History Main / OurSoulsAreDifferent

** Iorek Byrnison mentions that his armor is his soul-bears make their own soul.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': A Digimon's [=DigiCore=] is their soul in everything but name, housing their primary data. If a Digimon loses its [=DigiCore=], it just stops functioning. Most Digimon only have one [=DigiCore=] each, usually hidden deep inside their body. However, most undead Digimon such as [[DemBones SkullGreymon]] have their [=DigiCores=] exposed due to their bodies rotting away. The Digimon Sovereigns each have ''twelve'' [=DigiCores=] floating around their bodies. When two Digimon undergo [[FusionDance Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution]], their [=DigiCores=] are totally fused.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': A Digimon's [=DigiCore=] is their soul in everything but name, housing their primary data. If a Digimon loses its [=DigiCore=], it just stops functioning. Most Digimon only have one [=DigiCore=] each, usually hidden deep inside their body. However, most undead Digimon such as [[DemBones SkullGreymon]] have their [=DigiCores=] exposed due to their bodies rotting away. The most powerful of Digimon, such as the Digimon Sovereigns, each have ''twelve'' [=DigiCores=] floating around their bodies. When two Digimon undergo [[FusionDance Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution]], their [=DigiCores=] are totally fused.

* Hourai elixir renders one immortal: the soul gains the ability to materialize the physical body, which is no longer tightly coupled to the soul. A Hourai immortal can be blown to bits and the soul will regenerate the body; this is a painful process that strains the soul. (This gory dismemberment has happened to Mokou multiple times.)
** Other kinds of immortals simply become immortals because they kick the arses of every [[TheGrimReaper Grim Reaper]] who come to claim their soul (much to Komachi Onozuka's grievance). Apparently, you can be immortal if both your soul and your body are badass enough.

* ''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. According to one of {{The Movie}}s, if you die in Hell, you regenerate in Hell; no escape. The manga adds another element to the system in "The Lost Agent Arc" -- [[UsefulNotes/{{Pantheism}} souls also reside in "matter" as a whole, not just living beings]], and is the basis behind Fullbring.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': The rule is ''apparently'' that if you think you have a soul, you do. Details on this are fuzzy, but it appears to only be necessary for certain aspects of magic such as forming pactios and dark magic. Plus the whole 'Am I a real person and not just a robot?' thing. Chachamaru's sisters presumably do not have one while she herself does. This is likely because Chachamaru is part robot part magic puppet. Note that Chachazero also has her own distinct personality.

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': Souls are eternal, indestructible "concepts", but require a physical body to tether them to the world. The soul is linked to the body, and when the body dies, it returns to [[TheLifestream Akasha]], to await reincarnation. Ordinarily when a soul is reincarnated, it retains no memories from any of its previous lives, but there are ways around this, as seen with [[{{VisualNovel/Tsukihime}} Roa]]. If a person does manage to preserve their soul beyond the death of their original body, usually by [[GrandTheftMe transferring it directly into a new body]] or by [[OurVampiresAreDifferent becoming a vampire]], then the soul will decay. The Third True Magic, as explained in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', can overcome this problem. Also, [[spoiler:[[LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai Aozaki Touko]] has a method of [[CloningGambit transferring her consciousness and soul into an identical artificial body]] with no apparent negative effects]]. Souls in the Nasuverse are normally indestructible, but someone with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, such as both of the Shikis, can [[DeaderThanDead kill the soul itself]].

* Borrowing from Eastern religions and mythologies, ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has interesting characters when it comes to the souls:

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': All beings are composed of the soul, heart, and body with the heart fulfilling the role traditionally assigned to the soul, while the soul is more akin to a battery. The heart contains all your intentions, emotions, and the connections you've made with other people and the soul spark that animates the body, and its loss is fatal. Later games in the series elaborate on the nature of the heart: anything that has emotional connections to others can gain a heart. This includes people who've lost their hearts, who can naturally recover if given the chance.

** Autochthon himself fell afoul of this soul ecology; since he left Creation before too much was known about the underworld, and he requires a supply of lower ghosts to nourish himself, he now has a massive pressurized vat of confused accumulated higher ghosts. Similarly, because Creation can produce new souls as necessary but Autochthon can't, there is now a massive soul shortage and an epidemic of stillbirths among the Autochthonians. And then we throw in the whole 'soulgem' thing and stuff gets complicated. Alchemicals have just their own souls, but those souls are soul gems that have gone back into the cycle multiple times and demonstrated unparalleled heroism in each life, around which the Alchemical is built.

* In ''VideoGame/SaltAndSanctuary,'' mortals (two subspecies of humans and two subspecies of orcs) are said to have souls made of salt. To that end, you can offer salt to the gods, who turn it into pearls of soul stuff, which are then used to increase your mind, body, and magic prowess, depending on where those pearls are inserted in the TechTree. The god's souls are said to be made of light, and the BigBad [[spoiler: is a mortal who is desperately trying to turn his salty soul into light so he can be a god too, [[ScamReligeon using the prayers dedicated to the newest three to do it with]].]] It doesn't work (whether because the myth is untrue or because it's not possible to turn salt into light isn't stated), leaving him with a desiccated (and mouthy) scarecrow for a body and a giant suit of AnimatedArmor containing his soul.

