Desire is one of the Endless, a fictional character from Neil Gaiman's comic book series, The Sandman.
It is the third youngest of the Endless. Desire is a beautiful, perfectly androgynous figure who is not so much genderless as multiple-gendered. Desire blends in effortlessly with whatever environment it finds itself in. Desire smokes, and smiles a lot, though in a way entirely different from Death. Desire lives in a massive statue of itself, known as the Threshold. Its sigil in the galleries of the other characters is a glass heart.
Desire is easily the cruelest of the Endless. Desire seems obsessed with interfering with the affairs of its elder siblings, particularly Morpheus. The motivation behind this is not clear, but seems to be simply a variation on childish teasing. Desire is not exactly unaware of the consequences of its actions, but considers those consequences ultimately unimportant, a position which angers Morpheus and Death in particular. Desire is the twin sibling of Despair, and the two sometimes act in concert; the relationship is not clear, however, and Desire is much more distant from its siblings than Despair.
A story in Endless Nights, set long before any other Sandman story, explains the origins of the Desire/Dream enmity, and reveals that before this Desire was Dream's favourite sibling.
Being androgynous, Desire makes the Endless line-up come out perfectly. They total seven members, the perfect number, but by virtue of Desire's gender, they contain both four males and four females.
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Last updated: 05-18-2005 22:55:55
