Comic Book / Sleepless

To die, to sleep
To sleep, perchance to dream...

Ambassador Zuir: You have your mother's head for politics.

Lady Poppy: I must, if I am to keep my head at all.

Sleepless is a Low Fantasy comic series of courtly intrigue and Romance, concerning one Lady Poppy of Harbeny and her tireless personal protector Sir Cyrenic as they navigate the precarious politics of the royal court in the wake of her father's death and uncle's coronation. Created by writer Sarah Vaughn and artist Leila Del Duca (with colorist/ editor Alissa Sallah and letterer Deron Bennett), it was initially serialized in eleven issues published by Image Comics between December 2017 and January 2019, then reprinted in two Omnibus paperback collections.

King Verato of Harbeny has passed, leaving behind no living heirs — only Lady "Poppy" Pyppenia, his illegitimate daughter by the court's Mribeshi Star Reader. Though she'll never be queen, Poppy enjoyed pride of place in her father's court. She also enjoyed the protection of Sir Cyrenic of the Sleepless Knights: a tireless protector who has guarded her without the need for rest thanks to a magical vow he swore to her years ago. But Poppy and Cyrenic both begin to question their future in the court when the crown passes to Verato's brother, King Surno. After spending decades in far-off Edtland, Surno has his doubts about the merits of Harbeny's vaunted Sleepless Knights; and on the eve of his coronation an assassin slips past the Sleepless Order to make an attempt on Poppy's life.

Drawn into the complex web of debts and alliances that the new king has brought to Harbeny, Poppy and Cyrenic struggle to keep their footing in court. Poppy suspects Surno's daughter, Crown Princess Rellen, may have something to do with the assassination attempts; or perhaps it's the work of Rellen's cousin, the unctuous Lord Helder. Cyrenic worries that he won't be able to protect Poppy when he feels his mind beginning to "drift" — the first sign that the tide of sleep his vows have held at bay for three years is coming to claim its due — right when she and the Order need him most. As Lady and Knight fight to protect each other and to discover the architect of the assassination attempts, their buried feelings will blossom into a forbidden romance.

Poppy and Cyrenic are caught in an impossible position, torn between politics and revenge, love and duty, all entangled by the magic of a vow that binds them together. A single misstep could prove fatal, but time is running out as the attacks on Poppy grow bolder and Cyrenic's connection to the waking world frays.

Can the two survive long enough to sort out their feelings and secure their future? Or will one of them fall to sleep... or death?

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Tropes Found in Sleepless:

• Altar Diplomacy: Overlaps with Arranged Marriage. King Surno wants Poppy (the technically illegitimate but widely beloved daughter of his late brother King Verato and a prominent Star Reader from Mribesh) to wed Lord Helder (his nephew and Princess Rellen's cousin on her mother's side). The marriage would neatly tie up several loose ends for Surno; namely that it would cement an alliance between Edtland (where Surno's wife and family hail from, and where he lived prior to inheriting Verato's crown) and Harbeny (his current domain) and Mribesh (where Poppy's mother hails from, and where the subject of Poppy's parentage is no issue to her legitimacy). A marriage would legitimize Poppy into the royal family of Harbeny (and puts her in the line of succession behind any children Princess Rellen might have), placating Verato's loyalists who might have wanted to usurp Surno and put Poppy on the throne. Poppy objects to the marriage, suspecting that Helder is trying to kill her to gain favor with Princess Rellen.
• Amazon Brigade: Overlaps with Bodyguard Babes. Princess Rellen's personal guard is a set of pretty blonde triplets from Edtland — Elda, Frende, and Ibette — who make up part of the retinue that followed her to Harbeny. They're all competent fighters (with Ibette making it to the penultimate round of The Tourney) and itching for a fight (as evidenced by their excitement when they get to jump into the fray with some traitorous Sleepless Knights and Lord Otranto).
• Arranged Marriage: Overlaps with Altar Diplomacy, see above.
• Astrologer: Mribesh is known for producing Star Seers — fortune tellers who can divine the future from study of the heavens. Poppy's mother Amena is one such Mribeshi Star Seer who was employed by the royal court of Harbeny. Nnende is another, who serves as Amena's replacement in Harbeny when Amena is recalled to Mribesh to defuse tensions after Verato's death. When Nnende offers Poppy a reading, she asks Poppy to state specific question ("What will happen now that the king wants me to wed Helder?") before Nnende turns her sight to the clear night sky, receiving a vision of a possible future outcome.
• Bastard Angst: Poppy is the daughter of King Verato and the court's foreign-aligned fortune teller, Amena of Mribesh. Despite her illegitimate status, Poppy is widely beloved by the people of Harbeny. She even has a close relationship with Verato's wife, Queen Leotta. Though Verato granted Poppy lands and a title to ensure that she would be provided for if anything ever happened to him, he never legitimized Poppy into the royal family. This leaves her in a tenuous political position after his passing. Queen Leotta offers to make Poppy part of her retinue at the Dowager's palace, but King Surno (Verato's brother and successor to the throne) refuses to let Poppy go even in the face of an attempt of her life. He cites that any action that could be read as a dismissal of Poppy could anger Verato's loyalists, and failure to demonstrate that he can protect his brother's daughter would reflect badly on his nascent rule.
• Best Served Cold: After his beloved was "erased from time" for treason, Lord Otranto waited years to get revenge on King Verato for sentencing her to death — and when Verato eventually bestowed the dead woman's estate on his newborn daughter Lady Poppy, Otranto decided that killing Poppy would be suitable payback. When Poppy was a young woman Otranto brainwashed a page into attacking her. That attempt failed, so Otranto withdrew and waited for another opportunity to strike. Even after King Verato died Otranto continued his campaign of vengeance against Poppy, conspiring with Helder to bring assassins into the castle.
• Bodyguard Babes: Overlaps with Amazon Brigade, see above.
• Bodyguard Crush: Cyrenic and Poppy have always gotten along, but they grow closer after the death of her father. With Queen Leotta leaving for the Dowager's Estate and Amena stuck in Mribesh, Poppy has few friends in Surno's new court — and her sense of isolation is only worsened when she finds herself subject to assassination attempts. Though she had previously teased Cyrenic about his good looks and obvious popularity with the ladies of the court, she finds herself turning to his companionship for solace. Cyrenic finds himself conflicted over his feelings for Poppy: he's honor-bound to protect her from harm, but finds himself unable to eliminate the greatest threats to her without breaking his vows or her trust. This all comes to a head when the evidence points to Helder as the one behind the attempts on Poppy's life. Cyrenic declares he'll kill Helder to protect Poppy, knowing that he will be executed for killing Helder and leave Poppy defenseless without him. Poppy orders him not to go through with the plan, even threatening to release him from his vow of protection if he doesn't step down — this would unravel the magic spell that has kept Cyrenic from sleeping, plunging him into a possibly eternal slumber and also leaving her defenseless (while keeping him alive). As Poppy begins to break the spell, Cyrenic kisses her in a fit of passion (and to stop her from speaking the words that will put him to sleep). Poppy returns the kiss, only to speak the words that end his vow as he watches in shock. He collapses into unconsciousness and she sobs over his prone form, having lost not only her staunchest defender but also her true love.
• Chekhov's Gift: Not quite a gift, but a prize — Cyrenic wins the The Tourney celebrating King Surno's accession and the grand prize of "a walk with the king, his ear given for the entirety." He doesn't claim the prize immediately, but is promised by Surno that he need only say the word and it will be his. Cyrenic claims his prize after surrendering to the Sleepless Knights and being dragged before an enraged Surno, who believes Cyrenic and Poppy to be responsible for the murder of Helder. This gives Cyrenic enough time to prove Helder's involvement in the assassination attempts against Poppy and for Poppy to expose the true mastermind: Lord Otranto.
• Clean Food, Poisoned Fork: Poppy has a certain degree of paranoia after two assassination attempts, and she has her pet fox Bini check all her meals for poison before she consumes them. When Bini refuses to eat food from Poppy's plate at the post-tournament banquet (after all the food had arrived from the kitchens on communal platters), Poppy believes her plate has been poisoned. She spills her goblet of wine over the suspicious plate to avoid causing a scene by refusing to eat from it, and when she gets a new plate Bini deems it safe. Poppy's suspicions turn out to be justified when the maid who served her the plate is found dead. The maid's fingertips are shriveled and blackened from where she had carelessly touched the poison and a bribe of Edtlish silver is found under her mattress.