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' [[spoiler: the Soul Gem is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The souls get transformed into one as a part of a contract with Kyubey. The girls' emotions seem to appear as magic energy, so while a girl's wish gives her positive magic, the despair equal to the wishes the girl creates darkens the Soul Gem and turns it into a Grief Seed, turning the girl into a witch]]. In addition, [[spoiler: being too far away from your gem causes you to enter an EmptyShell state until it's returned, and if it's ever destroyed, you die. In one route of the spinoff visual novel, Sayaka is away from her Soul Gem for a few days, and by the time she gets it back her body has started decomposing]].

* Assuming it was lost in such a way that it's in someone else's possession (or could end up there), that person has some degree of power over you.

** Considering Piper killed himself apparently as a result of a bad time and a belief in reincarnation...

* Creator/MichaelSwanwick wrote a short story in which dead souls fall up to the heavens to be absorbed into creation. However, power lines and cold iron would stop this (if for example you died in a building with reinforced concrete ceilings) so ghosts could avoid that undiscovered country and stay themselves while they navigated an upside down otherwise intangible world constantly holding on to iron or powerlines. There was also a soul eating monster.

** The Dark One can also reincarnate his followers at the instant of their death. Balefire can be used to retroactively kill someone before the Dark One knows what's happening, denying it the ability to reincarnate its servant into a new body, instead forcing the soul back into the normal cycle of reincarnation.

** Interestingly, ghosts aren't generally a thing that happens in this 'verse, and are only seen during "bubbles of evil" from the Dark One.

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/TheMonsterMen'', it is taken for granted that the humans that Professor Maxon creates have no souls. At one point, Number 13 goes to murder him, and stops because it would be the act of a soulless creature. Von Horn becomes quite [[GreenEyedMonster envious]] of him because a soulless creature acts better than he does.

* The ''World Gates Trilogy'' by Holly Lisle involves several artifacts (necklaces and such, usually) that bring someone back if they die while they're wearing them. At one point a character who was so revived is told that she [[CameBackWrong has no soul]]. Her sister ends up going to the {{afterlife|Antechamber}}, where it is revealed that losing a soul is not all that uncommon, and that someone who has no soul can essentially grow a new one by good deeds and so on. There's no indication that soullessness has any particular effect on a person's life, although those who get revived by these artifacts more than a few times tend to become cruel.

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/ThreeHeartsAndThreeLions'', TheFairFolk have no souls. They cannot venture on holy ground. And a nixie is explaining that certain barbarians offer her HumanSacrifice, and her reaction is a light observation that she's not, as they think, a cannibal, but the sacrifices do wear nice clothes -- and [[ObliviouslyEvil gives Holger an innocent look, because she has no soul]].

* In Creator/RuthFrancesLong's ''Literature/TheTreacheryOfBeautifulThings'', the nix stole Jenny's soul. This not only put her body into FauxDeath, it meant that she did not have to go to the Fairy Queen voluntarily; the nix could hand over the soul, and the queen take the body.

* ''Literature/TalionRevenant'': Souls can be drawn out of the body by a Talion Justice. This kills the person, but some souls retain their vitality, although not memories, and are called ''rhasas''. Talion Justices must be cleansed of these souls in a special ritual. A ''rhasa'' soul can be placed into a corpse and this reanimates it, along with this leaving the undead being stronger, quicker and easier to train. A person can also use them to enhance or heal themselves. Souls appear as colored lights, ''rhasas'' being white.

* Vampires in the ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'' are typically soulless and AlwaysChaoticEvil, since the essence of one of the [[EldritchAbomination first demons]] comes in and parks in the vacated spot. Their vampiric personalities are generally twisted parodies of the original person, and never get any closer to goodness than a NobleDemon (and even NobleDemon vampires are very rare). A vampire can, through magic, actually regain a soul, and with it a completely human identity, morality, and guilt over their former crimes. Non-human demons may or may not have their own versions of souls, and they can range all the way from {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s to KnightInSourArmor heroes. There are also {{Half Human Hybrid}}s, and the dialogue suggests that, whatever other metaphysics apply, they do have human souls. Having a soul, however, is no guarantee of morality: as a demon points out, the worst serial killers and tyrants in human history also had souls. It could be considered that having a soul gives you a conscience so that you'll feel guilty about doing bad things, but that conscience can be misguided or suppressed. Lack of soul removes the guilt, and the demon essence gives you the evil.

* ''Series/Preacher2016'' the live-action adaptation of the Creator/GarthEnnis comic series ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' souls appear as a glowing, silvery white liquid. It is shown to be a currency in Hell used by some characters to make deals with Satan directly but also to be a transferrable material between humans with multiple shadowy figures and organisations [[spoiler: Including the Grail]] stealing, storing and trading souls which can be consumed by others.

