French Quarter Coven

**Notice:** This **article** uses content directly taken from the French Quarter Coven **article** at the Vampire Diaries Wiki, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

## Information

### Leader(s)

* Van Nguyen †  (Regent)
* Josephine LaRue †  (Regent)
* Papa Tunde †
* Bastianna Natale †
* Agnes †
* Céleste Dubois †
* Genevieve †
* Esther Mikaelson †  (Possessing Cassie and Lenore) (Formerly)
* Finn Mikaelson  (Possessing Vincent Griffith) (Formerly)

### Members

* Mary-Alice Claire †
* Astrid Malchance †
* Philomena †
* Isabella Joffrey †
* Brynne Deveraux †
* Clara Summerlin †
* Mrs. Claire †
* Jane-Anne Deveraux †
* Sophie Deveraux †
* Sabine Laurent †
* Katie †
* Monique Deveraux †
* Abigail †
* Kaleb Westphall †
* Sebastian Hale †
* Evie Stone †
* Jessica
* Amy
* Steph
* Alex Gilbert
* Elena Gilbert
* Jack Mikaelson
* Hope Mikaelson
* Artemis Mikaelson
* Jax Salvatore
* Nina Salvatore
* Lily Salvatore
* Grayson Salvatore
* Sarah Salvatore
* Stefanie Salvatore
* Luna Lockwood
* Many Unnamed Members
* Centuries worth of witches †

### Former Members

* Kol Mikaelson
* Henrik Mikaelson
* Cassie †
* Annie La Fleur †  (Shunned)

### Species

* Witch
* Tribrid
* Heretic

### Significant Spells

* Harvest Ritual
* Moonlight Amulet Creation Spell
* Consecration of their dead
* Releasing the Ancestral Well
* Pain Infliction

**The French Quarter Coven** are a group of witches based in New Orleans. The Coven is one of several covens residing in New Orleans but it is the only one who lives inside the French Quarter. Other covens of witches live in the other parts of New Orleans and all are submitted to the regency of a powerful witch who acts as the voice of the consecrated dead of New Orleans. The latest Regent was Davina Claire, the last of the Harvest witches, and a former member of the French Quarter Coven, who succeeded Josephine LaRue after her death. However, she lost this position in *Out of the Easy* when she was shunned.

## History

Previously, the coven was known to practice Ancestral Magic, by which they drew power from their consecrated dead ancestors who are buried at Lafayette Cemetery in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Since their ancestors' remains are the source of their power, the coven cannot leave the city, or they would be abandoning their legacy. If a French Quarter witch did leave the city, it would result in the witch being cut off from his or her connection to the ancestral magic. The coven is also one of nine covens present in the city.

The Coven was one of the supernatural forces present in the city when the Original Family arrived to New Orleans from Europe in the 18th century. The growing vampire presence became a recurring problem for the witches. However, in the early days, some witches seemed to have no problem with the Originals and one of them, Céleste Dubois, formed a romantic relationship with Elijah Mikaelson. However, the growing brutality of Elijah's brother, Niklaus Mikaelson, eventually led him to blame the witches for his crimes. This led to a witch hunt in which many witches, including Céleste, were killed.

Tensions between the witches and the growing number of vampires continued throughout the 19th century and eventually came to a head in the early 20th. While many witches from various covens had aligned with Klaus and the Originals, a faction of witches had chosen to oppose them, among them were Mary-Alice Claire and Astrid Malchance. The covens waged war on each other and on themselves, and illness and catastrophes hit the city because of the witches' conflict. Eventually, the rebel witches allied with Klaus's brother, Kol Mikaelson, who taught them a new form of magic called Kemiya which allowed a witch to create a dark object by changing it's core element. Kol's plan was to create a golden dagger so that he could use on his brother, just as he had done several times in the past. In the process of learning Kemiya, several dark objects were created by the witches, such as the Devil's Star. However, the dagger's power proved to be too great to change it as easily as the others. Needing a perfect and large paragon diamond, Kol and his witches tried to steal one from the Dowager Fauline. However, Kol's killing of the Dowager and a whole crowd at St. Anne's Church had drawn the attention of his brother. As Kol and his witches searched the Dowager's house, Klaus and Marcel, accompanied by one of their witches, caught Kol and took the diamond. The witch sealed Mary-Alice and Astrid in the house which would then become a prison for witches who had gone mad. Eventually, Kol was staked by his brother again and his witches were apparently defeated.

