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. • ''''
- (Greek - Potmos) - The oldest of the Endless, Destiny appears as a blind man dressed in grey or brown robes, carrying a large book, the Cosmic Log. The book is chained to him, or he is chained to the book, neither of them have an existence separated from each other, and within the book is written the entire sum of existence; past, present and future. Destiny is 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. Destiny is the only Endless who did not originate in The Sandman
; he was created by Marv Wolfman and Bernie Wrightson for Weird Mystery Tales'' in 1972. •
Death - (Greek - Teleute) Death appears as a level-headed young
Goth woman. Her appearance was inspired by Utah-based performer Cinamon Hadley, a friend of illustrator Mike Dringenberg. The character wears a silver
ankh (representing the afterlife), which serves as her sigil. She has a marking similar to an
Eye of Horus around her right eye. Her personal realm/domain is the Sunless Lands. Death prefers to dress and act casually and is on better terms with Dream than any of the other Endless. Her speech is presented in regular letters in a regular balloon. Death spends one day out of every century as a mortal, living and dying on Earth. She is by far the most pleasant of The Endless, being kind and personable to almost everyone; encountering her upon dying feels like "meeting an old friend". However, she is capable of intimidation as seen when she browbeat Desire into silence in "Season of Mists" and ordered the Three's Furies aspects to be silent so that she and Dream could speak as seen in "The Kindly Ones". •
Dream - (Greek -
Oneiros) - There are two different versions of Dream: •
Dream (Morpheus) - Portrayed as both lord and personification of all dreams and fictional stories. Gaiman has stated that his conception is based on the amalgamation of
The Cure's frontman
Robert Smith, ballet dancer
Farukh Ruzimatov and
Bauhaus frontman
Peter Murphy. Journalists have listed Dream among the best
comic book characters. 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. Dream's personal realm/domain is called "The Dreaming" which is populated with different characters. His word balloons have wavy edges and a black background outlined in white, with white lettering. •
Dream (Daniel Hall) - 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 has been 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. • '''''' - (Greek -
Olethros) - A tall, robust man with red hair who appears bearded at times and shaved at others. Destruction abandoned his duty as an Endless three hundred years ago, causing strife among his siblings. He did so because he refused to bear responsibility for the scientific ruin that followed the Enlightenment and the creation of the atomic bomb. Since leaving his domain called "The Fulcrum" which is caught in an explosion that is suspended, the other Endless have referred to him as "the Prodigal" or "Brother" instead of "Destruction". He has a strong desire to be creative and productive, yet he lacks skill. A sword is his symbol. His text is in a standard balloon with a strong outline. • ''''
- (Greek - Epithumia) - Desire is androgynous, capable of appearing as a man, a woman, neither, or possibly both (in the epilogue of The Sandman: Overture
, Despair refers to Desire as "sister-brother"; in Season of Mists'', Dream refers to Desire as "sibling"). Desire has a cruel streak and a long-standing rivalry with Dream, their relationship deteriorating eons ago after Desire caused Dream to fall in love with a woman who ultimately left him for another. Desire's sigil is a silver-tinted glass
heart shape and they live in a huge flesh-and-blood statue of themself called "The Threshold". Although Desire is Despair's twin, in a sense they are older than Despair. The current incarnation of Desire is the original one, while Despair is currently in her second incarnation. • '''''' - (Greek - Aponoia) - Twin sister to Desire: •
The First Despair - In her first form, Despair had many of the same physical qualities as her later form, but taller and tattooed with intricate red lines. She was also much more talkative and self-assured 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. It has been suggested that she was murdered and that the one responsible will suffer until the end of existence. •
The Second Despair - A short, squat woman with gray complexion and crooked teeth. She is constantly nude in the comics. Despair has a cool, silent intelligence about her. She has a tendency of cutting her skin with a hooked ring that she wears and also serves as her symbol/sigil. The second component is one that is present throughout the primary plot. The writing of Despair's balloon is normal, with ragged-waved edges. She frequently connects with Desire and her realm is "The Gray Realm". Unlike Desire, she enjoys Destruction. • '''''' - (Greek -
Mania) - 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 hair and eccentric, mismatched clothes. Her only permanent physical characteristic is that one of her eyes is green with silver flecks and the other blue, 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 gradient background. Her sigil as Delight was a flower. ==In other media==