SPOILERS: TVD Mythology

[demetra]

SPOILERS! Mythology notes from Seasons 2, 3, 4, 5

Markos's story: 2000 years ago (5x18) Old World
- 2000 years ago, Silas and Qetsiyah (Travellers) cast a spell for immortality
- The spell for immortality contravened the rules of nature
- Their spell for immortality created a schism in the Traveller community, giving rise to two still-warring groups: Travellers and Witches
- The Witches tried to keep the Travellers scattered and to make them forget how powerful they could be
- The Witches put a curse on Travellers that kept them from gathering and settling down: whenever the Travellers gathered together in their own bodies, disaster struck them down (plague, earthquake, fire)
- The Travellers found a way around the curse: they did this by using magic to leave their own bodies and "passengering" themselves in other people's bodies.
- This allowed the Travellers to gather together in numbers without triggering the Witches' curse.
- Body-jumping also allowed the Travellers to live beyond the length of their natural lives.

Atticus Shane's story: Silas 2000 years ago (4x06)
- "World's first tombstone" belongs to a Witch so powerful, Silas, that he created a spell that would grant him immortality
- Legend says Silas created the immortality spell with a woman who loved him named Qetsiyah
- But Silas wanted to give immortality to another woman
- So Qetsiyah killed the other woman and buried Silas alive, leaving him powerless, immortal and alone
- later in the 4th season: Silas was turned into stone holding the cure for immortality in his hand
- Qetsiyah entombed Silas on an island that, at the time, was considered a remote part of the world ("Nova Scotia")
- In order to prevent Silas from taking the cure for immortality, becoming human, and dying to escape his fate, and to prevent him from finding peace, Qetsiyah cast a spell to create a supernatural purgatory, the Other Side, to capture and hold his spirit should he succeed in his attempt to die
- Since then, the spirits of all dead supernaturals have been entrapped on the Other Side
- Silas wants to rise again
- Kol's addendum: when Silas rises again, he will collapse the Other Side and bring back every supernatural who has died in the past with him
- Shane says Silas's tombstone is about 25% composed of Qetsiyah's calcified blood
- Some people stumbled onto the site where Silas was buried. They shed blood which seeped through the ceiling of Silas's tomb and onto his mask. Having been deprived of blood for eons, Silas used the power of his mind to create hallucinations for those who shed blood of people they'd lost in their lives. This created a legend that drew people back to the site with offerings of their blood so they could make contact with their dead.
-[end of Season Four] Silas reveals to Stefan that he is the original and Stefan is his doppelganger
- Silas actually created the immortality spell himself
- Nature needed balance and created a version of Silas that could die; Stefan is his shadow self

The Doppelganger Spell: 1500 Years Ago (Markos 5x18) Old World
- Markos knew of a prophecy that doppelganger blood can help the Travellers
- Markos is the reason Stefan and Elena were having visions
- The doppelganger law's been misinterpreted through the ages
- The doppelgangers are being drawn together because of a spell Markos cast 1500 years ago (circa 500 AD). The doppelgangers, however, had already been appearing for 500 years
- Markos had no idea where the doppelgangers were: it turns out that the way to get people to go searching for each other is the promise for true love.

Elijah's story: 1000 years ago (3x13) New World
- Klaus and Elijah both loved Tatia, "the originator of the Petrova line".
- She was an exquisite beauty
- They met her when they first settled in what became Mystic Falls.
- Werewolves pre-exist vampires. The werewolves were already there when the Mikaelsons arrived in the new world.
- Even though Tatia had had a child by another man, they both loved her.
- Their mother was a very powerful witch. She took Tatia, seeking to end Klaus' and Elijah's feud.
- Tatia wouldn't make a decision between them, Klaus and Elijah became estranged, but in the end they realized there was nothing stronger than the bond of family, "family above all"
- Klaus and Elijah later learned that it was Tatia's blood they consumed in the wine for the spell that Esther used to turn them into vampires.

Esther's story: 1000 years ago (3x14; 3x15) New World
- The Witch Aiyanna helped Esther discover a spell to save her children from the werewolves.
- Aiyanna would not perform the spell, leaving Esther to do it herself
- The spell to make them immortal was bound by the blood of the first Petrova doppelganger, Tatia, from whom Katherine and Elena were descended.
- [From Season Five: Tatia is a doppelganger of Amara]
- The Witches considered Esther's decision to turn her children into immortals a crime against nature.
- These Witches draw their power from nature.
- When Klaus killed Esther, she was consigned by the Witches to the Other Side for having cast a spell to make her children immortal.
- Esther's decision to kill her children -- Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Kol, Rebekah -- was to rectify this sin against nature.
- From the Other Side, Esther had also seen and felt the pain of every death her children had caused since they were turned.
- To join her children together as one, Esther needed the blood of a Petrova doppleganger (Elena).
- To turn her children back from vampires to human, Esther needed to call upon the Witches of the entire Bennett line, dead and living.
- She could only access this power through two living generations of Bennett Witches: Abbie and Bonnie.
- Damon turns Abbie into a vampire to prevent Esther from accessing the Bennett Witches; someone cannot be both a Witch and a vampire

