Lucienne

This article is about Lucienne from the Netflix adaptation. You may be looking for Lucien from the comic series.

Lucienne
Biographical information
Occupation	Librarian
Species	Dream
Status	Alive
Origin
Creator(s)	Dream
First appearance	Chapter 1: Sleep of the Just
Portrayal(s)	Vivienne Acheampong

Lucienne is the chief librarian and trusted guardian of Dream's realm.

History

Dream's return

Dream and Lucienne return to the palace

Lucienne was concerned that Dream may not make it back as he prepared to leave The Dreaming in search of The Corinthian. As powerful as he was in his own realm, dreams rarely survived in the waking world. Nightmares, on the other hand, seemed to thrive there. Lucienne's worst fear was confirmed when Dream didn't return until more than a century later, when he arrived at the shores of The Dreaming after escaping his imprisonment. As they approached the palace gates, Lucienne informed Dream that the realm and palace weren't as he left them. In fact, they were decaying. With Dream gone as long as he was, the realm began to crumble, and most of the residents were gone. Some went looking for him, while others thought he had abandoned them, as he wouldn't be the first Endless to do so.

Dream telling Dream to take a raven

Lucienne kept a journal of everything that happened in his absence, but slowly, the words began to fade and all the books in the library became bound volumes of blank papers. The next day, the library was gone in its entirety. Having lost his tools, Dream was too weak to repair his realm. The only sure way for Dream to find his tools was to summon the Three-in-One, which Lucienne advised him against, suggesting that Dream ask his siblings for help instead, though they had their own realms to tend to. The Fates would come at a cost, however, needed to replenish his strength, coming up with the idea to absorb Cain and Abel's Gregory. In doing this, Dream was able to gather offerings from the dreams of others to pay The Fates, who revealed the locations of his sand pouch, helm, and ruby. After pleading with Dream to take a new raven with him, Lucienne came across the Corinthian on the shores of The Dreaming, though he fled before Dream could return.

The vortex

Lucienne informing Dream about the vortex

After conducting a consensus with Abel and learning a startling rumor, Lucienne reported back to Dream. She had accounted for 11,062 dreams and nightmares. There were a handful of new entities, and three of the Major Arcana were missing, namely Gault, The Corinthian, and Fiddler's Green. Also quite alarming, they were rumors among the dream folks of a vortex, which Dream confirmed were true. Lucienne insisted that he hunt for it, but the Endless were forbidden from taking action against any mortal who was not an active threat, though Dream was watching her in The Dreaming and Matthew would be watching over her in the waking realm. After learning that Rose's brother was missing, Lucienne looked through her book to discover that Jed Walker was missing from The Dreaming as well, meaning he was disconnected, which would require knowledge and power, leading Lucienne to suspect this was Gault's doing, as she was Jed's last dream.

After receiving an unexpected visit from Rose, who somehow managed to access The Dreaming, Lucienne looked into her ancestry and learned of Unity Kincaid, her great-grandmother, who fell asleep the day Morpheus was imprisoned and never woke up. Unity was the sole survivor of the sleepy sickness. And the day Dream returned, she woke up, suggesting that Dream's absence caused the birth of a vortex, which would be impossible, as vortexes were naturally occurring phenomena. After capturing Gault, Dream sentenced her to a few thousand years in the darkness. Lucienne, however, felt her punishment was unjust. She recalled how she used to be something else before Dream made her a librarian. They all had the ability to change, she believed. While Dream was grateful that Lucienne stepped up in his absence, he reminded her that he was back and that she could return to the library.

The walls falling

Lucienne returning with Fiddler's Green

Lucienne learned from Matthew that Lyta was pregnant from a dream, meaning Rose was weakening the walls between realms. However, Lucienne had no intentions of relaying the message to Dream herself, as he reminded her that she was merely a librarian. He was determined to deal with the vortex alone, so Lucienne instructed Matthew to report any updates exclusively to Dream, who later visited Lucienne and asked if she had any idea what caused the disturbances. Lucienne suspected that the vortex was the cause, though Dream argued that it could be something new. Dream later returned to admit that she was right about the vortex being the source of the disturbances. He also admitted that he was wrong to hope that she would help them locate the missing Arcana. However, Lucienne revealed that he wasn't entirely wrong, as Rose did in fact manage to find The Corinthian and Fiddler's Green.

Saving Rose

Lucienne and Unity saving Rose

In The Dreaming, Lucienne met the acquaintance of Unity, who was in search for the story of her life, had things turned out differently had she not been forced into a long slumber. According to the book on Unity's life, she was meant to be the vortex, but because Morpheus was imprisoned and locked out of the Dreaming, that fate was handed down to Rose. And so, Unity took Rose's place as the vortex and Dream killed her, thus saving both realms. Later, Lucienne joined Dream on the shores of The Dreaming as he created new dreams. She came to report that a new book written by Rose appeared in the library. Lucienne suspected that Dream was making new nightmares to replace Gault and Corinthian, but Dream didn't believe the world needed another Corinthian. In fact, he asked Lucienne to put Corinthian's skull some place safe whilst he finished creating his latest dreams, including Gault, who in addition to being brought back as a dream, was given a set of wings. Considering how much work needed to be tended to, Dream asked Lucienne to take care of the palace while he worked.

Physical Appearance

Lucienne is a black woman with a shaved head and brown eyes. She often wears circular, vintage eyeglasses.

Appearances

Season 1

• Chapter 1: Sleep of the Just
• Chapter 2: Imperfect Hosts
• Chapter 7: The Doll's House
• Chapter 8: Playing House
• Chapter 9: Collectors
• Chapter 10: Lost Hearts

Behind the Scenes

• In the Sandman comic series, Lucienne is Lucien, a dream that takes the form of a Caucasian man with pointed ears who serves as librarian and later confidante and regent. It is unknown how much of his history Lucienne shares; although in the retconned events of The Dreaming, Lucien was said to be the former raven before Matthew. It is likely she is also a former raven, given her request that he bring a "new raven" with him.
• In press coverage, casting diversity was a highlight when discussing about the changes made between the comic and television series. As appearance and gender are ancillary to his role as librarian and later confidante and regent, Lucien presumably made him an appealing choice to change in order to increase the overall diversity of the cast.

Gallery

Promotional Images

Episode Stills