Soul



A soul is an incorporeal, insubstantial "essence" that constitutes part of the definition of an individual.

Origin of souls
It is never explicitly stated from where or at what point in time one's soul originates. However, Connor is presented with a soul some time before birth, although it was not made clear whether or not this was due to Connor's special status as the child of two vampires, or whether this is the usual case.

Good and evil
"When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul. That's gone! No conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live. You have no idea what it's like to have done the things I've done... and to care."

- Angel

Human souls are commonly associated with good whilst soullessness is associated with evil. However, this is fallacious, as many ensouled creatures are still capable of evil acts while many human soulless individuals are capable of both acts of good and sacrifice. What is evident, however, is that a number of creatures lacking a human soul (such as vampires) are typically evil in nature, but have been known to become appalled by their own evil actions once a re-ensoulment has taken place. Hence, the return of a soul is often traumatic for demons with a long history of evil acts (as witnessed in the cases of Angel, Darla, and Spike). The soul also can determine whether or not a creature is capable of fully appreciating the evilness of their own actions, with ensouled individuals tending to rationalise or deny their evil deeds, whilst creatures such as vampires can kill without care or remorse.

Angel/Angelus
Angel's soul made him good, but removing it caused him to revert to his old purely evil personality of Angelus. Angel ended up losing his soul twice, both times reverting to his old identity and motivations as an evil, ruthless vampire before his soul was eventually restored by Willow Rosenberg. Unlike the other cases seen, Angel has been seen to possess two distinct personalities depending on whether his soul or his demon is in control of his body—Angelus being a sadistic monster who takes pleasure in his victims' suffering while Angel is tortured by his own guilt over his past as Angelus while using that guilt to drive him in his efforts to help others—although this may be due to the fact that he spent a century developing a personality as Angel before he reverted back to his 'true' self of Angelus. The two typically share memories and experiences, but the confrontation with the Beast—where all reference to the powerful demon in this dimension was erased—suggests that Angelus does not exist when Angel is in control of his body: Angelus recalled their past meeting with the Beast even when Angel did not, although he is still aware of what Angel experiences and can take control ("Eternity") under the right circumstances.

Darla
Darla's soul returned to her because she was was returned to life as a human. Although it took some time for her to fully acknowledge the presence of her soul, initially simply being weakened by the circumstances of her resurrection, as time went on she became increasingly aware of her guilt over her past. Just when Darla was about to accept her fate as a human and accepted having a soul, Drusilla (with Lindsey McDonald's assistance) sired Darla, costing her the soul that Angel had worked so hard to save. Sometime later, Darla, while pregnant with her and Angel's child, becomes affected by the child's soul, developing the ability to feel love for her baby, to the point that she staked herself because there was no other way to save her son—her dead body being unable to actually give birth—and she was afraid that she would be unable to love her baby after he was born as she would no longer have her soul.

Spike
Unlike Angel or Darla, Spike's soul was purposly restored and while it drove him insane at first, after saving Cassie Newton his old personality returned with his sanity. Spike didn't seem much changed by his soul in truly significant ways, unlike Angel/Angelus, where there were clear differences between his personality in its souled state and unsouled state. However, there were some changes that were obvious, such as his remorse for his sins initally driving him insane—although Angel considered this unfair, noting that he spent a century adapting to his guilt over Angelus' crimes while Spike merely spent three weeks locked in a basement out of his mind—although he generally appears to have gotten past this since then. Unlike Angel, if Spike lost his soul, he wouldn't revert into a pure evil creature like Angelus: Spike had turned good on his own beforehand and got his soul on purpose, although he may prove more willing to use more questionable actions without his soul than he would consider with it. In the Spike series, Spike gives his soul to Drusilla for a brief period, but takes it back when Drusilla's insanity becomes worse with the addition of her guilt over her past sins.

Drusilla
Drusilla has recently been ensouled with Spike soul by Willow. Just before the soul entered her she exclaimed "So pretty". However, the restoration of her conscience proved to be too traumatic for her damaged mind, Drusilla tormented by the guilt of her victims even when she killed demon-hunter John when he threatened Spike, prompting Spike to help her return his soul to him as she was more stable without it.

Death
When something ensouled dies, or a human becomes a vampire, the soul leaves their body and goes to another, unknown plane, originally referred to by Jenny Calendar as the "ether". Where the soul goes to and if the actions done by the creature in life determine where it goes is still undecided, but it is confirmed that when Buffy Summers died her soul went to a heavenly dimension and that Cordelia Chase began acting as a Power on a higher plane after her death. It is also possible that a soul displaced from the body after turning into a vampire is in a floaty state of limbo on this plane, as such souls are so much more easily recalled and there is no evidence of such a soul having "moved on".

Resurrection
A soul is also the necessary part of any resurrection. As Spike said, the body is "just the tip of the theological [iceberg]" ("Shells"). The body can either be magically recreated (such as with Darla) or restored (such as with Buffy) but without a soul, there is no resurrection, just a zombie.

Rituals
Apart from the rituals of resurrection where life and soul are returned to a deceased body, there are other spells that involve the manipulation of souls. The Algurian Body-Switching Spell involves two souls switching bodies- although the body of the 'victim' (The person who did not cast the spell) will apparently collapse after a certain amount of time- ("Carpe Noctem"), the Ritual of Mok'tagar allows a Mok'tagar Demon to take a soul from a human for itself, and the Ritual of Restoration allows a soul to be restored to a vampire (Although the only vampire to have been successfully 'treated' with this curse is Angel) ("Becoming, Part Two", "Orpheus").

Destruction
When Winifred Burkle was used as a host to restore the Old One Illyria, her soul was apparently consumed by the strain of resurrecting Illyria in her body, rendering it impossible for her to be resurrected or go on to an afterlife. Illyria has been shown to possess Fred's memories ("Shells"), and has even reverted to Fred's appearance and personality on more than one occasion ("The Girl in Question"), but these have been confirmed to be mere remnants of Fred rather than a sign that her soul still exists as an entity in itself.

To date, there are no other known methods of destroying a person's soul. While Angel Investigations have confronted Soul Eaters on at least two occasions, it has never been specified the demon feeding permanently destroys the soul it consumes, or if the soul is eventually allowed to pass on after it is 'digested'.

Apocrypha
In the novel Soul Trade, Angel, Cordelia and Doyle investigated a case involving a demonic black market where souls were brought and sold, with 'rare' souls- such as the soul of an innocent child or a saint- being particularly valuable. This encounter also pitted them against Shug, the last of the demonic race known as the Kurgarru, who consumed the souls of other beings to survive; Shug, the last of his kind, survived by violating his species' most sacred rule and devouring the souls of his own family. Shug attempted to take Angel's soul so that he could consume it, but he was killed by his traitorous partner, who was disgusted at Shug's new state and preferred the possible financial opportunities that would be offered by the bidding war on such a unique soul as Angel's.