Stefan Salvatore (based on Stefan Salvatore from the novels) is the main protagonist. He was born and raised in Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe Salvatore and an unnamed mother, who died when he was younger. Stefan is the younger brother of Damon. When Stefan and Damon were human, they were very close and were best friends in life. Damon always confided and trusted in Stefan and Stefan always defended Damon, especially to their father, and was fiercely loyal to him. However, this all seemed to change when he and Damon fell in love with the same girl, Katherine Pierce, who turned out to be a vampire. Stefan had strong feelings for Katherine before finding out that she was a vampire. Once Stefan discovered Katherine's deep, dark secret, Stefan was both scared and repulsed by Katherine and vampirism in general. Katherine, however, compelled Stefan to not be afraid of Katherine, to keep her secret and go on as if Stefan didn't know she was a vampire. It was also revealed that Katherine compelled Stefan to drink her vampire blood against his will. Damon, on the other hand, drank Katherine's blood willingly, wanting and desiring the immortal life in order to spend an eternity with Katherine. In 1864, Stefan was turned into a vampire after being shot by his father, Giuseppe, along with his brother, Damon with Katherine's blood in his system, before accidentally killing his father during a visit to tell him that he was going to let himself die. Damon, who turned into a vampire as well, promised Stefan an eternity of misery as he was angry that Stefan had forced him to turn and jealous that Katherine had also turned Stefan. A newborn vampire with uncontrollable bloodlust, Stefan was unable to resist the temptations of human blood and became severely out of control and addicted (later on known as the Ripper) to the blood, killing many people because of his lack of control and extreme bloodlust. However, Stefan learned to change his ways when he was taught to control it by a vampire named Alexia "Lexi" Branson, who later on became Stefan's best friend or companion.