History Main / MergerOfSouls

Not to be confused with Music/{{Soul}} music.

* The Greek philosopher Plotinus ([[OlderThanFeudalism c. 204-270 AD]]) postulated "Emanation ''ex deo'' (Out of God)". Basically, in the hierarchy of being, there is The One (who is all good, transcendent, and unchanging). The nature of the One is simply that it filters down itself, but the One never loses anything or changes. Next comes the Nous, or Divine Mind, and then bellow that is the Oversoul. From the Oversoul comes individual Human Souls. So what does this have to do with this trope? It's possible for a human soul to reunite with the One again, forever (at least in Neoplatonic tradition).

* The Greek philosopher Plotinus ([[OlderThanFeudalism c. 204-270 AD]]) postulated "Emanation ''ex deo'' (Out of God)". Basically, in the hierarchy of being, there is The One (who is all good, transcended, and unchanging). The nature of the One is simply that it filters down itself, but the One never loses anything or changes. Next comes the Novus, or Divine Mind, and then bellow that is the Oversoul. From the Oversoul comes individual Human Souls. So what does this have to do with this trope? It's possible for a human soul to reunite with the One again, forever (at least in Neoplatonic tradition).

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': By putting his hand on Nail and later Kami, Piccolo absorbed them, gaining not only extra power but also their memories. This process was permanent; Piccolo's personality also seemed to underway slight changes after each absorption. A similar case was when Goku and Vegeta used the Potala earrings, becoming one; however, in this case they split when they entered Buu's body, although it's the only way to split, and that fusion is otherwise permanent. The personality of the fused being seemed to be a mix of both Goku and Vegeta's personalities.

** Ermac, who is made up of the thousands of souls whose shells died resisting Shao kahn's rule

* The concept of ''UsefulNotes/{{Animism}}'' is loosely connected to this. Under an animistic belief, every individual object has a "soul". However, this becomes ambiguous when you consider that every "object" is made of smaller objects, and is itself part of a larger object. (For example, each speck of dirt makes a rock, which together make up mountains.) Thus, most animistic faiths have larger
* [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Deities which personify any concept]] are likely to be this, especially considering that no two worshippers interpret ''anything'' exactly the same way.

* [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Deities which personify any concept]] are likely to be this, especially considering that no two worshippers interpret ''anything'' exactly the same way.

* In George Zebrowski's ''Literature/{{Macrolife}}'', The Agregate of Minds is a distributed artificial intelligence (spread among a fleet of a million or so [[ThatsNoMoon artificial worlds]].) whose countless processors and memory storage systems apparently include a library of simulated personalities. It is apparently capable of reversing the process, allowing a component intelligence to function independently in order to hold conversations and then reabsorbing it when done.

* Creator/JimHenson's ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' had the wise Mystics and the wicked Skeksis, who were created when the titular crystal shattered. They were two halves of the souls of the creatures which shattered the crystal, and a death of a Mystic also kills their Skeksis counterpart, and vice versa. In the climax of the film, the crystal is mended by the hero Jen, and the two races are made one once more.

* Happens towards the end of Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheLastQuestion", when the remaining humans (by now bodiless entities) merge one by one with humanity's hypercomputer, the Cosmic AC.

* In the backstory chapter of ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a massive time-destroying paradox (the ghost of a woman who used time-travel to kill her past self) is merged with the soul of a cyber-shaman, giving her a new physical existence and ending the unravelling of reality. Later, the shaman explains she had to undergo an "emergency meditation" to resolve her identity and that she's not entirely the Shelinda the other characters know.

* Happens in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering's'' ''MagicTheGathering/KamigawaCycle'' between [[spoiler:Michiko and [[MacGuffinGirl The Taken One]]]] so that they can become {{Barrier Maiden}}s.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': [[spoiler:The [[AssimilationPlot Third Impact]] as envisioned by [[AncientConspiracy Seele]]]] would've resulted in all human beings on the planet having their souls merged into one singular whole, with all individuality dissolved. [[spoiler:Although the process is initiated in the middle of the ''End of Evangelion'' movie, it fortunately gets aborted before that happens]].

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': [[spoiler:The [[AssimilationPlot Third Impact]] as envisioned by [[AncientConspiracy Seele]]]] would've resulted in all human beings on the planet having their souls merged into one singular whole, with all individuality dissolved. [[spoiler:Although the process is initiated in the middle of ''Anime/TheEndOfEvangelion'', it fortunately gets aborted before that happens]].

