Talamasca Caste
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The Talamasca Caste is a fictional secret society described in the works of Anne Rice.
[edit] Background
The Talamasca Caste (or Order of the Talamasca or simply Talamasca) is described as a secret society set up to watch over and keep track of the paranormal, in particular, witches, spirits, werewolves and vampires. Rice describes them as "psychic detectives".
The word Talamasca comes from Latin meaning "animal mask". It was also an old term to describe a witch or a shaman.
The Talamasca's cardinal rule is "We watch and we are always here."
The Talamasca itself was described in Rice's novels as having "motherhouses" or bases in London, New Orleans, Amsterdam, Rome and other various parts of the world. The organization is said to have existed since the 1st Century (Rice states in 'The Witching Hour' that it was formally formed in the 11th Century, but existed before that).
The organization itself was described as having many influences in the suppression of paranormal information, namely the existence of vampires as the case with Lestat, hoarding most of his diaries and other expository items that may have revealed the existence and nature of vampires in its vaults below the main motherhouse in London, England. Beneath the building are a number of museums in which the Talamasca house a substantial collection of artifacts, all connected with the supernatural in some way. Vaults accessible only by the eldest members of the order house paraphernalia connected with vampires. The Talamasca also housed several paintings of Marius's "The Temptation of Amadeo", and other artifacts from vampires such as Pandora, Armand, Louis, the infamous Lestat de Lioncourt, and Claudia.
David Talbot, Superior General of the Talamasca is responsible for tracking down a number of Marius's paintings throughout history, devoting much of his mortal life to Marius's experimentalism through different mediums and styles. David first noticed that that the painter always painted the same figure, who never seemed to age.
The organization is also responsible for the suppression and cover-up regarding the Mayfair family's fiasco concerning the Taltos birth anomaly. It may also have been responsible for covering the burning of the "Theater of the Vampires".
Many vampiric characters from Rice's novels once belonged to the Talamasca before accepting the "dark gift". Jesse, David and Merrick, are the most popular of Rice's ex-Talamasca characters. The Talamasca Order also appear in Anne Rice's Chronicles of the Mayfair Witches, the Mayfair Witches trilogy.
The Talamasca has become the focus of several websites and role-playing games, as have many of Rice's characters.
A similar secret society appears in the Highlander: The Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the Watchers' Council or Watchers - an ancient organisation based in Great Britain and with much the same principles: to track and observe immortals.
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