| “ | I don't know what year you think it is, Klaus, but I had a daughter once I know how it feels to never know her and when I did she died. Why are you avoiding them? They're beautiful and smart. So smart, maybe too smart for their own good. | ” |
— Katherine to Klaus in Where You Left Your Heart
| ||
Katherine Pierce Mikaelson (born Katerina Petrova) was a witch of the Traveler sub-culture and a former main character of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. She is a guest star in Legacies. She is also the second-known Petrova Doppelgänger of Amara. She was the main antagonist of season one (mostly off-screen through John Gilbert's and Isobel's actions, as both were working for her in order to kill off the tomb vampires), and one of the main antagonists of season two, the second half of season four and the first half of season five of The Vampire Diaries. She later became a deuteragonist in season two, three, four, and five of The Originals.
In 1490, she was disowned by her father because she brought shame upon her family after giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock when she was seventeen. She was forced to give the baby up for adoption and then was then exiled to England. She quickly assimilated into English culture and met two nobleman brothers, Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson. At first, she was attracted to both men, but in time, she eventually learned that she was a Petrova doppelgänger and that Klaus was planning on using her as a sacrifice in order to break the curse that bound his werewolf side. She sabotaged his plan by running away with the moonstone, which bound the curse, and then tricked Rose into feeding her vampire blood so she could turn herself into a vampire. Because Katherine was no longer human, her blood no longer was a viable component of the ritual to undo the curse. Klaus was so infuriated with Katherine's sabotage, that she was forced to live on the run for over 500 years as he hunted her down.
Her activities during her first centuries as a vampire are unknown, but at some point between the 15th and 19th centuries, she took on the alias "Katherine Pierce" (an anglicized version of her birth name) and eventually met and befriended Pearl, Anna, Emily Bennett, and Melinda Brown. In the late 19th century, she traveled to Mystic Falls, where she met Stefan and Damon Salvatore, whose family hosted her at the Salvatore Estate. She later fell in love with both brothers, and subsequently fed them her blood, resulting in their eventual transitions into vampires after they were killed by their father in early autumn of 1864. When the Founder's Council found out the identities of the vampires in town, she faked her death and escaped being sealed in the tomb with the aid of George Lockwood, who helped her in exchange for the moonstone.
During the twentieth century, she continued to keep tabs on Stefan while still hiding from Klaus, including two separate sightings in Chicago in the 1920s and the 1980s. In 2010, she came back to Mystic Falls with the intention of finally earning her freedom from Klaus by handing over the Petrova doppelgängers who came after her, Elena and Alexandria Gilbert. To sweeten the potential deal with Klaus, she killed Caroline Forbes, who had Damon's blood in her system and later transitioned into a vampire, and tricked Mason and Tyler Lockwood into triggering their werewolf curses, just so they could each also serve as the vampire and werewolf sacrifices necessary in the ritual. She even tracked down the moonstone so that she could give Klaus every component necessary to break his curse. However, when her plans ultimately fell through, she fled Mystic Falls again shortly after Klaus broke his hybrid curse on his own, knowing that he was not done punishing her for her betrayal half a millennium ago.
After failing to induce Klaus' forgiveness by securing the cure and handing it over to Elijah in Season Four, Katherine managed to draw Klaus away from Mystic Falls by revealing to him in a letter that a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux was plotting against him. Once Klaus and Elijah officially returned to New Orleans, Katherine moved back to Mystic Falls, confident that the Mikaelsons would be too preoccupied with their complications there to pay any attention to her.
In Graduation, Katherine initiated a violent fight with Elena, believing that Elena got the life that Katherine deserved. Just as she was about to rip her descendant's heart out of her chest, Elena forced the cure down Katherine's throat, which resulted in Katherine returning to a human/Traveler for the first time in over 500 years.
