Doppelgänger

Doppelgängers, also known as Shadow Selves, are a supernatural occurrence that came as result of Silas and Amara becoming true immortals. Their purpose is to maintain the natural balance by dying in place of their immortal progenitors, and for this reason, doppelgängers have existed for 2,000 years continuously being born and dying.

There are two known doppelgänger lines stemming from Silas and Amara respectively, of which Stefan Salvatore and  Elena Gilbert belong to.

Silas
Silas or Silvanus (Ancient Greek: Σίλας or Σιλουανός, Latin: Silvanus, Modern Greek: Silouanos) was born some time in the 1st century BC, during the Biblical Times. His origins are from Ancient Greece. Silas was the world's very first immortal being and was the earliest known ancestor of the Salvatore family bloodline, as well as the progenitor of the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline which spawned Stefan Salvatore and several others, and was also a very distant ancestor of the Salvatore Family. Before becoming an immortal, he was a very gifted and powerful warlock. Silas was deeply and passionately in love with his true love and soulmate; a young lady named Amara. Silas' love for Amara was so strong that his love for her was the major motivator behind him wanting to create the very first spell of immortality with the help of his best friend, who was also a powerful witch and also madly in love with Silas, Qetsiyah. Silas and Amara's love, even though powerful and strong, was also forbidden as Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah and Amara was the personal handmaiden of Qetsiyah. In order for Silas to get help to create the spell, Silas manipulated and convinced Qetsiyah that he loved her and wanted to spend an eternity with her. Out of love for Silas, she created the spell of immortality. The spell was to be consumed on Silas and Qetsiyah's wedding night. However, Silas did not intend to give immortality to Qetsiyah and wanted to give immortality to Amara instead so that Silas and Amara could spend eternity together. On Silas and Qetsiyah's wedding night, Silas stole the immortality elixir and made himself and Amara the world's first immortal beings. After Qetsiyah discovered that Silas had granted the gift of immortality to his true love Amara and not her, she supposedly cured Amara of her immortality and then brutally killed her out of jealous rage by slitting her throat and cutting out her heart. Silas was completely and utterly devastated. Qetsiyah then lured Silas to an isolated island and entombed him in darkness, leaving him to starve and desiccate for eternity. Buried with Silas was the cure for immortality, in which Qetsiyah created. Silas had two choices: either take the cure, die a mortal death and be on The Other Side, which is a purgatory meant for dead supernatural beings, with her for eternity or stay entombed in darkness and desiccate forever. Out of spite, anger and vengeance towards Qetsiyah murdering Amara, Silas chose to not take the cure and ended up staying entombed in darkness and starving for over 2,000 years. Because Silas refused to take the cure and die out of spite, Qetsiyah ended up creating the Other Side in order to trap Silas should he take the cure and die. Creating the Other Side would prevent Silas from finding eternal peace and being together in death with Amara on the earth's metaphysical plane, which is where human souls go after they die. Qetsiyah also created The Five, a group of supernatural hunters whose main goal and mission was to find Silas, cure him of his immortality and kill him, so that Silas would end up on the Other Side with Qetsiyah instead of with Amara as she wanted. After over 2,000 years of being entombed in darkness, Silas has risen and plans on wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. He is determined to join his true love Amara in death by getting Bonnie, who is a very distant descendant of Qetsiyah, to drop the veil so that he could take the cure and die a mortal death and cross over to be with Amara. It was revealed after 2,000 years that Qetsiyah had lied to Silas about Amara and had faked her death. Qetsiyah had actually desiccated and entombed Amara and then used her as the physical anchor for the Other Side spell in which Qetsiyah had created in order to trap Silas' soul shall Silas die a mortal death. Silas reunites with Amara after she is re-awakened, Qetsiyah having lied about her death. Amara tells Silas that she loves him and that she is sorry. She then stabs Silas in the neck in order to obtain the cure for immortality which is running through Silas' veins as she doesn't wish to live anymore. Silas still intends on destroying the Other Side so