Memnoch The Devil - Cosmology

Cosmology

The universe as revealed to Lestat by the Devil follows the following cosmology:

  • God is a powerful being worshiped by angels since before the existence of matter and time. The Earth was his creation. Because of this, angels spent much time admiring his handiwork. However, God does not appear to be omniscient. Despite assurances, Memnoch claims to have changed God's opinion on the importance and unnaturalness of humanity.
  • Through evolution, creatures on the Earth developed the image of angels and a "flame" of life which allowed pain and death. Eventually, humans developed their own souls, invisible forces similar to angels. This surprises and shocks many of the angels. These souls collect in confusion around the world in a realm that the angels describe as "Sheol" or the Gloom, attempting to come to terms with their existence. Such interventions cause the tales of spirits, reincarnation and the first vampires.
  • The book also mentions the addle-brained spirits that were never human, mentioned in The Queen of the Damned and The Witching Hour. Memnoch explains these as being of two origins. The first is angels that fell in love with certain parts of nature and became the spirits of the rocks, mountains and trees (and therefore did not return to Heaven) and the "invisible ones", incorporeal beings who never interacted with the angels. Neither were ever human souls because both established themselves before human souls developed.
  • Memnoch, an archangel, becomes impatient with God's constant assurances that all is well, despite the pain and suffering of life and death. Memnoch vehemently criticizes God's plan, accusing God of lacking vision and benevolence. Memnoch decides to collect evidence to persuade God that humanity is outside of nature by creating physical form. When, as part of this, he experiences sex, God bans Memnoch from heaven; Memnoch spends the next three months imparting his vast knowledge of science to humanity, thus inadvertently founding civilization, during which time Memnoch realizes that the characteristic that sets humans apart is their ability to love and feel passionate.
  • When God invites Memnoch to Heaven to explain his disturbance of the natural order of creation, Memnoch persuades God to allow him to find souls who are suitable for Heaven. After thousands of years wandering Sheol, Memnoch discovers an especially powerful group of souls who have forgiven God and appreciate the grandness of all creation. God accepts these souls into Heaven, permanently changing it forever.
  • God is highly pleased with the new composition of Heaven, but Memnoch continues to accuse God of not showing concern for the other souls of Sheol. Memnoch finally loses trust in God and demands that he should take human form to understand passion and, in fury, God banishes Memnoch from Heaven.
  • While Memnoch is in exile, God takes on a human form, Jesus. God believes that by appearing in human form, performing miracles, suffering and dying, he will create a religion that will allow more humans to attain Heaven by reverence and fear. This is in sharp contrast to Memnoch's approach of attaining purity through love and experience of the wonders of creation. The two confront each other in the desert.
  • Memnoch is awed and shocked by God's sacrifice. Nevertheless, he argues that God did not put himself through enough. Unlike a regular human, when God died on the cross, he knew that he would survive and thus could never have known the true suffering of Man. Man does not know his soul will survive and thus suffers. God knew he would survive death and could not truly know what it was to be a human. For God, this complaint is the last straw, he declares Memnoch as his adversary and commands him to rule Sheol and Earth in a devilish form, preparing souls for Heaven in his own fashion.
  • Working in Sheol, Memnoch creates a form of Hell, a place where people who have been bad in life, will be punished until their souls are able to understand the joy of creation and the light of God enough to be ready for Heaven.
  • Memnoch doesn't like this work and is constantly asking God to appoint someone else to the job (as David Talbot witnesses in the previous Vampire Chronicles novel).
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
  • Interview with the Vampire (1976)
  • The Vampire Lestat (1985)
  • The Queen of the Damned (1988)
  • The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
  • Memnoch the Devil (1995)
  • The Vampire Armand (1998)
  • Merrick (2000)
  • Blood and Gold (2001)
  • Blackwood Farm (2002)
  • Blood Canticle (2003)
New Tales of the Vampires
  • Pandora (1998)
  • Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
Film adaptations
  • Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
  • Queen of the Damned (2002)
Musical adaptations
  • Lestat (2006)
Characters
  • Lestat de Lioncourt
  • Nicolas de Lenfent
  • Louis de Pointe du Lac
  • Claudia
  • Armand
  • Those Who Must Be Kept
  • Maharet and Mekare
  • Marius de Romanus
  • Avicus
  • Eudoxia
  • Aaron Lightner
  • Jessica Miriam Reeves
  • Khayman
  • Daniel Molloy
  • Santiago
  • Merrick Mayfair
  • Talamasca Caste
  • Tarquin Blackwood
  • Mona Mayfair
  • Rowan Mayfair
Related works
  • Lives of the Mayfair Witches
  • The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned

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