Mekare

[Lestat de Lioncourt]

Born: 5000BC- 02-17
Zodiac: Aquarius
Maker: Khayman
Fledgings: Maharet
Religion: Ancient
Nationality: probably Egyptian

Mekare and Maharet are tall, slender and deceptively fragile-looking, with features that are both sharp and delicate at the same time. Both have long, light copper-red hair that reaches the ground. As Mekare hardly ever cares to feed now, she looks drawn and even more slim than she would have been otherwise, and more often than not resembles an adolescent boy rather than a woman. Her most striking feature are her huge green eyes, which are usually blazing with a fierce fire, and seem to pierce one to the very bottom of one‘s soul. Her face is blank and gives no indication whatsoever of what is happening inside her; only the eyes and the tightly pressed lips may give one some hints about what she might be feeling.

Disposition:

Mekare is a mystery. Nobody can really be sure what she is thinking, or what she is about to do. She never tells anyone about her intentions, and her actions often seem completely unexpected, and surprising to others. She is known to have had seemingly impulsive outbursts of rage, or to suddenly take determined and fairly drastic action after long spells of apathy; she may do what everyone has expected least of all, or has never thought of before. Sometimes, she will materialize as if out of nowhere and state things that nobody is able comprehend; when they do understand (which is rare), they can never argue with her because she always turns out to be absolutely right. At some times, she comes across as severe, very determined and angry; at others, she seems aloof and very distant from the world around her. However, no matter how unpredictable she seems, Mekare always has a purpose in anything she does, which usually remains hidden from others due to her reserved nature, and will never act on random impulse (except for the time when she is angry, or has witnessed something she perceives as unjust). She has a harsh, abrupt manner, and an uncompromising bluntness in the way she will state her opinions, which make her fairly intimidating.

Mekare is a very forceful person. There is no way she could refuse to accomplish what she had once decided upon, or not keep a promise if she made one. She has very strong opinions on various ethical and social issues and is very outspoken about them (which is a stark contrast to how secretive and withdrawn she is when it comes to herself and her personal feelings), quick to voice indignation and discontent at something she sees as wrong; she has no tongue so she will state what she thinks telepathically or through writing, but the impact of it is just as strong, if not stronger, than that of actual speech. Mekare has a strong sense of justice which rests on the „eye for eye“ principle, and may seem ruthless; she hates anyone who will harm others or abuse someone for their own ends, and believes such people (or blood drinkers) ought to be punished by their own wrongdoing being inflicted upon them. Though she feeds on animals and shuns people, she thinks it right to feed on evildoers, because she believes murderers, especially sadists or serial killers, deserve their lives to be taken in exchange for those of their victims.

But Mekare can also be extremely distant from what is happening around her. She is prone to spells of depression when she feels tired and out of touch with things, and nothing seems to matter, or to have any meaning anymore. At such times she will often lapse into complete motionlessness and stare at the same crack in the wall, or at the creases of her clothing, for hours or whole nights on end. Mekare is much more moody than one could think; she has distinct periodic swings from ecstasy to indifference coupled with a sense of the overwhelming drabness and lifelessness of things. And, because of her reserve, those changes in mood go unnoticed by others. Mekare‘s „high“ moods do not make her more outgoing and playful, and she experiences them deep within herself, never actually showing that she feels happier than usual.

Mekare is quite removed from society, be it the society of humans or that of blood drinkers, and from the rules one would normally adhere to in everyday life; earthly things, like clothing, no longer interest her. She is known to dress in dusty rags and to wear the same clothes for years and decades, because her appearance does not matter to her at all, and she sometimes seems barely aware that she even has a body as such. Mekare is a complete loner, and often comes across as nearly unable to communicate her feelings to others. The centuries she had spent in solitude upon separation from her sister and Khayman, her natural disposition, and the spells of madness she will have from time to time have made her withdraw into a world all of her own. Deep inside, she has a great need to be understood, and to break through what she calls the „crust of ice“ that seems to be encasing her; but she has never been very successful at that, no matter how hard she tries. Fortunately, she is gifted artistically, and very often painting or tapestry making is the only way she can convey what she feels to someone else. She is uncomfortable around people or other blood drinkers, so she prefers to avoid them. She senses others‘ emotions even more keenly than her very empathetic sister; but she does not know how to respond to them, and they torment her because she feels them too acutely and cannot detach herself from them. She does not know what it means to be politically correct or to make compromises, and will state what she thinks very directly, which may make others think she is being deliberately hurtful when she just behaves the only way that is known to her.

