//As somebody who got their last mark/grade on all of their egyptology exams at the University today and finally passed, I want to set my inner history nerd free:
(sources are to be found at the bottom or within the text)
Enkil is supposed to be a predynastic King.
So what is the Predynastic Era to begin with? According to most historians that would be the Neolithic period (a.k.a. New Stone Age!), beginning ca. 6000 BC, with the first human settlements known in the area and ending around 3100 BC, with the first Pharaoh (= Narmer/Menes).
That’s right. Enkil’s reign as a predynastic king could very roughly(!) be placed somewhere in between 6000 BC to 3100 BC. For reference and amusement: the creation of writing is roughly to be sat about 5000 years ago (which marks the beginning of history).
Now, we can’t have the Father of all Vampires be Stone Age man, can we? Let’s try to narrow that time frame down a bit:
I think, since Anne Rice describes some sort of a holding of court, we are pretty safe in ruling the time of the earliest settlements out (little mud brick houses consisting of only one window-less room for a whole family and the earliest form of homo sapiens as subject just don’t make for an epic court to rule over.)
Egyptologists speak of a so called Naqada culture, spanning from ca. 4400 BC to 3000 BC, which can be divided into the following three parts:
Naqada I (4400-3500 BC) -> almost no refined artwork/craftsmanship
Naqada II (3500-3200 BC) -> first metalworking (meteoritical iron)
Naqada III (3200-3000 BC)
We can skip the first two Naqada periods, since there wasn’t really any (known) form of sovereignty comparable to the rule of a king.
Which leads us to Naqada III: Naqada III is also referred to as Dynasty 0 or the Protodynastic Period.
Here is the issue with chronology within the subject of Egyptology: When the early egyptologists tried to name dynasties there were multiple debates and, like every time when too many big egos are involved, things went wrong. To make things short: There is now a time called “Zero Dynasty” (which comes before the 1st dyn.), which might be characterized as Predynastic by some and Early Dynastic by others.
There were kings in Naqada III, but they weren’t part of a dynasty yet (hence Protodynastic or Predynastic). Most of them were most likely not related (a dynasty is the succession of kings of the same blood line), but fighting for dominion with each other. The above mentioned King Narmer (aka Menes) is thought to be the last King of that period and the first Pharaoh of the 1st dynasty(He had been the first known King to unify Egypt).
In conclusion, Enkil’s reign should precede Narmer, but still be set in Naqada III, around 3200-3100 BC.
(We managed to narrow his reign down to 100 years, yay!)
There are, actually, some known Kings from that time that could give us an example for Enkil’s reign, or – which I find very interesting – a possible alias. Stay with me for a bit longer.
9 of them ruled in Lower Egypt, but only one can be placed in Naqada III for sure (forgive me for leaving out the rest): That King is known as “Double Falcon”, after the depiction of his crest (they didn’t use cartouches by then but crests known as serekh and the historians named them after the depicted animals). Some say he might also have ruled in Upper Egypt. 3 kings are known to have ruled Upper Egypt during Naqada III: “Elephant”, “Bull” and “Scorpion I.”
Bull was probably the predecessor of Scorpion I., whose successor is believed to have been Double Falcon and later a king names Iry-Hor (late 32th dynasty.Iry-Hor is the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name and possibly the earliest historical person known by name). No one knows for sure where to place Elephant. All of them are believed to have lived during the early 32th century BC (which allows us to place them near the year 3200 BC to 3150 BC).
Iry-Hor was succeeded by “Ka”/”Sekhen”, who was probably succeeded by “Scorpion II.” or, more probable, by Narmer himself.
Now we have a sorry excuse of a chronology of rulers close to Enkil’s mortal years, ending with Narmer:
Bull
Scorpion I.
Double Falcon
Iry-Hor
Ka (Sekhen)
Scorpion II. or Narmer (Menes)
As you can see, there is a line of succession, albeit not one you should bet on, since egyptologists are still not 100% sure about the line of succession. BUT: Where to place Elephant?
Enkil was the Pharaoh, whose throne-name was Pen-abu (“Great one from the (throne) seat”) how fitting. Historians how call him “Elephant” and he was the predecessor of “Bull”, one of the earliest rulers of Naqada III period, in the early 32. dynasty.
