The Endless
The Endless is a comic book team that first appeared in The Sandman #21
The Endless are seven, seven siblings that embody seven different aspects, they have been described by one of their number as ideas, such as dreams and desires or concepts such as destiny and death or even feelings like despair and delight.
What Exactly are The Endless?
Although Neil Gaiman, the creator of The Endless, has made it very clear that he prefers leaving fans to guess at the origins and mysteries of The Endless, he has filled in some clues, most of them concerning what exactly The Endless are were revealed in the Brief Lives story arc, through Destruction. It seems, after having abandoned his duty as one of The Endless he came to truly understand what The Endless are. He says that they are simply patterns, ideas, repeating motifs and makes it clear that for their functions to be performed, no actual intervention is required on their part. In fact he goes on to say The Endless have no right to interfere with the lives of mortals.
Also, he explains his own theory about what each of The Endless represent saying that he symbolizes creation, in this same way he goes on to say that Death is to life as Despair is to hope, Desire is to hatred and Destiny is to freedom. When Dream questions what he would be in this all, Destruction says, "Reality, perhaps?" This seems to shake the very foundation of what The Endless are, as most of the others see themselves as bound to their duties while Destruction makes it very clear that without them all will go on, perhaps more sporadically, but it will continue.
Neil Gaiman has also added in the foreword to The Sandman: Endless Nights, that The Endless are not to be seen as gods, for gods need to be believed in to exist, The Endless will continue existing whether we believe in them or not, for they are The Endless.
Another thing that should be brought up is that although the first eight of The Endless may have never been human and the original seven may have never been anything but The Endless, the ninth was originally Daniel Hall, a mortal babe who was made Dream when forces outside of his control made it necessary that he take on the role, for although you can abandon your duties, there must always be one to hold the mantle of each of the seven Endless.
One thing about The Endless that seems to support the idea they were once "mortal beings" of sorts is the fact that they have been known to reproduce and bear, at least partially, human offspring.
Who are The Endless?
The Endless, as mentioned above, are ideas, anthromorphic personifications of concepts, but even so, they are all individual beings, and have feelings, thoughts and personalities all their own, as proven by the fact that when Daniel Hall replaces Morpheus as Dream, that he does not truly replace Morpheus to those who knew him, because he is not the same, while the same being in theory, they are quite different in action. From eldest to youngest (as members of The Endless, not as concepts) the nine Endless have been listed below with some info on their individual personalities, relationships with fellow Endless or well anyone for that matter and believe it or not, their speech bubbles. That is because each of The Endless bears a unique speech bubble and as such each description will include a panel of that specific being speaking, and a caption explaining what is unique about their speech.
Destiny
Italicized Text
Whether this makes him that much older than any of his siblings is uncertain but he is seen as The Eldest. Destiny is - like many characters that know the future and that it cannot be changed - very stoic in going about his life and rarely, if ever, shows any emotion. He is not a very warm and welcoming type of guy because he simply reads the Book of Destiny and does what it says he shall do. This attitude is basically a double-sided blade, as on one hand it means he never purposefully invokes hatred or emotions of that sort, while at the same time he never purposefully brings about joy either, he just does as the Book says he shall do.
Thus, in terms of relationships with his siblings, he hardly has any to speak of, he likes to keep to himself, although he also seems to be the one most willing to respect Destruction abandoning his duties, most likely because he felt no attachment to his brother. Also, at Morpheus' wake, Destiny delivers the first speech being the eldest and seems to feel no pain at the loss. He says that the ceremony is to pay their respects to Dream, and than, to ultimately forget him. For Destiny sees things as they were, as they are, and as they shall be...and the way he sees things, Dream was the lord of things that were not, things that are not, and things that will never be. In short, you could basically say Destiny is heartless, incapable of understanding emotion because he has no need to feel when he knows all.
