| “ | The Akrida are a malevolent force. A monster not of this world. For centuries they've tried to invade. The Men of Letters stopped them every time. But they're gone now. (...) They want to wipe out everyone here, including demons and all manner of monster, and take over our world. Samuel found evidence of a Men of Letters office in Savannah. It contained records of how the Akrida have crossed over in the past. Find where they're coming in, use this box to stop them. | ” |
The Akrida are a species of monster not from Earth who have tried to invade multiple times in the past. According to Dean Winchester, they are a threat to all of existence. They were created by God as a failsafe to destroy existence in case he failed in his own efforts.[1] Ultimately, however, the Akrida were destroyed, leaving God's last attempt to wipe out creation in failure.
Characteristics[]
Human hosts of the Akrida as seen by the bearer of the bracelet of Erebus.
In their true form, the Akrida resemble oversized insectoid creatures, with three pairs of jointed legs, and a pair of shorter legs or "arms" that resemble pincers. They have greyish eyes, and numerous needle-like teeth. They exhibit similarities to insects with social colonies and castes, most notably by having a queen as their leader. They also exhibit parasitic behavior, as they can control and possess humans with their stingers. They have been seen traveling in swarms but in smaller groups for more covert operations. They follow a leader, although all of them are ultimately subservient to their queen, Joan Hopkins. Due to the Akrida being linked to Joan, her death causes all of the race to die moments later.
Humans possessed by the Akrida can be identified by a person wearing Erebus' bracelet. The human hosts have green threads of light connected to a source, possibly the Queen.
The Akrida and their queen can't be harmed by anything from the Monster Club's world. However, objects from other universes such as the Impala can harm and kill them.
History[]
Early History[]
During the War for Creation, God creates the Akrida as a failsafe in case Sam and Dean Winchester actually manage to defeat him, intending for the Akrida to finish the job that he started if need be. When Chuck was stripped of his powers by Jack Kline, the Akrida were unleashed so they could finish what Chuck started. After being banished from the Monster Club Universe, Joan Hopkins encounters the Akrida whose mission to destroy everything aligns with Joan's own goal of wiping out humanity. Joan becomes the Akrida Queen, leading the Akrida in their efforts to destroy Creation.
For centuries, the Akrida try to invade the Earth and destroy everything on it in order to take it over for themselves. However, each time, the Men of Letters manage to stop their invasion.
In 1957, the Akrida launch an invasion of Earth and Jack Wilcox performs experiments on them, trying to find a way to kill them. Jack is eventually expelled from the Men of Letters and the Akrida target his wife in revenge, leaving her in a permanent coma. Eventually, most of the Akrida are banished from Earth using the Ostium at the cost of severe casualties to the Men of Letters. However, several Akrida manage to remain on Earth and go into hiding, including the Akrida Queen. The Akrida Queen then uses every last bit of her power to wipe out the Men of Letters, leaving Earth vulnerable to the Akrida once again.
By 1972, the Akrida, no longer held back by the Men of Letters, have resurfaced with their leader taking Rockin' Roxy as her vessel. Aware of the invasion, Samuel Campbell, learning of the threat that they pose, searches for the only thing that can stop them, the Ostium.
At the same time, while detouring through the Multiverse while on his way through Heaven following his death, Dean discovers the existence of the Akrida and the threat that they pose to both the Monster Club Universe and his own world where Sam still lives. As a result, Dean breaks Jack Kline's non-interference rule to deal with their threat by giving the hunters of Joan's world a nudge, providing his father with a letter from Henry Winchester to lead John to the Men of Letters Clubhouse and into hunting.
The Winchesters[]
In Pilot, Samuel is attacked by the Akrida and vanishes while looking for the Ostium. Later, Ada Monroe reveals to John, Mary, Lata and Carlos about the threat that the Akrida pose. With Samuel still missing and the threat of an Akrida invasion, Mary and her friends decide to go to Savannah to complete Samuel's mission.
However, Dean Winchester states that what the group doesn't know is that the Akrida aren't just a threat to Earth, but to all of existence.
In Teach Your Children Well, the group finds a number of dead zombies in Savannah, but any files on the Akrida are gone. Mary finds a shotgun shell with Samuel's initials on it, suggesting that he had gotten their first and taken the files. After killing three more attacking zombies, Mary finds a newspaper article left behind by Samuel directing them to a case in Topeka, Kansas.