In a curious way, Mekare is more in touch with others‘ feelings than her own, believing that she „feels nothing“ or is „dead inside“, when in reality she has an internal life richer than that of most people and blood drinkers alike. All of this contributes to her introversion; she cannot relate to others properly because she is out of touch with herself, and because she cannot separate her own „I“ from that of somebody else a lot of the time.

Despite her severe manner and near-total withdrawal from others, Mekare has a very strong gentle streak, which she sometimes may not be aware of herself. It may be especially noticeable in the way she loves children and baby animals, and also in her relationship with Maharet and Khayman. Her love has an almost rapturous, powerful quality to it; and, usually, it either remains buried within her so that nobody can see it, or it spills out in an overwhelming torrent that is frightening, as well as surprising, to those it is directed at.

The way others see her: a very powerful ancient who is totally unpredictable as well as having a severe, abrupt, straightforward manner, and who is definitely to be both respected and feared; the being who may give others many surprises, and about whom nobody knows anything.

Birth into darkness:

The twin sisters, Maharet and Mekare, lived at the dawn of human history, in the Bronze age (around 6 thousand years ago). They were the witches of a small, peaceful Palestinian tribe who possessed special abilities and could communicate with the spirits. When the Queen of Egypt, Akasha, learned about them, she decided to capture them and bring them to her country, hoping that they could provide her with answers to the existential questions that were troubling her; she disguised her intent as a „holy war“ on their tribe, during which Maharet‘s and Mekare‘s whole people was wiped off the face of the earth. Akasha did not like what the twin witches told her, as it made her feel life has no meaning, and only worsened her depression, so she ordered Khayman to rape them as punishment, and then sent them away from her kingdom. They survived several months of wandering in the desert and were picked up by a Bedouin tribe; after that, they made their way to their own land, where Maharet gave birth to a daughter, Miriam. Mekare called upon an evil spirit, Amel, who had appeared to them some time earlier, to punish Akasha for what she‘d done. Amel tortured Khayman and Akasha, and finally ended up entering Akasha and making her the first blood drinker. Seeking to explain what had happened, Akasha sent Khayman to find the twins and bring them to Egypt once more. When they came and told her what took place, she did not like their answers again, and this time ordered them to be mutilated - Mekare‘s tongue was cut off and Maharet‘s eyes were torn out – and be burned alive the next night. Before her tongue was cut out, Mekare swore, with the spirits as witnesses, that she would find Akasha in the hour of her greatest menace, and bring her down.

The night before their execution, Khayman, who had been made a blood drinker against his will, came to Maharet and Mekare and offered to make them blood drinkers too, so that they could be worthy rivals to Akasha and fight her. Maharet refused, but Mekare, seeking for some way to fulfill her curse, agreed. After that, Maharet had no choice but to agree as well, because she wanted to always be with her sister in anything that happened, and could not imagine her sister becoming some kind of other creature while she remained human. Khayman, Maharet and Mekare escaped and sought to reach the sea, but were found and surrounded again by Akasha‘s people. Khayman managed to fight off the attackers, but could not help the twins, who were captured, put in separate stone coffins, and set to drift on rafts in the sea. They ended up in completely different parts of the world, and spent the six millennia of their immortal lives searching for one another with no avail. Mekare endured centuries of total loneliness and isolation; while Maharet was able to find Miriam, and stayed in touch with her human descendants ever since, helping them when necessary, writing about them, tracking down their genealogy and creating the chronicles of what came to be known as the „Great Family“.

Finally, when Akasha rose after Lestat‘s concert and began trying to conquer the world, Mekare sensed it and rose from underground as well, and began to move towards the place where, as she felt, Akasha was going to come. On her way, she was sending dreams to blood drinkers all over the world that were connected to the very beginning of their race, and to the fate Mekare and Maharet, as well as their whole tribe, suffered at Akasha‘s hands. She was full of rage and in a completely shattered emotional state when she reached the Sonoma compound, right at the moment when the immortals there were desperately trying to negotiate with Akasha and failing, and Akasha was getting ready to kill them. Mekare struggled with Akasha, slammed her head into the glass wall so that it was cut off, and ate her brain and heart (it had been the custom among their people to eat the heart and brain of someone when they died, and consume their flesh in a ritual feast, and Mekare and Maharet were just about to do so with the body of their mother when Akasha‘s soldiers came). Because of that, the Sacred Core of all blood drinkers that had resided in Akasha was preserved, so that their race could continue to exist. Since then, Mekare became the new Queen of the Damned, and she and Maharet were reunited and never left each other.