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Soul Fragment

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A part of a person's Soul or Power Source is (un)intentionally transferred to another character. This process will often provide Party B with a fraction of Party A's powers, memories, and mannerisms.

Similar to, yet distinct from, a Soul Jar. A relative of Personality Swap and In the Blood.

If the two characters are enemies, expect a "Not So Different" Remark at some point. May result in Synchronization.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Ayakashi Triangle: The ayakashi medium's spirit normally reincarnates between human bodies, but the previous one accidentally put part of it into omokage. After reincarnating into Suzu, it split again but both fragments stayed in the same body, the one that kept their Past-Life Memories simply went dormant. Each fragment is a separate personality, and they need to all inhabit the same body to use their full power.
  • Bleach:
    • Aizen designed White to perform target hollowfication of Soul Reapers. He was shocked, and delighted, when White ignored the Soul Reapers in favour of a nearby Quincy. Masaki killed White quickly, but not fast enough to stop herself from being bitten. Not only did Aizen accidentally infect Masaki with a piece of White but Ichigo, the first child Masaki had (five years later), was affected, too.
    • Yhwach can spread pieces of his soul around anyone who comes into contact with him or with someone carrying a piece of soul. His soul pieces can cause miraculous healing in people with even incurable conditions and even restore missing limbs. Unfortunately, the price for the miracle is a vastly shortened life-span and when they die the piece returns to Yhwach along with some of the person's energy.
  • The clone Kikyo from Inuyasha owes her entire existence to a spell granting her a tiny fragment of the female lead'snote  soul.
  • The entire concept of Six Princesses Fall in Love with God Guardian revolves around the reincarnated protagonist, Lloyd, trying to locate his former empress, Arsmeria, whose soul had somehow split to six princesses from different empires. Lloyd eventually meets them but unaware of their identities.
  • The feathers in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- are eventually revealed to be scattered soul fragments of the clone Sakura, and at least one was from Clone Syaoran.

    Comic Books 
  • Aquaman: In the short-lived pre-Flashpoint series Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, Arthur Joseph Curry ended up with a fragment of the original Aquaman's soul, leading the former to take the original's mantle after the latter is turned into the Dweller in the Depths.
  • Fone Bone and Thorn have a piece of the Locust in them during their conflict in Bone.
  • ElfQuest:
    • Redlance and Nightfall join their souls together. This doesn't appear to have any outward effects (e.g., she doesn't gain his tree-shaping abilities) — they do it so they can never be parted even in death.
    • Later, Rayek absorbs Winnowill's soul. This has far less benign consequences because Winnowill is thoroughly deceiving and malicious, and Rayek has to constantly struggle to prevent her from taking control of his body. He doesn't always win.
  • In Fantastic Four (1961) #51, "This Man, This Monster", a scientist uses a "duplication device" to physically model himself after Ben Grimm, but when he sacrifices himself to save Reed Richards, Reed speculates that he may have gotten some part of Ben Grimm other than his skin.
  • In one Green Lantern story, Kyle Rayner is forced to use Hal Jordan's ring on loan. Jordan's willpower is so strong, it imprints on the ring, which impacts Kyle's demeanor as long as he uses it.
  • In Our Worlds at War, Wonder Woman rallies the other Amazons and Darkseid in helping Superman push Warworld into a Boom Tube to the beginning of time. When it's all said and done, Wondy tells Darkseid that she infected him with a piece of her soul, forever a reminder that if he does something nice, it's because a piece of her was in him. Didn't last, obviously.
  • In Star Brand, anyone who has the Star Brand transferred to them or is healed by the current wielder of the Brand will eventually have it completely manifest in them.
  • Superior Spider-Man (2013): Otto Octavius gains Peter Parker's memories and experiences through their "Freaky Friday" Flip.
  • Rogue of X-Men gets bits of people's memory and personality when she absorbs their powers.

