Despair

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

### Aponia: The Beginning - 1627

Known by some ancient people as Aponia, Despair and her twin sister Desire were born into the Endless, a family of personified concepts tied to sentient life in the universe. Where Desire was beautiful and alluring, Despair was short, ugly, and obese. Originally, Despair had red tattoos over her chalk-white body. When Despair died at the hand of a man, she was reborn in a new body without the tattoos. Little is known about what happened prior to the advent of the Black Death in 1347 where occult historians made record of this Endless frequenting European cities for the next three hundred years.

### Despair: 1627 - 1859

Miagani art depicts Despair at the site of Jon Logerquist's massacre on the islands that would eventually become Gotham City. Miagani legend says that Despair aided the escape of the Miagani chieftess in order to preserve hope that the Miagani could one day return to their land but also so that they might despair their inevitable doom.

### Despair: 1859 - 1987

Despair presented a man named Joshua Norton to Dream. Despair had driven him towards ruin and suicide. Along with the other younger Endless, Delirium and Desire, Despair challenged Dream to save Norton through Dreams. Dream found that Norton craved success and respect, so she gave him the dream of being Emperor of the United States.

Norton would later die, and Dream won his challenge against his youngest siblings as Norton had never entered the other siblings' realms once between the time Dream gave him his dream of being emperor and the time of his death. After this, Despair took a more active role alongside Desire in attempts to pester Dream and derail his plans.

### Despair: 1983 - 2007

At one of the annual meetings of the Endless, Destruction announced his discovery that the human race would soon be met with unequaled destruction and ruin, which would likely be more disastrous than the world wars. Destruction wanted nothing to do with it, resigning himself from the Endless and asking for his family to respect his privacy. It is said that no one fought for Destruction's reconsideration more than Despair herself and when he failed to do so, Despair was devastated. For four years, Despair didn't leave her realm except when summoned by Destiny to the family meetings. When Dream failed to attend one of the meetings, Despair knew at once that Desire was behind it.

Confronting Desire on the matter, Desire urged Despair to keep this a secret and only did so when Desire took her to the basement where Dream was being imprisoned via occult means so that Despair could personally feel her brother's sorrow.

### Despair: 2007 - Present

When Dream did escape, he confronted Despair to discover her part in it. Despair explained she had no part in it other than the satisfaction of witnessing the suffering. The two haven't spoken much since.

### Supplemental Reports

* (*Submitted by Four-Eyes*) Despair is the embodiment of not only dread and despair, but also hope and confidence. This other side is not well known, even among occult scholars. There is however a new rumor circulating recently that suggests this Endless has become a bit of an Aquaman fangirl. Sounds pretty outrageous, huh?
* (*Submitted by Four-Eyes*) This "new" incarnation of Despair retains the memories of her past self, despite being a different being without a different appearance and personality. Well, *slightly* different appearance and personality. This can be seen in her occasional striping of her skin with her own blood, retracing the patterns of her old self's tattoos.

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* Endless Physiology
	+ *Enhanced Agility & Coordination*
	+ *Enhanced Awareness & Senses*
	+ *Enhanced Durability, Resilience & Strength*
	+ *Immortality*
	+ *Metamorphosis*
	+ *Omnipotence (in the Dreaming)*
	+ *Sorcery*
	+ *Teleportation*
* Personified of Despair and Hope
	+ *Grandmaster Psionic Ability*
* Heart Snare Rings

### Weaknesses

* Adherence to the Axiom
* Grim Pessimist
* Masochistic & Sadistic
* Potent Wards
* Soft Spot for Aquaman

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Despair (or "Aponia") is a short, obese woman with irregularly-shaped teeth and amber eyes. She is often depicted as naked in the texts I've found that include a sketch or portrait of her likeness. Despair has a cold, quietly intelligent manner, rarely speaking except in short, concise, and measured statements. She is said to have a habit of carving her flesh with a hooked ring that she wears. Despair is the only known Endless to have perished, somehow being killed many, many years ago, only to return in a new body with an only slightly different appearance and personality. Apparently, her original self was much more talkative. Despair controls hope and despair.
* Despair dwells in the *"Gray Room"* alongside her legions of rats. This realm is filled with fog and countless free-floating mirrors. Inside these mirrors are people looking at themselves, feeling but never seeing Despair looking back at them.
* Despair's sigil is the hooked ring with which she hooks hearts and pulls them deep into despair. However, she does not save the barbed hook of her ring only for merely those who fall into her grasp but on herself. Despair is masochistic and has been seen using the ring to cut up her face and even going so far as to pop her eyeball and leave humors flowing down her cheek.
* Each of the Endless also has a personal fifth restriction defined in the Axiom. Despair's restriction is unknown.

### Notes

* Joshua Norton was an actual person who was the self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico.

## Links and References

* Appearances of Despair

1. ↑ Network Files: Despair of the Endless
2. ↑ Dinkley Files: The Endless