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Members: Destiny; Death; Morpheus (Dream I, deceased); Daniel (Dream II); Destruction (inactive); Desire; Despair; Delirium (formerly Delight)
Occupation: Anthropomorphic Personifications
Base of Operations: Universal (possibly Omniversal); their individual "realms"
Current Status: Active
First Appearance: As a group: Sandman Vol. 2 #21 (November 1990); Destiny: Weird Mystery Tales #1; Dream I: Sandman Vol. 2 #1; Dream II: (as Daniel), Sandman Vol. 2 #22 (as Dream II) Sandman Vol. 2 #69; Destruction: Sandman Special #1; Desire and Despair: Sandman Vol. 2 #10; Delirium: Sandman Vol. 2 #21
In the beginning during the so-called "Dawn Days" when the universe was still very young, the Endless were only six in number. Desire and Despair were a single entity whose name is unknown. However, for some reason still unknown, they split into two separate beings and became twins.
Soon after Despair was murdered by a mortal. When this occurred, a new entity that formerly represented another aspect of Despair arose to take the place of the old Despair and the murderer was condemned to an eternity of torment. When the Endless came to the Old Necropolis for the funeral of the original Despair, the citizens refused to bury her. As a result, the Old Necropolis was completely destroyed by decree of Destiny, and it was centuries before the new Necropolis Litharge arose to take its place.
During this same period, another significant change began to happen to the Endless. Delight started to slowly lose her sanity and ability to "hold herself together." Eventually this deterioration became complete and Delight's name was changed to Delirium. Again, the cause of this is unknown, but it has been theorized that this change was the result of something fundamental that changed in the minds of sentient beings everywhere. Delirium's brother Destruction has said that Delirium will someday change again.
Somewhere along the line Desire formed a vendetta against Dream, supposedly because it simply didn't like Dream. The first known incident between the two started when Desire secretly caused Dream to fall in love with Nada, a princess of an ancient and forgotten African civilization. Nada slept with Dream, but then rejected him when she realized a union between a mortal and one of the Endless would result in disaster; disaster which quickly claimed her people and society. When Dream continued to threaten and plead with her, she finally killed herself. Hurt and enraged, Dream condemned her soul to Hell, where it remained in pain and torment for thousands of years. Much later this action would cause serious consequences for Dream.
During the days when gods roamed the world, the Endless gathered for the wedding of Dream's mortal son, Orpheus. When Orpheus' bride Eurydice died, Destruction suggested that Orpheus to go to the realm of the dead to reclaim her soul. Unfortunately, this resulted in Orpheus forever losing Eurydice and in his body's destruction. Since he had already bargained with Death, his head would not die and Dream refused to help him, but established a priesthood to watch over what was left of his son.
Around Victorian times, Destruction, who had fallen in love with Earth and humanity, became reluctant about his role and his involvement with the upcoming Atomic Age with its world wars and nuclear bombs. Eventually he decided to forsake his duties and roam the planet in human form. He called a family meeting in which he announced his intentions and asked to no longer be considered one of the Endless. In modern times, Delirium, who began to miss Destruction, decided to go on a quest to find him. She convinced Dream, who wanted relief from a recent romance gone bad, to help her. After a long and difficult journey around the world, Dream discovered the only one who can tell him of Destruction's whereabouts was his lost son Orpheus. In exchange for giving Orpheus the death he wanted, Dream could learn where Destruction was. After they finally found him and spoke with him, Destruction left to explore new parts of the universe while Dream had to fulfill his bargain and kill his own son. This would trigger a chain of events that would cause Dream to engineer his own suicide.
Soon afterwards, the Furies came after Dream for spilling the blood of Orpheus. Dream finally realized what he had (or what he wanted) to do and took Death's hand. So Dream became the second of the Endless to die. In his place came Daniel Hall, an infant who was born in dreams and was somehow engineered to take Dream's place by Dream himself before his death.
This new Dream became more compassionate and human than his former self was, which was perhaps what the original Dream had wanted.
After this incident, the Endless mourned the death of the first Dream and came to accept Daniel as their new brother. What, if anything, is happening among the Endless now is unknown.
It is believed that the Endless, who have existed as long as the universe, will themselves die when life itself ceases to exist. Only Death will eventually outlast both her siblings and the universe itself.
The individual sigils are Destiny = a large, leather book; Death = an Ankh (Making her loved by the Kindred); Dream = a helm made from the skull and spine of a god; Destruction = a sword (his place is now blank); Desire = a crystal heart; Despair = a ring with a hook on it; Delirium = a swirling patch of multi-colored fog.
UPDATED 11/25/03
DEATH: Gaiman's words are her best discription, "The one at the end... I think I fell in love with her, a little bit. Isn't that dumb? But it was like I KNEW her. Like she was my oldest, dearest friend. The kind of person you can tell anything to, no matter how bad, and they'll still love you, because they know you. I wanted to go WITH her. I wanted her to notice me. And then she stopped walking. Under the moon, she stopped. And she looked at us. She looked at me. Maybe she was trying to tell me something; I don't know. She probably didn't even know I was there. But I'll always love her. All my life."
UPDATED 11/25/03
DREAM: The lord of stories, and master of dreams. Dream is tall, almost Destiny's height. His eyes are dark pools which seem to have stars hidden deep within them. Dream has dark hair, and is pale. He resembles Death more than any of his other siblings. He takes his duties very seriously.
ADDED 11/25/03
DESTRUCTION: Destruction has a joyful view on existance, much like Death. He is tall, and powerfully built, with red hair. he often has a beard, when he wishes to. He abandoned his realm almost 200 years ago, and has not been replaced. Things are still destroyed, it is just not controlled.
ADDED 11/25/03
DESIRE: Imagine the most beautiful person you could imagine, both male and female. He/she is everything you could ever want, and ever will want. A being constantly exploring the paths of pleasure. You'll always want him/her. And he/she will never be satisfied with anything less.
ADDED 11/25/03
DESPAIR: Desire's twin. Both were created at the same time. Despair appears hideous, short, overweight and scarred. She lives in a realm of mists, filled with mirrors showing people who have fallen to despair, some for moments, some for lifetimes. She is constantly mutilating herself.
ADDED 11/26/03
DELIRIUM/DELIGHT: Delirium is the youngest of the Endless. She was a being of great joy, until she realized that the universe was changing. At that moment, her long, strawberry-blond hair became short and multi-colored. Her eyes changed and now no longer match. She can still collect herself, and her eyes match when she does so, although it hurts her very much. She also has a great deal of wisdom, and knows things even Destiny does not, such as why she stopped being Delight.
