Akivasha
Akivasha is a female literary character who features in Conan the Barbarian.
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Biography
Akivasha was a beautiful teenage Stygian princess that was renowned for her stunning beauty born many centuries ago. As such while reveling in the purple feasts amid ancient Luxur's towering black halls, she could not bear the thought of growing old and shriveled with old age, so she sought the favor of the dark gods to gain immortality and eternal youth. With that, Akivasha remained beautiful but would have to consume the blood of the living to perpetuate her youth.
She offered to lead him to the sorcerer Thutothemes, who held the Heart. However, within her burial chambers, as she sought to seduce him, he found the empty sarcophagous of Akivasha and he realized her true nature. Nonetheless, she entranced him with her tale and sought to make her companion. As she was about to bite him in the neck, Conan overcame her control by rejecting her in favor of his true love Zenobia and escaped the chamber, leaving the vampiress behind laughing maniacally.
Akivasha emerged from a stone sarcophagus located deep within a hidden sepulchre, initially presenting herself as a living woman. She initiated an interaction by using a hypnotic gaze to fixate a visitor’s attention, effectively preventing them from drawing a weapon or fleeing the chamber. She moved through the tomb with a silent, gliding gait, demonstrating a lack of audible footsteps despite the stone flooring. During the encounter, she reached out to stroke the face of her guest, an action that induced a state of lethargy and mental confusion in the target. She then exerted her physical strength to pull the individual closer, intending to perform a ritualistic consumption of their life force. When her true identity was challenged, she momentarily dropped her glamour, revealing her mummified state and causing the surrounding torches to flicker and dim. She blocked the path of her quarry by seemingly manifesting at the exit before they could reach it, showcasing her superior speed. Finally, she engaged in a verbal exchange where she detailed her centuries of isolation and her need for fresh blood, before retreating back into the darkness of the inner vault as dawn approached, causing the heavy stone doors to seal shut without physical contact.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Akivasha was a female Stygian of ancient royal lineage who possessed a dual physical nature depending on her state of concealment. In her illusory form, she had an olive-toned, flawless complexion with classical Stygian facial features, including a straight, noble nose and high cheekbones. Her eyes were deep, kohled pools of darkness, and her hair was a shimmering, voluminous mane of jet-black curls adorned with gold beads. She possessed a supple, statuesque, and hourglass body shape that conveyed both vitality and grace. Her attire consisted of a sheer, diaphanous silk gown of pleated white linen that was held at the shoulders by golden clasps shaped like coiled serpents. Around her neck, she wore a heavy pectoral collar made of solid gold, inlaid with turquoise and lapis lazuli. Her waist was cinched by a wide, jewelled girdle from which hung several beaded strands of precious stones. She wore multiple gold armlets and bracelets etched with Stygian hieroglyphs, and her feet were clad in simple, thin-soled sandals with golden thongs. In her true form, which was briefly revealed, her skin was dry, grey, and tightly drawn over a skeletal frame, resembling a preserved mummy with hollow eye sockets and thin, wispy remnants of hair.
Her only sin was said to be that she loved life and all the meanings of life. To win life, she was said to had courted death. She could not bear to think of growing old and shriveled and worn, and dying at last as hags die. She wooed Darkness like a lover and his gift was life not being life as mortals know it, can never grow old and fade. She went into the shadows to cheat age and death.
Powers and abilities
Akivasha demonstrated a range of supernatural and physical attributes associated with her undead state. She exhibited the ability to manipulate the perceptions of others, projecting a youthful and living facade to mask her true mummified form. She showed enhanced physical strength, sufficient to restrain a grown man with a single hand, and possessed a preternatural speed that allowed her to move across a chamber in a blur. Her primary skill involved a form of hypnotic suggestion, using her gaze and voice to paralyze the will of her victims. She demonstrated immortality and immunity to conventional physical pain, remaining unfazed by blades that would be fatal to a living human. Furthermore, she manifested the power to drain the vital essence of a living being through physical contact, which served to temporarily restore her youthful appearance. She also displayed the ability to command the shadows within her tomb, causing them to lengthen and coalesce at her command to block exits.
Notes
- Akivasha was created by Robert E. Howard and featured in the story of "The Hour of the Dragon".
In other media
Films
- In Kull the Conqueror, Akivasha appeared in the 1997 live-action film where she was portrayed by actor Tia Carrere. The movie was a loose adaptation on The House of the Dragon with Kull replacing Conan and Akivasha replacing Xaltotun. This version was portrayed as being a long dead demon-witch who once ruled over mankind that was brought back to life by Valusian noblemen as part of a conspiration to kill the recently crowned King Kull.
Video games
- In Age of Conan: Unchained, Akivasha appeared as a boss antagonist who was located in the Sanctum of the Burning Souls.
Comics
Appearances
- Weird Tales: "The Hour of the Dragon"
External Links
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