• Declaration of Protection: At the request of King Verato and Star Reader Amena, war hero Cyrenic swears a binding magical vow to tirelessly protect Lady Pyppenia as a Knight of The Sleepless Order. As part of the ceremony and magic of their contract, Poppy swears to be worthy of his vow.
  Cyrenic: I shall not sleep. My eyes will ever stay open, never shall I rest until my time runs out. I shall not yield... ever will I watch over thee, never shall I waver until my time runs out. To thee, Lady Pyppenia, I make this vow.
  Poppy: And my time's path, whether given, borrowed, or spent, shall not break you from yours. Only time's will shall release you, or my word. And I swear to keep my word true and just... and hold your vow with mine own. To thee, Sir Cyrenic, I swear.

• Exact Words: The magically binding vow taken by the Sleepless Knights sees them swear to serve unto death, with their loyalty and devotion promised to the throne. When they eventually fall asleep after years of service, they do so for the remainder of their natural lifespan. But Cyrenic's vow to protect Poppy was a modified version of the oath that didn't include this clause. Their contract specified that he would serve her until time's will or her word released him. When she releases him from his vow after three years of service, he falls unconscious for a year before re-awakening — essentially paying off his sleep debt.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: All the Knights of the Sleepless Order have dark circles under their eyes, as a symptom of the magic that prevents them from falling asleep. When Cyrenic's vows are broken and he sleeps out his debt, he awakens without the dark circles.
• Fantasy Pantheon:
  • Harbeny's religion focuses on "Time" as a nearly deistic concept. Oaths and vows are sworn "on time." Proper greetings include "time keep you" or "time protect you." Traitors are punished by being "erased from time."
  • Mribesh has a similar concept with the stars. Their mystics can tell the future by reading the stars, and "stars keep you" is considered a polite greeting.
• Flashback: As Cyrenic feels his mind "drifting", he begins to experience hallucinations and vivid flashbacks to moments in his past — like dreaming while being awake. The flashbacks convey important backstory information while also reinforcing how close Cyrenic is to losing it.
  • Issue 3 begins with a flashback to Cyrenic's time in King Verato's army, as Harbeny fought the Aenitian army.
  • Issue 6 contains a flashback to the day Cyrenic took the vows of the Sleepless Order to protect Poppy.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Poppies — Lady Pyppenia's nickname is "Poppy," and the flower appears frequently thanks to its association with sleep and dreams.
  • Irises — the emblem of King Surno and his family.
• Healing Hands: Harbeny's Healers of Aeon can close wounds and hasten recovery from illness by drawing energy from the end of a patient's lifespan, but the magic has its limitations. Poppy explains this to Princess Rellen:
  Poppy: Our magic takes time from the end of our lives. Weighing the cost of an unknown future, healing is very beneficial for illnesses that that need time to recover and broken bones or deep cuts where infection might become fatal. But father had cancer in the stomach, which could not be cut out. The healers would have only sped up the process.

• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic:
  • The flashback to Cyrenic and King Verato fighting in the Aenitian War at the beginning of Issue 3 starts out with a helmetted Cyrenic, but his helmet is knocked off by the second page. King Verato also fought without a helmet, while their Aenitian enemies wear helmets with chainmail aventails.
  • The tournament in Issue 4 also sees Cyrenic go without his helmet (despite having pulled it from storage and regarding it pensively at the end of Issue 3) during the jousting and hand-to-hand combat. Ibette of Princess Rellen's guard and Lord Helder also go without, despite their opponents wearing protective chainmail aventails.
• Lady and Knight: Lady Poppy and Sir Cyrenic. Poppy may be the illegitimate daughter of the deceased king of Harbeny, but her father granted an estate and a title that make her an official Lady of Harbeny. Sir Cyrenic is a knight who has sworn a magical oath that binds him to protect her, forsaking sleep in the name of guarding her from all harm.
  Cyrenic: Don't you know by now that I would do anything for you?
  Poppy: I don't want you to do anything dishonorable!
  Cyrenic: Which is why I would follow you to the end.
• The Lady's Favour: King Surno asks Poppy to give her favor at The Tourney. Although she'd like to make Cyrenic her champion, she bestows the favor on Surno's nephew Lord Helder (to curry goodwill with Surno's Edtlish family). The favor itself takes the form of a pale scarf embroidered with a poppy flower.
• Leap of Faith: Issue 9 ends with Poppy and Cyrenic running from assassins and Sleepless Knights that believe they murdered Lord Helder. They escape into the catacombs before locating a secret passage that opens onto a dark chamber with an unseen floor. They grasp hands and leap, hoping for a safe landing.
• The Lost Lenore: Lord Otranto's beloved was denounced as a traitor due to her family ties with Aenitia, which Harbeny was at war with. King Verato sentenced her to death and seized her estate, gifting it to his daughter Poppy when she was born. Otranto never forgot this and plotted to have Poppy killed to get vengeance on King Verato. Even after Verato died Otranto plotted with Lord Helder to assassinate Poppy, still bent on getting his revenge for the death of a woman Poppy was never alive to meet.
• Low Fantasy: The work is a Downplayed Medieval European Fantasy with just a smidgen of magic thrown in that seems to vary in character by region:
  • Harbeny's Healers of Aeon are able to cure sickness and heal wounds by borrowing energy from the end of a patient's lifespan. There are also the Sleepless Knights, who swear magical oaths that allow them to put off the need to sleep for years and years on end until their "sleep debt" catches up with them and causes them to fall unconscious for the remainder of their natural lifespan.
  • Mribesh's Star Seers can tell the future by observing the night sky, though their prophecies and visions aren't guaranteed to make sense until they come to pass.
  • Edtland's magic doesn't take center stage, but it appears to include creating enchanted objects. Poppy's ring (which prevents nightmares), Princess Rellen's bracelet (which allows her to "see clearly" and tell when others are lying to her), and Amena's wedding gift (a hairpin that ensures the wearer always knows which way is west) are all Edltish creations.
• Meaningful Name: Lady Pyppenia's nickname, "Poppy," is the flower from which opium is derived. Opium relieves pain and causes unconsciousness, and the Poppy flower has become associated with sleep as a result (just think of the field of poppies in The Wizard of Oz). Poppy is guarded by a knight whose magic vow prevents him from resting.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The Low Fantasy setting of Sleepless sees a world at a roughly medieval level of technology with a pinch of magic thrown in. Harbeny's architecture includes the European-style castle and crypts of the royal family, while Poppy's estate (and the surrounding countryside) seem to have a Mediterranean aesthetic. Characters wear lush, Renaissance-inspired fashions and highly decorated fabrics. Wars are fought with swords and arrows by armored knights on horseback.
• Misplaced Retribution: Overlaps with Revenge by Proxy — Lord Otranto's beloved was executed by King Verato and her estate was seized by the crown. Otranto swore vengeance against Verato, but when Verato's daughter Poppy was born and the dead woman's seized estates were gifted to her, Otranto decided he would kill Poppy as revenge for her father's actions. Even after King Verato died Otranto continued his campaign of revenge against Poppy (who wasn't even alive when Otranto's beloved was executed).
