The Heretics

STATUS

Endangered (Only 1 left)

OCCUPATION

Members of the Gemini Coven (Formerly)

Witch/Vampire Coven

SPECIES

Siphoner (Formerly)

Hybrid (Vampire, Witch)

Vampire (only Lily and Lorenzo St. John)

Vampires with witch powers; an aberration of nature — they can never be allowed to escape. Imagine Kai with the bloodlust of a vampire. Now imagine six of them.

JO TO DAMON AND ELENA IN I NEVER COULD LOVE LIKE THAT

The Heretics, were a powerful coven[1] of witch-vampire hybrids originating from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Originally members of the Gemini Coven, the Heretics were feared among the witch community as they retained their ability to practice magic despite having been turned into vampires.

The original six members, before becoming vampires, were known as siphoners, a subsection of witches without the ability to practice magic unless it was first siphoned from another source of magic. Due to this unique ability, they were considered an 'abomination' by the Gemini Coven and ultimately exiled between the mid-late 19th century and early 20th century. Exiled into the world without a leader, the Heretics fell under the guide of Lillian Salvatore, a vampire and prominent ripper. At some point during 1903, Lily turned the Heretics into vampires, thus becoming the first witch-vampire coven in the world. As vampires, the Heretics had fallen into one of Nature's loopholes which allowed them to not only retain their ability to practice magic, but be provided with power source to siphon from. This transformation and subsequent discovery meant that siphoners were the only known beings who could be both witch and vampire.

In late 1903, shortly after being turned, under the guide of Lily, the den set sail from

England

to

New York

with the plan to take down the Gemini Coven in revenge for exiling them. During the trip, Lily took pity on a sick young man suffering from consumption. Lily turned the young man but left the man behind to continue their goal to destroy the Gemini Coven, believing she would return for him after accomplishing this. However, the Gemini Coven and its powerful members found the Heretics first, banishing them and Lily in a snapshot of November 1, 1903 using an ascendant.

Lily was eventually freed a century later by Damon Salvatore, Elena Gilbert and powerful witch Bonnie Bennett. Lily was however, distraught to learn that although a Bennett witch, Bonnie was unable to bring back the Heretics with them to modern-day. Lily however, managed to feed a desiccated Malcolm her blood before leaving. Although former Gemini member Malachai Parker had helped Bonnie get to the Prison World, Bonnie left him behind out of anger. With their leader gone, the six Heretics fed on the blood of Kai to replenish their strength before returning to Mystic Falls and settling in with their leader. However, due to a tense rivalry between Lily and her biological sons, five of the six Heretics died. Valerie being the only survivor as of One Way or Another.

History

Before their exile, the Heretics were once members of the powerful Gemini Coven, a congregation of interlinked witches who had bound their entire individual magic to the successful transition from one leader to the next. The basis of this transition between leaders was a ritual known as the Merge: the twin offspring of the current leader would perform the ritual on their twenty-second birthday, during which, the strongest twin would survive and absorb the magical strength and personality traits of the weaker twin, killing the latter during the merge. The successful twin would then emerge and become leader of the Gemini Coven, disregarding the current. As the spirit of the twins had merged during into the winner's body during the process, the winner contained aspects of both twin's personalities and would gain access to enhanced magical powers due to the fact that the leader binds both the magic and lives of the coven to himself or herself. As a result, if the leader were to die before the emergent of a new leader, so too would the entire coven.

All born into the Gemini coven before Joshua Parker became leader, the Heretics were born without the ability to generate individual magic. Instead, they could only siphon magic from other magical sources, such as supernatural beings (witches, vampires, werewolves etc) or enchanted objects (such as Valerie's pendant). The members of the Gemini considered these traits to be an abomination and denounced them "heretics" before exiling them from the coven.

Powers and Abilities of Valerie Tulle the last one alive

Valerie was originally born as a Siphoner, a witch with no personal power, meaning that she could only practice magic by siphoning it from another source. She does seem to have extended knowledge about magic as a former member of the Gemini Coven which she practices with an amulet imbued with magic. Despite having no power of her own, Valerie displayed a skill in cloaking spells, a trademark of her coven.

