Soul Jar



The Soul Jar is a trope commonly accepted in popular and it refers to a container or an object which holds all or part of a person's soul (or life, or heart) outside of their body; this makes that person immortal and/or invulnerable. The only flaw is that the Soul Jar is now their Achilles' Heel. Usually, they make sure it is very well protected (the word phylactery, the common name for this kind of container ("Magic Jar") from Dungeons & Dragons fame, actually comes from the ancient Greek phylacterion, form of phylássein, [φυλάσσειν] meaning "to guard, protect").Typically, Soul Jars work in one of two ways:

1) The person whose soul is jarred cannot be physically killed (or in some cases even injured) as long as the jar is intact. This one has two sub-categories:

1a) Destroying the jar kills the entity whose soul was jarred. (See the Yura of the Hair example below)

1b) Destroying the jar makes it possible to kill the entity whose soul was jarred. (The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body, and similar fairy tales.)

2) The person can be physically killed while the jar is intact, but they do not stay dead, in which case it doubles as a form of "Resurrective Immortality". They can only be completely killed by destroying both the jar and the current body. (Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes are of this type.) This likewise comes in two flavors:

2a) The jar grows a replacement body for the one that was killed.

2b) The jarred soul can reach out from the jar to hijack someone else's body. Over time, the possessed person may change to resemble the soul's original body.

The Trope Namer is Might and Magic, where necromancers and evil wizards transfer their souls into literal jars during the spell to transform themselves into liches.

Of course despite the name it's not necessarily a jar; common examples are paintings, gems and still beating hearts; and in mythology and fairy tales, eggs or trees. It does not necessarily host a soul, either; sometimes an object is tied to a character's immortality, but does not actually contain the character's soul. The device is usually used by liches, and is invariably associated with them in folklore.

A subtrope of Ghost in the Machine and Immortality Inducer. If the owner's body is destroyed, the Soul Jar may become Sealed Evil (or Good, or Badass) In A Can. If the owner of the Soul Jar is evil, then there's a good chance the Soul Jar is an Artifact of Doom. If the Soul Jar gives a special power but using it can be hazardous, it may also be an Amulet of Dependency. If the Soul Jar has to be inside the body for the character to "live", it's a Heart Drive. Compare Fighting a Shadow. See also Fantastic Fragility. Not to be confused with Crystal Prison, where a person is trapped in a gem.