History Main / AnatomyOfTheSoul

* Rene Descartes is the guy responsible for mind-body problem/hard problem of consciousness, since in his view body and soul/mind are completely separate things that somehow (he didn't know how) influence each other. Animals, for Descartes, have no soul whatsoever.

* '''[[SoulPower Spirit]] / LifeEnergy --''' Pretty self explanatory. If the Body is an engine that the Mind drives, then [[LiquidAssets the fuel]] is the Spirit. Those who want it do so for ImmortalityImmorality. Its loss may manifest as RapidAging, becoming very sickly or just plain death. Usually considered to be the immortal part of you that continues to exist in the {{Afterlife|Tropes}}, thus destroying someone's soul tends to have much [[KilledOffForReal more final]] effects than [[DeathIsCheap merely killing their Body]], up to and including CessationOfExistence.

** '''Body Parts --''' A form of BodyMotifs where certain parts of the Body represent components of the self, such as [[PersonalityBloodTypes personality]] [[FourTemperamentEnsemble traits]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}} energy]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} points]], [[FreudianTrio the classical tripartite soul]] or even [[SensoryIndex the soul's windows to the outside world]]. Brains, hearts and blood are popular picks.

** '''[[CastingAShadow Darkness]] --''' Oddly, the "Dark" half isn't a good thing to lose either. It's [[DarkIsNotEvil not always evil]], and generally contains all those useful survival instincts that turn to mushy pink feelings if it's absent. That said, an empowered dark side generally leads to a SuperPoweredEvilSide and release of TheHeartless.

* '''{{Memor|yTropes}}ies --''' Past experiences that are kept in a person's Mind for future recall. Losing the odd memory here and there doesn't always affect a person much, but losing too many would result in [[EasyAmnesia amnesia]]. Sometimes, they can be [[TransferableMemory transferred out]], [[GhostMemory planted in]] or [[FakeMemories altered]]. [[GhostAmnesia Do not always]] last beyond death, but when they do, they might [[LivingMemory manifest]] [[OurGhostsAreDifferent in a ghostly form]] or [[PastLifeMemories cling to the soul in the next life]].

* '''Inner Genius / Inner Spirit --''' A kind of separate entity that is nevertheless still part of the person. May manifest as TheConscience, a GoodAngelBadAngel, SpiritAdvisor, GuardianEntity, [[AnimalMotifs animal totem]], [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension the owner's Divine Spark that can do magic]] or [[Literature/HisDarkMaterials a "wizard's familiar"]]. Sometimes all of these at once.
* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essence Essence]] / [[IKnowYourTrueName True Name]] --''' A philosophical and metaphysical concept that more or less is what makes something what it is. Both people, animals, and even inanimate objects have this. It's not usually directly named or addressed in fiction but a lot of stories reference it indirectly. Especially when related to magic systems that draw power from souls (or maybe even elements and nature). It's a connection with Essence that basically gives people the power to draw power from things because it defines what something can do and can become.

If the stolen, damaged, or corrupted component isn't returned in time, you can expect the owner to [[OurSoulsAreDifferent either wither and die, go into a catatonic coma, or be incurably evil/homicidal]]. If the stolen/removed item is left loose, it may become TheHeartless, a LivingMemory or even a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]] whose body yet lives.

* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', the ''Alicization'' arc defines what a soul is through the Soul Translator technology. Based on SAO's "Quantum Brain Dynamics" theory, there are light particles or photons that act as a quantum unit of mind called "Evanescent Photons", which exist within the microtubules of a nerve cell. These light particles exist in a state of indeterminism and fluctuate according to the probability theory. A collection of these particles form a Quantum Field, which have been dubbed "Fluctuating Lights" (or "Fluctlight" for short) which is what makes up the human consciousness, or in other words, the human soul. The Soul Translator machine is able to record the spin and vector of each photon within the microtubles and translate this information into a readable form for computers. It diverges from standard VR in that it's not merely nerve signals being transmitted into the system, but the soul itself.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' featured quite a few of these, up to and including LifeEnergy, Dream Mirrors (a combination of ambition and the ability to dream and sleep and the former trope namer), Pure Heart Crystals (the emotional heart), and Star Seeds (the soul which allowed for reincarnation).
** Removing them has various effects. Energy loss simply is just that, a loss of energy. Losing a Pure Heart puts the victim in a zombiesque or hysteric state, though most just collapse though. Removing the Mirror doesn't really do much by itself, but the process of extracting the mirror is painful, as is looking inside the mirror (by sticking their head INTO it); however, ''eating'' the Mirror will cause the victim to die if it is not recovered; in addition, breaking the mirror will render the victim comatose, though they can be revived by repairing the mirror. The Star Seed will cause a person to fade away if taken far away or if the person is a Sailor Senshi (due to it doubling as a source of their powers). If it's a normal person and it remains close by it will turn them into a Phage or Fake Sailor Senshi (even men).
** A Pure Heart Crystal can indicate a generally [[NiceGuy kind, sweet heart]], but in some instances the character's "pure heart" refers to their [[PureIsNotGood focused pursuit of one ambition or craft]].
** The Dream Mirror also came in three kinds, a normal pink one, a dark grey one for someone who's given up on their dreams, and a golden one that indicates Pegasus is hiding in it. The duality of dream mirrors probably exists because the Japanese word "yume" covers both meanings of the English "dream": sleep visions and fantasies/aspirations. It was trickier to carry over the intent into Russian.
** Star Seeds also come in two types, blanks which are held by normal humans and true Star Seeds which are held by Sailor Senshi (and Tuxedo Mask) and are the anime equivalent of the manga's Sailor Crystal.
** Also, in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], one can destroy the body and still make off with the Star Seed. This makes for some rather unsettling images.
* In ''Manga/InuYasha,'' "soul" can refer to the power to animate the body (LifeEnergy) or your true consciousness (what most would call a soul, but fits Mind better on this page.) Until the time it was explained, the word had been used interchangeably for either. (This makes Kikyo look like much less of a dick than she did when it seemed that she was condemning innocent young women to eternal oblivion to keep herself going.)

* ''Manga/ShugoChara'' has eggs inside of people, their "would-be selves", that appear to be some form of dreams. They overlap with this and GhostInTheMachine, as not only do they give a person their ambition, they also take the form of little people.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' they utilize Mind, Body, Soul, Life Energy, and the addition of Truth. Body and soul are intimately bound to one another; so long as both exists, the two will instinctively seek each other out. The presence of a soul in a body other than its own will cause the body to weaken and decay. The Mind exists as a bridge between the two. The Soul is in fact a form of concentrated Life Energy which, applied properly, can utilize the individuals Gate of Truth to perform alchemy.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has a relatively simplistic anatomy of the soul: The Mind is part of the Soul, the Body merely being a vessel for its interactions in the living world. The soul's Heart is the seat of the human emotions, like empathy and happiness; if the heart is consumed by negative emotions, it will disappear and the Soul will devolve into [[TheHeartless a Hollow]].
** Additional anatomy is associated with the soul but never fully detailed. The soul rest and soul chain are two vital components of the soul that control the generation of its power; Arrancar also possess them due to their transformation to be more like a Shinigami.
** The Heart was eventually revealed to not fully disappear when a Hollow is born. Rather, it is distorted by the negative feelings into forming the Hollow's mask and acts as the source of its powers.
** The same Heart that shapes Hollows also plays a part in Fullbring, in which a part-Hollow person pulls at the souls of objects and reshapes them according to their attachments and usage.
** The Bounts are an example of mutant souls created by a Soul Society experiment.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' shows all living beings to have only one important element: The Soul. The Soul in turn generates an Absolute Terror Field to keep itself distinct from the world and maintains the physical body's form. Destruction or extraction of the Soul reduces the body to LCL.
** NGE's souls are actually more along the lines of the Freudian Ego, with the AT fields filling in as the ego barriers. That's why Instrumentality can happen. The plan is to eliminate loneliness by collapsing the ego barriers of all living things into one unified being.
** Angels are notable in that their Soul assumes the physical form of a red sphere, deemed the "Core" by NERV.
** Kaworu dubbed the Absolute Terror Field to be "the light of our souls".
** Interestingly, ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'' had a slightly different take on it called "Absolute Territory Field" and explained it as sort of a region where the quantum observations of a consciousness collapsed wave functions in to certain states, therefore causing consciousness to actually change reality somewhat.
%% "Absolute Terror" appears in Evangelion: Death, the Compilation Movie. See http://wiki.evageeks.org/A.T._Field#cite_note-0
* ''Manga/SoulEater'' breaks it down into body, mind and soul, stating as one of its oft-repeated (moreso early on) phrases that "a healthy soul lives in a healthy mind and healthy body"; the implication being that the state of one affects the rest. The progress or lack thereof of all characters can to an extent be brought back to their state in relation to this concept. It's simplistic and neat in theory, though in practice gets some odd applications - Crona in particular.
* In ''Manga/ShamanKing'', soul is divided into spirit, mind/will, and heart as three major components. That is not to say body doesn't have a role too, but it's not as important as the other three (being a physical component instead of a spiritual one).
* In ''Literature/LogHorizon'', according to Ri Gan's Spirit Theory (which is based on the Chinese concept of hun and po, or kon and paku in Japanese), the soul is divided into psyche and animus; the psyche governing the person's personality and the animus the person's body. [[spoiler: Ri Gan surmised that memories are split between the psyche and animus and thus speculated that when Adventurers got resurrected upon death, due to the inevitable loss of data when reconstructing the animus, Adventurers not only lose a portion of their experience (as it happened when ''Elder Tales'' was still a game) but also some of their memories too.]]
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', the ''Alicization'' arc defines what a soul is through the Soul Translator technology. Based on SAO's "Quantum Brain Dynamics" theory, there are light particles or photons that act as a quantum unit of mind called "Evanescent Photons", which exist within the microtubules of a nerve cell. These light particles exist in a state of indeterminism and fluctuate according to the probability theory. A collection of these particles form a Quantum Field, which have been dubbed "Fluctuating Lights" (or "Fluctlight" for short) which is what makes up the human consciousness, or in other words, the human soul. The Soul Translator machine is able to record the spin and vector of each photon within the microtubles and translate this information into a readable form for computers. It diverges from standard VR in that it's not merely nerve signals being transmitted into the system, but the soul itself.

