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8->''And that must end us, that must be our cure:\
9To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose,\
10Though full of pain, this intellectual being,\
11Those thoughts that wander through eternity,\
12To perish, rather, swallowed up and lost\
13In the wide womb of uncreated night\
14Devoid of sense and motion?''
15-->-- '''Creator/JohnMilton''': ''Literature/ParadiseLost''
16
17This is when you die, and you cease to exist. No afterlife. No feeling, no thought, no perception, no existence. Your existence — everything you ''were'' — simply disappears like a popped soap bubble.
18
19The cessation of existence is not a lovely FluffyCloudHeaven or a terrible FireAndBrimstoneHell. You know nothing, you feel nothing, you ''are'' nothing. If you cease to exist and are gone forever, you have no knowledge of anything, not even of your own death or the life you lived before. In other words, permanent and total unconsciousness. Even that is a woefully inadequate comparison, since even the unconscious can still dream. The term most often used to describe this state of affairs is either "nonexistence" or "oblivion".
20
21This is fairly inconceivable to those who exist, as not-existing and existing are somewhat mutually exclusive. The idea/belief here is that even after death you'll never know or realize you're dead and that there's no afterlife (even if you've believed in one), meaning the two examples above ''still'' don't quite give an accurate impression of what it would be like. Then again, it wouldn't be like ''anything''. Perhaps a good way to think about it is like this: try and remember what it was like before you were born (belief in {{reincarnation}} notwithstanding).
22
23Perhaps the greatest PrimalFear imaginable,[[note]]For the majority of sapient creatures who view their own existences as a net positive state of affairs, at any rate.[[/note]] and one that is arguably not unique to humans (although other animals feel it on a much more instinctual level). It also easily qualifies as one of the quintessential kinds of ExistentialHorror. However, some people find comfort in this idea, believing that [[WhoWantsToLiveForever any eternal afterlife would inevitably end up being unbearably boring]], regardless of whether it's a FluffyCloudHeaven or FireAndBrimstoneHell.
24
25In some settings, this is the default state of the dead. In others, it's a violation of the natural order. In still others, it's a fate ''some'' dead are naturally destined for, but not all. If this is a universal or common fate, it can provide the motive for an ImmortalitySeeker to try to live forever.
26
27Not to be confused with TheNothingAfterDeath, where you still exist, if only as a mere shade floating between nothing and nowhere. Also not to be confused with FadingAway -- that's when you die and your ''body'' ceases to exist.
28
29Compare RetGone, which is when a character not only ceases to exist, but ceases to have ''ever'' existed. Also compare ApocalypseHow: ApocalypseHow/ClassZ, which is where this becomes the fate of everything everywhere. This can be a result from DeaderThanDead. Many examples of the ArtificialAfterlife are built either out of fear of this or to try to avoid it.
30
31!!As this is a {{Death Trope|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
32[[noreallife]]
33----
34!!Examples:
35[[index]]
36* CessationOfExistence/LiveActionTV
37[[/index]]
38
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
42* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
43** There is a wheel of reincarnation at work in this story. Souls born into the World of the Living die and pass into the Soul Society. They live there for a period of time, then die again and are finally reincarnated back into the World of the Living as a new lifeform. There are some souls born into Soul Society. When those souls die, they also move on through the reincarnation cycle. Even if a soul is interrupted in this cycle by becoming a hollow, the hollow can still be cleansed to return to the cycle and pass on to Soul Society peacefully. Then there are Quincies. Their power does not cleanse hollows. It destroys them. The soul is not only destroyed but will never return to the reincarnation cycle and therefore vanishes for good. In other words, the Quincies don't just destroy the current life of the soul, they're destroying all the soul's future lives as well. The story has stated that Quincies are unique in being the only ones capable of destroying the soul. Their reason to do it is because the Hollows can destroy their souls by merely infecting them. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that the truth is actually an aversion. All Quincies and anything killed by a Quincy are infected with a portion of their king [[BigBad Yhwach's]] power, which [[TheAssimilator inevitably returns to him along with the infected soul upon death]].]]
44** Supposedly, anyone who dies a second time in Soul Society reincarnates back into the living world. But how do they know? It makes you wonder if it's not just a belief, and they don't really know what happens. In the case of souls destroyed by Quincy, normally a Hollow destroyed by a Shinigami goes to Soul Society, while those destroyed by Quincy don't. The idea of the soul being destroyed seems to be an assumption.
45** People killed in the living world go to Soul Society, and those who die in Soul Society reincarnate in the living world without any memory. However, souls of Humans who commited sins are sent to Hell, and tormented forever. Doesn't this means eventually everyone will go to Hell? Existence is endless test, those who succeed will be tested again, and those who fail don't get a second chance.
46** Left unclear in all of this is what happens to souls that are consumed by Hollows. When a Hollow consumes enough souls to [[EvolutionaryLevels evolve into a Menos]], the souls will fight for dominance. But nothing has ever been said about what happens when one of them wins out. Are the rest still in there as distinct souls, or is their individuality completely wiped away forever? Since we've never seen a Hollow's soul(s) arriving in Soul Society after being purified, there's no way to know. This may be one of the many things that ''Bleach'' borrows from Myth/JapaneseMythology and folklore; for example, it was common in Shinto practices to believe that most "common" spirits or ghosts are absorbed into larger ones, such as unimportant ancestors or branch family members losing any individuality and becoming [[MergerOfSouls part of the family spirit as a whole]].
47* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Ryuk tells Light that since he's used the Death Note, he can go neither to heaven nor hell, but instead "Mu", or nothingness. At the end of the series, a flashback that shows the entirety of that scene occurs, where Light deduces that Mu isn't exclusive to Death Note users; there's no afterlife for ''anyone.'' This is confirmed onscreen by Ryuk, as well as by [[AllThereInTheManual the Rules of the Death Note]] shown between chapters, WordOfGod, and an EyeCatch in the anime. While this could alternatively entail TheNothingAfterDeath, the Japanese meaning of "Mu" can be interpreted in a WhenIsPurple sense, leaning more toward this trope.
48* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', it's stated that this is what's believed to happen to the soul of an akuma who is destroyed by any means other than through the use of Innocence.
49* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
50** The series has an afterlife, but according to Goku, if Vegeta (who retained his body in the afterlife to help fight Majin Buu) was killed by Pure Buu, he would cease to exist.
51** Android 16 is fully mechanical, so when Cell destroyed him in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s Cell arc, he had no soul to be restored.
52** Some types of fusions are permanent (i.e. Nail and Kami-sama who were assimilated by Piccolo), and apparently even their souls fuse and they stay fused in the afterlife. Similarly, if one of the parts of a fusion is gone, the fused being can no longer be formed (such as with Evil Buu case).
53** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' establishes that [[DestroyerDeity a God of Destruction]] is capable of destroying someone's soul along with body, as demonstrated with erasing [[Manga/DrSlump Dr Mashirito]] despite him being a ghost. Beerus later also does it to [[spoiler: original timeline Zamasu]], simply erasing any trace of his existence in the blink of an eye. [[TopGod Zen'o]] seems capable of doing this to entire universes (and by extension their afterlife), [[spoiler:as demonstrated by erasing [[EldritchAbomination what remained of]] the immortal Merged Zamasu and the future timeline he corrupted, as well as the universes that lost in the Tournament Of Power (though the latter were eventually restored by 17).]]
54* In ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'', this is what Izaya fears above all else. This is why he plans to initiate Ragnarok. His hope is to create a war only he can win, thus earning a place in Valhalla, but he'll take an eternity of torment in Hell so long as it means still existing.
55* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', this is [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Mard Geer's]] plan to kill Zeref. Since he's essentially immortal and thus incapable of dying, the best way to deal with him is to remove the very concept of life and death entirely and erase him from the fabric of existence altogether. He even developed a technique specifically to do this.
56* Although souls in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' [[OurSoulsAreDifferent demonstrably exist]], they do not appear to be immortal, and instead disintegrate after death just as a person's body decomposes. They can remain [[FateWorseThanDeath "in tact"]] by being [[PoweredByAForsakenChild jammed into]] a PhilosophersStone, but eventually reach the same end state when its power is exhausted. Granted, the assessment of where souls go after death comes from people of the largely areligious country of Amestris. The Ishvallan religion appears to believe in some other afterlife, and the way alchemy treats and views souls may be part of why they forbid it. [[spoiler:However, the manga ends with a sequence showing Trisha and Hohenheim observing the epilogue from the afterlife.]]
57* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', this occurs [[spoiler:upon Pucci utilizing [[TimeMaster Made In Heaven]] to [[RestartTheWorld recreate the entire universe]]. After Pucci killed all the heroes, with the exception of Emporio, prior to the reset, he explains that dying during the acceleration of time and the subsequent rebirth of the universe does ''not'' bring anyone BackFromTheDead and therefore had their souls erased forever and were replaced by an AlternateSelf. In the last battle, after Emporio defeated Pucci before his universe could be completed, the [[PygmalionSnapback cosmic-snapback]] has Pucci RetGone, while everyone else is restored entirely as new selves with their souls back]].
58* In "Long Dream" from the ''Manga/JunjiItoKyoufuMangaCollection'', the terminally ill girl Mami is terrified of this imminently happening to her. She is ultimately saved from this fate by being "treated" with the crystals from Mukoda's corpse, possibly allowing her to enter a state of eternal existence in dreams.
59* In the ''Anime/MonsterRancher'' anime, becoming a Lost Disc and Monsters fusing together are portrayed as this.
60* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
61** Eri's father ends up being accidentally vanishing from existence when Eri was incapable of controlling her Quirk.
62** In the Final War Arc, [[Characters/MyHeroAcademiaAllForOne All for One]] suffers this fate. Using an unstable copy of Eri's rewind quirk allows him to cheat death and rewind to before his CareerEndingInjury, as well as making him unkillable, but at the cost of being unable to stop rewinding, giving him an HourOfPower before he gets rewound out of existence. [[spoiler: A combination of being held back by several groups of heroes, and being baited into a final battle with his hated ArchEnemy causes him to run out of time and erased from existence before being able to accomplish his goal of securing his GrandTheftMe on the BigBad Tomura Shigaraki.]]
63* ''Manga/OshiNoKo'' initially appears to have an afterlife, as Aquamarine and Ruby both have fully-remembered past lives. [[spoiler:After Aqua asked [[MysteriousWaif the Crow Girl]] if his murdered mother also reincarnated, she explains almost everyone's souls are destroyed after death. Aqua and Ruby's "reincarnation" was essentially their souls [[PossessingADeadBody being placed in newborn bodies]] [[TheSoulless that never had souls]].]]
64* In ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'', this is basically what happens whenever one's [[LifeEnergy Power of Existence]] is lost (usually after being consumed by a Crimson Lord). If one's Power of Existence dwindles and fades away, they become increasingly lethargic and slow to react, while their presence starts to go by unnoticed by others. Eventually, they just vanish, [[RetGone and everything continues]] [[InSpiteOfANail as though they never existed at all.]]
65* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' takes place in the Viking Age and many viking warriors believe they will be taken to the afterlife by the Valkyries if they died in combat. There is big battle in the last third of the story. A {{Mook}} is mortally wounded, already having lost his sight, hearing and the feeling of his body. As he lies dying, we are shown his last thoughts. At first he's calmly waiting for the Valkyries in the silent darkness, but after a while he gets nervous and later panics, having realized there are no Valkyries and no afterlife. As he slowly fades away, he wants to warn his comrades of this and his very last thought is that he doesn't want to die. Then he is gone.
66* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', this is what happens if someone who is already dead is somehow killed. In addition, certain creatures can eat a person's soul and cause them to cease to exist.
67[[/folder]]
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69[[folder:Audio Play]]
70* The badass main characters of ''AudioPlay/WizardPeopleDearReader'' would greatly prefer this fate to "the [[WhoWantsToLiveForever perpetual]] [[HellOfAHeaven pansiness]] of Heaven", [[PurpleProse pontificating]] on the subject when dramatically appropriate.
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Comic Books]]
74* This was the primary function of the Ultimate Annihilator, the weapon created by Robotnik Prime in the End Game arc of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics''. Robotnik planned to use it to not only defeat the Freedom Fighters, but wipe them and their home from existence. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked so well]], in fact, that when Snively sabotaged it and it annihilated Robotnik instead of Knothole the whole Universe was thrown into chaos when he was removed from it.
75* In Mike Carey's ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', the title character makes his own cosmos with no afterlife. When he destroys the man he creates for [[AdamAndEvePlot disobeying his one command not to serve him]], Lucifer says, "Did the ten thousand years before thy birth trouble thee? Well, no more will the ten thousand years after thy death."
76* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, this is the forte of the CosmicEntity known as Oblivion. His sister [[TheGrimReaper Death]] claims anyone who actually dies. People claimed from him are subject to either this trope, RetGone, DeaderThanDead, or some other type of FateWorseThanDeath.