that he could be with Amara in peace in true eternal death. Silas and Amara reunite once more and Amara begs Silas to kill her so that her suffering can end for good and she can find peace. Amara tells Silas that she loves him and that she will always love him but that she cannot live for another day and wants to end her suffering. Silas tells Amara that he understands. Amara stabs herself and dies, crossing over to the metaphysical plane where humans go to after they die. Afterwards, Silas is stabbed by Stefan, his doppelganger and descendant, and he dies. Unfortunately, Silas dies before he ever had a chance to destroy the Other Side. Silas ends up crossing over to the Other Side, which means that he is separated from Amara forever. To make matters worse and more tragic, Qetsiyah ends up killing herself after transferring the anchor from Amara to Bonnie. Qetsiyah crosses over to the Other Side, where Silas is stuck with her for all eternity. This means that Qetsiyah got her 2,000 year old wish; Silas being stuck with her on the Other Side and beinf separated from his soulmate for all time and for all eternity. When Silas made himself truly immortal, he created an imbalance in nature and nature needed a loophole, a version or versions of Silas that could die. Therefore, shadow selves, doppelgängers or a doppelgänger bloodline of Silas was created in order to maintain the balance of nature. Silas was a distant ancestor to the Salvatore family.

Amara
Amara (Ancient Greek: Αμάρα, Latin: Amarantha) was born some time in the 1st century BC, during the Biblical Times. Her origins are from Ancient Greece. She is the oldest known ancestor of the Petrova family bloodline. Personality wise, Amara comes off as gentle, docile, and innocent, similar to that of Katherine before she became evil. Her age is unknown but it could be assumed that she was anywhere between fourteen to eighteen years old. As a human, she was the handmaiden to Qetsiyah, a very powerful witch. Amara fell deeply and passionately in love with a young, gifted and powerful warlock named Silas. Amara's love for Silas was so strong that she desired to be with him forever. However, her love for Silas was also strongly forbidden as Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah. Therefore, Silas and Amara had a secret relationship. Silas also strongly loved Amara, so much that he desired immortality so that he and Amara could be together for eternity. Silas manipulated Qetsiyah into creating the spell of immortality with the intention of sharing the gift of eternal life with Amara, instead of Qetsiyah. However, after betraying Qetsiyah's trust after she created the spell, Qetsiyah became filled with anger and rage and she wanted revenge. After Silas and Amara drank the immortality elixir, Qetsiyah found the latter by faking her death and forced her to become the phyiscal Anchor to The Other Side, binding it's existence to her immortal life and desiccating her. After her awakening two thousand years later, the pain of her existence was too much to bear and she wished to die. She consumed the Cure in order to become mortal again. Amara reunites with Silas after 2,000 years of being apart from him adn she confesses her undying love for him but says that although she loves Silas, she desires to die just as much. Amara then asks Silas to kill her and end her 2,000 years of suffering. Silas is hesitant to do so at first but he then understands. Unexpectedly, Silas is killed by Stefan after he is stabbed with a blade. Silas passes through Amara as she was still currently the anchor before Qetsiyah had transferred the spell and made Bonnie the anchor instead. Amara, realizing that she has officially nothing to live for now that her beloved is dead and she has endured endless suffering for centuries and centuries, tells a dead Silas that their eternity together would start with her death. She then takes the same knife that killed Silas and stabs herself, killing her and ending her endless suffering. She is presumed to have found peace and has passed on to the afterlife where human souls go to once theyr die. Unfortunately for Amara, she did not get her dying wish which was to be reunited with Silas in true death as Silas ended up stuck on The Other Side with Qetsiyah, who ended up killing herself to be with Silas. It is currently unknown whether or not Amara reunited with Silas and found happiness in death with her true love after the Other Side deteriorated since Silas was seen being sucked into oblivion.

Myths

 * In some traditions, when a doppelgänger is seen by a person's friends or relatives, the contact prophesies illness or danger, while a person seeing their own doppelgänger is an omen of death.
