"People may not be ready for my gift, but I give it to them anyway. No matter the circumstances. In the end, we are all alone. The Sunless Lands are far away, and the journey is arduous. In the end, we will appreciate the company of a friend." ― Death[src]
Death is Dream's sister in the Endless family. One of the kinder and more sensible of Dream's siblings, her counsel has proven valuable to his journey on multiple occasions.
History[]
Origins[]
According to Death, when the first living thing existed, she was there. When the last living thing dies, she'll put the chairs on the table, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind her when she leaves.[1]
One day, long ago, a small girl looked at Death when she took her and asked how Death would feel to die. This small act caused Death to take mortal form once a day every century to see what she could learn from it. At the end of her very first day of being alive, when she met herself, and she told herself how she felt about Death.[2]
Orpheus Marriage[]
In Greece, 1700 B.C., Death and her siblings attend the wedding of Orpheus, Dream and Calliope's son. The night of his wedding, however, Death claimed Eurydice. Destruction advised Orpheus speak with Death about the matter of his wife's death. Claiming she couldn't return Eurydice to him, Orpheus' pleading eventually persuaded her to grant him immortality so he could travel to and back from the Underworld.[3]
Reaping souls[]
In 1389, disguised as a nun and priest, Death brought Dream to a tavern to interact with humanity on their terms. There, they overheard a man named Hob Gadling speak of seeing Death and how he decided he would never die. As Dream wondered why anyone would desire an eternity of human life, Death suggested that she grant his wish of eternal life as an experiment.[1]
Death telling Dream to find purpose
After tracking Dream down to a local park and advising him to find a new purpose now that he'd settled his vendetta against his captors, she invited him to join her for the day as she made her rounds and reaped the living. Their first stop, an elderly man named Harry. Afterward, Dream informed Death that the men who captured him were actually after her, which she claimed to already be aware of before taking off her shoes and heading to her next appointment: a young man named Sam on honeymoon with his wife, who had just drowned in the lake. Dream wondered how Death was able to be there for all of them. She replied that she had a job to do. When the first living thing existed, she was there. And when the last living thing dies, she'll put the chairs on the table, turn out the lights, and lock the universe behind her when she leaves.
Death reaping souls
Death used to think that she had the hardest job among the Endless. Humans feared her, and yet they entered Dream's realm every night willingly. Death considered giving up and walking out, but that was long ago, even before the existence of the current world. The job got to her and she got hard and brittle inside, given humanity's reaction to the Sunless Lands. But eventually, she learned that all they needed was a kind word and a friendly face. Death and Dream had made their way into the home of a mother with an infant child. Death had unfortunately come to take the baby. She used to think she had to do this by herself, but in the end, she was there with them. They were holding her hand, and she was holding theirs, applying the same logic to Dream. The only reason the Endless existed was to serve humanity. And since figuring that out, she realized that she needed them as much as they needed her. Dream thanked Death for the insight and teaching him something he had long since forgotten.
World War Ghost[]
After the Dead Boy Detectives free a hundred year old scorned war veteran's soul, Death appears before him and tells him how she had once visited him a century prior when he had first died, though she did not take him as he seemed too confused and filled with rage. Now that his world was at peace, Death took him over to the other side.[4]
Endlessess Reunion[]
Death was called by Destiny to the reunion of their family in order to talk about important matters.
Close the Hell[]
After Lucifer abdicate for the throne of Hell, Dream call Death for help, she came and Dream tried to convince her to take the key to Hell but she refused since she would have to go for all the souls that escaped from Hell without mentioning her daily work.
Dream Death[]
To be added
Funeral of a King[]
To be added
Brief Life[]
To be added
Physical Appearance[]
Death appears as a young black woman with brown eyes and long, curly black hair. She tends to wear black leather and a necklace of an ankh, her sigil on it.
Personality[]
Unlike most of her brothers and sisters, Death is undoubtedly the kindest, most open and charismatic of the Endless, despite her job of guiding souls to the afterlife is gloomy, she always does it with a smile, because of her job she is the closest to humanity.
However, Death admits that she wasn't always so happy and calm with her job and the responsibilities it put on her. A longtime ago, before the dawn of Earth and humans, Death gradually became more and more unhappy with her job as living things eventually began to fear and hate the idea of dying, eventually making her hate her job as living beings began to hate, fear and despise her for fulfilling her duties. She reached a point where she even wanted to stop working and see what would happen if all the living beings/things in the universe stopped dying, but she discarded the idea when she realized the catastrophic mess in a universal scale she would cause if she did so and became hard and bitter inside instead as she begrudgingly pressed on with her duties.