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' loosely follows the concept of ''hun'' and ''po'', called by their Japanese names ''kon'' and ''haku/paku'' (officially translated "spiritual energy" and "life energy"), mixing in the concept of ''[[LifeEnergy qi/ki]]'' by portraying both as fluid quantities found in humans. [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent Ayakashi]] are [[EnergyBeings composed entirely]] of haku. [[SoulFragment A piece of Matsuri's spirit]] acted independently when sent into Lu's mind (with an appearance [[ResidualSelfImage that represented his self-image rather than his current state]]), suggesting there can be pure-kon lifeforms as well. Most humans can only strengthen and [[KiManipulation manipulate]] their kon, which is what powers like Matsuri's ninjutsu are based on. Ayakashi mediums possess not only an unusually large amount of haku (which makes some ayakashi want to eat them), but control over it (which makes other ayakashi ''worship'' them).
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': A person's quirk and their mind are inextricably linked, to the point where if your quirk is transferred to someone else, a fragment of your consciousness goes with it. This is a major plot point in The Final Act Saga, and is vital to Deku and Shigaraki realizing their dreams of becoming the greatest hero and the greatest villain respectively.
* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Mahito is a Disaster Curse, an incredibly powerful Cursed Spirit who is the physical embodiment of humanity's negative feelings for other humans. He has the unique ability to see a person's soul and knows that the soul and body are intrinsically linked: if the body changes, so does the soul and vice versa. Because he sees souls as nothing special, he does not see ''humans'' as anything precious, choosing instead to treat them like playthings. His Cursed Technique, Idle Transfiguration, allows him to change a person's soul with a touch, which in turn affects the body, allowing him to transform people into grotesque monsters or [[TouchOfDeath kill them instantly]]. His innate understanding of the soul extends to himself, making him a {{Shapeshifter}} and more importantly practically immune to any physical damage as he can simply heal the damage by changing his own soul. Only those who also have an understanding of a human soul, like the protagonist Yuji Itadori [[SealedEvilInACan who houses the soul of a powerful sorcerer within himself]], have any hope of harming Mahito; by extension, Mahito is unable to affect people like Itadori (at least, not without affecting the additional soul in his body, who [[HatesBeingTouched does not like to be touched]]).

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Several of Supergirl's enemies are fragments of her soul, her spirit or her emotions given physical shape by magic or Kryptonite: [[ComicBook/DemonSpawn Nightflame]] is the embodiment of her death wish and [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Dark Supergirl]] is born from her self-loathing and SurvivorGuilt.

* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': A being's soul is composed of two parts -- a Light of Existence (the heart) and a Shadow of Existence (the appearance), both containing parts of the being's personality. If erased from existence, the Shadow ends up in [[EldritchAbomination Entropy]]'s Realm (the Light, according to WordOfGod, returns to Fauna Luster from whom all souls spring, or in the case of some of the G3 ponies, entered the afterlife, or was reborn as a new individual). What's more, it's stated that there's not a "Law of Conservation of Mass" when it comes to souls, meaning [[spoiler: the same person can have ''multiple'' {{reincarnation}}s ([[BadFuture Dark World]]!Twilight being the reincarnation of G3 Minty's Light and Minty Pie being the reincarnation of her shadow, for example), but the soul will still exist independently of the reincarnation.]]
* In the ''Fanfic/HauntedMansionAndTheHatboxGhost'' FanVerse, a person's mind, emotions and memories are carved in ectoplasm and remain behind after death. Because ectoplasm is a much more versatile support than flesh for a human mind, the resulting ghosts need a lot of focus to "materialize" into a visible form and re-access their memories.
* In ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'', the importance of a heart to an individual becomes one of the main themes. [[MoralityPet Avalina]] eventually asks [[OurLichesAreDifferent the Horned King]] how he received his monstrous appearance. His explanation invokes this trope beautifully.
-->'''The Horned King''': The heart is the messenger from the soul to the body, and keeps the two bound together as one. When the body fails, the heart ceases to be, and the soul is released from the body and sent elsewhere. You can see this in your elderly, however there is another scenario. After killing someone, the heart, the origin of all morality and emotion, begins to corrode. Slowly, but it is noticeable. [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil The more one kills, the more difficult the damage is to reverse.]] [...] After one has killed so much that the heart is gone and no longer holds the life in them, they begin to decay on the outside as well, as the heart binds the body and soul together, and without the heart, the soul cannot function properly. You see this with anyone who has killed before. They are alive, but they are not, and [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous their outward appearance begins to reflect what they have become on the inside]], and [[WalkingWasteland what they leave in their wake]]. I look like this because I am the embodiment of all that I have become. My heart turned to dust [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld centuries ago]], taking all life with it, and left me merely in a state of existence, my soul unable to work properly without it, thus my appearance. For [[IAmAMonster I am a monster now]], and [[BeingEvilSucks I can never again regain what I have lost]]. Nothing can change that.
* In the MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[ForScience Viluy]] has all manner of soul-analogues from across the multiverse in her lab, including [[Franchise/SailorMoon Pure Heart Crystals, Hostes, Dream Mirrors, Sailor Crystals, Star Seeds]], [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure Heart Flowers]], [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Linker Cores]] and [[Franchise/MadokaMagica Soul Gems]]... and she's performing horrific experiments on all of them. It's later revealed that there is an embodiment of the soul that's deeper and more pure than all of the above, called Seeds. Described as an "essence" by [[BigBad Joker]], everything with a mind of its own is supposed to have either a good-aligned Cosmos Seed or an evil-aligned Chaos Seed. To Joker's astonishment, [[Manga/CardcaptorSakura Sakura's]] is [[TakeAThirdOption a perfect balance of both]]. [[spoiler:Later revelations prove that Joker's binary view of the Seeds is inaccurate; not all people with Chaos Seeds are evil, as is proven when Sailor Saturn has hers removed. Likewise, it can be inferred that not all people with Cosmos Seeds are good. In fact, there is no such thing as an entirely pure Cosmos or Chaos Seed, for each type has at least a tiny portion of the other within it.]]

* Philip Pullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' has a clear distinction of Mind, Body and Soul. The body is self-explanatory. The soul, in some worlds, lives outside of the human host as an animal-shaped dæmon. As a child, the dæmon's shape changes with moods and thoughts, but around puberty, a person's dæmon "settles" into one shape, that reflects the mature temperament and character of its owner. The mind is self-explanatory, and is the only part of the three that "survives" death as a ghost, but a ghost can also [[CessationOfExistence fade away into nothing.]] Pullman has said that the dæmon is "the part of a human that leads us towards wisdom."
** Of course then people apparently also have a 'death' as well, that is, a conscious entity that eventually leads you to the land of the dead. What makes it odd is that it is implied they are something very similar to daemons...
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', minds can be manipulated by psychomancy, and souls can be manipulated by necromancy -- both are considered BlackMagic. The soul is known to be necessary for life, and can be seen through a "soulgaze" by wizards; it also ''seems'' to be tied to free will. Exactly how it interacts with the mind isn't yet clear, though. Later in the series, Harry is granted the ability to use "Soulfire" to augment his magic, and it is described as being fueled directly by his soul (Bob assures him that the part of his soul thus consumed will effectively "grow back.")
** [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghosts]] aren't souls, but imprints left by powerful emotions of a dead person, a fact which Harry uses to his advantage in ''Grave Peril''; ''Ghost Story'' further establishes that all of the powers ghosts can display are fueled by memory, since that is more or less all they are composed of. ''Ghost Story'' also demonstrates that it is possible for an actual soul to exist in a state almost identical to that of being a ghost, under special circumstances [[spoiler:such as in Harry's case, which involves interference from a queen of TheFairFolk, an ancient and powerful GeniusLoci, and (separately from the other two) an archangel]].

