Vampire

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

## Species Information

### Related species

* Human
* Augustine Vampire
* Original Vampire
* Enhanced Original Vampire
* Immortal
* Hybrid
* Original Hybrid
* Tribrid
* Original Tribrid
* Upgraded Original Vampire

### 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

* Undead humans who feed on blood and do not age, due to their Immortality

**Vampires** are magically reanimated human corpses which are inhabited by the spirits of the deceased person and who closely resemble the living human they were before their transformation. Vampires feed and survive on the blood of the living, typically on that of humans, and they can transform other humans into more of their kind by sharing their own blood with them. Vampires are one of the many known supernatural species that were created by witches, albeit through the creation of their progenitors, the Original vampires.

## Creation

"*She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree, one of Nature's eternal objects, for immortality. That night, my father offered us wine laced with blood. Then, he drove his sword through our hearts.*"
—**Rebekah Mikaelson** about the creation of the first vampires.

A human who has consumed vampire blood in some way and has subsequently died with the blood in their system will be magically revived as an undead vampire, just like the vampire who sired them. The exact nature of the human's death is irrelevant to this process; the only condition that must be met is that the body has to be more-or-less intact and able to function once reawaken in transition, though the upper limits of physical damage upon a human body by which vampirism can recover has yet to be defined.

### Vampire in Transition

*Main article: Transitioning*
In order to complete the transition into a vampire, the person must then consume a significant amount of human blood, at least a sip's worth, within the next 24 hours, or else they will die. Vampires can only feed on human blood in order to complete their transformation--animal blood or vampire blood is not sufficient to finish the transformation from human to vampire. However, in this case, "human blood" can include the blood of a human witch, as was proven by Alaric Saltzman, who completed his transformation by drinking the blood of Bonnie Bennett. Additionally, the blood need not be from a live human; Caroline Forbes and Adrianna Gilbert both completed their transitions by feeding on blood bags and Vicki Donovan completed her transition by drinking from the newly-deceased Logan Fell, who would then awaken a short time later to find himself in transition as well.

A vampire in transition is neither truly living nor truly dead until they make their decision to either complete their transition or to abstain from feeding and ultimately die. This puts the semi-vampire in a strange liminal space between the two states that can affect them in different ways. Until a person in transition drinks human blood to complete their transformation, they will not be susceptible to the standard weaknesses of a vampire (i.e. they can still walk in sunlight and can enter homes without an invitation).

### Sirelines

*Main article: Sirelines*
Every regular vampire who has ever existed is descended from those of their kind known as the Original vampires, who, unlike the majority of vampires, were turned not by dying with vampire blood in their system, but who were instead transformed using a spell that was cast using Dark Magic at some point around 1001 AD in what is now modern-day Mystic Falls. However, the ritual that resulted in their transformation does have similarities to how normal vampires are turned, in that they had to consume blood (in their case, the blood of the human Petrova doppelgänger Tatia which has been enchanted with an adapted version of The Immortality Spell by their powerful witch mother, Esther) before being killed while that blood was in their system.

After the Originals awakened in transition, they fed on the blood of another human from their village and were officially transformed into the world's first true vampires, from which all other vampires were created. Their blood possesses mystical properties that are passed down to each and every one of the vampires they sire, along with every vampire sired by their progeny, connecting all vampires to one of the six Original vampires from whom they are descending by a bloodline. Due to this link, the death of an Original vampire will result in this connection being severed, and every vampire in the deceased Original's bloodline will follow them in death within an hour, This bloodline connection can be broken, however. Davina Claire attempted to do this but was stopped by Kai Parker, with the help of Adrianna and Hope, before the spell could be successful.

## History

*Main article: Original Vampire*
As Ayana expected, the creation of the Original vampires eventually led to the start of a "plague" in 1002 after the Originals inadvertently learned they could turn humans into more of their kind by feeding them their blood and killing them, which caused the population of vampires to multiply in increasing numbers over the centuries following the species' creation. However, the progeny of the Original vampires soon proved to be much weaker than their sires, even those who were closest to them in age, giving the Originals a high status that demanded respect from their younger sired vampires.

After being turned, the Original vampires became slaves to their bloodlust and their heightened emotions. When Niklaus killed for the first time, he discovered that he, unlike the rest of his siblings, was also a werewolf due to being a product of his mother, Esther's affair with the North East Atlantic Pack's Alpha, Ansel, making Nikalus the world's first hybrid; a werewolf-turned-Original vampire. Mikael, furious at the discovery that Niklaus was not his child, forced his wife to suppress Niklaus' werewolf side before finding and killing her lover, Ansel. The deaths of Ansel and at least half of his family at the hands of the new vampires turned werewolves against the new race. After their father's rampage, Klaus, furious at his mother's betrayal and hurt that she would turn her back on him, killed her when he lost control of his werewolf anger and then blamed it on Mikael so his siblings wouldn't abandon him as well. Knowing that Mikael would hunt them down and kill them, the five vampire Mikaelson children left the New World for Europe, where they eventually settled in Marseilles in 1002, living in the woods and feeding upon the humans they came upon on the back roads.

After the five of them realized that they had fed on and killed four noblemen and a noblewoman, they figured out that their victims had been headed to the Court of Marseilles and decided to take on their identities and hide in plain sight from their father, giving them the opportunity to actually live in a home rather than squatting wherever they could find shelter. With the help of the Count de Martel's servant, Lucien Castle, who offered to help them by teaching them the customs of French nobility and royalty in exchange for the Mikaelsons sparing his life. The Mikaelson children went to the Count Martel's castle and introduced themselves as the children of the Count de Guise before being invited to stay as guests in the Count de Martel's castle. Once there, they settled into their new lives of comfort as noblemen and made friends with those at court, including the Count's children Tristan and Aurora de Martel, the latter of whom was the object of both Klaus and Lucien's affections.

