Stefan Salvatore

Stefan Salvatore is one of the two main male protagonists and the deuteragonist of The Vampire Diaries. Stefan is a 166-year-old vampire and the distant descendant and doppelgänger of Silas. Stefan was born and raised in the supernatural town of Mystic Falls, Virginia and came of age during the time of the Civil War. Stefan is the youngest son of Giuseppe Salvatore and Lillian Salvatore. He has an older brother, Damon Salvatore, who is also a vampire and whom he shares a strained relationship with, stemming from the appearance of Katherine Pierce in which they fought over whilst human.

During the years following his transition, despite the help from close friend Lexi Branson, Stefan has constantly battled with his bloodlust, and during the 1900's after "falling off the wagon" due to Damon's unhealthy influence, he widely became known as the Ripper of Monterrey due to his inability to control his blood thirst. For a brief time, Stefan was romantically involved with the Original, Rebekah Mikaelson, and shared a close friendship with her brother, Niklaus.

After many years away, Stefan returned to his hometown of Mystic Falls to visit his distant nephew, Zach. Stefan saw Elena Gilbert for the first time while rescuing her after her parents' car drove off Wickery Bridge. After finding her personal records and observing her from afar, Stefan determined that Elena was definitely not Katherine. Still, he was strongly intrigued by her and decided to pose as a new transfer student at Mystic Falls High School to get to know her. They are instantly drawn to each other and they immediately bond, beginning a romantic relationship shortly afterwards. However, despite them becoming romantically involved, various and numerous obstacles begin to come between the two, making Stefan and Elena struggle and fight to be together. They grow distance after Elena's transition, and later break up, due to Elena's heightened feelings for Damon. He later discovers that this is due to the creation of a sire bond between Elena and Damon after Elena's transition to a vampire. He then embarks on a journey to Nova Scotia with Elena, Damon, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Rebekah to seek the the cure that can help break the sire bond.

At the end of the fourth season, Stefan ends up heartbroken when the sire bond is broken and Elena still decided to choose Damon over him. Stefan decides to leave town and start over elsewhere. However, Stefan ends up being confronted by Silas, finally revealing his true form and locks him in a safe underwater.

Throughout the fifth season, Stefan loses his memories due to Qetsiyah's attempt at incapacitating Silas and suffering effects due to Silas' confrontation, he slowly finds closure with Katherine as she helps him overcome his demons. Being a doppelgänger, Stefan's blood is used for a spell by The Travelers in order to resurrect their leader, Markos. During this time, he begins to grow close to Elena again and they are able to form a close friendship. As things begin to spiral out of control, Stefan was unexpectedly killed by Julian, a Traveler warlock, while trying to protect Caroline, but he was resurrected after Damon, Caroline and Elena's plan to bring him back from The Other Side is a success. However after Damon fails to return, he is left devastated at the loss of his brother as the Other Side collapses. Following this, Stefan moved away from Mystic Falls and had tried to start over and move on from the loss, pain and tragedy. Unfortunately, for Stefan, he ended up being dragged back to Mystic Falls due to unexpected drama.

Stefan's life has been fraught with constant change and various complications: from falling in love and being with Elena to mending his complicated relationship with Damon; from sacrificing his freedom for his brother's life to growing apart from Elena after her transition to a vampire, and suffering the guilt that came from making a split-second decision that resulted in Elena becoming a vampire.

He was best friends with Lexi Branson until her death, and eventually became best friends with Caroline Forbes. He is also close friends with Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett.

Throughout the series, outside forces threaten those he loves and what he most desires: a normal, human life.

Stefan is a member of the Salvatore Family.

Early Life

 * -|Early Human Life=

Stefan Salvatore was born on Veritas Estate in what would become the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe Salvatore and Lillian Salvatore on November 1, 1846. Sometime in his life during his childhood, his mother got very sick and deciding not to spend any time with her, he instead did whatever he could do to avoid her, such as walking into Mystic Falls and getting the tea she liked or picking out her favorite flowers. Whereas he pretended that he doing it for her, he was just afraid to see her in a sick condition. Sometime later, Giuseppe sent her away but then she had died of consumption (which is another term for tuberculosis). Stefan mentions that he would give anything to have spent one more day with her. After that, Stefan lived with his father and his older brother Damon Salvatore. Stefan is seven years younger than Damon. Despite the semi big age difference, Stefan grew up to be the best of friends with his brother and had even said that Damon was his best companion, despite having other friends growing up since his childhood. He mentions that in October of 1852, Damon broke Stefan's nose trying to teach him how to throw a right hook. Going by flashbacks, it is evident that Stefan was Giuseppe's favourite son or child and that Stefan had a rather close and good relationship with his father, the complete opposite of Damon, who appeared to have had a rather strained and tension-filled relationship with Giuseppe. Personality wise, Stefan was seen to be kind, caring, compassionate, introverted, intelligent, well-spoken, responsible, dutiful, noble and an overall respectable young gentleman. He was also very attractive and appealing to the opposite sex and he had zero problems attracting female admirers (with one of the most notable ones being Katherine). One day in the woods, during the year 1864, before he became a vampire, Stefan was fixing a broken carriage when a man who was riding a carriage carrying Katherine Pierce and Emily Bennett had stopped to talk to him. This is when Katherine had first seen Stefan and described that she was instantly drawn to him and attracted to him.

