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It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable, but the witch Ayana was right about the consequences. The Spirits turned on us and Nature fought back. For every strength there would be a weakness. The sun became our enemy, it kept us indoors for weeks. And though my mother found a solution, there were other problems. Neighbors who had opened their homes to us could now keep us out. The flowers at the base of the white oak burned and prevented compulsion. And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away...so we burned it to the ground. But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated - the hunger. Blood had made us reborn and it was blood that we craved above all else. We could not control it. And with that, the predatory species was born. |
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The Original Vampires, or simply The Originals, are a group of extremely powerful vampires that are known for being the first of their bloodlines and the first generation of vampires, making them the oldest vampires in the world. Their name is a term used to describe a progenitor in a vampire bloodline. The term was initially introduced when Rose revealed their existence to Elena, Stefan andDamon, and primarily refers to the Mikaelson Family, but has since expanded after Esther used the spell to turn Alaric into a vampire and Elena referred to him as an "Original", lacking another term to refer to the type of vampire Alaric became.
A number of characteristics differentiate an Original from the vampire bloodline that they beget, but the fundamental difference is that Originals became vampires through a spell, not by ingesting the blood of another immortal, and unlike normal vampires, the Originals are indestructible and cannot be killed by anything on earth aside from the White Oak Stake or temporarily neutralized by the White Oak Ash Dagger.
The vampires that have been called Originals are: Mikael, Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Kol, Rebekah and Alaric. The Originals are legendary throughout the supernatural world, especially amongst witches and vampires.
History of the Term[]
The term was first announced when Rose revealed the existence of a few old, very powerful vampires while she held Elena hostage in order to deliver her to Elijah. Later, after Damon and Stefan had rescued Elena, she rejoined them and spoke with fear of the Original vampire known as Klaus. Reluctantly, she agreed to help Damon get in contact with people who might know how to find him, though they were largely unsuccessful in this endeavor.
The legend surrounding the Original vampire named Klaus remained pieced together by hear say and shrouded in mystery until Elijah agreed to tell his story to Elena after she removed the White Oak Ash Dagger from his heart. He eventually revealed that he and Klaus are half-brothers, and referred to his family as "the Original family", explaining that it is from them that all vampires were created.
The rest of the Mikaelson family are introduced throughout the third season:Rebekah through flashbacks in the 1920's and in present day when Klaus undaggers her; Mikael and Esther as Rebekah recounts the vampire origin story to Elena; and Kol and Finn when Elijah undaggers them. As Rebekah is telling the story of how their family became vampires, she reveals that their mother, Esther, had performed the spell that made them immortal. She refers to her as the "Original witch".
This usage of the term "Original" makes it clear that it was initially only used as a self-referential way for the Original Vampire siblings to establish their status as a powerful, elite group - the foundation for all other vampires created from their blood. However, when Esther begins the process of turning Alaric into a vampire using magic, Elena uses the term "Original" to describe what Alaric would become should she succeed. Lacking another word to describe the head of a bloodline (or potential bloodline) of vampires, the term's use has extended to describe vampires created using the Immortality Spell.
Powers and Abilities[]
As the first and oldest vampires in the world, the Original Vampire's powers and abilities are the most advanced and by far superior to any other species with the exception of Immortals in mental strength. Rebekah said herself that they are the strongest creatures in the world. It is unknown if the Original Vampires grow stronger with age like Vampires. These are their standard powers and abilities as the first generation of vampires.
Super Strength: Original vampires are considerably much stronger than immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires,werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampirehybrids and humans. They are able to decapitate other species with a single chop of their bare hands, shatter windows and doors with small objects, and single-handedly tear out the hearts of younger vampires and other creatures with little to no effort. Their strength has been used to break necks and spines, and break and move heavy objects. Their impact can send anyone flying. Their strength is also enough to rival that of their own kind. While Original Vampires are more powerful than werewolves in either form, transformed werewolves still rival enough of their strength to take down an Original Vampire in small groups as it was shown that four of them were capable of overwhelming Rebekah (although she managed to kill half of them), while two took down Elijah (these wolves were channeling the power of their werewolf forms through enchanted kyanite stones, and Elijah was taken by surprise and passed out from their venom).
Super Speed: Original vampires are much faster than immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids and humans. They are able to stop other supernatural species in their tracks, run miles in seconds and can easily catch up to any species of creature, supernatural or not. Their reflexes are similarly heightened. grow faster with time.
Super Agility: Original vampires possess more superhuman agility, flexibility and dexterity than immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids and humans. They can move quickly, jump very high, climb and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion.
Super Senses: Original vampires have extremely keen senses of hearing, sight and smell that far exceed those of immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids and humans.
Super Durability: Original vampires can take far more trauma than immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids and humans can, without much discomfort or injury. No Original vampire has ever been dismembered throughout the series, implying that their durability is invincibility. Wood seems to be ineffective at weakening them. Ordinary bullets, knives and blunt objects cannot hurt an original vampire as seen with Finn, Kol and Klaus.
Healing Factor: The injuries of Original vampires heal faster than those of immortals, supernatural hunters, non-original vampires, werewolves, evolved werewolves, non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids and humans. Original vampires also seem to heal much more quickly when exposed to vervain . They can heal/recover/regenerate from any and all injuries in a matter of seconds. Even a werewolf bite is no threat to them, it is only painful to them, as they are not wholly immune to the bite, but it wears off. Vervain laced liquid has also been shown to weaken them. If they are stabbed with Papa Tunde's blade and its removed, the healing process becomes much slower. Human blood has also known to make the healing process faster.
