The protagonist of the series, Nicholas de Brabant, has a life of profound struggle. He is at constant odds with the nature of who he is (a monster, a natural predator), and his unending quest to be human again. His desires (both carnal and humanitarian) seem to equally get the best of him. Helping him achieve his mortality is Dr. Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher), a medical examiner who accidentally discovers the truth about Nick and vows to help him. Through the series there evolves a budding (albeit "forbidden") romance between Nick and Natalie, constantly complicated by the presence of Nick's vampire family who are never far from him.

The beautiful vampire Janette du Charme (Deborah Duchêne) is a very powerful influence over Nick, for they are not only bound by their very natures but by their master and their quite literal eternal love for one another. While Nick might love Natalie for her mortality and her tireless devotion to his cause, Nick loves Janette for their deep abiding history and almost preternatural bond. Janette is also a "safe" way for Nick to indulge his vampire urges. During Season 3 ("The Human Factor"), Janette fell in love with a mortal man (whom she told of her "condition") and through their lovemaking, eventually became mortal and was "cured" of her vampiric state. Nick brought Janette across again after she was shot, following the death of her boyfriend. Janette went back fully to her vampiric ways and left Nick once again, leaving her whereabouts unknown.

The most powerful force in Nick’s life, however, is Lucien LaCroix (Nigel Bennett), the vampire master who brought both Nicholas and Jeanette across. Nick both hates and loves LaCroix, despising him for bringing him into a life of darkness but also bound by an unshakable loyalty to him. While Jeanette might be mildly amused by Nick’s desire to be human, LaCroix fosters no such tolerance. LaCroix harbors a deeply-felt and oft-obsessive fatherly love for Nicholas, and their relationship is very much one of unholy father and son. LaCroix not only thwarts every attempt Nick makes to achieve his goal, he mocks his quest with cold derision. LaCroix wants nothing more than for Nick to leave the world of the living and unite with his “family� and especially him once more. This seems to be all the more apparent when Nick learns about who brought LaCroix across. LaCroix was a general in the Roman army, known as Lucius, and he lived in Pompeii. He returned from the war(?) a hero and had a bust created in his honour. Lucius was in love with a woman named Selene who had a young, pre-teen daughter named Divia (Kathryn Long) whom he embraced as his own daughter. While he was away, Divia became ill, and when he returned she was better again. When Vesuvius had the temerity to erupt during the General's victory/homecoming celebration, Divia asked Lucius if he wanted to live and, upon receiving an answer in the affirmative, she brought him across.

Later on, the two traveled to Egypt where they found the tomb of her maker, Qa'Ra, an ancient vampire who lived before the pyramids were built. Lucius is told that Divia destroyed him because he thought that he controlled her. She tells Lucius that the only reasons for her becoming a vampire were because she was purely evil and because she was so young. She wanted to forge her own path and killed him. When she tries to induce her former mortal father to make love to her, he recoils in fear and disgust and so decapitates her. In the third season, Divia returns with the intention of killing LaCroix for his betrayal. Instead, she decides it would be more painful to LaCroix if she first kills his friends Vachon and Urs. In a final act of cruelty, she attempts to kill Nick, knowing LaCroix loves him like a son. Believing she has succeeded, she confronts LaCroix, taunts him with Nick's death, and tries to kill him. Nick arrives in time to save LaCroix.

Adding comic relief and counterpoint to Nick is his police partner for seasons one and two is Don Schanke (John Kapelos), an outrageous, crude, yet charming character. Much of the success of Nick's mortal development can be attributed to him. Schanke's happy-go-lucky, no-nonsense approach to life often shadows Nick's permanent melancholy. Kapelos was the only supporting actor from the pilot to carry over into the series.

In the third and final season, the character of Schanke was killed off and replaced with a female partner by the name of Tracy Vetter (Lisa Ryder). Her character was multifaceted, for during the course of the season, she discovers the truth about vampires and falls in love with a young vampire (Javier Vachon) played by Ben Bass. However, Tracy did not discover that Nick was a vampire until moments before her own violent death at the end of the series. Her final, slightly reproachful words to him were "You could’ve trusted me."

