Headcanon

[morethanadream]

(This will be edited occasionally according to new things I incorporate and any new canon that may be released in the future.)

Pre-History

1. Canon: In Johane Matte's, a storyboard artist for Rise of the Guardians, comic, it was revealed that there are actually spirits who were always spirits, and who existed for 'millions of years' before humans existed to invent stories. Human imagination drew the spirits to them, and many spirits started adopting human forms to be better able to hear these stories. Sandy was among these spirits.

Extrapolation: Dreams are basically stories. They're imagination in their rawest form, and if humans were the ones to invent stories, then Sandy couldn't have possibly been handing out dreams as we know them today.

Theory: Sandy always had the capability to put creatures to sleep and manipulate their minds in that state. He usually used the power to inform living creatures of possibilities (though they rarely understood) or warnings of natural disasters.

When humans came along with their stories, Sandy was especially enthralled. He was the most ready to change his form to better fit with them, and he was the only spirit who embraced the fundamental, irreversible change it wrought inside of him. He merged so completely with the stories that he became more than a spirit of sleep and possibility; he became a creature of creativity and dreams.

2. Sandy was originally 'born' in the ocean. He wasn't self-aware for a while, but eventually he became so, and he realized he had the ability to shift his shape and illuminate his surroundings, which happened to be the ocean floor. One day, out of a sense of curiosity, he went to the surface and has mostly stayed on land and in the sky since then, although he still loves the ocean and its creatures, which give him a sense of nostalgia.

3. Facts: Life on Earth is maybe 3.5 billion years old, if one's counting bacteria. Fossils of somewhat modern humans date us as about 200,000 years old.

Conjecture: If Sandy has existed as long as life itself, humans should seem pretty insignificant. Even if his 'birth' is placed after early life left the ocean, that makes him between 540 million and 500 million years old. That would mean that humans had been alive for about .04% of his life. To put it in perspective: if you live for eighty years, humanity itself would be that one guy in college who lived in your dorm for a little less than two weeks and then moved out. (Incidentally, this lends itself to my theory that the Moon only cares about humans because they're kind of interesting to watch run around.)

And yet Sandy doesn't brush them off like many other ancient spirits must.

Theory: Since spirits seem to be so heavily affected by mortals, belief and such, spirits are also affected by the nature and intellect of the mortals around them. Sandy wasn't even completely self-aware until life developed some modicum of intelligence. Out of any mortal creatures, humans have had the most heavy effect on by far. They did more than just made him self-aware; they changed his very being. They've turned him from a wild force of sleep and possibility into a spirit of creativity and dreams. Instead of that guy in the dorm, humanity is that person you met who's swept you off your feet, completely turned your life upside-down, and has changed you into the best you can be in less than two weeks. Humanity has had such an effect on him that it doesn't even matter that it's comparatively very young--he's ready to fight to the death for it.

He might even argue that he wasn't born before humanity. He merely existed.

4. Before the arrival of humans, Sandy was pretty strange for a spirit because he always wanted to preserve life rather than allow it to die. He found life beautiful, even before he changed into a human form and developed the ability to empathize with others.

5. For a while, Sandy was deeply jealous of humans who turned into spirits, because they had the best of both worlds. They were part of the species who created stories, and now they could have their memories of being alive forever. Eventually, though, he realized that life wasn't always a bed of roses and he's now content with his own existence.

6. There was a point in time when he grew so close to a mortal that he convinced Death to not take them away. While Death can guarantee immortality, it can't give eternal youth, so the mortal aged and aged and aged until they were wracked with dementia and disease, and they begged Sandy to allow Death to come. Sandy did so, and while he deeply regretted asking Death to spare someone in the first place, the experience taught him that there are some things he shouldn't try to avoid.

This experience and others like it have turned him into the content, Buddha-like character he is today.

