Psychopomp: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Death is a fact of life, fascinating, frightening, and ultimately mysterious. It's not so surprising, then, that almost every mythology in existence deals extensively with dying and the prospect of a world to come -- a process often described in terms of a journey between this life and the next.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Hell Girl (Anime)|Hell Girl]]'': Among other duties, Enma Ai ferries damned souls to eternal torment.

* Ostensibly, this is what the shinigami (translated as Soul Reapers in this 'verse) are portrayed as in [[Bleach]], rather than [[Grim Reaper|Grim Reapers]] or death gods.

* In the third chapter of ''[[The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Manga)|The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service]]'', both the titular group's symbol (''kurosagi'', the black heron that takes souls to the land of the dead) and the white stork that bring souls into the world of the living are referenced.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** In the spin-off comic ''[[Lucifer (Comic Book)|Lucifer]]'' the titular character declares himself as a Psychopomp while persuading a demon to allow herself to be killed by him, so that she can come back as his servant. It works, since she has a huge bone to pick with her current masters.

* Veitch and Edwards [[The Question]] miniseries featured a hitman named "Psychopomp", who specialized in not only killing his victims, but sending their souls to a specially-constructed personal hell.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Ghost (Film)|Ghost]]'', there are shadowy spirits that will drag you off to hell after you die if you've been an evil person in this life.

 

 

* Charlie and Minty Fresh in [[Christopher Moore]]'s ''[[A Dirty Job (Literature)|A Dirty Job]]''

* In the ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' series by [[Philip Pullman]], every person has their own Death, an aspect of their being that guides them through the World of the Dead. In some universes, as with Daemons, people can see their Death and talk to them throughout their entire life.

* Neil Gaiman's ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]'' references this by name. In this case, it's {{spoiler|[[Egyptian Mythology|Thoth]]/Mr. Ibis leading the main character after his death on the [[World Tree]]}}.

* In [[HP Lovecraft]]'s "The Dunwich Horror" it was whippoorwills. They would gather near someone who was dying and if they got the soul would hoot and sing for the rest of the night. If the person died and the birds quieted down, then you knew they missed it.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** {{spoiler|Then Christian fulfilled the really psychopompic threshold keeping duty.}}

* The main characters of [[Dead Like Me]].

 

== Mythology, Folklore and Religion ==

* Celtic/Irish: The [[Headless Horseman|Dullahan]], though actually a member of [[The Fair Folk|the Unseelie court]], hurls blood in the face of those mortals he encounters as a sign that death will claim them soon. Sometimes he is said to come driving a hearse (a black coach with candles mounted in skulls for light, human thigh bones for spokes and a human spine to hold up the worm-eaten pall) drawn by six headless horses, with or without a banshee at his side.

* Celtic/Brittany: The Ankou, who is often described as a skeletal figure in a [[Nice Hat|large-brimmed hat]] and a cloak, collecting the souls of the dead in a horse-drawn carriage.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'': You play as one of the Bound, who has partially fused with a type of ghost, and go around doing to work of the dead, or just doing the shit your Geist wants. One of the [[Splat|Archetypes]], the Advocates, is pretty much devoted to helping ghost resolve their [[Unfinished Business]] and allowing them to pass on.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** {{spoiler|The truth behind it all is slightly more complex: The afterlife is another world in itself, called Drazil. Drazil has its own Master of Death and Master of Life, who are minions of the [[Big Bad]]. The [[Big Bad]] sought to stop the balance of souls in order to make Drazil flourish at the cost of Haephnes. Thus, he makes Drazil's Master of Death stop the souls of Drazil's dead from returning to Haephnes, and arranges for Haephnes' Master of Death to be assassinated so he can't stop souls from flowing from Haephnes to Drazil. Needless to say, [[Depopulation Bomb|this ends up messing up things royally for Haephnes]] -- [[It Got Worse|and then Gig comes along...]]}}

* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', the Anjalists believe that birds guide souls to an afterlife above the sky. Naturally, they tend forests for the birds to live in (when they're not [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|acting like]] [[Christianity Is Catholic|Catholics]], that is).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Rhapsodies]]'', Deidre is a psychopomp working at one of the local hospitals. When asked she says she "handles malpractice." (Most people think this means she's a [http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/?p=1645 lawyer.])

* ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'' : Spirits, who used to take humans' souls to afterlife before their imprisonment. {{spoiler|Not really. Mehdiea or Hellions as they're known were responsible for sending souls to afterlife.}}

 

== Web Original ==