History Main / PiecesOfGod

* In ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' web novel continuity it's revealed that gods have the ability to create fragments of their souls which can then incarnate as mortals and live a life before returning to their creator. The main example of this is [[spoiler:Medea, the web novel's BigBag. She has seeded multiple worlds with her fragments, such as Princess Malty, to sow discord and chaos while she prepares the worlds for destruction]].

* In ''Literature/TheSundering'', the universe is the broken body of the primordial deity.
* In Creator/HPLovecraft's story "[[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tgsk.aspx Through the Gates of the Silver Key]]", Randolph Carter learns that all conscious beings are actually tiny aspects of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s outside time and space, granted the illusion of individuality by their limited perception of the universe. Facing the Great Old One Yog-Sothoth, he realizes that he and it are the same being.

* Apparently this is the true form of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''' god Primus in some continuities. Each Transformer houses a tiny fragment of him known as a "spark" that returns to the collective known as the [[TheLifestream "All Spark"]] upon death to share knowledge and experience as part of his incomprehensibly complex plan to deal with his EvilCounterpart Unicron.\\\

Not to be confused with DividedDeity, where a god is split into a small number of pieces that are each sitll a god.

*** Fascinating in that a [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Soul]] is not in itself divine. Mages ''can make souls'', but these lack the divine aspect even the lowliest {{Muggle}}'s soul carries. Of course, all this means is they can never Awaken and become Mages. [[AppliedPhlebotinum Except]] [[BecomeARealBoy when]] [[HumanityIsInfectious they]] [[CharacterDevelopment do]]. It is explicitly stated in the Technocracy books that [[ArtificialHumans Human Constructs]] (essentially [[CloningBlues clones]] or organic RidiculouslyHumanRobots) can become Awakened.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The fisher daydreamers believe that the world was shaped by a single creator deity who then splintered itself into three essences -- a flying creature, a terrestrial one and an aquatic one, each of which then split apart into myriad smaller copies of itself -- to better experience all the realms of the world. They believe themselves to be the far-scattered fragments of the marine essence, and that one day they will find and reunite with the fragments of the other two and, having learned all that the world has to offer, reform into the creator.

->''"The fact that we exist is proof that God is motivated to act in some way. And since only the challenge of self-destruction could interest an omnipotent God, it stands to reason that we... are God's debris."''
-->-- '''Scott Adams''', ''Literature/GodsDebris''

* In ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' web novel continuity it's revealed that gods have the ability to create fragments of their souls which can then incarnate as mortals and live a life before returning to their creator. The main example of this is [[spoiler:Medea, the web novel's BigBag. She has seeded multiple worlds with her fragments, such as Princess Malty, to sow discord and chaos while she prepares the worlds for destruction]].

* ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'' has the world's equivalent of Satan, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, split into seven pieces and sealed away into human souls; one is sealed in a GrimUpNorth, and another was destroyed during the series by Lina and her allies [[spoiler:twice]]. A third piece was destroyed in the final book of the original light novel series as well. The God equivalent Ceifeed is allegedly gone for good, but fragments of him occasionally are born in others, branding them his knights, including Lina's sister Luna. How this works is unknown. Of one lesser god, Ragradia, two fragments survived: one looks like a little female Yoda, and the other resides in an immortal human being known as the Eternal Queen of Zephilia.
** Additionally, the very fabric of each universe in the ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'' Multiverse is a part of the body of the story's ultimate God, the Lord of Nightmares. Why she gave up her body to make this is unknown, but giving her body back by destroying the "axis" holding the universes is the ultimate goal of all demons.

* The character Murphy in ''ComicBook/PS238'' is the largest remaining fragment of ''some'' manner of god of dreams and visions (read: a CaptainErsatz of [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Morpheus]]) who was shattered by some manner of powerful foe. As a fragment he possesses a human-level intellect and some minor powers of prophecy and clairvoyance. He is currently attending ComicBook/PS238 while waiting for other fragments to find him or vice versa.

* In the Thousand Year Blood War for ''Manga/{{Bleach}},'' we have [[TheEmperor Yhwach]], who is the BigBad, and the original Quincy. The reason all other Quincies exist is because he shared pieces of his soul with them. These soul fragments become their Quincy powers. And this soul fragment is technically now a part of the Quincy, so any offspring inherit the Quincy power as well. Yhwach is associated by many Quincies with the Christian God, partly because of this. [[spoiler:However, when a Quincy actually dies, they lose that piece of soul, which goes back to Yhwach. Also, if Yhwach feels the need to, he can forcibly remove his soul fragment, with the side effect of killing the Quincy. He has caused at least two massacres by removing Quincy powers en masse.]]
** The same thing happens with the Soul King as it's revealed. [[spoiler: Multiple characters - from Ukitake to Matsumoto to even several antagonists (like Pernida and Gerard Valkyrie) are pieces of the Soul King.]]

* The character Murphy in ''ComicBook/PS238'' is the largest remaining fragment of ''some'' manner of god of dreams and visions (read: a CaptainErsatz of [[ComicBook/TheSandman Morpheus]]) who was shattered by some manner of powerful foe. As a fragment he possesses a human-level intellect and some minor powers of prophecy and clairvoyance. He is currently attending ComicBook/PS238 while waiting for other fragments to find him or vice versa.

** [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist The 2003 anime version's]] GeckoEnding also uses this explanation, in some different ways. Amongst other things, it explains why their homonculi, being TheSoulless, cannot perform Alchemy. [[spoiler:Wrath is an exception because he's using Edward's arm.]]