Mikaelson Family (Yuki's Lore)

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Mikealson Family

The Mikaelson Family (Elder Futhark: ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ) is a powerful family whose line dates back at least to the then Kingdom of Norway in the late 10th century with Mikael and Esther, a wealthy landowner and a Viking warrior, and a housewife and a witch, respectively. At the beginning of the 11th century, the family was mortal until the loss of Esther and Mikael's youngest child, Henrikto a werewolf attack spurred them to use Esther's magic to turn Mikael and the rest of their living children into the world's first vampires, from whom all Vampires are descended.

The Original vampires are known as the most powerful supernatural beings in the world, but the Mikaelson family is also known for having members who are witches and Hybrids as well.

The family (excluding Freya, Henrik and Adyelya) are the main antagonists of the third season of The Vampire Diaries.

History

The first members of this family were a man named Mikael and his wife Esther. Esther longed for a family, though, after over a year of marriage, she found herself barren. She went to her sister, Dahlia, and begged her to use her magic to grant Esther the ability to have children. Dahlia granted this request, but made it clear that the magic had a price, and it was a price that Esther was forced to pay years later—her payment to her sister would be her first-born child, and the first-born of her children's children, and their children's children, for as long as Esther's line shall live. She then ordered Esther to pretend that her first-born, Freya, had died of a plague, so that Mikael would never know what truly had happened to his daughter when he returned from battle. Afterward, Esther and Mikael heard from a Witch called Ayana, Esther's best friend and mentor, that there was a land where everyone was healthy and strong, a land that ended up being the New World, specifically what is now modern-day Mystic Falls.

Mikael and Esther with Freya's surviving brother, Finn, and their recently born son Elijah traveled to this paradise with Ayana, where they settled in a village full of the healthy people they had learned about, who were revealed to be werewolves, and lived peacefully for years. In the years to follow, Esther bore four more children: Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. Mikael often clashed with his middle son, Niklaus, with whom he had an antagonistic and abusive relationship which only became worse when Klaus and Henrik snuck out to watch the werewolves transform one night, where Henrik was accidentally mauled and killed.

Grief-stricken, Mikael decided to search for a way to protect his family from the werewolves. Though their family friend Ayana refused to help him in fear of upsetting the balance of nature, Mikael soon found another witch who would help him – his wife, Esther. Somehow, they were able to learn of the immortality spell created by Qetsiyah a thousand years previously, and adapted the spell in order to give their children abilities of superhuman strength, speed, agility and healingthat would be even stronger than those of the werewolves. Esther drew on mystic symbols in order to fuel her spell; she called upon the Sun for life, and the white oak tree, long known for being one of the earth's eternal objects, for immortality, so that she and Mikael would never again have to suffer the grief of losing a child. In order to complete the ritual, Mikael had his children drink wine laced with the blood of Tatia, a Petrova doppelgänger and distant descendant of the world's first immortal woman, Amara before he then thrust his sword through their chests. They awoke in transition, and on their father’s orders, drank Human blood from a village girl in order to complete their transformation into the Original vampires. Unfortunately for them, there were consequences for this transformation, and Nature sought to try to restore the balance they upset by giving them a weakness for every new strength they had gained.

The sun that gave them life burned them, their thirst for human blood was insatiable, and their neighbors could close their homes to them by not inviting them inside. Vervain flowers, which grew at the base of the white oak tree, burned them and protected against compulsion. Finally, the White Oak Tree, which gave them immortality, was also the one substance on earth that could actually destroy them for good. In the end, they burned the tree down to ensure their own survival, though the ashes were later saved to later be used against them. When Klaus made his first kill after being turned into a vampire, it triggered his werewolf gene, which ultimately revealed the truth of his true parentage to his family— Klaus was not Mikael's son but was instead the son of the chief of their village's werewolf clan, with whom Esther had an affair. Once Mikael learned of Esther's infidelity and realized that her lover's pack were the werewolves who had killed Henrik, Mikael hunted down and killed Klaus' father and his entire family, igniting a war between Vampires and werewolves that still exists to this day. Soon after the Mikaelsons were turned into vampires and learned of Klaus' werewolf heritage, Esther was obligated to curse Klaus in order to make his werewolf nature dormant so that he would not upset nature further by possessing so much power. However, Klaus felt betrayed by this punishment, and in retaliation, Klaus murdered his mother and framed Mikael for the act.

