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{{trope}}
{{quote|''We are stardust, we are golden,''
''We are billion year old carbon,''
''And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.''
|"Woodstock" ([[Refrain From Assuming|aka]] "Back to the Garden") by [[Joni Mitchell]]}}
Is there a [[God]]? What happens after we die? Why does all matter in the universe gravitate together? Is there such a thing as a [[Soul]], and how does it fit into things?
[[Real Life]] poses these and other heavy, unanswerable<ref>(Well, except perhaps for the gravity one, though physics is still puzzling out a few details on that one. Though physics doesn't really ask "why." More like "how" and "what.")</ref> questions, and fiction sets out to answer them. One trope that attempts to answer all four questions is the idea that everyone and everything has a [[Soul]], and each is a piece of [[God]]. Consciousness/physics is just God attempting to reform itself into one coherent mass again.
[[Fridge Logic|Which raises the question,]] why is God in pieces? The answer might never be revealed, but if it is, it usually has to do with God wanting to imbue a piece of him/herself (in these stories, God is unlikely to be described with a gender) in creation. This divine spark allows people to use magic, gives free will and access to an afterlife, and allows for a creative spark in all beings. By sacrificing its individual self, God becomes a Prometheus bringing life to all. Another possibility is that God wants to use a cycle of [[Reincarnation]] and afterlives to "level up" by gaining the accumulated wisdom of humanity, and in the process make the soul-fragments wiser and kinder.
Of course, God might not have intended this at all. If there is a [[God of Evil]], it may have "slain" God while weak after making creation, and/or imprisoned it in [[Plot Coupons]] and [[Cosmic Keystone
This cosmic set up can get very morally gray if God intends to [[Assimilation Plot|forcibly reunite]] all of itself, [[The Evils of Free Will|ending all individuality]]. The protagonists won't know if it will cause everyone to turn into a [[Hive Mind]], or end all suffering by making every soul aware of the pain it causes others, without subsuming self.
'''Fair warning: This is a {{color|red|SPOILER}} trope.'''
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* In what has been compared heavily to the {{spoiler|[[Assimilation Plot|Instrumentality plot]] from Evangelion}}, pretty much everything related to the World of C in ''[[Code Geass]]'' fits with this trope. The show goes so far as to have a {{spoiler|"collective unconsciousness" referred to as "God" which is capable of killing immortals.}}
* The ''Arm Of Kannon'' series revolves around the pieces of a godlike being that ended up on Earth and the various people that want to exploit them or seal them away.
* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
** [[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* Out of all things, this is how [[Stock Super Powers|Fragments]] works in ''[[
* In ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* [[Promethea]] brings about [[The End of the World
* Something vaguely analogous happens in ''[[Earth X]]'', where the various alternate universes are fragments of the one original creation. The Elders of the Universe are trying to re-merge them back into a single universe, ignoring the fact that the inhabitants of the existing universes will lose their individuality in the process. However, there were clearly many different beings in the original universe as well.
** The [[DC Universe]] (well, multiverse) is the same way; originally one universe that got split due to a very ill-advised experiment to observe creation.
* In one [[The Defenders|Defenders story]], Eternity, a [[Cosmic Entity]] who embodies the universe, decided to send pieces of itself to Earth, in human forms and with no memories, to "experience" humanity. Later he returned their memories and most of them re-merged with him, thus giving him humanity by proxy. However, three of the pieces were missing, and he had The Defenders find out who had stolen them. The heroes find out that {{spoiler|nobody had stolen them- they were hiding because they loved being human too much and didn't want to merge with Eternity again. However the Defender Nighthawk called them on how selfish they were being, since an incomplete Eternity would cause chaos on Earth eventually, meaning they hadn't really learned to care after all. Realizing their error, the fragments then rejoined Eternity.}}
* In [[Justice League]]: Heaven's Ladder, godlike aliens who have no religious beliefs of their own send "sleeper agents" to various planets -including Earth- so they can learn about Faith; then they collect them and use their collective beliefs to... [[Start My Own|''create their own afterlife!'']]
* The Infinity Gems in the [[Marvel Universe]] are the remnants of a god that committed suicide after its own attempts to create life failed miserably.
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== Film ==
* In ''[[Avatar (
{{quote|
* [[Tron]] universe: the closest we get to an explanation of the computer world's resemblance to the human one is when Encom founder [[Honest Corporate Executive|Walter Gibbs]] rants at [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Dillinger]]. An odd example, as ''humans'' are the Gods in question.
{{quote|
== Literature ==
* Gaia in ''[[Foundation]]'s Edge''
* The appropriately named ''[[
* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' uses this. [[God Is Evil|The Authority is actually]] not the creator but the first manifestation of Dust which turns out to be the source of all consciousness.
* ''[[The
* In ''[[The Sundering]]'', the universe is the broken body of the primordial deity.