Later, after the Monster Club kills La Tunda, the Akrida Leader visits her lair and absorbs a piece of La Tunda's essence into a vial before leaving, followed by a number of Akrida.
In You're Lost Little Girl, Ada and Carlos manage to capture Slick, the partner of the demon that had possessed Ada. Slick eventually reveals that the threat from the Akrida is so great that he and his partner had gone AWOL from Hell and made a deal with the Akrida to give them the Monster Box in exchange for being spared when they wipe out everything. Slick tells the two that the Akrida are too numerous to be stopped even with the Monster Box and that their leader is possessing some woman like a demon, although he doesn't know who.
With the appearance of La Tunda and Bori Baba, two rare monsters from other cultures, the Monster Club come to the conclusion that the presence of the Akrida is somehow responsible.
After John burns Bori Baba's remains, an Akrida emerges from the shadows and steals the monster's bag. The Akrida brings the bag to its leader who is able to extract some of Bori Baba's essence into a vial like she did with La Tunda.
In Masters of War, Mars Neto tells John that the Akrida are already on Earth and that the Monster Club is too weak to stop them. However, Mars believes that John, a hunter and a soldier can be sharpened into a powerful weapon that could defeat them.
In Legend of a Mind, the Monster Club suspects that a djinn is behind a series of strange deaths. However, Tony Monroe, Ada's half-djinn son who was drawn to the area by the Akrida's broadcast, reveals that he wasn't responsible but rather that the Akrida were. It's discovered that the Akrida have been targeting people and injecting their brains with stingers to possess them. Learning that Derek Fisher is next, the Monster Club tries to intervene, only to be attacked directly by an Akrida. While protecting Derek, Mary is hit by the Akrida's stingers and is infected with their toxin.
The Monster Club takes Mary back to the Men of Letters Clubhouse where they determine that someone needs to dreamwalk into Mary's head in order to find and destroy the stingers which exist not only in her brain, but in her mind. Ada manages to convince her son to help them out and he reveals that, based on his experiences with the Akrida in Gordon Baxter's head, they are hidden deep within a traumatic memory. Tony helps John dreamwalk into Mary's mind where they find the stingers in Mary's memory of the night that her parents told her that monsters are real and that she will grow up to hunt them. John helps Mary confront the trauma and the memory Mary uncovers the stingers beneath her pillow. Mary smashes the stingers which releases her from the Akrida's influence.
At the same time, Carlos investigates the people that the Akrida had targeted and discovers that they were all connected to a project involving the building of a radio tower which would amplify the Akrida's ability to send out a signal to draw in rare monsters such as La Tunda and Bori Baba. Tony reveals that when he was in the victims' minds, he heard the Akrida talk about collecting essence from the remains of rare monsters, meaning that by killing the rare monsters, the Monster Club has essentially been doing the Akrida's dirty work. However, Tony doesn't know what they're planning on doing with the essence. Investigating the radio tower lead further, the Monster Club realizes that the Akrida leader is actually possessing Rockin' Roxy.
As the hunters listen to her broadcast, another Akrida in a human vessel approaches his leader and reveals that Mary didn't succumb to their control. The other Akrida worries that the hunters will be a problem, but the Akrida leader reassures him that they'll get the hunters the way they want eventually.
In Hang on to Your Life, Samuel tells Mary that he's found a way to find the Akrida Queen. Carlos tells John and Mary that there's no sign of the Akrida and it's as if they've just disappeared. John thinks that it makes sense that the Akrida would be in retreat given how hard the Monster Club hit them. It's also revealed that banishing the Akrida Leader and several other Akrida has broken the Ostium.
Later, Samuel reveals that he was searching for the queen's burial site when the Akrida captured him and that the queen is the key to the whole invasion. However, Samuel doesn't know how that is yet. Samuel explains that he caught wind of a sighting from one of his contacts a few months before that matched the description of the Akrida along with information about the Ostium, so he ran them down. Samuel tries to dismiss John to talk to his daughter alone, but Mary orders him to stay. Samuel hands Mary film canisters containing reconnaissance photos that he took of the locations that everything points to the queen's burial site being in. However, the pictures all have light leaks on them, rendering them useless. Samuel departs to chase down a lead on magic that might help them to defeat the queen with Ada while leaving the Monster Club to continue the fight in his absence. Before he leaves, he informs Mary that there's a tattoo that prevents Akrida possession and shows them the one he has on his collarbone, suggesting they all get one.
