to protect Elena as they face various villains and threats to their town, including Katherine. The Salvatore brother's past's and the town's history along with its secrets are revealed through flashbacks as the series goes on. Additional storylines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena's younger brother Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) and aunt Jenna Sommers (Sara Canning), her best friends Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) and Caroline Forbes (Candice King), their mutual friends Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) and Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino), Matt's older sister Vicki Donovan (Kayla Ewell), and their history teacher, vampire hunter Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis). The town's politics are orchestrated by descendants of the original founding families The Originals, all comprising a "Founders' Council". They guard the town mainly from vampires and other supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, hybrids (werewolf/vampire), and ghosts. Cast and characters Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert (season 1–6; guest season 8), a young orphan who falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore and later his brother, Damon, creating a love triangle. When Stefan shuts his humanity off after being blackmailed by Klaus, Damon is given the opportunity to grow closer to Elena. This results in her being further drawn into the supernatural world and results in her struggling to survive supernatural events in the town. In the sixth-season finale, Elena's life was tied to Bonnie's in such a way that as long as Bonnie is alive, Elena will remain asleep. Damon put Elena in a coffin and had her hidden in a warehouse in Brooklyn for the next 60 years or so while he waits for her to wake up. In the series finale, Elena's curse is broken, she reunites with Damon, and they live a long and happy life together with her becoming a doctor. Dobrev also portrays Elena's doppelgänger, Katerina Petrova, also known as Katherine Pierce. Dobrev sporadically appeared as Katherine in subsequent seasons, with Katherine playing a significant role in the fifth season. Dobrev also plays the progenitor of the Petrova doppelgängers and Silas's true love, Amara, during the fifth season, whom he had sought in the afterlife for two thousand years. Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore, a good-hearted and affectionate vampire and the complete opposite of his older brother, Damon Salvatore. Later in the series, Stefan reverts to his old ways as a Ripper to save Damon from a werewolf bite. His role