"Do you know why I stopped being Delight, brother? There are things not in your book and there are paths outside your garden, you would do well to remember that." ― Delirium
Delirium, formerly known as Delight, is the younger sister of Dream, and the youngest of the Endless.
Once the personification of pleasure and joy, she somehow evolved in to Delirium long before the onset of the story for reasons unknown and unexplained.
She was played by Esmé Creed-Miles.
History[]
Delirium, once embodied as Delight, was originally the embodiment of joy and pleasure. For mysterious reasons even the all-seeing Destiny doesn't know the cause she eventually transformed into Delirium, becoming the personification of delirium, mental chaos, and incoherence.
Considered the youngest of the Endless, she first appears in the series in the opening episode of Season 2, when Destiny summons all the members of the family for a meeting. This marks her first appearance in her current form, although Destiny uses an old portrait of Delight to summon her.
Orpheus Wedding[]
In a flashback, during Orpheus' wedding to Eurydice, Delirium/Mania briefly reveals to her nephew that she once almost got married, but that it ended badly "because of her." Almost immediately, she recovers and wishes them "good luck" in their married life.
Endless Meeting[]
When Destiny summons his siblings for a family reunion, Delirium is the last to arrive, claiming to have done "good things" that same day, after having done "bad things" the day before. Barely settled, Delirium conjures butterflies that Desire drives to suicide to "offer" to Death, which upsets Delirium. Destiny then talks about the prophecy of the Grey Women, something none of the Endless immediately understand, least of all Delirium. Later, when Despair prevents an argument between Dream and Desire, Delirium diverts the conversation by asking why no one had tried to find Destruction. She expresses her fear that "something bad" has happened to him, and Desire instinctively scoffs at the "logic" of this fear. Delirium then begins to get angry, claiming that she was definitely smarter than all of her other siblings, including Destiny, but he manages to calm her down almost immediately.
Seeking Destruction[]
Delirium persuades Dream to search for Destruction, who has been missing for 300 years. She draws up a list of three people who might know his whereabouts. All die under strange circumstances: Bernard Capax is killed in an accident, the stripper Ishtar, and so on. Dream begins to suspect mysterious powers at work. Eventually, they discover that Orpheus is the oracle capable of guiding them, in exchange for a wish. Remaining disembodied (a living head), Orpheus asks to be killed. Dream agrees and kills his own son, thus violating a sacred rule of the Endless—which triggers cosmic repercussions.
Search for Barnabas[]
To be added
Dream's Funeral[]
To be added
Personality[]
Her personality is a whirlwind: sometimes childish and mischievous, sometimes absurd, even disconcerting. She constantly traverses extremes, moving from absurd comedy to deeply disturbing flashes of insight.
She embodies mental instability and the margins of human consciousness: hallucinations, disordered thoughts, sudden emotions. Yet this instability hides a lucidity about the nature of reality that even Destin lacks. Delirium understands truths that others deny: "everything is changeable," "time exists," "memory eludes us"—all thoughts that cross her mind and that she formulates in a fragmented way.
As noted by her older sister Death and older sibling Desire, Delirium isn’t very stable and has the tendency of being overly emotional and moody. As admitted by her, she has the tendency of being extremely scatter brained and had the habit of frequently getting lost in her own thoughts and feelings, with her even having times where she has very dark episodes where she just wants to “hide, scream or bleed”. When she finally spoke to Destruction after centuries of him leaving their family, Delirium admitted that she wasn’t very lucid of her surroundings and had the tendency of ignoring or quickly forgetting things, as she had stated that when Destruction had first explained why he was leaving, Delirium either forgot what he said or lost track of it immediately, ultimately leaving her upset centuries later when she finally realized that she never heard or understood his reasons for leaving. All of these issues leaves her very emotionally vulnerable and prone to being easily upset. Delirium herself is aware of this and copes by relying on her older siblings for emotional support to help keep herself together.
As implied by Delirium and guessed by her siblings, when she was Delight, something had happened to her that was extremely traumatizing. Triggering her change and eventual transformation into Delirium and resulting in her current unstable disposition.
As briefly shown when Destiny had upset Dream, Delirium showcased that she can temporarily make herself more lucid and stabilize her mind for a brief moment. With both of her eyes becoming blue to symbolize this. In this state, Delirium is considerably more aware of her surroundings and she could properly vocalize and organize her thoughts and feelings more clearly, surprising both Destiny and Dream. However, as admitted by Delirium, this state brings her immense pain and maintaining it is agonizing for her, quickly making her slip back to her unstable mindset after only a few minutes,
When Destruction left again, Delirium, instead of being sad, felt satisfied and calm because she had finally been able to see him again and she finally knew the reason why he left.