 * In other traditions or legends, a doppelgänger is connected with the person copied; sometimes causing the feelings of injuries between the original and the doppelgänger. For example, if the doppelgänger is injured, the other person will also be hurt or feel pain.
 * "Doppelganger" is a German word or term meaning "double walker" or "double goer"―a shadow self that is thought to accompany every person. Traditionally, it is said that only the owner of the doppelganger can see this phantom self and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelganger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion.
 * The word doppelganger is a loanword from German, written there (as any noun) with an initial capital letter Doppelganger, composed from doppel, meaning "double", and ganger, as "walker." In English, the word is conventionally not capitalized, and it is also common to drop the German diacritic umlaut on the letter "a" and write "doppelganger," although the correct spelling without umlaut would be "doppelgaenger".
 * The term has, in the vernacular, come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person, most commonly in reference to a so-called evil twin, or to bilocation. Alternatively, the word is used to describe a phenomenon where you catch your own image out of the corner of your eye. In some traditions, seeing one's own doppelganger is an omen of death. A doppelganger seen by friends or relatives of a person may sometimes bring bad luck, or indicate an approaching illness or health problem.
 * The doppelgangers of folklore cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror or in water. They are supposed to provide advice to the person they shadow, but this advice can be misleading or malicious. They can also, in rare instances, plant ideas in their victim's mind or appear before friends and relatives, causing confusion. In many cases once someone has viewed his own doppelganger, he is doomed to be haunted by images of his ghostly counter-part.
 * Other folklore says that it is considered unlucky to try to communicate with a doppelgänger.

Triva

 * Silas and Amara's doppelgangers may not be limited to a continuous 500 years recurrence as it has been speculated since Season Two: Qetsiyah said in Original Sin that "century after century" she watched versions of Stefan and Elena find each other and fall in love-- this could mean that Klaus only presumed the time period between the Petrova doppelgangers because it took him that long to find one after losing Katherine. But Qetsiyah's statement could be interpreted as just being hyperbolic.
 * According to Qetsiyah, the shadows of Silas and Amara are destined to find each other and fall in love, based on her observations throughout the centuries. However, evidently, they are also capable of developing romantic feelings for other people. Examples include:
 * Stefan and Rebekah
 * Elijah and Katherine
 * Elena and Damon
 * The term doppelgänger doesn't seem to imply any hierarchy.
 * Qetsiyah has, in one instance, mentioned Silas as Stefan's doppelgänger.
 * Silas himself referred to Amara as Elena's doppelgänger.
 * Silas and Stefan can be called doppelgängers of each other. Similarly, Tatia, Katherine, Elena and Amara are all doppelgängers of each other since they are all lookalikes of each other.
 * The term "Shadow" has some implied hierarchy as opposed to doppelgänger.
 * Katherine referred to Elena as her shadow self and Silas did the same to Stefan.
 * Elena is the shadow of Amara, Tatia and Katherine, while Katherine is that only of Amara and Tatia.
 * Doppelgängers are humans for most intents and purposes. However, they are a supernatural occurrence and are therefore, considered to be a supernatural species. The difference between regular humans and doppelgängers is that spells that use a doppelgänger can be broken using another doppelgänger.
 * Death by a doppelgänger counts as a supernatural death. A person wearing a Gilbert ring will come back to life if killed by a human doppelgänger.
 * The Gilbert rings do not protect supernatural creatures and is, thus, theorized not to work on a doppelgänger. This has never been confirmed.
 * They can, however, be compelled by vampires like any regular human.
 * It seems that the men who spend a lot of time with doppelgängers of Amara can't help but fall in love with her or fall vulnerable to her charms. Back in the 11th century, it was stated that every man in the village fell in love with Tatia, though Elijah and Klaus more than any others. Trevor, Elijah, Damon, Stefan, and Mason fell in love with Katherine, and Noah was obsessed with her. Matt, Stefan, and Damon fell in love with Elena.