    Fan Works 
  • In BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, it's revealed in Chapter 46 that Murakumo Units, such as Noel, Penny, and Nu, all carry pieces of Saya's soul within them.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: In "Nero's Spell (Part 2)", a soul being split is implied, because someone stuck themselves into a Soul Eating device, then what is assumed to be a visual manifestation of their soul comes out of it and "looked incomplete".
  • In Eternity, the small part of a Ship Girl's soul remains in their original steel hull, which is what gives the abyssyfied sunken ships their anti-shipgirl properties.
  • In The Judgement of the World (5Ds), each Signer Dragon was born from the soul of his or her respective partner and inherits the memories of said partner's previous incarnation.
  • In My Little Denarians, Harry Dresden giving each of the Mane Six (technically Outsiders in this setting) a piece of his soul is what protects them from Discord's meddling with their show's script back on Earth by endowing them with human-style free will. (And earns Harry a "What Were You Thinking??" reaction from the Gatekeeper when the latter learns of it.)
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): In Chapter 7, soul splitting is mentioned, done by a witch's powers:
    Long story short, we found a witch who had the power to split a soul.
  • In the RWBY/The Hobbit Fusion Fic Rise of a Star Knight, this turns out to be a power possessed by Star Knights. It's revealed that the reason why Pyrrha survived her canonical death is because Jaune unknowingly used the power when they kissed, and the part of his soul he left with her is protecting her from torture and mind manipulation. In turn, it's revealed that it also left part of her soul with him, and that the spirit Pyrrha he's been talking to throughout the story is actually a manifestation of it. And that it has a mind of its own, having a conversation with the real Pyrrha near the end of the story, before sacrificing itself to save him.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Exorcist II: The Heretic: Reagan has psychic powers as a result of her possession along with the spirit of Father Marrin.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Mechagodzilla becomes sentient as a result of Ghidorah's remains hijacking and infecting him with Ghidorah's consciousness remnants, which in turn cause him to exhibit a Kill All Humans tendency just like Ghidorah. The director and the film's novelization both indicate that rather than being a full-blown Man in the Machine, Mechagodzilla's mind is a newborn personality born from consciousness Fusion Dance between Ghidorah's mind and the mecha's AI.
  • The Green Mile: John gives a "part of himself" to Paul and Mr. Jingles.
  • In Highlander: Endgame, after Duncan beheads Connor, he absorbs Connor's swordsmanship skills and perhaps a bit more judging by the morphing effect during the final fight were Connor's face is briefly seen over top of Duncan's.
  • Lifeforce (1985): The Space Vampire gave a part of herself to Carlson in order to understand humanity, resulting in a telepathic connection.
  • Agent Smith attributes a bit of Neo in him to his survival and powers in The Matrix sequels.
  • In A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Freddy Krueger manipulates Kristen into giving her powers (which allow her to pull others into her dreams) to her friend Alice as she dies. This allows Freddy to use Alice's dreams to stalk new victims (he could previously only get at the ones whose parents killed him), and he starts killing off all her friends. It takes Alice a while to realize it, but a small part of each victim stays with her; she starts talking and acting like her dead friends and even develops some of their skills. This grants her a level in badass.
    Freddy Krueger: You've got their powers, I've got their souls. Come on!
  • In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Spock puts his mind into McCoy.
    Spock: Remember.
  • Data loads part of himself into his B-4 counterpart in Star Trek: Nemesis.