However, after becoming a vampire, she retained her siphoning abilities, allowing her to function as a witch-vampire hybrid. As such, she possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a siphoner-witch non-Original vampire hybrid. She has since shown considerable skill in magic by burning down the town square with Nora and Mary Louise. She also cast a long-lasting spell on Caroline that ensured that her skin burned anyone who touched her. She could also cast pain infliction spells strong enough to hold down vampires as old as Julian with little difficulty. She displayed talent in a array of locator spells, like when she located Alaric's unborn children, previously thought to be dead. She also located Oscar easily and later found Rayna, at Damon's request. By using Rayna, Valerie was able to discern Stefan's location through visions drawn from Rayna's connection to all of her previous vampire victims. Later on, she located Rayna yet again and found Ambrose, who was in possession of Stefan's body at the time.

Valerie has shown herself to be quite adept in Spells and Rituals, showing a comprehensive knowledge of many spells of the Gemini Coven, such as powerful cloaking spells that she has used several times, such as when she concealed Julian's death at Stefan's hands. She even managed to perform a powerful spirit transfer spell, originating from the Gemini coven, and as such requiring two witches to perform while Valerie managed to perform it alone (though not without being weakened in the process), which is another testament to her great power. It is also revealed that following the night that Julian beat her to the point of her unborn child's death, Valerie attempted several powerful spells to save her child's life, however even as a Heretic her magic wasn't great enough nor did she have an entire coven to work with, as such she was not strong enough to preserve her child's life. One of these spells was a strong Gemini spell used on pregnant Gemini witches whose lives are in danger in order to transfer their unborn children to another individual and preserve the lives of the next generation.

She also showed knowledge about different magical symptoms and is even skilled in creating magical talismans by fueling them with magic. She also performed a powerful spell on her own for a while and later with Bonnie that created a focus of magic greater than Caroline's vampirism, in order to attract Alaric's unborn children.

Weaknesses

Valerie had the typical weaknesses of a siphoner-witch. After dying and completing her transition, she has the typical weakness of a siphoner-witch non-Original vampire hybrid

Trivia

Julie Plec describes them as sociopaths who have killed thousands of people together.

Kai was able to siphon the magic of vampire blood out of Liz's body, preventing her from becoming a vampire upon her death.

It was also shown that siphoner witches can siphon the magic of vampires to the point of death, as Caroline nearly died due to her pregnancy, though Valerie was able to reverse the desiccation in Postcards from the Edge.

Kai, as a hybrid, siphon Damon's vampirism completely, killing him in the process in It's Been a Hell of a Ride.

Trivia part 2

Valerie is the first member of the Heretics whose last name is revealed.

Valerie was the first witch-vampire Hybrid created. She drowned herself with Lily's blood in her system.

Ironically, as of the episode Days of Future Past, she is the last existing witch-vampire Hybrid, making her the first and the last of her rare species.

Despite, Beau being resurrected after the phoenix stone/sword was destroyed, his soul was placed in the deceased body of vampire Lewis, but was killed by Damon Salvatore in Somebody That I Used to Know, he was killed in his hybrid body prior to this, thus still it made Valerie the only living witch-vampire hybrid.

She was Stefan Salvatore's first love, and the first girl he slept with.

She was pregnant with Stefan's child until it was forcefully miscarried.

She killed one of her fellow Heretics members, Oscar as he was going to bring back Julian, who is the reason she couldn't reunite with Stefan and killed her unborn child.

She used to have an amulet before she became a hybrid which she siphoned magic from in times of need.

She is skilled in locator spells.

In the Cold as Ice flash-forward, it is shown she is living in Chicago and in a relationship with Stefan once more.

In One Way or Another, Valerie restores Stefan to his own body, and says good bye to him as she realizes Stefan was still in love with Caroline. She leaves to live her own life.

According to her fellow Heretics, Valerie is the most ruthless of the group.