List of The Sandman characters

This is a list of characters appearing in The Sandman comic book, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. This page discusses not only events which occur in The Sandman, but also some occurring in spinoffs of The Sandman and in stories The Sandman was based on. These stories occur in the DC Universe, but are generally tangential to the mainstream DC stories.

The Endless

The Endless are a family of seven anthropomorphic personifications of universal concepts, around whom much of the series revolves. They are:

Death
Delirium (formerly Delight)
Desire
Despair
Destiny
Destruction ("The Prodigal")
Dream (succeeded by Daniel)

All debuted in the Sandman series, except Destiny, who was created by Marv Wolfman and Berni Wrightson in Weird Mystery Tales #1 (1972).

Dreams and nightmares

These inhabitants of the Dreaming are often former gods, myths, and even ordinary human beings who later became dreams.

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters in the DC Comics universe based on the Biblical Cain and Abel adapted by editor Joe Orlando with Bob Haney (writer) and Jack Sparling (artist) (Cain), and Mark Hannerfeld (writer) and Bill Draut (artist) (Abel). They were depicted together in Abel's first appearance, and they parted to their respective Houses at the end of the story, the House of Secrets having been recently moved, with Cain promising things not to go the way they happened before. Although Cain would abuse Abel, he was not shown killing him until Swamp Thing vol. 2 #33.

Before The Sandman

Originally they were the respective "hosts" of the EC-style horror comic anthologies House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which ran from the 1950s through 1983--Cain debuting in House of Mystery #175 (1968) and Abel in DC Special #4 and House of Secrets #81 (both 1969). During the 1970s, they also co-hosted the horror/humor anthology Plop! They were also both recurring characters in DC's Elvira's House of Mystery (1986-1988).

In 1985, the characters were revived by writer Alan Moore, who introduced them into his Swamp Thing series in issue #33, retelling the Swamp Thing's original origin story from a 1971 issue of House of Secrets. Jamie Delano also occasionally used them in a cameo role in his title Hellblazer.

However, it was Neil Gaiman's series The Sandman that more fully developed the "reinvented" characters into more mature, post-Comics Code version of themselves, and who helped fully drag them out of obscurity.

In The Sandman

In Gaiman's Sandman universe, the biblical Cain and Abel come to live in the Dreaming at Dream's invitation. This is based on the verse in the Bible which says that Cain was sent to live in the Land of Nod.

They live as neighbours in two houses near a graveyard, Cain in the broad House of Mystery and Abel in the tall House of Secrets. According to their appearance in Swamp Thing, the difference is that a mystery may be shared, but a secret must be forgotten if one tries to tell it.

Gaiman's Cain is an aggressive, overbearing character. He is a thin, long-limbed man with an angular, drawn face, glasses, a tufty beard, and hair drawn into two points above his ears. He has been described as sounding "just like Vincent Price."

Gaiman's Abel is a nervous, stammering, kind-hearted man. Abel is somewhat similar in appearance to Cain, with a tufty beard and hair that comes to points above his ears, though his hair is black rather than brown. He is shorter and fatter than Cain, with a more open face. It is eventually learned that the only time he does not stutter is when he is telling a story or when he is dead.

Cain frequently kills Abel in a kind of macabre form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, re-enacting the first murder. In the Dreaming, Abel's death is impermanent, and he seems to recover after a few hours. Cain seems unable to control his frequent murders of Abel, and occasionally expresses remorse over them; there is a genuine bond between the two, beneath the surface contempt. Abel remains dedicated to Cain, and frequently dreams of a more harmonious relationship between the two.

Cain and Abel own a large green draconic gargoyle named Gregory, who also made his debut in House of Mystery #175. In the first appearance of the characters in Sandman, issue #2, Cain gives Abel an egg that soon hatches into another gargoyle, a small golden one. Abel is delighted and names the gargoyle "Irving," but Cain forcefully insists that the names of gargoyles must always begin with a "G." When Abel resists, Cain murders him. After Abel revives, he renames the gargoyle "Goldie," after a friend of his who "went away." Goldie was an invisible/imaginary friend to whom Abel told his early House of Secrets stories, but the idea was eventually dropped. A letter in issue #91 was attributed to Goldie, who claimed that it was her depicted on the cover of issue #88.

The main function of Cain and Abel throughout The Sandman is as comic relief. However, the two play significant (though not key) roles at several points in the series; it is they who take Dream in until his strength is restored following his 72-year-long imprisonment. In the fourth story arc, Season of Mists, Cain is sent to Hell to give a message to Lucifer because the Mark of Cain protects him from all harm. Cain and Abel also aid The Corinthian with the child Daniel during The Kindly Ones, the penultimate story arc of the series. Abel is also one of the victims of the Furies in this series, and is brought back to life by the new Dream.

Corinthian

The Corinthian is a fictional character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman. His first appearance is in the second story arc, The Doll's House.

The Corinthian is a creation of Dream. His most notable physical feature is his lack of eyes; in their place, two rows of small jagged teeth line each eye socket. The Corinthian often wears sunglasses to cover this up. He is an ambitious, amoral nightmare who is fond of eating eyes with his two additional mouths, and can acquire some of the memories of the former possessors of eyes he eats. He is also able to talk out of any of his three mouths, causing a disconcerting effect.

The Corinthian departs from the dreamscape during Dream's period of captivity, and spends his time hiding out and gathering power in the real world. However, Dream eventually catches up to him shortly after saving Rose Walker from harm. Dream states that the Corinthian was his masterpiece,

"A nightmare created to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront."

Instead, Dream finds his creation has walked the earth for about 40 years, playing the role of a serial killer who eats the eyes of young boys and gathering the support of numerous other serial killers. Dream had created the Corinthian as a nightmare that would show humanity its own dark nature, but the Corinthian had done nothing more than commit gruesome murders (usually killing young boys and cutting their eyes out) in his forty years of freedom, doing little to inspire fear on a grander scale in the world. Dream therefore considers the Corinthian to be a failure, and "uncreates" him with no difficulty, saving only one of the Corinthian's skulls for later use. He remarks that the next time he creates the Corinthian, he "shall not be so flawed and petty."

Dream does eventually recreate the Corinthian in The Kindly Ones. The new Corinthian only shares some of his original self's memories, and seems to have a different personality. This new, seemingly gentler Corinthian helps rescue and protect Daniel just before Morpheus dies. In the process, he battles, defeats and eats the eyes of Loki, who, along with Puck, was holding the child hostage.

An exact double of the Corinthian's skull appeared in the treasure chest of Daniel Hall during his brief 'JLA' appearance, suggesting that perhaps the Corinthian was dismantled again, or else simply didn't use any elements of his predecessor in constructing the new one.

Keen-eyed viewers may spot a brief Corinthian reference in Alice Cooper's video clip for "Gimme".

Eve

Eve is a character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman. She is based upon the biblical Eve, the mother of humanity and wife of Adam.

Her story is a complex one. She is one of the many representations in The Sandman of the triple nature of womankind (maiden, mother and crone), based on the three distinct "Eve"s in some versions of the Genesis story: the arrogant Lilith, an unnamed virgin, and Eve herself. As such, while she is an individual with her own personality, she is also one another representation of The Three, along with the Fates, Graces, Gorgons, and Furies. This is comparable to the way the series' protagonist, Dream, is on one level a character in his own right, and on another level merely a symbol or representation of the larger concept of dreams.

Eve lives in a cave in the Dreaming, and is often accompanied by Dream's raven. The first Raven, Lucien, taught her how to bury Abel after Cain murdered him and she has been accompanied by a Raven ever since. She is kind and has a maternal nature. Most of the time she appears as a black-haired woman of indeterminate age. However, her appearance also mirrors her triple nature; she sometimes shifts between being a young, attractive maiden, a middle aged mother, and an elderly crone. These changes are directly related to the distance she is from the mouth of her cave.

Eve originally appeared in Secrets of Sinister House #6 (August-September 1972), drawn by ? Sederer and Michael Kaluta Eve ; she was the series' principal host, often in stock images, usually with her raven. She became the principal host of Weird Mystery Tales with issue #15, Destiny having moved to Secrets of Haunted House as principal host. In Plop!, Eve, Cain, and Abel each told one story per issue. She also made a few appearances in House of Mystery and House of Secrets. In her early appearances, she appeared only as a crone, was often referred to as a witch, and had a tendency to be snappy and mean. In her first appearance, she scared Cain and Abel, and shouted at them, "Get out of the kitchen when it gets too hot, you cowardly mortals! Old Eve doesn't care..." Her letter column, which was answered in character, was called "Witch's Tales".