Elijah's Story on Klaus's curse 1000 years ago (Season Two)
- Elijah's mother, Esther, took a lover in the New World who was from a werewolf blood line
- Klaus was born of that illicit union, he carries the werewolf gene
- When Esther made Klaus immortal, to create a balance, the Witches put a curse on Klaus that prevented his werewolf side from expressing itself,
- They sealed the spell with a moonstone
- Since then, Klaus had been doing everything he can to reverse the curse so he can awaken his werewolf side
- To break the curse, Klaus needed a witch to break the seal, he needed to sacrifice both a werewolf and a vampire to free both his sides, the sacrifice needed to draw power from the full moon, and he needed to shed the blood of Tatia's human doppelganger, as it was Tatia's blood used in the spell to make him immortal
- To help find the moonstone, he faked documents that portrayed the curse as a curse on all vampires and all werewolves, the Curse of the Sun and the Moon. Whoever found the moonstone could break the curse for their own species -- if vampires, they could walk in the sun, if werewolves, they could turn (or not) at will rather than being tied to the lunar cycle.
- This was to get every member of both warring species, vampires and werewolves, to look for the moonstone

Klaus's Story on The Brotherhood of the Five: 900 years ago (1110-1114 AD) (4x04) Italy
- [Show opener shows] Five hunters with five swords forged by a witch [Aiyanna] and fire in 1110 AD
- The Five are a group of highly-skilled vampire hunters bound by fire by a dying witch [Aiyanna] and the last breath to a single cause: the destruction of all vampires
- The Originals crossed paths with the Hunters in Italy in 1114 AD
- Rebekah fell in love with one of the Hunters, Alexander
- Hunters carry a tattoo -- the Hunter's mark. The symbols included in the tattoo are clues to a map.
- The Hunter's sword is the key or a cipher to interpreting the symbols on the tattoo as a map
- The map leads to what is described as a great weapon against vampirism: in fact it is a Cure for vampirism [according to Rebekah].
- [Atticus Shane]Later the Cure is called a cure for the spell of immortality. The spell for immortality is sustained by human blood, hence why immortals are vampires.
- Alexander also carried a special dagger which he dipped in the ash of the white oak tree; he daggered Rebekah
- [Presumption being that Aiyanna was the dying witch who created the Hunters and the magic daggers and gave the white oak ash to the Hunters to restore the balance of nature by providing a remedy against Esther's magic in creating the Original vampires?]
- At the same time as Alexander daggered Rebekah, the other Hunters daggered the rest of the Originals
- Klaus's werewolf side protected him from the effects of the dagger; he then slaughtered all the Five; their tattoos then disappeared
- Klaus has not heard of the Five again for 900 years until, after the Council was blown up, the hunter Connor showed up in Mystic Falls
- Connor to Jeremy: Connor said he does not know what his tattoo means; he felt irresistably drawn to killing vampires
- The tattoo showed up on his hand; the tattoo grows with every vampire he kills
- The tattoo can only be seen by the hunter or by a would-be hunter
- (4x06) According to Klaus, whoever kills a Hunter becomes afflicted with the Hunter's Curse, hallucinations driven by guilt that drive the killer to suicide
- The curse is only lifted when a potential new Hunter is awakened, that is, has killed his first vampire.

[crimmyj]

hey demetra thanks for reminding me how crappy the writers did this season with mythology. lol

[Kiki]

- From the Other Side, Esther had also seen and felt the pain of every death her children had caused since they were turned.

Where did you get that? Sounds like the anchor somehow

[demetra]

Jul 15, 2014 5:42:07 GMT -5 Kiki said:

- From the Other Side, Esther had also seen and felt the pain of every death her children had caused since they were turned.

Where did you get that? Sounds like the anchor somehow

It's exactly what Esther said to Klaus, Elijah and Kol.

[crimmyj]

Jul 15, 2014 9:32:09 GMT -5 demetra said:

Jul 15, 2014 5:42:07 GMT -5 Kiki said:

- From the Other Side, Esther had also seen and felt the pain of every death her children had caused since they were turned.

Where did you get that? Sounds like the anchor somehow

It's exactly what Esther said to Klaus, Elijah and Kol.

I suppose you could take this one of 2 ways...Either because she could bear witness to their wrongdoings that she "felt" that pain in her heart knowing it was her fault they are the creatures they are, so not an actual physical pain but more metaphorical pain...OR maybe the witches cursed Esther to feel the deaths since it was her spell that made them immortal beings and that was her punishment.    For my money I always took Esther's line as being the metaphorical type of pain, until I am proven otherwise by something actually said or shown in the episodes.

