The True Stories Behind 21 American Horror Story Characters

Whether Papa Legba is "real" or not is up for interpretation, but the Coven character, played by guest star Lance Reddick, is based on a popular legend. In voodoo culture, he is the intermediary between the living and the dead. Papa Legba is both a good and bad figure, controlling who communicates between worlds, and in American Horror Story's case, sentencing some to live in their own personal hells.