Original vampires can only be neutralized by taking a special silver dagger enchanted by the Witch of the Brotherhood of the Five that is dipped in the ash remains of the original white oak tree and driving it through their hearts. However, Klaus is a hybrid, and since silver daggers do not affect him (because werewolves heal when wounded by silver), the only way to kill Klaus is with a stake carved from the white oak tree. Mikael had carved one before the tree was burned down, which caused Klaus to fear him during the centuries that he was active. A new one was created by Damon Salvatore, from parts of the Wickery Bridge which came from the saplings of the original tree. This stake was then stolen by the recently-resurrected Esther and Alaric Saltzman's dark alter-ego in 2010, the former of whom melted down Alaric's Gilbert ring to make the stake indestructible and prevent it from being burned after an Original was staked with it.

After Esther's death at Klaus' hands in the 11th century, Elijah and Rebekah swore to stick with Niklaus "always and forever." However, over the centuries, Klaus started using the silver daggers he stole from the Five to neutralize his siblings whenever they interfered with his life or plans. Finn was the first to be daggered in the 1100s and was left neutralized for nine hundred years, while Kol was daggered on multiple occasions and for various lengths of time, including in 1701, in 1821, and again in 1914. Rebekah also had a similar fate to Kol and was also daggered on various occasions, including in 1835, 1922, and 2010. When his siblings were daggered, he dragged them around in coffins, which he never kept far from wherever he was living. However, for many centuries, Elijah was the only sibling to escape his wrath, and Klaus led Elijah to believe that he had dropped their incapacitated siblings deep in the ocean where they could never be found. For this betrayal, Elijah swore revenge on his brother.

Over the years, legends began to surround the Original Vampires as their story became lost to history: all vampires knew that they were descended from the first generation of vampires, but they knew next to nothing about them. 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, however, serving his own interests: namely, Klaus' destruction in recompense for 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 Mikael the Destroyer, the 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. However, it was Elijah who revealed to the Mystic Falls Gang that the other Original vampires were his siblings. "Oh Klaus is not my only brother, I had siblings I had a family, once. Klaus hunted them down, one by one and he took them from me."

Between mid-late 2010 and early 2011, three of the Mikaelson family members were killed in Mystic Falls; first, Mikael was killed by Klaus in Homecoming, while Finn was killed by Matt Donovan in The Murder of One. It was the latter's death that revealed to many that when an Original vampire is killed, every vampire in their bloodline (ie: any vampire they have ever sired) dies along with them, as evidenced by Sage and Troy dying just an hour or so after Finn was killed. Months later, Kol was killed by Jeremy Gilbert in order to finish his Hunter's Mark, as his death would result in the deaths of thousands of vampires who were sired by him.

As of 2011, the Mikaelson family resides in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, where Klaus inadvertently started his own family when it was revealed that his Original hybrid nature (being born a werewolf and turned into a vampire by magic) allowed him to father a child with the former-vampire Katherine Pierce during a one-night stand. Later, Klaus and Katherine reunite in the city after he and Elijah return there for the first time in over a century to investigate a claim of a potential threat from a witch named Jane-Anne Deveraux. They were soon joined by Rebekah and began to regain control over the city they had worked to build in the 18th century, with Klaus eventually taking leadership from his surrogate son Marcel Gerard. After an intense war between the five supernatural factions of the city, the Guerrera werewolves, who had been living undercover as humans for decades and who had allied with the French Quarter Coven of witches, staged a coup against the Originals and the vampires and seized control over the city. Part of the Guerrera's alliance with the witches involved handing over the pregnant Katherine so that they could sacrifice Katherine and Klaus' baby daughter to gain more power for the coven. Fortunately, the child was rescued by her parents, uncle, and surrogate brother, but was ultimately sent away to live with Rebekah after they faked her death to ensure that she would no longer be pursued by their enemies. While Klaus, Elijah, and Katherine work together to regain control over the Quarter once again, they are forced to fight against their newly-resurrected father in his fight to kill Klaus, as well as their mother and brothers Kol and Finn, all of whom have returned to life by possessing the bodies of witches and who plan to get the three to rejoin their family in mortal bodies.

Family Members

"It has been said that all 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 agonising death she so deserves.."

—Niklaus Mikaelson

Relatives

Through Esther

• Dahlia: Esther's older sister who made it possible for her to have children after Esther realized she was barren. She claimed Freya and every subsequent first-born Mikaelson born from Esther's bloodline as long as it shall live as her payment for this complex magic, and promised to return and take all of Esther's children if Esther did not adhere to her arrangement. Because of that, she was after Adyelya Mikaelson.

