Stefan Salvatore

Stefan Salvatore is the hero, a protagonist, and one of the the male leads of The Vampire Diaries. He is a century old (165 year old) vampire. Stefan was born and raised in the supernatural town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Stefan resides at the Salvatore Boarding House. He is the youngest son of Giuseppe Salvatore and his unnamed mother.  He has an older brother, Damon Salvatore, who is also a vampire. Stefan has had a love-hate, on and off rivalry or relationship with Damon since 1864. Stefan was the former love interest of Katherine Pierce, who was both Stefan and Damon's creator. Stefan's best friend was Alexia Branson. He also has a close, still growing friendship with Caroline Forbes. Stefan also had a close brotherhood and friendship with Niklaus Mikaelson and also, was romantically involved with Rebekah Mikaelson who is Klaus' sister, back in the 1920's.

Stefan met Katherine in 1864 and was magnetically drawn to her. However, Stefan's brother Damon was also in love with Katherine as well. Due to Stefan and Damon's shared love of Katherine, Stefan and Damon became rivals and were in competition for Katherine's affections. Although Stefan was in love with Katherine, he was very much unaware of what she was, which was a vampire. Katherine had been compelling Stefan to drink her blood and had also compelled Stefan to keep Katherine's secret of being a vampire. When Stefan was trying to help Damon save Katherine from being burned in a church after their father, Giuseppe had her captured by the townspeople of Mystic Falls, Stefan, along with Damon was shot by Giuseppe and died afterwards.

Stefan eventually woke up in transition of becoming a vampire. He then visited his father, Giuseppe was shocked to see Stefan "alive", seeing that Stefan was now a vampire. He revealed to Stefan that he was the one who shot both him and Damon. Stefan tells his father that he is going to let himself die and not complete the transition. When Giuseppe comes to attack Stefan with a wooden stake, Stefan underestimates his newborn vampire abilities and accidentally throws Giuseppe to the wall in self-defense, with the stake stabbing Giuseppe in the stomach. Stefan rushes over to help his father remove the stake from his stomach but Stefan becomes overwhelmed and consumed with bloodlust. Stefan drinks his father's blood and therefore completes his transition into a vampire.

      

After he transitions, Stefan convinces his brother Damon to complete his transition. Much to Stefan's happiness, Damon transitions and tells Stefan that he promises him a lifetime of misery. Angry at Stefan with Stefan feeling immensely guilty, Damon abandons Stefan and leaves town, with Stefan still a newborn vampire who was overwhelmed by his bloodlust. Consumed with guilt and pain, Stefan shut off his emotions and became a Ripper, as said by Lexi. However, Stefan learned from Lexi on how to live more compassionately with her help. Between the time of 1864 and the 1900's, Stefan had been living on an animal blood diet, although there have been some times when Stefan had fallen off the blood rails or wagon, once being during the 1920's.

      

In 2009, after many years of being gone, Stefan returned to his home of Mystic Falls to visit his nephew Zach. On May 23, 2009, it is then when Stefan unexpectedly "meets" Elena for the first time. Stefan had heard Elena and her parents', Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, car accident at Wickery Bridge. Stefan miraculously saved Elena's life but unfortunately did not save Elena's parents on time. When he first saw Elena after he pulled her out of the car, Stefan was shocked and suspicious that she coincidentally had an uncanny physical resemblance to Katherine. Stefan starts researching Elena's background, trying to gain info in order to make sure that Elena wasn't really Katherine, whom he feared would be a possible threat to the town. After a short time of research, Stefan finds out that Elena is not Katherine. He is relieved by this and eventually starts to fall for Elena from a far. In order to get to know Elena, Stefan decided to pose as a new student at Mystic Falls High School and ends up in her class.

However, despite Stefan and Elena no longer together, their lives have been tangled up with many complications, obstacles and issues, such as Damon and his feelings for Elena, the unexpected events of Mystic Falls, Katherine, John Gilbert and Klaus. With Katherine's return, the revelation of the existence of the The Originals threaten to destroy Elena, who is a Petrova Doppelganger, in order to break a curse (which is Klaus' werewolf curse to turn into a hybrid). Stefan and Damon searched for ways to save her and they do as much as they can to protect her from Klaus and from all of the dangers of Mystic Falls. At the end, Stefan is forced to become Klaus's right-hand man in exchange for saving his brother's life. As of right now, Stefan seems to be getting back to normal after enduring a long struggle with his Ripper phase.

Stefan is a member of the Salvatore Family.