Supernatural Species - Original Vampires
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Supernatural Species of the Dark World - Original Vampires

The name is a term used to describe a progenitor in a vampire bloodline. A number of characteristics differentiate an Original from their vampire bloodline that they begat, but the fundamental difference is that Originals become vampires through an immortality spell, not by ingesting the blood of another vampire; and, unlike normal vampires, Originals are nearly indestructible and cannot be killed by anything on earth aside from whatever their immortality is linked to. With the Mikaelsons, it was the White Oak Tree. With Alaric Saltzman, who was an enhanced Original vampire-vampire hunter-his immortality was linked to Elena Gilbert, as a living human doppelganger.

The Mikaelsons

"It has been said that love begins and ends with she who gave us life. A thousand years ago, my mother turned us into monsters, yet still she claimed to love us even as she vowed to destroy us. The noble Elijah, tormented by long buried shameful secrets. Kol, the wily troublemaker out for no one but himself. Finn, the devoted acolyte, his love all too easily warped by our mother's sick hate. Fierce Rebekah, willing to risk everything on the chance that she might one day find happiness. And me, the bastard child, my mother's greatest shame. Now finally we have defeated her, giving her the choice she never thought to give us: to live on as one of the monsters she created, or suffer an agonizing death she so deserves."  -Niklaus Mikaelson.

The Mikaelsons; Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Rebekah, and Kol, were the first generation of vampires known as The Originals. They are the first of their sired bloodlines and are known for being the oldest, fastest, strongest, and most powerful supernatural beings in the world.

Their history dates way back during the then Kingdom of Norway in the late 10^th century with their parents Mikael, a wealthy landowner and Viking warrior and Esther, a housewife and witch respectively. Up until the beginning of the 11^th century, the family were mortally humans until the loss of Mikael and Esther's youngest son Henrik, who died from being attacked and mauled to death by werewolves during a full moon. The incident spurred Mikael into finding a way to protect his remaining surviving children, which concluded forcing Esther to use her dark magic to turn himself and their children into the world's first vampires, from whom all vampires are descended. They are the most powerful supernatural beings who are also known for having members who are witches and hybrids as well.

Mikael and Esther somehow learned of the immortality spell that was first created by Qetsiyah a thousand years previously. Esther tweaked the spell, adapting it in order to give their children abilities of superhuman strength, speed, agility and healing that would be far greater than those of the werewolves. She drew on mystical symbols in order to fuel her spell, calling upon the sun for life and the white oak tree for immortality, as it was the one tree known for being one of the earth's eternal objects. To complete the ritual, Mikael and his children had to drink wine laced with the blood of Tatia, a Petrova doppelganger; a mortal duplicated version of the then true immortal, Amara. Then, Mikael killed his children and himself by thrusting his sword through their chests. They awoke in transition and completed it by their father's orders by drinking human blood.

Unfortunately, nature's laws viewed the newly created Originals as abominations and therefor sought to restore balance by giving them a weakness for every new strength they would gain. The sun that gave them life burned them. Their thirst for human blood was insatiable. Neighbouring villagers would close their homes and not invite them inside. Vervain flowers, which grew at the base of the white oak tree, burned them and protected the humans from compulsion. The white oak tree itself, which gave them immortality, is also the one thing on earth that can permanently kill an Originals. The tree has since been burned down, but the ashes have been saved.

Niklaus: Klaus was one of the seven children who was not fathered by Mikael. His father was actually the chief of their village's werewolf clan, with whom Esther had an affair. The truth was revealed to Mikael when Klaus made his first kill after being turned into a vampire which triggered his werewolf gene. Once Mikael realized Esther's infidelity and who the lover was, he hunted down and killed Klaus's father and his entire family, igniting a war between the vampires and the werewolves that has continued into current day. It also made the animosity Mikael always had for Klaus even worse.

Soon after learning of Klaus's werewolf heritage, Esther was obligated to curse him in order to make his werewolf nature dormant so that he would not further upset the balance of nature by possessing so much power. Klaus felt betrayed, as though he was being unfairly punished and in retaliation, he murdered their mother and framed Mikael. That only served to fuel Mikael's hatred for his step-son and ever since has been mercilessly hunting him and his siblings down for the next 10 centuries.

