Mael
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Mael is a fictional character in "The Vampire Chronicles" written by Anne Rice.
Mael is shortly mentioned in "The Vampire Lestat". Along with Marius de Romanus and Pandora he is one of the legendary ancient vampires. Marius shortly tells the story of his life to the young Lestat and Mael was the druid priest who abducted him to become the new "God of the Grove". But Marius escapes.
Mael later returns in "The Queen of the Damned". He is a companion to Maharet and as Maharet seeks to protects her mortal descendant Jesse; so does he. Due to a fatal injury Jesse gets at the concert, she is turned into a vampire by Maharet. Then they all go to Maharet's place where all surviving vampires of importance are gathered. "The Mother of Vampires", Akasha has arisen and must be destroyed. Mael is present when Maharet tells her her story, when they later try to reason with Akasha and when Mekare kills her.
The third appearance by Mael is in the very end of "Memnoch the Devil". Lestat has been on a trip to Heaven and Hell together with the Devil, Memnoch. When he brought back Veronica's Veil there was chaos among mortals and a lot of the ancients came. David and Lestat see Mael on the streets and he lets them know he is going to burn himself in the sun for God. Of course this did not succeed since Mael is an ancient and thereby too strong for the sunlight to kill him. It takes a lot more than that. However, that is the last thing you know about Mael in modern times. He appears in "Blood and Gold" when Marius tells Thorne about his life, in which Mael is included.
Marius has just left Pandora when he meets Mael and his maker Avicus in Rome, the city he moved to. When Marius had escaped and the old god had been killed (because they had Marius), Mael is chosen to become the new "God of the Grove". The druids find out about Avicus in England and they travel there. When they get there Avicus uses "the Mind Gift on Mael" and learns about Marius' escape. In order to give Mael "the Dark Gift" Avicus want's a victim and freedom, but it all ends up with that Mael is turned into a vampire and they escape together. Mael and Avicus becomes companions and eventually meets Marius in Rome, where they reveal all this.
There is a lot of anger between Mael and Marius while Avicus tries to keep them from fighting. They come to a peace where they all live in the city. Mael and Avicus keeps the city clean from The Children of Darkness, but one night Mael is injured and Marius agrees to help. Marius must give Mael blood so he can heal and then Mael sees visions of Those Who Must Be Kept. Gradually they get to know more and more, and Avicus seems to have been made by Akasha before becoming "A God of the Grove". Mael is furious that Marius kept such an important secret to himself, about that Marius destroyed his belief and about the connection between Avicus and Marius. Marius eventually takes them to Those Who Must Be Kept and Mael tries to drink from Akasha. Enkil does not like it and Marius saves Mael in the last minute from being killed by Enkil. Later when Rome is falling Marius goes to sleep and they try to wake but does not succeed. A hundred years later they decide to leave for Constantinople and finally successfully awake Marius.
In Constantinople, the three of them makes a coven before finally separating, and then Mael becomes Maharet's companion.
