Dream (The Sandman)

Character
Name:	Dream, Morpheus, Oneiros, Kai'ckul
Occupation:	Tending the collective sub/unconscious
Relationships:	Time (father), Night (mother), the six other Endless (siblings), Orpheus (son), Calliope (former wife), Rose and Jed Walker (niece/nephew), Nada (former lover), Killala (former lover), Aileanora (former lover), Hob Gadling (friend), Matthew (raven)
Fandom:	The Sandman
Other:
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Dream of the Endless, called the King of Dreams and Nightmares, The Shaper of Form, the Prince of Stories, The Sandman, the King of Cats, and likely a truly endless number of other titles lost to history, is the anthropomorphic personification of dreaming and stories, and the main and titular character of The Sandman in his aspect of Morpheus. He is portrayed by Tom Sturridge in the 2022 Netflix adaptation.

Canon

Morpheus is usually depicted as a tall, thin, very pale-skinned man with wild black hair reminiscent of 80s-era Robert Smith (of The Cure); however, he appears differently to mortals depending on with whom he's interacting at the time. Other aspects of Dream have other, often radically different, preferred forms and subtle differences in temperament, but as Morpheus puts it in an encounter with all of these other aspects...

Am I always like this? (Like what?) Self-satisfied. Self-possessed, and unwilling to concede center stage to anyone but myself. Ah. Fascinating.

Sandman: Overture, Chapter 2

Much like the dreams and nightmares he creates and encompasses, Dream is capricious, and as capable of great cruelty as he is deep compassion (and both take their turns getting him into trouble). Multiple characters comment on his being "not too bright," emotionally/intellectually. As Morpheus, he has a history of disastrous romantic relationships. His relationships with his siblings vary widely, with Death being the closest, and Desire the most contentious.

In Fandom

Prior to the release of the 2022 Netflix adaptation, there were 209 works featuring Dream of the Endless on AO3. (As of February 2023, there were fewer than 100 Sandman fics with Dream as a tagged character on FF.net.) Shipping was fairly equally split between Dream/Lucifer Morningstar, Dream/Hob Gadling, Dream/John Constantine, and Dream/Reader, and he played a minor role in many crossover fics.

The advent of the TV show sparked off a flurry in the creative fandom, including extensive fic, gifsets, and fanart. On AO3 as of February 2023, there were over 4,000 fics featuring Dream. Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling ("Dreamling") was the most popular pairing, with other prominent ships for Dream being The Corinthian/Dream of the Endless ("Corintheus"), Dream/Reader, Calliope/Dream, Calliope/Dream/Hob Gadling, Hob Gadling/Dream/The Corinthian, Dream/Original Female Character(s), Dream/Modern Johanna Constantine, and Desire/Dream.

In the comics, Dream's speech bubbles are white text on a black background, and this is often represented in fic by writing his dialogue in bold. Some writers also alternate between bold and normal text depending on whether he's speaking in the Dreaming or the waking world, or with other conventions (such as how inhumanly he's acting/seeming at the time).

Common Tropes

• The fishbowl/snowglobe/evil Christmas ornament - refers to the glass sphere in which Morpheus was imprisoned by Roderick Burgess
• Fishbowl Rescue fic where Morpheus is rescued from his imprisonment (usually, but not always, by Hob Gadling) prior to his canonical escape
• Meowpheus - He's the King of Cats, so... sometimes he's a cat.
• Dream is a Sad, Wet Cat - related to, but usually not coinciding with, the above.
• Human/no powers AU - Dream is frequently an author or artist of some sort. There may or may not be a modified version of his Burgess ordeal in the backstory. Attempts to adapt his name for a fully human character vary, though sticking with Morpheus (sometimes with Dream as a nickname) and passing it off as his parents being extremely pretentious is the most common.
• PTSD (whether or not it's a human AU)
• Dream is a very pretty crier (generally due to Tom Sturridge's performance in the show), and a very ugly laugher (from comics canon)
• Either he doesn't know what half the things in the modern world are, or of course he knows what all of them are (and is very annoyed that people keep suggesting otherwise)

Shipping Controversies

Opinions on the degree to which Endless/Endless shipping "counts" as incest, as well as the degree to which fans care if it does, vary widely.

Some fans who dislike the Corintheus ship have called that relationship incestuous, due to The Corinthian being Dream's creation, to the point that Neil Gaiman was (at least) once asked to arbitrate the matter, to which he said,

No. The Corinthian’s not his son, no more than Gregory the Gargoyle is his son, or the Castle of the Dreaming is his son.

Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfiction

• "Comfort" by Rossi (Dream II with an appearance by Desire and mention of Despair - GEN) - New to the role of Dream, Daniel discovers humans are harder to read than he thought. [Apr 2003]
• "All Hearts, Which I By Lacking" by Ellen F (Dream/Hob Gadling - slash PG-13) - In which storms are brewing, wine is drunk, and the prince of stories tells stories of his own. [May 2003]
• "Alike in Ignorance" by Eleanor K (Dream/Hob Gadling; Dream/Desire - slash PG-13) - Dream is indecipherable, Desire causes mischief, and Hob has an interesting dream. [Yuletide 2003]
• "Tomorrow" by Joan M. (Dream - poetry - G) - Four past writers of stories -- and one future -- come before the Lord of Stories. [Apr 2001]
• "The America Dream" by Robert Morris (Dream, Death, Captain America - G) - Steve Rogers is offered an unusual choice by Death and Dream.
• "A Woman's Tale, Never Told to Men" by Sirocco (Dream/Nada - G) - Nada's tale ("Tales in the Sand" in the prologue to the Doll's House) retold from the women's point of view...
• "Call Me Del" by Dylan Verheul (Delirium, Dream - G) - A short story, featuring Delirium and Dream. [1997-1998]
• "And in the Waking World We Wait and Want" by qqueenofhades (Dream/Hob Gadling - M) - A historian's canon-compliant take on Hob's first six centuries, and then what comes after.
• "Show Me What Makes You Glow" (series) by tiltingheartand (Dream/Hob Gadling - T/M) - Hob's students speculate on their professor's love life and possible status as some kind of cryptid (after their professor acquires said love life).
• Fuckboi Dream by dancinbutterfly - [read on AO3] an explicit, "dead dove" Dream/Hob fic that's over 250,000 words and is, as of July 2023, still being updated with new content.

Archives

• Fonts of Wisdom's Stories from the Shadows section - 190 authors and 267 stories featuring characters from The Sandman. (1997-2009)