Our Spirits Are Different

"Now the spirits come!! Come, spirits of power, come spirits of sight! Show to me the awful things occurring here tonight!"

— Madame Clairvoya, Luigi's Mansion

Ah, spirits. Perhaps no other fantastic beings in all of fictiondom can be so vague as to what they are. Are they ghosts? Fairies? Gods? That will depend on several questions you have to ask if you wish to have them in your story:

Are they immaterial/incorporeal, and if so, to what degree?

• Some are immaterial, but they can take material form if they choose to.
• Some are often seen in a material or semi-material form, but still don't seem to completely follow the laws of physics one would expect them to.
• Others exist inside of or are bound to a physical vessel (such as a tree, lake or stone, a pile of garbage, etc.), which may be either treated as their home, or as their body, although in either case the spirit will usually be capable of manifesting or affecting the world beyond without making its vessel into an Animate Inanimate Object.
• Regardless of anything else, they can often turn invisible.

Can they possess humans or other corporeal beings? Alternatively, can they form permanent bonds with them (a la Spirit Advisor)?

• Sometimes they can't, usually they can (which doesn't mean they will). Sometimes they will only possess a willing host, other times they're not so benevolent.

Where do they live/come from?

• As one might expect, spirits often come from the Spirit World, but any generic Magical Land will do in a pinch.
  • The relationship between the Spirit World and the mundane can vary though, sometimes being a wholly separate place, sometimes being an overlay on the normal world.
• Sometimes they don't come from anywhere "other" at all, being a natural (if frequently invisible, or often remote) part of the world.

Are they mortal/ageless/invulnerable/killable?

• The majority of them are killable, usually through one of their specific weaknesses, occasionally via more mundane means. You may only be Fighting a Shadow, however.
• Almost all of them are Immortal, barring a few exceptions.
• Sometimes spirits are closely tied to the health of a particular region (a town say, or a forest). Damaging or destroying that region will often destroy or at least weaken them... unless it just pisses them off instead.

Are they capable of evolution/change?

• Varies heavily. Many have Voluntary Shape Shifting abilities, though not all. Some demonstrate a sort of Fisher Kingdom effect, mutating or changing in response to their environment. Some are timeless, and often stuck in a Medieval Stasis to boot. You can expect them to have some problems handling more modern advances (whatever that means for the setting), though there are always exceptions.

Can they be consumed/deformed by other beings?

• Spirits can be often be used by others (including other spirits) for power, perhaps unwillingly.
• A deformed spirit may end up as a Broken Angel. Or an Eldritch Abomination.

What powers do they have?

• Some type of magic is almost mandatory for all of them (most are Made of Magic in some way or another, after all). However, spirits can be any power level, from less potent than a human (despite their magic) all the way to, for all practical purposes, being gods. They tend to be on the mid-weight-to-moderately-high end of the spectrum, though.

What weaknesses do they have?

• They're often able to be sent back to wherever they came from (or barring that possibility, still sent running).
• Magical items (and magic in general) are usually able to hurt them (and sometimes are the only things that can). If spirits are treated as free-floating souls, expect magics capable of manipulating or damaging souls to be particularly devastating.

What is their relationship to the natural world?

• Sometimes spirits are associated with, a part of, or even representatives of the natural world. Sometimes they are wholly alien beings beyond the comprehension of normal reality. Sometimes they're both.

...And to humanity?

• Sometimes spirits and humans get along swimmingly. Sometimes they don't, for whatever reason. Sometimes, even if they only get along uneasily, humans will seek them out for power. Sometimes it varies by the variety of spirit (or even just the individual spirit in question).

What is their relation to...^note In general, the answer to any of these questions may be "they are a type of spirit", "that's what spirits are", or "no, spirits are a completely different type of being". Its a safe bet that the spirits of any given setting will demonstrate at least some of the traits of one or more of these beings, though.

