Application
CHARACTER NAME: Nikola Tesla
FANDOM: Sanctuary
CANON: Right before Episode 10 of Season 2, when he is in Mexico trying to create an army of vampires.
WHAT THEY LOST: When Nikola will come to Paradisa, he will find that he will no longer can conduct electricity through his body. This will be extremely upsetting to him, because now he can no longer take shortcuts with his inventions and, well, power them himself. Besides, he was the father of electromagnetic engineering, so losing something that was a huge part of him and made him who he was is something he will not take very well. If he’s zapped with electricity, he’ll feel pain just like any normal human being.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
Nikola Tesla. Possibly one of the greatest inventors of all time, he was responsible for bringing humanity the Tesla coil, fluorescent lighting, the rotational magnetic field, and other vital gadgets and systems that we couldn’t survive without in our modern world. He was a famous rival of Thomas Edison, and was often overshadowed by him, a situation he would live through countless times as up-and-coming young scientists took his ideas and used them as their own. Near the end of his life, he was a recluse and died alone of heart failure, forgotten by a world that once adored the very earth he walked on.
Or so they say.
You see, Nikola Tesla actually staged his own death in order to go into hiding when he built death rays for every major power in the world, thinking that “peace would break out” once everyone had their own death ray. The idea wasn’t exactly welcomed, and soon Tesla found that spies were on their way to kill him.
But it is not very easy to kill Nikola Tesla. Because the Serbian scientist had a pretty big secret- he was a vampire.
Before the whole death ray shenanigan, Nikola Tesla and four other scientists found a very rare sample of vampire blood in their research of abnormals -people and creatures that possessed extraordinary abilities. The vampires had been the rulers of the world before evolution took its toll, as the race became extinct. The Five, as the group of scientists was known, included Tesla, Helen Magnus, an Englishman named John Druitt, Nigel Griffin, and another man named James Watson. They made a serum out of the blood and tested it out on themselves.
The results were unexpected- all the members had their latent abnormal genes awakened and amassed powers like they had ever known. Nigel Griffin, for example, gained the power of invisibility, while John Druitt learned how to teleport and Helen Magnus became immortal.
But Nikola Tesla had the most bizarre reaction to the serum- he gained the ability to transform into a deadly vampire-like creature, as well as the ability to conduct extreme amounts of electricity through himself without receiving any harm. It turned out that one of his ancestors had been a vampire, and Nikola accepted his new powers with relish, feeling that he had found his true self at last.
Over the years, Nikola researched the vampire race and suddenly got the idea to resurrect the vampire race so they could the rulers of the world once again. After many hits and misses, Nikola was able to create a vampire out of a corpse using his own blood and a spark of electricity- the only problem with his creation, though, was that it was mindless and couldn’t think on its own.
So Nikola Tesla approached Helen Magnus for help. She was now the head of a network of buildings collectively called the Sanctuary, where abnormals could be protected and studied without fear. They hadn’t seen each other in many years, and while she was surprised to see him, he was ecstatic to see her. Because she wasn’t just somebody who could help- she was the love of his life and someone he respected very much. She was important to him in ways even he couldn’t understand.
But the reunion didn’t go quite as planned, and when Tesla shared his ideas of world domination with Helen, she rejected them. Surprised and angry by her decision, Tesla almost killed her before her estranged husband, John Druitt, appeared and escaped with Helen.
To Nikola, Helen is perhaps the only person he actually thinks about besides himself. He is at the center of the world, and everything starts and ends with him. Or so he thinks. To everyone else, he’s just a selfish, arrogant, sarcastic man who hates working with others and only works for his own hidden agendas. One never knows what he is plotting- while he may put on a charming smile and a dash of swagger, he is actually thinking of ways to get out on top and show the world the true nature of his ancestors, the vampires. While he can be dramatic at times (especially if he wants to make a point), mostly he acts very nonchalant to the people around him. This attitude often throws people off guard- is this guy serious about taking over the world or not? One can never quite tell. Nikola Tesla has adjusted to modern life quite well, and often uses contemporary jargon and references in his taunts and witty retorts. He’s a genius (as he constantly reminds others) and won’t hesitate to explain the scientific principles behind something at a moment’s notice.
But there is a dark side to Nikola’s usually smug disposition. Although he does have complete control over his transformation into his vampire state, this control can slip if he gets too excited or angry. He doesn’t have a thirst for blood, thanks to a medicine that Helen Magnus created, but he loves the heat of battle and won’t hesitate to fight if he feels threatened. Behind his cheeky grin lies a bitter man who was scorned by the world, even after he helped it by bringing his inventions into existence. He craves attention, and would go to great lengths to get the recognition he feels he deserves.
As for morals, Nikola has a rather skewed perspective on them. To him, it’s perfectly alright to take over the world with vampires because they already held the positions as rulers of the world once. He believes in himself as the last of an extinct species, and has hope that he will bring on a golden age for his dead race. Did he think about the consequences of his decision on the rest of the world? Not really. He could care less. But at times Nikola is surprisingly helpful to people like Helen Magnus and her entourage. For example, he helped her and the rest of the Five retrieve the source blood they had used in their serum so that it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Nikola Tesla is an enigma when it comes to which side he is on- he seems perfectly happy to stay in that morally gray area between hero and villain.