Dream of the Endless is a fictional anthropomorphic personification who first appeared in the first issue of The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics.
The comic book grew out of a proposal by Neil Gaiman to revive DC's 1974–1976 series The Sandman, written by Joe Simon and Michael Fleisher and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Ernie Chua.
[4] When months later Berger offered Gaiman a comic title to work on, he was unsure his Sandman pitch would be accepted.
'"[4] Gaiman crafted the new character from an initial image of "a man, young, pale and naked, imprisoned in a tiny cell, waiting until his captors passed away ... deathly thin, with long dark hair, and strange eyes".
Whereafter Hippolyta "Lyta" Hall and Hector's ghost lived in the dreams of a child named Jed Walker for two years.
In one of the issues in Fables and Reflections, Daniel was regaled with stories by Cain, Abel, and Eve while Matthew the Raven watched.
Daniel is unable to convince Fiddler's Green to return to the Dreaming but otherwise recreates the entire land, including its populace, as it was before.
Within the main DC Universe, Daniel has made guest appearances in JLA #22–23, in which he helped save the Earth from Starro and in which he repaid the 'debt' his predecessor had owed the Justice League.
Daniel next appeared in a handful of issues of JSA in which he, among other things, transferred the prophetic dreams from Wesley Dodds to Sandy Hawkins.
[8] Still later in the series, Daniel, in the form of a magic mirror, tells Hector Hall (reincarnated as Doctor Fate) and Lyta about Sand, who is trapped in a dream world created, again, by Brute and Glob.
[11] Daniel appears in Dark Nights: Metal a crossover written by Scott Snyder, with Neil Gaiman's blessing.
Dream of the Endless usually appears as a tall, thin man with bone-white skin, black hair, and two stars in place of eyes.
He appears to be light-skinned when interacting with similar characters, but the people of Tales in the Sand's primordial African city see him as dark.
This "helm", which resembles a World War II-era gas mask, is also his sigil in the galleries of the other Endless, as well as appearing in the dreams (and at least once on the staircase wall) of Wesley Dodds.
His face and physique are based on an amalgamation of Neil Gaiman in his twenties, The Cure's frontman Robert Smith, and ballet dancer Farukh Ruzimatov.
As Mervyn Pumpkinhead remarks: "He's gotta be the tragic figure standing out in the rain, mournin' the loss of his beloved.
Dream reacts strongly to perceived insult; he banishes Nada to Hell for rejecting him and expresses outrage when Hob Gadling suggests that he seeks companionship.
He consistently strives for understanding of himself and of the other Endless, but is ultimately defeated by his inability to accept change: in The Wake, when asked (by Matthew, the raven), "Why did it happen?
He repeatedly risks his life to make amends for a past wrong, despite not needing to do so (though, this was only after Death pointed out how horribly he had behaved) and continues on his search with Delirium despite his aversion to doing so, feeling it was unjust their human guide died without knowing anything of their quest.
Dream recruits or creates (or re-creates) servants to perform roles he could easily carry out himself, including the reorganization of the castle and the guarding of its entrance.
The character originally appeared in the 1970s DC comic Tales of Ghost Castle, which lasted for only three issues (and was apparently killed off in Secrets of Haunted House #44).
Several comics in DC's Vertigo line have been set in the Dreaming, most notably a series of the same name (chief author Alisa Kwitney).