Pareidolia is a phenomenon in which a stimulus allows a person to derive meaning from an ambiguous perception.

For example, a sound may “sound” a certain color, words may “taste” a certain way or touching objects may trigger the visualization of certain objects. Synesthesia is defined as a condition in which the stimulation of one sensory pathway activates another. According to his file, Grieve possesses a power known as “Synesthesia Pareidolia.” The term seems to be a combination of two known sensory phenomena: synesthesia and pareidolia. According to EW, Grieve, who is played by Tongayi Chirisa, is an amalgamation of two major characters from the book: Talamasa agent Aaron Lightner and Rowan’s husband, Michael Curry. The character of Sip Grieve is something more of a mystery than the order for which he works because he is an original creation for the streaming series. In Rice’s novels, the Talamasca served as the connective tissue between the Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches series. Canonically, the Talamasca was founded in the year 758 by the ancient vampire Teskhaman, his fledgling, Hesketh, and the spirit known as Gremth. Created by Rice for 1988’s Queen of the Damned, the third novel in the prolific author’s Vampire Chronicles, the Order of the Talamasca is an ancient and secret society created to observe, chronicle and suppress the dissemination of information about the paranormal. And We are Always There.Īll signs point to Grieve working for an agency called the Talamasca. While the episode itself is short on details about who Grieve is and the nameless organization by whom he is employed, Anne Rice‘s source material has plenty of clues. As it turns out, there is an agent assigned to Rowan, an “empathic investigator” by the name of Ciprien Grieve, and as the rest of the episode goes on to detail, he knows quite a bit about Rowan and the Mayfair family. Though it’s not quite on the same level, the unnamed agency has a little bit of the same feel as the central agency in charge of bounties in the John Wick franchise and it’s clear that whatever this agency is, it’s been established for some time. The road to those revelations began in “The Witching Hour” when Rowan’s adoptive mother, Elena Fielding, called into the New Orleans office of an as-yet-unnamed organization to speak to the agent assigned to Rowan’s file.

Episode 1 of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches sets the stage for what promises to be a first season full of surprises as Alexandra Daddario‘s Rowan Fielding starts to uncover her true identity and the legacy that accompanies it.

The mayfair witches books in order