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': [[spoiler:The [[AssimilationPlot Third Impact]] as envisioned by [[AncientConspiracy Seele]]]] would've resulted in all human beings on the planet having their souls merged into one singular whole, with all individuality dissolved. [[spoiler:Although the process is initiated in the middle of ''Film/TheEndOfEvangelion'', it fortunately gets aborted before that happens]].

%%* This trope was ''intended outcome'' of the ultimately-[[AvertedTrope aborted]] [[AssimilationPlot Third Impact]] in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. The process gets aborted before the occurrence of total fusion and thus irreversible LossOfIdentity. ZERO CONTEXT EXAMPLE

** Eridan and Sollux were successfully fused into an Erisolsprite (which spends most of his time flipping people off at random), and Equiusprite is fused with Dirk's sentient AI auto-responder to create Arquiusprite. Feferi and Nepeta were also fused into a Fefetasprite, which doesn't last long once Erisolsprite and Arquiusprite start arguing over her.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Vriska's and Tavros' dead bodies are thrown into Jane's game sprite, yanking their souls out of the afterlife and fusing them together as "Tavrisprite". Their personalities are so irreconcilable that the sprite explodes (sending the two souls back to the afterlife) mere moments later.

** [[HornyDevils Morrigan Aensland]] fused with Lilith, who was originally a part of her soul SplitAtBirth and henceforth exists as a SplitPersonality capable of [[LiteralSplitPersonality manifesting in an independent body]], as can be seen in VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom)

** [[HornyDevils Morrigan Aensland]] fused with Lilith, who was originally a part of her soul SplitAtBirth and henceforth exists as a SplitPersonality capable of [[LiteralSplitPersonality manifesting in an independent body]], as can be seen in MarvelVsCapcom)

* Happens towards the end of IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheLastQuestion", when the remaining humans (by now bodiless entities) merge one by one with humanity's hypercomputer, the Cosmic AC.

* In ''Anime/{{Shinzo}}'', all Enterrans, the new inhabitants of Earth, are reduced to an Encard when defeated. The victor can then decide to keep the card, destroy it (effectively destroying that Enterran's soul) or eat or absord it. The soul and power of the eaten Enterran are then merged with the eater's, who usually remains in control but does take over some of the physical characteristics of the other Enterran.

* Naraku from ''Manga/InuYasha'' was created when the deranged and perverse thief (and Kikyou's StalkerWithACrush) Onigumo merged with thousands of demons. And at one point in order to obtain a stronger body, he perfoms a Kodoku spell: thousands of fierce demons fight inside a cave in a mountain, and the winner absorb and merge with the losers. Eventually Naraku ends up absorbing the surviving demon in himself.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Hollows become more powerful by eating each other (and human souls) at lower stages of strength, this normally leads to them becoming beastial creatures known as Gillians, composed of many thousands of souls and forming the first stage of a Hollow's existence as a Menos. Occasionally one of these hollows contain a soul strong willed enough to remain sapient and somewhat intelligent, which takes control and continues to feed on other hollows to become more powerful. If such a Gillian consumes enough souls, it turns into a more powerful and now-truly intelligent Adjuchas.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': By putting his hand on Nail and later Kami, Piccolo absorbed them, gaining not only extra power but also their memories. This process was permanent; Piccolo's personality also seemed to underway slight changes after each absortion. A similar case was when Goku and Vegeta used the Potala earrings, becoming one; however, in this case they split when they entered Buu's body, although it's the only way to split, and that fusion is otherwise permanent. The personality of the fused being seemed to be a mix of both Goku and Vegeta's personalities.

* The Greek philosopher Plotinus ([[OlderThanFeudalism c. 204-270 AD]]) postulated "Emanation ''ex deo'' (Out of God)". Basically, in the hirarchy of being, there is The One (who is all good, transcended, and unchanging). The nature of the One is simply that it filters down itself, but the One never loses anything or changes. Next comes the Novus, or Divine Mind, and then bellow that is the Oversoul. From the Oversoul comes individual Human Souls. So what does this have to do with this trope? It's possible for a human soul to reunite with the One again, forever (at least in Neoplatonic tradition).