• ...angels?
  • The "good" (usually) spirits.
• ...demons?
  • The "bad" (usually) spirits.
• ...fairies?
  • Fae spirits come in two flavors;
    • The mischievous yet non-evil kind, such as pixies and sprites.
    • ...and the "I left you a changeling that's making you soup with a special ingredient, otherwise known as your actual child" kind.
• ...genies?
• ... youkai?
  • Sometimes "youkai" is used to be mean "spirits that come from Japan" (not to be confused with Japanese Spirit), or just as a Japanese language term for spirits from any location, though traditionally it's been used for completely corporeal beings. The terms "ayakashi" or "mononoke" may be used similarly.
• ...The Undead, particularly ghosts?
  • Ghosts and similar entities tend to be the souls of beings that haven't moved on, and thus become spirits.
• ...gods?
  • Sometimes a god is just a spirit that grew particularly big and powerful, and sometimes they're something more fundamental to reality; either way they often control lesser spirits.
• ...embodiments of the elements and concepts?
• ...unknowable things from Beyond?
• ...and any number of other mythological beings.
  • Vampires, werewolves, mortal magicians, and other mortal/reality-based creatures generally tend to be exempt from this classification. Although sometimes even these creatures are the result of spiritual possession.

Are they good? Bad? Whatever?

• Their morality is mostly based on what type of spirit they are, and sometimes it varies from individual to individual.

Are they alcoholic?^note Surprisingly the answer is sometimes "yes", whether that means that the spirits make a good sauce, or that they love getting sauced.

Miscellaneous

Needless to say, they're almost guaranteed to be Made of Magic. Their Sci-Fi equivalent can be found in Energy Beings.

Super-Trope of Nature Spirit. Compare Our Souls Are Different.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle refers to many different kinds of spirits as ayakashi^*Which traditionally referred specifically to spirits that appeared above bodies of water.. Some are created by human actions (often negative emotions in the case of malicious ayakashi, or belief that they already exist), others are Nature Spirits created by animals and plants. They may also resemble specific traditional youkai, even if they aren't explicitly identified as such^*Shirogane actually called himself a "youkai" in the first chapter while explaining what ayakashi are. It's unclear if this means there are youkai/spirits besides the ayakashi, or they're just alternate terms for the same beings.. The main thing they have in common is that they are Invisible to Normals, composed entirely of haku (unlike humans, who have physical bodies, haku, and kon/spiritual energy), and are drawn to humans with very large amounts of haku (who are known as "ayakashi mediums"). There are also ayakashi in countries besides Japan, which resembles figures of their native folklore (even if the same Japanese term is arbitrarily applied to all of them).
• In Bleach
  • Ordinary human spirits are called "Pluses," usually created when someone dies with Unfinished Business. Pluses tend to stick near places or people that were important to them in life (tethered to the location by a long chain), and sometimes might even realize that they're dead. However, since they're Invisible to Normals, they slowly grow resentful and insane through isolation and/or neglect. When this begins, they turn into spirits called "demi-Hollows", which are still normal Pluses with a hole slowly growing on the spot where their chain is connected, symbolizing their decaying connection to their humanity. When the chain has eroded all the way (or when external factors prompt a change), they become full Hollow with an unquenchable thirst for souls. If a shinigami sends the soul off to Soul Society (the afterlife), they'll be safe from transforming into a hollow, but will now begin a second life living in a poor, destitute city based roughly on feudal Japan. The lucky few qualify to become shinigami themselves (although, given the average life expectancy of a shinigami, how "lucky" this is can be disputed). The shinigami and Hollow also have their own hierarchy and ranking, and despite being the "good guys", the shinigami are essentially nobility and treat normal Pluses at best with indifference and at worst with contempt.
  • And then there is the fact that despite being supposedly spirits, the cast usually has to worry about stuff that should only apply when having a physical body, like broken bones and illnesses. Just ask Ukitake.
• Jujutsu Kaisen's Cursed Spirits are sapient concentrations of Cursed Energy (a power sourced generated from negative human emotion). They are all instinctively hostile towards humanity and come in all manner of shapes, sizes and levels of intelligence. Cursed Spirits are usually invisible to regular humans ((barring incredibly stressful circumstances or during near-death experiences) but all of them are corporeal and take up real space, even if most can shapeshift and alter their appearance to various degrees. Jujutsu Sorcerers grade Cursed Spirits from Grade 4 to Grade 1, with sixteen registered (and four unregistered) Special Grade Spirits active during the main storyline. Though regular Curses are usually small, animalistic and can easily be exorcised using regular equipment, Grade 1s and Special Grades can eat tank shells and tear down skyscrapers and usually have human or near-human level intelligence, making them exceedingly dangerous. It is stated that Cursed Spirits not only account for the majority of annual mysterious deaths and disappearances nation-wide, but are also historically responsible for inspiring the tales of Yōkai and most supernatural entities.

