Doppelgänger

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

## Species Information

### Related species

* Humans
* Immortals
* Vampires
* Witches

### Book(s)

**An Epic Kind of Love Series (Part 1):*** 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

**An Epic Kind of Love Series (Part 2):**

* 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

**Legacies:**

* 1, 2, 3, 4

### Distinction

* Mystical, naturally occurring humans born physically identical to the first two Immortals.

**Doppelgängers**, also known as **Shadow Selves** or **Mortal Shadow Selves**, are a supernatural occurrence that were created by Nature. After Silas and Amara became true immortals by consuming Qetsiyah's immortality elixir, they violated the natural law that all living things must die. Nature found a balance by creating mortal shadow selves that could die. For this reason, doppelgängers have existed for as long as immortals, having been born and died in the place of Silas and Amara.

There are only two doppelgänger "lines" that rippled throughout history, colloquially known as the Salvatore and Petrova doppelgängers. Stefan Salvatore and Tom Avery are Silas' doppelgängers while Tatia, Katerina Petrova, Adrianna Gilbert, and Elena Gilbert are Amara's.

Currently, there is only one doppelgänger left of Silas' line, Stefan, and three of Amara's, Katherine, Adrianna, and Elena.

## Creation

"*When they drank the immortality elixir, they violated the natural law that all living things must die, so Nature found a balance by creating mortal shadow selves.*"
—**Qetsiyah**

Qetsiyah, one of the most powerful witches of all time and member of very gifted group of people called The Travelers, created a spell for immortality with the intention that she and her true love, Silas, would drink it together at their wedding. However, Silas stole the immortality elixir and used it on himself and his true love, and Qetsiyah's handmaiden, Amara. When they drank the immortality elixir, they violated the natural law that all loving things must die, so Nature found a balance by creating mortal shadow selves of Silas and Amara that could die in their place.

According to Qetsiyah, many identical versions of Silas and Amara have been born over the centuries, finding each other time and time again as though drawn together by destiny. However, it was later revealed by Markos that he had cast a spell on the two respective lines of doppelgängers to draw them together so they could eventually break the curse on their people by harvesting the blood of the sole remaining doppelgängers of each line.

## History

* 1st Century B.C.
* 10th Century A.D.

Over two thousand years ago in Ancient Greece, a young witch named Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah. Together, they were the most powerful members of a gifted people called The Travelers. Silas told Qetsiyah that he wanted their love to last forever, even beyond death, and he convinced her to create a spell that would make them immortal. On the night that their wedding ceremony was to take place, Silas absconded with the elixir Qetsiyah had created, and as Qetsiyah watched the plant life around her wither before her eyes, she realized that not only had Silas taken the elixir and left her at the altar, he had also given her portion to someone else. She sought out Silas and found him in the wilderness with another woman - her handmaiden, Amara.

Silas returned to their hiding place to find Qetsiyah crouching over a chalice that held the elixir they were to drink at their wedding and his best friend, Irene, laying dead on the ground. He asked what she was doing there and Qetsiyah revealed The Cure. Qetsiyah then told him that she used the cure on Amara and then showed him a bloody human heart, convincing him that Amara was also dead. She then gave him the offer to take the cure and spend the rest of his human life with Qetsiyah, an offer that Silas refused.