Apperance[]
Delirium is a short girl with an eccentric appearance, white skin and a freckled face splashed with makeup, eyes with heterochromia, the right one very blue and the other very green,when she regains lucidity, his green eye turns blue again, and shoulder-length reddish-blond hair with strands dyed in various colors.
As Delight, she is blonde with blue eyes, wearing a short-sleeved pink dress in the style of the 18th or 19th century, with a straw hat adorned with a ribbon.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Personification of Delirium: One of the seven Endless, inconceivably powerful beings, Delirium is both mistress and personification of all delirium and sanity. She has god-like powers and absolute control over her realm, which was noted to frequently shift and change depending on her mood, which in itself is random and jumbled. As the personification of delirium and sanity, she is capable of bringing sanity or madness to any and all within her scope.
- Immortality: Delirium is ageless and virtually immortal.
- Secret knowledge: According to her, she knows things about infinity that even Destiny doesn't.
- Change of incarnation: Delirium used to be Delight but for some unknown reason, that only she knows, she changed. As Delight, she embodied joy and pleasure, but after her change into Delirium, she became the living embodiment of madness.
- Omnipresence: Due to Delirium being the embodiment of delirium and sanity, Delirium is present almost everywhere in the cosmos, affording her immense knowledge and information and the ability to come and go to anywhere she wants. Appearing as she pleases on Earth and in her realm with a thought. Delirium was also shown to be capable of freely appearing in the realms of her elder siblings and even her parents as she pleases, appearing in the Dreaming and the Threshold unannounced to her elder brother and sibling. Night also noted that Delirium frequently goes to her realm and sulks around it without talking to her.
- Reality Manipulation: Delirium exerts complete control over matter to the point of distorting, changing, and manipulating reality. Her kingdom is constantly changing colors and shapes, making her dominate her home at will.
- Realm Sealing: After Dream and Desire had upset her, Delirium showcased her absolute power over her realm and was able to completely close it off, preventing anyone from entering into it.
- Portal Creation: As shown when she’s in Earth, Delirium can travel back to her own realm by creating a portal to travel through. Delirium’s portals to her realm manifests as a surface of cracked glass in reality that breaks and opens a path to her realm.
- Life Generation: Delirium can create life form on a whim. As showcased when she had created two butterflies from nothing during Destiny's family meeting. Later, when she visited the Dreaming, Delirium showcased the ability to create multicolored mold and mushrooms around herself.
- Matter Creation: Delirium has shown the ability to freely conjure anything she wants from her imagination. Having been able to create ice cream and entirely new, made up flavors of ice cream from her imagination. Later, when looking for Barnabas, Delirium was able to conjure a golden strong attached to Goldie’s leg to make him seem like a balloon while traveling the Earth for Barnabas.
Ancient Powers[]
- Personification of Delight: The first incarnation of Delirium was Delight, being the total mistress of that aspect. She would have all the powers and abilities that involved Delight, but for some unknown reason she ended up transforming into Delirium, being the same Endless as before but with a different impersonation. She is the only Endless to make this change.
Weaknesses[]
- Ancient Rules: Despite her great powers, Delirium, like the rest of the Endless, is bound to a complex set of rules and customs.
- One requires her to never spill the blood of family or she is no longer protected as the personification of Delirium from other Personifications.
- Another is that she cannot fall in love with a mortal or the mortal's downfall is assured.
- Delirium cannot take a mortal life unless they become a active threat to herself and her realms.
- Respect roles and domains. Each Endless embodies a specific concept and must stick to their own domain. Should Delirium leave and abandon her role, the aspect of existence supervised by her becomes more random and chaotic, disrupting the cosmic order.
- Death: Death has showcased to be considerably more powerful than Delirium and her exemption to the Ancient Rules also likely allows her to overcome some of Delirium’s powers. As shown where Death was able to open a gateway into Delirium’s realm after she had sealed it to allow Dream to apologize to her.
Gallery[]
.png "Delirium(1).png (2.6 MB)")
.png "Delight Portrait (Netflix).png (1.16 MB)")
Trivia[]
- In Season 1, Delirium’s sigil appeared as a holographic shapeless swirl of colors. In season 2, her sigil seemingly changed to that of a dark grey/black/blue butterfly with a broken wing.