Following these events, she went on the run for the summer, but when she realized that her return to humanity made her vulnerable to all of the various supernatural enemies she had made over the centuries, she returned to Mystic Falls, hoping to sweet-talk Stefan and Damon into giving her their protection. However, she was forced to flee again when the immortal Silas came looking for her at the Salvatore Boarding House and tried to kill her. Silas later revealed to Damon that Katherine's blood became the cure after she had ingested it, which is why he wanted Katherine so he could cure himself and die so he could be reunited with his true love in the afterlife. She ran from him for weeks, but eventually, Damon helped Silas lure Katherine to the house and fed him her blood, which turned him back into a witch.
Though Katherine should have died after Silas completely drained her of blood, Katherine's survivor instincts won out, and she managed to live through the attack. Unfortunately for Katherine, she learned shortly afterward that having the cure removed from her bloodstream had caused her body to start rapidly aging in order to compensate for the 500+ years she had been "alive" as an immortal vampire. Not ready to die, her daughter Nadia reminded her that as the daughter of a Traveler, Katherine had the magical powers necessary to become a Passenger in someone else's body. She ultimately cast the Passenger spell on her deathbed to transfer her spirit into Elena's body, with help from Nadia and a Traveler named Mia. After the gang discovered this, Stefan stabbed her with the Traveler Knife, expelling her from Elena's body, but not before Katherine made amends with a dying Nadia. Upon learning she was denied entry to the Other Side, and therefore also denied a reunion with her daughter, she was dragged by unseen forces into what is presumed to be a hell of some kind.
After a year of being dead Alexandria Gilbert brought her back to life to have a second chance of life she never had. Since then, Katherine never wasted having the life she wanted. Since then Alex has trusted Katherine with her life and her daughter's. She's helped Alex when running from Dahlia but eventually Dahlia and Klaus found them and put the curse on Alex and her pack.
Katherine's notable ancestors include Amara, who was Silas' true love and presumably the world's first immortal woman, and Tatia, whose blood was involved in the creation of the adapted spell of immortality that was cast on the Mikaelson Family by Esther, as well the curse that bound Klaus' werewolf side. She is also the maternal ancestor of Maria Flemming, Lilith Labonair, and Isobel Flemming and that of Isobel's biological daughters, Arielle Labonair, Elena and Alexandria Gilbert. She was once the romantic interest of Stefan and Damon Salvatore, as well as Mason Lockwood. Since the late 15th century, she has also been the romantic interest of Elijah, with whom she was involved in the 21st century until he effectively ended their relationship by leaving to join his half-brother, Klaus, in New Orleans.
Katerina is a member of the Petrova Family. She has ties to the Mikaelson Family through her marriage to Elijah Mikaelson, Salvatore Family, Gilbert Family, and Labonair Family.
Early History[]
1473-1490's[]
Katerina Petrova (Cyrillic: Катерина Петрова) was born into a noble and wealthy Bulgarian family on June 5, 1473. In 1490, when she was about 16 or 17 years of age, Katerina became pregnant by an unknown man, a Traveler, and her family disowned her for the shameful birth of an illegitimate daughter. She carried the child to term, but seconds after her daughter's birth, Katerina's father took the child away and gave the child to another family, claiming it would be better for both of them to never see one another. Katerina was devastated by this and was banished to England, where she admitted to "quickly becoming English." In 1492, she met Trevor, who introduced her to Lord Elijah, who in turn introduced her to his younger brother, Lord Niklaus. Katerina was attracted to Klaus, until she found out what he was, and that he was planning on using her as a sacrifice to break the the Hybrid Curse placed on him. She escaped with the help of Trevor, who had fallen in love with her. He led her pursuers astray and told her to go east to a cottage in the woods where she would be safe. When she arrived at the cottage, Katerina met a vampire named Rose.
When Rose found out that Katerina had escaped from Klaus with the moonstone, she locked her in a room and told her that she would take her back to Klaus as soon as the opportunity arose, not wanting to suffer Klaus' wrath. Katerina tried to commit suicide by stabbing herself with a knife, saying she would rather die than go back to Klaus, but Rose force-fed her some of her blood to heal her. When Rose turned her back to confront Trevor, Katerina hung herself with a length of rope. Later, when Katerina woke up in transition, Trevor asked why she did it and claimed he would have helped her live. Katerina responds by saying that he would have been able to help her run and that running was never going to be enough.