In 1864, Katherine and Emily had come to stay at the Salvatore Estate. When Stefan had met Katherine, he had become stringly attracted to her and eventually had fallen in love with her, as did his brother Damon. However, despite Damon's feelings for Katherine, it seemed to be evident that the younger Salvatore was Katherine's preference as it was Stefan that she had asked to escort her to the Founders Ball. One night, Stefan and Katherine had spent a passionate night together. Another night, Stefan and Katherine were spending a passionate night together when she suddenly bit Stefan. It was during that time when Stefan and Katherine were making love that Katherine revealed her true identity to Stefan and that she was a vampire. It is unknown if Katherine had compelled Stefan to forget after she had bitten him. The next morning after their passionate affair, Stefan awoke with a bloody wound on his neck, and the previous night slowly returned to him. He was clearly frightened of her, saying that her face resembled that of a demon and also told her to get away from him. To calm him down, Katherine compelled him to not be afraid of her. After hearing of the town's plan to kill the vampires, Stefan went to see his father Giuseppe and unintentionally hinted to him that he knew of vampires staying in Mystic Falls when he suggested that vampires might not be as bad as they are made out to be. During this conversation, his father tricked Stefan and drugged his alcoholic drink with vervain. When Katherine went to see Stefan that night and bit him so that she could feed on his blood as a form of foreplay, the vervain within Stefan's blood had poisoned and incapacitated her. Stefan was confused, worried and concerned about what was happening to Katherine and could not understand why Katherine appeared so sick and weakened all of a sudden. Giuseppe, hearing Katherine collapse, entered Stefan's room. He then told Stefan that he had tricked Stefan and had put vervain in his drink after Stefan had asked his father how he knew about Katherine and other vampires existing because "he did not raise his sons to be so weak. Giuseppe than urged Stefan to let the sheriff know that they have another vampire in Katherine captured and for him to go the sheriff as quickly as possible. Giuseppe then set in motion Katherine's capture, which corresponded with a town-wide vampire round-up. Later, finding out what had happened with Katherine being captured by their father, Damon was extremely devastated and furious with Stefan, as Damon had made him promise not to tell their father about Katherine. Damon ended up blaming Stefan for Katherine's capture although it was not ever Stefan's intention on hurting or betraying Damon and outing Katherine.
 * -|Katherine's Arrival=

As a result of indirectly betraying Damon, Stefan felt extreme guilt for unintentionally being responsible for Katherine's capture and promised Damon that he would do everything he could to help Damon get Katherine back. They then planned a course of action to get around the guards who were on watch for the vampires, and eventually made it to the cage where Katherine was being held captive. They got Katherine out of the cage, but as soon as they were ready to escape with her, Damon was shot by an unknown person. Shocked and overwhelmed with grief to see his brother dying, Stefan picked up a gun to shoot whoever had shot his brother, but before he could do so, Stefan was also shot directly in the chest. He slowly lost consciousness as he watched Katherine, who lay on the ground nearby, still weakened by the vervain. Once Stefan died, Katherine returned to Stefan's body and let him know that she loves him.

The next morning, Stefan woke up confused and dazed. He searched for his gunshot wound but found he had been healed, and noticed that he was a wearing an unfamiliar, large silver ring, with a deep blue stone and the Salvatore family crest with the letter 'S' on it. Emily Bennett then approached Stefan and told him that Katherine had her make that ring for him (and Damon) weeks before. She explained everything that had happened since he was shot: she had found him and Damon lying dead in the woods, brought them to the quarry, and he and Damon were now transitioning into vampires. Stefan, confused, wondered how that was possible if he had never drunk Katherine's blood, but Emily confessed that Katherine had compelled him for weeks to drink her blood, while Damon drank from Katherine willingly. Stefan soon approached Damon, who recounted seeing the townspeople dragging Katherine into the church and setting it on fire. The two discussed their options, and both brothers seemingly agreed to die without transitioning, as neither one wanted to be a vampire without Katherine.
 * -|Becoming A Vampire=