• One-Word Title
• Parrot Pet Position: Bini — Poppy's vulpine pet (and poison detector) — is just as often seen riding on a shoulder as curled up on a lap.
• Polyamory:
  • Downplayed — when Star Reader Nnende comes to Harbeny to take up the position of court fortune teller, she confesses to Poppy that she misses her "children and their fathers" back in Mribesh. Poppy doesn't seem surprised to hear of Nnende's multiple partners.
  • Implied — Queen Leotta and King Verato had a marriage of political convenience, and though they never grew to love each other romantically they shared a mutual respect. When Verato fell in love with Amena of Mribesh, Queen Leotta welcomed Amena into their family and openly supported their relationship. She dotes on Verato and Amena's daughter Poppy as if she were one of her own children, and shows great fondness for Amena. One of the treasured possessions Leotta takes with her to the Dowager's Estate is a grand tapestry depicting King Verato's triumphant return from the Aenitian war — it shows the trio of Leotta, Amena, and a young Poppy standing together to welcome him home.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: In Issue 6, Poppy asks Nnende to read the stars and tell her what will happen now that King Surno has asked her to marry Lord Helder. Nnende sees a troubling vision of Poppy and Cyrenic's bodies on a pile of bones. Several issues later, as Poppy and Cyrenic run from Helder and the hired assassins that turned on him, they stumble upon the mass grave of hundreds of ancient soldiers in the caverns below the castle's crypts. The huge pile of bones actually saves them from what otherwise could have been a nasty fall.
• Puppet King: Helder's ambition was always to gain the throne, first by courting his cousin Princess Rellen and then by marrying Poppy when King Surno tells him to give up pursuing Rellen. Helder realizes that he and Poppy would be behind any potential children of Rellen's in the line of succession, but he's smart enough to realize that Poppy has gained Princess Rellen's trust and confidence. On their wedding night, he tells Poppy that her influence over Rellen means they could essentially rule Harbeny from the shadows.
• Religion is Magic: Dowwplayed — Harbeny and Mribesh both have a Fantasy Pantheon that revolves around quasi-deistic interpretations of natural phenomena — "Time" and "Stars" respectively — but only in Harbeny do readers get a glimpse of how social ceremonies like marriages, funerals, coronations, and appointments to office are impacted by this belief system:
  • King Surno's coronation, King Verato's funeral, Cyrenic and Gert's inductions to the Sleepless Order, and Poppy and Helder's wedding are all presided over by women in nun-like garb who invoke the power of time to affect the participants (to guide a new king's reign or bind an oath between parties). Women in similar garb also appear to be the Healers of Aeon, whose magic can draw energy from the end of a patient's lifespan to heal them in the present. It isn't made clear whether religious devotion to "Time" grants them powers and civic authority, or whether their position within the religious organization that worships "Time" comes with healing powers.
  • Mribeshi citizens venerate the stars, and there are Star Seers among them with the power to read the future by looking up at the night sky. The two Star Seers introduced in the series, Amena and Nnende, don't appear to hold any position of religious significance in either Harbeny or Mribesh, but they do hold some position of civic importance (as evidenced by Amena's close ties with the Queen of Mribesh). Their position in Harbeny's court seems more diplomatic than religious, though that hasn't prevented rumors from spreading that Mribesh is trying to expand its influence over Harbeny by insinuating itself into the royal family (first with Poppy, daughter of King Verato and Star Reader Amena, and later with the son of the Mribeshi Queen, who Ambassador Zuir says may be sent to court Princess Rellen).
• Royal Inbreeding:
  • Played Straight — Lord Helder pursues his cousin, Princess Rellen, once her father is made King of Harbeny and Rellen is made Crown Princess. He feels no attraction to her, but as the "second son of a lord's third daughter" he's desperate to marry into a ruling line (even if he'll only be Prince Consort). When King Surno learns of this, he dismisses the idea of Helder marrying Rellen as "the utmost ridiculousness."
