Elena Gilbert

Elena Gilbert
Biographical information
Born	August, 1996
Turned	November 30, 2013 (aged 17)
Died	December 13, 2013 (aged 17) Fell crypt, Fell's Church, VA
Marital status	Single (formerly engaged)
Physical description
Species	Human Vampire (formerly)
Gender	Female
Hair colour	Blonde
Eye colour	Blue
Skin colour	White
Family information
Family members	Thomas Gilbert (father) † Elizabeth Morrow (mother) † Margaret Gilbert (sister) Judith Gilbert (paternal aunt) Robert Maxwell (uncle-by-marriage) Breanna (cousin) † Paternal grandfather † Paternal grandmother † Tilda (great-aunt) Two great-aunts Katerina von Swartzschild (possible distant relative) † Baron von Swartzschild (possible distant relative) †
Affiliation
Turned by	Damon Salvatore
Victim	Matt Honeycutt
Loyalty	Gilbert family
.

"He thinks that because you look like Katherine you're weak and easily led like her. But he's wrong. I could feel your anger from the other side of town. I can feel it now, a white light like the desert sun. You have strength, Elena, even as you are. But you could be so much stronger..."

—Damon Salvatore to Elena

Elena Gilbert (b. August, 1996) was the eldest daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Gilbert, elder sister to Margaret, and half-sister to Katherine von Swartzschild. As an Earthly Guardian, Elena was to be taken from her family at the age of twelve, but the attempt on her life failed and killed her parents instead. Orphaned, Elena and Margaret were taken into their aunt Judith's care.

Elena was reintroduced to the supernatural world thanks to her romantic relationship with Stefan Salvatore, and was accidentally Changed when a jealous Katherine killed her, while both Stefan and Damon's blood were in her system. As a vampire, she was killed in a successful attempt at killing Katherine, and began the transformation into a Guardian. However, orders from Above forced the Celestial Court to restore her to life as a human, with angelic powers that were later stripped from her. Her identity as an Earthly Guardian was finally revealed to her by James Campbell at Dalcrest College. Accepting her new destiny, she drank water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth in order to spend an eternity with Stefan. The two set out to wipe out the last of the Old Ones, a mission during which Stefan was staked and killed.

Biography

Pre-birth

"The Guardian told us that there was a need for a new kind of Guardian. One who would be a mortal, on Earth, and who would possess special powers that she would need to maintain the balance between good and evil supernatural forces on Earth. Over the course of his visit, Elizabeth and Thomas, who were young and brilliant and good and deeply in love, and who had bright futures ahead of them, were chosen to be the parents of this mortal Guardian."

—James Campbell

Thomas Gilbert and Elizabeth Morrow were chosen by the Guardians to conceive a half-Guardian child, whom they would recruit when she was old enough by killing her, where she would complete the transformation on the Other Side.

Childhood

"I was born here in Fell's Church. I've always lives in this house, always. This is my same old bedroom, with the scorch marks on the floorboards where Caroline and I tried to sneak cigarettes in 5th grade and nearly choked ourselves."

—Elena

Elena was born in August, 1996 to Thomas and Elizabeth Gilbert (née Morrow) in Fell's Church, Virginia. The family lived in a house built by the Gilbert family several decades beforehand, moving in when Elena was a baby at the very latest.

At the age of about five, Elena befriended Caroline Forbes, who attended kindergarten at the same time. The two often competed against each other good-naturedly. Elena also befriended Sue Carson and Bonnie McCullough, as well as Meredith Sulez, a friend of Caroline's. Elena would often play with Sue in the Carsons' front garden in the summer, but the two friends eventually drifted away from each other. At the age of ten or eleven, Elena and Caroline tried cigarettes in Elena's bedroom, almost choking themselves and burning the floor.

Relationships

Margaret Gilbert

A drawing Margaret drew for Elena.

Stefan Salvatore

"And she had been born to love Stefan; she knew that! Once, he'd been willing to marry her. Well, since then she'd been a vampire, a spirit, and a new incarnation dropped from the sky, and she could hope that one day he would be willing to marry the new Elena, too."

—Elena's thoughts

Appearances

• The Awakening (First appearance)
• The Struggle
• The Fury
• Dark Reunion
• The Return: Nightfall
• The Return: Shadow Souls
• The Return: Midnight
• The Hunters: Phantom
• The Hunters: Moonsong
• The Hunters: Destiny Rising