"Superior General of the Talamasca, brought into the Blood in 1992 by Lestat. David, the victim of a body switch, lost his original biological body, that of an elderly man, before being made into a vampire in the body of a much younger man."[1]
"Introduced as an elderly member of the Talamasca, an order of psychic detectives, in The Queen of the Damned. Becomes an important character in The Tale of the Body Thief, and also solicits Pandora’s story from her in Pandora. A pillar of the Vampire Chronicles."[2]
David Talbot was the Superior General of the secret organization the Talamasca, which researches and investigates the supernatural.
David is introduced in The Queen of the Damned. He meets both Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac at the end of the novel. Lestat taunts David, offering to turn him with his powerful vampire blood, which David soundly refuses.
In The Tale of the Body Thief, he and Lestat apparently have become friends. After Lestat fails to end his immortal life by flying into the sun in the Gobi Desert, he turns to David for his recuperation.
When Raglan James offers to switch bodies with Lestat, Lestat seeks advice from David on whether to accept the offer, though he ultimately ignores David's warning not to trust Raglan. The body switching as warned, results in disaster for Lestat and it is David who helps Lestat regain his body when others such as Louis and Marius refused to help Lestat for his foolishness.
When the fleed Raglan James is tracked down and Lestat regains his vampiric body, Raglan performs another trick by placing his consciousness into David's body and placing David's consciousness into the young Anglo-Indian body Raglan stole to switch with Lestat. Raglan posing as David tries to trick Lestat into making his elderly body into a vampire. As Lestat is about to give Raglan the Dark Gift, he discovers Raglan's deception and crushes his skull, killing Raglan's consciousness in David's body.
Later, Lestat finds David in the young body Raglan stole then forcibly gives David the Dark Gift, making him a vampire.
David becomes somewhat of a confidant to Armand, and eventually records the story of his life in The Vampire Armand. David also appears in Merrick, where he contacts the title character, who also happens to be part of the Mayfair Witches. Merrick raises the spirit of Claudia for Louis.
At the end it is revealed that Merrick has been using voodoo to bring both David and Louis to her so she can attain eternal life. The plan works, as Louis gives her the blood and makes her immortal. After making Merrick his fledgling, Louis tries to commit suicide by placing his coffin in the open where he would be burned to death when the sun rose. He nearly succeeds, but his vampiric body is strong enough to survive.
David, Merrick, and Lestat find him and give him their blood to heal his burned form. Their combined blood makes Louis stronger than he was before. The four then form a coven in New Orleans, but the Talamasca, enraged that three of their members had taken the blood, threaten the vampires and demand that Merrick and David be returned to them. Lestat wants to retaliate against the Talamasca, but David talks him out of doing anything rash, and the four leave their home in the Rue Royal.
Throughout the years, David becomes the confidant and chronicler of various vampires like Pandora, Marius and Maharet. He is very protective of Lestat and is often the only one who can reign in the brat prince during his tantrums. As such, he gains a reputation as being the voice of reason in many situations.
His sibling fledges are Nicolas, Gabrielle,Antoine, Louis,Claudia,Mona Mayfair and Rose.
- ↑ Prince Lestat, Appendix 1.
- ↑ Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, Appendix 1.