It was shortly after they had come to stay at the Marseilles court when they realized they could heal humans with their blood; this fact was made known apparently after they found Lucien had been viciously tortured by Tristan, who mistakenly believed Lucien had made amorous advances toward Aurora (though, in reality, it had actually been Klaus). After Tristan whipped Lucien's back dozens of times and sliced his mouth open from ear to ear, Lucien angrily stabbed Klaus with a knife and accidentally ingested some of his blood, healing his wounds. Incorrectly assuming that he had been turned into a vampire like Klaus, Lucien went to attack Tristan in revenge for being tortured by him and was promptly killed by the lord's guards. Klaus tried to feed him more blood to heal him, leading Elijah to presume that their blood only healed the living. However, once Klaus and Elijah prepared to give Lucien a traditional Viking funeral, Lucien awakened in transition as the first non-Original vampire to exist in the world, as well as the first vampire progeny to be created with Klaus' blood. Lucien then completed his transition by feeding on a servant and joined the Mikaelsons as vampires at court.

Not to be outdone, Aurora, after learning of Klaus' secret, begged Klaus to turn her as well so that she, who was dealing with melancholy and other mental illness, would be strong and healthy like them, but he refused, not wanting to curse Aurora to his fate. Knowing she would never be able to convince him to turn her, she slit her own wrists in a mock suicide attempt, tricking Rebekah into healing her wounds by feeding her vampire blood. She then tried to get Rebekah to kill her to turn her, as well, but when Rebekah refused for the same reasons Klaus did, Aurora angrily asked her to leave. Having what she needed to turn herself, Aurora walked over to the window of her tower and allowed herself to fall off the ledge, killing herself and transforming into the second non-Original vampire and Rebekah's first progeny.

Unfortunately, in time, rumors started to spread in the village about demons who fed on blood as a result of the seven vampires' feeding habits, and it soon became clear that Mikael would be coming after them. In the middle of a heated argument between Aurora and Elijah in which Aurora confessed that Klaus had killed Esther, Elijah accidentally and unintentionally used mind compulsion for the first time to cause her to see Klaus as a monster and to stay behind rather than trying to flee with them. Before the Mikaelsons left court, Elijah, who had gotten the hang of compulsion and could now use it intentionally, fed Tristan his blood and killed him, making him his own first vampire progeny. He then compelled Lucien, Aurora, and Tristan to believe that they were Niklaus, Rebekah, and himself before forcing them to flee the castle, allowing them to be the bait that Mikael chased while the real Mikaelsons traveled on to Italy and settled in Tuscany.

Lucien, Tristan, and Aurora, who eventually became known as The Trinity, believed that they were actually Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah for over a century, until Elijah being daggered for the first time in 1114 caused their compulsion to be broken. Though they then knew their true identities, Mikael continued to chase after them, causing the three younger vampires to become incredibly resentful toward the Mikaelsons, which is what eventually pushed them to search the world for weapons they could use to destroy their sires.

The growth of the vampire race led to several attempts to end them before they grew too powerful. One attempt involved a witch descended from the powerful Qetsiyah who created an order of five magically-enhanced vampire hunters called the Brotherhood of the Five to hunt down and destroy the vampires and the immortals on Earth. They began hunting vampires in Italy during the early 12th century as the Normans conquered Southern Europe. However, they attempted to defeat the Originals with White Oak Ash Daggers created by the witch who empowered them, not knowing that Klaus' werewolf heritage made him immune to weapons made of silver.

This allowed Klaus to kill all of the hunters and undagger all of his siblings, with the exception of Finn, who he hated for his self-loathing attitude toward vampirism. However, the spell that empowered the hunters did not die with them--instead, several new hunters emerged during the following centuries with the same powers and dedication of the first. Several freelance (and often ordinary human) Vampire Hunters also began to appear as a result of the vampires' amoral actions, and various weapons were created to use against them, such as stake-shooting guns and vervain grenades, as technology began to improve throughout the ages.

At some point, the initial conflict between the vampires and the werewolves emerged once again when the vampires discovered that a bite from a transformed werewolf was fatal to them. Determined to protect themselves, the vampires declared war on the werewolves and drove them to near extinction. Several packs survived but, by early 2000s, most vampires believed that werewolves were merely a myth.

## Physiology

"*Look. We're vampires. We're a toxic species. Whether you wanna blame it on magic or biology. It's just who we are. When a human gets ravenously hungry, they eat a double cheeseburger. We kill people. Some of us are more extreme than others, but that's just who we are. When humans want to break free of complicated relationships, they go to therapy. Vampires get a pass.*"
—**Stefan Salvatore**

Blood is the main component of a vampire's diet, be it human, animal, or vampire blood. According to Rebekah, the reason why vampires crave blood more than anything else was due to the immortality spell used by Esther to create the Original Vampires, which used the blood of a doppelgänger as the catalyst in the process that made her husband and children immortal, transitioning the Mikaelsons into their new lives as Originals. It was later explained by Atticus Shane that human blood is the key to immortality, which is why vampires, along with the first Immortals Silas and Amara, need to drink it to maintain their eternal life. If a vampire fails to regularly drink blood, their body will become severely weakened, and will ultimately desiccate into mummification until they are able to get blood into their system.

Blood, especially human blood, does not only satisfy a vampire's thirst, but it also heightens their supernatural abilities, making them stronger, faster, and able to heal much more quickly than they would after not eating for a significant period of time. The longer a vampire abstains from blood, the more likely the vampire will become feral until they are eventually unable to resist feeding on whomever they come upon. In many cases, a vampire who has been starved for a long period and is risking desiccation will eventually become so overwhelmed with hunger that they lose all sense of their humanity and rationality altogether and finally give into their bloodlust. It has been demonstrated that vampire blood, just as with human and animal blood, can be used to revive a vampire who has been desiccated, even if they do not ordinarily partake in the consumption of vampire blood, and it can also help a badly injured vampire heal more quickly if human or animal blood is not available. However, human blood is most compatible with a vampire's dietary needs, and because of this, the majority of vampires rely on it as their sole food source. Despite their main food source being referred to as "human blood", this term also extends to the blood of both witches and werewolves who are in their human form, as their blood seems to be functionally identical to that of regular humans.

Due to their acute senses, a vampire can detect whether or not a human has recently consumed alcohol or drugs, because their blood tastes unclean and can leave a vampire with a chemical aftertaste. This also extends to vervain as well, as vampires who feed on a human who regularly ingests vervain will be burned and weakened upon contact with their blood, which can often be used to the human's advantage. Due to a vampire's amplified senses and feelings, their hunger cravings are much stronger and harder to control than the mundane hunger for food that they felt when they were humans, and this hunger will often be connected to and amplified by powerful emotions.

