Augustine Vampire

**Notice:** This **article** uses content directly taken from the Augustine Vampire **article** at the Vampire Diaries Wiki, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.**Augustine Vampires** were an artificially created sub-species of vampires who's major difference from regular vampires lay in their feeding habits and sustenance requirements. Initially the term Augustine Vampire refered to a normal vampire who has been captured and made a test subject to the many experiments carried out by the Augustine Society. However, due to the experimentations by Wes Maxfield, Augustine Vampires eventually became their own sub-set within the vampire race following Wes' creation of the infamous Ripper Virus, a chemical compound which turned the infected vampire into a cannibalistic Ripper with an insaitable, ravenous hunger for the blood of other vampires.

The first Augustine vampire to be referred to as such in the series was Lorenzo, an experimental test subject of the Augustine Society from 1943 to 2011 who was introduced in the episode *Handle with Care*, though he was not identified by name until *The Cell*. During his seventy-plus years in captivity, Lorenzo was subjected to all manner of experimentation, including having portions of his organs removed, in order to help Dr. Whitmore and the other Augustine physicians research ways human medicine could be advanced through the vampires' regenerative healing ability and their blood, which can heal any wound in a human (so long as they're still alive) and can cure many illnesses and conditions.

However, the first vampire to be turned into a cannibalistic Augustine vampire was Wes Maxfield's laboratory assistant, Jesse, who he conditioned to crave only vampire blood over the course of several weeks. Wes' intention in creating this kind of Augustine vampire was to eventually make all vampires crave the blood of their own kind, which would then make human blood no longer a satisfying food source from them and would subsequently protect all humans from becoming their food in the process. Wes' ultimate goal was for vampires to fatally feed on each other until the species killed itself entirely.

However, Jesse was killed shortly after he was remade into an Augustine vampire, and when Wes became impatient with how long it took to condition vampires to be like Jesse, (a process which took at least two weeks) he created what became known as the Ripper Compound, with the intention of using it against Elena Gilbert. When she was rescued before he could give it to her, he continued his research before eventually found a new potential Augustine vampire in Damon Salvatore. Wes injected Damon with the compound in *Total Eclipse of the Heart*, who then involuntarily became Wes' Patient Zero. Damon was the only living Augustine vampire until *Gone Girl*, when Katherine Pierce, a Passenger in Elena's body, injected herself (and, by proxy, Elena) with Wes' new version of the Ripper Compound, which had been laced with Werewolf Venom extracted by the recently bitten Nadia Petrova prior to her death.

When Katherine was ultimately killed by Stefan Salvatore after the Mystic Falls Gang realized she had taken control of their best friends' body, Elena was left with this new compound in her system, making Elena an Augustine vampire like Damon. In *No Exit*, it appeared that Damon was able to keep himself in control of his cravings for vampire blood as long as he fed on a significant amount every eight hours. If he went longer than that without feeding, he would become rabid and have no control over his urges, causing him to feed on any vampire he could find, much in the same way that many newborn vampires act before they learn control.

In *While You Were Sleeping*, both Elena and Damon were cured after being given antidotes to their respective Ripper Compounds with help from the Travelers. And, with the deaths of Wes and the Travelers, the formula for the compound was presumably lost.