Heather After is a sorceress and the modern-day descendant of Roderick Burgess and Ethel Cripps.
History[]
Early life[]
Heather is the granddaughter of John Dee, Ethel Cripps' son, whom Ethel conceived before leaving Roderick Burgess for Ruthven Sykes.[2][3] Heather and her parents rejected the Burgess name. Heather, who is transgender, went further, deciding to change her name to "Heather After" during childhood. On her great-grandmother Ethel's deathbed, Heather was told of her magical heritage and urged to embrace said power. Instead, Heather refused to be part of Ethel's machinations and chose to learn magic in her own way against her parents' wishes.[3]
Creating her own path[]
Heather continued practicing magic, being mentored at some point by John Constantine.[1] She also used a dating app and met a boy named Todd and started a romantic relationship with him.[4] Going deeper into the craft she started to summon otherworldly beings and entities, once tried to summon a fire elemental but she messed up with the casting and trapped an angel instead, Jophiel, after that they become sort of friends.
When Ruin, a nightmare, got a human trapped in the Dreaming by accident, Jophiel headed to Heather's apartment in New Jersey looking for help. The three of them tried to find a way to return Ruin to the dream realm, the sorceress called upon a faerie, who sorted to be Puck to ask them a scort across their realm to get Dream's realm. This was proven a bad idea so and after expelling the faerie sent Ruin to the Worlds' End Inn instead as a backdoor to the Dreaming.[5]
A curse and a deal[]
Not much after helping Ruin, she went to a nightclub with her boyfriend for professional reasons, where she was approach by an angry Puck. The faerie wanted to get revenge on Heather, so he slashed her with a cursed blade intended to make her bleed to death. She ran away to not put Todd in danger, on her way to a hospital she was persecuted and attacked by Unseelie creatures who were attracted to her by the curse. Once in the hospital she managed to phone John, who suggested her to summon a powerful protector to help her fight against the Unseelie. She tried but backfired, calling instead Matthew the Raven and Goldie the Gargoyle.[1]
With no other options, she sent Matthew to her apartment in search of her protection amulet, there he found Todd, Jophiel and Ruin and told them about Heather. Todd grabbed the amulet and run headed to the hospital wanting to help his girlfriend with Azar, one of the doctors who went to her place searching for Heather's daily meds. Meanwhile she tried again and managed to summon Auberon, who expelled the Unseelie and offered to cure the cursed wound if she helped him and Titania regain their thrones. Heather agreed.[4]
Traveling into Faerieland[]
To stick to her part of the deal made with the deposed faerie king she planed a journey to the Fair Lands, she asked for Jophiel and Ruin's help in her quest.[6]
Appearance[]
She is a beautiful young woman standing six foot[1], with blonde hair cut in a bob, blue eyes and a beauty mark above her lips.
Personality[]
Heather is witty and flamboyant, however according to her boyfriend she thinks of herself she is hard to love[4], which reveals certain insecurity.
Relationships[]
Parents[]
Heather and her parents had a complicated relationship, though they supported her gender identity they didn't understood her calling from magic which led them to many disagreements.
Jophiel[]
Heather summon Jophiel by accident when she was trying to invoke a fire elemental. After that the angel came to her asking for help. Though they are sarcastic to each other eventually became friends.
Todd[]
Heather and Todd met in a dating app, and he suggested to have their first date in a sports bar he used to go to. At first she was afraid of him hurting her for being trans but he realized she was feeling uncomfortable so they went dinner other place and started a romantic relationship.
Ruin[]
Ruin met her when Jophiel came to her apartment asking for help to return the nightmare to the Dreaming, after he returned to the Waking World Heather asked him and Jophiel's help to go Faerieland lying to him saying that may be the boy he was looking for could be a faerie. She felt guilty for this and to make amends with him she casted a synchronicity spell to ensure the lovers found each other. It's implied they remained good friends after that.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Sorcery: As a descendant of two magical bloodlines —Burgess and Cripps— Heather has a natural ability to practice magic.
- Summoning: Heather can summon entities from other planes from elemental spirits to angels.
- Binding:
Behind the Scenes[]
- Heather is an anarchist and doesn't believe in monarchy.[7]
- She made up her name on a pun for the phrase "happily ever after".[3]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #6, "Intermezzo, Part 1".
- ↑ The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #2, "The Bard and the Bard, Part Two".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #9, "The Faerie King, Part 2".
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #7, "Intermezzo, Part 2".
- ↑ The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #5, "The Bard and the Bard, Finale".
- ↑ The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #8, "The Faerie King, Part 1".
- ↑ The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming: Waking Hours #12, "The Faerie King, Finale".