Later in the evening, Stefan began to notice that he had heightened senses, including super-hearing. He overheard his father and Johnathan Gilbert discussing the vampires being captured and destroyed, and that his father wanted to keep secret that his sons were vampire sympathizers, preferring they be known for dying nobly and bravely in the fight against the vampires. After Johnathan had left, Stefan went inside to talk to his father one last time, who was shocked to see that Stefan was "alive." Stefan wondered aloud to his father that even in their death, he still felt ashamed of his sons. Giuseppe retorted with disgusted disapproval that their mother would have been extremely disappointed in her sons, were she alive to see what they had become. He then confessed to Stefan that he was the one who had shot and killed both him and Damon, shocking Stefan.

Stefan then told his father that he had not fully turned into a vampire yet and that he was choosing to let himself die instead of drinking human blood. Not taking any chances, Giuseppe tries to stake and kill Stefan. Underestimating his new-found vampire strength, Stefan threw Giuseppe against the wall, causing him to accidentally be stabbed by the wooden stake in the stomach. Overwhelmed and shocked, Stefan tried to help him, but Giuseppe refused him, disgusted by what Stefan was becoming. When Stefan pulled the stake out of his father's stomach, his bloodlust became too much for him to suppress and he tasted his father's blood, completing his transition into a full vampire.

Stefan then went to meet Damon, who had also planned to let himself die. He told Damon about how amazing it felt to be a vampire, that it was a gift; how he could willingly turn off his emotions, the pain and the guilt. Stefan had compelled a young woman to go with him to Damon, where he convinced his brother to become a vampire by drinking her blood. Damon initially refused, but Stefan would not relent, saying he couldn't let him die. Eventually Damon drank the girl's blood and told Stefan that he was right, that it felt like a whole new world being a vampire. Stefan hoped this meant they could be brothers and companions together forever, but instead Damon promised Stefan that he would make Stefan's life miserable for the rest of eternity.

Weeks after he was newly turned and still lacked control of his bloodlust, Stefan went on a rampage, killing members of the Founding Families out of revenge for what they had done to Katherine. One member was Johnathan Gilbert, though he later came back to life with the help of his Gilbert ring. Stefan continued on a blood-drinking bender to try to make the guilt and pain of what he had done to Damon and his father go away. He compelled young women to go home with him, so he could toy with them and feed on their blood. When Damon found Stefan like this, he was upset by his brother's uncontrollable behavior and compelled all of the women to leave and to never come back. Damon tried to convince Stefan to control his bloodlust and moderate his behavior, but could not get through to Stefan until he announced he was leaving town. Desperate to keep his brother in his life, Stefan begged Damon not to leave, that he promised he would do better. Damon showed no sympathy for his brother's pleas and left, saying he would not let Stefan get them both killed, and that he would leave him to do that to himself.

One night, Stefan went to a camp where the war-wounded lay, and discreetly fed on their blood. It was there that he spotted a girl in the shadows and tried to attack and feed on her. Instead, she drove Stefan to the ground and turned out to be another, much older vampire by the name of Alexia Branson. Lexi needed a place to stay, so Stefan brought her home with him, where she found corpses drained of blood lying everywhere. Lexi told Stefan that he was a Ripper, and that there are good parts of being a vampire and there are bad parts, and that he was the bad parts. Determined to change that, she later walked with him through the camp where they had met, asking him how he felt about the suffering war victims. Stefan told her that he felt emotionally numb, that he felt nothing. She then explained that he felt nothing because he had managed to turn off the part that makes him feel, the human part of him; that in spite of the intensified pain and suffering vampires feel, love is what makes life worth living. Over the course of many decades, Lexi became Stefan's mentor, best friend and companion, and she showed Stefan the 'good parts' of being a vampire; how to live compassionately and reclaim the caring, empathetic person Stefan had been as a human. From 1864 to 1912, Stefan lived on a strict animal blood diet and no longer fed on human blood.
 * -|Meeting Lexi=


 * -|1912 - 1922=

1912
In 1912, Stefan returned to Mystic Falls to attend the funeral of his half-nephew, Zachariah. It was there that Stefan saw Damon for the first time in almost fifty years. Damon initially had no desire to rekindle any brotherly relationship with Stefan, but Stefan convinced Damon to join him for a drink, saying he had missed him.

