OOC: Belonging to the Endless
My view.
Destiny
In a way, everyone belongs to Destiny. Some people are favored. Or, y'know, unfavored. To quote Mercedes Lackey: "Glorious destinies lead to glorious funerals". To belong to Destiny is to have something you are to do, that will happen, and that you have no control over. Destiny is the only Endless whom, if you are one of his, you lose some measure of free will. Destiny has the Great Heroes and Great Villains. Hitler, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, George Washington, and all major religious founders are Destiny's people.
Death
You belong to the Eldest Sister. She is content to wait for you.
Dream
The third Endless is the home of story-tellers, artists, and often children. Dream's chosen people have inspiration, creativity, and the ability to see the big, hopeful picture. On the other hand, it is often hard for them to adjust to reality. For one reason or another they don't see what is so much as they see what should be. Da Vinci, Tolkien, Bill Gates, and 99% of the people at SF&F conventions belong to Dream.
Destruction
Destruction doesn't tend to take people for his own, and generally if he does they overlap with another of his siblings in a big way. He takes tyrants, the petty and the great. He also takes those on a fast-track to the Elder Sister. Suicides share Destruction and Despair. Drug addicts share Destruction and Desire. Destruction is probably the only of the Endless to be unhappy to have someone in his realm.
Desire
The manifestation of Desire that is a character in Milliways is different from canon Desire (and a hell of a lot better to hang out with!) but even it doesn't have just the face it shows when being played. In general, it sucks to belong to Desire. Everyone feels some form of it, everyone spends some time in each realm. To belong to Desire, however, is to be a creature of un-filled and un- fulfill-able wants and needs. The drug addict reaching for pills, bottle, or needle is Desire's. The man so obsessed he stalks the object of his affection is Desire's. The person committing rape out of a need for self-vindication is Desire's. Love, lust, and the little wants are Desire's, and the great lovers belong to it (Victoria and Albert were totally Desire's realm)...but that is only half, or less than half, of the story. Desire is everything you want, but not just the good things, or the things you want to want. It is as much the quickly subdued urge to slap a barking dog as the choice to pet it instead. Desire, at its best, is somewhat childish, mercurial, and quick to change. People who belong to Desire have impulse control issues; not because Desire is malicious but because it isn't much of a thinker-before-the-fact. Serial killers, the great lovers (shared with Dream, but mostly Desire's), the obsessed for both good and evil are Desire's people.
Despair
Despair's people are the hopeless, the helpless, and the lost. In direct opposite to her twin, the people she takes to her realm are those who have no motivation. It is hard to be a long-time guest of Despair, all too often people who spend too much time with her end up seeking Death. Despair is home to the quiet burn-outs, the suicides, and the like. The quiet guy who hates himself every morning and doesn't even rate two lines in his obit was Despair's for too long, as is the woman who wanders through life perpetually depressed and simply waiting for her time to die.
Delirium
She's crazy. So are her chosen people. From the slightly out of whack to the dangerously insane, Del picks up the pieces and puts them back together inside out. Jack the Ripper was Del's, Picasso guested in her realm, the lady with 32 cats who lives down the street, and the guy who walks in the garden certain that his wife was reborn as a flower. Del is happy to share most of her people with her siblings, and always happy to have more people to play with.
Please note: Normal People tend to have a nearly-equal mix of all Endless rather than belonging to any one of them. This is, for the most part, safer as well as more relaxing. The Endless are hard on the people they choose. Characters have a more-likely-than-not chance of being claimed by an Endless simply because of their fictional status, but even then it doesn't mean that they have to. Generally the more well-rounded your character is, the less likely they are going to be smack-dab in one Endless' realm.
Destiny
In a way, everyone belongs to Destiny. Some people are favored. Or, y'know, unfavored. To quote Mercedes Lackey: "Glorious destinies lead to glorious funerals". To belong to Destiny is to have something you are to do, that will happen, and that you have no control over. Destiny is the only Endless whom, if you are one of his, you lose some measure of free will. Destiny has the Great Heroes and Great Villains. Hitler, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, George Washington, and all major religious founders are Destiny's people.
Death
You belong to the Eldest Sister. She is content to wait for you.
Dream
The third Endless is the home of story-tellers, artists, and often children. Dream's chosen people have inspiration, creativity, and the ability to see the big, hopeful picture. On the other hand, it is often hard for them to adjust to reality. For one reason or another they don't see what is so much as they see what should be. Da Vinci, Tolkien, Bill Gates, and 99% of the people at SF&F conventions belong to Dream.
Destruction
Destruction doesn't tend to take people for his own, and generally if he does they overlap with another of his siblings in a big way. He takes tyrants, the petty and the great. He also takes those on a fast-track to the Elder Sister. Suicides share Destruction and Despair. Drug addicts share Destruction and Desire. Destruction is probably the only of the Endless to be unhappy to have someone in his realm.
Desire
The manifestation of Desire that is a character in Milliways is different from canon Desire (and a hell of a lot better to hang out with!) but even it doesn't have just the face it shows when being played. In general, it sucks to belong to Desire. Everyone feels some form of it, everyone spends some time in each realm. To belong to Desire, however, is to be a creature of un-filled and un- fulfill-able wants and needs. The drug addict reaching for pills, bottle, or needle is Desire's. The man so obsessed he stalks the object of his affection is Desire's. The person committing rape out of a need for self-vindication is Desire's. Love, lust, and the little wants are Desire's, and the great lovers belong to it (Victoria and Albert were totally Desire's realm)...but that is only half, or less than half, of the story. Desire is everything you want, but not just the good things, or the things you want to want. It is as much the quickly subdued urge to slap a barking dog as the choice to pet it instead. Desire, at its best, is somewhat childish, mercurial, and quick to change. People who belong to Desire have impulse control issues; not because Desire is malicious but because it isn't much of a thinker-before-the-fact. Serial killers, the great lovers (shared with Dream, but mostly Desire's), the obsessed for both good and evil are Desire's people.
Despair
Despair's people are the hopeless, the helpless, and the lost. In direct opposite to her twin, the people she takes to her realm are those who have no motivation. It is hard to be a long-time guest of Despair, all too often people who spend too much time with her end up seeking Death. Despair is home to the quiet burn-outs, the suicides, and the like. The quiet guy who hates himself every morning and doesn't even rate two lines in his obit was Despair's for too long, as is the woman who wanders through life perpetually depressed and simply waiting for her time to die.
Delirium
She's crazy. So are her chosen people. From the slightly out of whack to the dangerously insane, Del picks up the pieces and puts them back together inside out. Jack the Ripper was Del's, Picasso guested in her realm, the lady with 32 cats who lives down the street, and the guy who walks in the garden certain that his wife was reborn as a flower. Del is happy to share most of her people with her siblings, and always happy to have more people to play with.
Please note: Normal People tend to have a nearly-equal mix of all Endless rather than belonging to any one of them. This is, for the most part, safer as well as more relaxing. The Endless are hard on the people they choose. Characters have a more-likely-than-not chance of being claimed by an Endless simply because of their fictional status, but even then it doesn't mean that they have to. Generally the more well-rounded your character is, the less likely they are going to be smack-dab in one Endless' realm.