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering: Spirits are a creature type, essentially representing all disembodied creatures — from ghosts to nature spirits to some pretty weird things — that are't claimed by another creature type already, such as Elementals, Demons, Angels and Gods. With some exceptions, they aren't generally associated with any one color of mana. Their exact nature and importance varies from plane to plane:
  • In Kamigawa (which is based on Japanese Mythology), they are known as Kami, and warred against the mortal races. They are for all intents and purposes gods (Mark Rosewater in facts has said they'd be typed gods if the creature type had existed back when the first Kamigawa block was made), and some are pretty unusual looking, being designed to look incompatible with the human world. They are just about material enough to be killed (though this is naturally pretty hard to do), leaving behind black ash.
  • In Ravnica, they're primarily ghosts, due to the plane being trapped in its own little bubble in The Multiverse and not allowing the spirits of the dead to escape, forcing them to manifest on the physical plane. They are heavily associated with the Orzhov Syndicate, which uses them as guards and enforcers and is ruled by a ghost council, the Obzedat. That said, some spirits are known to be part of other guilds.
  • In the Gothic Horror-inspired Innistrad, geists — the spirits of the dead — form one of the set's five gameplay tribes (alongside humans, werewolves, vampires and corporeal undead) and are chiefly associated with White and Blue mana — Black, Red and Green geists also occur, but aren’t common. White geists are traditional ghosts returned to watch over their families or fulfill duties or obligations; Blue geists are poltergeists born from compulsive behaviors, cause mental afflictions in people they torment and are attracted to water, fog and storms; Black geists return as predatory haunts and are very dangerous; Red geists are obsessed with revenge and failures from their mortal lives and are the most aggressive spirits; and Green geists are especially attracted to nature, often becoming the spirits of landforms, copses and so on.
  • In the Classical Mythology-inspired Theros, the eidolon separate from their bodies upon death. While the corpses become the memory-less, shade-like zombies known as nostron, the eidolon also forget their past lives and wander around aimlessly, often drawn to the magic of the nymphs. They are generally represented by enchantment creature cards.

Comic Books

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

Fan Works

• Grim Grinning Ghosts: When Harry is killed at seven he "splits" into a spirit and a zombie, with the ability for the former to possess the latter, giving an illusion of life.
• Lost Cities: The great boreal forest in the north is haunted by ghosts and spirits. Most are indistinct things, little more than floating lights bobbing among the trees or a half-seen glow in the sockets of empty skulls, but others are vast and powerful, like a great winged shape whose wheeling form covers the sky from one horizon to the other.
• Under the Northern Lights: Spirits are incorporeal beings common throughout Tarandroland; they can be helpful or dangerous depending on their nature, and dealing with and calling on spirits forms a major part of reindeer magic. They are almost impossible to harm with physical means, but are vulnerable to magic.
  • Hraesvalgs are flying spirits resembling a cross between eagles and maggots. They possess and animate corpses and are driven by a constant ravenous hunger, and are among the monsters faced by the reindeer every winter.
  • Ratatosks, or gossip spirits, resemble squirrels covered in eyes and ears. They are naturally attracted to places where gossip and news can be found, and are often used as spies and scouts.