Vampires are magically preserved in the physical state that they were in when they died, therefore making a vampire's body a freshly dead corpse, though it is reanimated and protected from decay with dark magic. Vampires' bodies remain in the exact same state as they were just prior to their deaths as humans (aside from the injuries or effects of most illnesses that caused their death) from an anatomical standpoint, except when it comes to their supernaturally-enhanced abilities and the addition of the vampire's true face. Their true face is a slightly transformed version of their human face, which includes red, blood-shot sclera with protruding veins around the eyes, as well as elongated fangs. The bite of a vampire is so powerful that it can sever limbs of both animals and humans, as vampires are known for having extremely sharp and strong teeth.

Similarly, a vampire has human-like physiology, and their bodies continue to function normally as long as they have a steady diet of human blood. Because of this, vampires can eat human food, though it doesn't sustain their life or provide any nutrient like blood does. Regardless, many vampires continue to eat regular food for several reasons, including out of human habit, to maintain human appearances in order to prevent their exposure, and to help sublimate their eternal hunger for blood and thereby keep their bloodlust at a manageable level.

Vampires can also become intoxicated by drugs such as alcohol and marijuana just as humans can, although they do have much higher tolerances due to their accelerated healing, which rapidly regenerates the cells damaged by these drugs which causes the sensation of being drunk or high. In fact, most vampires frequently drink alcohol throughout the day to help them deal with their perpetual hunger, much in the way that some vampires eat human food to help curb their cravings.

Vampires are immune to the majority of human diseases and illnesses. One exception of this rule is cancer, though vampires cannot actually develop it, they have to have had the cancer prior to being turned, as vampire blood cannot cure it in humans. These aforementioned vampires continue to have cancer even after their transition is complete, as cancer cells rapidly regenerate in the presence of vampire blood due to the cells being functionally immortal; natural human cells have "suicide buttons" that allow them to die once their organelles have worn out, but cancer cells have no such button, and vampire blood only serves to accelerate the regeneration of cancer cells. The only known substances that can have a serious negative effect on vampires are vervain and werewolf venom.

The mystical effect of vampirism is the only thing that keeps vampires and their bodies alive. If vampirism is removed through the Cure to immortality, the body will return to the state of a healthy alive adult so long as the cure remains in their blood. However, once a vampire is reverted to being human after ingesting the cure, the cure will remain in their bloodstream, allowing any other vampire who wants to be cured to do so by feeding on the cured vampire's blood to nearly full consumption. Should the cure leave the veins of a cured vampire, their bodies will rapidly begin to age to catch up with the time they spent as vampires. This usually poses no problem in vampires who were turned young and/or have only been vampires for several years.

Conversely, if vampirism is stripped away by The Magic Purification Spell, it will physically revert the body to the final state it was in before awakening in transition, leaving it a corpse with the physical damage or illness of whatever it was that originally killed them; e.g: drowning, slit throat, snapped neck, tuberculosis, etc. The only exception to this was Alaric Saltzman, who was successfully transformed from an Enhanced Original Vampire into a human as a result of his serious, but not absolutely fatal, injury being instantly treated by Dr. Josette Laughlin. The only remaining cure for vampirism is currently hidden in an unknown location by the Mikaelsons. Similarly, since The Travelers have more or less become extinct, it is unlikely that a magic purification spell could be performed again, making the chances of being cured this way nearly impossible.

While vampires are sterile and cannot have biological children (with the exception of the hybrid Klaus and the tribrid Adrianna), certain spells can transport a fetus or fetuses from a human's body into a vampire's. This was demonstrated by Kai Parker, who magically transported the twin fetuses from a dying Josette Laughlin into the vampire Caroline Forbes' womb to make sure that they would survive. Caroline was able to deliver the twins with the help of Adrianna, Freya, and Bonnie. Additionally, her vampirism actually made it more likely that the twins will survive, since they are functionally immortal and are much harder to kill than humans.

However, it has also been discovered that, since vampires were created by magic, which also gave them their powers, their vampirism can be absorbed by siphoners. When the twins Caroline was carrying was near term, Lizzie and Josie began to siphon her vampirism, causing her skin to desiccate and putting her at risk of death by losing her vampirism. Siphoners can also draw on vampires for more power for spells, and, since they exist as a loophole in the rules of Nature, they can also be transformed into witch-vampire hybrids while maintaining their powers of Siphoning; even more, they are able to practice magic as though they were a full witch since they can draw on their own vampirism as a source of magical power.

## Nature

"*You feel like you could do anything. Be anyone. Beautiful things are more beautiful. Everything's heightened, you know? Just a little bit more intensely. Love more powerfully. [...] Anger becomes rage. When you're sad, you're in despair. Grief. Loss. It can cripple you. That's why so many of us turn our emotions off. It just becomes...too overwhelming.*"
—**Stefan** to **Elena** about the best and worst parts of being a vampire

Vampires have the capacity to be extremely feral, predatory creatures, and can be more beast-like and savage than their human appearance suggests. They growl, hiss, snarl, and curl their lips back when provoked, baring their fangs as a sign of aggression when faced by a threat.

Despite their nature, vampires are also capable of human emotions, such as compassion, love, and self-control. However, it's in a vampire's nature to be violent, and no matter what their morality or kindness, they will almost always resort to such acts if it's necessary for their survival. While vampires typically maintain their human personalities after their transformations (though magnified by the magical properties of vampirism), they are usually dehumanized to some degree, and due to both the violent tensions between witches and werewolves (along with the in-fighting within the vampire community itself), violence, tragedy, and death of the aforementioned groups and humans caught in the crossfire seem to follow vampires wherever they go, even despite their best efforts to avoid it. Many, though not all, vampires are inherently selfish and consider other beings, especially humans, to be inferior to themselves, as they see themselves at the top of the proverbial food chain. Even the most compassionate of their kind will often resort to cruelty and torture if it means protecting themselves and their loved ones from danger.