7. The Sandman could have just as easily been the Sandwoman, but early people largely referred to him in the masculine and named him things like 'the son of the sand' or 'the man of sleep' (Sanderson ManSnoozie). When deciding on a form to take, he just adhered to what they thought he should be. He doesn't actually care all that much if people characterize him as a woman, since there's not too much difference to him, but he's used to the form he's taken.

8. The cute look of him is actually deliberate. He wanted to be as unintimidating as possible so he could interact with humans without them being afraid of him, so he ended up being a walking creampuff. This was, of course, after a lot of mistaken changes in form that made him look way more terrifying than he did before (no, Sandy, humans are not that tall or skinny and they don't have teeth like that). He's quite happy with the form he ended up with, and after how long he's maintained it, it'd be difficult to try changing again.


Recorded History

1. Sandy partially blames himself for Pitch rising to power the second time. If he had only kept better track of his sand...

2. Sandy was in danger of losing himself entirely during the peak of the Black Plague. Pitch was in power and belief in the fledgling Guardians was waning. Every time Sandy put the crying children to sleep, at least one of them died in the middle of the night, and he would feel responsible. It had a deep effect on him, and if it weren't for the areas that were completely separate from the plague, he might have faded.

However, the experience made him understand that his job wasn't just passing out dreams anymore; as a Guardian, he was meant to protect children (and, in his mind, humanity in general). That sometimes includes easing their passing, so now he will go out of his way to put ill humans to sleep and bless them with good dreams as the reaper comes for them.

3. He has fallen asleep at least once on top of every Guardian except Jack, and that's only because Jack hasn't been part of the Guardians long enough for Sandy to get the chance. (Thus far, his favorite is North. He doesn't grumble about being a pillow or vibrate with pent up energy.)

4. It's not uncommon for children with insomnia who catch him coming into their room to turn him into their new teddy bear for the night. Sandy is totally okay with this.

5. In his spare time, Sandy likes to go to psychiatric hospitals and spend time with the patients there. People with psychotic symptoms are amazing to Sandy, since to him, it's like they're dreaming at all times without any of his help, something that should be impossible. He affectionately calls them his daydreamers and tries to manipulate their hallucinations to be sweet and enjoyable rather than frightening.

This is, of course, after his initial visits to the first ever institutions traumatized him with the horrid treatment of his daydreamers and the nightmarish 'cures' people tried to use. He still really doesn't like ice picks.


General

1. Sandy can cover the earth with dreamsand with no problem. The reason why he moves around during the night and just lets out bursts of dreamsand is because it gives him more control over individual dreams and it gives him a chance to check in on certain children who especially need a good dream.

2. Every time the Moon makes another decision that puts the Greater Good before anyone else, Sandy gets nervous. He's secretly afraid of one day becoming so old and isolated that he loses sight of the individuals that get affected by his decisions.

3. Sandy is illiterate. He attempted keeping up with all the various written languages of humans, but at a certain point, just keeping up with spoken language was hard enough. Thus, he communicates through pictures instead of written words (and he likes to hang around humans who happen to be reading books out loud).

4. Sandy happens to be a master at multiple crafts, especially combat-related ones. He prefers to stick to his whips because they're the most versatile when he's controlling them through dreamsand. He would never suggest using whips to mortals, though, because someone who doesn't know what they're doing could accidentally whip a human's stomach open.

5. Sandy is an absinthe drinker. It's his favorite, and the yetis specially spike his eggnog with it any time he comes by the North Pole. On a related note, he has a much higher tolerance than any person his size has a right to be.

6. Sandy has been privy to the very worst humanity has to offer as well as the best. He witnesses dreams of rape and murder regularly, and he knows exactly who fantasizes about violence and unspeakable acts.

The thing is that it actually increases his faith in humans, because the vast majority of people with those thoughts fight them and win. Many of them struggle for the sake of others and are willing to seek help or suppress urges so that the people around them might be safe. Yes, there are people who act on those dreams, but instead of focusing on the worst, Sandy focuses on the best. It illustrates his ability to see the best in people, since he sees past humanity's flaws in favor of its beauty.