Lestat's transformation: Shortly after being engaged at Renaud's theater (which would soon become the Theatre of the Vampires run by Armand), Lestat was kidnapped by Magnus, an old vampire who wanted to find an heir before putting an end to his life. Magnus was charmed by Lestat, by his courage and his beauty, and in spite of Lestat's forceful refusal, Magnus forced him to accept his gift, i.e immortality, eternal youth, supernatural strength and powers, but also the unquenchable thirst for blood, the darkness of the night, the loneliness and the doubts. So he turned Lestat into a vampire, without his consent, and then he left him to throw himself in the blaze. His personnality: Being immortal, Lestat continues to love mortals and finds them fascinating ; he feels deep emotions towards them (in spite of what Louis says in 'Interview with the Vampire', who regards him more or less as a bloodthirsty beast that cannot feel anything.) Of course, it doesn't prevent him from killing people, because he is above all a supernatural being, a bloodthirsty vampire. It leads him to compare the world with a 'Savage Garden in which only the aesthetic principles are ruling' : he sees the world as a jungle, where the weaker is killed by the stronger, where the most beautiful is chosen to the detriment of the least beautiful ; the world is governed by strength and beauty. But because of the love he feels for mortals, he wants to become one of them again: paradoxically, while loving what he is, he is tortured by his vampire state, by his obligation to be evil in order to survive. However, when the opportunity to become mortal again arises, he realizes that he had deluded himself about the mortal conditon and that he prefers by far to be a vampire. So, even if he hates himself sometimes, and hates the evil he can do, he loves his vampire state and doesn't want to give it up. Nicknamed 'the Brat Prince' or 'the James Bond of the vampires' by his equals, Lestat remains very impulsive and refuses to submit to the various rules laid down by the likes of him. Lestat has always been wild and never wanted to obey anyone. He always rebelled against the established order: During the first years of his vampire life, he starts by transgressing, without knowing it, the rules laid down by the vampires of the 'Theatre of the Vampires' in Paris, by strolling among mortals, going into churches, and creating a child vampire. Theatre of the Vampires Transgressing the rules doesn't make Lestat feel remorse; in the contrary, he even takes pride in it. He will again transgress the rules laid down by his like when revealing himself to mortals during his rock star experience, also when publishing his story and the story of all vampires in his autobiography 'The Vampire Lestat', and in his other books 'The Queen of the Damned', 'The Tale of the Body Thief' and 'Memnoch the Devil'. (However, all these books were published under the pseudonym of Anne Rice to try to hide the truth and present it as fiction.) His 'Children': Lestat doesn't like to feel lonely. Like most of the vampires, he tries to find mortals who can become his eternal companions. These relationships are more or less successful according to the mortals he chooses. And as Armand says, 'children' often turn against their maker, for sooner or later, they blame him for their vampire state, for the fact that they must kill to survive, or for the fact that they can't die. At the present time, Lestat has made five vampires: Gabrielle (1780), his mortal mother who likes to be alone and who eventually left him; Nicolas (1780) , his best friend when he was a mortal, who went mad and put an end to his life; Louis (1791), the young master of a plantation in Louisiana, cynical and distressed; Claudia (1794), the child who turned against him, tried to kill him and for this act was sentenced to death by the vampires of the 'Theatre of the Vampires'; and finally David, the Superior General of the Talamasca, the organization of 'Psychic Detectives' whose mission is to watch and record the paranormal phenomena. Lestat loved each one of these persons and goes on loving them today. Source : The Vampire Chronicles - "The Vampire Lestat" - Anne Rice
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