Alaric Saltzman played by Matt Davis was the history teacher at Mystic Falls High. Alaric originally comes to town to kill Damon Salvatore because he believes that Damon killed his wife. However it was later revealed that his wife, Isobel Flemming, isn't dead, but that on her own request she was turned into a vampire by Damon. He then starts to become friends with Damon. Alaric owns a Gilbert Ring, which he got from Isobel, which prevents him from getting killed by anything supernatural, however John Gilbert later claims the ring. Alaric starts a relationship with Jenna Sommers. In the second season John starts causing trouble between Jenna and Alaric and when Jenna meets Isobel, she knows that Alaric was keeping things from her and she leaves him. His body was later possessed by Klaus and he uses this ruse to gain the group's trust. Eventually Klaus releases Alaric and he gets back together with Jenna, but soon afterwards Klaus had her turned into a vampire and killed for his sacrifice ritual, leaving him heartbroken.