For example, Stefan Salvatore, despite his generally kind and compassionate attitude, has been shown to be unafraid of killing when the situation calls for it, though he makes it a point not to harm or kill humans unless absolutely necessary. Similarly, Caroline Forbes and Adrianna Gilbert, while saving Stefan and his brother Damon from Sheriff Forbes and her police force, ended up slaughtering two of her deputies in an animalistic and stealthy manner and was completely calm and unfazed afterward. In the case of Caroline, this contrasted greatly with her reaction after she had accidentally killed a carnival worker out of hunger just hours after she had completed her transition, which upset her so much that she began to sob and insisted she was a monster. This suggests the longer one spends as a vampire, the more tolerant of violence and murder they become.

Additionally, over the course of their millennium of life, Rebekah and Elijah have also become somewhat dehumanized after spending so much time as the most powerful beings on earth, even despite their generally kind and gentle nature; their penchant for the "snatch, eat, erase" method of feeding and their dedication to avoiding unnecessarily large demonstrations of violence and cruelty if at all possible is typically more out of their desire to protect themselves from exposure than a desire to not harm others. In recent years, both Elijah and Rebekah have mellowed out, and are not as quick to harm or kill out of anger. They are still known for being ruthless against their enemies or anyone who tries to harm their family and friends, and have shown no discomfort in toturing to get the answers or results they need.

However, vampires experience sensations and feelings much more intensely than humans, and as a result, they have a much more difficult time controlling their emotions, all of which are tied to their hunger in some way. Whenever a vampire is overwhelmed by powerful feelings (such as extreme hunger, fear, anger, happiness, love, etc.) their faces become pale, and blood rushes into the veins surrounding their eyes, darkening them tremendously. Their canine teeth will lengthen into fangs, giving them a more predatory look to scare off or threaten their prey and to aid them in feeding on humans and animals. This intensification of emotions experienced by vampires also extends to their personalities as well, both the good and the bad aspects of it. For example, Elena and Stefan were both compassionate and kind as humans, which amplified these traits to the point of being self-sacrificing as vampires; conversely, Vicki Donovan, who was a troubled teenage girl with addictions to drugs, carried these personality traits into her vampire life as well, making her subject to violent mood swings and making it even harder for her to resist her cravings for human blood until she had to be killed to save Elena and Jeremy from being killed.

Due to their intensely emotional nature, it is not uncommon for vampires wishing to maintain self-control to document their lives after their transition in journals. Though they have consistently shown considerable powers in recollection of specific memories and dates, vampires still need to peruse their journals in order to reflect on their feelings and other minute details during certain events. Another function of the vampire nature is the ability to turn off their humanity in order to make it easier for them to emotionally deal with feeding on (and occasionally even killing) humans to maintain their immortality.

Vampires who have used this coping mechanism, such as Adrianna, Elena, Damon, Stefan, and Caroline, have described the process as "flicking a switch", which essentially numbs their emotions and disables their ability to be empathetic, allowing them to shut out painful feelings such as guilt, grief, and sadness and turning off the part of them that makes them ashamed of their actions. Vampires with their humanity turned off often think of themselves as purely rational and logical and are not ruled by their emotions. They also have no problem feeding indiscriminately on whomever they please, either using mind compulsion to make the humans forget the experience or killing them outright with no shame or remorse.

## Society and Culture

"*And you know what makes me able to drink my fill and leave someone breathing and not rip their head off like my brother? It's that I can revel in it. I can make it fun.*"
—**Damon**

From their portrayal in the series, it seems that many vampires are nomads of sorts who periodically move around from place to place to make sure their immortality and lack of aging do not lead to their exposure as vampires to the general public. Some of them appear to attempt to take on identities within the human world and exist alongside humans (such as Stefan Salvatore, who used to take on a new identity, location, and career every thirty years) while others instead appear to enjoy living among humans mostly anonymously (such as Damon Salvatore and the Mikaelsons throughout their lives) without making human attachments and then choosing to travel to new places for a change in scenery whenever the urge strikes them.

While the world does not appear to have an official rule-based vampire government (neither in an international level nor national level), at least one place, the American city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has had a thriving permanent community of vampires throughout most of the 20th century and into the early 21st century. For most of the community's existence, it was being ruled by Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson from the 18th to early 20th centuries; then, after they were forced to flee with their sister Rebekah after the arrival of their father, Mikael, the control of the vampires was taken by Marcel Gerard, who proclaimed himself to be king of the city. Upon gaining leadership of the community, Marcel created many rules that he strongly enforces within the borders of New Orleans, which includes the following: vampires can only feed on tourists (though feeding on consenting locals seems to be allowed as long as they're willing to keep the secret or can be compelled to do so); and all vampires are responsible for keeping the number of vampire-related killings of humans to a minimum so as not to negatively affect tourism rates, which thereby affects their food supply and the city's general prosperity.

The number one rule of the city, however, was that vampires are forbidden from killing any of their own kind, and vampires who have violated this rule have faced strict punishment, such as one hundred years of solitary confinement and starvation in the Garden prison or even death. Marcel's original community was eventually destroyed by the various wars that took place in the city in 2012.

For the next year after the decimation of their community, the vampires moved to another neighborhood of New Orleans across the river from the French Quarter called Algiers, where they began to rebuild their vampire army by turning select individuals who proved themselves as having what it took to "move up a notch on the food chain". In 2013, control of the French Quarter was once again returned to Marcel Gerard and his vampires, who have returned to the neighborhood to begin to regain the power they once held throughout the city while maintaining tenuous truces with both the Crescent werewolves and the French Quarter Coven. Upon Marcel's transformation into an Upgraded Original vampire, he regained full control of the city's supernatural population after putting Klaus in a torturous coma with Papa Tunde's Blade, biting Elijah and Kol, and poisoning Kai, forcing them to be put in a magical slumber and Chambre de Chasse to avoid death until the rest of the family could find cures for them, as well as a cure for Rebekah's curse. This effectively evicted the Mikaelsons from New Orleans, leaving Marcel with no one even close to his level of power to go against his rule. However, he lost control of the city once the Mikaelsons returned and he was depowered.

