History Main / OurSoulsAreDifferent

* In the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'', a being's soul is composed of two parts -- a Light of Existence (the heart) and a Shadow of Existence (the appearance), both containing parts of the being's personality. If erased from existence, the Shadow ends up in [[EldritchAbomination Entropy]]'s Realm (what happens to the Light hasn't yet been stated). What's more, it's stated that there's not a "Law of Conservation of Mass" when it comes to souls, meaning [[spoiler: the same person can have ''multiple'' {{reincarnation}}s ([[BadFuture Dark World]]!Twilight being the reincarnation of G3 Minty's Light and Minty Pie being the reincarnation of her shadow, for example), but the soul will still exist independently of the reincarnation.]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', it is possible to sell your soul, typically via the traditional Faustian DealWithTheDevil. However, in later seasons, it was revealed that [[spoiler:when Sam was pulled out of Lucifer's prison, his body was freed from the Pit, but not his soul. Without it, he lacked empathy and a conscience, and didn't need to sleep.]]
** ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' souls can also be eaten (by Famine,) turned into demons via torture in Hell and used as an incredibly potent power source by various beings. Interestingly, while humans, monsters and demons all have souls or ''are'' souls, angels apparently don't have them (or else they're waiting to tackle that in Season 7.)
*** Nope. Angels don't have souls - although apparently they're like batteries, and touching one can recharge a wounded or winded angel back to full strength.

[[IThoughtItMeant NOT to be confused with]] the kind of music known as Music/{{Soul}}.

!!Examples:

* Souls in ''TheParasolProtectorate'' are discussed as a quantifiable substance. Those with excess soul can be turned into a vampire or werewolf, or become a ghost upon death. Others, such as the protagonist, [[TheSoulless have no soul at all]], and are capable of turning such beings mortal (or dead, in a ghost's case) through physical contact. However, it's hinted that these phenomena have much more to do with how an individual interacts with the aether. Whether actual 'souls' are involved is left ambiguous.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has a lot of this; die in the real world, your spirit goes to Soul Society, or you become a Hollow. Get killed after you go to Soul Society or the Hollow world, you're reincarnated back in the real world. Screw up ''way'' too badly in life, and you leave the loop - you go to Hell.

* In ''ChzoMythos'' the soul is one of a person's three aspects, the other two is the body and the mind. The soul is described as the entity that dreams and hopes, and is therefore regarded as a symbol of the future. A soul can feel pain if someone or something very dear to the person it belongs to is killed and/or destroyed, but since this permanently cripples the soul, it can only be done once. A soul can be completely destroyed if it is [[SoulJar bound to an object]] and that object is destroyed. Furthermore: A mind separated from it's soul will go insane and lose it's perception of reality, an effect that increases the further away the soul is.

* In P.C. Hodgell's ''ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'' series, a person's soul is what casts a shadow (in many respects it IS the shadow) and thus someone whose soul is missing doesn't cast one. Members of the Kencyr races can give their soul to another who has the ability to accept it; this makes the giver very hard to kill, and makes it so that dishonorable acts that must be done do not stain the soul, since it isn't there. Souls may also be stolen or consumed, and heroine Jame and her mother are able to reap souls, drawing them from the body and taking them.

* In the 1967 version of ''Film/{{Bedazzled 1967}}'' it is said that the soul is a lot like the appendix and is of no real use. Of course, given [[{{Satan}} the source]] [[DealWithTheDevil and what they were selling at the time]], it's probably not that accurate...

* You become one of TheHeartless.
* You become one of TheSoulless.

* ''Dead Inside'' is based almost entirely around the loss, gain, and expenditure of souls and soul energies. In most games, new characters start off as someone who's had his/her innate spiritual "shell" cracked open, and their soul scooped out, leaving nothing but the last few dregs of soul power to them. The overarching objective for anyone in such a position is to either grow (through doing good deeds or engaging in character building) or steal a new soul. Soul energy powers magic, is the basis of trade, and is the basis of self-improvement: you perform rituals at various stages to "lock" your soul energy into a fully-developed soul. Once you have your soul back, you become known as a Sensitive, and if you cull another soul's worth of energy and perform the proper ritual, you become a Mage. The more developed your soul, the easier magic is to perform, and what happens to you when you die is different depending on whether you're Dead Inside, Sensitive, or Mage.

* And just in case you forgot the robot souls thing, ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' offers [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Spark sparks]]. Note that ''only'' transformers have sparks. Humans [[UnfortunateImplications do not]]. And at least in [[spoiler: ''TransformersAnimated'']] it is possible for a Transformer to still live and function without their personal spark.
** Actually, there are no UnfortunateImplications. Humans ''don't need'' Sparks. A Transformer's spark physically functions as their heart as well as a soul. We don't need them, we have hearts.

** Only Transformers have sparks, meaning their souls can be transferred into a different functional body, by dint of being manifest. But by the same token, they can also be directly attacked, while a human's spirit cannot by dint of being an intangible force. See, a Transformer's Spark is a combination of soul and heart. If a Transformer's spark is extinguished, then without divine or MacGuffin intervention they're doomed.

** Actually, there is no UnfortunateImplications. Humans ''don't need'' Sparks. A Transformer's spark physically functions as their heart as well as a soul. We don't need them, we have hearts.

Want somebody tell me, what is the soul of a man...

The [[OurTropesAreDifferent trope name]] is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin entirely self-explanatory]]. [[InnocentInnuendo What?]] ''[[SeparatedByACommonLanguage What are you]] [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch laughing at?]]''

* In ''The Toxic Spell Dump'' children with apsychia are born without a soul and apparently simply stop existing after death--no afterlife, no nothing. It is seen as horrendously tragic.

* PhilipPullman's ''HisDarkMaterials'' (crazy spoilers ahead). The whole trilogy has quite a lot to say about the nature of the soul, and may be considered a long meditation on the subject. In a child, losing the soul causes schizophrenia-like symptoms: catatonia, delusions that your soul is still there, etc. -- presuming, of course, that the subject survived the process in the first place. One character who goes through this dies of apathy. Another gradually wastes away. Some characters, especially adults, who manage to survive that part are {{Stepford Smiler}}s, the "nothing underneath" variation. On top of this, much of the series takes place in a world where the soul resides outside the body as a sentient, autonomous entity with its own ([[AnimalMotifs highly symbolic]]) physical form.

*** The first book also has soldiers dying outright when their daemons are killed, which might explain the taboo against touching another's daemon.
* ''HisDarkMaterials'' also holds that the mind and the soul ''are'' separate, though intrinsically connected, and that a person's mind (ghost) retains its composition upon death, while a soul (Dæmon) dissolves upon death. The mind feels incomplete however. On the bright side, a dead-but-still-intact ghost is [[LikeABadAssOutOfHell the perfect fighter]] against the aforementioned soul-eating Specters.
*** Iorek Byrnison mentions that his armor his is soul - bears make their own soul.

* Nothing happens immediately, but you [[TheNothingAfterDeath go "nowhere"]] when you die, or worse, [[CessationOfExistence cease to exist entirely]].

** It's uncertain what happens to dwarves, not being part of the original divine plan for the world, but they believe that Aule their maker (who they call Mahal) has prepared some sort of afterlife for them. Tolkien speculates in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' that Aule made some sort of arrangement with Mandos to get his creatures a space in his Halls. Hobbits, as a kind of sub-species of Men, are probably subject to the same fate as them.