The list of Akrida anti-possession tattoo ink ingredients Samuel gave Mary.
He says it can be anywhere on the body but the ink requires special ingredients, which luckily, he has a list of.
In Cast Your Fate to the Wind, reporter Kyle Reed is revealed to be an Akrida puppet who is using police officer Betty Donelon to investigate the Monster Club.
In Suspicious Minds, in 1957, an Akrida puppet ambushes Dorothea Wilcox and hits her in the head with a crowbar, putting Dorothea into a permanent coma.
In the present, Kyle meets with a group of other Akrida puppets and shows them a picture of Dean Winchester, telling them that the queen believes that the Monster Club might be useful in leading them to Dean. The queen believes that Dean is a hunter himself and by all accounts of the Akrida spies in the field, he's the reason that the Monster Club got together. The group knows that Dean needs to be eliminated, but they don't know his identity. Kyle suggests a plan involving spilling some human blood.
Former Man of Letters Jack Wilcox, under the guise of Porter Hobbes, arrives at the Men of Letters Clubhouse claiming to have a way to destroy the Akrida by using their stingers to create a neurotoxin. Jack reveals that the Akrida had invaded in 1957, but were pushed back to their world using the Ostium at the cost of severe casualties to the Men of Letters. Several Akrida managed to remain in hiding on Earth, including the queen, and Jack suggests that they were probably responsible for the destruction of the Men of Letters. With John and Mary's help, Jack captures Officer Jones, an Akrida puppet, and removes the stingers from him at the cost of Jones' life. However, Jack's real intention is to use the stingers to transfer his consciousness and Dorothea's into John and Mary so that they can live again, explaining that the Akrida had targeted his wife after Jack's expulsion from the order in revenge for his experiments upon them. Jack is ultimately defeated, and he dies when his own golem crushes him.
At the same time, Carlos and Lata's surveillance of the locations from Samuel's pictures fail to turn up any sign of the Akrida. Instead, the two approach Rockin' Roxy who survived her possession, although her life has been left ruined by it. Using a form of magical hypnosis taught to her by Tony Monroe, Lata helps Roxy to remember the location of the Akrida queen which proves to be just a couple of hours away in Kansas. Although Lata offers to erase Roxy's memories of her possession, Roxy chooses to remember so as to know that her ordeal helped to defeat the Akrida. She also requests a shot at the Akrida queen if they get the chance. Checking out the location, Carlos and Lata spot several Akrida puppets, including the woman who had taken the collected monster essences and realize that they've found the queen.
Later, Kyle ambushes John at Winchester Garage, revealing himself to be an Akrida puppet and spy. The Akrida force Kyle to kill himself, framing John for his murder as part of their plans.
In You've Got a Friend, John is arrested for the murder of Kyle with the detective in charge of the case being possessed by the same Akrida that was controlling Kyle. The detective questions John about Dean, but John refuses to cooperate. Later, John confronts the detective, deducing that for the Akrida to be afraid of Dean, he must be a threat to them. As the Akrida Leader had told John and Mary that the Akrida can't be harmed by anything of this Earth, then Dean must not be of this Earth to be a threat to the Akrida. The detective's reaction confirms to John that he's right, but the Akrida plot to kill John during a prisoner transfer. After John's friends show Betty the truth using the Bracelet of Erebus, she helps them to break John out. John goes on the run with Mary while Millie and Betty search for proof to clear his name and Mary states that they need to find Dean in order to stop the Akrida.
In The Tears of a Clown, Ada contacts witches in search of magic capable of defeating the Akrida without success at first. Ada is approached by Rowena MacLeod who offers Ada the magic that she needs in exchange for Slick whom Rowena intends to torture for information on her son. After testing Ada's own magical abilities, Rowena gives her a crystal with the promised magic which will require the sacrifice of a piece of Ada's own soul to work. Although Rowena doesn't know much, she warns Ada that the Akrida's invasion will start soon and that the queen will need the help of a planetary alignment to open her portal.
At the same time, Millie brings the news that she and Betty have found a witness who can attest that Kyle had arrived at the garage after he made the 911 call saying he was already there which is enough to clear John of the murder that the Akrida had framed him for. Going over star charts, Lata determines that the alignment that the queen needs has already begun.
In Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye, in a flashback, Dean gives John the letter from his father and is revealed to be working with Bobby Singer to stop the Akrida.
In the present, Samuel is contacted by a hunter named Joan Hopkins who claims to know about the man from the picture. Joan reveals that she's actually the Akrida Queen and that she was a hunter from the 17th century who was driven insane, consumed monster essences and was banished to another world by the Men of Letters where she met the Akrida. Joan offers to let the Monster Club join her, even burning off Lata's anti-possession tattoo so that she can be possessed as an incentive, but Ada sacrifices the magic given to her by Rowena in order to kill the possessing Akrida and save her friend.
Needing another way to stop the Akrida, Mary, Lata and Millie attempt to use the Ostium to summon Dean back from where Joan banished him while John, Carlos and Samuel battle Joan and several Akrida as she attempts to open her portal. Although the Monster Club fails to summon Dean, the Ostium brings forth the Impala which is not of their Earth and so can harm Joan. As Joan prepares to open her portal, Mary hits her with the Impala, killing Joan but passing through the portal as she does. All of the Akrida die almost instantly, freeing their vessels and rendering their species extinct.
Moments later, Dean comes back through the portal with Mary in the Impala. Dean explains that, after going to Heaven when he died, he took a little detour through the Multiverse and discovered the threat of the Akrida in the process. The Akrida were one of Chuck Shurley's last creations, a failsafe to destroy everything in case Chuck failed. Although Jack Kline forbid direct interference, the Akrida threatened not just the Monster Club's world, but Dean's as well where Sam is still living so Dean intervened to help stop them.
Powers and Abilities[]
They appear to be extremely powerful monsters as they are stated to be a threat to all of existence.
- Possession - The Akrida are able to take human vessels like a demon can, except they control their bodies remotely after injecting them with their stingers. However, their mere presence eventually burns out the vessel, although this takes quite some time as Rockin' Roxy survived months of possession by the Akrida Leader.
- Essence Extraction - Through unknown means, the Akrida can collect the "essence" of a monster from its remains. They plan to give these essences to their Queen to make her stronger.
- Life-Force Extraction - Through unknown means, the Akrida can extract the life-force of a monster. The Akrida Leader was able to extract some of La Tunda and Bori Baba's life force from their remains.
- Nigh-Invulnerability - There is little known that can harm or even kill the Akrida, though the Ostium can send them back to their own world and exposure to otherworldly objects and soul-amplified magic has proven fatal to them.
- Immortality - The Akrida are immune to age, viruses, toxins, and disease. However, they can still be killed through the use of the Ostium on the Akrida Queen, as well as soul-powered magic and objects not from the Monster Club Universe.
Weaknesses[]
An Akrida sucked into the Ostium.
- Ostium - A box created by the Men of Letters using dark magic that's capable of banishing the Akrida back to their own world.
- Connection to their leader - Like a colony of ants, the Akrida all share a connection to their leader. If the Ostium is used on their leader, it will cut the connection to the rest of the Akrida who can't survive without her. When Joan is killed, the rest of the Akrida all die moments later.
- Soul-Powered Magic - Rowena MacLeod is able to provide Ada Monroe with magic powered by a piece of Ada's own soul that can kill the Akrida Queen.
- Anti-Possession Tattoo - Samuel tells Mary that a special tattoo anywhere on the body can keep the Akrida from possessing a person and shows her his own (this is not the same tattoo that prevents demonic possession), suggesting they all get one. Unlike a tattoo to protect from demonic possession, this tattoo's ink requires special ingredients.
Samuel Campbell's Akrida anti-possession tattoo.
- Otherworldly Objects - While the Akrida can't be harmed by anything of the Monster Club Universe, objects from other worlds are capable of killing them.
- The Impala - As it's not from the Monster Club's world, the Impala is capable of harming and killing the Akrida and their queen.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Akrida (ακρίδα) is Greek for locust. They are likely a reference to creatures in Revelation 9 that are described as locusts that appeared as horses ready for battle with the face of humans that ascend from a pit of smoke and are ruled by Abaddon.
- In Suspicious Minds, Jack Wilcox suggests that the Akrida were responsible for the destruction of the Men of Letters. Meanwhile, in Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye, Joan Hopkins acknowledges that she obliterated the Men of Letters in their universe using the entirety of her power, thereby leaving Earth susceptible to the Akrida once more.