Who Are the Endless in ‘The Sandman’ & Where Do They Come From?
Despite dispersing itself on numerous storylines and characters, Neil Gaiman’s comic book series mostly centres on a specific set of mythical creatures called the Endless family — here’s everything you need to know about them.
Even though Neil Gaiman’s comic book series “The Sandman” has always been quite popular, Netflix’s TV adaptation first released in 2022 brought the original story a bunch of new fans, making The Sandman’s narrative all the way more compelling for modern audiences.
Sometimes drawing direct connections to the DC universe, the comic books are still a story of its own, mostly staying away from superhero content and heavily relying on the world’s mythical stories and legends.
Despite many of those being well-known to many readers, some might have had trouble connecting the dots in regard to The Sandman’s leading characters, united under the name of the Endless — here we break down their personalities and origins.
Who Are the Endless in ‘The Sandman’?
In both the comic book series and Netflix’s TV series, the Endless are anthropomorphic representations of the powerful natural forces that they embody, coming as some kind of god-like beings who personify humanity's essential aspects of existence.
In total, there are seven members in the Endless family:
- Destiny who represents fate and the inevitable path of existence;
- Death who, well, represents death;
- Dream aka Morpheus who personifies dreams and imagination;
- Destruction who embodies vital changes of life;
- Desire who represents want, longing and craving — both emotional and physical;
- Despair who represents hopelessness and melancholy;
- Delirium who personifies madness, confusion and unpredictability.
In most cases, the Endless spend their time fulfilling their responsibilities as some kind of representatives of those natural forces. For example, Death takes the souls of the dead away from the realm of the living; in the meantime, Dream takes control over the realm of dreams and imagination.
Where Did the Endless Come From?
Even though the original comic book series’ creator Neil Gaiman has repeatedly stated that he would rather let his fans take a guess about the Endless’ origins and mysteries and surround their personalities, he still gave several hints at what the Endless actually are and how they came to be.
As the books also suggest, some revelations were given via Destruction’s reflection on the Endless’ role in the world, with him realising that the Endless actually had no right to interfere in people’s lives and thus didn’t have any major impact on the society.
Apart from that, Gaiman once also revealed that the Endless can’t be considered gods since gods are the ones who people believe in.
His books’ characters, however, don’t fulfil this requirement, still being able to exist even if no one believes in them — that’s the reason why they’re actually called the Endless.
