5 ideas
An anthropomorphic embodiment of an abstract force is constrained by the very thing it represents — Dream cannot abandon his realm or duties without ceasing to be himself, because his identity and his function are identical. The being is not a person who happens to rule a domain; the being IS the domain, so neglecting it is a form of self-destruction.
An immortal or eternal entity that refuses to adapt destroys itself, while the willingness to change one's fundamental nature is what permits continued existence. The character who clings rigidly to old rules and old selves is fated to die; survival requires becoming something other than what you were.
Narratives are treated as having independent existence and consequence — once a story is told or a role is cast, it exerts force on the world and on the teller, demanding completion. To enter a story is to accept its logic and its ending, even when the storyteller would prefer otherwise.
Familiar mythic and historical events are retold from the vantage of overlooked figures — servants, the dead, minor gods, ordinary mortals — which exposes the cruelty and arbitrariness hidden inside grand legends. Centering the powerless within a famous story reveals what the heroic version was designed to obscure.
In 'Season of Mists' (issues #21–28), Desire taunts Dream at a family gathering over the African queen Nada, whom he condemned to Hell ten thousand years earlier for refusing his love, so Dream goes to Hell resolved to free her. There Lucifer, having abandoned his throne, empties Hell of the damned and demons, locks it, and hands the key to Dream, who is then besieged in the Dreaming by envoys (Odin, Thor and Loki, Anubis, Bast, Susano-o, the Lords of Order and Chaos, and the demon Azazel) bidding for ownership. Dream gives the key to the angels Remiel and Duma, who reopen Hell on Heaven's orders, and he frees Nada, who is reborn as a baby boy in Hong Kong.