* ''[[TabletopGame/ProseDescriptiveQualities 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.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' elaborated on the afterlife and the fate of souls in 2nd Edition, some of which 3rd Edition retained. When a mortal dies their soul moves on to the Astral Plane where the mind is peeled off and left behind to form a "memory core" (which enterprising scavengers can then find and break into for knowledge), while the soul passes to an Outer Plane that matches their CharacterAlignment, or the home of their god(s). There they become petitioners, which are basically naked soul, and work to merge with their plane or god. Some petitioners are instead the least forms of demons, devils, angels, and other Outer Planar races and can ascend the ranks of these races instead of merging with the plane - or, more likely on the evil planes, become currency in the hands of demons and devils and spent to fuel their endless wars. Some non-mortal races, such as the aforementioned Outer Planar races and Elementals, have souls that are fundamentally different in that they are one unit with their bodies (whereas mortals have a dual nature).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', the soul is a combination of the positive energy that animates a living being and their mind. Spells like ''magic jar'' and ''astral projection'' allow one to separate their soul from their body but leaving their body comatose in the process or instantly killing it should the spell fail while the soul is outside of the body. After death the soul becomes an entity known as a [[AllAreEqualInDeath petitioner]] that moves on to the afterlife, where they will eventually transmute into an outsider, which will in turn eventually be destroyed and have their energy subsumed into their home plane.
* ''Tabletopgame/{{Exalted}}'' has a complex but fairly well defined soul-ecology. Normal people have two souls, the lower and higher, whereas celestial Exalts have a third soul that grants them their powers. On death, each faces a separate fate. The lower ghost becomes a bestial grave guardian until the body rots away; it then is simply a mindless beast that hunts in the underworld. The higher usually has its memories destroyed and then goes on to be reincarnated, but "lucky" souls that cling to life can become ghosts, and very unlucky ones can be consumed by oblivion. Solar shards first go back to Lytek, the God of Exaltations, who prunes some of their memories, and then sends them to an almost always adult person who is somehow worthy in the eyes of the Unconquered Sun, thereby exalting them. Lunar shards face much the same process, although Luna's standards are different then the Unconquered Sun's. Abyssal shards have to slink back to the underworld and their deathlord, carefully, because sunlight hurts the shards. Infernal shards are pulled back inside a brutally tortured little girl until the Yozi feel like making another Infernal. Sidereal shards are fated to Exalt someone at a specific time, shortly after a specific Sidereal dies. Fate itself thus prepares them for their life as an Exalt as they grow up. The problem is that both Sidereals and Sidereals-to-be can be killed ahead of schedule by beings capable of defying fate, in which case the Sidereal shard Exalts someone completely unexpected and unprepared, which throws the whole system out of whack. And there are a lot of creatures that exist outside of fate running around Creation these days...

** Autochthon himself fell afoul of this soul ecology; since he left Creation before too much was known about the underworld, and he requires a supply of lower ghosts to nourish himself, he now has a massive pressurised vat of confused accumulated higher ghosts. Similarly, because Creation can produce new souls as necessary but Autochthon can't, there is now a massive soul shortage and an epidemic of stillbirths among the Autochthonians. And then we throw in the whole 'soulgem' thing and stuff gets complicated. Alchemicals have just their own souls, but those souls are soulgems that have gone back into the cycle multiple times and demonstrated unparalleled heroism in each life, around which the Alchemical is built.
** The Primordials' own souls are pretty unusual, too - essentially, each Primordial has multiple souls[[note]]The usual minimum is around a dozen; Autochthon only has nine, but he's noted to be a sickly runt by Primordial standards.[[/note]], each of which is a separate, sapient being. These each have seven souls of their own, which are ''also'' separate, sapient beings. Most of these have humanoid forms, but some manifest as [[GeniusLoci geographical features]], or weather, or even odder things[[note]]at least one, Lypothymie, is known to exist as a contagious ''emotion''[[/note]] instead (or even use multiple forms simultaneously). The [[SealedEvilInACan Yozis']] souls also pull double duty as OurDemonsAreDifferent.
* It is possible to lose your soul in ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' by having all your Celestial Forces destroyed; on top of various mental disadvantages you cease to exist when you die. Undead in the same setting are not strictly soulless, but the trade off for physical {{immortality}} means that they too cease to exist when or if they die.

** TabletopGame/{{Werewol|fTheForsaken}}ves are not entirely human, and their "souls" are likewise not entirely like human souls. It's implied they are half spirit, which is borne out since as they go down the KarmaMeter they act more spirit like with strange behaviours, weaknesses, and bans.

** TabletopGame/{{Vampire|TheRequiem}}s seem to keep their souls after being Embraced, but now the soul is trapped in an animated dead body with a hungry demon-thing (The "Beast") that occasionally takes control. As if that weren't bad enough, the soul can now be eaten by other vampires in an act called Diablerie; doing so risks damaging the eater's soul, addicting them to devouring souls, and stains their aura with black veins for decades, but in the process they absorb a measure of their victim's own power.
** The process of becoming a [[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Sin-Eater]] bonds a geist, an archetypal embodiment of death, to the prospective Sin-Eater's soul. To all intents and purposes, the geist becomes part of the Sin-Eater's soul, and removing it will have devastating consequences.
** To [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Arisen understanding]], the soul is a complex mixture of elements with distinct characteristics, primary among them being the five Pillars - Ab (Heart), Ba (Spirit), Ka (Essence), Ren (Name), and Sheut (Shadow) - with each of the Arisen defining themselves through one Pillar in particular. In addition, the Arisen do not believe in the body/mind/soul division; all three are aspects of each other. This perspective enables them to use the Pillars to accelerate their healing and boost their innate capabilities, but also means that in the event they need to find a new body, it has a detrimental impact on their mind and soul.