Films — Animation

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

Literature

• Akata Witch: Masquerades are spirit creatures and they will hurt you.
• The high spirits of Adam R. Brown's Astral Dawn series are very different from the average spook found haunting houses. The high spirits were once mortal humans before they died and ascended to Averya (Heaven) or Nazyra (Hell). They evolved to become so powerful, they gained total dominion over their created worlds and even revisited Earth to become the gods and legends of ancient mythologies.
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Spirits are usually referred to as "demons", though Bart at least prefers the term "spirits" (or the more accurate ranks of imp, foliot, djinni, afrit, and marid).
  • All come from the Other Place and prolonged exposure to the Earthly realm (such as what happens to Bart in the third book) weakens them, while returning home replenishes their power.
  • They can be controlled by their True Names, though they can reverse most magical attacks and punishments on a magician if they know their true name.
  • They can be consumed by stronger spirits, usually ones of higher rank, though lower-ranked ones can pose a threat if the spirit is severely weakened. They can also consume humans and other animals, though the reverse isn't usually true.
  • All are vulnerable to silver, and to a lesser extent to iron and certain herbs.
  • All of the ones we've seen can shapeshift^note Some of the really weak ones like mites (weaker than imps) might not be able to, but none of those are named characters. Meanwhile, absurdly powerful Eldritch Abominations like Ramuthra appear as a hole in reality., but always show their true form on the seventh plane. Djinn and higher-ranked spirits can see all seven planes, while foliots and imps usually can't, and most humans can only see the first.
• Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: Seattle says that he was taught to see his ancestors in the waters of streams and rivers, that "each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of the memories in the life of our people".
• City of Bones (1995): People rightly fear air spirits and evil ghosts, since they're invisible and can freeze a person to death with a touch. They're later revealed to be the faded remnants of Inhabitants of the West who got trapped in the physical world, which are much nastier.
• Date A Live's Spirits are beings which are occasionally sucked into this world, causing "spacequakes" (a phenomenon that destroys everything within a spherical area of effect) in the process. And they happen to be top class Bishojo as well. To stop them from wreaking havoc on this world by accident, without killing them? The main character Shido has to date them. The real kicker? It's revealed later in the light novels that all Spirits used to be normal humans until they were transformed via the Sephira crystal.
• The Divine Comedy: The souls of the dead are referred to as "shades" because while they may appear to have bodies, they cannot interact with physical people like Dante or project shadows. The shades only appear to have bodies that feel pain and pleasure so they can experience some of what eternal life will be like while not having to wait until the Last Judgement.
• The Dresden Files: Humans are made of three things: Body, Spirit, and Soul. Ghosts and some creatures from the Nevernever are made of only Spirits and other creatures from the Nevernever (such as Fae) are made of both Body and Spirit. Finally, some very special kinds of ghosts can have both Spirit and Soul.
  • Beings from the Nevernever can be summoned or cross over on their own. For those without bodies they can create material bodies for themselves made of ectoplasm, which dissipates without a trace if they are killed or leave (or no longer have enough magic to maintain the body).
  • Certain kinds of spirits (ghosts, demons) can possess humans and animals (e.g. cats) but not all of them, apparently. Permanent bonds are possible via mutual pledges of loyalty.
  • All spirits seem ageless, but they're not invulnerable.
  • Spirits always stay the way they are.
  • They can be consumed/deformed by other beings, usually by bigger and meaner spirits, though mortal wizards can feed on them, too.
  • Since spirits are incapable of evolution, their True Names never change, and whoever knows it can force them to do their bidding.
