Immortality

**Immortality** is the state of having an infinite lifespan possessed by immortals, Original vampires, vampires, hybrids, sirens, golems and on rare occasions, witches. It affords the user immunity to the effects of aging and diseases, thereby granting the ability of outliving other supernatural creatures and humans.

Immortality can come in varying calibers depending on their source, ranging from unconditional immortality to decelerated longevity.

## Creation

Immortality can be attained by a number of ways though most notably through the use of magic. As a result, various immortality spells have been created and modified throughout the years, creating different, yet fundamentally similar immortal beings.

### Creators

* **Qetsiyah:** She was the first witch to create an immortality spell which was used to immortalize Silas and Amara. The spell came in the form of an elixir that turned the pair into true immortals. The spell is incredibly powerful and is forbidden by the Natural Elements.
* **Dahlia:** She created a pseudo-immortality spell to bestow physical invulnerability and delayed aging to herself and Freya. The spell renders them immune to physical harm and death such as poisoning or a broken neck and lengthens their lives by placing them in an ageless sleep for 100 years to awaken and experience 1 year of life before falling back into another century long sleep in an endless cycle. As they did not die and revive, they are not undead. Unlike Silas, they can still practice magic as Dahlia's spell accumulates their magic while asleep for a century. Linking herself to an immortal being or a large power source further allowed Dahlia to break the sleep cycle and remain awake during her century sleep.
* **Esther:** She created an immortality spell, modified from Qetsiyah's and cast it on her family. She called on the white oak tree for immortality, and the sun for life, and turned her children and husband into the world's first and most powerful vampires known as the Original vampires. Silas and Amara, while truly immortal, can be considered a separate species from vampires, as although they must drink blood to function, they lack the powers and weaknesses and other attributes the vampires have.
* **Arcadius:** He, through unknown means, gave immortality to Sybil and Seline from his own Afterlife, Hell. When they entered into his deal, the step-sisters were turned into the world's first and only sirens, forced to feast on the flesh of the wicked to preserve their youth. He can bestow this ability upon himself and others, such as the Salvatore brothers, though they have to be supernatural and willingly accept the conditions of his offer.
* **Ancient Witch** and **Malivore:** The unnamed ancient witch, along with a werewolf and vampire, created the first golem, known as Malivore, capable of consuming other supernatural creatures. Over time, Malivore longed for his own legacy and fashioned beings like himself, yet they were imperfect and flawed.

## Immortals

 File:Silas-in-tomb.PNG
* The first immortal beings, Silas and Amara, were unconditionally and truly immortal. They were immune to disease, age, and all forms of physical and magical death.
* They were only able to be killed after the Cure for immortality was ingested and used to remove their immortality.
	+ As they could not be killed in any way, Silas and Amara's loophole to die was to reverse the immortality spell through the Cure.
* Their link with their own doppelgängers created by nature can be exploited to disrupt their psychic abilities.

## Original Vampires

* The Original vampires are immune to natural death, physical aging, diseases, and traditional methods of vampire destruction.
* The Original vampires, unlike true immortals, have conditional immortality, as they can be killed by the source of their immortality, a stake carved from the White Oak Tree.
* An Original can be weakened by werewolf venom, which will eventually cause them to hallucinate, run fever, along with becoming crazy and paranoid. Though unlike normal vampires the effects are only temporary and they will recover within a day. Vervain can also be used to weaken and slow them down, though less so than a normal vampire as they will heal from the effects much more quickly.
* Like all vampires, the Originals burn when exposed to sunlight without daylight amulets, but sunlight will not kill them.
* Though they can't be killed permanently by regular wooden stakes and weapons, a wooden stake through the heart will neutralize an Original vampire briefly, appearing as if they were dead, but they will revive within one to a few hours.
* If an Original vampire is stabbed through the heart with one of the white oak ash daggers, silver daggers dipped in the ash of the White Oak Tree, or the golden dagger in Klaus's case, it will kill an Original vampire, but only as long as the dagger remains in their heart. The daggers must be dipped in the ash before each use or it will lose its effect, even if it was removed for less than a minute.
* They can also be affected by cursed objects, though not being able to kill them. They can however suffer great damage, or be neutralized in a desiccated, dead, and deep slumber state through the White Oak Ash Daggers, or be neutralized without being in a desiccated slumber through Papa Tunde's Blade, being awake but paralyzed, going through immense physical and magical torture with the blade being burrowed in the Originals chest.
* The only way to permanently kill an Original vampire is to stab them in the heart with a white oak stake made from the white oak tree, or if enough magic is channeled against them as magic is stated to be able to kill all things if enough of it can be conjured.

## Vampires

* Vampires are immune to natural death, physical aging, diseases, and most illnesses.
	+ The only illness that can weaken or kill a vampire is werewolf venom, which will infect the wound and spread through the bloodstream. After that the vampire will start to hallucinate and cough up blood. Ultimately, the vampire dies rabid and paranoid.
* Vervain can also be used to weaken and slow down a vampire. Though in some cases vampires have shown to grow at least somewhat of an immunity to its effects through taking small doses over a long period of time.
* Wooden bullets are usually used to weaken and with proper aim even kill vampires.
* The only way to kill a vampire is to rip out their heart, burn or decapitate them, or the most well known method, a wooden stake through the heart. Magic can also be used to kill a vampire as magic is stated to be able to kill all things if enough of it can be conjured.
* Vampires will also die in the event that the Original vampire who's bloodline they stem from dies, though this usually happens within a few hours after the Original vampire's death.