** Ghosts don't seem to be a person's soul, but a few Mage and Thaumaturge powers can create ghosts by removing a person's soul and anchoring it to an object in a means similar to the above mentioned soul-theft which is similarly reversible.

** Pariahs are essentially soulless from birth, and have no detectable presence in the spiritual reality called "the Warp" like any non-Pariah does. This is hugely disconcerting to all around them, although those so offended rarely know why. This is especially dangerous to those with powers drawn from that realm, but is no protection from their powers. Those ultra-rare individuals who passively block or diminish supernatural powers are referred to as 'blanks' or 'untouchables', and with the exception of Warp users reacting badly to them there is no indication that they are anything but fully souled. This confusion is not helped by Games Workshop being extremely vague on the manner, often using the terms interchangeably between different media. The current consensus on their differences and exact capabilities, and if they indeed are the same thing, appears highly diffuse.

** The Tau do have souls, but are described as psychically 'Blunt' as opposed to 'Blank', meaning they have a minimal warp presence/soul. There have also been several hints that they were guided and/or genetically modified to develop this trait. ''Somebody'' dropped their ruling class on them and saved from extinction, for this exact reason according to some sources, but their identity and purpose remains murky.
** The Eldar are stated to have particularly strong souls that retain consciousness after death, which is particularly horrifying as their souls are promptly torn apart and devoured by an Eldritch Abomination of their own creation, unless they make use of special methods (ie, a SoulJar) to avoid such a fate.

** In general throughout the series, all living things seems to have souls, with the souls of more intelligent and stronger creatures typically being "larger" (more powerful). Under ordinary circumstances, the mind and soul of a mortal are one, with the soul closely connected to both its animating consciousness and the form of its body. Souls are generally immortal, though [[YourSoulIsMine can be trapped]] and in some cases, [[CessationOfExistence utterly destroyed]]. When a mortal dies, his soul typically travels to [[SpiritWorld Aetherius]], and, depending on the mortal's religious beliefs may inhabit a specific part of Aetherius (such as [[WarriorHeaven Sovngarde or The Far Shores]] for a [[HornyVikings Nord]] or [[MasterSwordsman Redguard]]). To get into more esoteric "lore speak", souls in Aetherius may then enter the "Dreamsleeve", where they are broken down, combined, and reforged into [[{{Reincarnation}} new beings]]. In same cases, souls may not make it to Aetherius, such as if the soul is trapped, bound to the mortal world for some reason, or claimed by a specific deity (such as a [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]]). In these cases, the soul may end up in the bleak [[AndIMustScream Soul Cairn]] or in the [[EldritchLocation realm]] of a Daedric Prince.
** There are also known to be several "types" of soul:

*** There are also the souls of [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]], which as [[OurAngelsAreDifferent lesser Aedric beings]], have special properties of their own. While any being of sufficient ability can physically slay a dragon, only another "Dov" (dragon or Dragonborn) can permanently kill a dragon by absorbing its soul. This blocks the dragon from being [[ResurrectiveImmortality resurrected]] and also grants the recipient a portion of the knowledge and skills of their fallen opponent. Dragonborn are [[TheChosenOne special mortals]] gifted with the soul of a dragon by Akatosh, the [[DragonsAreDivine draconic]] [[TopGod chief deity]] of the Aedric pantheon. The PlayerCharacter of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' is a Dragonborn. According to some theories, Dov (including Dragonborn) are not so much the "children" of Akatosh, but are [[PiecesOfGod fragments of his very being]]. One Dov absorbing the soul of another causes that Dov to increase in power because these "fragments" are recombining.
** As mentioned, all souls have SoulPower which can be used in the [[ItemCrafting enchanting]] process to create items imbued with magical power. "White" souls can be trapped in standard [[CrystalPrison soul gems]], which range in size. The more powerful the soul, the larger the soul gem needs to be in order to capture it. In order to trap a "Black" soul, a special black soul gem is required. Creation of black soul gems involves putting standard "Grand" soul gems through a [[TheDarkArts dark ritual]]. When a Black soul is trapped, the energy part remains in the gem and is used to enchant/recharge an item. The "counciousness" part goes to the aforementioned Soul Cairn. There is currently no known way to utilize a dragon soul in this process, though there is historical evidence of a divine soul being trapped and used in a similar fashion. When [[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber Septim]] needed a power source for the newly acquired [[HumongousMecha Numidium]], his [[CourtMage Imperial Battlemage]], Zurin Arctus, crafted the Mantella. Said to be an "unimaginably powerful" soul gem, Arctus, according to some of [[WrittenByTheWinners the more heretical tales]], successfully soul-trapped and slew (with the help of a large group of [[BadassArmy Imperial Legionaries]]) Wulfharth Ash-King, a former ally of Septim's who is believed to be a [[EternalHero Shezarrine]], a [[GodInHumanForm mortal incarnation]] of the soul of the [[GodIsDead "dead" creator god]], Lorkhan (known as Shezarr to the Imperials). Arctus successfully trapped Wulfharth's soul in the Mantella, but not before Wulfharth was able to kill Arctus "with his dying breath". This act is believed to have [[MergerOfSouls merged the two individuals]] into the being known as the "Underking", who was then tied to the Mantella. For additional information on these individuals and the events surrounding them, see their entries on the series' [[Characters/TheElderScrollsHistorialFigures Historical Figures]] page.

* ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', souls just kind of plop onto the ground when their owners die, and are usually taken by whatever killed them. They can be absorbed to increase the power of the one who took it, which is how this game's leveling works, and particularly powerful souls can be used to make powerful weapons.

* The ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' series largely revolves around the various effects of souls and the corruption thereof. Losing your soul will kill you, while returning a soul into its dead body will apparently create a vampire. A corruption of the soul leads to a creeping physical corruption - Kain's vampire lieutenants grew into increasingly inhuman monsters instead of just stronger. Also very importantly, souls are food for various beings, almost all them tied into the biggest soul-devourer of them all, [[spoiler:the Elder God. A purified soul, on the other hand, will enable a being to see said god]]. There's a lot more, but these are the most noteworthy points.

* In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyX'', when a person dies, their soul must be sent on to the Farplane by a summoner's Sending. If not one of two things will happen: Either the soul will form with other souls and become a Fiend, which is the major source of monsters all game, or a strong willed soul will give itself a physical form by pulling together a type of supernatural matter called pyreflies, becoming an Unsent. Several major characters are Unsent (including [[spoiler:Auron]]). An Unsent can voluntarily leave for the Farplane (as happens to [[spoiler:Belgemine]] in ''X'' and [[spoiler:Maechen]] in ''X-2'') or be Sent against their will. There are anomalies, however: in X-2 [[spoiler: Shuyin’s immense hatred and despair renders him unable to be Sent until after you defeat him]].

* Every episode of ''Videogame/{{Sam and Max|FreelancePolice}}'' Season 2 involves souls in some way, and it appears that the "You are your soul" theory seems to be in use here. Your soul has two forms: a gloopy blob and a transparent version of your body. Zombies are created by Jurgen with his Soul Sucker, which separates the soul from the body and causes both soul and body to retain personality, effectively causing two copies of the same person, soul and zombie. Not the same personality though; Sam and Max's souls are fed up with Sam and Max's mindless violence and poor moral compass, and refuse to go back to their bodies. Jurgen then sends the souls off to [[spoiler: T.H.E.M]] to be crushed by depressed Moai heads, and then finally the grim reaper takes them to the Soul Train on the River Styx which sends them to Hell.

* Darwinians in ''VideoGame/{{Darwinia}}'' have digital souls. When a Darwinian dies, its soul floats off to soul repository in the middle of Darwinia. Soon it'll float back and its intelligence is processed after being sent to spawning grounds to be reborn again. However, soul destroyers and in Multiwinia, dark forest can [[DeaderThanDead destroy their souls]].
* In ''VideoGame/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 its soul will go insane and lose its perception of reality, an effect that increases the further away the soul is.

* ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'' has two different versions. 'Soul' in a tradition sense is an abstract concept used by Terrans to make a distinction between sentient and non-sentient beings. The closest thing the game has to actual souls is called Ens, which is defined as life-force.

** Most people's souls --or at least the human ones-- are made of 3 "high" "kon" and 7 "lower" "paku". Part of Youmu Konpaku's souls is outside her body and is visible to everyone. Because of this macabre soul-arrangement, Youmu resists anything that specifically target only the living or only the dead. Meanwhile, Yuyuko (Youmu's ghostly mistress) has some ghost lights orbiting around her, each of them are themselves souls.
** Hourai elixir renders one immortal: the soul gain the ability to materialize physical body, which is no longer tightly coupled to the soul. A Hourai immortal can be blown to bits and the soul will regenerate the body; this is a painful process that strain the soul. (This gory dismemberment has happened to Mokou multiple times.)
** Other kind of immortals simply become immortals because they kick the arses of every [[TheGrimReaper Grim Reaper]] who come to claim their soul (much to Komachi Onozuka's grievance). Apparently you can be immortal if both your soul and your body are badass enough.
* One of the few coherent and understandable portions of ''VideoGame/LimboOfTheLost'' involves souls. Those who end up in Limbo receive their souls in a vial, and are responsible for keeping it safe. There's a legend, however, that someone who can claim seven souls by any means can escape Limbo, which causes a bit of havoc. Briggs is unusual as, being a living person thrown into Limbo by outside intervention, his soul is ''inside his body''.