In Weird Mystery Tales #3, Destiny insisted that Eve, Cain, and Abel are not their Biblical counterparts, whom he says he prefers. When she is shown in Sandman #2, Lucien's comment about her addresses her unfriendly nature prior to Dream's return, stating that she confines herself to nightmares.

In The Sandman vol. 1 #4, the Nightmare Wizard is shown as a conjurer of children's nightmares that Garrett Sanford believes are excessive, stating that they cause the deaths of the dreamer. Although implicitly male, the character looks like the crone Eve as she appears in The Sandman. A more likely association is the witch Hepzibah in Supergirl vol. 1 #10, who looks identical to Eve's 1970s's appearances, and using dolls, tries to use Supergirl to kill Prez Rickard.

Fiddler's Green

Fiddler's Green is a place in the Dreaming which all travellers (specifically sailors) apparently dream of someday finding. It sometimes likes to take human form and go wandering, using the alias Gilbert during one of these trips. His most common form is as a kind, portly man who strongly resembles G. K. Chesterton. Dream attempted to resurrect him in The Wake, but the almost-alive Gilbert stated that if he did "my death would have no meaning." Acquiescing, the new Dream stopped the process. He also accompanied Rose Walker on her journey to find her brother Jed, and gave her the means by which to summon Dream to rescue her when she was assaulted. At the end of the series it is implied, though not outright stated, that he was "in love, a little" with Rose.

Gate Keepers

A wyvern, a griffin and a hippogriff who are the guardians of Dream's castle. (Note that this hippogriff is depicted with a horse's head instead of the traditional eagle's head.) They derive all their power and authority from Dream (comics), so when Dream was captured and lost his power, they could no longer guard or protect the Dreaming.

Gregory

A large green gargoyle, the pet of Cain. Gregory possesses about the same brainpower as a chimp, and communicates in several sub-intelligible 'grunts' which everyone but the readers of The Sandman can understand. He is also a good friend of Goldie, and helps Goldie put Abel back together every time Cain kills him. He first appeared as the baby of two stone gargoyles in House of Mystery #175. His parents perched on the House of Mystery until they were able to kill their sculptor, a boarder in the house who had murdered their designer, and left without their egg.

It was noted that Gregory did not appear in The Kindly Ones, even though a few key scenes focused on Cain and Abel's Houses, and then reappeared in The Wake. Theorists have presumed that this was because he had been slaughtered by the Kindly Ones. ^{[citation needed]} Although numerous references to the name Gregory appear in this collection, most, if not all, are references by the predominant artist for The Kindly Ones Marc Hempel to his own comic series named Gregory.

Goldie

Goldie is Abel's pet gargoyle.

In The Sandman

Goldie is a pet (baby) gargoyle, given to Abel by his brother Cain in Sandman#2. Abel originally intended to name him "Irving", but Cain insisted that gargoyles' names must all begin with a "G." Cain then proceeded to murder Abel over this, after which Abel names the gargoyle Goldie, after a friend who went away (in fact Abel's "imaginary" girlfriend, who appeared on the cover of The House of Secrets #88, and to whom he addressed many of his stories).

Goldie also appears for a short scene in The Doll's House, in which he is sitting upon Abel's shoulder as Lucien asks Abel about the inhabitants of the house. He later appears throughout issue #40, "Parliament of Rooks", and briefly at the beginning of Brief Lives. He also accompanies Abel in The Kindly Ones, and is with him when he gets murdered by the Furies, crying when his owner is killed. He is later seen playing with Daniel.

After The Sandman

Goldie's life took a sharp turn in The Dreaming, a Sandman spin-off series not written by Gaiman. In "The Goldie Factor," Abel is yet again killed by Cain, and Goldie grows angry, and, after spitting acid onto Cain's boots — almost getting Abel killed again — the gargoyle leaves for the outer Dreaming.

Upon learning that Goldie is missing, Cain reveals how he found Goldie: during the years of Dream's absence, he bought a golden gargoyle egg from a door-to-door merchant. However, somehow the egg managed to get him to give it to Abel, and was "persuasive" with Cain. This is indeed admirable; the only way to force Cain to do something would be to threaten him, and most characters in Sandman have avoided ever attempting to do so.

Cain and Abel go to Lucien to learn more, and Lucien informs them that only one person had been looking for Goldie before, a man with no arms or legs. However, in the book in his library on golden gargoyles, the page concerning what they guarded had been torn out. Meanwhile, Goldie stops in at the Labyrinth Cafe, only to meet a man with no arms or legs named Tempto. Tempto recognizes Goldie's power and enlists her services.

Cain and Abel seek the advice of Eve, who tells them that the limbless man, Tempto, was the serpent at the Garden of Eden who had tempted her into eating the forbidden fruit, thus causing her to be thrown out of Eden. In the continuing search for Goldie, Cain discovers new things about himself and his brother, such as that he had founded the first city and named it after his son, Enoch, and that when Abel dies, he becomes a completely different person, with no stutter or timid personality.

Goldie, in the company of Tempto, enters the Garden of Eden. Tempto then "corrects" the original passage from the Bible, bringing Adam back from the dead and annihilating everything except Eden. Eve, however, realizes what is happening and tries to eat the forbidden fruit by herself. Before she can do this, however, Goldie touches the trees, grows to an adult form, and returns everything to normal.

Cain and Abel reappear along with everyone else, and Tempto makes a quick escape after they try to catch him. Goldie is led by Eve to a pile of golden gargoyle bones, and Eve explains that gold gargoyles are built not to protect buildings, but to protect Creation stories, such as Genesis and the story of Prometheus. To prevent Tempto from trying the same thing again, Goldie must build a nest out of the bones of her mother and ancestors, and give birth to and raise the next guardian. There is a tearful farewell between all of the characters, and Goldie is left behind at Eden.

At the end of the story, Cain and Abel sit at home. Cain, possibly for the first time in his life, wishes to cheer Abel up, and so he gives him a present: the gold and silver apples from the tree in Eden. However, this only depresses Abel further, and so Cain grows angry and asks Abel if he wishes to be put out of his misery. Abel replies, "Muh-Maybe".

Stunned, Cain rebukes him, saying that that's not how it works, that he kills Abel because he wants to. Abel says that Cain wanted him to be happy. Cain grimaces, and plunges a knife into his brother. When Abel awakes, he notices that he is not dead as usual. Instead, he's in the middle of the desert. He hears an "awk", and runs into the arms of a fully-grown Goldie.

Meanwhile, Cain looks over the temporarily dead Abel, and mutters: "Strange... I've never seen him look so happy and peaceful. I don't know why, but... I'm almost scared."

Lucien

Lucien is a fictional character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman. He serves as the chief librarian in The Dreaming, and is a tall (taller than Dream, in fact), thin, bookish man.

Lucien is the effective keeper of the Dreaming in Dream's absence, and becomes one of Dream's most faithful and trusted servants after proving his loyalty by never abandoning his post during that period. His primary function is to protect the Library, wherein are contained all the books that have ever been dreamt of, including the ones that have never been written. The titles of some of these books, many of which are sequels to real works, are visible.

Like Cain and Abel, Lucien, created by Paul Levitz, Nestor Redondo, and Joe Orlando, was originally the host of a 1970s "weird tales" comic, specifically the three-issue Tales of Ghost Castle (May/June-October 1975). In that series, he was portrayed as the guardian of a castle in Transylvania abandoned by both sides during World War II [1], watching over its forgotten library with his companion, a werewolf named Rover. In his first appearance in Preludes and Nocturnes (issue #2) this was retroactively revealed to be Dream's castle, deteriorating in the Dream Lord's absence. In issue 68, it was revealed that Lucien's existence in the Dreaming began as serving the role of Dream's first raven. An allusion to "Mr. Raven", the ghostly librarian in George MacDonald's novel Lilith, may be intended. Being that Lucien was the first raven, it has also been theorized that he could be the first man (Adam).