    Literature 
  • Lash in The Dresden Files is a copy of the fallen angel Lasciel, imprinted onto Harry's brain.
  • Harry Potter has a number of Lord Voldemort's powers as a result of this. The reason for this is only explained much later: Harry became one of Voldemort's Horcruxes when Voldemort tried to kill him as a baby.
  • In INVADERS of the ROKUJYOUMA!?, the Goddess of Dawn split herself into nine girls to be with Koutarou, each bestowed with unique powers and traits from herself. At the end of the main story, the nine girls merged to form back the Goddess of Dawn. Koutarou made a wish to the Goddess to restore the girls back as their individual selves.
  • Journey to Chaos: Eric is badgered by a phantom of Dengel Tymh known as "Shadow Dengel" during the second book after spending the first as Dengel's Heroic Host. Later on, he absorbs the scholarly aspect of Dengel known as "Grey Dengel" after raiding Dengel's lair in Ceiha. It is left ambiguous how much of either of them are genuine soul fragments and how much is Eric's memory of him. Either way, the latter certainly provides him with great magical knowledge and ability that formerly belonged to Dengel.
  • The Lord of the Rings
    • J. R. R. Tolkien's notes included the possibility that Morgoth had created the Balrogs and the Orcs out of the fragments of himself. There is some textual evidence for this. It is specifically noted that by the end of the war, Morgoth had become much weaker than he was initially, presumably due to spreading his soul too thin.
    • Morgoth's right-hand-man and ultimate successor, Sauron, did split off part of himself to make the One Ring. In a variation, he never meant for anyone else to come in contact with it and forged it himself to keep it with him at all times, but when it is eventually discovered by others this part of Sauron will attempt to overwrite the personality of anyone using the Ring, and corrupt anyone in the general vicinity, ultimately becoming an unintentional and yet welcome side-effect for him.
  • In Mistborn: The Original Trilogy, hemalurgic spikes can confer upon their recipient a variety of abilities stolen from the person they were killed with, along with a fragment of their soul. They also can damage the bearer's sanity and subject them to control or influence via allomancy or the powers of Ruin.
  • In Pact, Blake and Rose are the fragments of the original Thorburn heir who was split apart by The Barber.
  • The Rising of the Shield Hero:
    • The Dragon Emperor was defeated by the Filorial Queen and his core was fragmented. The fragments merged with the cores of other dragons, giving them pieces of the Emperor's memories. By killing other fragments and consuming their cores dragons can become closer to being the new Dragon Emperor.
    • Malty/Witch and her counterparts in the parallel worlds are all fragments of the goddess Medea which she scattered in order to increase her own power. The fragments merge together when a Wave runs its full course.
    • At the end of the Web Novel, Naofumi and Raphtalia use their new godlike powers to leave fragments of themselves in Raphtalia's and Naofumi's worlds to live out full lives while they help their fellow God Slayers protect the multiverse from wannabe gods.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Babylon 5:
    • Sheridan carried a piece of Kosh for a period after being literally Touched by Vorlons.
    • Lyta Alexander was also touched by Vorlons, and on occasion served as a transport for fragments of Kosh and his successor.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow suggests that perhaps The Master implanted a bit of himself onto Buffy. Xander refers to it as "Mystical Bad Guy Transference Thing".
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "The Savages", the Doctor encounters a civilisation which has eternal youth and great technological achievement through sapping life energy from an underclass. When he questions the morality of this, they take him to the machine, drain his vitality and transfer it into a single test subject, who (unfortunately for him) ends up uncontrollably flipping in and out of a slightly garbled version of the Doctor's personality, memories and mannerisms as a result.
    • In the novelisation of "Shada", the Doctor's plan to defeat Skagra (who has been stealing people's minds) is to build himself a psychic amplifier that allows him to channel the minds of everyone whose thoughts have been stolen. As he begins to lose control, he finds himself flooded with memories belonging to all of the victims, and even ends up giving a passionate declaration of love to the woman one of the victims is in love with (fortunately, she knows who's really talking).