Later, while at a boxing ring, Damon tried to persuade a very resistant Stefan to have a drink of human blood with him again, selecting Marianna Lockwood and luring her away from the crowd. Stefan fed on her, but quickly lost control of himself and accidentally ripped her head off, astonishing both of them. Out of extreme guilt and remorse, Stefan irrationally apologized and tried to put her head back onto her body. Stefan, angry with Damon for forcing him to drink human blood, refused Damon's offer to help him learn to control it, then ran off into the woods. Damon watched him go, concerned for his brother's well-being, though not enough to pursue him. After drinking human blood in 1912, Stefan fell off the wagon and returned to his former Ripper lifestyle.

1917
Klaus revealed that Stefan had become notorious for his horrific killing sprees, including the massacre of an entire migrant village in 1917, after which he became known as the "Ripper of Monterrey".

1922
After Mexico, Stefan traveled to Chicago in 1922. It was there that he frequented a particular speakeasy, and one day caught the eye of a beautiful blonde, Rebekah. She initially resisted his interest, but they soon became romantically involved.

Stefan eventually met Rebekah's older half-brother, Nik. At first, Nik disliked Stefan because of his relationship with Rebekah. As time went on, however, they bonded over their similar family histories, as well as Stefan's penchant for petty cruelty toward humans, and became best friends who enjoyed each other's company immensely. The three of them frequently partied together at the speakeasy, enjoying booze, blood and dancing all night long.

On one such night of revelry, the club was attacked by what appeared to be the police. Discovering that the police were using wooden bullets, Stefan realized they knew there were vampires inside. He sensed Rebekah's panic when she responded cryptically "He's here," but before he could find anything out, Nik compelled Stefan to forget about him and Rebekah. Unbeknownst to Stefan, Katherine was in the club while the police were searching it; she spotted Rebekah's necklace on the floor and went to pick it up, but fled when she heard Stefan approaching. He in turn saw the necklace and picked it up, observing it carefully. A detective then approached him, showed him a sketch of Nik and Rebekah and asked if he had ever seen them before. Stefan told him what he believed to be the truth: that he had never seen those people before in his life.

In April of this year, Lexi found Stefan again, "dragged him off the train tracks" and started to help him recover his humanity and get off of human blood. According to Stefan's journal entries, it took the better part of a decade to do so; around 1935 he still felt cravings for human blood, but it was getting easier, and by the 1940's, still under Lexi's guidance, he continued to make progress with his rehabilitation.


 * -|1942=

Before he left for the war, Stefan, at Lexi's insistence, sought out his brother Damon in New Orleans in order to make amends with him. He approached his brother in a bar, and after an initial skepticism, Damon welcomed the reunion and seemed glad to have Stefan back in his life after thirty years apart. After Stefan told Damon about his plans to join the war effort as an ambulance driver, Damon proposed spur-of-the-moment that he could join Stefan. Unknown to Stefan at the time, Lexi talked Damon out of leaving with Stefan, citing his profligate lifestyle and how Damon's behavior would not be good for Stefan's rehabilitation. She seemed to be proven right when, after Charlotte had brought a bleeding victim back to the bar, Stefan started to lose himself at the sight and smell of human blood. Lexi's interference proved instrumental in the brothers' long estrangement, as Stefan left for the North African campaign believing Damon had abandoned him yet again.

As the elections new president and a lady is walking alone through an alley, Stefan appears and attacks to her, he biting her and drinking her blood, he lets her go alive and compels her to forget everything, then a woman who seems to know everything about vampires appears and she knows who is he, she knows he is the brother of Damon Salvatore who she is looking for, Stefan asks who she is and she tells him that her name is Maggie James, Stefan advised her to stay away from Damon as he is lost by his comportment, she confesses that she is looking for Damon is only for kill him because he is a monster, so Stefan decides to attack her but only to scare her and leave the town.
 * -|1960=


 * -|1977=

Stefan returned to Mystic Falls this year along with Lexi. Stefan asked Lexi to go to New York City to help Damon get his humanity back and to get his act together.

He was in Chicago with Lexi at a Bon Jovi concert, which unbeknownst to them was Katherine watching them from afar.
 * -|1987=

In the Pilot, Stefan mentions that the last time he saw Damon was sometime in the 1990's, 15 years prior to the Pilot.
 * -|1990's=

Season One - Season Six
See Stefan Salvatore's page on The Vampire Diaries wikia.