Rose then explained to Trevor that Katerina used him to escape, and, knowing Klaus would find out their role in the escape, Rose attempted to kill Katerina with a stake. Katerina used the owner of the cabin as a shield, which resulted in her death. Katerina then gave in to her instincts and drained the little old lady, completing her transition into a vampire. She then threw the body towards Rose and Trevor and fled into the night. Katerina returned to Bulgaria in the later months of 1492 to find her entire family brutally slaughtered by Klaus. She knew he had done it as revenge for her escape and subsequent transition. She was last seen weeping over her mother's dead body.
Katherine may have stolen the spell for making Daylight Amulets from Esther's grimoire before fleeing from Klaus as this may explain how Emily was able to make Katherine, Bethanne, Pearl, Anna and Harper daylight rings and her a necklace in 1864.
Sometime during 1498, Katherine returned to Bulgaria after escaping from Klaus. Katherine searched every village and cottage for her daughter, Nadia Petrova, who was eight at the time, but had no luck in finding her.
1720[]
Katherine killed a man outside the French Court of Versaille. Nadia, who was in search of information on her mother's whereabouts, offered a large amount of gold to a man who witnessed Katherine commit this murder and informed him that Katherine had been on the run for 228 years by this point.
1864[]
372 years had passed when Katerina arrived in Mystic Falls, Virginia in 1864, by which time she had taken the name Katherine Pierce, presumably to avoid detection by Klaus. At some point, she had become friends with Pearl and her daughter, Anna; another friend she made prior to this point was the witches Emily Bennett and Melinda Brown whose lives Katherine had saved, putting Emily and Melinda in her debt. Emily forged Katherine a special piece of jewelry with a lapis lazuli stone, which allowed her to walk in the sun without being burned and helped her keep her vampire identity a secret. She was taken in by one of the town's founders, Giuseppe Salvatore, having spun a story about being orphaned by a fire that killed her family in Atlanta to win her sympathy. Katherine met and fell in love with his younger son Stefan Salvatore, though she quickly began a physical relationship with Stefan's older brother, Damon, as well. Katherine created quite a few vampires while living in Mystic Falls, which inevitably alerted the Founding Families to their existence. Pearl warned Katherine that the town knew about the vampires after discovering an elixir that Honoria Fell had asked to be sold at the local apothecary which contained vervain. Pearl tried to convince her to leave, but Katherine refused, claiming she had a plan in motion. Her plan, it turned out, was to eventually turn Stefan and Damon into vampires, having seduced them both during her stay at the Salvatore household.
Realizing how quickly the Founder's Council would take action against the vampires, Katherine struck a deal with George Lockwood: she would give him the moonstone if he would help her fake her death in the inevitable vampire round-up. Eventually, Stefan unwittingly suggested to his father that he knew a vampire, and Giuseppe guessed Katherine's true identity. Giuseppe spiked Stefan's drink with vervain, and later that same night, Katherine bit him. She was incapacitated by the vervain in his bloodstream, and, hearing the commotion, Giuseppe burst in to take her away. Damon later went to rescue her, and Stefan, upset that he had hurt his brother and jeopardized Katherine's life, helped him in the effort. They were both killed by their own father, who was so ashamed that his sons had been seduced by a "demon" that he preferred to keep the story that they had died honorably in the war against the vampires.
Katherine and the other vampires were taken to Fell's Church to be destroyed, but George helped Katherine escape, as per their previous arrangement. She gave George the moonstone, but instead of leaving right away, she turned to see Stefan's body one last time while it was still lying in the road. She ran to Stefan, kissed him, and promised they would be together again someday. After transitioning into a vampire, Damon was told by Emily that Katherine was trapped in the tomb beneath the church, and as a result, the older Salvatore never stopped loving Katherine, as he impatiently awaited the day he would be able to rescue her from the tomb. In reality, Katherine was still lying low to evade Klaus, and she admitted to Stefan that she had seen him in the front row of a Bon Jovi concert in the 1980s to prove that she had continued to keep tabs on him over the decades.
