Soul

The soul (aka spirit or life essenceLegion Class Preview Series: Warlock - Warlocks harvest the souls of their defeated enemies; those specialized in the ways of demonology use this life essence...) is the very personification of an individual. In living beings, the soul is anchored to the body by the cosmic force of Life. When a being is resurrected as an undead with necromancy, through the use of Death magic, their soul is imperfectly attached to their body through the same Death magic.
When a being dies, their soul crosses the veil between life and death and enters Oribos in the Shadowlands, where they are judged by the Arbiter and sent off to one of the realms of the Shadowlands based on their actions in life. Every living soul brings with it a vital force known as anima.
==Manifestation==
After their death, mortal souls usually go to the Shadowlands, however, they may become ghosts, tortured spirits who writhe in the agony of undeath. Unable to realize that they are no longer alive, they roam the Veil, the trackless wastes between the realm of the dead and the physical world, seeking release from their eternal suffering. Though they are not necessarily evil, they hunger for physical contact, often causing great harm to any living beings they touch.Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Game Manual#Ghost
When a soul is consumed by the Void, an echo of the soul is all that is left behind. Neither in the physical or spiritual sense of the word would these echoes be considered alive. The echo is merely a twisted reverberation of the anguish left behind by the soul as it is consumed. These twisted echoes of the dead are merely the distorted reflections of once noble spirits.Echoes of the Past
Wielders of the Light can use Holy magic to appease or grant peace to unrested souls. Fel magic however consumes souls. When a soul is devoured by fel energies, it produces more fel and is utterly destroyed. An echo of the soul known as a soul shard (or soul fragment) can be produced by the spell caster. Soul shards can be used to power spells, or to create a connection to the Twisting Nether, pulling a demon through against its will.Soul Shards of Summoning
Souls can also be given physical existence again. This process is called resurrection. There are two main ways to resurrect a person, through necromancy, creating an undead, or through other means, most commonly Holy magic. The souls of the undead are imperfectly attached to their bodies; the dark magic that sustains them is a buffer that prevents their souls from properly joining with their bodies. This is why undead feel only faint sensations of pain or discomfort from most physical stimuli, and why the Light is so painful to their existence. The primary exception to this rule are liches, as liches bind their souls to a phylactery and then use the phylactery to generate a physical form; this process is why lich bodies look nothing like their mortal bodies, and also why it is necessary to destroy a lich’s phylactery to truly kill them.
Soul gems were used to entrap the soul of Grommash Hellscream and Yenniku.Saving Yenniku
The first generation of death knights were souls of orc warlocks infused into the bodies of human knights.Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness manual, The History of Orcish Ascension, The First War of Orcish Ascension
==Different types of souls==
*After death, mortal souls usually end up in the Shadowlands where they remain for eternity unless something prevents that from happening. Indeed, they can be resurrected, or they can be captured within soulstones or demonic soul engines. They can also be utterly destroyed.
*Demon souls are bound to the Twisting Nether. As such, when demons are slain in the physical world, their soul returns to the Nether where they recuperate and reform a new body.World of Warcraft: Illidan, chapter 25
**Some souls of the Illidari demon hunters are also bound to the Twisting Nether.Enter the Illidari: Shivarra, 
*The Wild Gods that Keeper Freya liked the most had their souls bound to the Emerald Dream. When these Wild Gods are slain, their soul returns to the Dream,Return to Nordrassil only after a period of hibernation in Ardenweald.
*Liches are bound to a phylactery. When they are killed, their soul returns to their phylactery where they will reform.
*The souls of the titans are called world-souls.
**It has been hinted that when titans die, their souls would return to their own Order plane.Steve Danuser with Taliesin & Evitel - 00:40:01
*The elementals of Azeroth were bound to the Elemental Plane by Highkeeper Ra and Helya. When destroyed in the physical world, they return to the Elemental Plane and gain a new physical body.
==As a power source==
*Demons and warlocks use fel magic, which requires harvesting and manipulating souls, for various spells.
**Athrikus Narassin found that he had been imbued with demonic powers, which he then used to chain the souls of lesser Highborne to himself, granting immortality.
*Frostmourne was a demonic runebladeLegion: Mage Artifact Reveal created for the Lich King. An extension of his will, Frostmourne had the ability to steal and imprison souls.Rise of the Lich King, pg. 428
*:Shadowmourne and its precursor, :Shadow's Edge,A Feast of Souls feed on souls.
*The dark industries Bronjahm carried out in the Forge of Souls produced tortured, fragmented spirits. To prevent their escape, and use every scrap of the damned, the Lich King created the Devourer of Souls. The Devourer of Souls hunted and consumed the stray spirits, and slowly broke them down within its terrible form. The consumed souls were driven mad with anguish and suffering, but the Devourer's hunger was never sated.
*Voodoo figurines were built and animated to assist troll witch doctors in minor, everyday tasks such as washing loincloths or scrubbing blood off the hut floor. They were often powered by flasks of mojo, troll sweat, the flesh of tribal enemies, or by devouring tiny portions of their owners' souls.