When someone tries to tell you that you have to be pale to be goth, just remember this picture.😘
Bringing this back! Someone actually stole this post (as in with my quote, I didn’t make the picture) but took the time to cut my username out and now its being shared all over facebook, ruuude~ So here is the original.:P
The short answer is: Yes, there are PoC vampires in VC (”VoC,” right? Vampires of Color?). There aren’t many in the recurring character cast but they’re in the series! Here’s one in
Queen of the Damned:
“Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy,… His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time.”
Have I ever imagined what they looked like? I think that was a pretty good description, because other than the “gold glow,” I would describe a PoC vampire like I would a PoC person, with the features that they have!
[^X] Akasha is an Egyptian VoC, described in the novels as having porcelain white skin, and this is a point of contention in the VC fandom, that AR has whitewashed her. I don’t have a stand on this but I very much like the way that it was handled in movie!QOTD.
It’s worth noting that there is a debate as to what color the Ancient Egyptians’ skin really was, and I added a bit from 2 articles under the cut which might be of interest to you.
Akasha is also very old, and Ricean vampire physiology involves the lightening of the skin over time. This is another point of contention in the VC fandom, again, it appears on the surface to be AR whitewashing a PoC.
I would suggest that the draining of pigmentation is due to the lack of exposure to sunlight, as we can see in examples in nature of subterranean animals who have evolved over time to be light-colored.
Subterranean fauna are animals that have adapted to live underground… troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table … Adaptations to the subterranean environment include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell[1]… and loss of under-used or unnecessary senses, apparent in the lack of pigmentation and eyesight of most subterranean fauna.
^So maybe AR drew a little from there. Why a lack of pigmentation? I found an interesting study/article (In the Light of Evolution: Volume IV: The Human Condition) on that, too, which points to the lack of sunlight as the cause:
Observers beginning with Hippocrates in the fifth century associated human traits and temperament with the environment and recognized that skin color was part of this package (Isaac, 2004). The association of dark skin pigmentation with intense sunshine and heat was further developed by Aristotle and his followers as part of a comprehensive “climatic theory,” which related human features, dispositions, and cultures to the environment.
…The evolution of light pigmentation at high latitudes has long been related to the significance of production of vitamin D in the skin under conditions of reduced sunlight (Murray, 1934; Loomis, 1967).
^I would suggest that the vampiric parasite is always working on converting its host into a better vampire (and less of a mortal) cell by cell, and the process is accelerated too much by the UV rays in sunlight, which causes their skin to burn. Being unable to tolerate the discomfort, the vampire skin gradually drains of color due to lack of exposure to sunlight.
The rate at which they lose pigmentation and how much pigment is lost varies by individual. It’s also possible that some vampires retain a skin color that is similar to their mortal skin color. It’s not an exact science.
There are also examples of vampire skin becoming darker after surviving exposure to sunlight.
Hope that helped! Hit the jump for stuff about Egyptian skin color.
…ancient Egyptians didn’t really perceive themselves as either “black” or “white.” Just look at the above painting from Pharaoh Seti I’s tomb. The top right group, with the palest skin are Libyans (Berbers), the next one over to the left are Nubians, followed by “Asiatics” (Mesopotamians). The bottom central group are Egyptians. By their own perception Egyptians were neither particularly dark nor particularly pale, and given their xenophobic attitude towards outside cultures (which was fairly common for most ancient peoples) they would probably resent being sorted into either “race.”
So why does this matter? Why is it important that we acknowledge the Egyptians don’t fit into our constructed dichotomy of black vs. white, of European or African?Well, for one thing many modern Egyptians find it kind of offensive. Despite their modern self-identification as Arabs, most Egyptians still feel a strong claim to the historical legacy of their ancient forebears and find it pretty annoying when American scholars (and, black or white, it is mostly Americans) try to pigeonhole the pharaohs into one racial category or another for political purposes.
The race and skin color of Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of the Greek Ptolomaic dynasty of Egypt, established in 323 BCE, has also caused frequent debate.[46] For example, the article Was Cleopatra Black? was published in Ebony magazine in 2012,[47] and an article about Afrocentrism from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentions the question, too.[48] Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as of Greek and Persian ancestry, based on fact that her Greek Macedonian family had intermingled with the Persian aristocracy of the time. However, her mother’s identity is uncertain,[49] and that of her paternal grandmother is also not known for certain.[50]
The Colossi of Memnon, Thebes, Egypt, 1880s, photographed by Antonio Beato. (Getty Museum)
And I understood that in her own way Akasha was a monster. I was a monster as well. I had no intention of creating a devotion for her. She was a secret. And from the moment she came into my hands she and her consort were most truly
I-want-my-IWTV 