* In [[Literature/TheSwordOfTruth Stone of Tears]], it is stated that Devil's ultimate punishment (reserved for everyone should he enter the world of living) is eternal existence as a mind separated from soul.
* Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Literature/TheCosmere Cosmere]]'' has a unique take on this.
** First is ''Connection'', the spiritual ties that bind everything to everything else, whether that be people, objects, events in the past and future, or even abstract concepts. This seems to make up most of the soul, and is the reason why the term "spiritweb" is often used interchangably with "soul". Most magic-users have a Connection to a [[PiecesOfGod Shard]] that they can draw power from under certain conditions. Several forms of magic can interact with Connections, mostly by forming temporary false Connections with places to [[{{Retconjuration}} trick your soul into thinking you grew up there]], making you instantly learn the local language. [[Literature/TheStormlightArchive The Bondsmiths]] have an even greater command over Connection than most, able to show people visions of past events that can be ''interacted with'', the long-dead people acting exactly as they would have done in reality, and potentially even move certain Connections from one person to another.
** ''Identity'' is the other major component that is understood. This is what defines one soul as seperate from another, and functions in magic as a form of encryption that prevents power aligned to one person from being easily claimed by another (for example, how [[Literature/{{Warbreaker}} Awakeners]] can recover their Breath from an Awakened object, but not someone elses). [[Franchise/{{Mistborn}} Feruchemists]] are uniquely able to store Identity in aluminum, which temporarily "blanks" their soul such that another metalmind created by them at the same time becomes "unsealed", allowing any other Feruchemist to withdraw the attribute inside.
** ''Fortune'' has been mentioned a few times, but is currently poorly understood. It's something like luck, or at least something easily mistaken for such, and can make things happen that look like strange coincidences. It can also somehow be used in magic to see into the future.
** Finally, ''[[{{Mana}} Investiture]]'' is the very stuff that souls are made of as well as the Spiritual Realm istelf, and the energy for magic. Some people have more of this than others, such as the people of [[Literature/{{Warbreaker}} Nalthis]], who are born with a single [=BioChromatic=] Breath as a bit of extra power compared to Cosmere standard.

** The Ren is the TrueName, the total of their identity and experiences summed up in two or three words. It can only be learned from you or the one closest to you, and whoever has it can exert a great deal of control over you. This can be a good thing, however; someone you can trust with it can cast spells that affect you, such as healing spells, with a huge boost.

* While it lacks formal names, the ''Aspect of Crow'' trilogy has a recurring element where a dead person's soul will steal parts of a living person's soul. These soul pieces take the forms of their [[GuardianEntity spirit animal]] and they are aspects of personality, such as passion or the ability to love. Part of a [[{{Psychopomp}} Crow's]] job is to recover these pieces and give them back to their owners.
* In ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'', all humans (and presumably animals, trees, and geologic features) have a name-soul, a clan-soul, and a world-soul. Part of their death rites involves drawing circles made of red ochre on the dying person's feet, chest, and forehead, to ensure their souls don't become separated. These souls can also be corrupted by soul-sickness, as happens to Torak in the fourth book. If the name-soul is missing or sick, the person becomes a ghost, forgetting their identity. If the clan-soul is missing (or if the three souls are scattered), a demon is formed (though the clan-soul becoming sick just makes someone lose their connection to nature). The most powerful demons, Elementals, are formed when a geologic feature like a waterfall "dies" and its souls are scattered.[[note]][[FridgeLogic though how you can draw ochre circles on something made of water, that doesn't even have a body, is a mystery.]][[/note]] If the world-soul is lost, the owner becomes a [[FateWorseThanDeath Lost One]], [[AndIMustScream trapped forever in a dark void]].
* in ''Literature/VirtuousSonsAGrecoRomanXianxia'' The Greek and Roman part of The setting employs Plato's tripartite soul, given as Reason, Emotion, and Hunger, in its understanding of pneuma and cultivation.
** meanwhile each culture has its own understanding of the soul. Such as the Egyptians having an eight part soul and more besides.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had an episode where a Las Vegas casino owner stole the destiny of important guests and sold them on the black market. Anyone who lost their destiny would have literally "nothing" happen to them-- without a destiny, they were incapable of affecting or being affected by worldly events. Eventually, the plot was foiled thanks to some celestial intervention helping a de-destinied Angel win at a slot machine, or have "something" happen.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' Sam CameBackWrong after he got sent to hell with Michael while Lucifer was riding shotgun. He returns the next season seemingly alright until the brothers are captured by a monster to whom no one can lie, except Sam. This prompts Castiel to check him out and report his soul is missing, probably still in hell with two very pissed off angels. Without his soul Sam becomes an amoral {{Jerkass}} willing to kill Bobby in order to keep his most likely messed up soul out.