77* In ''ComicBook/TheSculptor'', David is willing to give his life for his art. Along comes Death and shows him the void that awaits him after death, represented by two pages of blank white paper. David is freaked out by what he sees, since his mind could barely comprehend the absence itself, but he strikes a bargain with Death anyway.
78* During ''[[ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}} Day of Vengeance]]'', Ragman tries to attack absorb Eclipso into his suit of rags, but her resistance creates a shockwave that ends up destroying hundreds of the evil souls already trapped there, causing them to simply cease to exist. This sends Ragman into a brief HeroicBSOD; as much as he despised all those souls trapped in his suit, he believed that they still deserved a chance to redeem themselves.
79* For things and beings that didn't make it before (thanks to the Multiversal collapse, courtesy of the Beyonders), during (thanks to simply being killed) and after (more importantly, this is the deciding one) the course of events of Marvel's ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''.
80* The fate of reality, courtesy of the Anti-Monitor, according to the Amazonian prophecy, in DC's ''ComicBook/DarkseidWar''.
81* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'': Mr. Rictus was originally an extremely religious man who did only good but after briefly dying on the operating table and realizing there was no afterlife, he became one of the world's worst supervillains after becoming enraged that his virtue would never be rewarded by God and realizing there were no consequences for being bad after he died. Of course, being hideously disfigured in the process probably didn't do him any favors either. Weirdly, Mark Millar's other comic ''Chosen'' is implied to be set in the same universe, and it's about the second coming of Jesus.
82* ''ComicBook/TheGrievousJourneyOfIchabodAzrael'': When Charon escapes to the land of the living, he has to be returned to his duties before he is killed. Since in his case he's not supposed to be there in the first place, he won't be sent to purgatory like any regular soul but his demise means he will simply cease to exist.
83* ''ComicBook/{{Purgatori}}'': The demon Cremator invents a sword capable of erasing demons from existence, including Lucifer. If they are hurt with any other weapon, they'll just regenerate.
84* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' implies this a couple of times.
85** After her death, Rick's hallucination of [[spoiler: Lori]] says that she wishes she could tell him that she and everyone he's lost is in a better world, but reminds him he was never one to believe in the afterlife anyway.
86** After her HappilyFailedSuicide, [[spoiler: Maggie]] tells Glenn that there is nothing after death and that she will take what she can from the ZombieApocalypse.
87* The titular character in ''ComicBook/{{Sasmira}}'', upon her resurrection, swore that there was nothing after death and that the Egyptian gods didn't exist. She was sentenced by her father to have her mouth gagged with a device in order to silence her.
88* Invoked in ''ComicBook/DCeased'', by [[spoiler: Constantine, who knew that when he died he'd go straight to Hell and face a number of demons very eager for revenge. As such, he made sure his HeroicSacrifice didn't just destroy his body but his soul, avoiding eternal torture and giving one last fuck-you to the Infernal Host.]]
89[[/folder]]
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91[[folder:Comic Strips]]
92* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin ponders this on a number of occasions, wondering what the point of human existence can possibly be if it's just going to end someday. In at least one case he concludes that since everyone is going to die and stay dead forever, there was no reason to abide by any rules, and he decides to [[TheUnfettered lead a life of shameless hedonism]] (which is immediately kiboshed by his parents). [[TheAntiNihilist Hobbes is more accepting of this possibility, pointing out that life is quite wonderful even if it's finite, so we should be grateful.]]
93* In ''ComicStrip/LifeInHell'', Bongo swats a fly, and then asks Binky what happens after someone dies. Binky responds that people believe all kinds of things, but the reasonable ones believe exactly in this trope, prompting Bongo to apologize to the fly.
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Fan Works]]
97* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': It's revealed that [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnon Vivienne Graham]] experienced this when she was OnlyMostlyDead, and it takes San viewing her memories and seeing TheNothingAfterDeath to make her realize that she really did die. It's implied by Word of God and by Godzilla in the story that Cessation of Existence is actually an intermediary stage between death and {{Reincarnation}}.
98* ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'': Edward believes that, because vampires lack souls, they cease to exist post-death, while humans go on to an afterlife of some kind. Bella, while open to the possibility of an afterlife, points out that there's no actual evidence it exists ''at all'', much less that it discriminates between humans and vampires in this way, and so believes this is what happens to ''everyone'' who dies regardless of species -- which is [[ImmortalitySeeker why she's so keen on becoming a vampire]]. The two have several discussions about this, though it's worth noting that Edward isn't particularly good at debating in a perfectly rational field.
99* Comes up occasionally in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction:
100** ''Fanfic/DaylightBurning'': According to the Nightmare, no part of the soul survives the death of the body -- instead, all consciousness, memory and being simply cease the moment the physical self does. [[ImmortalitySeeker This is her primary reason for wanting to live forever.]]
101** ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/72998/last-one-standing Last One Standing]]'' is the first time this happens. Notable because it's left ambiguous as to whether or not that is what actually befalls the dead.
102** ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/85411/reflections Reflections]]'' is the second time it comes up. The two immortal protagonists discuss the idea of eternal nothingness. They do not agree.
103** ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die]]'' mentions the well of souls twice as a possible afterlife. Whether or not it's real is ambiguous.
104** In ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/273539/dying-to-get-there Dying to Get There]]'', Rainbow Dash believes that Twilight's DestructiveTeleportation would result in multiple copies of herself in the afterlife, something which upsets her greatly. Twilight comforts her by pointing out that her teleportation doesn't actually work like that, but even if it did, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint it wouldn't matter anyway because there is no afterlife.]] Rainbow Dash suffers an off-screen ExistentialCrisis and reappears at the end of the story [[DarkComedy wearing a helmet and kneepads to keep herself safe.]]
105** In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'' there ''is'' decidedly an Afterlife, with Heaven, Hell, and a form of Purgatory (which is more Limbo). However, there's also Oblivion, where half a person who was erased from existence's soul (called a Shadow of Existence, representing their life, appearance, and experiences) goes which can still one day exist again if merged with a fitting being or becoming part of a Draconequus. Even if this Shadow is destroyed, their Light of Existence (the other half they ''began'' with and is the base, core being) will go back to Fauna Luster and be {{Reincarnat|ion}}ed. This does not apply to deities, so if their Shadow of Existence is destroyed, they're ''gone'' permanently. D__t had this happen to him, and thus no longer exists in ''any'' sense of the word. There's also the Shadow of Chernobull/Makarov, who [[TheSoulless never had a Light to begin with]], so after being devoured by the [[ClockRoaches Blank Wolf]] his Shadow is all that's left.
106** In the Fanfic/TheFreeportVenture story Come and See, Sunset Shimmer inflicts this on [[spoiler:Sombra, after extensive experimentation on his soul.]]
107** In ''Fanfic/CodexEquus'', this is normally subverted, as the afterlife and souls are an established fact. Generally each pantheon has their own Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory Realms for their worshipers, unaligned ones exist, and {{Reincarnation}} also happens. However, rarely something can happen to entirely destroy a soul, resulting in the being ceasing to exist entirely. One example is Queen Dark Crystal, whose soul was so unstable due to the ritual that turned her into a MadeOfEvil abomination that when she was finally slain by Fairytale, it violently exploded. Some crimes are also so unspeakably evil that Primeval Law dictates the guilty party have their soul destroyed.
108** In ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', after Giranbo is killed by Destroyah, it's mentioned she lacks a soul and thus ceased to exist after death.
109* In ''[[Fanfic/BoundDestiniesTrilogy Wisdom and Courage]]'', this happens to Link after the final battle in chapter 34. The hero uses the Fierce Deity's Mask during the battle in order to defeat Veran, but the conflict between his own soul and that of the mask ultimately ends up mutually canceling each other out and destroying them both, leaving Link as essentially an [[EmptyShell Empty Shell]]. But thanks to Zelda's wish on the Triforce, they both are restored.
110* In ''Fanfic/BeingDeadAintEasy'', Joey is in danger of this since he's already dead; dying again would mean he'd utterly cease to exist.
111* In the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''/''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' {{crossover}} story, ''Fanfic/SayItThrice'', this is what can happen to ghosts who end up destroyed rather than moving on or [[DeaderThanDead being exorcised]]. When he forces his way into the human world through the [[CoolGate Ghost Portal]], Betelgeuse [[HeroicRROD almost succumbs to this fate]].
112* In "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13968545/1/Lost-and-Found Lost and Found]]", when Paige Matthews (''Series/Charmed1998'') is taking part in the mission to retrieve the Soul Stone (''Film/AvengersEndgame''), she learns from [[spoiler:Prue Halliwell]] that this is the fate of all those who died in the Snap, as their souls were held in the Soul Stone rather than passing on to an afterlife and lost after Thanos destroyed it. Paige is assured that they can restore those killed by the Snap with their plan to recreate the Gauntlet, but [[spoiler:Prue subsequently sacrifices herself to retrieve the Soul Stone, sacrificing her afterlife so that all those killed in the Snap can come back]].
113* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Series/StargateAtlantis'' crossover "[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-33937/BlueZeroZeroOne+The+Long+Haul.htm The Long Haul]]", it is revealed that Wraith feeding doesn't just kill the victim, but actually destroys the souls of those they feed on.
114* In ''Fanfic/DidIMakeTheMostOfLovingYou'', Laura Roslin states that this is the fate of anyone who dies on Kobol as their souls will fade rather than pass on, making it clear to [[spoiler:Tom Zarek after she kills him for trying to kill her family]] that she will ensure nobody remembers him once she gets back to the fleet.
115* In ''Fanfic/MyMother'', Anakin and Obi-Wan reveal to Padme that it is impossible for non-Force users to retain sentience after death on their own, and it has even taken time for the Jedi to learn how to manifest as Force ghosts. However, they tell her that they have managed to learn how to teach non-Force-users to retain or even regain their identities after death, with their first success case being Bail Organa.
116* What naturally used to happen to humans (and still happens to Merfolk) in the ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' RecursiveFanfiction ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10636246/1/Following-the-Phoenix Following the Phoenix]]''. The [[{{Atlantis}} Atlanteans]] tried to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this trope by creating [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] as a backup of every human's mind, but they failed to give souls the ability to think up new thoughts, or even to do much of anything without some additional charms, so they just ended up with TheNothingAfterDeath. However, this trope can still apply when souls get destroyed, such as after a Dementor's Kiss.
117* The ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/QueenOfBloodSirWill'' has this happen to two members of Slaughterhouse Nine after the group is wiped out by Taylor and company. Mannequin, Hatchet Face, Siberian and Shatterbird all end up in their own individual IronicHell, Bonesaw is simply purged of her sins and sent to the afterlife with her mother as she wasn't completely to blame for her crimes, and we dont get to see where Crawler ends up (he doesn't technically die during the story, Dragon throws the only remaining piece of him into space, where he eventually regenerates several decades later, until he finally dies about a century later while crushed in the atmosphere of Jupiter). However, Burnscar, or rather, the SuperpoweredEvilSide that embodies Burnscar, is simply erased from existence while her other half Mimi is sent on to the cycle of rebirth, and Jack Slash is told by Death that his soul is so repugnant and pathetically sadistic that Hell doesn't want him, and he's barred from Heaven. So, he's instead obliberated completely.
118* ''Fanfic/DeathIsForcedToTakeAVacation'': Fall Harvest, the Reaper for the alicorn race, would rather face this than Princess Celestia, what with their past.
119* In ''Fanfic/WarriorsRedux'', the Dark Forest is AdaptedOut. Instead, bad Clan cats fade away into nothingness when they die.
120* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Series/StargateSG1'' crossover "[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-3995/lyapunov+The+Magic+of+Wormholes.htm The Magic of Wormholes]]", Giles and Willow assist Stargate Command in translating a prophecy that reveals that [[spoiler:Willow will inflict this on Anubis using a particular ritual, which Giles describes as the most terrible thing anyone can do even as all parties have to agree that Anubis merits such an extreme response]].
121* In ''Fanfic/PrincessOfTheBlacks'', a ghost who loses their way will eventually simply fade away into non-existence.
122* When [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Dawn]] starts talking about breaking the rules in ''[[https://remixredux09.livejournal.com/60359.html Reaping the Whirlwind]]'', [[Series/DeadLikeMe George]] warns her that if a Reaper breaks the rules too badly or too many times, Upper Management will erase them from existence.
123* In ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} These Are the Damned]]'', Tom asks Jake what it felt like to be dead[[note]]Jake died and then came back to life due to time travel shenanigans in ''The Forgotten''[[/note]]; Jake responds that he remembers ''nothing'', and it terrifies him.