## Original Hybrid

* The Original werewolf-vampire hybrid, Niklaus Mikaelson, is immune to natural death, physical aging, diseases, the negative effects of sunlight, and werewolf venom.
* Because of his werewolf heritage Klaus is also affected by wolfsbane, but he cannot be neutralized by the White Oak Ash Daggers, nor by regular wooden weapons, albeit they still cause great pain.
	+ Kol and Davina, while Kol was possessing a witch named Kaleb, used magic to turn one of the silver bladed White Oak Ash Daggers into a gold bladed white oak ash dagger that can be used exclusively on Klaus. As it is not silver, which does not harm werewolves, the gold blade provides a loophole that can now neutralize Klaus, just like the silver daggers neutralize his siblings. The golden dagger, however, was destroyed by Dahlia by melting it.
* The only way to permanently kill Klaus is to stab him in the heart with the white oak stake.

## Hybrids

* Werewolf-vampire hybrids are immune to natural death, physical aging, diseases, the negative effects of sunlight, werewolf venom, and several of the traditional methods of vampire or werewolf destruction.
	+ The only way to kill a hybrid is through decapitation or heart extraction.
* Witch-vampire hybrids are also immortal to a degree similar to regular vampires. Immune to natural death, the negative effects of sunlight, physical aging, diseases, and most illnesses.

## Sirens

* Sirens, such as Sybil and Seline, are immune to natural death (i.e. physical aging, diseases, and traditional methods of destruction).
	+ It is currently unclear if they are as unconditionally immortal as true immortals, though, they are similar to immortals except that human flesh is used to sustain them instead of blood. However, it seems apparent that their immortality is dependent on Arcadius as he can revoke his deals, removing the immortality he bestowed; this is evident with both Seline and Stefan.
* They can be hurt with the Staff of Arcadius, a mystical tuning fork which both stuns them and disrupts their psychic abilities. The effect of the tuning fork is amplified when fashioned with the Striker and welded into the Mystic Falls Founders Bell.
* According to Seline, and then demonstrated by Arcadius, sirens can be destroyed with hellfire. Arcadius can create this himself or it can be released from Hell by using the Founders Bell when rung twelve times by someone from the Maxwell bloodline.

## Golems

* Malivore has existed for around a millennia, though most of that time he has been bound, returned to his natural state. Ryan also states that he's immortal.
* Malivore's creations though flawed and imperfect also appear to be immortal as Ryan has been around for an untold number of years. Furthermore, the extent of their immortality, remains unexplored; this is illustrated when Landon broke Ryan's neck, though shortly thereafter he arose unharmed.

## Witches

* Witches such as Gloria and Nandi LaMarche can use spells and herbs to delay the aging process and live much longer than humans, but age will eventually catch up with them.
* They can also cheat death for centuries using various methods of magic. Such as possession spells to transfer their spirits to a new body upon their death or protection spells to give a one-shot immunity to death.
* Dahlia and Freya can perform a century slumber spell granting them pseudo-immortality and protection from all forms of harm. They retain their magic and can accumulate more while in their century sleep as they are not undead and cut off from magic like vampires, or transformed into a true Immortal like Silas.
	+ However, this comes at the cost of only waking for one year before the cycle of slumber repeats.
	+ It is speculated that they may age in the year they are awake. If they do not age, then by adding the century of sleep, they may have been able to keep their magic.

## Gallery

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Elijah life.JPGElijah's lifeKlaus life.JPGKlaus' lifeRebekah life.JPGRebekah's lifeMikael life.JPGMikael's lifeKatherine life.jpgKatherine's life1x06-Lost Girls (13).jpgDamon and Stefan before transformation
## Trivia

* It is worth noting that "immortality" in the world of *The Vampire Diaries*, *The Originals* and *Legacies*, is not immunity to death; Elijah stated that every creature must have a weakness and that Nature would never allow a truly immortal being to exist. Additionally, Bonnie, and several other witches, has noted in *Before Sunset* that a witch can't truly make an immortal creature, as there is "always" a way to undo a spell. Depending on the context, these two statement can either be true or false in the example of Silas and Amara - two truly immortal beings, immune to death, that caused the creation of doppelgängers to die in their stead. Their immortality, however, was capable of being stripped from them by the Cure, providing a loophole to reverse their immortality instead of killing them.
* The act of gaining immortality is considered an abomination of Nature as it upsets the balance of life and death.
	+ Witches, Servants of Nature, cannot attain immortality while retaining their ability to use magic. The only exceptions are siphoners.
	+ As a result, immortal beings can be found with various specific weaknesses unique to their caliber of immortality.
* Blood is the life-force of an immortal.
* The White Oak Tree is one of Nature's eternal objects and a source for immortality.
* There are three known ways to reverse the Immortality Spell and by extension, vampirism.
	+ The first and oldest was an elixir created by Qetsiyah to be used against immortals.
	+ The second was a ritual attempted by Esther to be used against Original vampires.
	+ The final and most recent was a spell invented by the Travelers using blood from the last pair of doppelgängers and a minor version of the Magic Purification Spell.
* Witches can cast a spell that will allow them to grow old for a year and sleep for a century to keep their youth, this spell has been used by Dahlia and Freya and so they were able to slow down their aging so much that they could live for even up to 1000 years.
	+ Dahlia adding the sleeping cycle may have provided a loophole in Nature allowing her and Freya to use magic as they are not free to roam the earth at all times for eternity as the Originals and Silas could.
* Immortality and psychic abilities are, seemingly, inherently linked as all immortal beings seen thus far possess some form of psychic abilities, such as immortals, and vampires.