• Inheritance Cycle: Spirits are one of the many intelligent species in the setting. They are described as being hovering orbs of light constantly changing in size and color, but very little else is understood about them. One of the disciplines of magic involves summoning spirits and using them as mana batteries, which is never really shown in action but is presumably extremely powerful since spirits that we do see are capable of no-selling mental defenses and pulling off feats of magic that even dragons would consider impossible. The user of spirit magic has to be careful not to summon spirits more powerful than they can control, however, since spirits can take control of a human body and form a Shade. Even though one of spirits' few established likes or dislikes is the fact that they absolutely despise sharing a human body, they will always try to do this when summoned and can only leave a possessed human when the Shade is killed. Perhaps because of this, despite spirits' typical Blue-and-Orange Morality, Shades are universally Always Chaotic Evil.
• In Lord of the Rings and the rest of Tolkien's verse (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Children of Húrin), there are basically two kinds of spirits. The first, Ainur (Valar and Maiar) are the local version of angels and demons (ie. Valar and Maiar begin as angels, but can become corrupted and turn into demons); they exist simultaneously in two worlds (wraith-world and the real world), can change shape and become immaterial at will (unless they are in Mode Lock like Gandalf and Sauron), are immortal and happy about it, come from Valinor and are the source of most Functional Magic in the verse. The second type (Nazgûl, Wraiths, ghosts etc) are spirits who were once souls of Men (or Elves), they live mostly in the wraith-world and have problems interacting with the real world, are usually immaterial, immortal but remarkably not happy about their condition and have less powerful magical abilities; they are also likely to be evil, because souls of good people obediently go to the halls of Mandos to reach the afterlife (though the Nazgûl, at least, are actually victims of The Corruption).
• The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses: Spirits are supernatural beings that live in the other world. They dwell in everything, including the air, earth, water and plants. Low level Spirits have the forms of animals, while Deities have human forms. Humans can make contracts with them to use their power.
• The Stormlight Archive: The spren are associated with various phenomena. Whether they're drawn to said phenomena, created by them, or cause them is not clear to most people in universe. These phenomenon include wind, rain and fire, natural processes like rot, emotions like fear and passion, and even more esoteric things like music, creation, and honour. Some spren can move small objects and give small pinches of energy, as well as mimic voices.
  • The nature of spren has been expanded upon gradually over the course of the series. They are essentially pieces of power given a kind of life by people's ideas about various phenomena. They exist naturally in the Cognitive Realm and are drawn partially into the Physical Realm by the phenomena they are associated with. Most spren are essentially the Cognitive Realm equivalent of animals, whereas others are intelligent enough to form societies. Some of the kinds of intelligent spren are able to form bonds with humans that grant the human magical powers, while allowing the spren to think while in the Physical Realm (without a bond they are nearly mindless outside the Cognitive Realm).
• Henrik Wergeland developed an entire spirit lore, which surfaced in his own mythology pretty early. Essentially, he imagined a kind of "elementary spirits" roaming the heavens (like swans swimming on the "Milky way river"). Those spirits could "lay eggs" in the human souls. Now that is one way to explain it. Furthermore, one spirit could actually split in two, to harbor more than one soul (or more). In this way he explained his sense of companionship with his muse, Stella (actually a quite physical girl he was madly in love with). Only from time to time would a spirit enter a single soul without splitting up. The result would be a person with great historical impact, like, for instance, William Shakespeare...

