User Profile

This is an RPG account for Delirium of the Sandman in the LJ RPG Silver Arcadia.

Name / Alias: Roisín

Age: 17

Livejournal: mydarkrosaline

Prior RP experience: I have experience on the board Spinel as the Admin for the RP ‘Unforeseen’. I am also a player in an online Zelda RPG.

Contact Details

AIM: Butterfly Edge22

MSN: a_fire_inside137@hotmail.com

Others: I can be contacted on Spinel via a PM to my admin account (mydarkrosaline), though this would require an account there.

Character Information:

Name: Delirium

Alias, if any: Delirium, sometimes called ‘Del’ by her siblings. Many, many millennia ago was known as ‘Delight’, though has only been called this once by her sister-brother since her transformation. Was known as ‘Mania’ by her Greek-born nephew.

Series: The Sandman, a series of Graphic Novels by author Neil Gaiman.

Mode of entry into the RP: Displaced character.


History:

There are creatures older than gods who exist in the universe. The oldest of these are the Endless, a group – or, more precisely, a family – of seven anthropomorphic personifications who define aspects of life. The eldest of them, Destiny, existed before the universe began, and the second eldest, Death, came into existence before the first life awoke. Dream and Destruction followed, and then the twins, Desire and Despair, and finally came Delight, the youngest

Millennia passed. People – more accurately, entities - followed their destinies, dreamed, destroyed, desired, despaired, delighted and eventually died, and the Endless were there, fulfilling their roles. Dream fell in love with a beautiful mortal named Killalla who left him for another, causing him to fall into and then out of favour with Desire, his sister-brother. This marked a shift in the family, and since then, Desire, with Despair and later Delirium (possibly Delight, though there is little canon evidence to support this) have sought many ways to catch him out and trap him – though Delirium not as malevolently as the other two. It was one of the largest changes in the family to that date.

The next came in the form of a complete change in the oldest sister, Death. Before, she was a harsh and uncaring being, simply seeing her role as the separator of the living and the dead. However, she was forced to take on a mortal form by greater powers (it is never explained in the series who and what these are) and thus understand the importance of her role for one day every century. A great change came about in Death’s interaction with her family – and charges - causing her to be warmer and more kindly towards them.

It may have been this change – though again, there is little canon evidence to support it – that brought about the drastic change in Delight. For no apparent reasoning, she began to change, and her brother, Destruction, whose domain is about change and rebuilding, stood with her while she giggled madly on the newly created Earth. She emerged from this as Delirium, and from that moment on has been known as such – the broken, insane and forever youngest member of the Endless. However, the change could have been brought on by the death of her elder sister Despair. For reasons unmentioned, a man who will take the rest of eternity to die killed the first Despair, and at the moment of her death, a new Despair fulfilled her role. This caused the family to have to hold a great funeral for their sister, and then meet her once again and settle her into the family, for the Endless cannot die, but the aspects of them can, and it was a new person who was taking the role of Despair, but she was still their sister. Either way, Delight changed into Delirium, and has been that way ever since.

Many years passed, and her brother Dream had a son by the Greek Muse Calliope, Orpheus of myth. Delirium herself had little to do with his tale, but due to speaking with his aunt Death (or Teletute, as she was called) he could no longer die, and when the sisters of the frenzy tore his body to shreds, all that remained of him was his head, and his father set up an order of priests to watch over him, but refused to have anything else to do with him.

Some time after this, Destruction chose to leave the family. Not die, and not allow another to assume his role, but he simply left the family and his domain, causing the realm of change to become even more chaotic and rapid than it was already. The disintegration of the family came about with his loss, and Delirium grew more and more unstable, only Death spending any time at all with her, Desire often taunting and Dream, Destiny and Despair never having much time for her. Destruction had always been the one most often with her.

Later even than that, she decided it would be best if she went looking for her brother, and implored of her family to aid her in her search. Desire and Despair refused, and she turned her mismatched eyes to Dream, fully expecting him to say no and to leave her, as he had always done. However, Dream had spent decades in confinement due to a summoning, and this set events in motion leading to his meeting of the Thessilian, a witch-woman feared by the gods, who he fell in love with, or at least seemed to. She left him, and since he was suffering from heartache, and thought that perhaps he could meet her, he decided to come with Delirium on her quest. This utterly delighted the youngest of the Endless, and the two were searching for beings that were friendly with Destruction when he was still with the family. Dream cut the trip short after the deaths of those who helped them, and returned to the Dreaming. Delirium followed him back there, but instead of imploring him to look again with her, she saw the silver ships within a dream, and she decided to follow them to their destination.

Perhaps, was her reasoning, she could find her brother there.