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126[[folder:Films — Animation]]
127* The ultimate fate of old or unwanted memories and other elements of Riley's mindscape in ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut''; after being consigned to the vast chasm between the Emotions' Headquarters and the rest of the mind, the memories fade, grow dim, and eventually dissolve away. Bing Bong the imaginary friend pulls a HeroicSacrifice to allow Joy to escape the pit, symbolizing Riley's need to grow up and leave some of her more childish elements behind.
128* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': If a character is killed outside of their own game, they cease to exist, and their games will then be unplugged.
129* The dead in ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' go to The Land Of The Forgotten when nobody on Earth remembers them. They're implied not to last long there as some souls are seen turning into sand and being blown away by the wind.
130* Being based on the same mythology, ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' has souls fade away when no-one remembers them. It's wondered in-universe if they stop existing or move on somewhere else. WordOfGod implies it's the latter.
131* In ''WesternAnimation/OrionAndTheDark'', part of the reason for Orion’s fears is his belief that there is no afterlife and his inability to comprehend nothingness. [[spoiler:However, over the course of the film, he learns to accept that just because you don’t know an ending, you don’t have to be afraid of the middle part, eventually coming to save Dark from a manifestation of this fear in his dream.]]
132[[/folder]]
133
134[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
135* In ''Film/TwoThirtySeven'', Sean explicitly rejects the notions of heaven, hell and reincarnation, instead subscribing to this view of death. He also notes that he doesn't fear dying.
136* In ''Film/The6thDay'', religious extremists believe that clones don't have souls and therefore will simply cease to exist when they die. After being killed and cloned, one of Drucker's mooks notes that he didn't experience any kind of an afterlife in between. However, clones inherit the memories of the person they were cloned from, which are obviously stored in the brain; as those memories stop when the brain becomes inactive, it doesn't preclude the possibility of the previous clone existing in a non-corporeal form. One of them even complains about pain from injuries he sustained ''after'' his last brain backup.
137* This is what one of the two main characters in ''Film/TheBucketList'' initially believes. It's implied that he's changed his mind by the end of the film.
138* In Creator/WesCraven's ''Film/{{Chiller}}'', a man (played by Michael Beck of ''Film/{{Xanadu|1980}}'' fame) is thawed out and revived when his cryonic containment unit fails. When a priest asks him what there is after death, he says, "Nothing. You die and there's just darkness." (It may or may not be true; Beck's character in the movie is an UnreliableExpositor since he CameBackWrong.)
139* In ''Film/DeadBirds'', Todd encounters a demonic Sam in the field as he’s trying to leave, and evaporates into thin air.
140* ''Film/DefendingYourLife'': You can get ''thousands'' of attempts to live your life properly (that is, without fear), but there's an upper limit, at which point "the universe throws you away" according to Bob.
141* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': A [[ApocalypseHow Class X-4 Apocalypse]] will result in this if the BigBad gets his way. Basically, [[FallenAngel Azrael]] was so tortured by the absence of God and the self-imposed suffering of the damned in Hell that he would rather be wiped out of existence than suffer it any longer, [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum consequences to the universe be damned]].
142* In ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' Dragon Sean Connery says that only certain dragons get to have an afterlife, branded by the stars. The others just... disappear when they die.
143* This is the effect of the God Killer in ''Film/DriveAngry''. Technically, though, those shot with it ''do'' exist in a very specific form... that being their gibbed remains painting everything close by from the explosive power of the gun. Metaphysically, it plays this trope straight.
144* This was the afterlife (or the lack thereof) depicted in ''Film/TheInventionOfLying'' before the main character invented religion to make people feel better.
145* ''Film/JennifersBody'': Colin's ''mother'' says he's just a corpse now, not in some better place like his emo friends say (at his funeral, no less).
146* ''Film/LizInSeptember'': Liz, while contemplating the idea of death, muses that she believes this happens when you die, saying there will be nothing left from her after.
147* ''Film/{{M3gan}}'': After learning about death, the robot [=M3GAN=] appears to regard it this way. When Cady asks if the recently deceased Brandon is really in a better place like Gemma says, [=M3GAN=]'s answer is "No. He's nowhere."
148* ''Film/AMatterOfFaith'': During the debate, Kamen states he believes death is the end, to Stephen's dismay.
149* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'': One of the crucified victims at the end of the film has a positive attitude about this: "You came from nothing, you're going back to nothing! What have you lost? Nothing!"
150* ''Film/NightTrainToLisbon'': {{Discussed}} by Amadeu while giving his speech in the church. He feels that eternal life would in fact be ''worse'' than this, saying it would devalue present existence and could be unbearable.
151* ''Film/PrincessCyd'': {{Discussed}} by Cyd and Miranda. The latter doesn't believe in an afterlife, probing Miranda about what she believes. Miranda doesn't claim to believe in Heaven and Hell, but does think there's something more. She doesn't answer however when Cyd asks [[ArmorPiercingQuestion if she really believes that they'll see Cyd's mom again]].
152* In the ''Film/{{Rampage|2009}}'' trilogy, [[VillainProtagonist Bill Williamson]] is a firm believer that there is no afterlife, which is first brought up in the second film ''Rampage: Capital Punishment'', where he shoots one of his hostages dead and points out that no soul or spirit is rising from her remains, then later goes on a rant that religion is just a scam because God does not exist and there's nothing more to dying other than your corpse being put into the ground.
153* Both the bad guys and the good guys in ''Film/{{RIPD}}'' use "soul-killing" bullets against their respective enemies. The two protagonists are also temporarily threatened with this after screwing up an assignment - perhaps the very ultimate in DisproportionateRetribution.
154* ''Film/TheStudentNurses'': Greg is 18 years old and is terminally ill with cystic fibrosis. He's pretty bitter about it.
155-->'''Greg''': For each person, the end of the world comes after he dies.
156* ''Film/TheSunIsAlsoAStar'': When talking to Daniel, Natasha indicates that she thinks death is the end.
157* ''Film/TheSunsetLimited'': White positively ''longs'' for this. He wants to die and have it be the end.
158* Gorr's god-killing rampage in ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'' is kicked off when his god tells him there's no afterlife and he'll never see his daughter again. Though a PostCreditsScene shows that [[spoiler:[[WarriorHeaven Valhalla]]]] exists.
159* ''Film/VoyageOfTheUnicorn'': {{Discussed}} by Alan and one of his students after he asks what if anything happens when we die. Alan calls this view "sad" and "boring". There is a deep subtext here, as he's recently lost his wife.
160* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', it's implied this is what happens to Toons who have been [[KilledOffForReal killed]] using the [[DeaderThanDead dip]], since the weasels who laugh themselves to death become angels, while the one who falls into the dip does not. Though it’s also possible that the implication is that for the ones who laughed themselves to death, DeathIsCheap applies, but the one killed by the dip was KilledOffForReal.
161* ''Film/WrathOfTheTitans'': This is what happens when a god dies.
162[[/folder]]
163
164[[folder:Literature]]
165* Robert Cormier's ''Literature/InTheMiddleOfTheNight'', where the villain went AxCrazy after discovering this.
166* Creator/HPLovecraft:
167** ''Ex Oblivione'', where the protagonist discovered that oblivion was the natural state of things, and that 'existence', as it is known, is merely a brief nightmare...
168** In ''The Quest of Iranon'' the main character is told of such oblivion in terms of similar optimism by the people in one of the towns he visits. When Iranon himself dies at the end the issue of what becomes of him is not spoken of, and the variance and flexibility of Lovecraft's contradictory cosmology and mythos leaves the question open.
169** In ''The Shunned House'', the narrator mentions a POSITIVE form of this, refering to it as a "merciful oblivion".
170** In "in defense of Dagon" Lovecraft wrote that [[TheAntiNihilist not existing wouldn't be so bad]], as you can't suffer or lack anything if you have no consciousness.
171* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/TheCurseOfChalion'', ghosts who are sundered from the gods drift blindly until they fade away completely. It's called the true death or the death of the soul. Most people go on to the afterlife, though.
172* ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'': It's stated that people generally go to an afterlife, but which afterlife depends to some extent on what they believe; one incidental character is a firm atheist who believes that cessation of existence is what happens to everybody when they die, and although he's wrong about the "everybody", it is indeed what happens to ''him''.
173* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'': The afterlife is only for Others; {{muggles}} just cease to exist. Since the afterlife is the dead existing as ghosts, unable to affect the real world, and always feeling that everything around them is not real, they actually wish for the cessation. Anton grants them this at the end of ''The Last Watch'', but it doesn't stop new dead Others from suffering the same fate.
174* In the ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'' series, this is the ultimate punishment for the principal antagonist of the first four books. Everyone else gets to reincarnate.
175* In a story by Creator/StanislawLem, a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Ridiculously Human Robot]] called Automatthew ends up stranded on a DesertedIsland, along with his artificial friend (called Alfred), a small, intelligent ball. After calculating that the odds of getting saved are next to nothing, Alfrd advises Automatthew to commit suicide to avoid an inevitable and much more painful death, and brings up several arguments for the case that CessationOfExistence is actually the greatest thing that could happen to a person.
176-->''Picture if you will: no struggles, no anxieties or apprehensions, no suffering of the body or the soul, no unhappy accidents, and this on what a scale! Why, even if all the world's evil forces were to join and conspire against you, they would not reach you! Truly, nothing can compare with the sweet security of one who is no more!''
177* In Creator/PoulAnderson's story "Literature/TheMartyr", a race of advanced aliens has been systematically steering humans away from research into psychic phenomena to spare them from the knowledge that the aliens have an afterlife but humans don't.
178* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheGameElrod'': Contrary to common knowledge, demons who're killed on the Realside aren't sent back to the Otherside (ergo Hell). Instead, they simply stay dead in both worlds.
179* Creator/VondaNMcIntyre's ''Literature/TheExileWaiting'': A character learns that this is what happens after death, through being telepathically linked to someone at the time of their death.
180%%* The [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Ellimist]], from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', describes the death of Rachel, as seen from his near-omniscient perspective, as "a small strand of space-time going dark and coiling into nothingness", implying this trope.
181* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': This is what happens to those kissed by a [[EldritchAbomination dementor]], since they lose their soul. The Ministry actually [[DisproportionateRetribution uses this as a form of punishment]]...
182* ''Literature/{{Momo|1973}}'': The Grey Men are parasitic soulless beings which only exist by stealing time from humans. When their stolen time is taken away from them, they simply fade out of existence forever.
183* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, the characters do have an afterlife - [=StarClan=] if they're good, the Dark Forest if they're bad. Either way, when the [=StarClan=] or Dark Forest cat is [[RememberTheDead completely forgotten by living cats]], they gradually fade away into nothing. However, if they receive an injury that in life would be fatal, they just disappear instantly.
184** Whether the 'fading away' constitutes this or not isn't exactly clear. It is mentioned that [=StarClan=] cats become more and more wispy over time (having "earned their peace"), but even cats who died ''ages'' before the beginning of the series—indeed, [[TimeAbyss long enough ago]] that even a human would struggle to remember them—are shown to still interact with others and [[DeadPersonConversation give advice to the living]]. Dark Forest cats, on the other hand, are outright stated to play this trope straight.
185* ''Literature/SacredAndTerribleAir'': The Pale not only [[spoiler: made the girls disappear, but also starts to erase their existence completely, as people’s memories of them start getting warped and erased, and even the pictures Trentmöller took of the girls get corrupted. Zigi himself also wants to disappear, possibly hoping to reunite with the girls, and eventually drives into the Pale.]]
186* In ''Literature/TheSkinjackerTrilogy'', cessation of existence normally does not occur - you're either living, in Everlost, or you've gone into the light - but a scar wraith can extinguish an Everlost soul by merely touching them. This is the fate of Squirrel in ''Literature/{{Everfound}}''.
187* In ''Literature/ParadiseLost,'' the fallen angels [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] this as a possible punishment if they rebel against {{God}} again. Some feel [[FateWorseThanDeath this would be better]] than eternity in Hell, but {{Satan}} vetoes them.
188* In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', Hetawa {{Dream Walker}}s can inflict this by draining a dying soul of all its dreamblood, causing it to dissipate rather than reach the afterlife. The main character of the second book deliberately destroys someone's soul as a MercyKill, as they were a TorturedMonster whose afterlife would have been an eternal nightmare with no hope of rest.
189* In the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel ''[[Literature/InvasionCycle Planeshift]]'', the lich Lord Dralnu claims that this is what happened when he died. You never get to find out whether he spoke the truth, though.
190* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
191** This is what [[TheAntichrist Moridin]] wants, for [[DeathSeeker himself]] and [[OmnicidalManiac everyone else]]. At the end of the series, the world is saved and Moridin dies. WordOfGod is [[FlipFlopOfGod somewhat ambivalent]] over whether or not he actually got the oblivion he craved, though.
192** Wolves in the series have it worse off than humans. A wolf who dies then lives on in the World of Dreams (which only a few humans do). A wolf who dies in the World of Dreams is gone.