After the death of Esther Elijah, Niklaus and Rebekah swore loyalty to one another; "Always and forever" was their motto. However, over the centuries, Klaus started using silver daggers he stole from the Five Brothers to neutralize his siblings whenever they got in the way of his life or plans. Finn was the first to be daggered in the 1100's and was left neutralized for 900 years. Kol was daggered on multiple occasions for his recklessness and carelessness. Rebekah too was also daggered at various points in time, usually after making the mistake of falling in love with a human and wanting to turn him, which Klaus would not permit. Out of all his siblings, Elijah was the only one who was ever spared or managed to escape. Klaus led Elijah to believe that he dropped their incapacitated family deep in the ocean where they would never be found, and for this betrayal, Elijah swore vengeance.

Knowledge of the Originals to the Rest of the Supernatural World: Over the years, legend began to surround the Originals as their story became lost to history: almost all vampires knew that they were descended from the first generation of vampires, but they knew next to nothing about them. Some even believed they were only a myth, as Stefan and Damon did. Only one was actually known at all: Klaus. He was believed, mistakenly, to be the oldest vampire in the world to the few vampires who knew of him, and while many vampires knew of Elijah, he was mistakenly assumed to be a "foot-soldier" or minion of Klaus' and wasn't revealed to be an Original vampire to most, nor was he known to be Klaus' half-brother. Elijah was serving his own interests: namely, Klaus' destruction to avenge his lost family. Mikael was also not anonymous in history, but no one knew he was an Original vampire, either, nor did they know his true goal was to slay his step-son Klaus-he was instead infamously known as the Destroyer, an ancient vampire who hunted vampires. It is unknown if the other Mikaelsons had a famous/infamous history, but vampires did know there were other Original vampires besides Klaus. It was Elijah who revealed to the Mystic Falls gang that the other Original vampires were his siblings.

Out of the six Originals, Mikael, Finn, and Kol were permanently killed by white oak stakes; Mikael has actually been killed twice, once by Jeremy Gilbert and a second time by his step-son Klaus.

The three remaining are currently residing in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana as the main patriarchs of the vampire community. It is here that Klaus had more or less started his own family. His Original vampire-werewolf hybrid nature allowed him to father a child, a daughter named Hope, with the then werewolf now hybrid Hayley Marshall during a long night stand.

Through the overuse of the Gilbert Ring, Esther manipulated his spirit while he was on The Other Side before being resurrected, and as a result he developed an alter ego. Bonnie referred to it as "the Darkness." Others called him Dark Alaric or Evil Alaric, who hated vampires and vampire sympathizers, killing members of the Mystic Falls Council who protected their secrets.

Through Esther's dark powers, Alaric was turned into an Enhanced Original vampire so that he could kill her children with the last white oak stake and rid the world of the existence of vampires for good.

Esther used the same immortality spell that she used on her own husband and children, but with a few minor differences; she melted and binded his Gilbert Ring with the last white oak dagger to make it indestructible (ironically, it was later destroyed by Daliah). Alaric was then killed by Esther with the white oak stake while under the influence of his alter-ego which is what fuelled him to be a ruthless vampire hunter like Mikael. Elena's doppelganger blood was laced with wine which was given to Alaric before his death, however, her mystical essence was also drawn upon for his immortality, which meant his life would be linked to hers. If and when Elena dies, be it by being killed or of natural causes, Alaric's life would end also.

Powers And Abilities

Super Strength: Original vampires are considerably much stronger than their non-original descendants, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original vampire-werewolf hybrids, true immortals, supernatural hunters, and humans. Examples displays of such powerful strength include dismembering an enemies head or ripping out their hearts by plunging into their chest with their bare hands with little to no effort, shattering windows by throwing small objects at them, and moving or breaking heavy objects. It is unknown if an Original vampire's strength would grow with time as it does with non-original vampires, but because of the Mikaelsons age being over ten centuries, it is probably safe to say that they've reached their peak, but still remain the strongest.