1920's[]
Katherine was in Chicago at the same time as Stefan, but she only observed him from afar. After a police raid cleared out the speakeasy, Katherine spotted Rebekah's necklace on the ground. She moved to pick it up, but ran away before Stefan could see or notice her. She watched him for a few moments before slipping into the shadows.
1970's[]
Katherine employed the talents of the vampire Will, who owned the music club and bar, Billy'y in New York City. He also ran an identity theft ring that secured new identities for vampires. Damon, who was friends with Will and helped him by killing people to steal their ID cards, unwittingly helped Katherine in her mission to remain undetected, though he did not realize this fact until much later.
1983[]
Anna told Damon that she had seen Katherine during this year in Chicago.
1987[]
It was revealed that Katherine was watching Stefan and Lexi from afar at a Bon Jovi concert.
Physical Appearance[]
Almost every character who has met any combination of the Petrova doppelgängers has remarked that Katherine looked identical to Amara, Tatia, Elena, or Alex. As such, Katherine was an extraordinarily beautiful and seductive young woman: she had a heart-shaped face with fine bone structure, a wealth of brown curly hair, and almond-shaped, deep brown eyes with thick dark lashes.
Katherine and Alex looked exactly identical, but once you know what to look for, you can distinguish the two easily, same goes with Elena. Alex is always seen wearing her necklace Stefan gave her. Katherine and Alex share the same shade color for their hair but Alex is seen either wearing it down the middle or a deep part on the right and has tight curly hair but can have loose curls, while Katherine parts her hair on the left with tight or loose curls. Katherine wore make-up a little bit differently than Alex; Katherine favored a dark smoky eye with thick winged eyeliner, and her choice in lipstick was a darker, sultry pink appearance, while Alex wears both dark smoky eye and bronze smoky eyes and a thick liner.
When deducing where Katherine bought most of her clothes, she was quoted as saying that she bought most of her shoes in Paris. The majority of her jeans are J-Brand, and almost the entirety of her tops, especially those worn in season 5, were from Bebe.
Powers and Abilities[]
Witch[]
Katherine after being cured possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a mortal Witch. She then possessed little fighting ability and also possessed a weak form of Traveler magic, due to belonging to a cursed culture of witches. However, she was shown using her witchcraft only twice, in order to become a passenger in Elena's body, and to give her daughter a vision of what her life should have been like. It has also been mentioned by Caroline that Katherine was not an easy target as she was able to perceive sneak attacks before they happened as a result of the heightened survival instincts she developed after spending five centuries on the run from the Original Vampires.
Spirit[]
Katherine was sent to hell after her death. Her only weakness was the destruction of hell, while she was there.
Vampire[]
Katherine had possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a non-Original vampire. She has shown to be a very experienced fighter, able to hold her own against both Stefan and Damon in battle. Being 538 years old made Katherine one of the most powerful vampires to appear in the series, until she was forced to take the cure which turned her back into a witch of the Traveler subculture. Katherine was shown to be known and feared by nearly everyone.
Hybrid (Vampire-Witch)[]
Since being turned into a vampire-witch hybrid she has all the abilities she had as a witch while being able to be a vampire as well.
Weaknesses[]
Katherine has the typical weaknesses of a non-Original vampire-witch hybrid.
Name[]
- Katherine is a feminine first name of uncertain origin. It appears to come from the Greek Αικατερινη meaning "each of the two", or possibly from καθαρος (Katharos) meaning "pure". There are several famous bearers of this name, including Catherine de' Medici and Catherine the Great from Russia. The name is common in English. Katerina is of Bulgarian or Russian origin and means "pure".[3]
- Petrov/Petroff (masculine) or Petrova (feminine) is one of the most common surnames in both Russia and Bulgaria. The surname is derived from the first name Pyotr (Пётр, Russian) or Petar (Петър, Bulgarian), both equivalent to the English name Peter. Petrov means "son of Peter" in Russian and Bulgarian.
- Mikaelson is of of Scandinavian origin and means "Son of Mikael".