Origins & Immortals · Era II, The Mikaelsons
The White Oak
An ancient white oak at the centre of the village, whose life force Esther drew on for the spell. Because nature charges for everything, the same tree is the only thing in existence that can permanently kill what she made. The family burned it immediately. Wood from it kept turning up anyway.
Details
- Surviving pieces: a stake Mikael carried, and a tree the natives replanted some three hundred years after the family left, felled by the Salvatores around 1912 to build Wickery Bridge — and its sign.
- Kill an Original with white oak and every vampire they sired dies too. The cast spends years arguing over which line they belong to for exactly this reason.
- Esther burned the original tree the same century she used it. Mikael kept one stake back — the only weapon that could kill his own children.
- A white oak sapling planted in the 12th century grew into the tree used to build the Wickery Bridge sign, which is why Mystic Falls has a stake supply nobody knew about.
- White oak ash on a silver dagger neutralises an Original without killing them. It does not work on Klaus, because he is half werewolf.
- Alaric carves twelve white oak stakes from the Wickery Bridge sign in season three, and Klaus spends most of that season counting them.