Through Niklaus and Adyelya Mikaelson

• Ansel: Esther's lover, who was the biological father of Klaus. He was a Werewolf with whom Esther had an affair, and Klaus was the product of their love together. Ansel is also Adelya's biological grandfather.
• Cary: Cary is a werewolf relative of Klaus and Adyelya through Ansel.
• Marcellus Gerard: Marcellus (commonly known as Marcel) is a child that Klaus adopted as his son in 1821. Marcel was a formerly unnamed slave and the secret illegitimate child of his master, the Governor of Louisiana, who was abused by the slavemasters until Klaus saved him and named him Marcellus, which means "little warrior". Klaus loved Marcel like a son because Marcel reminded him of himself - they were both unloved and abused by their fathers. Though his relationships with the members of the Mikaelson family have been strained over the years, he has begun to reconnect with them following the vampires' loss of control over the Quarter in 2012.
• Katherine Pierce: Katherine, born Katerina Petrova (Bulgarian: Катерина Петрова), is the mother to Niklaus Mikaelson's daughter, Adyelya Mikaelson. Though she had a strained relationship with the Mikaelsons at first, the birth of her daughter and facing numerous threats together has brought her closer to them. They now consider each other family.

Family Tree

Mikael †

Esther †

Ansel†

Mathias †

Freya Mikaelson

Elijah Mikaelson

Rebekah Mikaelson

Niklaus Mikaelson

Katerina Petrova

Finn Mikaelson †

Kol Mikaelson

Henrik Mikaelson †

Unborn Son †

Adyelya Mikaelson

Surname

• Mikaelson (Elder Futhark: ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ) is of Scandinavian origin and means "Son of Mikael".
• Other spellings of the name Mikaelson include Michaelson, Michelson, Mikelson, Michaelsen.
• The name Mikael comes from the Hebrew מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el), which translates as the question "Who is like God"?
• The name Mikaelson is a patronymic surname, or a name constructed using the father's given name and a suffix indicating either "son" or "daughter". Strictly speaking, Rebekah would have taken the patronym Mikaelsdotter, or "Daughter of Mikael", in earlier times, but during the 19th century, Scandinavian naming conventions began to evolve, such that families preferred to take a family name rather than a patronymic surname. Mikaelson is an example of a patronymic surname that was "frozen" to become an inherited family name. Iceland is one country where the practice of using patronymic surnames still exists, whereas inherited family names are now mandatory in other Scandinavian countries.

