I hope you enjoyed meeting Dream in my last article on the Endless siblings. If you missed my introduction to who the Endless are, you can find it here. Today we will be talking about Death. She, and each of her siblings, Dream, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, Despair, and Destiny, are their realms. She is Death. Let’s get to know her.
The second to come into being, Death took on an eldest sister/second mother role that all big sisters take on. Only Destiny is older. Her realm has been called The Light At The End Of The Tunnel and her sigil is her ankh. Of all the Endless, Death is the one closest to humanity. She is the most “human” of them. The Endless deal with the affairs of all beings, not just humans. Death just resembles us the most.
Dream is quite aloof but is relatively close to Death. He does actually seek her out for advice every now and then. Death tends to be perplexed as to why Dream doesn’t seek her out sooner often. Well, I supposed every few decades or so would be often where the Endless are concerned. Morpheus and Death are close enough that she will take time from her duties to attend to him. I think the only other sibling she does that for is Delirium but for different reasons. She is protective of Delirium, as are all of the Endless. With Dream, it is more an “I’m your big sister and you are important to me” thing.
The Death we meet in the comics is a young-looking, goth girl who wears an ankh necklace and an Eye of Horus makeup over her eye. She favors skinny jeans and tank tops to wear mostly. Death can really accessorize though. She has the same pale skin and dark hair and eyes as her little brother, Dream. Even though Death is ageless and was the second of the Endless to come into being, she only looks slightly older than Delirium. Which translates to, she looks like she is in her early to mid-twenties.
Death is both a beginning and an end. Death breathes the breath of life into you at birth and of course, she brings you to the afterlife. She is not Anubis, or Hel, or even Hades. They are separate entities from her. Each with its own roles and responsibilities. Even being Deities of death, they are not equal to her and will, I think, ultimately answer to her.
Death is a compassionate, motherly/sisterly, humble being while being upbeat and cheerful to boot. Despite being the most powerful being in the universe, she is laid back and kind. At one point in her existence, she was cold, detached, and hated her job. Today, she enjoys her job and does her best to ease the transition. A question, “How would you like it?” asked by a human-made Death look at how she behaved. She decided to start being a human one day a century, to see life and death from our point of view. Since doing so she has gained insight into how we view her. She came into being with the first mortal life and she will be here to close up shop, so to speak, when the last mortal being dies.
When I say that Death is the most powerful being in existence I am not exaggerating. Not only does she give life and take it away, but she is also everywhere, always. Showing each realm the proper respect, she can enter and move around easily. She is immortal. I mean, if Death were to die, who would take her? How could Death die? Lastly, she knows all the possible lives and ends for each soul she is responsible for.
Neil Gaiman made Death a lovely character. Not scary at all and I would love to meet her at the time of my death if I get a say in it. She is my favorite character in this world. Do you have a favorite Endless? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time…