Super Speed: Original vampires can also move faster than their non-original counterparts. They can catch up and stop other beings in their tracks, supernatural or not, and cover many miles in mere minutes.

Super Agility: Original vampires possess more superhuman reflexes, flexibility and dexterity. They can move quickly, jump very high, climb and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion.

Super Durability: Originals can take far more trauma than their descendants without much discomfort or injury. No original vampire thus far has been dismembered, which implies that they are nearly indestructible. Even wooden weapons aren't enough to really weaken them, although if they are struck in the heart, it will incapacitate them for several minutes until they recover. Ordinary bullets, knives and blunt objects can hurt an original vampire, but not significantly.

Super Healing: Original vampires regenerate from their injuries mere seconds faster, even those inflicted by wood, vervain, or a werewolf bite.

Healing Factor: Original vampires can use their blood to heal the wounds and injuries of humans and werewolves, as well as non-original vampires if no other blood source is available. However, like with their descendants, there is a limit to this ability such as not being able to heal a human from terminal illnesses like cancer.

Immortality: Original vampires are immortal and therefor do not age with time and are immune to all human illnesses, diseases, infections, toxins, and poisons.

Enhanced Emotions: Like their descendants, Original vampires experience emotions like love, joy, anger, and fear at magnified levels, allowing them to live life more intensely.

Emotional Control: Original vampires have a limited degree of control over their emotions, however this ability fades with time. Because of how old the Mikaelsons are, it is unknown whether they still possess the ability to "switch off" their humanity.

Mind Compulsion: Original vampires can manipulate and influence the thoughts, behaviors, actions, and memories of humans, as well as non-original vampires and non-original hybrids. They cannot, however, compel witches or werewolves.

Telepathy: Original Vampires have the ability to enter the minds of others as long as theirs is stronger than them, although, as Original vampires, they have one of the strongest minds in the world. Normally, this ability works in a tactile fashion and the vampire requires physical contact in order for it to work successfully, but with practice, it can also be used to send out distress calls or memory sharing. They can control dreams and subconscious, producing and modifying dreams, bestow nightmares or lucidness. Other effects of this is the ability to distort perceptions of reality and being able to trap someone in their dreams. Original Vampires also have the power to trick the minds of others into seeing/feeling things that aren't actually happening.

True Face: Like with all vampires, Original vampires possess a true face under their human one. When their true face comes out, the pupils dilate, the sclera of their eyes turn blood red, dark veins under their eyes will appear as blood is being forcing pumped throughout their body, and their canines extended into razor sharp fangs which are strong enough to rip into any substance, especially flesh, and easily tear away limbs.

Physical Trauma: More significant injuries along the lines of broken bones and organ damage can slow down an Original, due to the combination of pain and lack of proper bodily function. However, the most effective way to incapacitate an Original, albeit temporarily, is to inflict injury normally fatal to a human such as breaking their neck or ripping out their heart. Breaking an Original vampire's neck will render them unconscious for several hours. Ripping out an Original's heart will leave them unconscious without a heart until one grows back. Stabbing them in the heart with a wooden stake will neutralise them for a number of minutes.

Desecration: Being completely drained of blood, heart stopping, or having not fed on blood for a significant amount of time will cause an Original to desecrate like any other vampire, along with losing some of their strength and all of their ability to function at all. Their body will appear as a corpse and can only be revived by being fed blood.

Invitation: All vampires must be granted an invitation before entering a human or werewolf's home, either by the owner or person of entitlement. Invitations only need to be granted once, and from that point on, it cannot be revoked. If a vampire should ever find himself inside a human's home without being invited in, he or she will become extremely disoriented and suffocate, and will eventually desecrate if they do not remove themselves in prompt time. Vampires do not need to be granted an invitation to enter homes own by other vampires.

Magic: It is said that a witch with enough power can kill/dangerously affect a being as powerful as an Original Vampire, but the consequences of attempting to garner that much magic will likely kill the witch unless the vampire is already in a weakened state. In order to become empowered, a witch must channel an extremely potent source of magic (i.e. the violent deaths of 100 witches/the power of the Harvest). Witches can also do spells that can seriously harm a vampire, and this is inclusive of the use of mystical and dark objects. Other magics can serve to inconvenience an Original, such as the spell of sage which can block a vampire's keen sense of hearing.