Death
Regular Bubble
Death, like her brothers Destiny and Dream seems to be far older than their younger siblings - at least in maturity - for when all things first came about they were alive, so, in turn death was needed and she was there. Originally, all those billions of years ago Death was very dark as one might expect her to be and mortals and gods alike trembled in her presence, for their was no light sparkling in her eyes, only the death they all knew would one day come for them.
This obviously changed when she was given the privilege/task/duty to every one hundred years, live one day as a mortal so that she can know what life is like and why so few wish to lose it, seeing as Death never appreciates the fact that so few want her to come for them. However, when Death does interact with anyone, both her siblings and those whose lives she must take, they always find her to be too cheerful. Although she is known for the occasional outburst of anger (usually because of Dream's idiocy), it is a very rare occurrence and even though she is sometimes annoyed by those she finds herself interacting with, she is not known to be rude. All in all, she is just a lovable character and the most emotional of her siblings, the only one who truly understands what its like to be alive, she seems to be a lot more cheery because of it.
Dream
Wavy Black Bubble
Also, what should be mentioned is in age of the Endless, it seems like all the choosing of their ages revolved around Dream as it is with his relationships towards all of his siblings that their maturity can really be seen. When he receives counsel it is usually from Death (his elder sister) who will insult him for his stupidity but than give him her wisdom or at times he goes to Destiny (his elder brother) who although isn't too helpful does yield some advice if necessary. Than there is Destruction (the next in line) who gives Dream advice but the advice is ill-received because Dream believes himself more wise than his brother. As for Desire and Despair, Dream seems to see himself as above them and their childish games and although once closest to Desire, for most of his later life he felt nothing but hatred for her. Finally, there is little Delirium, although he thinks her foolish, after spending some time with her near the end of his days he comes to be her big brother, and helps her out at times.
However, Dream's most important relationships are those who tends to have with mortal women, Dream will often find himself falling in love with just about every female that comes his way and every time he eventually loses them, leading to strife in The Dreaming. Although originally when people wronged him, Dream's vengeance would be swift and cruel, such as locking a lover in Hell for millenia, or trapping an old man in an endless nightmare, he eventually grew out of such habits and actually became a much kinder Lord of the Dreaming up until the moment he took up his responsibilities and gave up his life to save The Dreaming.
Destruction
Bold Outline
Destruction's attitude is that of a very gentle giant, ironic because his duty is to destroy, and perhaps exactly the reason he refused to destroy any longer. His placement in the family is also perfect, as the middle child, seeing as while his elder siblings may look down upon him or see the abandonment of his function as a measure of his youth (except perhaps Death), his younger siblings (Despair and Delirium specifically) seem to adore him and look up to him, they need him, yet he refuses to stay for their sake's, though he is not cruel for he leaves Barnabas to take care of Del in his stead and he also counseled the second Dream after the death of Morpheus. However, he would not stay to speak with his siblings and has made it very clear that under no circumstances does he ever want them to seek him out. It appears that after the tales told in The Sandman this attitude actually changed and he proved himself to be the loving brother once again as he returns to take care of Delirium after she went through something terrible beyond imagining, proving that he cares for her more than he does for his own solitude.
Desire
Specialized Font
Amongst his/her siblings, Desire is perhaps the most disliked, this may be in part due to the fact of its own youth, being younger than all but two of the other Endless. No one really seems to have a taste for Desire's games but most of The Endless just don't involve themselves with Desire. However, of all his/her older siblings, the one who has the most resentment towards him/her is Morpheus, the brother who was once favored Desire above all his other siblings until he realized that Desire's and his own views differed too greatly on the thoughts of love and humor. Other than that there is Desire's younger sibling, Delirium, whom of course looks up to Desire, yet because of Desire's own attitudes, receives much more than a little protection, but not truly any love. The only sibling Desire seems to have any real relationship with is its twin, Despair.
