After losing Henrik, Esther attempts a spell that will give her children the protection they need from the werewolves. Despite Ayana's protests, Esther uses a special ritual that would give her children speed and strength beyond that of the werewolves. The ritual would involve the use of dark magic. Esther used the blood of the Original Petrova known as Tatia (for unknown reasons). She then called upon the sun for life and also used the ancient White Oak Tree for immortality. She then gave her children wine laced with Tatia's blood. Mikael then thrust his sword through the hearts of his children. They children soon came back to life and completed their transition with the consumption of human blood. Soon after completing their transition into the vampires, the spirits of nature turned against them. The sun which used in the ritual could burn them. The plants (vervain) that grew at the bottom of the White Oak Tree could also burn them and it could prevent them from compelling people. Furthermore, since the white oak tree was used in the ritual, then only wood from the white oak tree could kill those made into vampires by the ritual.

It was also revealed shortly afterward that Niklaus was not Mikael's son. Esther had a secret affair with one of the villagers, and the villager was a werewolf. When Niklaus killed his first human, he triggered the curse necessary to turn a human into a werewolf. This made Klaus into the first vampire/werewolf hybrid. This ritual has been used a few times to date. Once over a thousand years ago on Esther's children and her husband, and then again during modern times on Alaric Saltzman. It is also implied that the spell was used once 2,000 years ago by a witch named Silas. This means that the spell was used at least 3 times in history. It is mentioned that since all spells are bound by nature, nature demands balance. So, the Petrova doppleganger was created to create balance from turning the Originals into vampires.

Over 1,000 years later, Esther made use of the same dark magic that was used by her during the spell, and she

turned Alaric into a new original vampire. Alaric was an original by species, but not by blood, he however can be considered a different type of original popularly referred to as an Enhanced Original. Alaric is far younger than the other originals but with much greater power and without the weakness to white oak wood. Although Esther used a similar spell for Alaric, though the parameters were adjusted in some ways:

• The spell used the blood of Elena Gilbert instead of Tatia's. Elena Gilbert is a descendant of Tatia, and also a Doppelgänger, making her blood a powerful binding agent for the spell possibly in a similar way that the moonstone bound the hybrid curse.
• The spell used Elena Gilbert's life force instead of an immortal object used for Esther's family. As a result of this, Alaric could not be killed using wood from the tree, was not affected by the white oak ash laced daggers and was immune to regular stakes. This is seen when Alaric attacked Rebekah, and Caroline came to save her. The two attempted driving the stake into his heart. They were successful in plunging it through, though the stake does not kill Alaric. This however did mean that if Elena died in any way, he would die as well. This was confirmed by Alaric in Before Sunset and illustrated when Elena died in The Departed. This ingredient is necessary as no witch can create a truly immortal being, thus always providing a loophole as stated by Bonnie Bennett in Before Sunset.
• Vervain still affected Alaric. There are a few possible reasons for that:
  1. According to Rebekah's story, vervain supposedly affected the originals because it grew at the base of the white oak tree that gave them their immortality. This could mean Rebakah was possibly unaware if or else there was an additional step to the spell.
  2. Esther used her talisman to channel massive amounts of magical energy. It contained vervain which is why she probably never needed to use magic herbs in her rituals - it was always with her. Both times the spell was performed by Esther. This meant vervain was always indirectly used in the spell, so it could explain why both Alaric as well as the originals and their vampire descendants abilities suffer from the effects of vervain.
• It is unknown why, but despite his young age, Alaric became much stronger than the other original vampires. Vampires grow stronger with age, and despite the fact that Alaric was a newly turned vampire, he was still able to overpower Rebekah with relative ease and even Klaus. That is a lot since Klaus is a hybrid. A few theories on how that might be as follows:
  1. Alaric was turned in the old cemetery, around the place Klaus ripped Esther's heart from her chest. This made the cemetery a hotspot, as Bonnie puts it. It gave Esther power enough to fight Bonnie completely, while channeling a massive spell at the same time. It made Alaric's transformation special. He is still burns by the sunlight but is more impervious to it, suggesting he can use a greater amount of the sun's gift of natural energy as his strength.
  2. Esther made the originals powerful enough to fend themselves off werewolves - they had to be stronger and agile. However, Alaric was made to kill the originals so he had to be even stronger than them. The spell was cast keeping in mind Alaric's need of strength.
• Esther chose Alaric since he had suffered a lot at the hands of vampires. She caused him to develop an alter-ego called the Darkness, who had a pure and uncompromising hatred of vampires, every time Alaric died and was brought back with the Gilbert ring. Hence, even after feeding once to turn himself, he does not succumb to any type of blood-lust, and did not become the type of "monster" the Originals became, as Esther predicted.
• Since he does not exhibit bloodlust, which is the trademark characteristic of the species historically known as vampires, it would not be right to call him that. As the immortality spell was used on him, he is an immortal, which is still incorrect as he lives only as long as Elena will.

• Like the previous spell, the one upon whom the spell is performed becomes nearly indestructible and in this case semi-immortal. It is assumed that vampires, if ever descended from this species, would also be weaker than Alaric was and have weaknesses different than those descended from the originals. This line of vampires would be probably be immune to staking. Their life would still be bound to Elena's and they'll die with Elena. Also, since Alaric consumed Elena's blood and got bound to Elena's life, Alaric's vampire descendents will have their life bound to their immediate ascendant; so killing any one vampire of this kind will kill off all his descendants and of course the entire bloodline if Alaric is killed.

Not much is known about the spell's performance on Silas. All that is known is that it was invented by Silas and

Qetsiyah and that blood was a key part of the spell. This is confirmed by Atticus Shane in O Come, All Ye Faithful, when he states that human blood is the lifeforce of an immortal. Shane states that once the Cure is obtained there will be no more need to feed on blood and that this would be the cure to immortality. The fact that the immortality reversal spell can accomplish this means that Qetsiyah created it to cure bloodlust and by extension immortality. This must therefore mean that human blood was used in the original spell. Nothing else about the spell's usage on Silas is currently known, be they similarities or differences between it and the spell that Esther used on her husband and children. In She's Come Undone, Bonnie reveals that Silas has true immortality from his and Qetsiyah's spell and is immune to any weapon, save for the Cure to make him mortal and vulnerable again. This is markedly different from the spell Esther used which can be undone with wood from the white oak tree. It is also revealed in Graduation that this spell had a consequence. When Silas used this spell on himself 2,000 years ago, it caused the creation of a doppleganger line. As a result, Stefan Salvatore and Silas both share the same face. Stefan is Silas' doppleganger.