Poisons: There have been toxins and substances created, either supernaturally or scientifically, that can have an adverse effect on vampires.

Sunlight: An Original vampire will burn in the sun and even burst into flames, however, it will not kill them. Like their non-Original counterparts, pieces of jewellery (usually rings) with enchanted lapis lazuli stones embedded in them can be created for a specific vampire by a witch. All of the Mikaelsons possess a lapis lazuli except for Klaus. Because he is an Original werewolf-vampire hybrid, Klaus does not need a ring because his werewolf half overrides this disadvantage of the vampire half.

Vervain: A human or vampire can avoid being compelled by an Original if they ingest vervain or are wearing it on their person. Vervain will burn an Original if it they touch it, but they will heal very quickly. Vervain usually is not enough to weaken or render an Original unconscious unless it is a very potent/high-concentrated dose.

Werewolf Bite: A werewolf bite will not kill an Original, but they will be weakened with some of the more common symptoms such a spiked fever and hallucinations. The effects can last for a number of hours. Klaus of course will not succumb to a werewolf bite because he is a werewolf-vampire hybrid.

Wood: A wooden stake to the heart will neutralise an Original vampire, but they will recover within minutes. Klaus cannot be neutralised by wood because he a hybrid.

White Oak Ash Daggers: Enchanted silver daggers dipped in white oak ash will neutralise an Original vampire when stabbed through the heart and will remain immobilized as long as the dagger stays embedded in their chest. If the dagger is removed, the Original vampire will recover within hours. To replace the daggers back into their heart to keep them neutralised, the dagger must be dipped again in the white oak ash. In Klaus's case, the enchanted dagger must be made of gold.

*Another thing to note here, is that only humans and other Originals can use the daggers. Non-original vampires will burst into flames if they try to dagger an Original.

White Oak Stake: The only weapon on earth that can permanently kill an Original vampire, including Klaus. It comes from an ancient White Oak Tree that existed during the time of the genesis of The Original Vampires and was used as the source of their immortality. All of the white oak stakes that ever existed have been destroyed, however, inhaling white oak ashes or splinters can still potentially kill an Original vampire and seven white oak bullets have been fashioned out of a knight and horse talisman that Klaus had carved when he was a child.

*The same rule applies with the silver daggers; only a human or fellow Original can use the white oak stake. When the white oak stake is stabbed into an Original's heart, they will burst into flames which could bring a non-Original vampire down with them.

Papa Tunde's Blade: The blade originally belonged to Papa Tunde. It absorbs all the power of those killed with it, either by using it to physically kill the person or by using it to carve sacrificial signals into them to draw the person's power. The blade only has to be stabbed in part of the way, and then it will dig itself in the rest of the way, rendering an Original vampire immobile due to the excruciating pain that it inflicts upon those who are stabbed with it.

Cursed Stake: There is another weapon, a cursed stake that can be used to neutralize an Original that even descendant vampires can use. An Original revives immediately upon its removal unlike the White Oak Ash Daggers which can take hours. However, unlike the daggers which will put an Original vampire in a deep sleep, the cursed stake allows for them to be aware and feel everything that is happening around them; as Rebekah Mikaelson described, she was able to feel the freezing cold water against her skin while she was at the bottom of the ocean, as well as the burning and hardening of her veins from being denied blood.

If the cursed stake stays in a vampire's heart for a period of time (how long hasn't been determined), he or she will be infected with the curse; a welt like mark shaped like a skull and they will eventually go insane with no return. There is no known cure. Freya Mikaelson tried to use a spell that she thought would heal Rebekah, but it was only temporary as the skull shaped mark returned which meant she is still cursed and will only go insane again hours later.

Weaknesses Unique to Niklaus Mikaelson

Golden Daggers: Using the same method with White Oak Ashes, gold daggers specifically must be used on Klaus as silver daggers won't work.

Wolfsbane: Due to his werewolf side, wolfsbane can effect Klaus but not as severely as regular werewolves or non-original hybrids.