| This article is about Lasher from the series of novels. You may be looking for Lasher, from the AMC adaptation. |
Lasher is a spirit tied to the Mayfair family. He is first introduced in The Witching Hour, and is the titular character of the second novel in The Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Lasher. Lasher, originally of unknown origins, is revealed in the second book to be the ghost of a Taltos.
Description[]
He is said to have a “waxen face, brown eyes”, and wear “nondescript clothes of that unusual texture, so smooth they shone faintly”. Dr. Larry Petrie thought he looked like a "waxen dummy infused with life" and wrote of Lasher:
The man's brown hair had been slightly wavy. Eyes large. Fair skin like the poor sick woman. The man had been without discernible expression. The doctor could even remember the man's hands. Nothing special about them, just nice hands. It struck him that the man, though thin, had been well proportioned. Only the clothes seemed unusual, and not the style of them, which was ordinary enough. It was the texture of the clothing. Unaccountably smooth, like the face of the man. As if the whole figure--clothes, flesh, face--were made from the same thing.[1]
As Lasher has no physical body of his own, as a spirit he has the ability to mold himself somewhat to his chosen form, adopting the appearance the witch he is bound to finds most desirable. In his spirit form Lasher speaks without moving his lips, and says the word "laughter" when amused, lacking the ability to laugh. Once born into physical form, he has the features of a Taltos, and the traits of his two biological parents, Rowan and Michael, standing six feet two inches, having a slender frame, curly dark hair, and large blue eyes.
Personality[]
Lasher has the child-like and naive personality common to both spirits and Taltos, which is juxtaposed with his motivations and the violence he is willing to do to achieve his ends. To the Mayfair Witches, Lasher presents himself as extremely docile and subservient, offering to be whatever they want or need him to be, as his form depends on their perception and attention. To those who come into conflict with his plans, Lasher is blunt and ruthless, willing to kill or enact violence on any human who is no longer useful.
Lasher is limited by his lack of knowledge about the world while a spirit, and erratic and frantic about his inability to understand his own experiences once he achieves a physical form.
Biography[]
Lasher was born a Taltos as the illegitimate child of the Douglas of Donnelaith and Anne Boleyn. Officially declared dead at birth, he is taken to Scotland, where he is believed to be the reincarnation of Saint Ashlar, a Taltos who appears every few centuries. He studies for several years as a monk in Italy, before returning to Donnelaith to help his people resist the rise of Protestantism and the return of pagan rites. After a Yule feast where he is tricked into mating with a female Little Person of the Glen (a stunted Taltos) and producing more Taltos that are sacrificed by humans, Lasher is killed when the town is invaded by Protestants.
Lasher's spirit remains in Donnelaith for a century before responding to the call of Suzanne Mayfair, who is attempting to summon the spirit of Ashlar (and who gets the saint's name wrong). First a simple and undefined spirit who can control the weather, Lasher serves each subsequent generation of Mayfair women, eventually becoming consumed by his desire to achieve a physical form with which he can interact with the world and experience human emotions. Lasher makes a pact with the witches that he will ensure the witches' fortune and grant them immortality if they help him achieve his goal.
Over time, Lasher and his witches attempt various methods to allow him to have a physical body, including experimenting on the bodies of stillborn slave children, having Lasher possess recently murdered bodies, and ultimately allowing Lasher to possess the body of Julien Mayfair for hours at a time.
Michael Curry sees Lasher around New Orleans throughout his childhood. Specifically, he would see Lasher in the far back of the overgrown garden at the First Street House when he took his walks with his mother. One time in the late 1940s, he saw Lasher in the shadows of St. Alphonsus Church. Every time, Lasher gave a small smile to Michael. The only time his mother ever acknowledged seeing Lasher was the time at St. Alphonsus. She looked and acted fearful at seeing him.
His name is carved on a giant crepe myrtle tree at the First Street House. In 1983, Dr. Larry Petrie sees his name written in dust on the dining room table at the First Street House. The next day, the table is clean. In early September of that year, he begins to see Lasher at Deirdre's side and has hazy, strange encounters with the spirit that gives him the sense that Lasher wants the doctor to stop Deirdre's Thorazine injections.
In the early spring of 1984, the doctor sees Lasher in a neighborhood bar near the First Street house. The next night he thinks he sees him "under a street lamp by the cemeteries on Canal Boulevard". The Friday after that, he sees him in Jackson Square. Years later he shares his story with Aaron Lightner. Lightner tells him he "recorded other stories of people who have seen the man you described". He also tells the doctor that he has seen Lasher himself and describes the experience as frightening.[1]
Lasher appears to Rowan Mayfair after the death of her mother Deirdre, and makes direct contact with her shortly after her wedding to Michael Curry. Though Rowan intends to manipulate Lasher by appearing to cooperate with him, she ultimately plays into his plans. He possesses the form of her unborn child's body, and begs Rowan to use her supernatural powers to make the broken body function. Lasher then rapidly grows to an adult form and attempts to kill his father Michael, before leaving with his Rowan.
On the run with Rowan, Lasher repeatedly rapes her and attempts to get her pregnant, resulting in several miscarriages, while Rowan attempts to scientifically study and collect samples from Lasher to understand his nature. Despirate to concieve a female Taltos to become his mate, Lasher begins appearing to, sexually assaulting, and impregnating as many of the female members of the Mayfair family as possible, resulting in fatal miscarriages. Finally successfully getting Rowan pregnant with her daughter Emaleth, Lasher speaks to the unborn child telepathically, instructing it about his plan to re-start the Taltos species and destroy mankind. When Rowan escapes, Lasher pursues her to the First Street House, where he tells his story to the Talamasca and his Michael Curry.
Unmoved by his story, Michael Curry chases Lasher with a hammer, and, with the assistance of Julien's ghost, strikes him, leaving Lasher to fall from the third floor of the home to his death.
Inspiration[]
According to The Vampire Companion by Katherine Ramsland, Lasher was originally conceived as a character for The Queen of the Damned, where he would have worked with Armand to thwart Akasha.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (Part One: Chapter One)