When the music of the Vampire Lestat band awakens the ancient vampire Queen and Mother, Akasha rises from her wintry shrine in the north where Marius keeps safe Those Who Must Be Kept. She destroys her husband, King Enkil; abandons Marius; and flies across the world immolating her vampire fledglings with the power of her Fire Gift. Her plan is to destroy her vampire children, along with 90 percent of the world’s male population, and remake the world into a vampire paradise where she will be worshipped as the goddess Queen. Many vampires are destroyed in this Great Burning, such as Baby Jenks from the Fang Gang and Laurent, whom Lestat knew in Armand’s coven, the Children of Darkness, and in the Théâtre des Vampires. Akasha spares those vampires whom she cannot destroy with the Fire Gift, such as Maharet and Khayman, as well as those younger, weaker vampires whom Lestat (Akasha’s new paramour) loves, such as Gabrielle, Louis, and Marius.
The Great Burning of 1985 happens in The Queen of the Damned (1988). For more perspectives on the Great Burning of 1985 in the Vampire Chronicles, read the Alphabettery entries Akasha, Baby Jenks, Children of Darkness, The Elder, Enkil, Fang Gang, Khayman, Laurent, Lestat de Lioncourt, Maharet, Théâtre des Vampires, Those Who Must Be Kept, and The Vampire Lestat.