Vervain

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

## Object Information

### Status

* Extant

**Vervain** is a potent herb and a vampire's most well-known weakness. If a vampire makes physical contact with vervain in any form, it will burn them. If a vampire ingests vervain, the vampire's throat and digestive tract will be burned and they will become feverish and extremely weak. If a human ingests or holds vervain somewhere in or on the body (e,g, holding it in a hand or pocket, wearing it in jewelry), the human is protected from vampire compulsion.

## History

During the Middle Ages, the family that would eventually go on to become the Original Family of vampires, who lived in Europe, was hit by a devastating plague. The plague was believed to have caused the death of the family's first born daughter, Freya, though she was taken by Esther's sister, Dahlia, as payment for a fertility spell for Esther to have more children. To escape the plague, the family, along with several friends and neighbors, moved to the New World (what would eventually become known as Mystic Falls) to start a new life in the place where they had heard the people were healthy, strong, and gifted with speed and strength; they were werewolves. The family enjoyed years of tranquility and peace until the youngest child, Henrik, was mortally wounded by a werewolf when he and Niklaus snuck out to go see them transform under a full moon.

Distraught and desperate to protect their family from any more deaths, Esther and Mikael begged Esther's close friend and mentor, a witch named Ayana, to use her magic to turn her family into vampires, using a modified version of the the Immortality Spell. Ayana refused, reminding Esther that their duty as witches was to uphold the balance of Nature and warning her that their plans would result in a plague upon the Earth, which would result in the Spirits turning against her. However, she and Mikael were so determined to protect their children that Esther performed the spell without Ayana's assistance. Mikael fed his children wine laced with the blood of the doppelgänger Tatia before he killed them by stabbing them in the heart with his sword. When they awoke in transition, he forced them to feed on the human blood complete the ritual. According to Rebekah, the benefits were indescribable, but casting the spell was a "betrayal" against Nature itself, and, as Ayana had warned, Nature defended itself against the undead in several ways: preventing them from entering places owned by humans without invitation; making them vulnerable to sunlight; making human blood their utmost desire; weakening them against both the wood from the great white oak tree, as well as the vervain flowers that grew at the tree's base.

## Effects

Vervain is used to stop vampires from compelling humans. Its negative effects on vampires are a result of Nature's attempt to create a weakness for every strength that a vampire gained after being turned. Humans who ingest vervain also have the added benefit of making their blood unappealing to vampires as a result of the weakness and burns it causes; however, most vampires are unable to tell if a human has been ingesting vervain unless they are somehow able to smell it on them, so it does not always ensure that a human is completely safe from vampire attacks. Another use for vervain is for it to be used as a weapon against vampires that can weaken and/or wound them enough to be easily captured or killed.

When ingested, vervain causes a vampire to become severely weak and feverish, often to the point of unconsciousness. If a vampire's skin is exposed to vervain, it results in burns, although it is less severe if the vampire has a tolerance to it.