History Main / TheDisembodied

* "Fanfic/RunningOnAir": Draco for the first half of the fic is stuck between time seemingly without a physical body, only able to appear to Harry in dreams and as a ghostly apparition.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' brings us [[spoiler:Mephiles the Dark, the mind and will of the time god Solaris. As the Duke of Soleanna tried to harness its power for his own ends (specifically to resurrect his fallen wife), Solaris angrily rebelled and exploded, [[DividedDeity splitting]] into [[EvilIsBurningHot Iblis]] and [[LivingShadow Mephiles]]. Both of them were sealed away separately until Dr. Eggman accidentally freed Mephiles ten years later, whereupon Mephiles merged with Shadow the Hedgehog's...shadow in order to turn into an EvilKnockoff of him and began his plan to destroy reality and regain his full power by obtaining Iblis. During the Last Story, Mephiles successfully frees Iblis and rejoins with it, recreating Solaris and beginning the process of destroying all time and space]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' brings us [[spoiler:Mephiles the Dark, the mind and will of the time god Solaris. As the Duke of Soleanna tried to harness its power for his own ends (specifically to resurrect his fallen wife), Solaris angrily rebelled and exploded, splitting into [[EvilIsBurningHot Iblis]] and [[LivingShadow Mephiles]]. Both of them were sealed away separately until Dr. Eggman accidentally freed Mephiles ten years later. During the Last Story, Mephiles frees Iblis and rejoins with it, recreating Solaris]].

The Disembodied was once human but lost his body through a bizarre accident without actually dying. In other words, they're the TechnicallyLivingZombie variant of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent a ghost]]. This may happen through AstralProjection and then having your body destroyed, or being unable to go back for one reason or another. This may also happen when someone with SoulPower pulls someone else's soul out of their body without "killing" them.

* In ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'', a "Contractor" is a DifferentlyPoweredIndividual who has to [[ConditionalPowers perform a Renumeration for every use of their power]]. The only exception are Contractors who have "fully paid off their contract". One of the only ways this is shown is when a character who has the ability [[GrandTheftMe to take over someone else's body]] has their original body destroyed while they're in someone else's.

* A variation appears in ''Comicbook/ElfQuest''. Unfortunately, it needs a lot of spoilers because it happens late in the story. [[spoiler:Winnowill chooses to die in order that her disembodied malevolent soul can destroy her enemies and wreak havoc. Instead, Rayek absorbs her soul and holds her captive in his own body. It's an endless, bitter struggle and we haven't seen the end of it yet.]]

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''' Wildfire, sort of like Johann Kraus, is a being of pure energy who needs to wear a suit to survive.

* Dr. Manhattan from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' was completely torn apart at an atomic level due to a FreakLabAccident, but his consciousness remained and very gradually was able to [[SelfConstructedBeing piece together a body]]. [[spoiler:He doesn't ''need'' the body, though. [[FightingAShadow If his body is destroyed again, his mind will be unaffected]], and can easily make a new body this time.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': Johann Kraus was a German psychic whose body was destroyed due to a psychic disaster. His ectoplasmic form 'survived', but needs to be constantly contained to prevent it from dispersing.