I can answer, I can arrange it, I can say “rise”, and I can say “speak”, and I am her, and I am she, and I, I, I, I am the answer.

Now, as you see I marked parts of this in different colors. Because there is a LOT in this monologue.

Red is a random mortal woman, I think, since Akasha's mind would wander and sometimes live with mortals for a while. Her experiences shaped her plan, ultimately.

Orange are clear references to Amel. The spirit in her. The spirit that makes these vampires the vampires they are. Drives the blood lust, makes them hunger for innocent blood.

Green is probably either Akasha in a moment of self-awareness - or it is another mortal soul, or vampire, something she relays as a flash of consciousness here.

Blue are (likely) snippets that refer to Maharet and Mekare, imho. The cut tongue, the eternity in that box that Mekare endured. And I think the part of "why must he break her" refers to the rape Khayman did to them by orders of Akasha (though it also could refer to the random mortal woman there).

Purple, finally, is Akasha in third and then finally first person again, indicating a return to her senses, at least to a certain degree. Kept in places she does not choose, unable to free herself. " into the land where the dead are kept" refers to Akasha coming to Egypt to be Enkil's bride, as she was originally from Uruk.

So the show establishes that "rise to consciousness". They establish Amel. They establish some of the history of Mekare and Maharet. They establish some of Akasha's history. They establish snippets of others' consciousness in Akasha's mind and experience.

There's also some interesting questions raised:

"what does it mean if you are not asked, and what does it mean if you are not answered, and what is it to see and to know and to be told you have not seen, you have not known"

"when will it stop, and who will stop it"

These are the questions Akasha grapples with in her mind, and which will ultimately shape the answer she comes up with. The answer SHE tries to enforce.

IF they came from her.

From "Prince Lestat":

"What if Amel knew?” “And when Akasha awakened,” asked Daniel, “when she went after Lestat. Was that Amel’s doing as well?” “That we can’t know, ” said Teskhamen. “But I wager he comes to consciousness more often and more strongly when there is no erce mind in the host body to contest his own churning thoughts. ”Churning. That seemed a perfect word for it, Marius agreed. That was a perfect word for his own ruminations. He was seeking to remember so many things, moments over the centuries when he had drunk Akasha’s blood, been visited by visions he had thought to come from her. But what if they had not come from her? What if they had come from Amel?

What if they had come from Amel...

Amel loves to look at green eyes. Amel loves it when Lestat looks at Louis.

"Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis":

“You need Louis,” Amel said. “I always know what you need. Besides—.” “Besides what?” “I like to look at him through your eyes.”

Amel.

The spirit both Mekare and Maharet call "evil" in the book, and who was in love with Mekare though, and did her bidding to an extent.

Red haired witches, with green eyes.

“Listen, I’m closer to you than any other being in creation,” he said. “But I can’t see you, can I, when I’m inside of you. I only see what you see. And something happens when you are with Louis, something happens when you reach out to touch him. I wish I could see you as he sees you. He has green eyes. I like green eyes. My Mekare had green eyes.”

Amel, drawn in by blood and violence, before he rose to consciousness once more. Amel, who loves to look at Louis through Lestat's eyes.

The show establishes a connection between the two for the drop and the outside of the fight. In words, and images.

"The metal sun inside his veins". (There is a tongue-in-cheek-reference to a Japanese metal band here btw). Sam confirmed that "thing in Lestat", ages ago.

The flashbacks to the fight inside breaks off after this moment:

And that is no coincidence.

Something happened there.

Because what we know of the aftermath has clearly been edited in Louis' mind and recollection.

Even in the flashback to the drop Lestat looks pristine:

The memories are edited - or suppressed.

Meaning something else - more - happened there.

Lestat states this in 1x06:

Possessed.

This statement is likely also not entirely true, I think he had at least an inkling, especially since there was a cut line in the dialogue in the sky that pertained to Akasha.

(More details here in this post by @virginiaisforvampires:)

Nevertheless.

I think we might see either in episode 7 or maybe in season 4 what that was, actually season 4 might be more likely, because this show will dive deeply into the lore with Amel and his possession of Akasha and creation of her as the first vampire then.

And why.

And... how.

And then this, what happened there, what happened with AMEL there, will finally click into place.

Obviously I have my theories there.

Theories that have to do with the way Amel awakened in the later books. How he manifested.

“ Some people have big voices that feel like storms in my head . They thrash and they scream . “

- Book “ a day with out words “

Alone, at the end of the universe

---