Elijah Mikaelson (Elder Futhark: ᛖᛚᛇᚨᚺ ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ) was the deuteragonist of The Originals. He was formerly a major recurring character in The Vampire Diaries, serving initially as an antagonistin the second season and eventually becoming a supporting character and protagonist in the third season and fourth seasons. Elijah was an Original Vampire.

Elijah was the third child and second son of Mikael and Esther. He was the younger brother of Freya Mikaelson and Finn Mikaelson, and the older brother of Kol Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson and Henrik Mikaelson. Elijah was also the older half-brother of Niklaus Mikaelson, and the uncle of an Unnamed Nephew, and Hope Mikaelson, Klaus' daughter with Hayley Marshall.

Throughout his long life, Elijah had several romantic relationships. In the early 11th century, Elijah and Klaus were both in love with a Petrova Doppelgänger named Tatia. Elijah accidentally killed Tatia after he became a vampire and was traumatized and horrified by the violence of his actions towards her. Elijah's mother, told him to seal the event behind a "red door" and to clean himself up. As long as he was clean, nothing of what happened behind the red door could hurt him. As such, this became Elijah's defense mechanism to cope with the horrors of his vampirism for the next thousand years.


In the second season of The Originals, he and Klaus continued to work in a combined effort to stop Esther, Finn and a resurrected Mikael, while struggling with reawakened sins from his past. He also took Gia, one of Marcel's vampires as his protégé, and eventually began a romantic relationship with until Klaus killed her.

In the third season, he made it his mission to prevent a prophecy depicting his family's downfall from coming to pass, even taking on his first sired vampire to do it. However, unknowingly, Elijah completed the prophecy himself, by killing Marcel Gerard. After the latter came back to life as the Beast from the prophecy, he bit Elijah and his younger brother Kol, knowing his bite would kill them both. He then banished the Mikaelsons from New Orleans. However, unknown to Marcel, Elijah's older sister Freya linked him and all their siblings to Klaus's life force, giving Hayley time to find cures for them all.

In the fourth season, the Hollow used the magic from Elijah's sireline to resurrect herself. Before his death, Freya was able to transfer his soul into a pendant. Elijah was later on restored to his body. However, every vampire in his sireline remained dead.

Elijah is a member of the Mikaelson Family and an unnamed Witch Family.