* This is pretty much the central theme of ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'', where {{reincarnation}} is known as a fact and animancy, the scientific exploration and experimentation on the exact nature and properties of souls, is becoming a powerful but extremely controversial political and cultural force. Pretty much every form of magic interacts with souls in some way, and there are a disconcerting number of ways a soul can be contorted, annihilated, imprisoned, or otherwise screwed with horribly.
* Souls (or [=SOULs=], as the game often calls them for no stated reason) and the effects of lacking them play a huge role in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''. Monsters and humans have souls, but a human soul is far stronger than a monster soul in power and the ability to linger after death whereas monster souls fade away nearly instantly after death and boss monster souls linger after death just for a brief moment. Monster have the ability to absorb human souls to gain more power and gaining seven or more human souls can make a monster almost godlike, which is what humans feared and was their motivation to go to war against the monsters according to the backstory. Part of the reason why human souls can exist after death is due to humans having "determination" which is an actual spiritual substance that allows humans to keep going against all odds. Monsters can't make determination naturally (or at least not a lot) since their bodies ''melt'' if they have too much of the stuff. Now what happens if a being has no soul? [[spoiler: Flowey is the result of someone who was once dead and brought back to life with an injection of determination. However, because Flowey lost his soul in his previous life, coming back to life without a soul rendered him unable to feel empathy no matter how hard he tried to feel and this would eventually drive him mad.]]

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'': Souls are a fairly easily tradable commodity, being one of the base level items a player can buy in the Bazaar. They're usually collected exclusively by spirifers using their spirifing forks and devils with their in born abilities, [[spoiler: but even groups like the Ratticus Fabers and Urchins manage to get their hands on souls, and it's implied they don't exactly purchase them]] but they can be held and used as a resource by pretty much anyone. Losing your soul can have a variety of effects, sidebar text stating "In simpler times, Hell would take a soul on the death of the body. Death is more complicated in Fallen London, though not unknown. So it's not terribly uncommon to meet someone who's short a soul. Some of them become mumbling, dead-eyed husks: some of them simply turn to occupations where soullessness is a professional advantage".

* In ''VideoGame/SaltAndSanctuary,'' mortals (two subspeces of humans and two sybspeces of orcs) are said to have souls made of salt. To that end, you can offer salt to the gods, who turn it into pearls of soulstuff, which are then used to increase your mind, body, and magic prowess, depending on where those pearls are inserted in the TechTree. The god's souls are said to be made of light, and the BigBad [[spoiler: is a mortal who is desperately trying to turn his salty soul into light so he can be a god too, [[ScamReligeon using the prayers dedicated to the newest three to do it with]].]] It doesn't work (wether because the myth is untrue or because it's not possible to turn salt into light isn't stated), leaving him with a dessicated (and mouthy) scarecrow for a body and a giant suit of AnimatedArmor containing his soul.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls,'' souls don't actually represent one living being. A person's soul is actually comprised of about 50 or so motes of soulstuff, and those motes can be sent to the Afterlife through a Bonfire. They grant the player character their physical attributes in gratitude, though, justifying how levelling up works. However, only undead and demons can collect these motes, and both use them as a sort of ersatz currency. Souls are able to crystallise, forming the preserved chunks that players collect around the place, and certain powerful beings (read: bosses) have unique, twisted souls that can be turned into unique weapons and items by people trained in the art of soul transposition and/or using a tool called a transposing kiln. ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' repeatedly has [=NPCs=] tell you that holding onto a lot of souls will stop you from going Hollow and losing your identity; this is GameplayAndStorySegregation, since the actual mechanic that reduces Hollowing in ''II'' is the use of human effigies to restore humanity and souls have nothing to do with it.

* ''Webcomic/DrowTales'': Faeries have what is occasionally referred to as an aura or soul. A soul is basically a body of {{Mana}}, a special form of energy that keeps them young, in strong health, and allows them to manipulate their environment. However, a Fae's "soul" is almost every bit as mortal as their physical body, and the setting is explicitly confirmed to lack an afterlife, leaving CessationOfExistence as their ultimate fate when their mana inevitablely dissipates.

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': According to Nioi, people created by the Dewitchery Diamond have completely new souls, rather than being reincarnations. Because [[spoiler: she believed that being a new soul in an older body could lead to madness, she cast a spell on Kaoli and Ellen which made them have dreams in which they re-lived the lives of AlternateUniverse versions of themselves up past their current age]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Sins}}'': If you are a host for [[SevenDeadlySins the Sins]] -- and just ''picking up'' their SoulJar is enough to become their host -- then your soul is shattered into pieces, costing you access to any afterlife. This doesn't seem to impact daily life beyond making [[AnimalsHateHim animals hate you]], but WordOfGod states that when you die, it is nought but the NothingAfterDeath for you. Which sucks.

* ''Webcomic/MsfHigh'': All that is known is that souls are immutable. No magic can influence a soul. Period, end of story.

* ''Webcomic/LsEmpire'': [[AllThereInTheManual Souls apparently develop along with the mind while the body is still a fetus]]. The only difference is that the soul develops backwards in comparison to the mind (the mind develops selfishness then compassion, and the soul develops compassion then selfishness.)

* ''Webcomic/TheDragonslayers'': [[AllThereintheManual According to the character pages and story material]], Soul (AKA Mecha) an immortal [[MixAndMatchCritters lycan-fae]], joined the other Daemonslayers when demon prince Lord Saragon (whom Blackjack had dissed earlier by killing his lover and torturer, Aster when he tried to recruit him back into his armies by holding his comrade and lycanthrope, Shade, hostage) tore out part of her soul to return to his lost demon lover. Still alive, she was saved by Blackjack and Shade before the prince could kill her, and now looks forward to the day she can kill Aster and reclaim what was hers.