193** Characters swear by their "hope of salvation and rebirth", which implies there is a chance of ''not'' being reborn (presumably for doing wrong) and thus ceasing to exist. However this is never gone into with any detail.
194** This is the fate of anyone hit with [[MagicNuke Balefire]]. Balefire will leave an empty hole in the cosmic fabric the titular Wheel spins where you once were. Get hit with enough of it, and not only do you cease to exist, but the consequences of your actions and proof of your existence up to a certain point in the immediate past are undone as well via a combination of RetGone and CosmicRetcon. The sheer terrible power of this, plus the strains it put on the fabric of reality, led to [[EvenEvilHasStandards both sides of the War of Power]] to ban its use.
195* Achieving this becomes the main goal of prince Evnos from Darrell Schweitzer's ''Literature/TheWhiteIsle'' after his visit to the afterlife, where ''everyone'' is tortured forever regardless of their deeds in life. He succeeds.
196* Debated in Creator/JohnVarley's ''[[EightWorlds Steel Beach]]''. Hildy says that people need to believe in an afterlife even when they know that it makes no sense.
197* Implied to be the case in ''Literature/TheNightLand'' and ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'' when people have their soul [[CapitalLettersAreMagic D]][[FateWorseThanDeath estroyed]], or maybe they are just prevented from reincarnating again.
198* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/{{Elsewhen}}'' has a man who crossed over from one universe to another, and predicts that every person, when they die, gets the afterlife they expect to get, because ''no person can believe in their own nonexistence.''
199* ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'':
200** Gods who fade away (such as Helios, Selene and Pan) will return to the Chaos, the first goddess and the void from which all existence began. [[spoiler:''The Burning Maze'' reveals that Helios, long believed to have faded, had actually managed to temporarily avert this by tethering his will on Earth due to pure hatred. Once Medea is killed, Apollo manages to convince him to move on.]] Later, it's revealed that anyone who falls into Chaos will also suffer this fate, [[spoiler:as Python does in Apollo's climactic battle with him in ''The Tower of Nero'']].
201** [[spoiler:Tartarus absorbs Hyperion and Krios' essences in ''The House of Hades'', resulting in them ceasing to exist.]]
202* ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'': Being based on Myth/EgyptianMythology, good people go to Heaven and bad people get their souls eaten and stop existing. It's also specified that people who don't believe in an afterlife just stop existing when they die, though exceptions to this rule do exist; [[Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard the next series in the ‘verse has a Valkyrie take the main character’s soul to the Norse Valhalla even though he died an atheist]].
203** [[spoiler:This is the ultimate fate of Apophis -- all components of his existence are destroyed by the end after his Shadow is execrated.]]
204* ''Literature/AmericanGods'': Shadow asks for this when he's allowed to choose an afterlife after he dies. What he gets is a mindlessly happy NothingAfterDeath until he gets brought back to life.
205* ''Literature/ArcOfFire'': Myrren reveals that death is simply not ''like'' anything after she's revived, implying this.
206* ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth'': Due to the chimes' starting to destroy magic in ''Faith of the Fallen'', its later revealed that the underworld (being magical) was destroyed, with there no longer being an afterlife. Thus, now people who die simply stop existing. This is just fine, according to the protagonists.
207* ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'': This is pondered by Emily in the first book, after she hears the elves can destroy souls. She fears that without an afterlife, people would just do whatever they wanted.
208* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': The elves and the dragons believe this happens when living things die, presumably due to their natural telepathic abilities, as living minds always simply fade and disappear during death. In the end, Eragon himself admits that he would prefer this option to some form of eternal existence.
209* It's mentioned in ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'' that, while mermaids can live three times as long as a human, they have no immortal souls. When they die they turn to sea foam, and that is that. The little mermaid's desire to marry the prince and turn human is inspired in part by her love for him and in part by her want for an afterlife. After she fails to marry him and turns to sea foam, she is given a chance at earning a soul by doing good for 300 years as a spirit.
210* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': The entire universe will be "sublimated" in a flash of light if the "Good" side isn't stopped.
211* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Stone Shamanism, the religion of Shinovar, teaches that people who follow the religion and sin are tortured after death, but people who refuse the religion simply stop existing. Szeth-son-son-Vallano is so terrified of nonexistence that he continues following orders to slaughter thousands despite being a pacifist who knows it is wrong.
212* ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'': The Neanderthals universally believe that death is the end of being. Even "life after death" is an oxymoron to them. Ponter says that our afterlife beliefs might enable war, as we can tell ourselves that the dead are still "here" in a sense. [[spoiler: Cornelius]] hopes they're right before killing himself.
213* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'': {{Discussed}} by Tansen and Josarian. The latter thinks the Otherworld might not really exist, and that spirits whom the Guardians call up could be just illusions. Josarian denies this though, and Tansen later concedes. This is the fate of anyone taken by the White Dragon too.
214* Debated in-universe in ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium''. Elves are immortal; they will never die of old age or sickness, but having physical bodies they can be killed. Yet even if they are killed, after a period of time they are reincarnated in new bodies. Humans are mortal; if they are not killed by violence, sickness or age claim them quickly. But rather than being reincarnated, their spirits depart elsewhere - where exactly, neither the Elves nor the gods (the Valar) know. Humans experience a lot of angst over this. Morgoth, the Dark Lord, told humans that death means cessation of existence, leading many to worship him out of fear. The key thing is this: Elves are "immortal," but their immortality is bound to the life of the World itself - its life is theirs, and Elves know the World must end one day. When the World ends, the Elves aren't sure that they won't cease to exist with it. Meanwhile humans can "escape" and leave the World, and what has become a source of fear in fact is a source of hope. Both, therefore, are unsure of their ultimate fate. It is said that human's ability to truly die and leave the World is a gift that one day even the Valar will envy.
215* Attempted by Director Fulcher in [[Literature/YouAreDeadSignHerePlease You Are On Fire (Sign Here Please.)]] as a last ditch effort to put Nathan's file in order. By destroying Nathan's file entirely, he hopes to make it so that Nathan disappears from existence completely. The book is centered on the gang's attempt to correct this before Fulcher can get done editing adjacent files of any mention of Nathan.
216* ''Literature/JohannesCabal'': The trope is all but impossible; even [[SoulEating souls eaten by demons]] survive in some form. However, the Ivory Citadel, built and abandoned by the newly-fallen Lucifer before he founded {{Hell}}, utterly annihilates anyone who enters. Even devils are [[HorrifyingTheHorror terrified of the place]].
217* The {{novelization}} of ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' has a scene (possibly deleted from the film) where Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron are shooting the bull during lunch, and what starts as a [[SeinfeldianConversation joking talk about food, school, whatever,]] turns [[MoodWhiplash much darker]] when Cameron starts talking about people thinking about suicide. All three of them [[HiddenDepths turn out to be surprisingly intelligent and mature for seventeen-year-olds.]] Cameron says he believes the best way for a depressed teen (or anyone else) to deal with suicidal thoughts maybe to take the AntiNihilist position: You'll only be alive for a limited time, so you may as well make the most of it, no matter how tough it can be. He notes that he has to take an atheist's point of view and assume death means CessationOfExistence; since if there is any possibility of an afterlife his theory falls apart. Sloane and Ferris see some serious problems with this way of thinking and point them out to Cameron, which he acknowledges. But then he says he still holds to his belief, however flawed it may be, and he drops a bombshell.... "That theory ''works.'' [[WhamLine It's the only thing that's kept me alive the last two years."]]
218* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' [[RetiredMonster Daylen]] hopes that this will be his fate when he dies, as an alternative to an endless, infinite hell for all of his sins.
219* In ''Literature/{{Diaspora}}'' by Creator/GregEgan, Cessation is generally presented as a voluntary option for any being which has achieved everything they might have set out to accomplish. At the end of the novel, having reached a kind of literal end of all things, Yatima and Paolo, probably the last two recognizably human-derived beings in the multiverse, consider their choices. Paolo [[spoiler:accepts Cessation; ''"That's not death. It's completion."'']] Yatima [[spoiler:chooses to spend the rest of eternity in abstract research. ''In the end, there was only mathematics.'']]
220* ''Literature/Reaper2016'': What the deletion weapon does; literally deletes players' minds from Game, leaving their [[HumanPopsicle frozen body]] as an empty shell. For a time, Jex is concerned that the Reaper has used it to KillAndReplace Hawk. [[spoiler:In fact, he's replaced another Founder Player, using their position to take Jex hostage and almost use the weapon on her.]]
221* Russ from ''Literature/AspergerSunset'' seems to be a believer in this trope, as he refers to his dead parents as "completely, totally nonexistent."
222* While the exact nature of the afterlife in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is unclear, several characters are erased from existence when they attempt to "unmake" something with magic. The Universe takes ''harsh'' exception to this, and trying to do so gets the sorcerer in question deleted from reality. (One is referred to as "dead, and worse than dead" after it happens.)
223* ''Literature/GhostRoads'': This is what happens to a ghost killed in the [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame Halloween rites]], or one who kills one of the living on Halloween but fails to do so next year. Also the fate of those unfortunate souls fed to Bobby's car.
224* [[TheOldGods Ryn]], the main character of Literature/TheOneWhoEatsMonsters, has a portal to a place called ''gehenna'' in her heart. If she eats the heart of something with a soul, the soul will be carried to ''gehenna,'' and burn up in the dark fire of the star in the center. It is destroyed and gone forever.
225%%* ''Literature/MyInstantDeathAbilityIsSoOverpowered'': This is the fate of anyone or anything killed with Yogiri's Instant Death ability.
226* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'': The Wise Men teach that death is the end, with nothing after it.
227* In Creator/WilliamSBurroughs' ''The Western Lands'', he claims that the US Government knows that souls exist, and that to reduce soul overpopulation - 'alleviate an escalating soul glut' - they, under false pretenses, developed the only thing on Earth capable of destroying a soul: the atomic bomb. There were hiccups - some very badly injured, very angry ghosts from Hiroshima sought revenge, so 100% efficient soul-killer nukes were developed after some trial-and-error (a major installation had to be nuked after a nasty incident with the incandescent ghost of a purple-assed babboon).
228[[/folder]]
229
230[[folder:Music]]
231* Music/JohnLennon - "Imagine":
232-->Imagine there's no Heaven\
233It's easy if you try\
234No hell below us\
235Above us only sky
236* Music/TalkingHeads: According to songwriter Music/DavidByrne, this trope is what he intended [[Music/LittleCreatures "Road to Nowhere"]] to be about. "Well we know where we're goin' but we don't know where we've been...We're on a road to nowhere; come on inside. Takin' that ride to nowhere; we'll take that ride. Maybe you wonder where you are: I don't care! Here is where time is on our side...."
237* The Gothic Archies' song "The Dead Only Quickly" is about this trope.
238* The Music/BrightEyes song "At the Bottom of Everything" implies this, if briefly.
239-->And in the ear of every anarchist\
240Who sleeps but doesn't dream,\
241We must sing, we must sing,\
242We must sing
243** Expanded in another song by them, "Down in a Rabbit Hole," which is explicitly about death.
244-->If your thoughts should turn to death\
245better stomp them out\
246like a cigarette
247* The whole point of the Music/ElysianFields album ''The Afterlife''.
248* The song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YVeS5Il6O4 There Isn't Any God (aka Gospel)]] by [[http://rustycage.bandcamp.com Rusty Cage]] is about this trope, along with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his belief that God doesn't exist]].
249* The Creator/MontyPython song "Always Look at the Bright Side of Life".
250* The Atheist Tabernacle Choir skit from Series/SpittingImage is a gospel group whose songs had no basis in religion. The choir sings about ending up in a wooden box or little urn and there is no afterlife. They also agree that the idea is depressing.
251* This is the fate of Ma, the final BigBad of the ''Music/EvilliousChronicles''. Having been born as [[MergerOfSouls a fusion of three separate souls]], Ma lacked a soul of her own, meaning that when she died she would simply cease to exist entirely. Her ultimate goal is to avoid this fate by absorbing the [[SevenDeadlySins seven demons of sin and later their contractors]] and escaping the world before [[ApocalypseWow its destruction]], becoming a [[PureIsNotGood "pure being"]]. In the end, said souls are forced out of her and she desperately tries to continue her existence by switching bodies with her daughter Nemesis (the Wrath sinner), not realizing that Nemesis was anticipating that and convinced the Demon of Wrath to break the contract with her that keeps her from dying. Ma proceeds to fall to her death and her consciousness vanishes for good.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:Philosophy]]
255* Creator/MarkTwain allegedly said, "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." Though other quotes from him and his relatives reveal [[FlipFlopOfGod an inconsistent opinion on the matter]]; his daughter Clara said: "Sometimes he believed death ended everything, but most of the time he felt sure of a life beyond."