* In Brandon Sanderson's multiverse, all the gods are actually originally-human minds bound to pieces of ''something'' else ( the pieces are called Shards) that was destroyed millennia ago (though whether Adonalsium was a god or something more like [[The Force]] is unclear). At the end of the ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy, two opposing Shards get combined together into a single deity.
** Also, [[Word of God]] has revealed that the Returned of [[Warbreaker]] are empowered by Splinters of power from another Shard, called Endowment. Yes, they're pieces of a god that is a piece of a god.
** [[Word of God]] has also revealed that the Seons and the Skaze from Elantris are also splinters (or something very close) of two Shards called Aona (who holds Devotion or one similarly named) and Skai (who held Dominion) respectively. They are also the Source of the Aon Dor and the other magic systems in Elantris. They were splintered when {{spoiler|Odium, another Shard, came to the planet they were on, defeated them both and splintered them}}
* [[Edgar Allan Poe]] wrote this in a philosophical piece called "Mesmeric Revelation". Unusually, Poe proposed that the reunification of God would be a ''bad''
* ''[[White Apples]]'' by Johnathan Carrol is a perfect example of this trope, the gist being that God Asplode to make the universe, and when we die we become part of "the mosaic" which is God, who then promptly asplode again when the mosaic is complete.
* [[
* Adherents of the Circle in ''The Shattered World'' believe that mortals' souls are fragments of a single Oversoul, which split apart much like the planet itself. Unlike most examples, this isn't actually implied to be ''true'', just a theological notion based on how the world was broken up.
* Though it's never quite stated explicitly, Unity in the [[Galactic Milieu Trilogy]] is rather deific- a sort of gestalt conciousness formed of all the metapsychics in existence, which they can commune with.
* [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''The Region Between'' proposes that we all subconsciously know that we were once part of God, so [[Humans Are
* In the book ''Cats Have No Lord'', the creator split into the gods of all aspects of the world to create the world, and planned to reunite (destroying the world in doing so) but the God of Cats is missing, and thus the world continues to exist. One of the heroes is sworn to serve and rescue the Cat God, and is being manipulated by a cult that believes they are obligated to allow God's plan to continue, even at the cost of the end of all existence. In the end, the heroes [[Take a Third Option]] by replacing the Cat God in his exile with the Wolf God (who was trying to kill them).
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], the Mandalorians believe that all who follow the way of their culture are part of the ''manda' or oversoul. To turn one's back on the Mandalorian culture is to lose contact with this greater, shared bond and is considered less than nothing.
** To an extent, [[The Force]] could also be considered this, with every living being being part of the Force (jury's out on whether the Vong were really an exception).
== Live-Action TV ==
* In ''[[
{{quote|
** Which is a paraphrase of something [[Carl Sagan]] said in ''Cosmos''.
* One possible Object Origin in ''[[The Lost Room]].''
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== Philosophy & Religion ==
* [[
* Kabbalah
** The Adam Kadmon theory literally says we are Pieces of God.
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* Other religions have things like God is a giant bird who laid the universe as an egg.
* In Chinese mythology, everything between the sky and earth is parts of the body of the first god, Pangu, who was formed from primordial chaos, and in turn split the sky and earth from each other over thousands of years.
* [[
* [[
* Stoicism (not necessarily [[The Stoic|that one]]) maintained that everyone in the world had a spark of Divine Fire in them, which after death went back to rejoin the almighty World Soul.
* [[
== Tabletop Games ==
* This is part of the [[Backstory]] for the White Wolf's ''[[
** Fascinating in that a [[Soul]] is not in itself divine. Mages ''can make souls'', but these lack the divine aspect even the lowliest [[Muggle]]'s soul carries. Of course, all this means is they can never Awaken and become Mages.
*** [[Applied Phlebotinum|Except]] [[Become a Real Boy|when]] [[Humanity Is Infectious|they]] [[Character Development|do]]. It is explicitly stated in the Technocracy books, that [[Artificial
** That same spark of the divine makes humans valuable to [[Demon: The Fallen
* ''Mummy'' used this too. Osiris has been scattered around the world, and there's a bunch of Amenti trying to put him back together.
* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' has it that many mages believe that souls are fragments of the [[Eldritch Location|Supernal World]] that descended to the Material World and that return to the Supernal upon death, bringing their experiences back with them. Speculated reasons for this include the universe trying to understand itself, a punishment levied by mad or cruel gods, or a kind of self-imposed challenge. In terms of this model, the Awakening is merely the soul recalling its divine origin. The status of this cycle following [[Gotterdammerung|the Fall]] is a subject of concern for some mages.