* ''Roleplay/TheMadScientistWars'' explores this a bit. Souls are basically an imprint or image of a person that is tied to the body, and constantly updates. Upon death, they go to either heaven or hell depending on their deeds. The mind of a person is something else entirely and can be copied, moved or altered, but the soul will still be the same. Intelligent creations that were not physically born need to pass a test to see if they should exist and have had existence (i.e. If they fail it, they will have never existed at all).

** There exists a creature called an Ushubaen, which boils down to a human imbibed with demonic energy. Normally this would kill the human, but if the human is also imbibed with enough souls to counteract the corrosive demonic energy, then they become a perfect mix of the two (in contrast to faeries, which are half angel half demon but aren't perfect mixtures). Unfortunately, because they have multiple souls in them, and demonic energy taints the mind as well as bestowing powers, all Ushubaen are insane, genocidal monsters who want to destroy everything they can. They can even kill [[BigGood angels]].
** Demons don't have souls, instead they have PureEnergy. This grants them life, but not a place in the afterlife. Umbra's desire for a soul is pretty tear-jerking. No matter how hard he fights against his own kind and tries to protect innocent humans from the wrath of other demons, if his physical body is destroyed he will be sent straight to Hell and have to force himself back to the surface to fight for the humans all over again. This later gets rectified, as he gains a soul and turns into an angel.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': All living beings have a soul except the Grimm. Souls create Aura, which can be locked, trained or manifested passively. Aura can create effects such as a {{Deflector Shield|s}} or [[KiManipulation Ki Attacks]], and fuel Semblances, an ability unique to its user. Aura can also be channelled into inanimate objects, empowering weapons and armour; science has even created an Aura-using robot [[spoiler:though this was actually done by taking part of the creator's aura]]. Rare, secret events can cause soul and Aura mergers that risk the loss of the original, independent selves. [[spoiler:Thanks to the God of Light, Ozpin- originally Ozma- has been doing this for millennia and his current host is a farm boy named Oscar]]. Additionally, anything Grimm is always soulless, even parts used as prosthetics will remain that way, and are thus impossible to protect with Aura.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' they even seem to have an afterlife, the Well of All Sparks. While its existence has been proven, virtually no properties have been established for it. A similar concept in the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' series called the Matrix seems to exist, it being the place where the sparks of the departed commune. All these sparks being there is what makes the Matrix what it is, though, rather than it being an otherworldy place that may or may not exist and you'd have to die to find out. This concept is also called the Allspark until the movieverse made its Allspark a MacGuffin - since then, it's been called the Well of All Sparks or the Afterspark.

** Notably, sparks can have unique properties just like the Cybertronians who have them. In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', [[TheStarscream Starscream's]] spark is revealed to be functionally immortal and able to inflict a form of DemonicPossession on people; attempts to replicate this immortality with mad science created the monstrous, almost indestructible SerialKiller Rampage. Expanded universe material also explained that [[TheChewToy Waspinator's]] spark was unusually small and located in his head, [[IronButtmonkey explaining why repeated decapitations were more irritating than deadly]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' souls exist, and are reincarnated seemingly forever but with different minds and identities. The most interesting example is that of the titular Avatar: which is a human soul twinned with a powerful light spirit. The previous lives of the Avatar also stay in the spirit world in order to lend the current Avatar their power in the [[SuperMode Avatar State.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'' souls are physical objects resting in the stomach, and are enlarged by good deeds and shrunk by bad ones. Mark's soul is dangerously engorged, to the point that it's pushing on his other organs. They can be removed and sold to demons, although this can cause feelings of emptiness, which can be counteracted by medication.

'''Mr Krabs:''' Aye, as a matter of fact, they do. And he puts them where you can never get them... in his soul bag. (drops the pickle into a bag that has the words "krusty krab" crossed out and the word "soul" written above it. Mr Krabs laughs evilly as Squidward appears behind [=SpongeBob=] in a pirate suit)\\

* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' doesn't have "souls" per se, but the thing that makes a person a person is a "[[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/458.html concept core]]". It "doesn't exist and is not real", but makes itself exist nonetheless through one or more bodies in {{the Multiverse}}-esque Perception Range, perpetuating itself by perceiving and being perceived. Humans are seen as pitiably limited by having their cores tethered to individual, transient bodies, rather than to an arbitrary number of alternate-universe manifestations like most perceptoids. The practical issue with this is that, once a human dies, their core dies as well and their entire personal history is lost, while other perceptoids are able to endure in some non-specified way through their other iterations. Worms (any sort except for maggots, who are actually baby flies) are said to be able to destroy concept cores when they eat something whole, causing them to "[[FinalDeath Unexistualize]]" and die for realsies.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls,'' souls don't actually represent one living being. A person's soul is actually comprised of about 50 or so motes of soulstuff, and those motes can be sent to the Afterlife through a Bonfire. They grant the player character their physical attributes in gratitude, though, justifying how levelling up works. However, only undead and demons can collect these motes, and both use them as a sort of ersatz currency.