Tales of Ghost Castle

Matthew

Matthew is a character in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic series. He is the raven companion of Dream of the Endless.

Matthew was originally Matthew Cable, a long-time supporting character in the Swamp Thing series, but because he died while asleep in the Dreaming, he was offered the chance to become a dream raven and serve Dream if he wished, and he accepted.

Matthew is not the first of Morpheus' ravens. Former ravens include Aristeas of Marmora, who returned to his life as a man for one year at one point, and Lucien, the first of the ravens. The purpose of the ravens is debatable. Morpheus seems to keep the ravens around out of some sort of unspoken need for companionship, though he also sends them on occasional missions.

Matthew's word balloons and font style are scratchy and uneven, probably to represent a hoarse, cawing voice, and perhaps as an indicator of his crude, smart-aleck personality. Underneath his frequently irreverent manner, Matthew is actually very loyal to Dream, and he is one of the characters who takes it the hardest when Dream perishes, initially seeking release from his service, but eventually coming to terms with his loss and choosing to remain as Daniel's raven.

Mervyn Pumpkinhead

Mervyn Pumpkinhead is a character in Neil Gaiman's popular comic book series, The Sandman.

Mervyn, or Merv, as he is better known throughout the series, is Dream's jaded, street-wise, cigar-smoking janitor. As his name implies, he has a pumpkin for a head, and his overall appearance is similar to that of a scarecrow combined with a jack-o'-lantern. He resembles Jack Pumpkinhead of L. Frank Baum's Oz books.

Mervyn apparently drove a bus in dreams for a time during Dream's extended absence, and is first seen in Preludes and Nocturnes when Dream hitches a ride with him and chats for a while. Merv is in charge of the construction, maintenance and demolition work in the Dreaming, though he sometimes complains that his job is superfluous since Dream can change any of it at will. One issue of the "Dreaming" spin-off comic focuses on a dreamer who enjoys working under Jack's supervision.

Mervyn took up arms to fight the Furies in The Kindly Ones and is killed, but he was returned to life by the new Dream in The Wake.

In a past incarnation shown in The Wake, Mervyn was seen to have had a turnip for a head instead of a pumpkin, either as a result of Dream's alterations to his servants or, more likely, due to the changing cultural dreams and myths of societies over the centuries. It is William Shakespeare who sees Mervyn with a turnip for a head, and he would probably not have known of pumpkins, an American plant. Turnips, on the other hand, were well-known in England at the time and were carved as a part of the Celtic festival that inspired Halloween. Mervyn also at one point was given a pumpkin pie for a head when he briefly lost his own. This occurred in Mervyn's spin-off from The Sandman called "Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of Dream". It is possible that other creatures would see other appearances, and perhaps even personalities, associated with Mervyn, and with many other residents of the Dreaming. This has at least been confirmed in the case of Dream himself.

Minor dreams

Brute and Glob: A pair of troublemaking nightmares who try to gain power during Dream's absence. They originally appeared in Jack Kirby's 1974 Sandman series, as sidekicks to the title character, and continued to serve that role when Hector Hall became the Sandman in Infinity Inc.. In the original comics, Brute was similar to The Thing, shouted "It's clobberin' time!" and often brought up his Uncle Harry. In The Doll's House, it is revealed that they were manipulating the Sandmen in order to have a new Lord of the Dreaming under their control. Dream punished Brute and Glob for fleeing his realm by casting them into "the darkness" (a place of imprisonment and, presumably, torture, within the Dreaming). Near the end of The Kindly Ones, the Furies tell Dream that they have released his prisoners from the darkness, but Brute and Glob are neither mentioned nor seen in this volume or in The Wake. The next appear in The Dreaming #57-60, The Sandman Presents: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Dreams...But Were Afraid to Ask, and Lucifer #15. They subsequently reappear in Justice Society of America #64, again trying to manipulate a human connected to the Dreaming (Sandy Hawkins) into their own "Sandman". Daniel returns them to the darkness. First appearance: The Sandman vol. 1, #1.
Cuckoo: A parasitic dream who lives in Barbie's dreamworld and eventually takes over there. She assumes the form of a childhood version of Barbie until she successfully escapes from Barbie's world, at which point she transforms into a beautiful black-feathered bird.
Fashion Thing: A minor character whose form changes based on popular fads. She is based on the "Mad Mod Witch", created by Dave Wood and Jack Sparling as the host of The Unexpected, another DC horror title. At the time of her first appearance in Sandman, however, she is a "Mad Yuppie Witch". First appearance: The Unexpected #108. Most of her appearances are relegated to a few panels. She is shown flying on her broom as a Yuppie briefly in issue #2, shown riding her broom in a top hat and tails with bare legs and feet in issue #22, and shown topless serving a meal to Delirium and Dream in issue #42. She also appears in The Kindly Ones.
Ruthven: A minor character, a vampiric rabbit who is often seen in the background of the Dreaming and occasionally talked to by the other characters, his speech is written in a demonic font as if his voice is very dark and powerful. He is killed by the Kindly Ones, but resurrected by Daniel in The Wake. He is named from Lord Ruthven, the vampiric character based on Lord Byron and created by his secretary.
Taramis: The head of the kitchen staff, Taramis is a tall skinny man with a large head, an exceptionally long Fu Manchu moustache, pink eyes and vampire teeth. He wears a red matador vest, a white shirt, and a black bow tie, with a sash for a belt.

Gods, demigods, and major personifications

Basanos

The Basanos is a fictional character in the comic book Lucifer, a spin-off of Sandman.

The Basanos is a living Tarot deck created by the seraph Meleos to duplicate the divining power of Destiny's book. They are incredibly powerful due to the fact that they control probability, making whatever outcome they desire not only likely, but inevitable.

After escaping from Meleos, the Basanos take possession of Jill Presto, a cabaret worker. Lucifer Morningstar seeks them out for a tarot reading, which they grant.

When Lucifer creates his new universe, the Basanos move to take control of it so that they can breed (something that is impossible in The Creator's cosmos). Though initially successful in their plan, forming an alliance with Lucifer's enemies, their ability to control random chance is severely limited by Lucifer's creation, and Lucifer is able to outmaneuver them. Lucifer finally gives them an ultimatum: destroy themselves or risk letting the egg they laid in Jill Presto die. The Basanos choose death and extinguish themselves.

Basanos is Greek for touchstone. Such a touchstone may be a piece of slate used to test gold, or it may be a metaphor for torture or torment to test truthfulness. Why Meleos chose this name for his creation is unknown.

Bast

Bast, the cat-headed goddess of cats, is a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's comic book series, The Sandman. She is the DC Universe version of the goddess Bast of Egyptian mythology.

Once a major goddess, the loss of her believers over time has significantly reduced her powers. She is quite flirtatious with Dream, and seems to have previously developed a mutual attraction with him which ultimately came to nothing. He sometimes goes to her for advice or companionship. Dream is almost affectionate with her, and in her own words she adores him.

Bast has also appeared in issues of Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, as well as in Gaiman's novel 'American Gods'. She is one of the chief goddesses worshipped by the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall.

The Presence/Yaweh

The Presence or The Creator is the Sandman universe's equivalent of a supreme monotheistic God figure, the Abrahamic God (Although from a deistic viewpoint) such as almost never taking a physical form (the sole exception shown is in Murder Mysteries which very well may not lie in the same universe as The Sandman), being a creator-deity and having unmatched power.

However, despite these indications that all the mythologies in the Sandman are ultimately subordinate to the Judeo-Christian God, Gaiman has on several occasions stated that he never intended the Creator to be any specific religion's god, just as he makes it clear in the first appearance of the abode of the angels, the Silver City, that the Silver City "is not Paradise. It is not Heaven. It is the Silver City, that is not part of the order of created things." However, the Silver City is very often referred to as "Heaven" in the Lucifer comic book series.

In that series, one of the critical turning points is The Presence's abandonment of his Creation, which leads to a large number of problems, including struggles to claim the power that the Creator has abandoned, to make the destruction of the universe inevitable and to the slow unraveling of the universe due to the disappearance of the Name of the Creator written on every atom in existence. This is an ongoing storyline in Lucifer.

Loki

Loki is a callous and deceptive trickster god who first appears in Season of Mists.