* [[Warhammer
** In some way, this also applies to the Immortal Emperor. There are implications - and in one The Inquisition War novels it was explicitly though unreliably stated - that this is what's happened to his conscious remnant, having split into dozens if not hundreds of personalities and fragments. There's the part that feeds the Astronomican, the fragments which influence the Emperor's Tarot, the parts that speak and give visions to his people, the tiny portions which are imbued within Astropaths during the Soul Binding, not to mention the vast amounts of effort needed to fight the Warp as a whole, and in the {{spoiler|broken Webway gate, with the Golden Throne itself serving as a psychic barrier.}} If the Emperor's body were to fully die, it's believed he may be reborn as the Star Child, a new god of the Warp loyal to Mankind... We hope. Or, he may be reincarnated. Or there might be a psychic apocalypse which destroys all life in the galaxy. Or perhaps the gibbering madness and incomparable evil of the Chaos gods might be able to flow freely into the material world, creating a new galaxy-sized Hell. Understandably, there is rather considerable in-universe controversy over whether the Emperor's death would be a good thing..
** Speaking of the God-Emperor in Astronomican, thousands of psykers are sacrificed to him daily to reinforce his withering self. One can imagine those poor fellas being indoctrinated into believing that they are pieces of God-Emperor about to unite with him.
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== Toys ==
* Apparently this is the true form of the [[Transformers]]' god Primus in some continuities. Each Transformer houses a tiny fragment of him known as a "spark" that returns to the collective known as the [[The Lifestream|"All Spark"]] upon death to share knowledge and experience as part of his incomprehensibly complex plan to deal with his [[Evil Counterpart]] Unicron.
** Then there are the Alternity, Autobots and Maximals who have evolved to a point where not only are they [[Reality Warper|powerful]] and [[Ascend to
* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', the [[Humongous Mecha|robot body]] of [[Physical God|the Great Spirit Mata Nui]] was a universe in itself, with many [[Loads and Loads of Races|different races]] living on the continents inside, unwittingly maintaining
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* In [[Lusternia]], this is how most of the mortal races were created. The Elder Gods faced a [[Hopeless War]] against [[Cosmic Horror|The Soulless Ones]], and some chose to fragment their consciousness, creating "children" which retained qualities of their parent god. (Some Gods chose to flee into the Void rather than suffer this, however.) Though mortals can ascend to become [[Physical God|Demigods]] themselves, it's made clear that their progenitors are for all intents and purposes dead, and can never be remade by reuniting their fragments.
** Though since mortals can proliferate endlessly through procreation, and can ''all'' (potentially) become Demigods, they're collectively stronger than their "progenitor" God could be.
* All the realms in ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' are created from the shattered consciousness (and maybe body) of the One Being, and if allowed to merge back into him, will result in [[The End of the World
* ''[[
** You want more? Fine: {{spoiler|The 'God' in this game is really just a huge Biological Weapon that created Humans as parts to repair his body and basically manipulates them to live then die jsut so they can be pieces of him, all while under the guise in legends and religious texts to literally be God.}}
* According to the [[Creation Myth]] in ''[[Brutal Legend]]'', everything in the Age of Metal consists of [[Elemental Powers|four elements]]: Blood, Fire, Noise, and Metal. And ''those'' four are the remains of Ormagoden, an [[Eldritch Abomination]]-slash-Creator Diety: namely, his blood, spirit, roar, and flesh (all very tangible things in a world of [[
* The True Runes in the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series.
* After beating ''[[
* In the two NG+ missions for ''[[Strange Journey]]'' the Angel Metatron reveals that both him and the Demiurge are pieces of God. Who was broken into pieces by the Mother Goddesses of Old after losing his love for humans and humanity losing faith in him. Depending on your choice you can let him be [[Sealed Evil in
* In the ''Warlords'' and ''[[Warlords Battlecry]]'' series, Lord Sartek, god of the minotaurs, was betrayed, murdered, and dismembered by fellow Horseman Lord Bane. Minotaurs like to collect bits of Sartek with the eventual goal of putting him back together again. In [[WBC 2]] and 3, the Skull of Sartek is the minotaur titan. In the [[WBC 3]] campaign, collecting the five fingers of the Hand of Sartek earns you the allegiance of the minotaurs and a bonus to your hero's combat power.
== Web Original ==
* Several [[SCP Foundation
* This is one possible explanation of the Objects in [[The Holders Series]].
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', the Church of the Ascendant is a cult that believes superhumans came about because God split his own essence up into millions of tiny pieces and spread it all around the world, and that its only been recently, when the human population approached a certain critical number, that the "power of God" (represented by the various superpowers possesed by the heroes and villains) has been able to manifest again, if only in a limited way. They believe that the higher the human population, the greater the power will manifest until eventually, God himself (herself? itself?) will manifest physically on the Earth and the human species will ascend into the next stage of being. Most people in the GGU think they're kooks.
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[[Category:Religion Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropes of the Soul]]
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