Figures in the Sandman series
This page is a short list of characters in the DC Comics series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman .
The Seven Eternals (Endless)
The Endless represent different principles. Unlike gods, they do not need a following to believe in them, they exist in any case. The number of the Eternals is the mystical number seven , but through Desire's gender there are four male and four female incarnations. In Neil Gaiman's Endless Nights , a short story is dedicated to each of them. They are listed here according to their age.
Destiny ( fate )
Destiny is the oldest of the Endless and takes on the role of head of the family. He has the shape of a blind man in a monk's habit. His kingdom is a garden labyrinth with statues of the seven Eternals in the center. Destiny always strolls through his garden and reads a book chained to his wrist that tells what is happening. The story remains open as to whether everything might just happen because Destiny reads it in his book.
Destiny does not cast a shadow or leave any footprints.
He first appears in Season of Mists , where he calls an Endless family reunion . However, he is already shown in the penultimate episode of Preludes and Nocturnes and is described in the foreword to A doll's House . He also appears in Gaiman's mini-series The Books of Magic , where he dies at the end of the universe. Destiny also plays a prominent role in the three-part mini-series Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold , written by Alisa Kwitney and illustrated by Kent Williams , Michael Zulli , Scott Hampton, and Rebecca Guay .
Death ( Death )
Death is the only one of the Eternals who may have existed in the previous version of the universe and may exist in the next. Gaiman characterizes Death contrary to the usual idea as a loose Gothic bride. Her realm is a messy apartment, her pet is a goldfish . It visits everyone who dies and, unlike other incarnations of death , everyone when they are born. According to her own statement, she will close the universe after the last living being has died.
Her first appearance is in episode 8, The Sound of Her Wings . This story immediately earned her a large fan base, she is one of the most popular characters in the series. Gaiman used this character as the main character in two smaller series, Death: The High Cost of Living (1993) and Death: The Time of Your Life (1996), and as a supporting character in The Books of Magic . In addition to various other appearances in DC Comics, there is the Manga -style graphic novel Death At Death's Door , written and illustrated by Jill Thompson .
Dream ( Dream )
Dream is the main character in the series. He is also called Morpheus , Oneiros , Sandman , Dreamweaver (German: Traumweber), Lord L'zoril or Lord Shaper and is therefore the only one in his family who has other names in addition to his function. He always appears as a tall figure in black robes. His insignia of power are a bag of sand, a helmet and a ruby. His kingdom is dreaming , the dreamland. He is the only one of the Endless who keeps servants. His most important trait is his sense of duty. At the end of the series, this incarnation of Dream dies . She is replaced by Daniel Hall, who differs from Morpheus in some ways. So he wears white hair and clothes, and his symbol is an emerald instead of a ruby.
In addition to his appearances in the series The Sandman , Dream also appears in other works, both by Gaiman himself and by others. For a listing, see the main Sandman article . Dream's servants later got their own series, The Dreaming .
Destruction ( destruction )
Destruction occupies a special position among the Endless . In the 17th century he decided to no longer fulfill his obligation to order and control the concept of destruction. He then withdrew completely from his empire and lived in Greece without further contact with his family . Dreams and Delirium's search for him is the central theme of the seventh collection, Brief Lives . You can finally find him and in the following conversation his personality is portrayed as opposite to Morpheus'. Destruction believes that duty does not own you and that change is sometimes necessary. Destruction is depicted as a strong man with red hair. He is accompanied by a dog, Barnabas, which he passes on to Delirium at the end of Brief Lives .
In addition to this leading role in Brief Lives , Destruction also appears in supporting roles in other volumes of The Sandman . He pays an inaugural visit to The Wake Daniel, the new incarnation of Dream. Similar to Death, Destruction is contrary to the common notion of being gentle, understanding and almost wise.
Desire ( desire )
Desire's realm is in the form of a giant statue of himself, in whose heart he lives. It is bisexual and is therefore occasionally referenced by its siblings as brother-sister (brother-sister), sister-brother or sibling (sibling). Desire appears on several occasions as an opponent of Morpheus, sometimes together with Despair. It is an open question whether these actions arise from Desire's nature as the embodiment of desire or from a cruel personality of his incarnation. According to his own statement in The Doll's House , Desire wants to get Morpheus to shed family blood. It is unclear whether he does this with the consequence, namely Morpheus' death, in mind.
In Endless Nights , Gaiman tells how Desire was once Dream's best friend until Desire Morpheus' lover let him turn away. Desire first appears in The Doll's House , the second collection.
Despair ( despair )
Despair is Desire's twin sister. She is portrayed as a fat, short, white-skinned woman. As clothing she wears only a loincloth and a ring with a hook. Your realm consists of clouds and countless mirrors, each of which shows a desperate person. She keeps rats as pets . Despair is closest to her twin sibling Desire, but is also closer to her other siblings than this one. Despair is the only one of the Endless who is not her original incarnation until Morpheus' death . The exact circumstances and time of death of the previous incarnation are unknown.
Gaiman's version of desperation is desperate in spite of the cruelty imposed by her duty. Gaiman suggests that Despair suffers from being a younger incarnation and shows that she misses her brother very much. In Endless Nights we briefly get to know the previous incarnation of Despair. Despair, like Desire, first appears in The Doll's House .
Delirium ( delirium )
Delirium appears as a young girl in torn clothes and with colored hair. However, their appearance is constantly changing in ways that are barely recognizable. She appears unfocused and often forgets words or her whereabouts. However, with great pain, she is able to pull herself together. This could be because they used to delight ( pleasure ) was until she became insane. All other Eternals seem to have some kind of protective instinct towards her.
Delirium's first appearance is the family reunion at the beginning of Season of Mists . Here the reader learns that delirium knows things that are hidden from almost all of its siblings. It was often suggested that Gaiman's close friend Tori Amos was the role model for this character. Gaiman denies this, but says: they steal shamelessly from each other (German: they shamelessly look at things from each other ). Delirium has a brief appearance in Gaiman's novel American Gods .
Figures from mythology and literature
Aristaios
Aristaios is represented as a goat on two legs. He recreates Orpheus ' wife Eyridike , who is bitten by a snake while fleeing from him. Its end is unknown; he appears exclusively in the volume "The Song of Orpheus".
Calliope
She and Oneiros (Dream / Morpheus) fathered Orpheus. Calliope is the youngest of the 9 muses and is responsible for eloquence and poetry. Her first appearance is at Orpheus' wedding in "The Song of Orpheus". After a quarrel between her and Morpheus (because she takes the side of her son), they part ways until she is freed from the clutches of an “unimaginative” writer by him in “Traumland”.