Personality:

As she is the embodiment of madness, Delirium is often broken in her thoughts and speech patterns and actions. She can forget many things that she focuses on – indeed, even though she had a deep need to find her brother, she wished to go with a family member because she knows she forgets easily – and would go onto look on another path. Sometimes the fragmentation seems literal, causing her to explode into a flock of butterflies or shoals of tiny flying fish. Contrary to what many think, she does realize this, and sometimes seems to lament it, even asking Desire if she used to be together or not. She has shown capacity for cruelty, though not always that she understands to the extent she performs. She seems lost, and seems so quite often, especially when upset.

However, Delirium is far from stupid. She shows great knowledge and insight into the Endless, though it is usually on rare occasions and not always remembered when asked again. She also knows much about the universe, and can give very interesting and sometimes intelligent answers – though not often in the context of the question.

She seems to enjoy childish things, asking for little chocolate people from Dream or sulking at him when he wouldn’t let her drive, or going to see 101 Dalmatians with her sister Death. She also shows her love for the strange when she creates odd creatures, like frogs with wings, hearts, multitudes of tiny frogs or butterflies, and she even sometimes carries flying fish on strings, like a balloon. Also, she can act in a rather immature manner, such as demanding that the chocolate people Dream gave her were making love, or repeatedly asking where she is or what she is doing. She does have a great capacity for care, also, as seen in her quest to find her brother – just as long as she remembers what she is doing.

On occasion, when it is really needed, Delirium can ‘pull herself together’ and behave in a completely adult and coherent manner. When she does this, her eyes turn the same colour, and her speech is much less varied. This appears to hurt her greatly, however, and she does not like to do it. As she is the embodiment of madness and the antithesis of coherency, it would only make sense that this would happen.

Appearance:





Of all the Endless, Delirium is the one most likely to change her form. Normally, she is seen as a girl between eleven and sixteen, never anything older than that. Her skin is usually a pale, snowy white which she shares with her siblings Dream, Death and Desire, and her hair is most often red, which she shares with her brother Destruction, though that can change in the blink of an eye – in colour, shape and length – even style. She has many piercings on her face, though these also seem to change most of the time she is looked at.

Her style of dress puts one in mind of a punk kid, or a beggar brat. She is often found wearing fishnets, which are most often ripped, or long shirts as dresses. The colours she does wear often clash, and her clothing is, with almost no exception, too big and baggy for her. These do help to add to the vacant, almost drugged look she has sometimes in making people mistake her for some vagrant.

It is said that she casts a tangible shadow, and smells of sour wine and leathers. However, perhaps the most noticeable thing about Delirium – and her whole appearance is noticeable, even if constantly varied - are her eyes: one bright blue, and the other a vibrant green that contains tiny little flecks of silver.

Neil Gaiman describes her as follows in “Season of Mists”:

"Delirium is the youngest of the Endless. She smells of sweat, sour wines, late nights, and old leather. Her realm is close and can be visited; however human minds were not made to comprehend her domain, and those few who have made the journey have been incapable of reporting back more than the tiniest fragments.

The poet Coleridge claimed to have known her intimately, but the man was an inveterate liar and in this, as in so much, we must doubt his word.

Her appearance is the most variable of all the Endless, who, at best, are ideas cloaked in the semblance of flesh. Her shadow's shape and outline has no relationship to that of any body she wears, and it is tangible like old velvet.

Some say the tragedy of Delirium is her knowledge that, despite being older than suns, older than gods, she is forever the youngest of the Endless, who do not measure time as we measure time, or see the worlds through mortal eyes.

Others deny this, and say that Delirium has no tragedy, but here they speak without reflection.

For Delirium was once Delight. And although that was long ago now, even today her eyes are badly matched: one eye is a vivid emerald green, spattered with silver flecks that move. The other eye is vein blue.

Who knows what Delirium sees, through her mismatched eyes?"

- Neil Gaiman's Season of Mists, Volume Four of the Sandman Library


Abilities:

Delirium has many abilities, ranging from something as innocent as making little tiny frogs to play with to making people believe that they are constantly covered in bugs, or so that they can only ever see colours. As she embodies madness, she is most often visible to insane people, and can go unnoticed if she wishes. Like all of her family, she can make people believe that she is what she wants them to see, and can give prophetic advice. However, her clues and/or advice are often too bizarre or confusing to make out until it has come to pass. She can also change her form at will, though since arriving on Arcadia, this has been limited to only humanoid shapes - she can no longer burst into flocks of butterflies or shoals of fish, or into sparkles and mists. Her ability to summon things from nothingness also does not work on Arcadia, though she doesn't understand why.

Like all of the Endless, she is bound by rules. She can only exist as long as people need her, and cannot, ultimately, ever be coherent enough to understand the madness that she is, just as Dream can never dream, or Destiny will never be destined. She can also be summoned by holding her sigil – a painting of churning, maddening colours.



The Endless, from left to right: Desire, Despair, Delirium, Dream, Death, Destiny, Destruction. Admittedly, this was added in for fun.

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