History Main / OurSpiritsAreDifferent

** They tend to be the biggest, baddest spirits around, [[RankScalesWithAsskicking and they often control lesser spirits]].

* ...[[EldritchAbomination abominations]]?

* ''Curse of the Assassin'' by Tin Man Games: An evil mercenary is attempting to undergo apotheosis. This has thrown the balance of the world of mankind and the spirit world out of whack. As such, beings of folklore collectively known as the Sleeping Ones (most are nature spirits) have manifested in the land of Orlandes and are now preying on people. A wise coyote spirit seeks you as a champion and if you defeat it in a trial by combat, it will grant you all the knowledge of folklore and these creatures. This gives you a greatly increased chance of doing damage against them in battle. These Sleeping Ones range from the fictional White Ape of Orlandes, which is an omen of natural disaster and turns into a boulder when slain, to the Duende and La Llorona from actual Latin American folklore.

* The Kami in ''ComicBook/{{Okko}}'' are powerful spirits that represent one of the four classical [[ElementalEmbodiment elements]]: water, earth, air or fire. With the right sutras and offerings, their powers can be invoked to achieve specific effects ranging from simply providing information relevant to their given domain to summoning massive tsunamis.
* The Passengers of ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'' are explicitly the souls of revivers. They are persistently visible to humans and cameras, can move like a gas, cannot cross salt, can be physically restrained, and can be killed by drowning.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', the red panda spirits that possess the women of Mei's family when they come of age are immaterial but can appear to touch objects during the brief time they are outside of their hosts or talismans. In the astral realm, where they come from, they are semi-material as they can interact with the bamboo stalks that fill the realm.

* Masquerades in ''Literature/AkataWitch'', which are not to be confused with TheMasquerade or MasqueradeBall. They are spirit creatures, and they will hurt you.

* The spirits of ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' are usually referred to as "demons", though Bart at least prefers the term "spirits" (or the more accurate ranks of imp, foliot, djinni, afrit, and marid).

* The souls of the dead in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' are referred to as "shades" because while they may appear to have bodies, they cannot interact with physical people like Dante or project shadows. The shades only appear to have bodies that feel pain and pleasure so they can experience some of what eternal life will be like while not having to wait until the Last Judgement.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Humans are made of three things: Body, Spirit, and Soul. Ghosts and some creatures from the [[SpiritWorld Never]][[HomeOfMonsters never]] are made of only Spirits and other creatures from the Nevernever (such as Fae) are made of both Body and Spirit. Finally, some very special kinds of ghosts can have both Spirit and Soul.

* Christopher Paolini's ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' has spirits as one of the many intelligent species in the setting. They are described as being hovering orbs of light constantly changing in size and color, but very little else is understood about them. One of the disciplines of magic involves summoning spirits and using them as [[LivingBattery mana batteries]], which is never really shown in action but is presumably extremely powerful since spirits that we do see are capable of [[NoSell no-selling]] mental defenses and pulling off feats of magic that even dragons would consider impossible. The user of spirit magic has to be careful not to summon spirits more powerful than they can control, however, since spirits can take control of a human body and form a [[HumanoidAbomination Shade]]. Even though one of spirits' few established likes or dislikes is the fact that they absolutely despise sharing a human body, they will always try to do this when summoned and can only leave a possessed human when the Shade is killed. Perhaps because of this, despite spirits' typical BlueAndOrangeMorality, Shades are universally AlwaysChaoticEvil.

* Spirits in ''Literature/TheReunionWithTwelveFascinatingGoddesses'' are supernatural beings that live in the other world. They dwell in everything, including the air, earth, water and plants. Low level Spirits have the forms of animals, while Deities have human forms. Humans can make contracts with them to use their power.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' has the spren, which are associated with various phenomena. Whether they're drawn to said phenomena, created by them, or cause them is not clear to most people in universe. These phenomenon include [[NatureSpirit wind, rain and fire]], natural processes like rot, emotions like fear and passion, and even more esoteric things like music, creation, and honour. Some spren can move small objects and give small pinches of energy, as well as mimic voices.

* Religion... as in all of them. Trinitarian Christianity has the Holy Ghost, Buddhism has Hungry Ghosts (although they're more like [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] than conventional spirits), various religions and mythologies have regular ghosts and [[TheFairFolk fairies]]/{{Nature Spirit}}s/Little People, and of course Shinto and Animism have everyone. And every''thing''.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has beings like kami, oni and other native outsiders that are referred to as spirits, though what exactly that means varies from creature to creature. Oni, for example, are formless ethereal beings that take forms resembling humanoid races, while kami are guardian entities that bind themselves to a particular charge. There are also occult spirits, the remnants of souls and minds for those too weak to manifest as undead but strong enough to communicate with and assist the properly attuned.