256* On the other hand, there remains the possibility of someone being born again in the future. [[http://naturalism.org/philosophy/death/death-nothingness-and-subjectivity#toc-death-and-birth--PUnlV4K From the perspective of someone that would appear to be instantaneous]], and of course there's no way to know when and where that would happen and the previous self for all purposes would be lost forever. Both Greek and Chinese mythology postulate that the person would have no knowledge of ever existing previously, typically as a result of drinking some potion that erases memories.
257[[/folder]]
258
259[[folder:Podcast]]
260* This is a risk that Tony Hawk runs in the ''Podcast/InterstitialActualPlay'' one-shot ''Reality and Other Falsehoods'' because he's using The Memory playbook, where if he loses all connections with other players he fades from memory and existence. [[spoiler: That's exactly what happens partway through due to several extremely bad rolls, forcing player Riley to create a new character for the back half of the one-shot]].
261[[/folder]]
262
263[[folder:Poetry]]
264* Creator/PhilipLarkin's poem "Aubade" is about the fear of ceasing to exist, and how there's really no relief from it.
265-->''This is a special way of being afraid\
266No trick dispels. Religion used to try,\
267That vast, moth-eaten musical brocade\
268Created to pretend we never die,\
269And specious stuff that says No rational being\
270Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing\
271That this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,\
272No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,\
273Nothing to love or link with,\
274The anasthetic from which none come round.''
275* Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem, "The Garden of Proserpine" describes it as a positive thing that finally brings peace.
276-->''Then star nor sun shall waken,\
277Nor any change of light:\
278Nor sound of waters shaken,\
279Nor any sound or sight:\
280Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,\
281Nor days nor things diurnal;\
282Only the sleep eternal\
283In an eternal night.''
284[[/folder]]
285
286[[folder:Religion]]
287* While the majority of Christians believe that you go to either {{Heaven}} or {{Hell}} (and occasionally Purgatory), some Christians believe in Conditional Immortality, also called Conditionalism or Annihilationism. Conditionalists hold that everlasting life is a gift from God, and therefore the final punishment of the unrighteous will be death. Literature/TheBible distinguishes between two states of death: Sheol or Hades, the common grave of mankind, and Gehenna, a "second death" from which there is no hope of [[BackFromTheDead coming back]], though some translations conflate both concepts as "hell". The Bible repeatedly mentions how the consequences of sin is death (Romans 6:23), humans will naturally return to dust (Genesis 3:19) (which most likely refers to the physical body), God can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna (Matthew 10:28), and everlasting life is God's gift to the righteous through his son Jesus (John 3:16). Conditionalists also tend to note Genesis in how we were banned from everlasting life as a result of sin (with Genesis 2:17 interpreted as spiritual, not physical death), but God offered it back (He never offered FluffyCloudHeaven) through Jesus, so, if we were immortal in the first place there would never be a necessity for such an elaborate scheme to reacquire everlasting life. The idea of conditional immortality is also helpful in Christian apologetics, since so many are repulsed by the DisproportionateRetribution inherent in the Eternal Conscious Torment view of Hell.
288** Conditionalists include some evangelical Christians, as well as certain denominations (sometimes called sects or cults by other Christians) such as the Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. They reason from these and other scriptures that there is no Hell or afterlife. They believe that when you die, you cease to exist until you are resurrected. Those who died saved will be resurrected soon after the second coming, while those who were lost when they died come back to life in the Second Resurrection where they face probation for their sins; if they fail, they die again, but without hope of further resurrection. They argue that the idea of God imposing eternal torture without parole for a [[EasyRoadToHell little doubt]] means that GodIsEvil, and that the idea of the permanent and immortal soul is [[WordOfDante Platonic and influenced by paganism]], not Biblical in origin. [[note]]For more information on the different views within and variations of Conditionalism, helpful sites would include [[http://rethinkinghell.com/ Rethinking Hell]] and [[http://www.hell-know.net/ Hell Know]].[[/note]]
289** ''Mortalism'' is the term for the view that the soul is not naturally immortal, but dies with the body. The opposite view, naturally, is called ''immortalism''. Christian mortalism encompasses the annihilationist or conditionalist view described above, but the term can also describe any view that human beings have no immortal soul.
290** Animals are subjected to this fate as they do have a mortal soul, unlike the immortal soul of human beings.
291* The common Western misconception (not helped by mistranslations as the West began to make contact with the East) of Buddhist Nirvana is this - certainly not helped by Buddhism's teachings to be free of suffering, inherent in life. In reality, Nirvana is more of a [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence "super-state" of sorts beyond all existence, impurity, and physicality]], but it's more complicated than that. However, it does involve ceasing to exist as a specific, individual person, something Buddhism regards as only an illusion that is overcome by enlightenment.
292* In the Myth/EgyptianMythology, the soul survives physical death, and thus the believers of this mythology didn't fear death per se that much. But the afterlife is very dangerous, and if a malevolent spirit manages to eat you on the way between the world of the living and the world of the dead, you cease to exist. Additionally, if luckily you had avoided these spirits, you were judged by a council of deities and if you lost your trial they threw you to Ammit, a soul-eating chimera ending the existence of the judged. Somewhat more mundanely, they also took mummification infinitely seriously because they believed that a botched preparation for embalming destroyed the soul of the person whose corpse they were preparing.
293* This is the viewpoint of the Classical Epicureans, who did not fear death, as they would not be around to experience their own, and held that others would not suffer in an afterlife.
294* Stoics in general also didn't believe in an afterlife, though a few did argue in favor of an immortal soul.
295* Many atheists, agnostics and [[UsefulNotes/{{Pantheism}} pantheists]] usually ascribe to this. [[TheAntiNihilist Most don't have a problem with this either]], especially if they left a religion that believed in some kind of CosmicHorrorStory-esque afterlife such as Hell. On the other hand, some are {{transhuman}}ists (like the folks at Blog/LessWrong) who do not want this and [[LivingForeverIsAwesome feel immortality would be great]], with the goal of achieving it by various scientific means.
296* In Talamancan mythology, the soul doesn't die with the body, however, it is considered to be ageless, but not immortal. People are punished by being left to fend on their own, then they get killed and eaten by evil spirits if they don't die of dehydration first.
297* In Myth/MesopotamianMythology, while everyone was sent to the same afterlife (Irkalla, AKA the Underworld), people who did not receive a proper burial (for example being burned) would meet this.
298[[/folder]]
299
300[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
301* ''Tabletopgame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
302** If you kill a demon or devil on its home plane in they're gone for good (see ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'', below). This depends on the version being played; 3.5 edition, for example, held that Outsiders (demons, devils, angels, etc.) and Elementals could only be restored to life using the True Resurrection spell. On the other hand, it's possible for mortal souls to be outright destroyed by gods or powerful outsiders, and at least one mortal spell (Necrotic Termination), if successful, creates an undead creature that kills the target and [[NightmareFuel devours their soul, noting explictly that nothing can bring them back]].
303** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'':
304*** There's a group called the Prolongers who believe that this is true for everyone. As a result, they're terrified of death, and have used a DangerousForbiddenTechnique that has transformed them into abominations that [[VampiricDraining can drain the life force]] of others to restore their own youth.
305*** The Dustmen believe that everyone is ''already'' dead and trapped in a cruel afterlife full of suffering where we're born, die and continually reincarnate until we can learn to let go. The end state of existence for the Dustmen is "True Death", a state where there is no suffering, or indeed nothing at all.
306* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Souls are fairly sturdy things, but some situations can result in the Forces that make them up being scattered and disbanded. If this happens, the individual is gone, utterly and forever.
307** This is typically what happens to celestial or ethereal beings who are destroyed in celestial combat, as this results in damage being deal directly to their spiritual selves. Demon Princes are also fond of forcefully destroying the souls of disappointing or disobedient underlings as a form of punishment and as an example for others.
308** This is the fate that awaits all undead, as the process of becoming a mummy or a vampire causes the subject's body to become the only thing holding their Forces together. An undead can keep going potentially forever, but if its body is ever destroyed its soul will scatter to the four winds and it will cease to be.
309** Occasionally, the souls of humans who don't lean strongly towards Heaven, Hell, or a given Ethereal domain just... scatter and dissolve on death. Celestials blame this on any number of things, including existential despair, profound suicidal urges, atheism, and excessive reincarnations, but nobody actually knows for sure.
310* ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'': The threat of death is ever present, even though, in ''Wraith'', you're already dead when the game starts. The unstated goal of the game is to move on from the Shadowlands, and there are two ways to do this. The first is the ultimate enlightenment, Transcendence. This is where the ghost accepts its death and moves on. To what, who knows? Transcended ghosts aren't around to tell. That's why it's called moving on. The second way to move on is the titular Oblivion. Ignoring for the moment the fact that Oblivion is also a force of nature and essentially the big bad of the metaplot, for the sake of this explanation it is a phenomenon: a very rare form of death after death. When the ghost is damaged enough it goes into a manic/psychotic episode called a Harrowing, and if this happens badly/often enough, the soul obliviates and ceases to exist. The horror of it all? Transcendence and Oblivion look ''exactly the same to the onlooker''.
311* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Your soul usually get assigned to an afterlife depending on your actions in life. However, your soul isn't immortal and can be killed permanently. This is also the modus operandi of daemons, who can and will utterly obliterate your soul if they kill you rather than allow you to pass on. While petitioners and other outsiders ''can'' be brought back by powerful magic, the implication is that they basically stop existing until resurrected.
312* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': This is the fate of anything that falls into the void of Oblivion that lies beneath the Underworld. There are also certain powers that confine the victim (or, eventually and in exchange for great benefits, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique the user]]) to Oblivion. [[EldritchAbomination The Neverborn]] ultimately want to fall into Oblivion, because they regard it as preferable to [[AndIMustScream their torturous and impotent unlives]].
313* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'': It's implied that this is what the true Afterlife is -- there's no obvious difference between when a ghost "moves on" and when it's destroyed -- but no-one's actually certain. The Underworld (where ghosts go if their anchors are destroyed but they still aren't ready to let go of existence) is somewhere between {{Hell}} and TheNothingAfterDeath, instead. Directly destroying a ghost ''definitely'' causes this, though.
314* In both TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness and TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness vampires can preform diablerie, which involves sucking out another vampire's soul. It is strongly implied victims of this simply cease to exist, as such diablerie is commonly considered a MoralEventHorizon by vampires.
315* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', those who are deemed so dangerous that their very existence in any plane --alive or dead-- could destroy the world are taken to the edge of the universe and thrown into the collective unconscious and become non-sentient universal energy. This is considered to be such a horrific thing to do that the mage who does so will step down from their seat on their council and cease practicing magic forever.
316* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
317** During the Horus Heresy, this happens to two people in the span of about 30 seconds, specifically when the Emperor fought Horus in a one-on-one duel and sought to redeem the latter from the Chaos Gods. Horus, however, resisted and committed one last KickTheDog act by making the Emperor's last bodyguard [[DeaderThanDead cease to exist]][[note]]Who the bodyguard was differs depending on which canon you read. The original story has the bodyguard be an ordinary human soldier; other stories change the bodyguard to one of several SpaceMarine legions and/or a [[PraetorianGuard Custodian]][[/note]], which pushed him [[MoralEventHorizon well beyond the moral horizon]] for the Emperor[[note]]Again, the reason for this changes depending on the canon. In the original story, the human soldier posed literally zero threat to Horus and could not harm Horus in any way, which means Horus killed him [[ForTheEvulz just to kill him]]. In the retellings where the guard was a Space Marine, the Marine that Horus kills was one of the Emperor's [[ItsPersonal close friends and confidants]][[/note]]. The Emperor then unleashed such a powerful psychic attack that Horus's very soul was destroyed ([[KarmicDeath much like the bodyguard Horus just killed]]). It's later shown that this was both due to the Emperor's rage and out of practicality; Chaos Gods can resurrect champions so long as their soul still lives (as with the case of Lucius and Kharn, the champions of Slaanesh and Khorne respectively) but Horus's soul was utterly destroyed, meaning that he's even out of the Chaos Gods' grasp. What the Emperor did not count on was that Horus' first captain, Abaddon, was ruled "close enough" by the Chaos gods, nor did it stop Fabius Bile from just making a thinking clone of Horus with the original's DNA (though Abaddon didn't like that and killed said clone).
318** At one point, Ahriman was offered a reward for being Tzeentch's most favored pawn, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness which amounted to this.]] While that sounds pretty bad, this ''is'' a setting where dying can result in your soul being claimed and used as plaything by the Chaos Gods, [[FateWorseThanDeath for all eternity.]] So the reward is a sincere PetTheDog moment, no matter how twisted, especially coming from [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Tzeentch.]]
319* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', this is one of two fates that Elves will get upon their deaths via being eaten by [[GodOfEvil Slaanesh]]. The other is being [[DraggedOffToHell imprisoned in the underworld of Mirai.]] Thankfully they have a way to avoid either fate, they can have their souls put inside [[SoulJar Waystones]] that will help protect their homelands, which are almost always in danger.
320* Possible fate of all other living beings in Warhammer 40k universe. For those, who are very, very, very, very lucky, to be exact, as the alternative usually involves eternal torture by the warp itself or the creatures that inhabit it.
321* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmarSoulbound'': Nobody actually knows what happens to the Soulbound when you die, not even the God Of Death Nagash, but the prevailing theory is that your merged souls simply fade out of existence. Given that the afterlie not only is known to exist, but is under the absolute dominion Nagash, many consider this a step-up, and [[TokenHeroicOrc renegade undead]] who escaped Nagash's control consider it a ''bonus'' as it leaves them permanently out of his reach.
322* The inhabitants of [[{{Uberwald}} Innistrad]] in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' believe in something called the Blessed Sleep, which is essentially this. The Blessed Sleep is actually considered the best possible outcome for anyone who dies, since the alternative is becoming a ghost, vampire or any other kind of undead horror.
323* In Tabletopgame/ForgottenRealms, people who refused to believe in a god during life are punished in the afterlife by slowly having their souls and minds erased in the Wall of the Faithless
324[[/folder]]
325
326[[folder:Theatre]]
327* Frequently discussed in ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', mostly by Guildenstern. He turns out to be ''right'', as he and Rosencrantz seem to wink out of existence at the end of the play when they outlive their relevance. [[MindScrew Or something.]]
328-->'''Rosencrantz''': Do you think death could be a boat?
329-->'''Guildenstern''': No. Death ... is not. You take my meaning? Death is the ultimate negative, a state of not-being. You can't not-be on a boat.
330-->'''Rosencrantz''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I've frequently not been on boats]].
331* The inspiration for the above, ''{{Theatre/Hamlet}}'', has the title character hope for this in his famous "To be or not to be" speech, with an eye toward [[DrivenToSuicide ending his suffering]]. He concludes, however, that the chance it's not true and he'll be punished in the afterlife is too great to risk.
332* The underlying message of the "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow" monologue from ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''.
333* In ''Theatre/JacobMarleysChristmasCarol'' Marley and the Bogle see a few souls in Hell that appear to blink out of existence. At the climax, the Bogle worries this will happen to Marley if he takes Scrooge's place in death.
334[[/folder]]
335
336[[folder:Toys]]
337* In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', denizens of the Matoran Universe are resurrected on the Red Star to be able to continue their work, but get stranded there due to a glitch, meaning others think they just disappear. However those that suffer great injury to their "brain" or otherwise lose vital parts (or the entirety) of their body can't be resurrected. Krika for instance: he lost control over his ability to manipulate his own density, causing his body and his spirit to fade into nothing. Only at one point was something resembling an afterlife implied, when Mata Nui's spirit began escaping his body during his temporary death, but this was never elaborated on due to Franchise/{{Lego}}'s policies on avoiding religious topics.
338[[/folder]]
339
340[[folder:Video Games]]
341* ''VideoGame/AlterEgo2018'': In the SUPER EGO ending, Es reaches the conclusion that she'll never reign in her impulses, and therefore is not worthy of existing. As a result, she makes herself fade out of existence.
342* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': At the end of the Mysterious Console [[DownloadableContent DLC]], Noni is told that if she leaves the device, she will disappear forever as she's only a digital construct of the real Noni who died. She decides that she won't remain trapped in the device any longer and bids farewell before vanishing.
343* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'':
344** In the first ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' game, the Templar Sibrand believes that there is nothing waiting for him after death, and the idea of this terrifies him so deeply that when he learns that the Assassins are coming for him, he begins executing random priests out of sheer blind paranoia because they wear vaguely similar robes to those of the Assassins.
345** Several games later, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'', Eivor, is faced with the same revelation after they find out that the Valhalla they and their clan members coveted is [[spoiler:nothing but an illusion inside a LotusEaterMachine]]. They turn into the AntiNihilist, and when some important people to them die in the following battle, even though they keep a stoic face and deliver the proper rites, they do ''not'' take it as well as they previously did.
346--->'''Guthrum:''' Time to send our friends to their great reward. Will you do the honors?\
347'''Eivor:''' Nothing awaits them. They lived, they died. Now their bodies will burn to cinders. Their saga ends here.\
348'''Guthrum:''' Well... [[LyingToProtectYourFeelings do not share that with [the others].]]
349* In the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' series, the PlayerCharacter's [[OurSoulsAreDifferent soul has a different nature from other mortal beings.]] This is because he or she is a partial SoulJar for their father Bhaal, the dead god of murder. Consequently, if he or she is killed, the essence of their being will merge back with the god, effectively becoming this trope. This also justifies why the PlayerCharacter's party can't simply [[DeathIsCheap resurrect]] them. You also have to inflict this fate upon at least five half-brothers and sisters. That said, one of them does come BackFromTheDead; his dialogue suggests that this was only possible due to the highly unusual circumstances, and another who happens to be a party member can be resurrected anyway (a scene of party banter between the two aforementioned characters suggests that this ''isn't'' a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, either.) And, in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'', this is ultimately what happens to the BigBad Amelyssan, no matter what you decide to do with Bhaal's essence.
350* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} 2'' had [[NobleDemon Jack Hargreave]] say he found the prospect of "simple oblivion" to be preferable to an actual afterlife after spending fifty years as a fully aware HumanPopsicle.
351* ''VideoGame/TheDarknessII'': One of the collectible Relics is "The Ashes of the Unnamed." In a case of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, it's the ashes of a Brotherhood member who saved the world by releasing the Darkness from the Brotherhood's control, preventing them from destroying the world. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished Just moments after his heroic act]], the Angelus showed up and, in rage, [[KillItWithFire completely incinerated his body and soul]], making him the first human to ever meet non-existence. All that remains of him, both in Heaven and Earth, are his ashes.
352* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Darksiders}} Darksiders: The Abomination Vault]]'', it's revealed that there exists a place of utter nothingness known as Oblivion, accessible through a single portal controlled by the Charred Council. Anything sent through that portal simply ceases to exist, be that a living being, an inanimate object, or anything in-between. It's for this exact reason the Council uses it to deal with the very worst violators of the Balance they're sworn to uphold, and the sentence of being cast into Oblivion is held up as being ''the'' FateWorseThanDeath for most of Creation. [[spoiler: It's also how Death disposes of the [[EvilWeapon Grand Abominations]] against the Council's orders, knowing full well that only [[{{God}} the Creator]] would be able to remove them from there once they pass through that portal.]]
353* In ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'', one of the core mechanics of the game is that if the player should die, the protagonist would respawn in a new clone body. In the fourth game, Crypto will spout bits of humorous dialogue. One of these is "By the way, there is no afterlife".
354* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': If a soul is [[SoulEating consumed]] from a SoulJar or a dead person's spirit is completely stripped of [[{{Mana}} Source]], they're destroyed utterly rather than passing to the peace of the afterlife. This is portrayed as an absolutely monstrous act that terrifies even beings who have been trapped in a FateWorseThanDeath for millennia.
355* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', it's revealed that only a Gray Warden can properly kill an Archdemon. If anyone else does it the Archdemon will just possess the nearest darkspawn and come back to life; however, the method of killing the Archdemon means the Warden's soul and the Archdemon's will both be annihilated in the process.
356* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
357** This is one theory about [[RiddleForTheAges what happened]] to the [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]]. They may have tried, through the power of the [[CosmicKeystone Heart of Lorkhan]], to break themselves down into their base elements and then reforge themselves into new [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] beings. The theory goes that they got the [[GoneHorriblyWrong reforging process wrong]] and caused themselves to blink out of existence. If asked in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', Dunmeri [[PhysicalGod Tribunal deity]] Vivec states that he cannot sense them on any known plane of existence. Adding further ambiguity, the existence of Dwarven Specters suggest that at least some of the Dwemer have come back as ghosts. A prominent theory in the ''Elder Scrolls'' lore community suggests that these are the ghosts of Dwemer who died before the cataclysm that caused their race to vanish.
358** Though, to date, they have only been hinted-at in-game or have been mentioned dripping in heavy metaphor, there exist several "ascended" metaphysical states in the ''ES'' universe. (Each has been further fleshed out by [[AllThereInTheManual developer]] [[LooseCanon supplemental texts]].) Each of these states requires one [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall to become aware of the nature]] of [[GodOfGods Anu's]] Dream and maintain one's individuality. If one fails to do so ("Zero Sum"), they "fade into" the dream, ceasing to exist.
359* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
360** Not the initial death of Doga and Unei in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII''--after forcing the party to kill them in a boss fight, they offer the consolation that they'll remain in spirit. But when the Cloud of Darkness one-shots the kids at the end, Doga and Unei use up their souls to bring them back to life, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing themselves]] to possibly this fate [[note]]Some sources explain it as simply a mandatory AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence (and the "soul energy" they used was simply whatever was keeping them tethered to this plane) instead.[[/note]].
361** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', when anything dies (be it a person, a bird or a flower), its life energy is absorbed into the lifestream. The lifestream then recycles that energy to make new living things. But then there's the whole mess with Shinra sucking up that life energy and converting it into electricity, which means that this trope may have been the ultimate fate of millions of souls during the game's timeline.
362** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' follows a similar world structure to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' where the lifestream full of aether flows within the planet and living beings that die have their souls returned to the lifestream where a new life can be made. The main problem that occurs within the story are primals, god-like beings that are summoned to help and protect the beast tribe that summoned them and consume aether to sustain their physical form. It is stated that a single primal alone could absorb all of the world's aether (thus fulfilling the trope) if left alone long enough, therefore the player character is tasked with slaying whatever primals that are summoned in order to keep the planet stable.
363** At the end of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', Noctis, after the sacrifice of his life on the throne, goes into a spiritual world wherein he kills definitively Ardyn with the spiritual support of his three companions, who have an ''UncertainDoom'' as they are seen for the last time facing a huge amount of dangerous daemons, and of the late Lunafreya.
364** Towards the end of ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', Hope reveals that it was always Bhunivelze's plan to just destroy his soul, preventing him from ever being reborn. Although it ultimately doesn't happen, Hope had accepted his fate, and wasn't expecting anything else.
365* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': This is what happens to ghosts at sunrise. [[spoiler:It's not, Ray's lying to make sure Sissel is properly motivated.]]
366* Played straight along with sister trope DeaderThanDead during the story of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok''. During a secret outing with Atreus behind Kratos' back, Sindri reveals to his friend one of his closest-guarded secrets: [[spoiler:Brok previously died when making the Leviathan Axe. Overcome by his feelings of loneliness, Sindri broke taboo and entered the Lake of Souls in Alfheim in order to recover the four parts of his soul and resurrect him. Unfortunately, he only managed to regain three of the four, so Brok has essentially been undead before and since Kratos and Atreus first met him in the previous game.]] [[spoiler:During a heated argument with the Norse god Tyr, Brok grills him on his knowing a secret way into Asgard and choosing not to talk about it, only to end up getting fatally stabbed as it's revealed Tyr was Odin in disguise. After he passes away, Atreus optimistically questions if they can do as Sindri did and find Brok's soul in Alfheim. As Mimir somberly points out, however, because Brok died with an incomplete soul, he could not enter the Lake and, as a result, had no afterlife to pass onto. The dwarf is simply... gone. Forever.]]
367** [[spoiler:Then Sindri gets back at Odin by smashing his SoulJar, ending him as well.]]
368** Odin outright declares that when a god dies ''at full strength'', they don't go to any special afterlife - their spirit disappears entirely from his supernatural surveillance. He's spent his entire life trying to find out ''what'' happens to them. In contrast, Kratos has been resurrected multiple times, but only when he was mortal or near-mortal, and Mimir had to sacrifice most of his body. It's implied that most of the gods Kratos killed are ''permanently'' dead because their own overwhelming divine power went critical and vaporized their souls [[spoiler:or in the case of the gods corrupted by Chaos, were being eaten from the inside by an overwhelmingly powerful supernatural disease]].
369* In ''VideoGame/HeroinesQuest'', mess up during some of the end game sequences, and you'll be erased from existence for altering the past.
370* In ''VisualNovel/TheHouseInFataMorgana'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: if your soul is too damaged while in the land of death, you risk this fate.]] And then one character [[spoiler: directly asks Michel to willingly cause this to them: the White-Haired girl, in order for her to reunite with Morgana's soul and put an end to the curse. She makes it clear nothing of her will survive, that her sense of self will be gone, that nothing will remain of her: she asks purely and simply for the eradication of her soul. Nonetheless, she asks of Michel to go through with it anyway. Depending on how you interpret things, Georges' soul may very well have suffered the same fate.]]