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]

* OlderThanDirt: Ancient Egyptian beliefs involved a six-part individual, with something different happening to each part after death. All six parts had to be intact for a person to enjoy an afterlife.

* The [[Myth/AztecMythology Aztecs]] separated the soul into three components. The first was the heart, or '''yollotl''', the soul of the body. The second was the spark of life, or '''tonal''', the spiritual soul. The third was a [[BondCreatures spiritual animal totem]] or '''nagual''', the shadow soul.
* The Kusaasi and related peoples of N Ghana and Burkina Faso have three concepts more or less corresponding to "soul":

** Kikiris. In Ghanaian English, translated as "fairies." These are like protective spirits. Men have three, but women have four, getting an extra one because of the risks of childbirth. There are kikiris that live wild in the bush, not attached to people. They can be malevolent and try to get people lost until they die of thirst or hunger.
* Professor Neil Price has theorised that in historical Norse Mythology there where four separate components of a person: ''hamr'' (shape), ''hamingja'' (fate), ''hugr'' (essence, in modern Scandinavian it roughly means state of mind) and ''fylgja'' (follower) which was a guardian angel of sorts that are inherited in a family.
** Some believed that the hugr couldn’t depart until the hamr had been burned or entirely decayed, and it could rise as a [[RevenantZombie Draugr]] if intact.
* In Shintoism, the soul is conceived as having four spirits: ara-mitama (violent), nigi-mitama (harmonious), saki-mitama (prosperous), kushi-mitama (wondrous). When gods are enshrined, sometimes two or more shrines or subshrines are built for each of that gods spirits. On top of this, due to the influence Chinese philosophy has had on Shintoism, it's not unusual for the soul to ''also'' be regarded as having Kon and Paku parts.
* Christianity (or at least many denominations of it) believes that the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_(theology)?wprov=sfti1 Soul and the Spirit are different things,]] each composed of three distinct parts: The Soul is composed of the Mind (ability to think), Emotion (ability to feel), and Will (ability to act). The Spirit is composed of Conscience (to discern right from wrong), Fellowship (to contact God and to commune with God), and Intuition (a direct sense or feeling with no discernible logic behind it). Going a step further, some believe that the "mankind created in God's image" thing refers not to physical appearance but to this body/soul/spirit composition, which roughly mirrors the Holy Trinity. Other religions have other interpretations or beliefs as well.

** That's nothing compared to the [[EldritchAbomination Primordials/Yozis]]. Every Primordial possesses a number of souls (somewhere between less than ten to several dozen) which each act as a seperate self-willed being [[AnthropomorphicPersonification that personifies a quality of the Primordial's personality or an expression of its defining theme]], with a particular one (called the fetich) being the heart of the Primordial's nature. In turn, each of these souls will have a collection of external souls of their own, who serve a similar (although more stringently defined) function. Those souls are capable (though not required) of creating offspring, considered part of the hierarchy, but not souls (they're always lesser creatures and the very bottom of the hierarchy, with little standards as to their nature or purpose). The death of a second-circle soul can cause minor, cosmetic changes to a Primordial (which can be reversable), while the death of a third-circle soul causes major changes to it (often losing or warping the quality associated with the soul in question), and fetich death completely redefines the nature or personality of the Primordial. Presiding over this hierarchy are the ''jouten'' of the Primordial; its actual body/bodies, which house its core consciousness and its powers.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' sourcebooks first divided the soul into the rational anima and primal animus and later declared that it comprises seven different parts (see the Egyptian system) as a means of classifying the varieties of TheUndead.

** ''TabletopGame/MummyTheResurrection'' has the soul divided into Ka (roughly, Avatar), Ba (Mind), Sahu (Light), Khu (Dreams), and Khaibit (Shadow). They also threw in Ren (TrueName) and Sekhem (LifeEnergy). The reboot, ''TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse'', uses the traditional Egyptian anatomy for the inborn splat, the Decree, based around what aspect the mummy was most attuned to when they were first raised -- the Ab (heart), Ba (spirit), Ka (essence), Ren (name), or Sheut (shadow).