After the First World War, as Prohibition was being set into motion, the Original brothers came up with a plan to unite the city's supernatural elements to oppose Prohibition. However, the coven had fallen under the control of a dangerous and powerful witch, Papa Tunde. Desiring to find a place for the witches in the Originals' plan and wanting both money and territory for himself, he begun to wage war on the city's other elements, including the humans and the werewolves. He even killed those witches who opposed him. Eventually, Klaus and Elijah decided Papa Tunde needed to die: Klaus killed his sons who acted as a channel for his power before killing him. With Tunde's death, the witches apparently fell in line with the Originals and their plans.

After the Originals were forced to flee the city in 1919 when their father, Mikael, found them, the balance of power in New Orleans begun to change once again as the Mikaelsons' plans to create unity in the face of Prohibition fell through. Eventually, Klaus's protegee, Marcel, returned to the city and, during the 1920s, he waged a guerilla war against the Guerrera werewolves. Marcel's return saw a rise of the vampire population as he gradually rebuilt his community. The werewolves also fought against the vampires but their infighting did not make them a good fighting force. It is unknown who the witches fought for during these troubles but they did form an alliance with the Human Faction in the later years of the 20th century and early years of the 21st.

Eventually, at the beginning of the 21st century, the werewolves had been more or less defeated and Marcel's vampires became the superior force of New Orleans. Although the French Quarter witches opposed this, they did not engage in open warfare against the vampires. The covens were also divided over how to treat the vampires: several covens joined them while others opposed them, and others simply ignored them. In addition, the French Quarter's ancestral power source had been growing more tenuous as their link to the Ancestors and their magic weakened over time. Determined to preserve their power, the coven's Elders decided to perform the Harvest ritual which would see four witches sacrificed and resurrected to strengthen the link with the Ancestors and make their magic even more potent. The four witches would then return more powerful than ever as they would have learnt the secrets of the Ancestors. However, their plans were soon derailed when Sophie Deveraux learnt of their plans: a witch who had renounced her heritage due to the witches' strict rules, she believed that the Harvest was a myth and would only lead to the death of four witches. Among those chosen was Sophie's niece, Monique Deveraux. The three other girls were Abigail, Cassie, and Davina Claire.

Sophie tried to stop the Harvest by warning Father Kieran O'Connell, the leader of the Faction, so that he could stop the massacre. An ally of the witches, Kieran was nevertheless repulsed by their plans and tried to stop them, threatening to enter into an alliance with Marcel if they defied him and proceeded with the Harvest. In order to distract Kieran, the Elder Agnes placed a hex on his nephew, Sean O'Connell, which made him loose his mind and eventually made him kill himself and nine seminary students before Kieran's eyes. Distracted by his nephew's madness, Kieran was unable to stop the witches. However, Sophie had also confided in her secret lover, Marcel. After Sean's death, Kieran left New Orleans but also encouraged Marcel to stop the Harvest to save the four sacrifices. As the witches killed the witches, Marcel and his vampires attacked. Three of the girl were already dead by the Elder Bastianna Natale and only Davina still lived. The vampires killed the Elders with the exception of Agnes and saved Davina.

The Harvest however was not a myth as Sophie had believed: as each girl died, she released her power onto the next with the final death supposed to release the full power into the earth. Since Davina still lived, she had the entire power of the four sacrifices. Among her new powers, she could sense when a witch was using magic. Partly to protect her and partly to control the witches, Marcel hid Davina in St. Anne's Church's attic. He then banned the use of magic in New Orleans, using Davina's ability and her new resentment of the witches to kill any witch who broke the rule. Unable to use magic, the witches were forced to submit to Marcel's rule and the vampires finally ruled the city without opposition from either the witches, the werewolves or even the humans.

However, the witches were not happy with this development and both Sophie Deveraux and her sister Jane-Anne were devastated over the loss of Monique. Determined to get their niece and daughter back, they planned to find and kill Davina to complete the Harvest. However, due to their inability to perform magic, they needed allies who could bring down Marcel in their stead.