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| Donnelaith | |
| Continuity: | Lives of the Mayfair Witches |
| Category: | Village |
| Continent: | Europe |
| Country: | Scotland |
| Residents: | Suzanne Mayfair Deborah Mayfair |
| 1st appearance: | Witching Hour, The |
Donnelaith is a fictional location featured in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series of novels by author Anne Rice. It first appeared in the 1990 novel The Witching Hour. The location has also made appearances in flashback sequences throughout season one of the Mayfair Witches television series.
History[]
Donnelaith was a village located in Scotland. In the late 17th century, a woman named Suzanne lived in Donnelaith where he operated as a midwife and healer. Suzanne had given birth to a girl named Deborah. It was believed by many that the girl had been fathered by the Earl of Donnelaith.
One of Suzanne's visitors taught her the ways of witchcraft, but also warned her that such knowledge would make her a target. As was customary of the time, Suzanne's efforts had her branded as a witch by the local clerics. She was executed by burning, but as she died she invoked a powerful spiritual entity known as Lasher, so named "for the wind... that lashes the grasslands, for the wind that lashes the leaves from the trees."
A visitor to the village, a man named Peter van Abel, who was a member of an occult research society known as the Talamasca, arrived in Donnelaith the day of Suzanne's execution. As wagons were carting away the remains from the pyre, Peter found Deborah and took her away from Donnelaith.
Suzanne's bloodline grew forth into what would become the modern day Mayfair family. The spirit of Lasher, whom Suzanne first called down in 1681, remained bound to her matrilineal line for thirteen generations.