Damon Salvatore

Damon Salvatore is one of the two main male protagonists of The Vampire Diaries. Damon was a 178-year-old vampire and a distant descendant of Silas. Since his younger brother, Stefan Salvatore, injected him with the Cure, he is now human. He was a major antagonist in the first part of Season One. He was born in 1839 and lived in the colonial town of Mystic Falls with his brother Stefan, his father, Giuseppe Salvatore, and also with his mother Lillian Salvatore until her death in 1858. He became a vampire in 1864. At the time of his return to Mystic Falls, Damon and Stefan hadn't seen each other in fifteen years due to their bitter and violent relationship.

In the 1950s, Damon was captured and tortured by the Augustine society, led by the Whitmore family, who experimented on vampires for a "bigger purpose". During his five years of captivity, he met another prisoner, Enzo, with whom he became best friends. Eventually, the plan the two made failed at a critical moment, and, thinking that Enzo "died" because of him, Damon turned off his humanity to suppress the guilt and sadness. He sought revenge, an act of hunting down every member over generations that left one alive to carry on the family name until he finally killed the last descendant in the Whitmore family, which ended with Aaron Whitmore's death.

Damon's sole purpose in coming back to Mystic Falls was to free his sire Katherine Pierce from a tomb she was never in. Damon deeply loved her after 145 years. After realizing that Katherine never loved him, his love for her faded as his friendship and love for Elena, Katherine's descendant and doppelgänger, grew. Due to her impact on him and the strengthening relationship with his brother, they began working together to protect Elena, along with her friends and family. He lived with his brother Stefan, his girlfriend Elena (when she wasn't away at college), and her brother Jeremy Gilbert (after Elena burned their house down) in the Salvatore Boarding House.

In Season Three, Damon filled the role as a deuteragonist in the first half of the season due to Stefan falling prey to Klaus.

Throughout the series, his bond with Elena continuously grew and they eventually fell in love with each other. Shortly after her death and subsequent transition into a vampire, Elena's feelings for Damon were heightened which made her admit her love for him and they started a romantic relationship in Season Four. The relationship was complicated when they realized that, due to the fact that it was Damon's blood that turned Elena, she was sire-bonded to him, so nobody was sure whether Elena's feelings for Damon were real or because of the sire bond, but most of the people they knew insisted that, once the sire bond was broken, Elena would return to Stefan. When Jeremy died, Elena turned off her emotions; after she turned them back on, the sire bond was broken and Elena revealed that her feelings for Damon were real and she was still in love with him.

In Season Five, he discovered Enzo's undead status and they became friends once again. However, once "Elena" broke up with him, he put an end to his diabolical plan against the Whitmore family and was then injected with a dangerous compound by Wes Maxfield, causing him to become the only Augustine Vampire in existence. This injection caused him to crave vampire blood and he would not be able to stop feeding until he had killed. He was later cured, thanks to Enzo, Stefan, and Caroline's actions. Due to the Other Side collapsing, Damon gave up his life to save his loved ones and this caused Elena, Stefan, and Alaric much grief.

In Season Six, Damon and Bonnie were trapped in a 1994 Prison World, which Damon initially believed was his own personal hell, as they were continually reliving a day from his history that Damon believed was the worst thing he ever did. Bonnie was convinced her grandmother sent them there and that there was a way out. They worked together to find a way back to Mystic Falls. They also formed an alliance to take down Kai. During this time, he was able to form a healthy friendship with Bonnie, and they were able to move on from their past and become friends. When Bonnie had a chance to send him home, leaving herself alone with Kai, she did so. Damon initially believed Bonnie was killed in the process, but when he realized she was still alive, he became determined to find a way to bring her back. After returning home, he learned that Elena had Alaric compel away all her memories of their relationship and he attempted to win her back. Damon soon learned of Liz's sickness and, soon after, she passed away in the hospital in front of him, leaving him devastated. He was soon reunited with Bonnie who made it out of the prison world and showed him a video of a mysterious lady, who turned out to be Damon's mother. Bonnie had managed to escape the 1994 prison world by going to Nova Scotia and regaining her magic through Qetsiyah's calcified blood in Silas' tombstone. She also picked up the Cure for vampirism and gave it to him, who in turned gave it to Elena. He expressed the desire to take the Cure with her too and become human. At the end of the season, Kai placed Elena under a sleeping curse and tied the spell to Bonnie's life, which was supposed to keep the now human Elena in a mystical coma until Bonnie died; until then Elena would remain asleep. Damon was devastated by this and said a difficult goodbye to Elena as they locked her in a coffin while his best friend, Bonnie, lived out her remaining days.

As of Season Eight's I Was Feeling Epic, Bonnie managed to break the spell, allowing Elena to wake up, while not killing herself in the process due to the spell, and Damon being able to reunite with her. In the final flash forward, the newly human Damon married Elena Gilbert and they lived a long and happy life together before passing away and finding peace.

His best friends are Elena Gilbert, Alaric Saltzman and Bonnie Bennett. He was close friends with Elizabeth Forbes until her death. His friendship with his sister-in-law, Caroline Forbes, has improved during the last season and they now consider themselves as close friends. Damon was also best friends with Enzo from the time he first met him, until the latter was killed by Stefan, despite the two occasionally being at odds.

Damon is a member of the Salvatore Family and was a member of the Town Council.