History Main / TheHeartless

* ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'': is an unique case having the [[spoiler: BigGood]] being this.

* Dracula in the ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' series is occasionally described as this; people describe him as the product/manifestation of [[HumansAreBastards the collective evil in humankind]] and our bastardry is what's bringing him back, and as of the ''Sorrow'' series, he's described as God's EvilCounterpart who comes back because the balance of nature requires it (or something like that).
** The Lords of Shadow from ''CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' also count. When [[spoiler:the three founders of the Brotherhood of Light ascended to Heaven as beings of pure good]], the evil they abandoned possessed their mortal bodies and became the Lords of Shadow responsible for so much misery in the world.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' shows a twist on this: [[spoiler: the citizens of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado turn into demons merely by reading the Literature the Black Samurai freely gives away. Turns out that Casualries, having been deprived of certain ideas (the most basic of socialist principles is treated as dangerous sedition), the realization that the system is heavily dependent on the Casualries being GullibleLemmings drives them to demonic insanity. ]]

** In ''{{Persona 2}}'', [[CthulhuMythos Nyarlathotep]] is revealed to be [[spoiler: the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the negative emotions of ''humanity as a whole'' -- fear, hatred, anger, and all our other weaknesses. He's the EvilCounterpart to Philemon, who is similarly an AnthropomorphicPersonification of human strength and positive emotions... and it's further revealed that the entire series up to that point was little more than a contest between the two to see which was truly the more powerful aspect of humanity. And you ''do'' actually get to punch Philemon for this.]]

* Most ''{{Deadlands}}'' monsters are of this variety. The setting runs on [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve Clap Your Hands If You]] [[strike:Believe]] Fear, and the {{Big Bad}}s, who are the primary Heartless of this verse, harvest human fear and use it to animate anything the local populace fears, be it jackalopes, wendigos or living blast shadows. These created abominations are powered by fear too, so they are also TheHeartless.
* The Horrors of ''{{Earthdawn}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s from another dimension that feed on pain and negative emotions. They vary wildly in their intelligence and habits, from near-mindless beasts that slaughter indiscriminately to diabolical masterminds who start wars and plagues. Then there are those like Yserthgrathe and Chantral's Horror, who go for quality over quantity - find a single "perfect" victim and dedicate your existence to inflicting misery on them, including making them immortal so that there is never any escape.

* The Sha in ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' are born from the negative emotions of the people in Pandaria. Each Sha is aligned with a specific negative emotion, and their size is a direct measure of how strong that emotion is among the populace of Pandaria. At least six Shas are known at present: Anger, Despair, Doubt, Fear, Hatred, and Violence.

*** There's also Vanitas from the same game, who [[spoiler:is the darkness from Ven's heart, removed and made into a separate entity.]] The Unversed simply extend the process; [[spoiler:each is a living incarnation of one of Vanitas' emotions, so, effectively, they were the Heartless of a Heartless (in terms of this trope's definition). Once Vanitas was merged back into Ven, however, they ceased to be.]]

* Since ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' takes place largely inside people's minds---in particular, the patients of a mental hospital---''most'' enemies in the Mental Worlds are this in some form. Perhaps most explicit are the Nightmares, demonic-looking beasts that appear in [[MilkmanConspiracy Boyd's]] mind and locked up inside [[OrphanageOfLove Milla's]].

* The Gohma from ''AsurasWrath''.

* ''KidIcarusUprising'' gives us the Underworld Army who are an extreme case [[spoiler: Chapter 22 reveals that Hades uses the souls of fallen soilders to create Underworld monsters, and thousands of souls are used to create one monster, thus wasting them entirely.]]

** To that extension, ''[[SuperRobotWarsDestiny Destiny]]'''s evil group Ruina also feeds on negative energies to make them powerful, doubled that they reside in a CrapsackWorld where lots of such things exist.

* Since ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' takes place largely inside people's minds---in particular, the patients of a mental hospital---''most'' enemies in the Mental Worlds are this in some form. Perhaps most explicit are the Nightmares, demonic-looking beasts that appear in [[TheMilkmanConspiracy Boyd's]] mind and locked up inside [[OrphanageOfLove Milla's]].

** The BigBad of the entire series, is a GodOfEvil born from the malice of all living beings called Chaos, and he ends up having his essence scattered into the hearts of everybody across the universe... to defeat it. Chaos also spawned the {{Big Bad}}s of all the previous four seasons, being lesser {{Eldritch Abomination}}s compared to Chaos.

* The Serpents in the ''DeathGateCycle'' were created by magic gone mad fused with their creators' fear and hatred- their goal is to turn the universe into "a prison house of suffering and death" because negative emotions give them power and prolong their existence. Unlike a lot of examples they're actually very smart (most of the time), and can take whatever shape they want to further their goals, though they prefer appearing as hideous snakelike creatures in order to best terrify people.

* [[NasuVerse]] has Angra Mainyu which was apparently created from the soul of a man who was made to suffer the burden of all of the evils of humanity. This soul later came into contact with an ArtifactOfDoom which resulted in the soul graduating to full blown EldritchAbomination.

* [[MarvelUniverse Mephisto's]] "son" Blackheart was born from the evil of Christ's Crown (named after the crown of thorns used to torture Jesus), a place with a dark and bloody history.

* In ''ForbiddenPlanet'', the Monsters from the Id are invisible, [[NighInvulnerability invincible]], incredibly strong [[ImplacableMan beings of pure vengeance]]. Their existence is a side effect of the DeadlyUpgrade.
* ''TheBrood'' is about a woman who gives birth to her inner demons.

* The curse in ''JuOn'' was created by a fit of rage.

* ''{{Ultraman}} 80'' had a whole series of monsters created by negative emotional energy that was called "Minus Energy." One of these monsters was an EvilTwin of Ultra Seven.

* [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Runaway Spirits]] from TheWorldGodOnlyKnows are a variation of this. They do not originate as TheHeartless, but become them after restoring spiritual power by hiding in their victim's bodies.

* [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Nasuverse]] has Angra Mainyu which was apparently created from the soul of a man who was made to suffer the burden of all of the evils of humanity. This soul later came into contact with an ArtifactOfDoom which resulted in the soul graduating to full blown EldritchAbomination.

** To explain: In the comics, [[spoiler: Nega-Scott was basically an [[AnthropomorphicPersonification]] of Scott's repressed memories and his denial to admit he'd been a {{Jerkass}} since he started high school. Scott doesn't really "defeat" him, rather, through revelation of his true high school past through Kim (which was [[FakeMemories altered]] into him being an eternal moral do-gooder by both his repression and [[BigBad Gideon]]'s tampering), and through contemplation during Nega-Scott maiming him, Scott accepted his own faults and absorbed Nega-Scott back into himself.]] In the movie, it's just a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere that Gideon sends to fight Scott at the end, which backfires when they become instant friends.

** To explain: In the comics, [[spoiler: Nega-Scott was basically a combination of Scott's repressed memories and his denial to admit he was a {{Jerkass}} since he started high school. Scott doesn't really "defeat" him, rather, through revelation of his true high school past through Kim (which was [[FakeMemories altered]] into him being an eternal moral do-gooder by both repression and [[BigBad Gideon]]) and through contemplation during Nega-Scott maiming him, Scott accepted himself and absorbed Nega-Scott back into himself.]] In the movie, it's just a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere that Gideon sends to fight Scott at the end of the movie, which backfired when they become instant friends.

** A major reason Naruto had difficulty controlling the Nine-Tails was [[spoiler:the existence of Dark-Naruto, a being deep within Naruto's mind that the Nine-Tails had helped form from all of his negative feelings]].