Live-Action TV

• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: During their duel, the Stranger defeats the three worshipers of Sauron by turning them into wraith-like creatures, reminiscent of the ghostly forms of the Nazgûl from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Mythology and Religion

• Religion... as in all of them. Trinitarian Christianity has the Holy Ghost, Buddhism has physical hungry ghosts, various religions and mythologies have regular ghosts and fairies/Nature Spirits/Little People, and of course Shinto and Animism have everyone. And everything.
  • Suffice it to say, just about everything in mythology that wasn't human or a corporeal undead was either a spirit or descended from one.

Tabletop Games

• Pathfinder: Beings like kami, oni and other native outsiders are referred to as spirits, though what exactly that means varies from creature to creature. Oni, for example, are formless ethereal beings that take forms resembling humanoid races, while kami are guardian entities that bind themselves to a particular charge. There are also occult spirits, the remnants of souls and minds for those too weak to manifest as undead but strong enough to communicate with and assist the properly attuned.
• Summerland: Drifters who travel through the deeper parts of the woods occasionally claim to have seen spirits and apparitions, which can range from living shadows to whispering trees to golden stags leaping through the woods. Not everybody believes these claims, but among those who do there's a great deal of worry about what this may signify.
• The World of Darkness:
  • The Book of Spirits is a New World of Darkness sourcebook concerning spirits. They're generally the domain of werewolves and mages with the spirit arcana, but they can be dealt with by vampires and mortals as well. More specifically, nWoD spirits are incorporeal beings associated with concepts, Anthropomorphic Personification but usually without the anthropomorphic part. They sustain themselves by hanging around places associated with their concept; river spirits with rivers, grief spirits with funeral parlors, spirits of mugging with back alleys, etc. They can also try to encourage or nurture the concept that feeds them, which is obviously bad news when dealing with a spirit of murder or something similar... but less-obviously bad news when it's (for instance) a spirit of euphoria hanging around a drug den, encouraging people to take more and more and MORE...
  • Both Worlds of Darkness also give spirits a hierarchical structure, organizing them into courts with various ranks, but with different twists. In nWoD, each spirit is technically an independent actor that shares a Choir with like types - for instance, each dove spirit gets along with other dove spirits and is a member of the Choir of Birds. In cWoD, each spirit is effectively a "representative" of a greater totem, which may itself fall in with the brood of a totem more powerful than itself - for instance, each dove spirit is actually an aspect/representative of Dove, who is herself allied with the brood of Unicorn, and so forth.

Video Games

• Curse Of The Assassin by Tin Man Games: An evil mercenary is attempting to undergo apotheosis. This has thrown the balance of the world of mankind and the spirit world out of whack. As such, beings of folklore collectively known as the Sleeping Ones (most are nature spirits) have manifested in the land of Orlandes and are now preying on people. A wise coyote spirit seeks you as a champion and if you defeat it in a trial by combat, it will grant you all the knowledge of folklore and these creatures. This gives you a greatly increased chance of doing damage against them in battle. These Sleeping Ones range from the fictional White Ape of Orlandes, which is an omen of natural disaster and turns into a boulder when slain, to the Duende and La Llorona from actual Latin American folklore.
• Dragon Age: Spirits and demons are the same thing. They inhabit the Dream Land called the Fade but can be summoned into the material world (or enter it on their own in certain locations). They seem to be ageless but can be killed, whether in the material world or in the Fade. Both demons and benevolent spirits can possess humans, though the former tend to turn them into Humanoid Abominations. Each demon is associated with one of five sins (corresponding to the negative emotion it feeds upon); benevolent spirits seem to be associated with virtues but because encounters with them are so rare, no established classification exists.
  • It also implies that spirits become demons by the perceptions of people. Or by a mage using blood magic to bind them. Or by being pulled out of the Fade through tears in reality. It's also establishes that they have a different way of viewing things and they're just as freaked out by the mortal world as mortals are freaked out by the Fade.
  • Some spirits might even be able to "become somebody else". Cole and possibly Leliana (based on the player's choices in previous games) are two such examples.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The games have numerous ghost-like spirits. The most famous ones are the Poes, who haunt graveyards and abandoned buildings and carry lanterns which hold their souls, which can broken open to collect the Poe's soul in certain games. Other spirits exist, such as the cyclopean Ghinis, which can turn invisible, and the Hyu, similar to Poes but not as aggressive, and likelier to be found haunting ghost towns and deep forests.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, humans trapped in the Twilight are turned into spirits, appearing as floating, greenish flames unless Wolf Link uses his enhanced senses, at which point they show as ghostly apparitions.
• In Luck be a Landlord, Spirits come out of broken Urns and Tombs and give coins for a short while until they disappear. The Shrine item makes a Spirit appear whenever any symbol representing a living thing is destroyed, except Billionaires, who evidently have no souls.
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Dance Spirits look like who they speak to.
• Shining the Holy Ark: Three good spirits are in charge of magical floating spaceship, the titular Ark. However the Ark gets destroyed so they escape in a pod, crash onto our heroes and possess them. This heals our three main heroes (as they were squashed by the escape pod) and makes sure they can never die, gives them additional powers and allows themselves to heal up while they inhabit their bodies. Meanwhile an evil spirit possesses the King and his advisers in an attempt to revive the 1000 year kingdom and bring fourth an age of darkness.
• Soma Union: Unlike the previous game, which only has two spirits of emotion, this game has more spirits, and each one represents different concepts. These can be emotions or more mundane things like pointy hats. However, Zero has no idea what emotion or concept they represent. All spirits are actually created by using Absolution's power to infuse life. The Sun King created Heart and Soul from the souls of his deceased friends while Professor M infused life into several robot and cyborg bodies.
• Fire Emblem Engage: There are object-bound spirits named Emblems that resemble various characters from past Fire Emblem games, but aren't actually them. With the exception of one, Alear, all Emblems lack physical bodies, are immortal, and unable to eat. When summoned through a prayer, and in Alear's case, also invocation, they're practically good spirits, but when invoked, they are simply soulless husks known as Dark Emblems, though the only truly evil spirits of this game are all of the Dark Emblems summoned by Sombron. They are also capable of fusing with their bearers by engaging with them.