He is temporarily freed from his punishment by Odin to help with their negotiations for the rulership of Hell. He manages to deceive Odin and Thor into taking another ambassador in his place using his illusionary powers, but fails to fool Dream. Dream says that although his victim must be freed, he allows Loki to go free, and will place a dream-illusion in Loki’s place.

Loki returns in The Kindly Ones. He works with Puck to kidnap Daniel, and harbours deep resentment about being in the debt of Dream. The Corinthian and Matthew eventually find Daniel, and Loki takes on the form of the Dream. The Corinthian is not fooled, and strangles Loki who assumes the form of a monstrous dragon, then that of The Corinthian himself, then Daniel, then his own. The Corinthian knocks him unconscious. He then consumes Loki’s eyes. Loki, now blind, is taken by Odin and Thor back to his punishment. He attempts to goad Thor into killing him, but Odin prevents this, leaving Loki to his fate worse than death.

Loki appears, when in his own form, as a tall, thin man with yellow eyes and long red hair that resembles flames.

Loki is based on the Norse god Loki.

Odin

Odin appears as an old man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and cloak and carrying a staff. He is usually depicted as a dark, mysterious figure, missing one eye and accompanied with his two ravens, Hugin and Munin ("thought" and "memory"), and two wolves, Geri and Freki.

Odin is based on the Norse God Odin.

Three

The Three is an entity unique to The Sandman, something like a god and something like a dream and completely mutable in appearance, seeming to exist as a sentient concept or symbol in the form of any group of three women, particularly when they represent the Mother, the Maiden and the Crone, the three aspects of the Triple Goddess in many mythologies. Sometimes they appear in the form of the three witches from DC's horror anthology, The Witching Hour: Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia. As these witches, they also appeared in a prestige format limited series of the same title, and two standard limited series, Witchcraft and Witchcraft: Le Terreur.

In The Sandman

The Three repeatedly appear throughout The Sandman for many different reasons and fulfilling different functions at different points in the story. Their first appearance is in The Sandman #2, where they appear as the three witches, Mildred (mother), Mordred (crone), and Cynthia (maiden) from the DC horror anthology The Witching Hour. They later take many different forms over the course of the series, and the "three women" symbol remains an extremely common one, often blurring the lines between when characters are supposed to be merely themselves and when they are supposed to be representations of the Three.

The Three represent the female principle, prophecy, and mystery, and they are often a vaguely menacing and enigmatic presence in the series. As a three-in-one mystical being, they can be seen as contrasting with the commonly-used triple-male Trinity. Indeed, legend and mythology play a much larger role throughout the series than religion does, though some segments suggest a supreme monotheistic God at work behind the scenes.

Common incarnations of the Three include the Erinyes (Furies) in their vengeful aspect and the Moirae (Fates) or Weird Sisters in their divinatory aspect. They also sometimes subtly appear in the form of other characters (such as Eve) or groups of characters.

After The Sandman

The Three later appeared in a graphic novel named Witchcraft, in which one of their priestesses in ancient Rome, Ursula, is set upon and raped by barbarians. She is then reincarnated three times, followed by the witches, and raped again three times by reincarnations of the barbarian leader until the modern age, when she comes back as his mother-in-law.

The Three eventually decide on a suitable punishment for the barbarian: that he would be reincarnated as each of the priestesses he had raped, in order, with the exception of Ursula. He would never know what was happening until the moment of death, at which point it would start all over again.

The Three are satisfied, and in the end tell Ursula that her grandchild will be beautiful, demonstrating a rare instance of apparent empathy.

Minor gods

Ishtar: An exotic dancer who happens to be the goddess Ishtar. She is revealed to be a former lover of Destruction, and kills herself after speaking with Dream when the latter traveled with Delirium in search of his lost brother.
Pharamond: a former god and friend of Dream, Pharamond now runs a travel agency in Dublin, under the alias 'Mr Farell'. He helps Dream and Delirium find their brother.
Thor: The Norse god Thor, a ridiculously muscular and dim-witted drunkard who likes to brag about how big he can make his "hammer" grow (in a somewhat sexually suggestive fashion).

Angels, fallen angels, and devils

Azazel

Azazel is a former ruler of Hell, reigning for a time alongside Lucifer and Beelzebub. He appears as a twisting, torn mass of black flame, like a window into space, filled with numerous eyes and mouths.

He was cast out after Lucifer abandoned Hell, and made the mistake of threatening and attacking Dream to try to gain ownership of it. Dream keeps him in a bottle in a chest of trinkets and mementos.

He is based on the demon Azazel.

Beelzebub

Along with Lucifer and Azazel, Beelzebub was the third King of Hell. He often appears as either a gigantic green fly, or a fly's head on two short human legs. His constant buzzing slurs his speech (for example, 'Bbbbut nooo. Itzzz a Triummmvirate.') He is based on the demon Beelzebub.

A character also named "Beelzebub" had a four-page appearance in Good Omens, a novel co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. He appeared as a ten-foot-tall man wreathed in red flames.

Choronzon

Choronzon is a former duke of Hell who served under Beelzebub. He has pink skin and two mouths, one under the other.

He had possession of Dream's helm, but lost it in a challenge. He later reappeared briefly as one of Azazel's tactics to gain ownership of Hell.

He is based on the demon Choronzon.

Choronzon appears in 52 #25 (Late October 2006).

Duma

Duma is a fallen angel from the DC Vertigo series The Sandman.

Before The Sandman

Duma's name means "silence", and he is based on the angel Duma from Jewish mythology. In those tales, he is the angel of silence and death's stillness. According to these same stories, he is the guardian of Egypt and the prince of vindication. Based on this, one could speculate that he was the angel who killed the firstborn Egyptians in Moses' time^{[citation needed]}. Some sources also name him a "Prince of Hell," which would mean that at some unknown point in time he displeased God and fell from grace.

The Zohar, a book of Jewish mysticism, describes his position in Hell as such that he had "tens of thousands of angels of destruction" under him, and that he was "chief of demons in Gehinnon with 12,000 myriads of attendants, all charged with the punishment of the souls of sinners."

Dumah is also the name given to the guardian of the 14th gate, through which the goddess Ishtar passed on her journey to the underworld in Babylonian mythology. Dumah may or may not be related to Duma.

In The Sandman

It is unknown how much of Duma's background from Jewish mythology was actually incorporated into the character by Gaiman. Many theories and interpretations have been put forward, but nothing is concrete.

In Season of Mists, we find that Lucifer has closed down Hell in frustration, handing off the key to the bemused Dream. Eventually, after much squabbling between various gods, Duma and Remiel receive a message saying that they are to watch over Hell. Remiel immediately rejects it, but Duma silently accepts the key, and the guilt-stricken Remiel joins him in ruling Hell. Remiel subsequently attempts to redesign Hell, transforming it from a place of punishment to a place of rehabilitation for lost souls, but Duma's interest in these changes is unknown, as is his true opinion on many things.

After The Sandman

Following the end of the The Sandman series, Remiel and Duma lose ownership of Hell in a complex sequence of events in the Lucifer spin-off series. Duma eventually allies with Lucifer and Elaine Belloc in the battle to save creation. It is he who persuades Hell's new ruler Christopher Rudd to bring his army to Heaven's aid at the Battle of Armageddon plain.

Lucifer

Lucifer is the Miltonian former ruler of Hell, a charming, intelligent, and utterly ruthless fallen angel.

He is one of the most powerful beings in existence, said at one point to be surpassed only by his Creator.

He is based on the fallen angel Lucifer, whose story was created by John Milton in his Paradise Lost.

Neil Gaiman also used the character Lucifer in his short story 'Murder Mysteries'. In this format, Lucifer was a captain of the Silver City, with Azazel as his protege.

From the book, "Hanging out with the Dream King" (a book consisting of interviews with Gaiman's collaborators), one of Gaiman's artists, Kelley Jones, states that Lucifer is based on David Bowie, image-wise. In the interview, Jones states the following:

"...Neil was adamant that the Devil was David Bowie. He just said, 'He is. You must draw David Bowie. Find David Bowie, or I'll send you David Bowie. Because if it isn't David Bowie, you're going to have to redo it until it is David Bowie.' So I said, 'Okay, it's David Bowie.'..."

Mazikeen

Mazikeen is a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's Sandman mythos. The name "Mazikeen" comes from that of a shapeshifting demon of Jewish mythology.