Personality
As a human, Stefan was compassionate, kind, noble, honorable, intelligent, athletic, responsible, academic, dutiful, and a gentleman. He was definitely seen as the 'Golden Boy' and he had the admiration and respect of the entire town of Mystic Falls and most of all, of his father Giuseppe. Stefan was also seen to be ambitious and studious and he desired to become a doctor during his human life and this was his profession or career of choice before he was turned into a vampire against his will. In his human years, when it came to love and romance, Stefan was liked, admired by and popular with women. He was seen to be chivalrous, gallant, romantic, well-mannered, courteous and polite, traits which made Katherine Pierce fall deeply for the younger Salvatore.
 * -|Human/Doppelgänger=

In regards to Katherine, Stefan was much harder to get and challenging unlike Damon, who persistently chased and pursued Katherine as much as possible. Unlike Damon, Stefan had a very close relationship with his father Giuseppe and Stefan was Giuseppe's favorite son. Stefan was also close with his mother, before she had died when he was 10 years old. Before turning into a vampire in 1864, Stefan was seen to be happy, optimistic, light-hearted, playful, mischievous and naive. He was also seen as athletic, dutiful, respectful, intelligent, scholarly, noble, chivalrous and even-tempered. Stefan was very close to his older brother Damon growing up. Although Stefan was very popular and had many male friends during his human life, Stefan always considered Damon to be his best friend and companion. Stefan was also a bit idealistic when it came to love and romance, even naive at times. This is evident in Stefan when he very quickly and easily became infatuated and fell in love with Katherine Pierce, which is evidence of his youthfulness, naivety and simplicity as a regular teenage human. Although Stefan was only 17 years old, he displayed maturity, responsibility and had a wisdom beyond his years. Because of this, Stefan always seemed to be much older than his actual age.


 * -|Vampire=

Physical Appearance
Physically, Stefan was described to be classically handsome and athletic, with a brooding, mysterious and intense aura. Stefan had a pale complexion, broad forehead, strong bone structure (angular jawline), deep-set, forest green eyes, a straight nose and a well-formed mouth. He had straight, short, dark blonde hair which is often gelled or spiked. Stefan also had straight teeth with a heartwarming smile. Stefan is of slightly above average height, about 5'11", and he has a lean, flat-muscled and athletic physique. In regards to his clothing and fashion sense, Stefan was generally trendy and casual.

He was often seen wearing darker colors such as black, grey and dark blue, although sometimes he wears lighter colors. Stefan had also been seen wearing plaid shirts in lighter tones from time to time. He was often seen wearing t-shirts, shirts or sweaters of darker colors and in various styles (such as short-sleeved, round-necked and v-necked shirts). Stefan was a casual, yet trendy dresser and he always looks neat, clean and well put together. He often wears dark or black jeans with a belt with black, leather boots with a buckle. On occasion, Stefan will sometimes wear black leather jackets and dark sunglasses, which give him a mysterious and rebellious aura. Stefan will wear more formal clothing, such as suits and tuxedos, if he was either attending a formal gathering/event or a special occasion.

Stefan had a tattoo of a rose on his right shoulder. However, the origin of the tattoo, its significance and when Stefan got the tattoo was all unknown. He also wears a large, silver lapis lazuli daylight ring on the middle finger of his right hand in order for him to walk around in the sunlight. On his lapis lazuli stone bears the Salvatore family crest with the letter "S" for the first letter of his first name. During his human years in the 1860's, Stefan's sense of style was "Victorian" and old-fashioned. In the 1864 flashbacks, Stefan was often seen wearing long pants, overalls made of denim with suspenders with a shirt underneath, dress shirts (often white in color), dress coats, vests (of various colors), trousers (normally in beige), waistcoats, and cravats with laced-leather boots (often beige in color). Stefan's hair was styled much differently; flatter and much longer in length with a part in the side.

Although Stefan was only a 17 year old teenager, Stefan appeared to look much older than his actual age because of the fashion at the time. It was assumed that Stefan's sense of fashion changed with the times. Damon mentions to Stefan in the Pilot after 15 years of not seeing each other, that the 90's "grunge" look did not suit Stefan, implying that Stefan went through a grunge phase in terms of his personality, attitude and his sense of style.

Powers and Abilities
Stefan possesses all the standard powers and abilities of a non-original vampire.

Weaknesses
Stefan has the typical weaknesses of a non-original vampire.

Name

 * Stefan is a masculine first name of Greek origin 'Στεφανος (Stephanos) meaning "crown", "garland", or invested with a "crown of martyrdom". In turn, Stephen or Stefan comes from the Greek word "στέφανος", meaning "wreath", "crown", "honor", "reward", literally "that which surrounds or encompasses".