*A mortal on an unknown world sought to summon and contain Murmur. In order to do so, he devised a method to enhance his summoning through the capture and use of countless souls harvested from whole civilizations.The Codex of Blood
*The mogu discovered how to animate lifeless rock with captured souls, creating the Stoneborn.Spirit Binders In order to gather souls, a sect of assassin-priests called the Spiritclaws mastered a deathblow which ensnares the spirit of the enemy, trapping it in a jade bottle for delivery to a Spiritbinder.Vessels of the Spirit Gara'jal the Spiritbinder led a band of Zandalar trolls into the Mogu'shan Vaults to learn the mogu's ancient secrets.
*Gul'dan drained the life essences of countless draenei prisoners to power the magic needed to open the Dark Portal to cross the large distance to Azeroth.
*Khadgar used souls to create portals in the .
*Jailers use their cages to capture both the soul and body of their enemy, which they then send to the Twisting Nether to subject their victims to horrific torture and interrogation.Set Them Free
*Witches of Heartsbane Coven in Drustvar use various soul-related spells, either to harm, curse, or manipulate one's soul.
*The Drust learned how to trap souls within objects as well as to create constructs of death in which to trap the souls.Pile of Bones (companion) Eventually, they started to use souls to empower their constructs, but initially they used the bones of their dead as hosts. Once the ritual was complete, these fetishes were said to emanate an eerie blue light, presumably the essence of the soul's power made manifest.Ritual Fetish They also created prisons for unrestrained souls for later use in their dark rituals, during which time the soul would suffer within, become a twisted version of what it once had been.Soul Coffer (item)
==In World of Warcraft==
Items are often "soulbound", preventing them from being traded to other characters.
Utilizing and manipulating souls is a big theme for the warlock class.
==As a companion pet==
*Lost Soul can be caught from pet battles in Revendreth.
*Soullocked Sinstone has a chance to drop from Secret Treasure in Revendreth.
==Notes==
*The Spirit of Life is the essence of all living things.
*When a soul is called from the afterlife, it is free to roam the material realm unless constrained to a prison within moments of its arrival.
*Aessina is called the soul of the forest. She is its beating heart, the source of life energy that breaks down stone, devours ancient ruins, and fills dense thickets with mystery and fear. Aessina is the center of the web of life.Matoclaw: Quotes
*Within the Auchenai Crypts, many unsavory experiments were undertaken in the pursuit of a greater understanding of the necromantic arts. Many spirits were tortured or destroyed therein.
*Crafted by the titans as gifts to their favored creations, the Celestial Orb of Souls channels the powers of the Light to bring back to life those who have recently fallen.
*Allari the Souleater's Coin text says fish do not have souls. This is probably just a joke.
==Gallery==
Warbrave Oro Bastion.jpg|A soul in Bastion.
Soul from Dead Ringer.png|A soul summoned by the Dead Ringer.
Spirit of King Rastakhan.jpg|Rastakhan's soul.The Will of the Loa
Doomed Incarnation.png|Doomed Incarnation in the Maw.
Suffering Soul.jpg|A Suffering Soul in the Maw.
Jailer's souls.png|Souls released after a jailer's death.
Falir the Shifting.png|Falir the Shifting in the Queen's Conservatory.
Afterlives - Uther's soul split.png|Uther's soul splitting by Frostmourne in Afterlives.
Illidan Stormrage (Trial of Valor).jpg|Illidan's soul in Helheim in the Trial of Valor raid.
Ysera Purified.png|Ysera's soul being taken from her body
Afterlives - Ursoc in Ardenweald.png|Ursoc's soul arriving to Ardenweald
Faintly Glowing Wildseed.png|Spirits slumber inside wildseeds preparing to be reborn
Ardenweald soul.jpg|A soul in animal form in Ardenweald.
Remnant of Ner'zhul.png|Remnant of Ner'zhul in the Penance of the Fallen King.
;Trading Card Game
Harvest soul.jpg|Harvest soul
Jar Soul TCG.jpg|Jar Soul
SoulRend.jpg|Soul Rend
Soulshatter TCG.jpg|Soulshatter (Fires of Outland)
;Hearthstone
Ara'lon HS.jpg| and his spirit companions.
Bear Spirit Wildseed HS.jpg|
Fox Spirit Wildseed HS.jpg|
Lost Soul HS.jpg|
Released Soul HS.jpg|
Sinful Sous Chef HS.jpg|
Soul of the Murloc HS.jpg|
Spirit Poacher HS.jpg|
Stag Spirit Wildseed HS.jpg|
Unsleeping Soul HS.jpg|
Convoke the Spirits HS.jpg|
From De Other Side HS.png|
Murder Accusation HS.jpg|
School Spirits HS.jpg|
Shadow Suffusion HS.jpg|
Soul Fragment HS.jpg|
Soul Shear HS.jpg|
Tamsin's Phylactery HS.jpg|
Wispering Woods HS.jpg|
==See also==
*World-soul
*Feretory of Souls
==References==
 
Category:Warlocks
Category:Lore