** The serial ''Sahmad's Tale'' features a plague which robs the victims of their dreams, causing insanity and death.
*** Although it's later revealed that this "plague" is actually an EldritchAbomination feeding on the victims' dreams.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', every living being is made up of three distinct types of Aether, the life-force of the setting: Corporeal Aether, which is in constanct flux and represents the body's energy, the Soul, which remains the same throughout a person's life (barring corruption) and the Memory, which can even pass through reincarnations in some rare cases.

* In ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' [[spoiler: Blue and Rouge are one person separated into two beings so that all magic can be mastered without problems when the more dominant personality wins, hence why he cannot learn Mind Magic until both halves reunite.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' uses a kind of Jungian Soul Anatomy, though it tends to focus primarily on the Mind. A Persona is a physical manifestation of the wielder's psyche. In the original, one character's consciousness is split in three, an "Ideal" version, an "Innocent" version, and a Malevolent "Id" version. In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', a character's repressed feelings manifest themselves as a Shadow, which can become a Persona when accepted. Igor does say that the power of Persona is the power to control one's Heart, which is why Social Links are so important in the later games. (When a character's without the Wild Card has a strong enough bond with the protagonist, their Persona literally evolves.) Dreams also extremely important in each game. (Igor or Philemon usually first contacts the protagonists through a dream.) Finally, Destiny plays a major role in each of the games. In ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''[[VideoGame/Persona4 4]]'', it's explicitly stated that only those bound by a "contract" (the contract in P3 reads "I chooseth this fate of my own free will,") may enter the Velvet Room. Both ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' and ''Persona 2: Eternal Punishment'' has Shadows similar to the kind found in P4, though they don't seem to have the same relation to Personas. ''Innocent Sin'', meanwhile, also has Shadow Selves, who have lost their dreams.
** The separation of the ''VideoGame/Persona2'' Shadows needs some clarification. While they are born of essentially the same process as P4 Shadows, it was triggered by [[EldritchAbomination Nyarla]][[MadeOfEvil thotep]]- ''certainly'' '''''nothing''''' you'd ever want mucking with the dregs of your soul.
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' states the emotional energy (life energy) of humans, called Magatsuhi, is a massive energy source. Draining is extremely painful and leaves the victim weak and despondent. Controllers of this substance can command anything up to gods, spirits and demons, and enough of it (AKA all of Humanity), judiciously used, can be used to destroy and rebuild reality in the image of the user desires.
** In ''VideoGame/Persona2'', a failed attempt to give a human a Persona ends with the human's soul shattered into eleven Trapezohedrons, aspects of the soul of that person. The Trapezohedrons are: Emotion, Ethics, Memory, Wisdom, Knowledge, Reason, Perseverance, Impulse, Perception, Will, and a final Trapezohedron containing the ShadowArchetype of that person. It is necessary to recover all eleven to restore the victim.
* ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' has the "Heart Vault" where one can lock away or (more difficult) unlock aspects of the personality. Ah...be careful, as any changes or things killed will have radically effects on the owner..