Immortality: As the oldest vampires in the world, Original vampires are immortal. They do not physically age and are immune to all illnesses, toxins, poisons and diseases. With the last White Oak Stake destroyed, no physical weapon on earth can kill them.
Enhanced Emotions: Original Vampires experience emotions more powerfully than humans. Emotions like love, joy, and happiness are intensified for vampires allowing them to live life more intensely. This ability allows the original vampires to feel emotions at their peak regardless of their age. They have been shown experiencing emotions as powerfully today as they did 1,000 years ago.
Emotional Control: Original vampires have a limited degree of control over their own emotions.. Original vampires possess the ability to "switch off" their emotions completely.
Mind Compulsion: Original vampires can control and influence the thoughts, emotions, behavior, actions and memories of humans, non-original vampires and non-original werewolf-vampire hybrids. They cannot however compel witches, immortals, or werewolves/evolved werewolves.
Sire Bond: Although rare among them, Sire Bonds can be formed when a human is turned with the blood of the vampire whom they had strong human feelings for.
Telepathy: Original Vampires have the ability to enter the minds of others as long as theirs is stronger than them although, as the oldest vampires in the world, 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. However, Elijah has been shown to mentally communicate with others from a short distance sending distress calls and mental images. Klaus and Elijah has also been shown sharing their memories with others.
Dream Manipulation: Original vampires can control dreams and subconscious. They can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming. Other effects of this ability is the ability to distort perceptions of reality and being able to trap someone in their dreams.
Illusions: Original Vampires have the power to trick the minds of others into seeing/feeling things that aren't actually happening.
True Face: An Original Vampire's true face is the appearance they are hiding under their normal human face. When an Original Vampire's true face is revealed, the sclera of their eyes turns blood-red, dark veins appear under their eyes as the blood pumps forcefully through them, and their canine teeth extend into razor-sharp fangs. An Original 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 anger, lust, sadness, etc. An Original Vampire's fangs are extremely sharp which gives them the ability to tear into any substance (including and especially flesh) and tear off limbs. With the fangs come the darkened veins under the eyes as well.
White Oak Stake Invulnerability: Original Vampire's is invulnerable to the White Oak Stake.
Tolerance to Werewolf Bite: Although Original Vampire's have bitten many times by werewolves, they could overcome the pain and hallucinations. Even having werewolf's venom in blood, he dominated a fight against Klaus in their first altercation and defeated him in a second duel when weakened further by Papa Tunde's blade; it should be noted that Klaus was forced to let his guard down, when Mikael threw Papa Tunde's Blade at Camille.
Tolerance to Papa Tunde's Blade: When Klaus used Papa Tunde's Blade against Mikael, he was neutralized, but only for minutes as he woke and removed blade from his chest with no aid, something Original vampire could do.
Blood Lust Control: Unlike most vampires, Original Vampire has complete control of their blood lust, which they perfected over the years of being a vampire to the point that their vampire veins have not been shown often since they was introduced, even when one requested to speak to Davina despite being neutralized for three months and having his skin color become very darkened from lack of blood; as a result, he was able to talk to her without craving her blood.
Weaknesses[]
Even though the Original Vampires are the oldest and strongest vampires in the world, they themselves still have weaknesses. However, these weaknesses are fewer compared to non-original vampires, and they recover faster from them. Original vampires are immune to most of the weakness of non-original vampires..
- Broken Neck: Breaking an Original vampire's neck will not kill them, but it will render them unconscious for several hours.
- Desiccation: Being completely drained of blood or the heart stopping will cause an Original vampire to desiccate like any other vampire, losing most of it's strength and any ability to move. The desiccated body of an Original vampire will appear as a corpse and can only start functioning again once they feed on blood. This process can be replicated artificially by a witch casting a desiccation spell.however, Original vampire's body is indestructible, however their hearts cannot be extracted.
- Invitation: In order to enter any house owned by humans, they need to be invited in by a person that officially lives there or the person of entitlement. Once invited, the invitation cannot be revoked. If an original vampire lives in a house, other vampires can enter freely and if an original vampire is in the house without being invited in, it will become disoriented and will begin to suffocate.
- Physical Trauma: Minor physical injuries such as gunshots, stab wounds and broken bones will cause an Original Vampire pain and also slow them down. However, this is momentary as they will heal completely within seconds. It seems physical trauma can hurt them anywhere on the body (ex-eye gauging, drowning).
- Werewolf Bite: While a werewolf bite can't kill Original vampires, it weakens them and causes hallucinations. The effects are temporary and only lasts for a few hours. This will not affect Klaus as he is a werewolf-vampire hybrid. Mikael overcame the pain of the venom and fought through the effects rather than suffer and hallucinate.
- Vervain: Vervain prevents Original vampires from compelling anyone who takes it and burns them on touch. Original vampires will heal very quickly from vervain wounds however.
- White Oak Ash Daggers: A group of enchanted silver daggers dipped in the ash of the white oak tree will neutralize an Original vampire when stabbed through the heart. If the dagger is removed, it must be dipped again in White Oak Ash to re-neutralize the Original vampire. Otherwise, it will have no effect and the Original vampire awaken within a few hours.
- Poison:It was shown that an original can't consume poisoned blood.