Of course, because Desire is the first incarnation of Desire and the current Despair whom is often seen interacting with Desire is her second incarnation, it is no surprise that Desire is the leader of the duo. Despair often comes to Desire rather than vice versa but the two still have a relationship that can be seen as giving from both parties, neither one really abusing the other. Other than Despair however, Desire doesn't really seem to have much of a relationship with anyone, he/she is the essence of passion, not of love which means it never really grows attached to any particular beings and for the most part keeps to itself and worries about no one else. Though on some occasions Desire will come to its descendants (as seen with Rose Walker) or its devout followers (as seen with Kara) but even then, only for a short time.
Despair I
Ragged-Edged Bubble
One thing that can be assumed from the few lines she has in her comic is that like her counterpart, she too was close to her sibling Desire, as they were truly twins, and another thing is that she seemed a lot more willing to share her opinion, to spread the despair. While the latter Despair seems more reclusive and restricted to her realm, this Despair seems more outgoing and was actually the one who suggested unto Rao (Krypton's red sun) that a planet should bear life and than destroy it all but a single life who will thus grow up and live in its despair. In other word's Despair can in a sense be blamed for the birth of Superman.
Also, it can be assumed Despair was murdered by some male being or at least they were responsible for her death, as the second Dream said to Lyta Hall that "the person who was responsible for the death of the first Despair will take the rest of eternity to die. Only then will his pain cease... And he had better cause for what he did than you."
Delirium
Colorfully Chaotic
Delirium, if put in the spot she would be with the age of her siblings, she is the youngest (excluding second incarnations), and of all her siblings, she seems to fit in her spot best. Unlike the rest of The Endless, Del has never seemed to mature any, although as Delight she was a lot more child-like in attitude, as Delirium she retains the body of a youth and the thought processes of someone who is young but whose mind has been perverted by the evils around them. Delirium is almost always the vulnerable one, the weak one, and can rarely do things on her own, however, since her siblings are very withdrawn from one another, it is unknown who cared for her those first few centuries Destruction was gone, as he was there for her before his leaving and gave her Barnabas to watch over her when they next met.
The one time we truly get a glimpse into Delirium's world, her relationships and her thoughts is in the Brief Lives story arc. It shows us that when she is in danger, even her sibling Desire has been known to come to her aid. It also shows us that most of her siblings care for her, though perhaps not about her, yet she fears them...as she is afraid of both Despair and Dream at times. In the end however, after their adventure, Delirium came to care about Dream, although she hated him at one point during their time together and fled to her world where she remained until Dream was coerced by Death into talking to her and repairing the damage he had done. This development is most likely why Delirium seemed so broken-hearted after the death of her brother. But of all her siblings, Delirium is closest to Destruction, it is he that most often took care of her, and the events of The Sandman: Endless Nights seem to insinuate that Destruction came back simply to care for her, after she went through a terrible ordeal that wasn't exactly explained, like much of her life.
Another thing to note is Delirium's people, since she can hardly be called sane, very few of her "people" can be either and so when they encounter...the ensuing interaction is rarely one like her other siblings have with those in their realm, as Delirium is not their superior but their equal and at times even their lesser, as Barnabas and Daniel (the second Dream) used her people to rescue her once when something had gone terribly wrong with her and they couldn't risk going near her.
Despair II
Dream II
The Ancient Rules
One which requires them not to spill the blood of family or he or she is no longer protected as the personification of Destiny from other Personifications and that anyone of them cannot fall in love with a mortal or the mortals downfall is assured.
The Galleries
Each of The Endless possess a "gallery", a place within their realm someplace where the portraits of the other six Endless hang, allowing contact between all seven of The Endless seeing as they rarely interact it provides a method to easier contact one another. Within these galleries each of The Endless also possess a sigil, its not necessary to hold the sigil when you speak to another Endless but it seems to be customary to hold it, tell your sibling that you hold their sigil and than ask permission to enter their realm.
Destiny's Realm/Destiny's Sigil
Destruction's Realm/Destruction's Sigil
Despair's Realm/Despair's Sigil
Delirium's Realm/Delirium's Sigil
"Their People"
| Team Name: | The Endless |
| Publisher: | Vertigo |
| 1st Appearance: | The Sandman #21 |
| Appears in: | 11 issues |
| Disbanded in: |