In The Sandman

Mazikeen first appeared in The Sandman, where she was Lucifer's consort while he reigned in Hell. At the time, half of her face was normal, but the other half was horribly misshapen and skeletal, causing her speech to be nearly unintelligible. (Gaiman wrote Mazikeen's dialogue by trying to speak using only half of his mouth, and writing down phonetically what came out.)

When Lucifer resigned, Mazikeen left Hell and ended up following her master, becoming part of the staff at the "Lux" (Latin for light, and the first root word in "Lucifer"), an elite Los Angeles bar that Lucifer had opened and played piano at. To conceal her demonic nature, she covered the deformed half of her face with a white mask and rarely spoke.

After The Sandman

In the ongoing comic book series Lucifer, Mazikeen is a devoted ally of Lucifer Morningstar and the war leader of the Lilim, a race descended from Lilith. A fearsome warrior and a respected leader, Mazikeen is a prominent character in the Lucifer comics. She has the appearance of a human female with long black hair.

In Lucifer, Mazikeen's face was turned fully human when she was resuscitated by the Basanos following the destruction of the Lux in a fire. This was because the vessel of the Basanos, Jill Presto, did not realize that Mazikeen's face was naturally deformed, and assumed that it was burned in the fire.

When Lucifer refused to assist her in restoring her face to its former state, she defected to her family, the Lilim-in-Exile. As their war leader, she led their army against Lucifer's cosmos, allying herself briefly with the Basanos. However, this was a ruse; after a desperate gamble, she bought Lucifer enough time to destroy the Basanos and regain control of his creation. Lucifer then accepted her into his service once more and made the Lilim-in-Exile the standing army of his universe.

Lucifer ultimately restores Mazikeen's half-skeletal face shortly before departing the known universes, gifting Mazikeen with his celestial fire.

Remiel

Remiel is an angelic character in the comic book series The Sandman based on the angel Remiel. He first appears in Season of Mists.

In The Sandman

Remiel, along with Duma, is sent to observe when Dream is given the key to Hell. Dream ends up offering the key to Remiel and Duma, making them the new rulers of Hell, but Remiel refuses to accept it, wishing to return to the Silver City. In doing so, Remiel disobeys the Creator, and as a result can never return to the Silver City anyway. Duma accepts the key, however, and the two angels descend to Hell to rule over the countless sinners and demons there. Whether Remiel is a fallen angel or not (he is described as having tripped or stumbled more than fallen), and whether he truly has the free will to ultimately disobey the Creator's wishes, is left somewhat ambiguous.

While reigning in Hell, Remiel attempts to organize the domain into a great soul-cleansing machine. However Remiel never fully gets over his fall from the Silver City and tries to return the keys to Lucifer, in The Kindly Ones.

It is suggested that Remiel was a silent supporter of Lucifer, in The Kindly Ones, during Lucifer's revolution against the creator, in Remiel's conversation with Lucifer at the Lux. Remiel's weakness of character is apparent in their conversation.

After The Sandman

Following the end of the Sandman series, Remiel and Duma lose ownership of Hell in a complex sequence of events in the Lucifer spin-off series. At the end of the series, Remiel tries to rebel against Elaine Belloc, refusing to accept her as God's successor. When he tries to kill Gaudium and Spera, friends of Elaine's, she steps in and puts him in his own Hell until he gets his act together.

Minor angels and demons

Merkin, Mother of Spiders: First appeared in Season of Mists, as an envoy with Azazel. A lumpen, hideous, vaguely feminine figure, whose womb produces spiders.

Etrigan: The demon/superhero appears in a cameo in Preludes and Nocturnes (specifically in Sandman #4: "A Hope in Hell"), escorting Dream from the front gate of Hell to meet Lucifer. During their journey, Dream comments on Etrigan speaking in rhyme as a result of a promotion (see Etrigan - Character History). In Season of Mists episode 1, Lucifer makes a passing reference to a recent event where "one of the minor demons -- some little yellow rhymer -- thought to declare himself a king of hell." This is a reference to vol. 3 Issues #6 and #7 of The Demon.

Immortals, witches, and long-lived humans

Hob Gadling

Robert "Hob" Gadling is a human who was granted immortality and meets with Dream once every hundred years.

The manner in which he becomes immortal is complex and abstract. Hob's forever life began in a pub named the White Horse in 1389 when he simply declared that he "had decided never to die." Death agrees, at Dream's request, to forego her responsibilities in Gadling's case. Whether Death does this out of respect for her brother's whim or Gadling's conviction remains unsettled.

In The Wake, Death meets Gadling at a Renaissance Fair; out of respect for her late brother Dream she offers to end his six-hundred-year life, but Gadling refuses.

Orpheus

Orpheus is the son of Dream in The Sandman. He is based on the Orpheus of Greek mythology

After traveling through Hades, losing his beloved (twice), and being torn apart by the Bacchanae (the beloved madwomen of Dionysos), as in the legend, Orpheus spent a long time traveling around the world as a disembodied head. Johanna Constantine helped him through France. He was eventually "put out of misery" by his father, an event which fulfilled the prophecy of Desire, Dream's sibling, that he would spill family blood and trigger a sequence of events leading to his destruction. The vengeance of the Furies was brought upon Dream for the mercy-killing of his son, Orpheus, in 'The Sandman: Brief Lives'.

Thessaly

Thessaly is a fictional character in the Sandman comic book series. Neil Gaiman named this character after the land of witches, Thessaly, in Greece. Later in the series, Thessaly changes her name to Larissa, which is the capital of Thessaly. Larissa was actually the local fountain nymph, after whom the town was named.

Thessaly is the last of the millennia-old witches of Thessaly. She makes her first appearance in A Game of You, in which she is shown to be an amoral, cold-blooded, proud, and ruthless character, though not a malicious one. She proves extremely willing to mercilessly hunt down and kill anyone who threatens her, and she seems to be concerned primarily with her own advancement and survival.

When the Cuckoo of "The Land" of Barbie's dreams threatens to kill Barbie, Thessaly and Barbie's friends venture into Barbie's dreams to save her. However, Thessaly is driven more by her pride and her own self-preservation than by any desire to help Barbie. She ends up being tricked by the Cuckoo and is almost trapped forever in a desolate archipelago of the Dreaming along with Barbie's friends until Barbie wishes for their safe return to the waking world.

Thessaly returns in the later volumes, where she is Dream's lover for a time, but this relationship ends unhappily for both and is never actually shown in the series. When it is alluded to in Brief Lives Thessaly is never mentioned by name, so only in The Kindly Ones is this romance revealed. Also in The Kindly Ones, Thessaly provides Lyta Hall with protection and sanctuary from Dream, who is being targeted for death by the Furies, using Hall as a vessel.

When Lyta wakes up after Dream's death, Thessaly calmly advises her to leave. Thessaly suggests that many people, including herself, would be more than happy to murder Lyta for her part in Morpheus' destruction. In The Wake, Thessaly expresses some remorse for her actions.

Thessaly also is the star of two spin-off comic series, The Thessaliad and Thessaly, Witch for Hire written by Bill Willingham. In the spin-offs, Thessaly (under that name) and her companion, a ghost named Fetch, first set out to tackle various gods of the underworld who want her dead. Later she is unwillingly pressured into a monster-killing contract.

Minor immortals

Mad Hettie: A London tramp born in 1741. At the time of Sandman #3, she was 247 years old. She appears frequently in other DC comics such as Hellblazer. She also had a large role in Death: The High Cost of Living, where she is shown to be rude, miserly and constantly complains about the lack of knowledge that present day youths have. She has been accused of being a witch, however she merely states that "you don't get to your two hundred and fiftieth without learning a few tricks".

Later, Hettie worked in the series The Dreaming, in which it was discovered that she had dealings with Destiny, Johanna Constantine and President Thomas Jefferson.

The Dancing Girl: Ishtar or "The Dancing Girl" is last on Delirium's list of immortals or long-lived humans who were "friends of" Destruction and who Delirium and Despair seek information from in Brief Lives. Ishtar is initially introduced as a tall, dark-haired dancer in a strip club and a friend of fellow dancer Tiffany; later she is revealed to be a current form of an ancient Babylonian goddess, a past lover of Destruction, and a source of the conflict between Destruction and his family (especially Dream, who seems to have opposed the relationship). After sending Tiffany away, Ishtar eventually dances one last time, unmasking her ancient power and causing many of her audience to suffer physical harm from watching her. Finally she makes the building explode as she presumably goes out of existence.

