Description: A book about the Apocalypse written from the point of view of dozens of different cultures, demon and human. It contains passages about "the Vampire with a Soul."

When Wesley translated the Scroll of Aberjian in Season 1 of AtS, he interpreted the word "shanshu" to mean "mortal"--In Proto-Bantu, it means to live, but it also means to die. He believed these passages meant that the Vampire with a Soul would fight in various apocalyptic battles, and at the end of it all, be rewarded by becoming human. However, elsewhere in the prophecies, there is an ambiguity. A passage implies that the Vampire with a Soul will fight for the bad guys in the apocalypse. If this is the case, he won't be rewarded. Both passages cannot be true. Only one will be fulfilled, if either is.

The Senior Partners have interpreted the prophecies pretty much the same way Wesley has, and are banking on the later interpretation. They want a powerful ally in their Apocalypse. They were fooled into thinking they had such an ally when Angel signed away his Shanshu in blood. It was a ruse to get the Circle of the Black Thorn to believe he didn't want to become human and hence would not fight for the good guys to earn that reward. He could do such a thing because he was willing to sacrifice being made human in order to kill the Circle.

In Though This Be Madness, Giles states his belief that the word "Shanshu" actually refers to "the cycle of life and death." All human beings are part of that cycle--they are born, eat, grow, die, and have the capacity to parent children who will in turn have the capacity to parent children of their own. Vampires, as creatures who are essentially dead, can't do those things. The prophecy is saying that Angel, a vampire, will become part of the cycle of life and death--in short, it means he will father a child.

The fact that this birth has already come to pass doesn't mean Angel's destiny of playing a role in the Apocalypse is completely fulfilled. The Shanshu is a process, not an event. Birth and parenthood are an on-going cycle and an on-going responsibility. So is the Good fight against an apocalypse that never ends.