Endless (comics) - The Endless

The Endless

The Endless are not known to have proper names, although Dream has a habit of collecting different names for himself. They are each known by their respective function.

• Destiny: The oldest of the Endless, Destiny appears as a blind man dressed in grey or brown robes (purple in earlier comics), carrying a large book, the Cosmic Log. The book is chained to him, or he is chained to the book, and within the book is written the entire sum of existence, past, present and future. Destiny seems the most possessed by his function and responsibilities of any of the Endless. He rarely demonstrates much personality. His sigil is his book. His speech appears as a regular word balloon with letters in italics. His parentage is the only one mentioned, other than Daniel's, and that might be considered non-continuity. In his garden are paths souls walk along as they fulfill their lives.
• Death: Death appears as a spunky, attractive, level-headed young Goth woman. She wears a silver ankh (representing the afterlife) and has a marking similar to an Eye of Horus around her right eye. She prefers to dress and act casually, and is on better terms with Dream than any of the other Endless. Her sigil is the ankh. Her speech is presented in regular letters in a regular balloon. She spends one day out of every century as a mortal, living and dying on Earth.
• Dream:
  • Dream (Morpheus): Dream's usual appearance is as a tall, pale man with wild dark blue-black hair. He dresses in a shapeless cloak of "night" with "flames dancing in its folds". His eyes are pools of shadows with glimmers of light within. He is known by many names, most commonly "Morpheus". He has a long history of insensitivity towards others, and throughout The Sandman, he must come to deal with his past cruelties. He is very concerned with fulfilling his responsibilities. His sigil is his dream-helm, made from the spine and skull of a long-dead god. His word balloons have wavy edges and a black background outlined in white, with white lettering.
  • Dream (Daniel): Morpheus' successor appears as a tall, pale young man with white hair and a white costume. Like Morpheus, his eyes are formed by shadows with a glimmer of light in their center. Before becoming the new Dream at the end of The Sandman, he was a young boy named Daniel, which he later retains as a name. Daniel was gestated in dreams for two years, the child of Lyta Trevor-Hall and the ghost of Hector Hall. He is generally softer in his approach than Morpheus. Daniel carries an emerald eagle stone, although his sigil remains the same (that of the dream-helm). His word balloons are similar to Morpheus', only with a white background and black lettering.
• Destruction: A very large, robust man with red hair, who sometimes appears bearded and sometimes shaven. Destruction abandoned his responsibilities as one of the Endless three hundred years ago, causing much conflict between him and his siblings. Since abandoning his realm, the other Endless usually refer to him as "the Prodigal" or "Brother" rather than "Destruction". He has a passion for creative and constructive endeavors, but little talent. His sigil is a sword. His text is normal, but is in a balloon with a bold outline.
• Desire: Desire is beautiful, slim, and truly androgynous, capable of appearing as a man, a woman, neither, or possibly both. Desire has a cruel streak and a long-standing rivalry with Dream. His/her sigil is a pink-tinted glass heart shape. Although Desire is Despair's twin, in a sense he/she is older than Despair. The current incarnation of Desire is the original one, while Despair is currently in her second incarnation. Desire's text is defined by a specific letter style in a normal balloon.
• Despair: Twin sister to Desire:
  • The First Despair: In her first form, Despair had many of the same physical qualities as her later form, but is taller and is tattooed with intricate red lines. She was also much more talkative than her later incarnation. She is occasionally mentioned in passing, and is later depicted in The Sandman: Endless Nights. It is hinted that she may have been responsible for the destruction of the planet Krypton as a means to create the ultimate despair.
  • The Second Despair: A short, obese woman with greyish skin and irregularly-shaped teeth. She is always naked. Despair has a cold, quietly intelligent manner. She has a habit of carving her flesh with a hooked ring that she wears. This hooked ring is also her sigil. The second aspect is the one that appears throughout the main storyline. Despair's text is normal in a balloon with ragged-waved edges. Despair often associates with Desire, but unlike Desire she was fond of Destruction.
• Delirium: The youngest of the Endless, Delirium appears as a young girl whose form changes the most frequently of any of the Endless, based on the random fluctuations of her temperament. She has wild multicolored hair and eccentric, mismatched clothes. Her only permanent physical characteristic is that one of her eyes is emerald green (usually the right side) and the other pale blue with silver flecks (usually the left side), but even those sometimes switch between left and right. She was once known as Delight, but some traumatic event caused her to change into her current role. Her sigil is an abstract, shapeless blob of colors. Her speech is portrayed in standard graphic novel block-caps, characterized by wavy, unpredictable orientation and a multi-colored gradient background.