Visual Novels

• Nasuverse: There are many types of spirits, but they all share common characteristics. Spirits are immaterial existences that "exist with a shape, but without physical properties". Their bodies are described as "Elementals" (Seirei, in the original Japanese), meaning they are conceptual and thus are able travel without physical interference (passing through walls and people, for example).
  • Spirits who came from Alaya (collective human unconscious). Mythical beings that exist in human imagination, called "Phantasmal Species". They lack the capability to interact with physical bodies (immaterial) and can't be perceived by humans unless enough people believe in them. If enough humans believe in them, Phantasmal Beasts can become "Divine Spirits", capable of taking material forms and influencing the World around them with their Authority.
  • Spirits who came from Gaia ("Will" of the Earth). Nature Spirits that serve as Gaia's extension of will. These can influence physical bodies as they please, and usually packs enough power to wreck reality around them apart at will. The only known example of this are the "True Ancestors".
  • The Lower-Class Spirits, or better said, ghosts. Remnants of dead living beings (human, animal, or even plants) that remain attached to the world for some reason. These are immaterial, unstable, temporary existences that have to consume life-force from living beings to continue existing. They can, however, grow so powerful to the point of being able of materializing themselves.
  • Finally, there are the Heroic Spirits. Humans who manage to imprint themselves inside Alaya due to their fame as "heroes" in human history (either actual or made-up). Their souls are recorded in the so-called "Throne of Heroes", and their souls can be summoned as Heroic Spirits by Holy Grail, powerful artifact of True Magic capable of manipulating and materializing souls. Heroic Spirits can take material or immaterial form at will, but they need living being's life-force to exist in the world.

Web Animation

• No Evil: The spirits of Scourosi are flesh-and-blood beings with the souls of fallen stars. They have both a human form and a naugal form and are partially composed of magic. Also, they are named for figures from Native American legends, post-colonial folklore, and/or Aztec gods.

Web Video

• In Jreg's Centricide, a human's spirit can linger around only if their will is strong enough. This resulted in the souls of many political extremists lingering around after they passed. Spirits are also able to combine into "mega-spirits." Ghosts can only possess blood relatives, which is how Che Guevara was able to possess Greg Guevara, also allowing Kim Il Sung, Julius Evola, and Ayn Rand to possess him too by combining into one mega-spirit.