As previously stated, there is no international vampire government, or even a vampire government within specific nations. However, there have been vampire societies over the thousand years or so that the species has existed. The most well-known of them being The Strix, a congregation of the most ancient and powerful vampires the world has ever known, which was originally founded by Elijah, who sought to seek out vampires with the time, resources, and inclination to enrich the world with the powers they possess. However, Elijah was eventually forced to abandon the organization, as he was dismayed by the realization that he had gathered a large group of "narcissistic and sociopathic" vampires who were only concerned with gaining power, status, and wealth with which they could use to further their own agendas. After Elijah's departure, Tristan de Martel became the leader of the organization, and, with the exception of Marcel Gerard, every vampire initiated into the society belonged to either Elijah or Rebekah's sireline. Tristan was then overthrown in 2013 and replaced by Aya and Marcel in turn.

Age is a powerful status symbol in the global vampire community. One such reason for this is because the amount of history the vampire has experienced gives them a great deal of knowledge, which translates to certain bragging rights in the community, especially when the elder vampires interact with the younger vampires, werewolves, witches, and in-the-know humans they encounter. There are many examples of extremely old vampires whose age and history have gained them respect and status. However, the main reason why age is a status symbol in the vampire community is because a vampire's age directly correlates to how physical powerful they are. As a vampire ages, their supernatural physical and mental abilities become even stronger and more advanced as well. For example, because "The Trinity" were the first three vampires sired by the Originals, and around a year after they themselves were turned, they are much more powerful than any other regular vampire because of their age. Only the Originals, their modified versions, Hope Mikaelson, and Adrianna Gilbert outmatch the Trinity in raw power. While attitude, training, and catching an older vampire off guard can occasionally compensate for another vampire's young age in a fight, an older vampire will nearly always win in a fight against a younger vampire.

According the Stefan and Damon, the sharing of blood between vampires is considered an intimate act and is not typically taken lightly, though it is not always this way; for example, Klaus and Elijah have been shown feeding their blood to their siblings and vampire friends to heal them after they have been seriously incapacitated by injury or desiccation. Between romantic partners, however, this is an incredibly intimate act that denotes the love between the two vampires, as well as the trust they share.

## Attitudes Towards Humans

Vampires generally coexist with humans due to their shared origins and appearances. Humans are mostly oblivious to the existence of vampires, which makes it easier for vampires to commingle with their human cohorts without detection or exposure. Most of the few people who do know about vampires have either been killed to ensure their silence, compelled to forget their encounters with them, or, in some cases, are compelled not to speak of it to anyone, which lessens the chances that the vampire species will be exposed to the public.

Attitudes of vampires towards humans vary from individual to individual. Some see humans as simply food, servants, and/or entertainment, while others feel compassion for humans, remembering their lives before becoming vampires and not wanting to cause any more harm to them than necessary, and even regarding certain humans as close friends, lovers, or family. In general, vampires are known to see humans as less compared to themselves and ultimately regard their lives as being essentially insignificant, as humans are mortal whereas vampires live forever. As a result of their immortality and the fatal violence they witness on a regular basis, the death of a human who has no significant connection to the vampire is typically a non-event for them, and is either shrugged off as collateral damage or seen as a means to an end in part of whatever the vampire in question's current agenda is.

## Human Awareness of Vampires

Only a handful of humans are aware of the existence of literal vampires. In history, there were periods of time where vampires were not so secret, but as of the 21st century, the majority of humans regard vampires as superstition, fiction, and myth, which is how most vampires prefer it to be, as it makes it easier for them to move through the world without detection. There are small pockets of in-the-know humans, however, and they usually are in one of two groups: either they are aware of vampires because they are acquainted with at least one of them, either due to friendship, alliance, or, in rare cases, being attacked and not compelled to forget the encounter; or, they belong to a family or are associated with an organization who hunts vampires or studies them to gain more knowledge of how they work.

## Powers and Abilities

"*[...]He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves. Where they could bite, we had to bite harder. Where they had speed we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses.*"
—**Rebekah** explains the powers of a vampire

The supernatural forces that sustain vampires also endow them with superhuman physical abilities as well as powers of mind control. Their physical abilities such as strength, speed, agility, durability, healing, and senses all grow stronger with age and experience.

* **Super Strength:** Vampires are noticeably much stronger than Supernatural Hunters, immortals, and humans and slowly grow stronger as they grow older. Even new vampires who are still in transition can toss an average-sized, fully-grown human across a room with great speed and force. Their other feats include single-handedly lifting grown men high off the ground by the throat and snapping their necks, cutting off a person's head with their bare hands, and ripping out internal organs such as hearts with little to no effort. Their strength is also more powerful than that of werewolves in their human form and, depending on the age of the vampire, can be equal to that of Evolved werewolves. Their strength allows them to jump higher and further than any natural creature. Vampires who feed on humans are stronger than those who feed on animal blood. Although noted that a vampire's strength enhances with age, it can also be noted that the emotional status of the vampire takes a toll on the strength. For example, Caroline was able to fight on par with Damon after only being recently turned, this according to her, because she was "angrier".