    • In "Dalek", a Dalek uses Rose's DNA (altered by her being a time traveler) to repair itself. However, this also causes it to lose its "purity" and begin acting in a more human manner. This drives it to suicide.
      Dalek: [horrified] You gave me life. What else have you given me?!
    • In "Journey's End", Donna gets bits of the Doctor's mind mixed up with hers, and a part-human copy of the Doctor is created who has bits of Donna's mind.
  • In one episode of Eerie, Indiana, an ill girl falls in love with a risk-taking skateboarder. When he forgets to Look Both Ways, he dies and she gets his heart for the transplant she needs. She then proceeds to act like him, skateboarding recklessly and carving graffiti on the desks. Somewhat unusually for the show, this is treated as Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane up until the end of the episode.
  • Farscape: Aeryn ending up with residual Pilot DNA might count, as it gives her an instinctive understanding of Moya's systems and the ability to interact with Moya in a way that previously only Pilot could.
  • In the fifth season of Sliders, part of Quinn's essence gets absorbed into one of his alternates on a different world, due to an experiment by a scientist working on merging worlds. This plot device was the show's way of dealing with the fact that Jerry O'Connell had left the show.
  • A "Freaky Friday" Flip episode of Smallville has a piece of Clark left in Lionel after the Snap Back swap which cures him and redeems his character.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Offspring", Data transfers Lal's memory core into his neural net after her emotional overload. He is able to use a contraction for the first time afterwards.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Illithids, a.k.a. Mind Flayers, of Dungeons & Dragons. They reproduce by inserting an illithid "tadpole" into the ear of a sentient humanoid. The tadpole then consumes the brain, commandeers the nervous system, and converts the body into a new Mind Flayer. This isn't supposed to result in this trope, as the new creature retains no skills or memories from the old, but occasionally one will retain a habit from the host, like cracking its knuckles when nervous, or catch itself humming a tune the victim knew. Illithids try to hide this behavior, as one of their most legendary enemies was a human whose personality somehow survived assimilation completely intact and used their Psychic Powers against them, and they don't want to think it's possible for this to happen again.
  • The titular Exalted receive their powers through a "third soul" that effectively grafts itself onto their consciousness. Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, Abyssals and Infernals all receive these shards, and usually experience memories from the lives of past shard bearers. Alchemicals have Exaltations made of refined souls that are "installed" with them at creation. The only exception are the Dragon-Blooded, who usually receive the Exaltation through familial lines.
  • Mage: The Ascension ties all magic and the existence of "consensus reality" to the Avatar, a fragment of divine consciousness that exists in all humans. The "Sleepers" are mortals whose Avatars merely filter consensus through to define reality, whereas the mages have "Awakened" Avatars that allow them to twist reality to their liking. There are also a couple of merits (Twin Souls, Shattered Avatar) where your Avatar is part of a matched set.
  • In Mage: The Awakening, mages can create physical objects which are fragments of their souls to gain certain powers. The major downside of this is the consequences should another mage manage to get a hold of your soul stone. Besides being able to drain your Mana, have a strong connection through which to do sympathetic magic, and a degree of access to your own powers, you become the other mage's "Thrall"; essentially, you gain a vague proclivity to performing any task you are set by the holder of your soul stone (although mage traditions hold that you have to give the soul stone back after getting three requests).
  • Soulbound dolls and mannequins in Pathfinder are macabre constructs brought to life by using a fragment of a person's soul, killing them in the process if they didn't die beforehand. The resulting soulbound construct retains some aspects of the donor's personality, but no one can control or predict what aspects will be kept.