 * Similarly, it seems that many women also fall madly for Salvatore doppelgangers, almost to psychotic and crazy proportions. An example is Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Katherine, Qetsiyah and Rebekah all finding Stefan appealing and all of them being attracted to him. It could easily be assumed that Silas was also very attractive to the opposite sex as well, since he had two women who were passionately (and one psychotically) in love with him in Qetsiyah and Amara.
 * Katherine and Elena both became vampires, though Katherine was cured of her vampirism and returned back to a human/witch before eventually dying of old age.
 * Silas and his doppelgänger, Stefan, have first names beginning with the letter "S". It is unknown if other doppelgangers of Silas also had names beginning with the letter S.
 * Tom Avery, the assumed fifth and final doppelganger of Silas, seems to break this tradition, as his name begins with the letter T.
 * All of the known shadows of Amara, like herself, have first names that rhyme with each other. All of the known Petrova doppelgängers, including the progenitor Amara, all have first names which end with an "A" (Amar A, Tati A , Katerin A , Elen A ).
 * Aside from Tatia, Katherine and Elena, there is presumed to be another doppelgänger of Amara who precedes Tatia, born during c. 5th century A.D. She is presumed to be Amara's very first doppelgänger, although this is not confirmed and is just a theory.
 * A person and his or her doppelgänger will look identical in appearance, but the differences stem from their rearing and community standards (such as their expressions, speech, reason, and connections with others).
 * According to some myths, doppelgängers tend to undo the lives of each other. Tatia was used to create the Original Vampires but her doppelgängers have influenced the deaths of all three deceased Original Vampires.
 * Katherine distracted Mikael, which let Klaus have a shot at his heart.
 * Elena shot Finn with a crossbow to disable him for a few moments before Matt killed him.
 * Elena held down Kol, after weakening him with vervain, thus allowing Jeremy to kill him.
 * Now that Stefan has been revealed to be a doppelgänger of Silas, in retrospect, it seems more than just a mere coincidence that Stefan too influenced the deaths of the three original vampires.
 * Stefan intervened when Damon tried to take a shot at Klaus which led to the death of Mikael.
 * Stefan took the first shot at Finn and was disarmed immediately by Sage. In his process of recovering the stake, Elena shot Finn with the crossbow.
 * Stefan spent an entire evening trying to obtain the dagger from Rebekah which, at the very least kept her at bay, while Elena and Jeremy went about killing Kol.
 * On more than one occasion, Katherine has actively harmed her doppelgänger Elena. Silas made his doppelgänger, Stefan, suffer for a whole summer by stabbing him, locking him in a safe and throwing the safe off a cliff into the water under a quarry, where Stefan would drown repeatedly and die over and over for three months.
 * The very danger, of being prematurely undone by his doppelgänger, is probably why Silas locked Stefan in the safe and left him to drown repeatedly - he might have wanted to keep Stefan out of the way for as long as he remains immortal. As it turns out, Stefan's release from the safe allowed Qetsiyah to neutralise Silas' mental powers.
 * The term "Petrova Doppelgänger" comes from the last name of Katherine Petrova, the second doppelgänger of Amara. It is a term used by those who strived to find Katherine's doppelgänger and once discovered, directly referred only to Elena.
 * Qetsiyah has said that the Silas' and Amara's doppelgängers have been finding each other and falling in love century after century. This could possibly imply that before the 10th century, when Tatia, the second doppelgänger of Amara, was used by Esther to make the Mikaelson family vampires and was also used to suppress Klaus' werewolf side, there were possibly Petrova doppelgängers being born every century or every few centuries, since Qetsiyah said that they fall in love century after century, not every 500 years. However, it's also possible that Qetsiyah was just being hyperbolic to emphasize her annoyance at watching Silas and Amara's shadows constantly falling in love over the last 2,000 years.
 * It is uncertain whether or not the doppelgängers of Silas are born every 500 years like the last three doppelgängers of Amara have. It is also uncertain if Petrova doppelgängers being born every 500 years theory is actually true.