* **Super Speed:** Vampires are much faster than various other human and supernatural beings such as supernatural hunters, immortals, and werewolves in human form. Vampires can accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, usually faster than the human eye can see. When running across long distances, they appear as vibrating blurs of motion allowing them to appear or vanish quickly and quietly. Their reflexes and dexterity are similarly heightened, allowing them to catch certain projectiles such as arrows and thrown stakes in the air with ease.
* **Super Agility:** Vampires possess super-human agility, such that they can react quickly, jump very high, climb, and run incredibly fast without difficulty and exhaustion. For example, Stefan picked up Elena and jumped high enough to propel them both to the top of a Ferris wheel at a carnival.
* **Super Senses:** Vampires have extremely keen senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste that far except those of humans and werewolves. They can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far off buildings and on phones, though most vampires typically learn how to tune out most ambient noises when it's not necessary to hear them. Vampires can also smell blood from several meters away, and see in total darkness. Their senses of taste are also enhanced, allowing them to detect the presence of drugs, alcohol, or vervain in someone's blood.
* **Super Durability:** Vampires can take a great amount of physical damage without being slowed down. Even vampires who have been shot with wooden bullets, which have a weakening effect on vampires, have been seen to continue fighting so long as they were not shot in the heart or the head. Vampires still react to physical force in a human manner, particularly young vampires, who will occasionally be affected even by human-strength-level force. Vampires can still be stunned and dazed by strikes and trauma, though their tolerance for it will increase as they get older.
* **Healing Factor:** Vampires recover tissue from a form of physical damage to their bodies within seconds to minutes, though they still feel the pain of a wound before it heals. Vampires can snap their bones back into place after they have been broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement very quickly, so long as they had consumed a regular diet of human blood prior to the injury. Those vampires who feed on animals will still heal much faster than a human, but their injuries, especially severe ones, will take much longer to heal than a vampire who feeds on human blood. The only injury a vampire can sustain that cannot be healed on its own or by consuming more blood is a werewolf bite, which requires Klaus', Adrianna's, Hope's, or Alexia's blood to cure. Also, a vampire's enhanced healing is limited to physical damage to their bodies--many forms of magical damage and psychological damage are beyond its capability. Vampires cannot grow back body parts, though they can reattach the severed limb with some effort.
* **Immortality:** A vampire stops aging once turned. Upon their transformation, vampires become immune to all conventional illnesses, diseases, viruses, and infections. While vampires who were cancer-free as humans will be immune to cancer after they are turned, those humans who were turned while they had cancer will not only still have it as a vampire, but their newly-enhanced healing factor will accelerate the progression of the cancer cells over two-fold, nearly always causing the cancer-stricken vampire to kill themselves to end their suffering.
* **Enhanced Emotions:** Vampires experience emotions more powerfully than humans. Emotions like love, joy, and happiness are magnified for vampires, allowing them to live life more intensely. This ability allows vampires to feel emotions at their peak regardless of their age. Conversely, sadness, depression, guilt, fear, and anger are also amplified, causing many vampires to become so overwhelmed that they turn off their humanity. Turning off their humanity allows them to block out their more negative emotions, such as fear and guilt, allowing them to feed and kill without remorse, go against any opponent without fear, and relieve themselves of painful feelings such as grief, loss, depression, and shame. A vampire without their emotions is far more calculating and direct than one who keeps them on. However, the vampire can become a remorseless killer, and are almost unrecognizable from the person they truly are, as blocking out negative emotions also causes their positive emotions to become dulled or nonexistent as well. Vampires are capable of turning their humanity back on and bringing back their emotions, but it is difficult as a result of the fact that they will be bombarded with all of their repressed emotions in addition to the guilt of anything they did without their humanity with enhanced intensity. This ability fades with time and vampires who are over 500 years old have said that they have lost the ability to turn off their humanity altogether. After time and practice, the overwhelming sensations of heightened emotions fade as the vampire learns to overcome their emotions without turning off their humanity all together.

* **Mind Compulsion:** Vampires have the ability to influence and control thoughts, emotions, and behavior and can alter or erase memories. There is a sort of hierarchy as to how this ability works and vampires have a weaker form than that of Original vampires. Vampires can only compel humans and not other supernatural beings.
* **Sire Bond:** Although rare among them, sire bonds can be formed when a human is turned with the blood of the vampire for whom they had strong romantic feelings before they were turned. Those vampires with a sire bond are supernaturally loyal to their sires to the point that they will go out of their way to do whatever their sire asks them to do, even if they don't actually want to do it. However, this bond doesn't affect how they truly feel about their sire, it only affects their behavior.
* **Telepathy:** Vampires have a limited form of telepathy that allows them to easily enter the minds of humans, and with more effort, the minds of other supernatural beings. Other ways to weaken a vampire to use telepathy on them are to starve them or drain them of blood, inject them with vervain, or expose them to werewolf venom. It is one of the hardest abilities to master, and because of this, it is usually the last of the mind-control-related abilities a vampire learns after becoming proficient in mind compulsion. Normally, this ability works through tactile contact, usually by the vampire placing the palms of his or her hands on the temples of the vampire whose mind they want to enter. The vampire then closes their eyes and focuses on the information they wish to seek, allowing them to sort through their victim's memories until they see what they're looking for. However, Damon has been shown to mentally communicate with others from a short distance without tactile contact in order to send distress calls and mental images during emergency situations. Like their physical attributes, a vampire's mental strength increases with age, making it difficult for a vampire to invade the mind of an ancient vampire or even that of the Originals.
	+ **Dream Manipulation:** Vampires can also use their power of telepathy to control dreams and the subconscious. This is an aspect of telepathy that is much easier to learn, and with it, a vampire has the ability to produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares and lucid dreaming, distort people's perception of reality, and trap someone in their dreams. Vampires can manipulate and enter the subconscious of other vampires and even an Original vampire if they are vulnerable enough. However, this is a learned skill that requires practice to achieve.
	+ **Illusions:** Vampires have the power to trick the minds of other younger vampires into seeing or feeling things that aren't actually happening, such as when Lexi made Stefan believe he had been starved of blood for years.

* **True Face:** A vampire's true face is the appearance they are hiding under their normal human face. When a vampire's true face is revealed, the sclera of their eyes turns blood-red, dark veins appear under their eyes, and their canine teeth extend into razor-sharp fangs. On some occasions, a vampire's fang teeth can include both their canines and their lateral incisors, in the case of Katherine, Adrianna, Elena, Isobel, and Lexi, or both their canines and their premolars, such as Klaus, Lucien, Damon, and Tyler. A vampire's true face can be revealed whenever they wish, but it will appear against their will whenever they are aroused by the scent of blood, or are feeling intense emotions such as fear, anger, lust, sadness, etc. A vampire's fangs are extremely sharp which gives them the ability to tear into almost any substance and tear off limbs. A vampire's true face will appear for the first time either while they drink human blood for the first time or shortly afterward.

## Weaknesses

If vampires are killed by a wooden object stabbed through their heart, their body desiccates into a gray color, and their vampiric veins thicken and protrude from their skin. Vampires can build up a tolerance to some weaknesses, such as vervain, allowing them to protect themselves from compulsion by an Original and to help lessen the likelihood that it will seriously incapacitate them when used by enemies. However, it will still burn them upon contact, but if ingested, it will not weaken them as much if they take small amounts over time to increase their immunity.