Fair folk

Inhabitants of Faerie.

Cluracan

The Cluracan is a supernatural being, of the faerie folk, in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic.

A shapeshifter through glamour, the Cluracan is brother to Nuala, the Dream King's fairy servant. An amoral, gay (in both the literal and modern sense of the word) rogue, Cluracan features in Season of Mists, Worlds' End, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake. He is strongly reminiscent of the "trickster" archetype also associated with Loki.

The Cluracan is based on a drunken leprechaun of Irish mythology, the Cluricaun.

Nuala

Nuala is a character in the comic book series The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman.

Nuala is a faerie gift to Dream at the end of Season of Mists. She is beautiful initially, but Dream takes her faerie glamour away, leaving a small, brown-haired, plain-looking girl in place of the beautiful blonde faerie woman.

From this point on, Nuala takes on the housekeeping duties of the Dreaming, only stopping when her brother Cluracan brings her back to Faerie in The Kindly Ones. When she leaves, Dream granted her with a boon as a reward for her years of servitude, allowing her to call on him if she needs to. Nuala had been nursing a crush on Dream for some time, so she finally calls him, asking him to love her. Dream is unable to do this, but he says that he can at least "send you a dream of my love." Nuala responds, "I already have that, my lord."

Indirectly as a result of Nuala's summoning Dream when he and the Dreaming are at their most vulnerable, the Dreaming has been badly damaged by The Furies. Death meets Morpheus (Dream) and chases The Furies away before sending granting him his final wish; death. Dream claims he is tired after eons of duty and Death takes him into her arms, killing Morpheus. However, it is suggested that Morpheus could still have escaped his fate if he'd truly wished to. Many factors contributed to the situation ending as it did.

Auberon

Auberon is a character in the comic book series The Sandman and The Books of Magic. He is seen for the first time in Sandman#19 as Auberon of Dom-Daniel, and again in several issues of The Books of Magic and in the Books of Faerie miniseries.

The character is implied to be the inspiration for Oberon of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Titania

Titania is a character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman.

In The Sandman

Titania is the queen of the fay; she first appears in issue#19.

The character is implied to be the inspiration for Shakespeare's Titania (Fairy Queen) in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. There is some speculation that she in the past was a lover of Dream's, although this is never explicitly stated.

After The Sandman

Titania is also a major character in the comic book The Books of Magic, of which the first four issues were written by Gaiman.

In this series, it is revealed that she is not a fay, but a human girl who crossed over into the fay realm and was then adopted by the current queen of the fay. She appears to be a fay due to an enchanted circlet she stole when the last queen was transformed into a tree by her husband. She is also the most powerful human sorceress alive, which simply aids in her deception.

Puck

Puck is a brown-furred trickster and hobgoblin appearing several times in The Sandman. Puck aids the Norse God Loki in kidnapping Daniel, playing a small role in the death of the Sandman and Daniel's subsequent assuming of the title. Puck later appears in The Books of Magic.

The inspiration for the character is shown to be the Puck of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but within the context of the series, the character in the play was inspired by Puck.

Mortals

Alex Burgess

Alex Burgess is a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's comic book series, The Sandman.

He is the son of Roderick Burgess, mother unknown (but probably Ethel Cripps, and therefore half-brother of Doctor Destiny). He is taught by his father, and takes part in his rituals. Upon Roderick Burgess' death, Alex inherits his estate, including his magical order. He keeps Dream imprisoned, as his father did, trying to bargain for power and immortality in exchange for his release. The Order enjoys a resurgence in popularity in the 1960s, but by the 1970s it is in decline again. Alex passes ownership of the Order on to his boyfriend, Paul McGuire (formerly a gardener at the estate), and becomes obsessed with his prisoner and with his father. Finally, in 1988, Dream's guards fall asleep, and Dream escapes. He puts Alex into a nightmare of "eternal waking," in which he is forever dreaming he is waking up, and each waking degenerates into another horrible nightmare. This nightmare lasts for years, ending only with Dream's death in the ninth collection in the series, The Kindly Ones.

Alex is quite tall and near-sighted. He has brown hair which he wears in a variety of styles throughout his life, but by old age he is bald and has come to resemble his father very closely. His relationship with McGuire is deep and heartfelt, but his obsessions with his father and with Dream eventually come to rule his life. In The Wake, he appears again as the child that we see in his first appearance.

Alex is in many ways a tragic figure, perhaps the first statement of the theme that Desire explores in The Wake: "The bonds of family bind both ways." Had Alex not been born the son of his father, inheriting the imprisoned Dream, his life might have been much happier. However, he is finally able to find some measure of fulfillment in his old age, following Dream's death.

His name almost certainly derives from Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, the protagonist of which is named Alex, but could also be a nod to Aleister Crowley, whose original middle name was Alexander and who was mentioned in the first issue.

Roderick Burgess

Roderick Burgess is a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's comic book series, The Sandman.

Roderick Burgess (1863-1947) was the Lord Magus of The Order of the Ancient Mysteries. Born Morris Burgess Brocklesby and known also as The Daemon King, his magical fraternity was based in "Fawney Rig" in Sussex, and was initially funded by his inherited industrial wealth. Burgess is a magician rather in the vein of the real Aleister Crowley, and within the DC world is Crowley's rival.

The series begins with Burgess' attempt to capture and bind Death, which fails, capturing Dream instead. Burgess keeps Dream trapped in a glass globe for the rest of his (Burgess') life, attempting to bargain with Dream, but Dream remains silent. Burgess dies of old age still attempting to get a response out of Morpheus. His order passes on to his son, Alex.

Burgess is a bald-headed, slightly pot-bellied man with a large hook nose and something of the look of a gypsy about him. He is ultimately self-centred; his sole purpose for the Order is to bring money and power to himself, and he is consumed by his desire to achieve immortality. His relationship with his son is only briefly touched on, though it is implied that it is unhealthy, with Burgess pushing his son to spend his life pursuing his father's dreams.

Johanna Constantine

Lady Johanna Constantine is an 18th century supernatural adventuress. Dream encounters her several times, once to ask her to recover the head of his son, Orpheus - a mission she performed so successfully that part of its after-effects was the ending of the French Revolution. On an earlier occasion she disrupted what she believed to be a meeting between the Devil and the Wandering Jew, but was actually between Dream and Hob Gadling. Gadling mentioned knowing an Elizabethan sorcerer named Jack Constantine, presumably an earlier ancestor.

After The Sandman

In middle age, Johanna Constantine was charged by persons unknown with the key to a box containing the sigil of America, allegedly created by Destiny.

This was stolen and hidden in the future by the wanderer, Mad Hettie. Hettie both blackmailed ('I knows about you and the little Corsican') and bribed Johanna for her silence, promising her that she would live to age 99.

This Johanna performed successfully, dying by getting out of her wheelchair, while listening to the singing of her old companion, Orpheus.

Johanna is presumably intended as an ancestor of John Constantine, although this has not been explicitly stated.

John Constantine

John Constantine is a con man and magician who accompanies Dream on a quest to find his pouch of sand.

John Constantine has his own series, John Constantine: Hellblazer, which occasionally has guest appearances by Cain and Abel. He is also prominently featured in another series, Swamp Thing, from which he originated.

Ethel Cripps

Also known as Ethel Dee, Ethel Cripps is the mother of John Dee. She was the mistress of Roderick Burgess until she fled with Ruthven Sykes.

Her last joy was her son, John Dee, whom she sought for 10 years. She discovered that he had become a living corpse. Despairing, she killed herself by removing the one thing keeping her alive- an amulet in the shape of an eye which granted its user protection.

Once dead, this and the Sandman's Ruby was entrusted to her son after stealing it from Ruthven Sykes, who had stolen it from Roderick Burgess, who had stolen it from Dream.