** Also worth noting is that for whatever reason Vector Sigma hasn't released a new pulse in millions of years. With the recent destruction of the Matrix, and Cybertron coming off a four million year war that killed billions, it would seem that it is now impossible to make new Cybertronians, and the race is doomed to a slow extinction despite being functionally immortal. This ends up being averted when it's revealed that Camius, along with the other lost colonies, still has active Spark "Hot Spots" where new Sparks are born.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' they even seem to have an afterlife, the Well of All Sparks. While its existence has been proven, virtually no properties have been established for it. A similar concept in the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' series called the Matrix seems to exist, it being the place where the sparks of the departed commune. All these sparks being there is what makes the Matrix what it is, though, rather than it being an otherworldy place that may or may not exist and you'd have to die to find out. This concept is also called the Allspark until the movieverse made its Allspark a MacGuffin - since then, it's been called the Well of All Sparks.

*** "Black" souls are those of intelligent, fully sapient creatures (with the exception of Dragons and presumably other Aedric beings, more on that below). Black souls are those of the humanoid mortal races (Men, [[OurElvesAreBetter Mer]], {{Beast |Man}}Folk) as well as the greater of the lesser Daedra, like the Dremora, Auriel, and Mazken.

Note that despite popular culture associating it with the "soul", the above definition actually describes "spirit" better, which in fiction usualy refers to LifeEnergy (it can also refer to an invisible force such as an [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angel]]). The correct definition of a "soul" is the person itself, including the physical body and mind rather than separate from it. Many often confuse them as being the same thing.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[spoiler:Philosopher's Stones are made of condensed masses of human souls, and the homunculi are created with special Philosopher's Stones extracted from the body of their Father, who's basically a living Philosopher's Stone]].
** It's also established that the act of removing one's soul and attaching it to another person corrodes the soul and renders it incapable of sustaining a body. [[SociopathicHero Barry]] [[SerialKiller the]] [[MeaningfulName Chopper's]] original body is revealed to actually still be around. However, an animal's soul is inside it, causing it to decay, though 'his' current body is okay. [[spoiler:Alphonse realizes the same is happening to his own suit of armor, different in that it causes him to black out occasionally and will lead to a violent explosion at an unpredictable point in time.]] Seems that souls are indeed paired up with one body and one mind in this series.

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': Souls are eternal, indestructible "concepts", but require a physical body to tether them to the world. The soul is linked to the body, and when the body dies, it returns to [[TheLifestream Akasha]], to await reincarnation. Ordinarily when a soul is reincarnated, it retains no memories from any of its previous lives, but there are ways around this, as seen with [[{{VisualNovel/Tsukihime}} Roa]]. If a person does manage to preserve their soul beyond the death of their original body, usually by [[GrandTheftMe transferring it directly into a new body]] or by [[OurVampiresAreDifferent becoming a vampire]], then the soul will decay. The Third True Magic, as explained in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', can overcome this problem. Also, [[spoiler:[[LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai Aozaki Touko]] has a method of [[CloningGambit transferring her consciousness and soul into an identical artificial body]] with no apparent negative effects]]. Souls in the Nasuverse are normally indestructible, but someone with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can [[DeaderThanDead kill the soul itself]].

* What happens to the souls of characters who are resurrected? Frequently, it CameBackWrong.

* In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyX'', when a person dies, their soul must be sent on to the Farplane by a summoner's Sending. If not one of two things will happen: Either the soul will form with other souls and become a Fiend, which is the major source of monsters all game, or a strong willed soul will give itself a physical form by pulling together supernatural creatures called pyreflies, becoming an Unsent. Several major characters are Unsent (including [[spoiler:Auron]]). An Unsent can voluntarily leave for the Farplane (as happens to [[spoiler:Belgemine]] in ''X'' and [[spoiler:Maechen]] in ''X-2'') or be Sent against their will. There are anomalies, however: in X-2 [[spoiler: Shuyin’s immense hatred and despair renders him unable to be Sent until after you defeat him]].

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': A Digimon's [=DigiCore=] is their soul in everything but name, housing their primary data. If a Digimon loses its [=DigiCore=], the just stop functioning. Most Digimon only have one [=DigiCore=] each, usually hidden deep inside their body. However, most undead Digimon such as [[DemBones SkullGreymon]] have their [=DigiCores=] exposed due to their bodies rotting away. The most powerful of Digimon, such as the Digimon Sovereigns, each have ''twelve'' [=DigiCores=] floating around their bodies. When two Digimon undergo [[FusionDance Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution]], their [=DigiCores=] are totally fused.

* ''[[VideoGame/Minecraft]]'' - though the gameplay doesn't focus on the souls much they are somewhat existent in the game universe. The soulsand which exists in the Nether has a texture of screaming faces and slows you down when you walk on it as if you were dragged down. In its spin-off game ''[[Video Game / Minecraft Dungeons]]'' there are weapons which harness the souls and those are use as a fuel for magic. In the original game netherwart, necessary for most of the potions grows only on soulsand impying that the power of souls may be the source of potions magical properties.