Death World

Death World is a nickname for the world where Soul Eater takes place.

The Death World is a world where the main religion sees Death as god (other than this, basically catholicism). The whole world's architecture is gothic and based on Death, crosses and surreal features.

The main differences from death world to earth are:
 * its not exactly a 'planet';
 * everyone speaks japanese (with the exception of some south american characters);
 * souls are fully material;
 * there's a god who directly deals with the world's problems.

Souls
Souls are probably the most important factor in the Soul Eater series, and the centerpiece of the plot. It is the origin of all the characters' powers and abilities and is a manifestation of each character's personality, psyche and abilities. People with special types of soul can utilize different powers and abilities e.g Maka's Grigori Soul enables her to fly. Souls can come in many different variations, differing in type and strength. Souls are important in the DWMA (Shibusen) as Meisters can only wield Weapons that are compatible with each other's souls. The true power of Weapon and Meister can be exerted by them resonating their souls together, a Soul Resonance, which is a process of the Meister sending his/her Soul Wavelength into the Weapon, which sends back the Wavevlength to the Meister. This process is repeated until a single, even greater, Soul Wavelength is made, which enables them to use powerful attacks.

As well as containing a person's thoughts, emotions and personality, a soul in the Soul Eater series also seems to contain a sort of spiritual dimension within itself. These spiritual dimensions seems to reflect the person's personality. For example, Soul Eater Evans's spiritual dimension is The Black Room a dark room with a red and black checkered floor with red curtains, a record player and a piano surrounded by tall eye-shaped candlewicks with blue flames. This reflects his sarcastic twisted personality, as well as his affiliation to music and it also takes in the insanity from the Black Blood into account as well. In their soul's spiritual dimension, the owner of the soul resides inside it as a sort of spiritual avatar. Both the physical person and this avatar seem to be linked and of one and the same. The avatar in the spiritual dimension takes on a certain appearance and wears a certain attire, to match the environment around it. So Soul Eater Evans in his Black Room wears a black pin-striped suit with a red dress shirt and tie when in The Black Room. However, especially in the anime, the avatar's appearance sometimes changes, and is sometimes the same as the person in physical form. Crona's original spiritual dimension is described by Maka as being, "very dry, like a beach with no ocean". Crona's avatar is him/herself as a child.

When someone resonates with the person, their avatar can enter the other person's spiritual dimension. In doing so, their appearance and their attire also changes to match the spiritual dimension of the person they are resonating with. When Maka enters The Black Room, she wears a black dress, and her attire matches with Soul's in terms of atmosphere and formality.

It is possible for a separate entity, such as Little Ogre and Masamune to exist in a person's spiritual dimension. Also, depending on the person's situation, mental state etc. the spiritual dimension is shows to alter in appearance from time to time, although almost always reverting back to normal.

Soul Wavelength
Each soul gives out some sort of energy wave, called a Soul Wavelength. Each soul has its own Wavelength of a particular frequency and Meisters who can use the Soul Perception ability can identify a person by sensing their Wavelength. Some types of people, like Witches, all share a distinct Wavelength and can thus be easily identified. To prevent this, they have adopted the ability of Soul Protect.

Soul Wavelengths vary in strengths and frequencies, depending on how strong and big the soul is, and also on the health of the person concerned. Individuals who have large souls have a powerful Wavelength, and if they have good control of their Wavelength, they can generate it and exert it freely through their bodies in the form of an electric shock in combat. Several moves, like Black Star's attacks, are made possible through the use of Soul Wavelength. Soul Wavelengths, like souls, seem to have some different types with certain properties, such as Maka's Anti-demon Wavelength and Marie's Healing Wavelength.

Soul Wavelength is the key element in Soul Resonance, and is also important in a Meister and Weapon partnership. A Meister and Weapon can only become sufficient partners if their Soul Wavelengths match with each other and Soul Wavelength is also the link in between the spiritual dimensions within a person's soul. Spiritual avatars can only enter spiritual dimensions of other people if their Soul Wavelengths are resonating.

It is possible to spread a person's Soul Wavelength throughout a great distance, or resonate with people over long distances as long as there is some sort of medium that is available, like a communication device, or in Maka and Soul's case, Arachne's spider threads. It can even be transmitted via sound.

A Soul Wavelength can influence a person, or a group of people, with differing results. An Insanity Wavelength can cause havoc on someone's mental state, and applying a Soul Wavelength as an attack to someone can cause great damage. However, there are also more positive influences, such as Soul Resonance, and if the bond between Meister and Weapon is strong, one can influence the other via their Soul Wavelength to break out of even a strong Insanity Wavelength.