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', the Heart and sometimes Mind portions of a person's soul can be [[spoiler:suppressed by use of a [[PowerCrystal Cruxis Crystal]], apparently depending on how it's equipped.]] The entire soul can also potentially survive outside a person's body through use of [[spoiler:any kind of Exsphere, Cruxis Crystal or otherwise]], and indeed this fact is key to understanding the motives of the BigBad - [[spoiler:his dead older sister is trapped inside hers, and he's trying to find her a new body.]] [[AndIMustScream It's not a pleasant existence, though.]]
* Also, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', has a little of this. When you dream, your soul goes wandering in a parallel dimension called the Fade. The Fade has somewhat amorphous properties, but lots of demons and spirits linger here. They're very interested in mages, who can enter the Fade completely conscious and aware of what's happening; unfortunately for the mages, only the nastiest of demons seem to take interest... mostly.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, sapient "Black" souls, like those of Men and [[OurElvesAreDifferent Mer]], have a part that houses the consciousness and a part that houses the [[SoulPower spirit energy]] that can be used to [[ItemCrafting enchant items]]. When the [[YourSoulIsMine trapped soul]] of a sapient being is used for enchanting, the consciousness part goes to the [[SpiritWorld Soul Cairn]], an unaligned and bleak plane of Oblivion ruled by the mysterious [[EnergyBeings Ideal Masters]], and the separated spirit energy is stored in the item. "White souls" (souls of unintelligent creatures) apparently lack the consciousness part.
* ''Franchise/BlazBlue'': Souls appear to be tied heavily to the idea of a person's independent existence. All people have them, but as the robotic Murakumo Units and other purpose-driven artificial lifeforms begin to make decisions of their own and their own desires emerge they also 'grow' souls. The complicated part is that souls can also be fragmented by intense personal duress. Those fragments can then take up residence in other bodies, even years after the event, so long as they [[ClonesArePeopleToo are sufficiently similar to the 'original']]. These fragments may even be of different sizes, and having a larger aspect of someone's soul within your own effectively makes you more like that person. Traits, desires and even memories can all come downstream through this, and the issue of the Central Fiction [[MindScrew implies]] that it can even go upstream as well. Soul fragments can also be re-absorbed into each other, creating a closer image of the original. It gets to the point that by the end of the fourth game Noel Vermillion is effectively five separately-identifiable people at the same time[[labelnote:Spoilers]]Namely Noel, Mu, Izanami, Saya and The Origin. Note that three of these characters are independently playable[[/labelnote]].
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' explains that the soul is made up of four parts: form, mind, luck, and direction. While the other three aren't elaborated on ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin but possibly self-explanatory]]) direction is revealed to be the part of the soul that guides it to its designated afterlife. [[spoiler: Early in the game, Sindri reveals that his brother Brok ''died'' many years ago and [[CameBackWrong was improperly resurrected missing this part of his soul]]. Thus when Odin murders him, Brok is rendered DeaderThanDead and [[BarredFromTheAfterlife is not only denied an afterlife in any form]] but can't even be brought BackFromTheDead again.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BrutalOrchestra'', the three central characters not only make up this dynamic, [[spoiler:but it's eventually revealed that they're all the same person]]. Nowak is the Soul, as he is the playable character and [[spoiler:the one that best represents who he was when he was alive, and is more innocent due to being an AmnesiacHero]]. Bosch is the Mind, being the game's MissionControl and helps teach the mechanics [[spoiler:and is Nowak's EnemyWithout, being his ental health issues and intrusive thoughts]]. Finally, [[spoiler:This Pitiful Corpse is the Body, the vessel for the other two, and being largely unresponsive until thy finally mend their differences to do something]].
* ''VideoGame/BookOfHours'': Referred to as the "elements" of the soul, they are: Health (the dwelling place of the soul), Chor (exuberance, instinct, and rhythm), Shapt (eloquence and understanding), Fet (the part which walks in dreams), Ereb (pride, compassion, hatred and fear), Trist (change and longing), Mettle (will and self-discipline), Phost (sight, perception, and inspiration), and Wist (name and memory). In gameplay terms, each of these is a resource that recovers each day and needs to be expended in order to perform practically any task, and each one has its own [[BizarroElements aspects]] that make it more suited to some tasks than others.

* ''Webcomic/{{Godslave}}'', being as it is about Egyptian mythology, uses the Egyptian concept of ''khat'' (body), ''ab'' (heart), ''ren'' (name), ''khaibit'' (shadow), ''khu'', ''sahu'' and ''ka'' (spirit soul, body and double), as well as of course ''ba'', albeit this last one is modified a bit. For humans, ''ba'' is their personality, while for gods, it houses their power. The top gods have all nine ''ba'' each.

* Plato actually did not divide the soul into the reason, the passions (courage and drive), and the appetites (the LowestCommonDenominator drives, the "four F's" if you will) - in his philosophy, soul is indivisible (hence, indestructible). Reason, passion and appetites are aspects of the soul. They may be in conflict - this is when we get internal struggle.
* Aristotle's views on soul are rather complex, but he also considered it indivisible and having three aspects: vegetal (all the living functions), animal (senses, emotions and moving around) and reasonable (reason). Also, soul is the form of the body and every living thing has one. Plants only have the vegetal aspect, animals have animal aspect, as well, and persons (humans, and non-human persons, if they exist) have all three. Since soul is inextricably connected to the body, the mind-body problem does not arise.
* Descartes is the guy responsible for mind-body problem/hard problem of consciousness, since in his view body and soul/mind are completely separate things that somehow (he didn't know how) influence each other. Animals, for Descartes, have no soul whatsoever.
* Sigmund Freud's theory of the consciousness is arguably a version of Plato's tripartite soul, with the id being the appetites, ego being the passions and superego being reason.

* In a literal example of SoulAnatomy, the sacrum (a bone in the pelvis) was named that because it was once held to be sacr''ed'' as the "seat of the soul", or at least its generative component. The sacrum is usually the last part to fall to pieces when a human body decomposes, and it was thought in medieval times that the resurrected dead would regenerate their bodies from this bone on Judgement Day.
* In Thailand, and many other countries/cultures heavily influenced by UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}, the head is considered sacred, as it is considered to be where the soul resides. (Thus touching someone's head is seen as threatening.)