Profile

[Warning: Spoilers for first three Vampire Diaries books + mentions/allusions to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.]

Background: Katherine was born in Germany in the late 15th century to a German nobleman and his wife. Her mother died in childbirth, and Katherine was sick all her life, usually weak and forced to stay inside, and frequently lingering near death. One of those nights when it seemed unlikely she would survive, her nurse/maid Gurden brought Klaus, an Old One (one of the Original vampires), to Katherine, and Klaus turned her into a vampire like him. Delighted at her miraculous return to health, her father took her traveling with him for the first time. Gurden continued to care for Katherine, bringing her a birds and small animals to drink from and a ring that let her walk in the sun.

Eventually, they ended up in Italy, at the home of one of her father's friends. There, Katherine met and fell in love with the man's sons, two brothers--Damon and Stefan Salvatore. She made them both like her, hoping they could spend eternity together, all three of them. But the brothers hated each other and wanted nothing to do with her plan. When they demanded she choose between then, Katherine instead faked her death, hoping their mutual grief would bring the brothers together. Instead, they fought a duel, killing one another and cementing their vampiric transition.

Heartbroken, Katherine fled back to Germany, but once there realized how unsuited she was to living on her own--she'd been sheltered, living basically within the walls of her father's castle for most of her life. She had no idea how to take care of herself or navigate the world, so she turned to the only person she could think of to help her: Klaus. Given he'd turned her because he wanted her for himself, he took her in and made her his pet, his new toy. He taught her to survive by teaching her to kill, making her do it when she didn't want to. He took what he wanted, when he wanted, and beat her if she even mentioned the Salvatores.

Subjected to his sadism, Katherine's mind eventually snapped. She became what he wanted her to be: a sadistic killer, a merciless predator, a monster. Eventually, she turned on him, attacking him and draining him of blood. Thinking he was dead, she ran away. This time she survived and grew stronger on her own. She eventually found her boys, watching them as time went by, but she kept her distance and never revealed she was alive.

In the late twentieth century, she found a girl who looked like her. Feeling like the boys had forgotten her, she drew them both to the girl's hometown in Virginia, where she hoped seeing the girl would remind them of her. Once they remembered how much they'd loved her, maybe this time they would reconcile and maybe she could join them, finally. However, once again, they resisted her plan, instead falling in love with her doppelganger. Infuriated, Katherine killed the girl, but given she'd been a greedy little tramp and shared blood with both brothers, she rose again as a vampire. Katherine attacked the whole town in her grief and fury, finally revealing herself to them just before she planned to kill both her boys and the girl. She had nearly done so when that horriblewickedevilgirl snapped Katherine's daylight necklace off of her and pushed Katherine into the sun.

She only remembers burning after that, always burning and screaming, until she woke up here. Maybe it's Heaven. Maybe it's Hell. She sometimes sees people who look like her boys and Klaus, but they never smell right and just reinforce her dissociated sense of the world. She mostly sticks to the shadows, surviving, if it can be called that, trying to figure out this new world and life she seems to have been given.

Personality: Katherine is batshit insane. There's no other way to say it. She's sadistic and cruel because that's all she's known for 500 years. On the other hand, she is desperate to be loved with a young girl's yearning for her prince. She survives living in places outside the flow of humanity, so she's very out of touch with the modern world. Well, she's very out of touch with reality, most of the time.

But underneath the crazy, she's still got that sweetness, that naivety, that hope. The cruelty is not natural to her. If she's interested, she quickly gets fascinated by people and things and can be positively delighted and charming in her way. She can sometimes come across childlike--think Drusilla from BTVS if you know that show--but she's not a child. She just never quite figured out how to be a woman, either.

She has a temper, especially if denied what she wants, and can lash out. But she likes people who like her, and is fiercely loyal to those she loves.

Powers/Abilities: Katherine is wicked powerful (which is bad, given her crazy and tendency toward tantrums). She can get in people's heads and make them do what she wants, especially if she has had their blood. She can shapeshift into mist, a white tiger, a white owl and a white kitten--and possibly more, but those are the forms she takes in the book. She's a vampire and she really, really likes blood. She's stronger than most because of all the lives she's taken. She can control the weather and animals, and use both as extensions of herself and as weapons.

She's vulnerable to sunlight, fire and wooden stakes. Religious symbols might protect the wearer from compulsion, but do not ward her off. She cannot cross running water, though--she has to find a way around.

Appearance: Katherine has long blond hair. It used to trail behind her like a train, but it kept getting in the way, so she's cut it to her waist. She's pale, a little cooler than humans. Her eyes are the shade of lapis lazuli. She's small and delicate boned. And she's never learned how to dress in modern clothes, so you can generally find her running around in the clothes of her human life--the early Renaissance period. She often forgets shoes.

Disclaimer: Katherine is a character from L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries (the books, not TV). Thus, she belongs to Smith and to Alloy Entertainment. I'm just borrowing her and no infringement is intended. Despite how she acts sometimes, she is well over 18 and not a child mentally (and thus totally able to consent, if you can get her to do so, to all sorts of adult activities). Mun is also well over 18, though not nearly as far as muse. ;-)