* In ''Curse of the Assassin'' by Tin Man Games, an evil mercenary is attempting to undergo apotheosis. This has thrown the balance of the world of mankind and the spirit world out of whack. As such, beings of folklore collectively known as the Sleeping Ones (most are nature spirits) have manifested in the land of Orlandes and are now preying on people. A wise coyote spirit seeks you as a champion and if you defeat it in a trial by combat, it will grant you all the knowledge of folklore and these creatures. This gives you a greatly increased chance of doing damage against them in battle. These Sleeping Ones range from the fictional White Ape of Orlandes, which is an omen of natural disaster and turns into a boulder when slain, to the Duende and La Llorona from actual Latin American folklore.
* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series, spirits and demons are the same thing. They inhabit the DreamLand called the Fade but can be summoned into the material world (or enter it on their own in certain locations). They seem to be ageless but can be killed, whether in the material world or in the Fade. Both demons and benevolent spirits can possess humans, though the former tend to turn them into {{Humanoid Abomination}}s. Each demon is associated with one of five sins (corresponding to the negative emotion it feeds upon); benevolent spirits seem to be associated with virtues but because encounters with them are so rare, no established classification exists.

** Some spirits might even be able to "become somebody else", which is never really elaborated on too heavily. [[spoiler: Cole and possibly Leliana (based on the player's choices in previous games) are two such examples.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ShiningTheHolyArk'' three good spirits are in charge of magical floating spaceship, the titular Ark. However the Ark gets destroyed so they escape in a pod, crash onto our heroes and possess them. This heals our three main heroes (as they were squashed by the escape pod) and makes sure they can never die, gives them additional powers and allows themselves to heal up while they inhabit their bodies. Meanwhile an evil spirit possesses the King and his advisers in an attempt to revive the 1000 year kingdom and bring fourth an age of darkness.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' revolves around object-bound spirits named the Emblems, resembling various characters from past ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games, but aren't actually them. With the exception of one, [[spoiler:Alear,]] all Emblems lack physical bodies, are immortal, and unable to eat. When summoned through [[spoiler:a prayer, and in Alear's case, also invocation]], they're practically good spirits, but when [[spoiler:invoked]], they are simply soulless husks known as Dark Emblems, [[spoiler:though the only truly evil spirits of this game are all of the Dark Emblems summoned by Sombron]]. They are also capable of fusing with their bearers by engaging with them.

* In ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'', there are many types of spirits, but they all share common characteristics. Spirits are immaterial existences that "exist with a shape, but without physical properties". Their bodies are described as "Elementals" (''Seirei'', in the original Japanese), meaning they are conceptual and thus are able travel without physical interference (passing through walls and people, for example).

* The spirits of Scourosi in ''WebAnimation/NoEvil'' are flesh-and-blood beings with the souls of fallen stars. They have both a human form and a [[{{Animorphism}} naugal]] form and are partially composed of magic. Also, they are named for figures from Native American legends, post-colonial folklore, [[IHaveManyNames and/or]] Aztec gods.

* In ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'', spirits are immortal, and range from fire spirits, which are more like elementals of a sort that can fly, to Terrabnds, which are more animalistic and crawl around on the ground, to [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghosts.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Oceanfalls}}'', Spirits are a major danger in the monster world due to their [[MasterOfIllusion illusory abilities]], and mostly survive off of the negative emotions of those they torment, but can and will [[SoulEating consume souls]] if they believe a great danger is coming. Thankfully, spirits can be killed by physical attacks like any other creature. They also mostly talk in BlackSpeech that is represented in the comic by Morse Code, but nobody InUniverse can understand. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Kotori is able to understand them somehow, and even commands them to go after the main party]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the spirits inhabit a SpiritWorld, but many of them have the ability to take form in the 'real' world, as well. In terms of vulnerability, it varies from spirit to spirit. On the whole, taking form in the real world leaves them vulnerable to attacks, and if they take on a permanent living body, such as the moon and ocean spirits, or the eponymous avatar, they can be permanently killed. Powers also vary: some are a AnthropomorphicPersonifications and have abilities linked to that, while others are random assortments.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' features four of them: Gaia ([[MotherNature the Spirit of Earth]]), the eponymous Captain Planet, and their {{Evil Counterpart}}s Zarm ([[BigBad the Spirit of Destruction]]) and Captain Pollution, respectively. What they ''all'' have in common, is having human forms, and {{Immortality}}, at least when speaking of natural causes[[note]]It ''is'' a {{pun}} in Captain Pollution's case, though.[[/note]]; otherwise, they can be killed. Nobody ever tried to do this to Zarm, however.

* Some of the "ghosts" in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' do not appear to be humans experiencing the afterlife, but spectral lifeforms born entirely in the Ghost Zone. One of them is even the KidFromTheFuture of two formerly-human ghosts.
* Many of the entities called "ghosts" in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' and its sequel ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'' are not exactly disembodied souls of the dead as the traditional depiction of ghosts, but Spirits; entities from another dimension that, as Egon puts it in one episode, "have always been ghosts". Some episodes even show these dimensions. And some of the most dangerous (and of the very few recurrent) villains like Samhain and the Boogie Man are Spirits. In general, Spirits in the ''Ghostbusters'' animated universe are basically some sort of [[AlwaysChaoticEvil normally evil chaotic]] creature made of ectoplasm and with certain magical powers.