- “Acathla, the demon, came forth to swallow the world. It was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon's heart before it could draw breath to perform the act. Acathla turned to stone, as demons sometimes do, and was buried where neither man nor demon would want to look. Unless of course they're putting up low rent housing.”
- ―Angelus[src]
Acathla was a demon that was once sent to bring about the end of the world.
History
Origin
Before Acathla could open its mouth, it was killed by a virtuous knight who stabbed it with a sword through the heart. This transformed Acathla into a dormant stone-like state. Sometime after, Acathla was entombed and hidden where no demon nor man would look.
Before having been first defeated, Acathla had been served by an acolyte whose name was Lucius Temple.
Dormancy
Acathla entombed
According to the benevolent demon, Whistler, it was the destiny of ensouled vampire Angel to stop Acathla from opening the gate to his hell dimension. However, in 1997, the tomb of Acathla was discovered by archaeologists from the Sunnydale Museum of Natural History, and by that time Angel had lost his soul and reverted to his evil alter-ego, Angelus who took Acathla from the museum, placed it in the Crawford Street Mansion and set about to awakening it. It was revealed that Angel's blood was the key to awakening the demon and opening the door that would suck the world into Acathla's hell. In its dormant state it could be awakened to resume its original purpose. Acathla could send out whispers to certain beings. Drusilla, a vampire and a seer, claimed to be able to hear the demon's thoughts even with considerable distance.
Close up of Acathla.
Awakening and Second Defeat
In 1997, the Slayer, Buffy Summers ran Angel through with a sword after he awakened Acathla and Angel was sent into hell. Acathla once again reverted to its dormant state. However, Angel was released from Acathla's world several months later under mysterious circumstances. While its not made completely clear how he returned, the First Evil claimed responsibility and Rupert Giles told Buffy it did have the power. However, Angel's time in Acathla's dimension, where time passes faster, made him completely feral, something he recovered from when Buffy was in trouble.
Angelus successfully removing the sword.
The dormant Acathla was eventually removed from Angel's mansion before his return, though its current whereabouts or status is unknown. Presumably Giles hid him somewhere as he seemed to know where Acathla was. Giles later claimed to need to perform a binding spell to keep Acathla dormant, but this was really an attempt to get Buffy to open up about what happened to Angel and was unnecessary.
Appearances
- "Becoming, Part One"
- "Becoming, Part Two"
- "Faith, Hope & Trick" (Only mentioned)
- "Beauty and the Beasts" (Only mentioned)
- "Amends" (Only mentioned)
- "Happy Anniversary" (Only mentioned)
- "The Girl in Question" (Only mentioned)