In retribution for betraying her, Qetsiyah used Amara's petrified immortal body to create The Anchor to her supernatural purgatory, known as The Other Side. She then lured Silas to an island off of what is now Nova Scotia, Canada, where she trapped him inside a tomb and gave him a choice: he could take the cure and eventually die a mortal death (which would then cause him to pass on to the Other Side, where he would be trapped with her for eternity in the afterlife) or he could stay immortal and starve into petrification for the rest of his immortal life. Silas ultimately chose the latter and desiccated for the next two thousand years while the cure was left untouched.
Tatia was a descendant of Amara and was her first known shadow-self. She lived in the New World in what eventually became Mystic Falls, Virginia, in the late 10th and early 11th centuries as a contemporary of the Mikaelson Family. Even though she had already had a child by another man, a Viking warrior who had died in battle, both Elijah and Klaus fell in love with her and fought each other for her affections. Tatia ended up choosing Elijah over Klaus in the autumn of 1001 AD. Shortly afterward, their mother, the powerful witch Esther, came to Tatia and asked her for some of her blood to use in a spell, presumably because she knew Tatia was a doppelgänger due to her plan to use a modified version of Qetsiyah's immortality spell to turn her husband Mikael and her five surviving children into immortal creatures after the death of her youngest son. Using Tatia's blood, she crafted a spell that turned her family into the Original vampires. This eventually lead to the revelation of Esther's infidelity after Klaus made his first human kill and triggered his werewolf gene. Tatia later found out of the monster that Elijah became and he inadvertently lashed out and killed her due to his uncontrolled blood-lust when she injured her hand. Esther would eventually use her blood once more to cast The Hybrid Curse on Klaus to make his werewolf side dormant in a futile attempt to make up for her sins to her husband and the Spirits of Nature for disrupting the balance.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Blood:** Doppelgängers, being mystical and recurrent, are sources of great magical power.
	+ The blood of a doppelgänger can be used to link supernatural beings with the help of magic conducted by any witch.
	+ Their blood can also be used to bind an extremely powerful curse or spell or to use as a power source in spells that require more magic than the witch in question possesses on their own.
	+ For some spells, the blood must come from a human doppelgänger. For other spells, the blood of a doppelgänger can still be used even if they've been turned into a vampire. There are certain spells that require the doppelgänger to be "pure" and human, however, like the undoing of the Hybrid Curse and the siring of hybrids.
	+ The blood of the last two "living" doppelgängers can be used to reverse spells using non-traditional forms of magic, especially Spirit Magic.
		- For example, turning a vampire back into a (dead) human, undoing the spell that bound the Other Side, reversing the spells cast on daylight rings for vampires, removing a triggered gene in those cursed with lycanthropy, etc.

## Weaknesses

* **Magic:** Doppelgängers are still susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. Given the right spells, casting a spell on one doppelgänger will affect that of another.
* **Mortality:** Despite their mystical occurrence, doppelgängers share similar weaknesses as humans (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, etc.).