* **Animal Blood:** Animal blood, while somewhat satisfying a vampire's hunger and sustaining their undead life, will make the vampire considerably weaker than they would be if they had drank human blood, causing their physical abilities to be inferior to a human-blood-consuming vampire, making them heal much more slowly, and making their compulsion less effective.

* **Broken Neck:** Breaking a vampire's neck will not kill them, but it will render in a death-like state for varying amounts of time, depending on the diet and age of the person in question. Alaric once snapped Damon's neck, though he recovered quickly due to the fact that he is an older vampire.
* **The Cure:** If a vampire takes the cure, they will revert back to being mortal again. Once taken, the cure prevents vampire blood from having any effect on them, as it will not heal their wounds, and, if the vampire dies with vampire blood in their system, they will remain dead and not awaken as a vampire in transition. Additionally, their blood becomes the Cure once they've ingested it, making them a target to any vampire who wants to cure themselves.
* **Decapitation:** Dismembering or manually removing the head of a vampire will result in an instant and permanent death.
* **Desiccation:** Vampires who abstain from blood for extended amounts of time will eventually desiccate and mummify. Witches can use magic to desiccate a vampire, and Wes Maxfield also developed a serum that would cause desiccation in a vampire if they were not given an antidote within a short matter of time.
* **Fire:** Vampires are highly flammable and sensitive to fire, and will quickly burn and die from it if the flames are not extinguished in time. This quality has been proven useful in disposing of the remains of a dead vampire without any physical evidence. However, in some cases, vampires have used this vulnerability to their advantage.
* **Heart Extraction:** Removing the heart of a vampire will result in permanent death.
* **Invitation:** Vampires cannot enter a home without an invitation by the owner. An invitation can be granted long-distance and even by someone who hasn't lived in the house in years.
* **Magic:** Vampires are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. This is inclusive of mystical objects such as the Gilbert Device and dark objects. A Siphoner can also siphon the magic from a vampire to fuel their spells. Witches have been seen to use magic to cause agonizing pain by inducing aneurysms in their brain or muscle spasms, telekinetically ripping out their hearts or snapping their necks, magically increasing their hunger for blood to unbearable levels, setting them ablaze with a single thought, and desiccating them to the point of mummification.
* **Physical Trauma:** Minor physical injuries such as gunshots, stab wounds, and broken bones will cause pain and also slow them down. However, this is momentary as they will heal completely so long as they haven't been weakened by other means such as vervain or werewolf bites.

* **Sunlight:** Sunlight and UV rays burn vampires on contact, and prolonged exposure will cause the vampire to burst into flames and die. However, this weakness can be mitigated by the use of a lapis lazuli stone enchanted with a specific protection spell by a witch for a particular vampire, which is usually affixed to jewelry, though it requires the vampire to wear the stone at all times.
* **Vampire Bloodline:** If an Original vampire dies, all vampires descended from their bloodline will slowly perish as well.
* **Vervain:** Exposure to or ingestion of vervain causes a vampire to become severely feverish and weak to the point that it can even hinder their healing abilities as well. Also, physical contact with vervain will burn a vampire's skin. Vampires cannot compel anyone who has ingested vervain or has it on their person. Many vampires drink small amounts of diluted vervain to protect themselves from Original vampires' compulsion and to reduce its effects when used against them by enemies.
* **Werewolf Venom:** The bite of a werewolf, which involves injecting toxic venom into the wound, is extremely lethal to vampires. It will cause them to hallucinate, grow severely weak, and go rabid until it kills them. Klaus', Adrianna's, Hope's, or Alexia's blood are the only surefire cure to cure the bite. The magic from the bite can also be siphoned away. Vampires suffering from the bite seem to always hallucinate either significant moments from their past, significant people in their lives, or specific actions of the vampire that they feel guilty or ashamed about.
* **Wood:** Wounding a vampire with a wooden weapon, such as wooden bullets, will incapacitate them and it will take longer for them to heal their injuries than if the wounds were caused by any other substance. Stabbing a vampire through the heart with a wooden stake or shooting them with wooden bullets will result in instantaneous and permanent death.
* **White Oak Ash Daggers:** It is said that if a vampire daggers an Original vampire, they will die while the Original vampire is neutralized. This, however, has never been proven.
* **Cancer:** A unique weakness that rarely occurs under specific circumstances. Although vampires cannot develop diseases and illnesses, such as cancer, if a human has active cancer and is turned into a vampire, the effects of the cancer will increase. The regenerative properties of vampire blood will cause cancer cells to sporadically replicate, and exceed normal stages of the condition. This was first proven when Caroline fed a terminal cancer patient vampire blood to test if it could cure cancer. When Jo ran tests on the patient after he was turned into a vampire, she referred to his tumors as "stage 10".

## Former Weaknesses

* **Doppelgänger Blood Magic:** This spell was cast by the Travelers in 2012. The spell is designed to use the combined blood of the last remaining doppelgängers of each line to unravel and reverse any non-traditional form of magic, and as such, it strips away the magic that makes humans into vampires and returns them to the last state the vampire was in before awakening in transition, killing the vampire. This effect could be achieved by feeding the combined blood to a vampire, or by casting the spell in a large group. The spell was broken when the spell's magic was absorbed by Kai Parker.
* **Advanced Werewolf Venom:** Lucien Castle invented an advanced strain of venom derived from the seven werewolf bloodlines with no known cure. The venom was infused in the bite of an Upgraded Original vampire. It was fatal to vampires like that of a werewolf or hybrid bite, although working twice as fast and more painfully. It was so potent that not even the blood of Klaus, Hope, Adrianna, or Alexia could cure it, nor could the blood of the Upgraded Original vampire. With both Upgraded Original vampires cured, and dead in the case of Lucien, and the Ancestors destroyed, this venom no longer exists and is no longer a threat.