  • Downplayed — King Surno wishes to have his nephew Lord Helder married to his niece Lady Poppy. Poppy is the daughter of Surno's brother, while Helder is Surno's nephew by marriage (the son of Surno's wife's sister). In this case Poppy and Helder would have no blood relation (assuming Verato and Surno were not related to the Edtlish royalty that Surno married into).
  • Averted — Although Poppy and Helder do marry, he is assassinated on their wedding night. Poppy is left free to pursue her romantic interest in the decidedly non-royal Cyrenic.
• Secret Underground Passage: Harbeny's ancient castle is riddled with secret passages. That includes the remains of old hallways that were plastered over during renovations, forgotten escape routes, and even a magically concealed set of caverns beneath the catacombs that lead to the coast.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: When Poppy threatens to release Cyrenic from his vows (in order to prevent him from killing Helder and then being executed in turn), Cyrenic kisses her to stop her from speaking the words that would end their magical contract. This works momentarily, but as soon as they stop kissing she releases him.
• The Sleepless: The Order of Sleepless Knights, a elite force of Harbeny's warriors who swear vows of tireless protection that keep them from needing sleep for years on end — until their debt catches up to them, and they fall into sleep that lasts (typically) until their death.
• Sore Loser: Lord Helder doesn't lose graciously when Cyrenic defeats him in the final round of The Tourney.
  Lord Helder: Don't you know what you've done? I'm Helder, Lord of Nestlet. I'm the Queen's nephew. I'm cousin to the heir to the throne. Defeating me was the worst mistake you ever made.
• Standard Royal Court: Lady Poppy and Sir Cyrenic are forced to navigate a shifting web of political alliances (and their burgeoning affection) as the Royal Court of Harbeny welcomes its new ruler, King Surno — younger brother of the now deceased King Verato.
  • Being the illegitimate daughter of Verato, Poppy has no claim to the throne but is a beloved fixture of the court with important political ties to the nation of Mribesh. She's warry of those who would attack Surno's administration using her name or loyalties to King Verato as a cover.
  • Sir Cyrenic and the Sleepless Order are likewise playing defensively — Surno lived in far-off Edtland for decades before returning to Harbeny to take the throne, and he's not shy about his indifference to the Sleepless Order now that the Aenitian war is over and the Kingdom is at peace. The Sleepless Order's effectiveness is further called into question when blatant assassination attempts against Poppy are carried out in the castle the Order is sworn to defend.
  • Poppy's two staunchest defenders — her mother Star Reader Amena of Mribesh and Dowager Queen Leotta — are absent from the court for political reasons. Surno's family has taken their place, including his mistrustful daughter Princess Rellen and her sycophantic retinue. There's also the unctuous Lord Helder, who's charming veneer barely conceals a duplicitous core.
• The Tourney: King Surno hosts a tournament to celebrate his accession to the throne of Harbeny, even asking Lady Poppy to bestow The Lady's Favour as the tournament opens. Sir Gert asks Cyrenic to represent the Sleepless Order in the fight to prove to the new king that they're still a force to be reckoned with. Other competitors include Lord Helder of Nestlet and Princess Rellen's bodyguard Ibette. The prize from the tournament is a purse of gold and "a walk with the king, his ear given for the entirety."
• Unperson: The punishment for traitors of Harbeny is to be "erased from time." That means execution, and to have all record of one's existence stricken and one's name never uttered again. Decades ago, Lord Otranto's beloved was put to this treatment when she spoke out against the punishment of families with tie to Aenitia. Lord Otranto faces the same fate when his plot to assassinate Poppy comes to light, and he's referred to with the awkward epithet "the man erased from time."
• Unwanted Spouse: Surno pushes his niece Lady Poppy to marry his nephew Lord Helder, despite Poppy's suspicions that Helder was behind the plot to assassinate her (and her general dislike of his duplicitous personality and bad attitude). As soon as the newlyweds are alone, Helder reveals that he's even worse than Poppy's initial impression; he admits to hiring the assassins and reveals that he plans to use Poppy's close relationship with Princess Rellen to gain influence over the throne, then tries to stab Poppy when she tells him she won't go along with his plans. Helder gets himself killed by his co-conspirators before he and Poppy have been married a full day.

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