[demetra]

From 3x15:

Esther (to Klaus, Elijah, Kol): For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you, you're a curse on this earth. (speech starts at 31:18)

[demetra]

Jul 15, 2014 18:04:19 GMT -5 demetra said:

From 3x15:

Esther (to Klaus, Elijah, Kol): For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you, you're a curse on this earth. (speech starts at 31:18)[/quote


crimmyj and Kiki, this is just what Esther said. It is interesting that the language she was given can now be interpreted to be similar to that of Amara and Bonnie's experiences as anchors. I did take it to mean that, as Mason, Lexi and Alaric said later, that those trapped on the Other Side could see all the mistakes their loved ones who were still living made but had no ability to physically interfere. Esther's language does sound more intense, as if she experiences it punitively.

[crimmyj]

Jul 15, 2014 18:04:19 GMT -5 demetra said:

From 3x15:

Esther (to Klaus, Elijah, Kol): For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you, you're a curse on this earth. (speech starts at 31:18)

There ya go then.  Doesn't sound metaphorical, not unless she is being a drama queen with a penchant for hyperbole!  Sounds like she was cursed in some way then.  Also sounds very similar to the anchor.  Sadly I am not even sure if the writers even are aware how they circle back on their own mythology sometimes.

[napoli]

Jul 15, 2014 21:27:47 GMT -5 crimmyj said:

Jul 15, 2014 18:04:19 GMT -5 demetra said:

From 3x15:

Esther (to Klaus, Elijah, Kol): For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you, you're a curse on this earth. (speech starts at 31:18)

There ya go then.  Doesn't sound metaphorical, not unless she is being a drama queen with a penchant for hyperbole!  Sounds like she was cursed in some way then.  Also sounds very similar to the anchor.  Sadly I am not even sure if the writers even are aware how they circle back on their own mythology sometimes.

It would be cool if there is a link between Esther and the anchor. Can JP clean up the mythology mess of s5 and make sense of it - please let it be!

However when I read this quote I feel that Esther feels the pain of each victim versus any supernatural being who has died (like the anchor) out of guilt because she turned her children into vampires and by doing this she indirectly killed the victims. I interpret this similar to the pain (guilt) Stefan carries for all the victims he has killed. Esther felt the pain of the victims her children killed.

[Kiki]

It does sound similar to the anchor but I doubt the writres are aware of it. They are not that clever anymore

[demetra]

Link at smithsonian.com to cool story about the Great New England Vampire Panic: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/

Re: Salvatore Mother died of consumption

"Though scholars today still struggle to explain the vampire panics, a key detail unites them: The public hysteria almost invariably occurred in the midst of savage tuberculosis outbreaks. Indeed, the medical museum’s tests ultimately revealed that J.B. had suffered from tuberculosis, or a lung disease very like it. Typically, a rural family contracted the wasting illness, and—even though they often received the standard medical diagnosis—the survivors blamed early victims as “vampires,” responsible for preying upon family members who subsequently fell sick. Often an exhumation was called for, to stop the vampire’s predations."

“Consumption,” as it was called, had started to plague New England in the 1730s, a few decades before the first known vampire scares. By the 1800s, when the scares were at their height, the disease was the leading cause of mortality throughout the Northeast, responsible for almost a quarter of all deaths. It was a terrible end, often drawn out over years: a skyrocketing fever, a hacking, bloody cough and a visible wasting away of the body. “The emaciated figure strikes one with terror,” reads one 18th-century description, “the forehead covered with drops of sweat; the cheeks painted with a livid crimson, the eyes sunk...the breath offensive, quick and laborious, and the cough so incessant as to scarce allow the wretched sufferer time to tell his complaints.” Indeed, Bell says, symptoms “progressed in such a way that it seemed like something was draining the life and blood out of somebody.”

[D--Also interesting in TVD that a vampire poisoned by a werewolf bite or a vampire dying after his/her Original has been killed has consumption-like symptoms]

Re: Timing of the emergence of The Originals to 1000 years ago

"The legend originated in Slavic Europe, where the word “vampire” first appeared in the tenth century. Bell believes that Slavic and Germanic immigrants brought the vampire superstitions with them in the 1700s, perhaps when Palatine Germans colonized Pennsylvania, or Hessian mercenaries served in the Revolutionary War"

[leelala]

Thanks for putting all that together!!

One of the many things the writers confuse me with... If Tatia was the first of the Petrova line whats up with Amara?? Wasnt she the first??

[demetra]

Jul 17, 2014 18:25:29 GMT -5 leelala said:

Thanks for putting all that together!!


One of the many things the writers confuse me with... If Tatia was the first of the Petrova line whats up with Amara?? Wasnt she the first??

I think Amara was the actual first person (she lived around 2000 years ago), and Tatia appeared later in history as Amara's doppelganger (she was alive in the New World around 1000 years when the Mikaelsons were there). Elijah identified Tatia as being a Petrova. However, I'm still not really clear on whether Amara herself was actually a Petrova. But that's because I'm only up to 4x15 in my re-watch. Does that make any sense?