History Main / SoulEating

* ''Fanfic/{{Spellbound}}'': Cat Sidhe are able to consume the souls of the dead, which permanently increases their magical power -- but in the case of half-fae, having more magic makes them less human. [[spoiler:A human who was violently killed by the fae asks Félix to do this to her as a DeaderThanDead MercyKill, and he reluctantly complies.]]

* Get far enough into the lore of ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' and you find out that [[spoiler: this is all humanity was made for. When you die, your soul goes to the local [[SentientStars Judgement]] to be ground up and eaten. The Devils were created to serve the Judgements by making souls more appetising, and although they rebelled some still perform this duty. If you're lucky, your soul gets turned into a new Judgement instead. On top of this, it's implied the "Bell" in Low Barnet was created by the London Admirality to feed souls to the [[MechanicalAbomination Dawn Machine.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': Trained Sourcerers like the {{Player Character}}s can consume {{Soul Jar}}s and the spirits of the dead for [[{{Mana}} Source]] points, which inflicts CessationOfExistence and is portrayed as an utterly monstrous act[[note]]Which the Pantheon is ''fully'' complicit in constantly doing[[/note]]. However, the ability only acts as ManaDrain on a living target, leaving their soul untouched.

* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fic “[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12745761/1/Unconquerable-Souls Unconquerable Souls]]” has Darla summon a soul-eater to try and take Angel’s soul to restore Angelus, with the ‘aid’ of a couple of witches. It devours a range of souls, including the soul of Catherine Madison (while she was using her daughter’s body, which allows Amy’s soul to return to her original form), but [[spoiler:when Buffy sacrifices herself to save Angel, the purity of that act essentially ‘overloads’ the soul-eater and kills it due to the power of a soul fuelled by love. The rest of the White Hats eventually deduce that the soul-eater essentially uses the souls like batteries rather than literally eating them, which allows them to find a ritual that draws the souls out of its corpse so that they can either pass on or return to their original bodies]].

* In ''Manga/SoulEater'': Humans with the weapon bloodline (essentially a gene which allows them to become an EquippableAlly) can eat the souls of other humans to grow stronger (the good guys only consume the souls of corrupted humans, villains tend to be less picky), so long as they also consume at least one [[WitchSpecies witch's soul]]. Those that indiscriminately eat other humans slowly become [[HumanoidAbomination Kishin]].

SubTrope of LiquidAssets,
AbstractEater and YourSoulIsMine. Often overlaps with VampiricDraining, CannibalismSuperpower, SupernaturallyDeliciousAndNutritious, and/or HorrorHunger. Compare SoulPoweredEngine for engines that "eat" souls to work, and SoulCuttingBlade, weapons that harm souls.

* Raziel in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' is a vampire whose blood-hunger is replaced by soul-hunger.
** Raziel is of course the servant of the [[EldritchAbomination Elder God]] who feeds on the souls Raziel devours and on most souls of those deceased.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', beings with the soul of a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]] can consume the souls of other dragons to both boost their own power as well as to permanently destroy the other soul, the only means to destroy the otherwise [[ResurrectiveImmortality immortal]] [[DragonsAreDivine dragons]]. Apart from the dragons themselves, history has known of rare mortals known as "Dragonborn", who are born with the immortal [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Aedric]] souls of dragons. Those who are Dragonborn owe their gift to Akatosh, the draconic God of Time and [[TopGod chief deity]] of the [[SaintlyChurch Nine Divines Pantheon]]. Akatosh created the Dragonborn to serve as [[HunterOfHisOwnKind natural predators]] to the dragons, who view these "Dovahkiin" as [[HumanoidAbomination Humanoid Abominations]]. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the PlayerCharacter is the so called "Last Dragonborn", sent to oppose the [[SealedEvilInACan return of]] [[BigBad Alduin]], the [[BeastOfTheApocalypse World Eater]]. The ''Dragonborn'' DLC adds [[EvilCounterpart Miraak]], the "First Dragonborn", who will steal the souls of any dragons the Last Dragonborn kills until he is dealt with.
** Alduin himself also qualifies, as he uses a portal to get into Sovngarde and devour the souls of dead warriors to regain his strength.

* Big Mom of ''Manga/OnePiece'' ate the Soul-Soul Fruit, which lets her physically interact with people's souls. The first time she demonstrates this power is during a hunger filled rampage where she eats a portion of one of her children's souls, shaving 40 years off his life and killing him.

*** The C'tan devoured the souls of the Necrotyr, the original race of the Necrons.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[IncrediblyLamePun Soul food]] is the best!]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{Death Battle}}'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': Souls from all the mortal races are devoured by the demons from hell, as well as succubi. [[spoiler:The main bad guy also dies this way when Lucifer shows his displeasure with his failure.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{Death Battle}}'': In "Ghost Rider vs. Lobo", it's noted that Ghost Rider is capable of eating souls after he lets Zarathos take over. [[spoiler:He uses this in the fight to finish off Lobo, who might be BarredFromTheAfterlife but whose soul is still vulnerable to being destroyed.]]

* ''Videogame/MortalKombat'' has Shang Tsung, who is cursed to devour the souls of his enemies in order to maintain his youth (and much more importantly, his life). His sorcery is also fueled by the souls of those he devours, making it doubly important that he devours more in order to maintain his power.

** Soul eaters in the {{Mystara}} settings are otherworldly predators that resemble black mist from which taloned hands emerge to strike their victims. They can be summoned by high-level villainous clerics to hunt down enemies, but it's risky: if bested by their initial target, they return to attack their summoner instead.

** The Barghest grows by feeding on the bodies and souls of its victims, which can leave them too damaged for even the most powerful resurrection magic to work on them.