In the last episode, The Last Knight, Natalie requests that Nick turn her into a vampire so they can live their lives together which he refuses. Natalie suggests drinking a little at a time as a possibly way of curing his vampirism and a reluctant Nick finally agrees. He bites her, but as a flash of memories go through him of all his past experiences, he is unable to stop drinking her blood. Nick lays an unconsciouss and dying Natalie on the floor. LaCroix arrives and Nick tells him he drank too much, that he could not stop. LaCroix tells him that she is lying "in the brink of death" and can either turn her or be done with her. Nick asks LaCroix whether he has ever had faith in anything but himself. La Croix answers that he has seen too much, to which Nick responds that maybe he has seen too little. He says that Natalie believed in them and that they could live their lives together. He says that he will not submit her to a life of darkness. He grabs a wooden staff and hands it to LaCroix. La Croix questions him about his faith and says that life is a gift, whether his faith makes him believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that this is something Nick cannot answer. He will only know once the deed is done. La Croix then questions Nick what he is to him, whether he sees him as the devil. Nick replies that he is his closest friend. Nick kneels next to Natalie and La Croix, behind Nick, raises the wooden staff and yells "Damn you Nicholas", clearly resenting Nick's decision to die. The series ends, implying that La Croix kills Nick and Natalie dies (from loss of blood).

While the first two seasons offered dramatic stories, but also moments of humor and levity, the third season took a darker turn with less levity, more fatalism, and less hope for redemption.

[edit] Vampirism as a condition

Vampires in Forever Knight possess many of the traits common to modern literary vampires. Physiologically, they are for all intents and purposes animated, sentient corpses (there is some ambiguity as to whether vampires possess no heartbeat, or a heartbeat slowed to an almost undetectable rate). In series 1, episode # 9 "I will repay" Nick Knight remarks that vampires have a heart beat of about one beat for every ten minutes. All vampires are capable of performing feats of superhuman strength, a phenomenon possibly linked to their emotional state -- an angry or fearful vampire seems more likely to exhibit this strength. They are also capable of regenerating tissue rapidly -- the rate of this regeneration has some relationship with the amount of blood ingested at any given time -- and possess the ability to mesmerize mortal humans, erasing memories or implanting false ones. (This ability is not foolproof, however; some humans in the story are naturally resistant, and others appear capable of resisting it so long as they possess physical proof of vampiric existence.)

More exotic abilities displayed by vampires in the story include the ability to levitate and fly at considerable speeds through the air (though the Dracula-like ability to transform into a bat or cloud of mist is not shown by any character in the series), and moving at speeds too rapid to be seen by the unaided eye, and possibly moving through openings far too small for their apparent physical body to fit. Though no consistent pattern was established in the series, most vampire characters were depicted as gaining strength with age, ultimately achieving genuine immortality; Lacroix, Nick Knight's creator and mentor, returned from his own apparent destruction by fire at the beginning of Season Two, and -- in the shadow of an impending global catastrophe -- claimed that unlike younger vampires he could not starve from lack of human blood.

Similar to other vampires in horror fiction with immunity to all effects of aging and strong resistance to most physical damage, the existence of Forever Knight vampires can typically be terminated through any of the following: decapitation, sufficient exposure to sunlight, a wooden stake driven though the heart, immolation, and any other physical trauma significant enough to destroy the entire physical form all at once. In one episode, it is made clear that vampires can, at least, temporarily, be incapacitated by significant head trauma. Nick is immobalized twice in series 1, episode # 8 "Cherry Blossoms" by acupucture needles at nerve points in his neck. Nick states in season one that garlic will sicken and repel vampires. Nick decalares in season one that a vampire can "gain some tolerence to sunlight" after many years. Nick and his family are seen at different times in the show running through sunlight during the day resulting in nothing more than smoke rising from their bodies and a slight rash. These vampires also become notably weaker when starved of blood, losing some to a great deal of their physical powers. Many vampires seem to possess a deep fear of religious symbols � Nick in particular dreads Christian symbols like the crucifix, though it is possible this has as much to do with Nick's own subconscious guilt as with any objective power of the cross. In episode one,touching a crucifix will cause Nick's skin to burn. In flashbacks any body part even approaching a crucifix would burst into flames. Flashbacks show that pre-Christian vampires were vulnerable to the symbol of Ra, the Egyptian Sun God. Obsidian, related to the sun in some Native American cultures, also has the similar effect of a cross when touched.

There are different types of vampires in the Forever Knight universe. In addition to the general vampire population, there are particular vampires known as Enforcers and Carouche. Enforcers are stronger than other vampires and have larger fangs. It is not known how a vampire becomes an Enforcer. Carouche are vampires that thrive on animal blood rather than human blood. A vampire becomes a Carouche when the first blood he or she drinks after being "brought across" is from an animal. Animals can become vampires and can turn humans into vampires.

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