However, as time went on, she finally understood that all humans, or any living being need are words of encouragement and a friendly face, like the one they see at birth, at the end of their life. With this change presumably due to Death finally having a chance to experience what it was like to be alive when she began her “breaks” every one hundred years. With Death learning about the joys and pleasures of what it was like to be alive and understanding the pain, sadness and despair livings things feel at knowing it won’t last forever when they realize that they will die one day. Making Death more understandings towards mortal beings and appreciate life and understanding how her duties and function is what gives it worth and meaning, as knowing that life will end one day is what makes life worth living while one still has it.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Death Personification: As one of The Endless, Death is the metaphysical manifestation of Death itself and is afforded immense power due to her role and status in maintaining the universe. As the personification of the state and event of Death, Death has divine, omnipotent authority and absolute control over it and is linked to everything related to it. With these powers, she is almost completely omnipotent. As shown when she went to Dream’s side, Death is powerful enough to even threaten The Furies, as even Gods will die one day.
- Magic: like the rest of her siblings, Death is able to perform magic. Her spells and enchantments revolve around the scales between life and Death.
- Limited Omniscience/Omnipresence: As part of her job/function, Death knows information pertaining to upcoming Deaths and can appear and go anywhere and everywhere in creation in order to do her job of collecting and managing souls. As shown where she is able to manifest where and when she is needed, and can selectively interact with humanity. As shown, due to her job, Death can go to any realm she pleases, without requring permission of its monarchs, including the realms of her siblings, all the worlds in the waking world and the various underworlds/afterlives.
- Portal Creation:Death could also create portals to any of the realms and allow others to use them as well. As shown, likely due to her function, Death could even enter into other realms even should its monarch seal it off from outsiders, as shown where Death could create a portal into Delirium’s realm even after she sealed it off to allow Dream to properly apologise to her. When she helped her nephew Orpheus travel to the Greek Underworld, Death was able to open a doorway into the Underworld of Hades and Persephone from her realm using a special key.
- Exemption to the Ancient Rules: Due to her function, Death is required to be completely unbound by the Ancient Rules her family is tied to follow. As explained by her brother Destruction, Death can do anything she wants. However, she herself chooses to respect the rules and follow them of her own free will and rarely exempts to do so.
- Psychopomp: Death’s main duty and job is releasing the souls of the dead from the physical world and bringing them to their afterlives. Due to this, Death is able to freely appear anywhere in both the physical world and all the afterlives in order to do her job. This duty also allows Death to travel across the afterlives and even transport a soul that has already been sent there to another afterlife. As shown where after Simon had stopped tormenting himself in Hell after Edwin’s words of encouragement and forgiveness, Death appeared to take him away to a different afterlife. Death herself further revealed the scope of her work when Lucifer had abandoned their realm, where Death was working towards collecting and relocating the dead souls of the mortals condemned there and placing them in new afterlives.
- Transformation: Able to summon wings that usher mortals onto the afterlife.
- Necromancy: Death has the power to control the souls of the dead, Roderick Burgess claimed that he could bring his son back to life if he forced her to. As shown with Ghosts, Death herself can chose not to take a mortal soul to the after life if she feels they are not ready to move on yet. As she explained why she didn’t initially collect Wilfred’s soul when he originally died in WWI and only did so after Edwin and Charles helped him let go of his earthy attachments and pass on to the afterlife.
- Immortality: Death, like the rest of her family, is ageless and possesses the ability of immortality. Even should Death be killed, she will simply incarnate in another aspect of herself, who would then inherit all of her powers and memories.
- Grant of Immortality: Death can choose to stay her hand and not touch a mortal soul if she desires, granting them immortality. As shown in the case of Hob Gadling. In the past, she had also done that same for her nephew Orpheus, granting him the ability to go to and leave the Underworld while alive, but also making him virtually unkillable. As show, where despite being reduced to a head, Orpheus was able to continue living for thousands of years until the modern day.
- Mortal Incarnation: Death was noted to have a single “day off” every one hundred years, where she incarnates, or rather a part of herself incarnates, as a normal human being in order to learn and experience what it is like to be mortal, with Death noting that she fully gains a flesh and blood body that gives her all the feelings and sensations she normally cannot experience. As shown when she incarnated as a mortal named Didi in modern times. When this mortal incarnation dies after living a full day, Death appears before her and proceeds to reabsorb her back into herself and gains all the memories and experiences she gained during this break.
Weaknesses[]
- Magic: Despite being an Eternal, Death is susceptible to the effects of magic and can be summoned and imprisoned through specific spells and rituals, in fact she was the one who was originally going to be imprisoned instead of Dream.
Appearances[]
The Sandman[]
Season 1[]
Season 2[]
- Chapter 12: Season of Mists
- Chapter 13: The Ruler of Hell
- Chapter 15: Brief Lives
- Chapter 16: The Song of Orpheus
- Chapter 21: Long Live the King
- Chapter 22: A Tale of Graceful Ends
- Chapter 23: Death: The High Cost of Living
Dead Boy Detectives[]
Season 1[]
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
Episode Stills[]