Doctor Dee

John Dee, also known as Doctor Destiny, is a DC Comics villain whose powers were derived from his use of Dream's Ruby. His name is almost certainly a reference to the real-life John Dee. He was incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, with other Batman villains such as The Scarecrow and The Joker, until freed by the amulet given to him by his mother, Ethel Dee, former mistress to Roderick Burgess. He had previously fought the Sandman (Garrett Sanford) alongside the Justice league.

John originally named himself 'Doctor Destiny' to protect his mother's surname, but after her death changed it back. The Ruby had drained away his mental and physical state until he was no longer able to sleep or dream without it. This had the unpleasant effect of turning him into a browned, living corpse.

Being able to control dreams, he used the ruby to bring out the 'darkness' and 'bestiality' of many people across the world. He had no purpose in doing this. To quote: 'I think I'll dismember the world and then I'll dance in the wreckage.'

While doing this, over a period of 24 hours he focused the energy of the ruby on several people in a cafe, one of them a friend of Rose Walker. He used them as puppets, horribly having them murder and degrade each other as if toys, until all were dead.

Dream double-bluffed him into destroying the ruby, which Dee believed to be Dream's life. It actually only stored some of his energy, and with it released Dream instead became even more powerful than before. Dee was finally able to sleep.

He has since appeared in Justice League and Justice Society stories, having retained some residual power from the ruby.

Wesley Dodds

Wesley Dodds, also known as Sandman, is the original costumed crimefighter who used the name. According to Gaiman, he was merely filling a hole in the universe in a similar way to a process of evolution, in which animals fill up a niche--for instance, what should fly. He is first seen in The Sandman series in a two-panel cameo in issue #1, and another cameo in issue #26. Dream occasionally appeared in dream sequences in Dodds's own series, Sandman Mystery Theatre. The two finally met for real in Gaiman's Sandman Midnight Theatre. Dodds appeared out of costume during The Sandman: The Wake (#72).

Foxglove

Foxglove (Donna Cavanagh) is a fictional character from the Sandman series, a lesbian musician who first appears in A Game of You.

In The Sandman

She is mentioned in Preludes and Nocturnes as the girlfriend of Judy, one of the patrons at the diner who dies in the story concerning John Dee, titled 24 Hours.

In A Game of You, Foxglove is going out with Hazel McNamara, and the two help Thessaly rescue Barbie.

After The Sandman

In Death: The Time of Your Life, Foxglove has become a pop superstar after being seen by a promoter in Death: The High Cost of Living. She is raising a child with Hazel named Alvie. Alvie dies of cot death, leading Hazel to make a deal with Death. However, even in the world of the Endless there's no such thing as a free lunch, and another character's life has to be sacrificed for the child's.

Daniel Hall

Daniel is the son of Lyta Hall, and the successor to the role of Dream of the Endless.

Lyta Hall

Hippolyta "Lyta" Hall is a major character in The Sandman, the mother of Daniel.

John Hathaway

John Hathaway is the senior curator of the Royal Museum. He steals the Magdalene Grimoire from the museum's collection to aid Roderick Burgess in his attempt to gain immortality after his son, Edmund, dies. He commits suicide in 1920 using a dagger from the museum after a stocktaking reveals his theft. His suicide note, implicating Roderick Burgess in a multitude of crimes, is never found.

Hazel McNamara

Hazel McNamara is Foxglove's lover. She appears in A Game of You, Death: The High Cost of Living, and is a major character in Death: The Time of Your Life. She has a son, Alvie, from her one heterosexual encounter. It is likely that Alvie is named after Wanda (see below).

In Death: The Time of Your Life Alvie dies of cot death and Hazel makes a deal with Death to bring him back.

Unity Kinkaid

Unity first appears as one of the victims of the sleepy sickness that follows Dream's capture in the first collection of issues in the series, Preludes and Nocturnes. Following his capture, she sleeps until he escapes. While asleep, she is raped and gives birth to a daughter, Miranda Walker.

It is later learned that the father of this child was Desire. Unity was supposed to be a "vortex of Dream," a special entity that appears only very rarely, with the ability to connect the dreams of other beings, a dangerous ability that can eventually cause the destruction of The Dreaming. The only time Dream is allowed to take a human life is to kill a vortex. Desire's intervention confuses the issue, and eventually Unity's granddaughter, Rose Walker, becomes the vortex. Desire does this so that Dream will be forced to kill a person of family blood, thus bringing the vengeance of the Furies on him.

However, just before Dream can kill Rose, Unity appears, explaining that she should have been the vortex, and asks for Rose's heart. The heart is a red glass one (remniscient of the green heart-shaped piece of glass that appears in the opening tale of this series). Taking the heart, Unity becomes the vortex, and dies.

Unity is of medium height, with reddish-brown hair that she wears long and loose in the self-image she uses in the final dream-meeting between herself, Rose, and Dream; as the old woman we meet at the start of The Doll's House, she has grey hair and wears a curiously old-fashioned dress. She seems kind, and smiles a lot.

Prez Rickard

Prez Rickard appears in a single issue as the ideal President.

Ruthven Sykes

Ruthven Sykes is a bespectacled Afro-Caribbean man with short hair.

He is Roderick Burgess' second-in-command of the Order of the Ancient Mysteries until November 1930, when he steals a number of treasures (including Dream's helmet, ruby and pouch of sand) and £200,000 in cash from the order and flees to San Francisco with Roderick's mistress, Ethel Cripps. In December 1930, he trades the helmet to the demon Choronzon for an amulet that looks like an eyeball on a chain. This amulet protects him from the magics of Burgess until 1936, when Ethel Cripps leaves him, taking the amulet with her. He is then killed.

Jed Walker

Jed Walker, originally called Jed Paulsen, appeared in Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's short lived series The Sandman, where he was protected from nightmare monsters by the titular hero. In Neil Gaiman's revisionist version of The Sandman, Jed was the brother of Rose Walker and the grandson of Unity Kinkaid and Desire.

Rose Walker

Rose Walker is a fictional character from the Sandman series written by Neil Gaiman. She makes her first appearance in issue #10, part one of The Doll's House story arc. She is a young blonde with red- and purple-dyed streaks in her hair. In later issues, she is shown as having red hair with a blonde streak. In The Kindly Ones, several characters remark that Rose looks much younger than her actual age; Rose's responses to these comments imply that while she may not be a true immortal, she is aware that she is aging more slowly than normal.