## Myths

* **Garlic:** The vampire's supposed repulsion towards garlic may have been a fabricated lie, similar to how werewolves are not actually immune to silver. This myth was presumably started to hide the fact that vampires are actually vulnerable to vervain.
* **Holy Items:** The myth that vampires could be harmed using holy artifacts like crosses, blessed ground, and holy water may have circulated from the belief that they are unholy creatures originating from Hell and in league with the Devil.
* **Mirrors:** The myth that vampires did not cast a reflection may have come from the belief that vampires had no souls.
* **Shapeshifting:** The origin of the myth that vampires had the power to morph into a bat, wolf, rat, or a cloud of mist is unknown. It may be the result of a mistake of perception between vampires and werewolves. Or it may even be related to Silas, who has the ability to cast psychic illusions to appear as anyone he chooses.
* **Soulless:** The belief that vampires are soulless beings may have stemmed from their ability to shut down their humanity, causing them to block out their emotions and behave without remorse or regret, giving off the impression that they have no conscience and by extension, lack a soul.

## Notable Vampires

  Aurora de Martel | Aurora is the sister of Tristan, and is the first vampire ever turned by Rebekah Mikaelson. She is a member of the Trinity.
  Trsitan de Martel | Tristan was the brother of Aurora, and the first vampire ever turned by Elijah, and was a member of the Trinity.
  Sage | Sage was the former lover of Finn Mikaelson. Sage died as a result of Finn's murder, due to the fact that she was a member of his bloodline.
  Aya Al-Rashid | Aya was a vampire turned by Elijah and a member of The Strix. She has been staked by Hayley Marshall-Kenner who took revenge for her husband's death which Aya was responsible for.
  Rose-Marie | Rose was an ally to the Salvatore Brothers and the Gilbert twins during Book 2. She was staked by Damon as a means of ending her misery after being bitten by Jules.
  Annabelle | Anna was a vampire whose goal was to open the tomb and free her mother and the other vampires. She fell in love with Jeremy Gilbert but was staked by his uncle John.
  Trevor | Trevor was a vampire turned by Rose. He and Rose had been running from the Originals ever since they helped Katerina Petrova escape. Rose was very loyal to him, up until he was killed by Elijah as his punishment for trusting and helping Katerina escape.
  Katerina Petrova | Katerina Petrova (now known as Katherine Pierce) was a Petrova Doppelgänger until she was turned into a vampire by Rose. She is the sire of Stefan and Damon Salvatore and was the original sire of Adrianna Gilbert. She is currently the wife of Elijah Mikaelson.
  Nadia Petrova | Nadia Petrova was the daughter of Katerina Petrova. For an unknown amount of time she was a member of The Travelers. She died as a result of a werewolf bite from Tyler Lockwood.
  Alexia Branson | Lexi was Stefan's companion and best friend. She was killed by Damon to make others believe that she was the Mystic Falls killing vampire and was finally dead.
  Marcel Gerard | Marcel is Klaus' progeny. Marcel has ruled NOLA since the Originals' run from the city in 1919. Klaus has taken control of the city after he returned. Marcel was later turned into The Beast and banished the Mikaelsons from New Orleans. However, they returned and the spell that made him into The Beast was reversed.
  Lillian Salvatore | Lillian "Lily" was the mother of Damon and Stefan Salvatore, and the one who turned the Heretics and Enzo into vampires. She is currently deceased.
  Damon Salvatore | Damon Salvatore is a vampire who was turned by Katherine Pierce in 1864. He is the father of Alexia Salvatore and the husband of Adrianna Gilbert. He currently lives in Mystic Falls with his wife.
  Stefan Salvatore | Stefan Salvatore is a vampire who was turned by Katherine Pierce in 1864. He is known among the vampire race as the "Ripper of Monterey" for killing hundreds of humans there. He is currently the husband of Rebekah Mikaelson.
  Lorenzo St. John | Enzo is a vampire who was turned by Lily Salvatore on November 1, 1903. Later, he was found by the Whitmore family after he left his post I Eastern Europe during WWII. He was imprisoned by Dr. Whitmore and forced to endure his torture for decades. In the 21st century, Enzo along with Elena were prisoners of Wes Maxfield.
  Greta Sienna | Greta was the wife of the late August Müller, and the adopted mother of Antoinette and Roman. She was killed by Adrianna.
  Thierry Vanchure | Thierry Vanchure was dying of a war wound in the 1940s, Marcel Gerard found him, and turned him into a vampire.
  Caroline Forbes | Caroline is a vampire, the mother of Josie and Lizzie Forbes, and the wife of Niklaus Mikaelson. Damon fed Caroline his blood to heal her after she suffered from internal bleeding. Caroline was then smothered to death with a pillow by Katherine so she could be used as leverage in her plan to break free of Klaus. Caroline is currently the Queen of New Orleans.
  Isobel Flemming | Isobel Flemming was the wife of Alaric Saltzman and the biological mother of Elena and Adrianna Gilbert. She was turned by Damon Salvatore by request. She was later compelled by Klaus to commit suicide by walking into the sun without her daylight ring.
  Elena Gilbert | Elena was the current Petrova Doppelgänger until she became a vampire with the help of Damon's blood. She was sired to Damon as a result of her romantic feelings for him, however, these feelings were not returned. The sire bond was broken after she turned off her humanity after the death of her brother Jeremy. She is currently the headmistress at the Mikaelson-Salvatore Institute.

## Trivia

* As predators, vampires enjoy stalking and toying with their victims before biting and drinking their blood. Stefan once explained to Elena how the hunt is often more enjoyable than the actual feeding.
* Vampires can suppress their bloodlust to a limited degree by consuming alcohol or eating human food to sublimate their cravings, though they cannot serve as replacements for actually blood. They also consume coffee to keep their body warmer to avoid spooking humans when touched.
* Dr. Wes Maxfield, Dr. Whitmore, and Dr. Grayson Gilbert are all doctors who have been known to scientifically study vampire physiology, often through torturous surgical procedures without anesthetic.
* Vampires cannot technically own property with respect to supernatural protection through invitation. This is why many vampires prefer to live in a home owned by a human, usually one who lives in the home who they have compelled to obey their wishes--if an unfriendly vampire comes to visit, the vampire in question can simply compel the human not to let the hostile visitor in under any circumstances, preventing them from entering.
	+ However, it has been shown that vampires can force non-compelled humans to invite them in under duress by threatening their lives or the lives of their loved ones. Vampires have also been seen to kill compelled humans to bypass the invitation rule, or to burn down or otherwise destroy a home in retribution for not allowing them entry.
* Most witches consider vampires to be abominations of nature.