Becoming a queen upon her marriage when she was a mortal, Akasha, with her husband King Enkil, turns her people away from cannibalism and encourages the eating of grains. In all things Akasha disregards the beliefs of others and demands that everyone practice hers. Her dark, nihilistic side compels her to seek evidence of the supernatural and, as a result, she has the twin witches, Maharet and Mekare, brought to her court. They perceive that she throws a mortal cloak over her evil deeds, so that these deeds become a mix of good and evil that is actually more dangerous than pure unadulterated evil. Akasha has no true morality but is driven to continually create meaning. (QD 330) When the twins demonstrate to her what the spirits can do she is caught between fascination and rage. She needs elegant beliefs to fill up her inner emptiness, but the presence and power of these spirits confirm her nihilism. When she scorns the spirits, one of them - Amel - attacks her, prefiguring a future attack that will result in a bizarre and disastrous bond. (QD 333-341)

Akasha humiliates the twins by making them undergo a public rape, then sends them away. By attacking the perpetrator, Amel avenges the twins. Akasha and Enkil then attempt to learn more about this spirit and consequently put themselves at risk. Those mortals who wish to lead the people back to cannibalism use the occasion for an assassination attempt. Akasha and Enkil are both seriously wounded, and as Akasha's soul ascends, Amel joins with it and reenters her body through her wounds, fusing with her heart and brain to produce a new entity: the vampire. Akasha then saves Enkil by making him a vampire and goes on to give the Dark Gift to Khayman, who gives it to the twin witches. (QD 344, 382-388, 412-413)

As her progeny proliferate, Akasha's need for blood diminishes. Eventually she becomes a living statue, kept safe for centuries by guardians who know that she is the source of their existence and immortality. After one of these guardians, the Elder, tires of the task, he places Akasha and Enkil in the sun. Akasha draws Marius to her and urges him to take her and Enkil out of Egypt. Marius does so and protects them for nearly two thousand years. During that time, Akasha projects her soul from her body and watches the world through the eyes of mortals and immortals. At one point, the witch Maharet, now a vampire, stabs Akasha in the heart. As Maharet feels the energy leave her own body, it confirms the legend that to kill Akasha is to annihilate the vampires. Akasha, however, does not react to the attack. (VL 434, 426, QD 260, 418)

When Lestat first sees Akasha, he wants to touch her immobile face. That she seems to be alive inside the inert body upsets him; it is like being buried alive. Marius urges him to talk to her, and Lestat tells her that she is beautiful. He kisses her and she reveals to him her name. Later he plays the violin for her, waking her from her trance. She allows him to drink her blood while she drinks from him; they remain locked in this intimate embrace until Enkil, too, wakes up and, in a rage, separates them. (VL 388, 485)

Marius sends Lestat away, but not before Marius has made an ominous statement that becomes a prediction: "Who knows what Akasha might do if there were no Enkil to hold her?" (VL 472)

In 1985, Lestat again wakes Akasha with his music - this time rock music in which he mentions her name and the legends about her. She rises, and upon realizing that Enkil no longer has power to keep her with him, kills him. She then leaves the shrine and becomes a relentless destroyer, killing most of the vampires. She leaves a few, including Maharet and Khayman, to be immortal witnesses to join with her in her plan for anew world order: to kill ninety-nine percent of the world's men and to set up a new Eden in which women, with Akasha as the goddess, reign. While Akasha insists this is for the benefit of mortal women, in truth she wants to dominate and be worshiped, to once again subject everyone to her will. The surviving vampires form a plan to stand against Akasha, aware that the witch Mekare, also a vampire, is moving to join them.

Akasha abducts Lestat to be her apprentice and prince; he participates for a brief time, then stands against her with the surviving vampires. Their rebellion enrages her, but before she can attack them, the witch Mekare shoves her into the glass wall. The broken shards cut off Akasha's head. Maharet immediately grabs Akasha's heart and brain and gives them to Mekare to eat. As Mekare does so, she takes into herself the source of the spiritual fusion with Amel and becomes the new life force of the vampires. (VL 428-487, QD 306-352, 378-390)