371* In the True Arena in ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'', the pause screen for the fight with Star Dream Soul OS (who has [[TheAssimilator assimilated President Haltmann]]) states that Haltmann is [[DeaderThanDead being erased from the OS]] during the fight. Additionally, when Kirby smashes the pillars inside of Star Dream Soul OS, Haltmann can be heard screaming in pain, after smashing all of them, the pause screen states that Haltmann is ''gone''. Implying [[UnwittingPawn Kirby unknowingly completed Haltmanns erasure for Star Dream Soul OS.]]
372* ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': It turns out this is what happened to the Ender Dragon, as the Order relied on the Command Block's power to delete it rather than actually killing it.
373* This is what happens to Magypsies in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' after the needle they exist to guard is pulled out of the ground. They seem to completely accept this fate.
374* Ending D of ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' is all about this. Having accepted to sacrifice himself to bring back Kaine from her Shade corruption, the price is for the main protagonist to be wiped from existence ''entirely'', even from everyone's memory. As a final testament to the permanence of this fate, ''your entire save file is deleted'' -- not only that, you can't even use that character name again. You are not permitted to even "reincarnate" the same character all over again for another shot that doesn't result in oblivion. The creators wanted to include an "Ending E" where you could pull your original character out of oblivion, at least letting you re-use the name, but never had the opportunity to implement it in any kind of satisfactory manner.[[note]]Until the UpdatedRerelease, that is.[[/note]] The love Cavia held for their games' players is very hard to distinguish from hate.
375* In the ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'' there exist such things as "life after death," "the soul," "ghosts," "spirits," "higher planes that exist independent of time," and things like that. That means death is not the end and for some few characters, [[DeathIsCheap death may even be cheap]]. That is unless you are killed by the [[MagicalEye Eyes of Death Perception]]. When killed by these eyes, you simply cease to exist and the only way you can see the light of day again is to turn back the hands of time.
376** On the other hand, no character in the Nasuverse is truly immortal; that concept may not even exist, though there are many that pine after it. Those who have achieved something close to it are only hiding or not yet aware of their continued weakness. Wallachia only has to be restored to his original form. Those in the Throne of Souls cease to exist when the Earth dies prior to ''Angel Notes''(only not really, because they exist outside of time. They just can't actually interact with the World anymore. At least not this one.), and they spent the rest of their existence trolled by the Counter Force and Grail Wars. For the otherwise almighty Aristoteles, there is Black Barrel and Slash Emperor. The lone exception to this rule seems to be the the fifth Dead Apostle Anscestor: Type-Mercury, official designation, the ORT. And that's not because its special, its just so far removed from anything the Earth has to offer that its very pretense there gradually rewrites reality. So it might not be immortal, it just lacks Gaia's concept of 'death' altogether. It might have its own - completely different - version.
377*** This is because souls in the Nasuverse work in a particularly Buddhist way. While humans do have souls that return to Akasha (the Origin) upon death and are eventually recycled into life, their previous existences' identity is wiped clean, similar to the Theravada concept of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta anatman]]'' ("no soul" or "no self"). One character attempted immortality by permanently imprinting his own identity and memories on his soul, essentially creating reincarnation. On the other hand, since the Eyes of Death Perception don't destroy a thing's soul, just its ''existence''...
378*** Note that this might not always have been the case. During the [[TimeOfMyths Age of the Gods]], genuine deities walked the Earth. Modern Magi have classified their very existence on the same level as the Five True Magic, which in order, allow their user to Create from Nothing, 'Operate' parallel universes, manipulate and materialize the soul(including making it last indefinitely, which is essentially immortality, unfortunately this magic has been lost for over a thousand years), a forth with an unknown effect, and the final one which allows its user to manipulate entropy, which can lead to time travel. The proper use of those magics could potentially stave off the Cessation of Existence indefinitely, and considering that many people believed in an Afterlife, and it was a ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve world... unfortunately, because of the actions of Gilgamesh, the [[DeathOfTheOldGods gods are dead]], [[TheMagicGoesAway magecraft is a pale, dying shadow of what it was]] and the World [[EndOfAnEra no longer operates under such laws]]. To be fair, the gods were [[JerkassGods definitely jerksasses]].
379* ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'': although it's temporary. The main character successfully convinces herself that she doesn't exist, and begins to fade away. At the last possible second though, the other heroes have a ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve moment, and cheer her on, convincing her to exist again. This is ''after'' [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext she's stopped existing]].
380* ''[[VideoGame/{{Patapon}} Patapon 3]]'': After defeating the FinalBoss, The Hero was given {{Last Second Ending Choice}}s by Patapon God either he continues to live, or live peacefully in heaven [[spoiler:or allow Patapon God to use his soul that sacrifices his both physical and spiritual existences to remove the stone curse which was casted to Patapons after his brother opened the chest that seals 7 Archfiends and Silver Hoshipon at the beginning of the story]].
381* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
382** ''VideoGame/Persona2'' had something similar to ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'', and did it first. Someone who loses their "Ideal Energy", the will and energy to pursue their dreams, becomes drained and lethargic, unwilling and unable to do anything, as {{Muggles}} forget about them and can no longer see or hear them. After a while, they simply cease to exist entirely.
383** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': When Yaldabaoth fuses the real world with the Metaverse, [[YourMindMakesItReal human cognition begins to affect reality]]. Because humanity collectively believed the Phantom Thieves never truly existed, the PlayerCharacter and his friends and allies vanish from existence. They manage to reverse this in the end, however.
384* This is what is said to happen to all of the Pokémon from the BadFuture when time is corrected in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers''. The two times this is seen to occur, after the player and partner restore Temporal Tower, and in the ''Explorers of Sky'' episode where Celebi, Grovyle, and Dusknoir defeat Primal Dialga in their own time, it is not permanent. In the first example, the player character disappears completely, but is brought back by Dialga. In the case of the second, the trio is starting to disappear when it mysteriously stops (possibly due to Arceus' interference).
385* In ''VideoGame/{{Receiver}}'', the player is a survivor of the Mindkill, which causes this. The [[VideoGame/Receiver2 sequel]] expands on this: Humanity exists in reality B, while our minds exist in reality A. Reality B is, in fact, a shadow cast by reality A. Normally when you die in reality B you "wake up" in reality A. What the Mindkill does is sever the connection between the two realities, destroying all of reality B except the parts trained minds could protect, and causing intense trauma to the sleeping minds in reality A. The severing and mental damage mean that after death you no longer wake up but instead fade back into the pattern of reality A.
386* In ''VisualNovel/Remember11'', when either "Satoru" or Kokoro transfer into a time in which the other is dead, as soon as they realize that they should be dead, they simply cease to exist.
387* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'': TheGrimReaper is cagey about what happens to {{Physical God}}s who get [[KillTheGod destroyed]], but admits that their energy disperses into the world and they forfeit the right to an afterlife, {{impl|iedTrope}}ying that they cease to exist entirely.
388* The Pkunk in ''VideoGame/StarControl 2'' claim that the only people who reincarnate are those who have been famous, rich, or otherwise interesting. Everyone else kind of ceases to exist.
389* In ''VideoGame/StrayGods'', the Idols in the game can pass on their eidolon, which makes them what they are, and keep living on through the person they bestow it upon. Aphrodite, for example, is the latest Aphrodite in a series of them. However, if they don’t pass it on if they die, that Idol ceases to exist.
390* ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'': The Blue Court's darkest secret is [[spoiler:that their god devours ''all'' the regular souls in the afterlife for power. 99.99% of existence, from the lowliest virus to the Messengers themselves, all ceased to exist thinking that they were going to move on from purgatory but got eaten by a gluttonous Judgement instead]]. In irony, {{Immortality Seeker}}s found guilty in the Blue Court are spared this fate and given the eternal existence they craved - [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and then they are thrown into a Well containing billions of spiders who will eat their eyes out and string them in web for all eternity]].
391** And then you get to Murder A Sun, so thoroughly that not even the soul will remain.[[note]]The other Judgements survive their deaths as lessened beings, such as the Killing Wind and the Wells[[/note]] [[spoiler:It's the aforementioned Judgement who rules The Blue Kingdom; you commission the sculpting of a perfectly delectable soul, and then inject them with spiritual spider eggs designed to force the Judgement to inadvertently use its RealityWarper powers to create a species of spider that can kill it. Once the soul is eaten, the Judgement is ''eaten alive from the inside out by its own inadvertent creations'', effectively killing its very soul.]]
392* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', The Void threatens this to all sentient beings. The Void appears simultaneously in all dimensions (though they actually are more or less close to it), and when it reaches maturity, will annihilate that dimension, leaving a [[BlankWhiteVoid blank nothing]] behind as if that dimension never existed. It turns out the afterlife exists in Mario and is a different dimension, but the Void is present there too. The one dimension shown to suffer this fate onscreen did however leave behind a small amount of debris, including the world's Pure Heart, and everyone who died as a result of its destruction was also revived once the dimension was restored.
393* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'':
394** Taken a step further than usual with W.D. Gaster. Never heard of him while playing the game? It's because when he ceased to exist, he ceased to exist from ''the game's narrative itself''. It's only possible to find direct references to him by poking through the game's code or by capitalizing the "fun" value in the game's files and setting specific numbers to trigger [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCBK2HDUEkA random appearances]]. He's essentially a canon character who was literally DummiedOut InUniverse.
395** After being reincarnated and lacking the ability to have empathy due to not having a soul, Flowey thought about ending his life and then stopped himself from doing it after realizing that without a soul, he cannot exist after death. The fear goes out the window once Flowey discovers he has the ability to [[SaveScumming SAVE and LOAD]], effectively cheating death. His death defying abilities were removed when Frisk arrived in the underground since Frisk has the same abilities and theirs are stronger than Flowey's. In the end of the No Mercy path, Flowey is ecstatic that Frisk (who has become the Fallen Child thanks to the player's slaughter spree) shares the same "kill or be killed" mindset and notes that the two of them wouldn't hesitate to kill each other if they got in each other's way... Cue [[OhCrap moment of dawning comprehension]] as Flowey realizes that his "best friend" can and ''will'' murder him and fully remembers what will happen to him if he dies without a soul.
396** Possibly played straight for monsters in general, as it is stated that without the power of Determination, their souls don't remain after death the way humans' do. Flowey's dialogue hints that monsters with souls have an afterlife but it's never stated outright.
397* In ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', if you are "erased" (aka killed post death), your soul disappears. Players have to escape this fate for a week, and then MAY have the option of returning to life. If not, they play again, become a Reaper (who try to "erase" souls and keep themselves from being "erased"), and a few become angels. Basically, if you play the game you're probably going to cease to exist. However, the secret reports reveal that erasure doesn't actually destroy someone's soul entirely, but it reduces it to whatever souls are made of, which comes down to almost the same thing. One character is actually erased early in the game, but eventually comes back because the energy their soul became was reconstituted into its previous form.
398** ''VideoGame/NEOTheWorldEndsWithYou'' kicks it up another notch with exorcism: [[spoiler:in addition to standard erasure, anyone who's exorcised has their entire existence scrubbed from the timestream, forwards and backwards. Suffice it to say, the only remnant of Tanzo Kubo that remains after his exorcism is the Soul Pulvis he engineered Rindo's Player Pin to create, and neutralizing that is the entire reason Rindo commits to one last Replay. The irony is that Kubo's distortion of the Game ensured that the Soul Pulvis would erase Shibuya; his exorcism by Hazuki's hands now makes the Soul Pulvis' deletion a possibility.]]
399* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''
400** While [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] respawn if they die outside the Twisting Nether, if they die while in the Twisting Nether (or some place heavily tainted by it), they are KilledOffForReal.
401** Near the end of ''Shadowlands'' Arthas's soul fades away into nothingness. Considering he's been trapped in [[{{Hell}} The Maw]] for decades, he probably regards this as a good thing.
402[[/folder]]
403
404[[folder:Web Animation]]
405* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', the Jabberwalker inflicts this on those it eat. While normally Afterans would AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence after death, the Jabberwalker kills them permanently. Neo copies this ability after killing and assimilating the Jabberwalker.
406* ''WebAnimation/LoveOfTheSn'': The quote by Alan Watts in the OpeningMonologue discusses this, but in the end there really is an afterlife: the S*n.
407[[/folder]]
408
409[[folder:Web Comics]]
410* "Life" is a pretty broad concept in ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'', since almost anything can be self-aware and "death" just changes which bits are eating which, but ''unexistentialization'' means that a particular consciousness stops existing "in any form, any place, ever again." It's also the [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/358.html default]] end for humans.
411* In ''Webcomic/GhostTheater'', spirits that are BarredFromTheAfterlife can come to the supernatural theater. There, they are allowed to possess the actors to act out a role in a play, to attempt to free themselves from whatever trauma or unfinished business is holding them back. But it's risky, because failure results in the spirit being permanently extinguished.
412* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', if you die, you can still continue on existing as a ghost appearing in dream bubbles. Unless, that is, the dream bubble is destroyed while you're inside it, in which case you, too, cease to exist forever.
413** It's hinted this is also what happens if you're still alive when the session is Scratched. Meenah didn't want that to happen so she killed herself and all her friends immediately before the Scratch hit them, hoping that they would be safe as dream ghosts away from the session. It was CrazyEnoughToWork.
414** It should be noted that the above only applies to Sburb players. Non-players who die in the Homestuck universe (the guardians, for instance) don't get to join the dream bubble party and simply cease to exist. Additionally, players in doomed timelines who manage to survive until the timeline ceases to exist are erased from existence as well.
415* Offhandedly mentioned in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''. Oddly enough, it's not a universal rule.[[note]]Anyone in limbo is free to leave, but they have to reincarnate, which strips their memories and stuffs them in an animal.[[/note]]
416-->'''[[OurAngelsAreDifferent Ramael:]]''' When a human dies, it's like getting an eternal vacation. A dead angel is just dead.
417* In ''Webcomic/OneOverZero'', you can become a ghost. However, it is possible to commit true suicide by "[[PersonAsVerb pulling a Ribby]]" by getting lost in your own imagination. A character can also be ''deanthropomophised'', or turned back into whatever they were created from.
418* This is what Gwynn from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=010315 threatened with]] when K'Z'K [[DemonicPossession takes over her body]].
419* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
420** This is what happens to "immortal" creatures like imps and elementals if somebody manages to kill them because they have no soul that can continue on into the afterlife. It's noted at one point that this means "mortal" creatures like humans are actually ''less'' afraid of death than "immortal" creatures because they know they'll continue on in some form and may even get resurrected at some point. Celia mentions that she'd just become one with the Plane of Air.
421** It's also stated to be the fate of anyone destroyed by the Snarl, though there's evidence that this may not be true.
422** As the characters live in an ''RPGMechanicsVerse'' (and [[MediumAwareness know it]]), it's been noted that this isn't always the case, and that the rules of what happens to Outsiders (the immortal creatures of the Outer Planes) if they're killed keep getting changed.
423* ''Webcomic/OffWhite'':
424** The White and Black Spirits can be reincarnated, but apparently they also can die a [[CessationOfExistence final death, one in which they don't rejuvenate.]] Apparently being eaten alive is one way for this to happen, going by what Sköll said.
425** Happened to Askr.
426* In ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3566#comic #3566]], hell only lasts for sixty seconds, starting out with the devil telling you you're going to fade into nothingness after that and continuing with his spending the rest of the time dancing and singing teenage pop music and refusing to answer your panicked questions.
427* In ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'', while Medians keep their bodies in the afterlife, Sakido informs Rhea (and the audience) that Angels and Demons [[http://www.sdamned.com/2005/08/08292005/ have no afterlife.]] She dies 15 pages later. Much later, [[http://www.sdamned.com/comic/893 Darius and Blue further explained]] that Angel and Demon souls were immediately recycled into new souls upon death, while Median souls were given an afterlife in order to resolve their worldly sins before being similarly recycled. [[spoiler:There's no indication of what happened when the gods regulating this process disappeared.]]
428* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': In Kasslyne human memories are contained by a mind/soul and are taken into and stored by the khert after death. The major religions teach that the soul keeps getting reincarnated and the memories returned with the final reincarnation, though there is no evidence of that. If an efheby eats a person it melts and drinks their memories and mind/soul so there is nothing to go into the kerht and that person ceasses to exsist.
429* The Webcomic/{{Walkyverse}} appears to combine this with TheNothingAfterDeath; after one character dies, he meets several others floating in an empty void; they have a brief debate about whether this is "purgatory" or just the residual energy of their minds bouncing around space before dissipating entirely.
430* While ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'' mostly features a more traditional sort of afterlife (with Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory all existing), the [[spoiler:Ninth Circle of Heaven]] is eventually revealed to be this trope by the Archangel Azrael. [[spoiler:Since existence is inherently unpleasant, the highest reward for the virtuous is to cease to exist, in direct parallel to the [[TheNothingAfterDeath Ninth Circle of Hell]] (where, in Scarlet’s words, "All you can do is ''exist''"). Since anyone ascended by an Archangel without God's judgment is sent to the Ninth Circle by default, this is effectively the fate of anyone who they harvest]].
431[[/folder]]
432
433[[folder:Web Original]]
434* In ''Literature/FineStructure'', there's ''supposed'' to be an afterlife, with dead souls ascending to a higher dimension. The presence of the Imprisoning God causes all souls to be obliviated against the edge of 3+1 space.
435** Paul Klick used the Klick Device to open a hole in reality, intending to take a shortcut to be with his dead wife. A little over 900,000 people - the population of central Berlin - went through the hole. WordOfGod is that the plan ''failed utterly'' - no one gets past the Imprisoning God. Ever.
436*** Before Klick used his Klick Device though, and after the Imprisoning God has no need to block the universe, this no longer applies. WordOfGod states he initially intended for Klick's plan to have accidentally ascended the population of Berlin, but changed it to them having died when it was pointed out that they would've been able to escape the Imprisoning God.
437* ''Website/SCPFoundation'':
438** Happened to one of the test subjects of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-896 SCP-896]] when he tampered with the SCP's source code to [[ItMakesSenseInContext maximize his stats]] during a containment breach. His account had one single server message on it: [[NoFairCheating "User has been banned for hacking"]].
439** According to [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/a-slumber-did-my-spirit-seal one tale]], this is the reason that [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-447 SCP-447]] cannot come into contact with dead bodies. It resurrects them, without any side effects. No zombification, no CameBackWrong symptoms, not even some consequence of coming back to life similar to Literature/TheMonkeysPaw, they're exactly the same person in their exact body. But they do remember one thing from the experience of being dead:
440---> "There's nothing there. The word really isn't sufficient in explaining it, since it has substance, and a history. When you think "nothing", you think of a black void, or a featureless white plain, or whatever. You think of yourself stranded there, stuck in nothingness forever.\
441There is no void, or white plain. There's no self to be stuck in them either. You just cease. And that's why we're here. We're here because we know the Foundation's deepest, darkest secret."
442* Normally, people who die in the world of ''Literature/TheQuintessentialMarySue'' go to either Heaven or Hell, but if one's soul is absorbed to increase another being's power, that soul will cease to exist completely and experience no afterlife. A soul that goes to Hell can still meet this fate if another damned soul learned the ability to absorb souls during their lifetime.
443[[/folder]]
444
445[[folder:Western Animation]]
446* Due to NeverSayDie, the Decepticons from ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers G1]]'' regularly threatened their opponents with "oblivion", implying that they and/or Cybertronians in general did not believe in an afterlife. Note that this was before [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars 'sparks' became a part of the franchise's mythology]].
447* In the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', it's pointed out via extreme BreakingTheFourthWall that anytime a show ends everyone and everything in the universe it takes place in ceases to exist.
448* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Disturbingly implied to be the case if [[CuteMachines BMO]] ever stopped working in "BMO Lost"; after having their batteries removed then replaced hours later, BMO cheerfully replies "I didn't have any dreams!"
449* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Prior to the start of the series, it is mentioned that Steven's mother, Rose Quartz gave up her physical form to give birth to him. In Season 5, [[spoiler:Steven's Gem outright states "She's gone". It's unsure whether she still exists in any afterlife, but she's certainly nowhere she's easy to reach]].
450* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In the final arc of the series, this is implied to be what happens to everyone after death who is not force-sensitive or has not [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence become one with the force]]. Although it is possible that this could be just the Jedi's (somewhat selfish) view on death. (Other sources suggest that an afterlife is possible for ''all'' virtuous sentient beings.) Cessation of Existence is also a core belief of [[TheSocialDarwinist the Sith]]: they don't believe in life after death, and their fear of this motivates them to hold onto life no matter what, even going so far as to [[ImmortalitySeeker try and discover eternal life.]] Since the only canon Sith ghost turned out to be an illusion, it's probably true at least for them.
451** Although this has been [[FlipFlopOfGod contradicted]] by certain things that have been suggested in ''Franchise/StarWars'' sourcebooks and elsewhere, such as that the Sith fear death not because it ends all, but because after it (for Sith and Dark Jedi, at least) comes drifting through the Dark Side forever and permanent insanity. When Sheev Palpatine was cloned back to life in the ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' comic book series, he remembered at the very least the details of his defeat and death at the end of his previous life, about which he was very, very, ''very'' angry. This extreme anger, combined with the psychotic tendencies induced in his spirit by a mishandling of the cloning process, turned Palpatine into a maniacal nihilist, causing him to lash out at everyone and everything – even, to some extent, his own former Imperials – and try to bring about the destruction of every inhabited world in existence with his Galaxy Gun, a sort of Death Star on steroids. Though much of this is no longer canon, so it still might be true for dark siders.
452* This was a constant danger for Aelita in the first, second, and some of the third season of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko''. Unlike the other heroes who were "devirtualized" and kicked out of Lyoko if their health reached zero, Aelita was tied too much to Lyoko itself and would cease to exist if it happened. Around the mid-point of season three, however, her powers and ties to the real world evolved enough so that she could survive it too, the "devirtualizing" effect able to restore her as it did the others.
453* While ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' does have an afterlife, this is used as a CutawayGag in an early episode when Peter talks about how he used to teach Sunday School.
454--> '''Peter''': And if you are pure of heart and deed, you'll go to a magical place called Heaven! (laughs) I'm just joshing you, you just rot in the ground. (kids look scared)
455* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'':
456** In "The Rickchurian Mortydate", Rick outrights state that "''There's no afterlife, everything just goes black''." as an attempt to threaten a bodyguard to death.
457** In the comics, a short story revolves around Morty having been so traumatized by his dangerous adventures with Rick that he's been having trouble sleeping because he thinks this is what happens when one dies and he doesn't know how to deal with it. When he asks Rick, Rick shows him an alien device that teenagers use as a dare, because it allows someone to experience death for a moment. We never get to see if it's true or not because Morty chickens out when Rick points out that the experience is why he's watching an old ''Alf'' marathon in the middle of the night instead of sleeping himself. Presumably, it's either this or something worse.
458** One of the clips in the episode "Morty's Mind Blowers" alludes to this. Rick and Morty meet an alien warrior who wants to die a warrior's death via Rick so he could go into "an orgasmic afterlife". However, Morty accidentally makes the alien question the afterlife's existence, causing the alien to run away in fear not wanting to die... only to get run over by a passing car and being DraggedOffToHell. Naturally, the guilt drives Morty to want this incident to be erased from his memories.
459* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', should the current Avatar die while they are in the Avatar state, the reincarnation cycle ends with them.
460* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheCrumpets'' episode "Belief Relief", while the family discusses what happens to leeks after dying, Ma explains to her husband that there is no afterlife. Their youngest child Li'l-One agrees with her.
461-->'''Ma''': When we die, we simply die. Lights out.
462* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Serfsons", there is a scene where several characters argue about what the afterlife is like. Bart raises the possibility that there is no life after death and that people who die just stop existing.
463-->'''Bart:''' But what if after we die, that's it? We're just gone?\
464''[Everyone Gasps]''\
465'''Wiggum:''' So just poof? Really? Poof, and then just super nothing?\
466'''Bart:''' ''[Shrug]''\
467'''Wiggum:''' Well, it's clean, I'll give you that.
468* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': Implied (though never confirmed, as it's explicitly a DyingDream rather than any AfterlifeAntechamber) in the penultimate episode of the series where [=BoJack=] has a NearDeathExperience, which takes the form of a sendoff dinner with the characters who had died during the shows run (as well as before it took place); Herb Kazzaz, Sarah Lynn, Corderoy Jackson, Creator/ZachBraff, his mother Beatrice, uncle [=CrackerJack=], as well as a composite of his father Butterscotch and his childhood hero Secretariat, all of whom go through a door to a black void throughout the episode. Herb implies this is what is about to happen.
469-->'''[=BoJack=]:''' See you on the other side.\
470'''Herb:''' ''(sadly)'' Oh, [=BoJack=], no... There is no other side. This is it.
471* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': The master plan of [[BigBad Bradford Buzzard]] is to get rid of anything he deems "chaotic" or "adventurous" via the "Solego Vortex," which completely erases anything thrown into it (modified from a device that opens portals between dimensions). Bradford's clones and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Black Heron are thrown in, but the device is disabled before he can erase anything else. That said, he outright refuses to throw Scrooge into the Vortex as he’s more than willing to bet that Scrooge, the master adventurer, will ''somehow'' find his way out it, suggesting that even he isn’t 100% confident that being thrown into the Vortex is completely fatal.
472[[/folder]]

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