 * It is possible that the doppelgängers were finding each other and falling in love on The Other Side. Doppelgängers are known to be supernatural beings and hence, would go to The Other Side when they die. This could possibly be what Qetsiyah meant when she said she has watched versions of Silas and Amara find each other and fall in love century after century; she could have been watching them find each other and fall in love on the Other Side. However, with the destruction of the Other Side, this is presumably no longer possible.
 * Doppelgängers can be born or the doppelgänger "gene" can be passed down the bloodline without the doppelgänger himself/herself having children or a direct bloodline due to having children. For example, Silas and Amara, the progenitors of the Salvatore and Petrova doppelgänger bloodlines respectively, were assumed to not have had any children before they became truly immortal. Therefore, it is very likely that they had a sibling(s) which would have passed down the doppelgänger "gene" through Silas and Amara's respective bloodlines. So, doppelgängers would not need to have children in order for the doppelgänger "gene" to be passed down the bloodline. It should be noted that all of the known Petrova doppelgängers (i.e. Tatia and Katherine), with the exception of Elena due to becoming a vampire, have had children. It could be assumed that Silas' doppelgängers all had children as well, with the exception of Stefan, since he became a vampire and therefore, could not reproduce.
 * The two known doppelgänger lines are, both, the result of the Immortality Spell being cast. It is possible that other spells (such as the Hybrid Curse while it was active) may also produce doppelgängers depending on their nature.
 * As of fifth season of The Vampire Diaries, both Amara and Silas had become mortal and died.  Theoretically, being cured of immortality and their deaths means the end of their doppelgänger lines, as nature would no longer require their shadow selves to die in their places.
 * Since Tom Avery was born in the 20th century chances are is that he was meant for Elena, had she not met Stefan. If the prophecy held truth, then that means that Stefan may have never been meant to meet neither Katherine or Elena, nor fall in love with them. Katherine may have had another Salvatore doppelgänger that was meant for her, and Stefan could have had a different Petrova Doppelganger that was meant for himself, IF, of course, the prophecy meant that two doppelgangers were born in the same century and were meant fall in love with each other.
 * It was revealed that the reason why the Travelers want the blood of the doppelgängers was because they wanted to break the curse that was placed on them by Luke and Liv's coven 2,000 years ago.
 * Qetsiyah's belief that the shadows of Silas and Amara were destined to find each other and fall in love was proven to be incorrect; it was revealed that the reason why the Salvatore and Petrova doppelgängers find each other is because of the spell that was placed on them by Markos 1,500 years earlier to obtain doppelgänger blood. The Salvatore and Petrova doppelgangers fell in love on their own throughout the centuries.
 * It was coincidental how Amara was the handmaiden of Qestiyah in 100 BC, while in the 19th century, Qestiyah's descendant Emily Bennett was the handmaiden of Amara's doppelgänger and descendant, Katherine. Another one of Qetsiyah's descendants, Bonnie Bennett, was best friends with Petrova doppelgänger Elena Gilbert, showing a pattern of Qetsiyah's descendants being involved in some way with Amara's doppelgängers. Likewise to this, Ayana was a witch, and one of Qetsiyah's descendants, that lived in the same 'New World' village as Tatia.
 * According to this interview and the synposis for Red Door, Tatia was Amara's first doppelganger. Considering that Qetsiyah hated Amara for betraying her by falling in love with Silas and then drinking her half of the immortality elixir it is HIGHLY likely that the 'century after century' of Doppelgängers is nothing more than her being hyperbolic. Julie Plec and Nina Dobrev have stated that Tatia is the original original/very first Doppelgänger. And since the character is of Julie Plec and her team of writers minds and Nina's fourth Doppelgänger it's highly likely that the Doppelgänger are far more rare than century after century or 500 years. But 500 years and century after century are all unconfirmed theories that need to confirmed by Plec, her team of writers, or Nina Dobrev herself.