Webcomics

• Champions of Far'aus: Spirits are immortal, and range from fire spirits, which are more like elementals of a sort that can fly, to Terrabnds, which are more animalistic and crawl around on the ground, to Ghosts.
• Oceanfalls: Spirits are a major danger in the monster world due to their illusory abilities, and mostly survive off of the negative emotions of those they torment, but can and will consume souls if they believe a great danger is coming. Thankfully, spirits can be killed by physical attacks like any other creature. They also mostly talk in Black Speech that is represented in the comic by Morse Code, but nobody In-Universe can understand. It's later revealed that Kotori is able to understand them somehow, and even commands them to go after the main party.
• In Yokoka's Quest, spirits come in a variety of forms:
  • Spirit: Yin, Yang, and the four members of the Poker Gang are all spirits. Yin and Yang appear to live relatively normal lives, despite being spirits, as a seamstress and merchant respectively. Yfa could feel that a spirit was "still deciding what it wants to be" within Grace's lucky deck, and later they would "need the final touch", for Grace "to call out to them", before the Poker Gang would be born. Grace then forms a pact with the Poker Gang, making her their summoner. Blinky explains that "emotions, intent, mixed with the energy of the planet [are] what the spirits feed off of". Spirits have no age.
  • Spirit bird: Copycat, Kagi, and Yfa's father are spirit birds. Mao refers to Copycat as "some kind of lesser spirit". Kagi was previously only part bird ^note (as shown in an old photo and more clearly in a Side-Story Bonus Art wallpaper) but became "a full bird" by the time the story takes place. Spirit birds are noted to be able to shapeshift into anything they can imagine. There are also birds who aren't spirits, such as Chirpy.
  • Beast/Spirit: Yfa, Raya, and Tomo are all beast/spirits, sharing a beast mother and a spirit bird father. Yfa is able to shapeshift into anything he can imagine due to being part spirit bird. It's not been shown whether other mixes exist, such as human/spirit or demon/spirit.
  • Tunnel dweller: Three tunnel dwellers, resembling a mole, axolotl, and pangolin, caused tremors around the underground village, before emerging and being fought on two occasions. After being beaten and bound in chains of light, Blinky banishes them with a spell; its incantation implies they're angry spirits being sent back where they belong, which Yokoka later describes as "back to the Spirit World or whatever". Yin also refers to them as beasts.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The spirits inhabit a Spirit World, but many of them have the ability to take form in the 'real' world, as well. In terms of vulnerability, it varies from spirit to spirit. On the whole, taking form in the real world leaves them vulnerable to attacks, and if they take on a permanent living body, such as the moon and ocean spirits, or the eponymous avatar, they can be permanently killed. Powers also vary: some are a Anthropomorphic Personifications and have abilities linked to that, while others are random assortments.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: There are four of them. On the side of good we find Gaia (the Spirit of Earth) and the eponymous Captain Planet, while on the side of evil we find Zarm (the Spirit of Destruction) and Captain Pollution. What all four have in common is their human forms and Immortality, at least when speaking of natural causes; otherwise, they can be killed.
  • Speaking of Zarm, he and Gaia may be polar opposites when it comes to their alignment (she's good, while he's evil), but they do share some traits and skills, even though Gaia seems to be less willing to use them to the extent Zarm does. They both are Masters of Illusion, can create and control weather phenomena (see their battle in "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1"), and their powers are part of them.
  • The two Captains share super-strength, the ability to fly, hamminess and, uh... specific type of humor. Other than that, they're as different as they can be, even working as each other's Kryptonite Factor.
• Danny Phantom: Some of the ghosts are humans and animals experiencing the afterlife and some of the ghosts are not. The ones without an origin among the living are spectral lifeforms born entirely in the Ghost Zone. Most appear to be metaphysical manifestations of one theme or another, like Undergrowth and Clockwork, while others, notably Box Lunch, are the born-as-ghost offspring of other ghosts.
• The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters: Many of the entities called "ghosts" are not exactly disembodied souls of the dead as the traditional depiction of ghosts, but Spirits; entities from another dimension that, as Egon puts it in one episode, "have always been ghosts". Some episodes even show these dimensions. And some of the most dangerous (and of the very few recurrent) villains like Samhain and the Boogie Man are Spirits. In general, Spirits in the Ghostbusters animated universe are basically some sort of normally evil chaotic creature made of ectoplasm and with certain magical powers.

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