## Known Doppelgängers

  Katherine Pierce | Katerina Petrova (a.k.a Katherine Pierce) was born in Bulgaria during the 15th century on June 5, 1473. In the year 1492, when she was still a human, she was captured by Klaus. She knew that she was going to die, so she tricked Trevor, one of Klaus' servants, into helping her escape. Katherine ended up hanging herself after ingesting vampire blood and came back as a vampire. In return for her escape, Klaus made her suffer by killing her entire family in Bulgaria, thinking that the doppelgänger would never appear again. However, Katherine had a child out of wedlock, which carried the Petrova line leading to the birth of Elena and Adrianna Gilbert. Katherine eventually returned to Mystic Falls in an attempt to make a deal with Klaus for her freedom.
  Stefan Salvatore | Stefan Salvatore was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia during the 19th century on November 1, 1846. He was turned into a vampire along with his older brother Damon in 1864 by Amara's distant descendant, Katherine Pierce. Like his ancient ancestor Silas with Amara, Stefan was involved in a love triangle with Katherine, which included his brother Damon. Stefan was unaware of the fact that he was a doppelgänger during his human years, and had no idea that Katherine herself was one. Regarding the bloodline of Silas, not too much is known about it, its background, and its history. Qetsiyah mentioned to Stefan that she has seen doppelgängers of Silas preceding Stefan while watching from the Other Side.
  Elena Gilbert | Elena Gilbert was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia during the 20th century on June 22, 1992. Elijah found out about Elena and her twin sister, Adrianna, before Klaus. At first, when Rose told Elijah about them, he didn't believe her because he thought that the Petrova Family line ended with Katherine. Once Klaus found out about Elena and Adrianna, he came to Mystic Falls and he kidnapped Katherine, temporarily taking over the body of Alaric Saltzman. As with Katherine, Klaus is responsible for the death of Elena's family, most notably her aunt Jenna Sommers. Unlike with Katherine, Klaus successfully killed Elena and as a result, he breaks the curse. Fortunately for Elena, John Gilbert had Bonnie perform a special spell that bound Elena's life force essence to his. This spell brought Elena back to life, but in return, killed John. In Book 4, Elena transitioned into a vampire.
  Adrianna Gilbert | Adrianna Gilbert was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia on June 22, 1992. Adrianna is the younger Gilbert twin and the first of the twins to transition into a vampire. When Elijah found out about her and her sister, he didn't believe it because he thought that the Petrova Family line ended with Katherine. When he saw the twins, he was surprised at there being two and thought that Adrianna was Katherine. When he confirmed that she wasn't in fact Katherine, he referred to her as a loophole. Klaus eventually came to Mystic Falls when he found out about the twins, ready to use Elena as the doppelgänger in the ritual and Adrianna as the vampire. By the end of Book 2, Klaus takes Adrianna and Stefan out of Mystic Falls after compelling Adrianna to turn her humanity off. It is at this time that she becomes friends with Klaus' siblings, Kol and Rebekah. In Book 5 of the first part of the series, Adrianna became the first tribrid in existence and eventually became pregnant with Klaus' child. After giving birth to her first daughter, Adrianna became the Original Tribrid.
  Tom Avery | Tom Avery was born during the 20th century. He was a doppelgänger of Silas who was discovered in Book 5 of the first part of the series. He was a paramedic who resided in Atlanta, Georgia. During Book 5 of Part 1 of the series, he was kidnapped by a witch named Hazel and put in a comatose state under a cloaking spell in order to protect him from The Travelers. He was later found by Caroline and Enzo and Caroline snapped Enzo's neck to prevent him from killing Tom. Caroline then took him to breakfast and compelled him to tell her about his life. Confirming that he was a good person, she compelled him to run far away from the Travelers and Enzo. Before he could leave, however, Enzo caught up them and killed Tom, making Stefan the last "living" doppelgänger of Silas.

## Loopholes

Doppelgängers are for most intents and purposes humans; however, they are a supernatural occurrence. In some ways they are considered a supernatural species while in others they are human.

1. Death by a doppelgänger counts as a supernatural death. A person wearing a Gilbert Ring will come back to life if killed by a human doppelgänger.
2. The Gilbert rings do not protect supernatural creatures and is theorized to not work on a doppelgänger.
3. Human doppelgängers, however, can be compelled by vampires like any regular human. Elena and Adrianna were both compelled prior to Stefan giving them jewelry that contained vervain.
4. Despite being "supernatural", or at the very least mystical, human doppelgängers cannot be siphoned.

## Trivia

* Silas and Amara are colloquially, yet wrongly called "doppelgängers" themselves. They are however the progenitors of doppelgängers.
* The true number of doppelgängers is never addressed.
	+ In Book 5 of Part 2 of the series, Qetsiyah states, "Century after century, I watched versions of Stefan and Elena find each other, like magnets, always the same story--conquering all, falling in love. You didn't think your brother was Silas' first shadow? Destiny has been trying to get the doppelgängers together forever." Despite this statement, later Qetsiyah states, "Well, if it isn't the face that launched a thousand doppelgängers." It would seem that the two statements were meant to be literal and hyperbolic, respectively.
	+ Since Tom Avery was born in the 20th century, chances are is that he was meant for Elena, had she not met Stefan. If the prophecy held truth, then that means that Stefan may have never been meant to meet neither Katherine or Elena, nor fall in love with them. This is perhaps a direct result of their respective vampirism altering their lifespans during the century in which they were born.
* Though Adrianna is still a doppelgänger, she is considered the secondary doppelgänger as she is the second born. Elena is the primary doppelgänger, meaning that her blood is more potent for spells, rituals, or for creating/ breaking curses. In simpler terms, Elena would be the first choice and Adrianna would be the backup doppelgänger.