Historical figures

Haroun al-Raschid: The King of Baghdad during the time that Sindbad the Sailor was written/set. Worrying about his beloved city, he sells the city to Dream to keep it alive forever, but with a catch; the city lives only in dreams, and never existed except in the famous stories, the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.
Zubayda bint Ja`far: The wife of Haroun al-Raschid.
Jafar the Barmakid: The Vizier of Haroun al-Raschid.
Caesar Augustus: The first emperor of Rome. In The Sandman he is revealed to carry psychological scars from being continually raped by his uncle, Julius Caesar. Dream gives him a way to deal with it without the gods ('The Divine Julius' is suspected to be one of their number after his death) finding out.
Livia: The aloof wife of Augustus.
Julius Caesar: The last Dictator of the Roman Republic.
Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, the other emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, appear briefly in the memories of the dwarf Lycius.
Joshua A. Norton: An English-American believing himself to be Emperor of the United States in "Three Septembers and a January." Dream gives him his delusion as part of a challenge issued by his three younger siblings: Despair, who tries to make him fall into her realm by making his life increasingly difficult; Delirium, who makes a half-attempt to actually send him into insanity, but is refuted by the fact that 'his madness keeps him sane'; and Desire, who uses The King of Pain to tempt him with a real palace and a Queen. In the end, however, Joshua Norton remains delusional, but lives a happy and dignified life. He is so well-liked and respected that, when he dies, thousands come to see him off.
Mark Twain: American writer who shares his story about a jumping frog with Emperor Norton.
Thomas Paine: American radical who, after participating in the French Revolution, is imprisoned in the Luxembourg Palace and briefly encounters Johanna Constantine.
Louis de Saint-Just: Orator of the French Revolution and supporter of the Terror, he is deposed after Orpheus sings a song that saps his ability to articulate.
Maximilien Robespierre: Leader of the Committee of Public Safety and instigator of the Reign of Terror. An extreme dreamer, he seeks to destroy the head of Orpheus due to his wish to destroy all myths, but is in turn destroyed by it.
Marco Polo: The famous 13th-century explorer and trader. He is lost in a part of the Dreaming that connects to the real world, and encounters Rusticello, a friend of his future self, Fiddler's Green, and Dream, shortly after he had escaped from his prison. Marco offers him water. In return, Dream uses up the last of his energy in granting an otherwise forbidden passage home (explaining why he collapsed upon entering the House of Secrets). Upon waking Marco is unable to remember any of his encounters.
Rustichello da Pisa: The publisher of Marco, he encounters a younger self of his friend in a dream in the Desert of Lop.
William Shakespeare: The famous 16/17th-century English playwright. Dream gives him the inspiration for many of his plays in exchange for Shakespeare writing two plays for him: A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest.
Hamnet Shakespeare: The son of William, he is often overlooked by his father. It is implied that Titania may have taken him into the realm of Faerie (this is confirmed in a brief cameo in The Books of Magic).
Christopher Marlowe: A famous 16th-century playwright who is depicted discussing Shakespeare's terrible writing and Marlowe's Faust. Shakespeare tells Marlowe, "God's wounds! If only I could write like you!"
Geoffrey Chaucer: The famous 14th century poet and author of The Canterbury Tales is seen in the White Horse Tavern in 1389 A.D. in part four of The Doll's House, where Dream first meets Hob Gadling. It is mentioned in the tavern that people don't want, "filthy tales in rhyme about pilgrims" a reference to The Canterbury Tales.
John Belushi: Appears briefly in the Samurai Delicatessen skit when Prez hosts Saturday Night Live. In this timeline, the encounter so affects him that he stops doing drugs and lives to old age.
Richard Nixon: Visits Prez in his sleep to give him advice on the Presidency.
Rod Serling: Appears on the TV when Lyta Hall watches reruns of The Twilight Zone.
Montel Williams: Appears on TV when Rose Walker watches The Montel Williams Show.
Anne Hathaway: The wife of William Shakespeare.
Susanna Shakespeare: Older daughter of William and Anne Shakespeare.
Judith Shakespeare: Younger daughter of William and Anne Shakespeare.
Thomas Quiney: Pub waiter and future husband of Judith.
Ben Jonson: Poet and friend of William Shakespeare.
David Letterman: Appears briefly in Death: The Time of Your Life.

Minor mortals

Daniel Bustamonte: A victim of the 'sleepy sickness' that results from Dream's capture. He falls asleep in 1926, then wakes up sometime before 1955, staying awake much of the time but unable to speak. He recovers fully on September 14, 1988 when Dream escapes.
Chantal and Zelda: Apparently lesbian roommates in the house Rose Walker was staying at in The Doll's House. They dress in white and collect dead spiders. Of the two, Zelda relies on Chantal for strength, and she rarely ever speaks. In The Doll's House, it was unknown if they were lovers, friends, or related because they hardly ever socialized. When they dream, Zelda dreams of her childhood, where it is implied that she collected bones. Chantal's dreams are self-repeating loops, trying to explain something of nothing. In a later issue Chantal has died, while Zelda is dying of AIDS, which she contracted from an organ transplant.
Francis "Chas" Chandler: a cab driver and friend of John Constantine's, who drives him and Dream to Rachel's father's house so that Dream can retrieve his pouch. Chas takes his nickname from Jimi Hendrix's manager, and is a recurring character in the comic Hellblazer.
Compton - Roderick Burgess' butler.
Nurse Edwards: Alex Burgess' caretaker at the time he is put under Dream's curse.
Ernie and Frederick: Two of the men guarding Dream when he escapes from his imprisonment.
Doctor "Piggy" Huntoon: a doctor in Arkham Asylum and former schoolmate of Constantine's. He used to perform electro-shock therapy on Constantine, back when he was institutionalized.
Leigh: A man who works in "Easy Diner," an American-style diner in London.
Richard Madoc: An author, director and playwright who imprisoned Dream's ex-lover Calliope, a Muse, as a source of inspiration for his works. When Dream punishes Madoc for his treatment of Calliope he destroys his fingers to record in his own blood the innumerable ideas foisted upon him, only to have his imagination go blank entirely the moment Calliope is released from imprisonment. In The Wake he is seen attending Morpheus' funeral whilst dreaming, and it is inferred that after Morpheus' death, Madoc's blank mind is slowly healing.
Ellie Marsten: A victim of the 'sleepy sickness' that occurs during Dream's capture. She sleeps continuously for decades, awaking only four or five times a year, and recovers in an insane asylum on September 14, 1988 when Morpheus escapes. Her waking memory is basically founded on the book Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. Present whereabouts unknown.
Paul McGuire: Good friend and lover of Alex Burgess.
Rachel: An ex-girlfriend of Constantine's who stole Dream's pouch of sand from Constantine and became addicted to its effects.
Stefan Wasserman: A victim of the 'sleepy sickness' that results from Dream's capture. Joins the army during the First World War at 14, and goes over the trenches shortly before he catches the sickness. Commits suicide in 1918 at age 16 because he cannot sleep. He was inhabited by the dormant spirit of the Corinthian.
The Scarecrow (Dr. Jonathan Crane): In a cameo, the Arkham inmate attempts to dissuade his friend Doctor Destiny from escaping (albeit not forcefully), saying Arkham is a better home for their kind than the outside world. Unlike other incarnations, he is portrayed as a nervous, paranoid, babbling academic, trying to make April fools jokes to psychologically test his prison guards, and unable to sleep for fear of rats.
Wanda: A pre-operative male-to-female transsexual featured in A Game of You who is Barbie's best friend. She dies in the freak storm caused by Thessaly's magic and is buried as Alvin (her parents dress her as a man), though Barbie rectifies this by crossing out Alvin on her gravestone with lipstick and writing Wanda. Wanda is later seen in Barbie's dream, now apparently with a biologically female body, and waves goodbye to Barbie with Death.
Nada: A beautiful African queen, Nada is cast into hell by the Dream King (known to her as Kai'ckul) when she refuses to stay with him and become his queen because "It is not for mortals to love the Endless". She was asked three times, but refused each time. Nada first appears in "Preludes and Nocturnes" when Dream is escorted to Dis. Her story is revealed in the beginning of "A Doll's House". An argument over her unfair punishment prompts Dream's initial actions in "Seasons of Mist," and eventually Dream begs her forgiveness and lets her choose her own fate. Nada chooses to be reincarnated as a baby boy in Hong Kong, and Dream comes to her cradle, holds her new form, and promises that she will always be welcome in the Dreaming, no matter what form or body her soul is in.

Superheroes

Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) are shown briefly in a flashback in issue #2 (Preludes and Nocturnes) capturing Doctor Destiny, representing the Justice League, who defeated him. In issue #8, a comedian tells a joke about Batman that is clearly in-universe, as the comedian makes speculations about Batman's out of costume life that are far from correct. He also makes a brief appearance in issue #71 (The Wake).
Phantom Stranger and Doctor Occult appear briefly in The Wake, chatting with John Constantine. Constantine says "Nice tench coat", a reference to the similar design of the three characters.
Mister Miracle (Scott Free) informs Dream that his ruby is no longer kept at Justice League headquarters. (#7, Preludes and Nocturnes)
Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onnz), last member of the original Justice League lineup, gives Dream the details of the storage unit where the JLA's old trophies, including the ruby, are kept. (#7, Preludes and Nocturnes). Also makes an appearance alongside Batman, as does Clark Kent, in issue #71 (The Wake).
The Sandman (Hector Hall): The walking dead father of Daniel Hall and successor to Garrett Sanford, whose death is noted. Hall's only previous appearances as The Sandman were in Infinity Inc. #49-51. (#11-12, The Doll's House)
Element Girl (Urania Blackwell): Death, coming for an upstairs neighbour who has fallen off a ladder, visits her, sensing her longing to die, but is unable to take her, though she informs her that Ra (the sun) can take her power back so she can die. (#20, Dream Country)
Hawkman (Carter Hall): Along with Wesley Dodds (The Sandman), he is offered to Dream by Odin in a repeating Ragnarok in which the Justice Society of America is trapped. Odin says that one of them contains some of his essence. As Hall is the grandfather of Daniel, it is deliberately obscure just which one he means. (#26, Season of Mists)
Wildcat (Ted Grant), appears in #54, "The Golden Boy"

External links

FAQ including character appearance guide