Soul types
There are many types of souls, the main are:


 * Cat Souls: the soul of a cat, it's purple-colored and every cat has nine of it.


 * Human Souls: the soul of an ordinary human. Although individual souls vary greatly in this category (a Meister's soul is considerably more powerful than a normal human's who is not a member of the DWMA), all humans (Demon Weapons included) are under this category. Regular Human souls are plainly blue, while more powerful souls will differ in both color and apperance.


 * Witch Souls: the soul of a Witch. A Witch Soul is very powerful and has magical properties. Because of this, all Witches share a similar Wavelength. Witch souls are typically purple. Blair, while technically not a witch, has a similar soul.


 * Shinigami Souls: the soul of a shinigami is human-like, but way more powerful.


 * Kishin Eggs (Anime only): the soul of an Evil human. The soul of an Evil Human was once a normal human soul. However, by becoming evil and through consuming other innocent human souls, the soul of the human loses its humanity and turns into a Kishin Egg. If the Evil Human is left alone to eat more souls, it shall come under the risk of becoming a powerful Kishin like Asura. Kishin Egg Souls are Deep red with hexagonal plates attached to the outside.

Madness or Insanity
Madness or Insanity is the force of chaos that is spread by the soul wavelengths of Kishin, Witches and evil humans.

It's explained by Stein that everyone has some madness within them (some people surpass the normal level). Madness is not only spread, but influences those who submit to it. Madness literally causes people to lose their minds, becoming both senseless and unpredictable, much like the Kishin itself--the epitome of madness. Senseless in this sense does not mean dumb, but strange and erratic. Any person exposed to the wavelength up close starts to hallucinate and become disoriented.

Throughout Soul Eater, there seems to be apparent intensities of madness that is determined by the individual. Simple evil humans seem to give off small amounts of madness that apparently has no effect on those around them. The Kishin, however, once awoken, release so much madness that it encompassed the entire world and awakened sleeping witches.

Many of the characters within the series perceive madness' effect as having infection like qualties, specifically in the way in which it spreads throughout groups and progresses within individuals. These beliefs appeared to be supported through the introduction of The Clown, a being representing madness incarnate and having the same wavelength as Asura, which describes itself as a "contagion of madness".

A common trait among those who harbor madness is that they each reveal some sort of lunatic-like facial expression.

It is apparent that witches seem to harbor a natural inclination towards madness, generally considered to be due to their destructive instinct caused by the Sway of Magic. However; this becomes more evident in that, when the Kishin awoke and spread his madness, it awoke several sleeping witches. One of these witches includes Arachne, who eventually took the form of madness itself, planning to spread it on a global scale and taking in the Kishin.

Medusa is another notable witch, whose research appears to be specifically focused on discovering the properties of madness and how to alter it for her own goals. It was this interest that lead her to actually release the Kishin and develop the Black Blood, which apparently makes the subject insane and was even used to awaken the Kishin.

Resistance
Aside from already harboring madness, it is revealed that madness itself can be overcome by a human who possesses courage and a strong heart. Demonstrated by Black Star who was able to withstand the soul wavelengths of Arachne, one of the most powerful witches within the series, when Shibusen invaded Baba Yaga's Castle; though he had one time walked the path of a Kishin - which could further explain his resistance. However, it becomes more difficult to withstand the stronger the wavelength. It has also been revealed Noah as well seems to be immune to the effects of madness, though it is yet unclear whether he himself is insane or whether he is just that powerful.

Witches also appear to be resistant to madness, though not entirely, as it seems to be their driving force. This could be explained by their sway of magic -- a destructive instinct that all witches are guided by. This destructive instinct may somewhat be similar to madness and thus make them partially resistant. An example that solidifies this is Kim, a witch who has not been influenced by the instinct of destruction. When Arachne spread her madness, Kim, like others, showed evident distress and pain despite being a witch. Free could push away the illusions of Asura using his high concentration levels.

Personality also seems to determine whether or not someone is resistant to madness, with Harvar being a prime example of this. When Arachne began spreading madness into the people around her castle, Harvar appeared to be the only one who was not effected, so much so that he did not even realize that madness was even present. Kirikou explains that this is due to his incredibly emotionless personality.

Resistivity to madness also seems to be a trait someone develops through time and/or is born with. Stein was born being incredibly susceptible to madness. When the Kishin awoke, Stein explains that he definitely felt it. Justin, a worshiper of god, is less susceptible to madness due largely to his faith but even this doesn't guarantee immunity, as faith can quickly develop into obsessive and zealous levels, even if the religion harbors sane views.