    Video Games 
  • In Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the main character is forced to give a piece of his/her soul to fellow bhaalspawn Sarevok in order to enlist his aid. Alternatively, Imoen can part with a piece of her soul in the main character's place, which, provided you bring both along, causes a later banter about if the soul piece has made Sarevok feel any different, to which he replies that he's gotten slightly more fond of the colour pink than he seems to remember being previously, as well as fretting about his weight and possibly having an acne breakout. He also gets her memories of her treatment back at Chateau Irenicus, which naturally don't bother him at all... but does spook her when he brings it up.
  • City of Heroes: Warwolves, Galaxy troopers, and Void Hunters are made by implanting a Nictus fragment into the body of a human being. These fragments are the remains of a deceased Nictus and are shown to still have a life of their own.
  • Dark Souls II gives a few subtle hints that link it to its predecessor, namely the presence of unique souls whose descriptions make a minimal reference to some of the first game's bosses, while also giving a few traits to the new bosses that can be attributed to the previous ones.
    • The Lost Sinner drops the Old Witch's Soul on higher difficulties, which obviously belongs to the Witch of Izalith. Coincidentally, the former is imprisoned for trying to duplicate the First Flame (the gravest of the sins according to some), just like how the Witch got horribly punished for trying to recreate the First Age of Fire.
    • The Rotten yields the Old Dead One Soul in New Game Plus, if only to reinforce the similarities between it and Gravelord Nito, who is also made from a pile of corpses and carries a sword the size of a car.
    • Defeating the Old Iron King gives you the Old King's Soul, which can be traded for items that are related to Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight. Both are also fools who burned away when reaching into the flames.
    • The Duke's Dear Freja carries the Old Paledrake Soul, a dead ringer for Seath the Scaleless. Fittingly enough, she's practically indulging in the latter's hatred of his dragon brethren, as evidenced by the dragon corpse hanging above the spider's lair.
    • The crowner would have to be Queen Nashandra, who is stated to be the tiniest fragment of the first game's resident Eldritch Abomination and Omnicidal Maniac Manus, Father of the Abyss. Following in the latter's footsteps, she wishes to bring the world-consuming Dark to the kingdom of Drangleic, the implication of which was disastrous enough in the localized outbreak of Oolacile.
    • In Crown of the Sunken King, Elana the Squalid Queen is implied to carry another fragment of Manus' soul, just like Nashandra. She similarly resides in a devastated kingdom, and gives off an air of degeneracy.
    • Crown of the Old Iron King has Nadalia, the Bride of Ash. Like Nashandra and Elana before her, she too possesses a shard of Manus' soul, made even more explicit as Vendrick mentions the Father of the Abyss if you clear the DLC and visit him again. Unlike her "sisters", the poor thing stumbled upon a kingdom long abandoned, forcing her to give up her physical body and turn into black ashen fog, her essence animating various armours in order to defend her newly established home.
    • Crown of the Ivory King has Alsanna, the Silent Oracle, who is the exception that proves the rule, instead. Like her sisters, she's a shard of Manus, namely, his fear. However, when the Ivory King gave her true love and compassion, he successfully allayed said fears and calmed Alsanna, shifting her loyalties towards the King instead of taking the same path as Nashandra did. Ultimately, Alsanna is the only thing holding back the flames of Lost Izalith, and her main concern after Mercy Killing the Burnt Ivory King is rescuing the souls trapped in the Old Chaos.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition reveals that Flemeth got her power from a fragment of the dead elven goddess Mythal.
  • Kingdom Hearts villain Xehanort makes a habit of putting fragments of his heart into other people, which slowly regrows into a full copy of himself that will take them over from within. Some are reckless enough to accept the offer willingly out of desire for Xehanort's power, others not so much.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zelda transfers her magical powers to Midna at a particular point in the game, which at the end allows Ganon to possess her.
  • Persona 3:
    • When Chidori dies saving Junpei from certain death, he gets a small piece of her life-essence. In-game, this translates to an automatic ability that recovers a small amount of HP.
    • In a reverse instance: after spending ten years sealed inside the main character, the Appraiser of Death gained enough humanity to become sympathetic to their plight, giving them a choice about The End of the World as We Know It, and being rather benevolent and supportive for an Eldritch Abomination about to bring about death to them and everyone on the planet.
  • The entire first half of Tales of Hearts is about what became of the various fragments of Kohak's soul. An astronomer absorbs her fear, causing him to fear that the moon is falling; an artist absorbs her doubt and thinks everyone is out to cheat her; a noblewoman absorbs her sadness and wants to commit suicide, etc.

    Webcomics 
  • In Godslave, Anpu, better known under his Greek name of "Anubis", placed a fragment of his Ba into Edith so she could defend him. It gives her Super-Strength and an instinctive knowledge of fighting. In addition, being a god Anpu originally had nine Ba, but the other eight were removed when the other gods sealed him in a canopic jar, naturally he would like Edith to find them.
  • TwoKinds: After Natani's soul was fragmented by an evil mage, a piece of his brother's soul was used to hold the remnants together. Because one of the missing soul-fragments was Natani's gender identity, "he" thinks of himself as male, despite being biologically female — and does his best to ensure everyone else does, too, though more and more people seem to be finding out the secret.

    Western Animation 
  • The gems of Steven Universe can literally be this; the core of their being is a gemstone that builds a hard light construct around itself so it can interact with its environment. Even when shattered a gem's life isn't extinguished, but merely splintered amongst the shards of the gemstone, which are still aware enough to construct limbs and be driven by a desire to be made whole again. When Steven mentally connects to the Cluster, a massive forced fusion of countless gem shards, each consciousness is represented in a mental world as a mote of light, totally oblivious to each other until Steven draws their attention to each other.

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