Trivia

• Klaus, Davos, Celine, Solomon, Benevenuto, Alexander, Chihiro, Gunnar, Milimo, and Pachacuti are The Old Ones from the book series, though, on the TV series, they are known as the Originals.
  • However, the Old Ones are different from the Original Vampires, as the Old Ones are not only much older (Klaus had memories of being alive during the creation of the pyramids around 2700 B.C, and memories dating back to the Bronze Age), but were also created by nature and were always vampires, while the Originals became vampires in Autumn 1001 through a modified Immortality Spell, after first being mortal untapped witches (with Kol being the only one who had tapped into his magic), as well as an untriggered werewolf for Niklaus. With the exception of Mikael who was previously just a human.
• Rebekah says "No one in my family is to be trusted". These words are confirmed by the actions of Mikael, Esther, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah, all of whom have been seen to go back on their word or have used clever wordplay to create loopholes in their promises.
• Rebekah, Kol and Finn Mikaelson are the only Original Vampires to possess witches of New Orleans, out of all the Mikaelson family.
• The members of the Mikaelson family all have either I or K in their name except Esther, Adyelya and Freya.
  • Mikael, Niklaus and Henrik all have I and K, the two oldest Original siblings Elijah and Finn both have I, and the two youngest Original siblings Kol and Rebekah both have K.
• Coincidentally, all members of the Original family have a part to play in the making or the creation of vampires and vampirism.
• If all of the Original vampires were to die, every vampire sired from their bloodline will die as well, effectively eradicating the vampire species.
  • This is with the exception of Niklaus Mikaelson, whose Sireline was broken by Davina Claire in A Streetcar Named Desire.
  • Katherine would be one of the only vampires left, apart from Klaus' bloodline, due to the way in which she had been created. She was not sired to any Mikaelson and was instead turned into a hybrid upon her death while birthing her and Klaus's tribrid daughter, Adyelya.
  • Hayley would also be one of the vampires left, apart from Klaus's bloodline, due to the way in which she was created. She was turned into a hybrid via the blood of Katherine and Klaus's tribrid daughter, Adyelya, which was initiated by Tyler Lockwood.
• It was once believed that an unknown child, the oldest and first born child of Mikael and Esther (assumed to be a son named Aaron) died due to a plague in the Old World. However, since then it has been confirmed that their first child was a daughter named Freya and was instead forcibly taken by Esther's sister Dahlia, and Esther lied that she died from the plague to her husband and children cover up what her sister did. Henrik, the youngest and last born child of Mikael and Esther, died in the New World.
• It is possible that the Original vampires, excluding Mikael, were witches before they became vampires.
  • This was mostly confirmed by Davina in Red Door, when Kol revealed to Davina that he was the only one of his siblings to tap into his magical heritage from this mother and begin practicing witchcraft before they were turned into vampires.
• Elijah had assumed that Niklaus had buried his neutralized family at sea where he couldn't find them to undagger them, but Niklaus admitted to Elijah when Elijah attempted to kill him that it wasn't true and that Klaus would take Elijah to them.
• In Season Two, Rose stated, "Elijah may be dead, but this isn't over. The Originals, they'll come for her, they have to. They're doing it for him. Klaus". This shows that she was not aware that Original vampires cannot be killed by normal wood, nor that most of them had already been "killed" by Niklaus.
• Both Klaus in the novels and on the TV series takes a significant interest in Stefan Salvatore. Although on the TV series, Klaus saw Stefan as a brother and a best friend/companion after they bonded in Chicago in the 1920s, while in the books, Klaus was intrigued with Stefan due to Katherine's constant mentioning of him (and Damon) after Katherine fled Germany after faking her death and reuniting with him.
• The family is of Norwegian descent; Elijah said that witches are called "häxa" where his mother comes from, and it was shown during Wheel Inside the Wheel, that Esther approached her sister for magical help in conceiving a child in the Kingdom of Norway in 972 A.D.
• Many of the Mikaelsons have been said to have very quick tempers, especially Klaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Mikael. While Kol and Rebekah likely inherited this trait from their father, Klaus' anger problems are presumed to have stemmed from his werewolf nature, though being raised by Mikael likely contributed to it.
• All of the Mikaelson brothers have demonstrated a certain gesture by raising both their arms up to their sides as a sign of power. Fans have dubbed this gesture The Mikaelson Arm Raise.
• In Ashes to Ashes, Vincent Griffith claimed that whatever happens, 'you can always trust a Mikaelson to back another Mikaelson'. Meaning that no matter what, Freya, Kol, Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and even Finn, in the end, may always have each other's backs. This, however, isn't always true.
• Henrik is the only Mikaelson to date who has not cheated death at all.
• Adyelya Mikaelson is the first hybrid of all three supernatural species; werewolf-witch-vampire.
• The coffins that the Mikaelsons lie in when daggered/dead are scribed with a metal 'M' to represent Mikaelson. 
• Freya is the only one of the Mikaelson family, other than Klaus, to kill a parent.
• Niklaus Mikaelson has killed nearly every member of his family one way or another.
  • Henrik Mikaelson and Finn Mikaelson are the only siblings he has not killed.
• The Mikaelson siblings share many similarities to the Salvatore brothers, Stefan Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore: Both family's siblings share a strong bond and do anything for each other, both families siblings were killed by their fathers, both families siblings have negative relationships with their parents, some members of each families siblings have died and been resurrected, and both families siblings have in some way been responsible for the death of a family member, such as Damon killing some of his distant nephews, and Finn killing Kol as well as Klaus daggering his siblings repeatedly over the centuries. Also, Stefan and Klaus have both killed their fathers; Stefan killed his father with Klaus killing his stepfather Mikael and birth father Ansel; also, the siblings of both families were raised by abusive fathers that were hard to please.
• Since The Bloody Crown, all of the living Mikaelsons were neutralized, except Adyelya Mikaelson. In the season four premiere, Gather Up the Killers, Katherine has awoken Freya, who is presumed to have awoken her siblings, but only Elijah has been seen on screen. Marcel is shown to often have Klaus chained up without the blade, and has asked for advice from him about Alistair Duquesne, a new and powerful vampire to town for the fifth anniversary of the "Fall of the Mikaelsons." Marcel seems to be lenient on the imprisonment, as shown when he lets Klaus out to help him with Alistair, although he is still confined by Vincent's boundary spell. Per Marcel's request, Klaus ends up killing Alistair.