Soul mates are two people from different worlds who share the same soul (or "soulbond"). Soul mates are normally unaware of each other, but always share similarities. This concept is a major part of the Ni no Kuni series.
Soulbond[]
Similarities[]
Two people who share a soulbond will share similarities. These similarities can be physical or in their personality, and what traits are shared will vary between pairs of soul mates.
Some soul mate pairs are very similar, such as Esther and Myrtle Cartwright.
Some are different species, such as Pip, a mouse from Ding Dong Dell, and Philip, a human boy from Motorville.
All known examples of soul mates share the same gender.
Job titles or status can differ between the worlds, for example Leila owning a milk bar in the first world, but Queen Lowlah being royalty in the second world.
There are no fairies in Oliver's world, or in the Conductor's dream world (although, in the NDS' version of the dream world, there are no other characters at all besides the Conductor himself).
Effects of magic on soul mates[]
When one soul mate is brokenhearted, or is otherwise negatively affected by magic, this can affect the other soul mate. For example, while Rashaad himself was not brokenhearted, he suffered because his soul mate, Rusty Cartwright, was missing his kindness.
Soul mates can be affected by other spells besides "Take Heart". Kotona Takashina, the soul mate of Princess Astrid Astrum, was stabbed with a magic dagger so that the princess (who could not be physically wounded due to a protection spell) would be cursed with dark magic. Those who tried to heal Astrid in her own world were unable to find the source of her wound.
Drippy also believed that the reason Oliver's mother had died was because her soul mate, Alicia, was trapped in Shadar's soulsnare. This proved to be untrue, but shows how one might expect dark magic to affect soul mates.
In cases of brokenheartedness, soul mates are not always affected, and may even have a surplus of the piece of heart their soul mate is missing. Myrtle Cartwright donated some courage, which was used to heal her soul mate, Esther.
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The emotional state or situation of one soul mate is likely to reflect the other's. For example, when Tom Tildrum XIV left his palace in Ding Dong Dell to battle the mice in Ding Dong Well, his soul mate, a house cat named Timmy Toldrum, left his owner's store to hunt mice.
Though soul mates are not aware of each other, they can subconsciously recognize people they haven't met if their counterpart has met them. For instance, after Oliver met Myrtle, Esther declares that she felt like she met him before.
Death of a soul mate[]
A soul mate's lives are link to each other, so if a person in Ni no Kuni dies, then that other person in Ichi no Kuni will die as well.
Souls are known to reincarnate, so it is possible for one person to have multiple soul mates during their lifetime.
It was prophesied that Shadar would be defeated by his own soul mate, so he repeatedly sought out and killed his soul mate in Ichi no Kuni. He tried to leave the soul stranded in the Miasma Marshes to prevent it from reincarnating, but the soul was rescued by Alicia.
Though the death of a soul mate does not always cause the other to die, it is possible, especially when the soul mate was killed with dark magic. Zeelok, a mage who tried to heal Princess Astrid, and his two assistants were killed by her curse, causing their three soul mates to perish in Ichi no Kuni at the same time.
Additional soul mates[]
Because there are more than two worlds in the Ni no Kuni universe, each person has more than one soul mate. In the post game, The Conductor brings Oliver to an alternate version of Motorville, where he claims to have been born instead of Oliver. The residents are all physically identical to the residents of Oliver's Motorville, and it's just their personalities that have changed. For example, Myrtle is a tomboy and Leila hates cheese.
Soulbonds between locations[]
It is possible that a soulbond, or some similar connection, may be shared between locations. When Yusuke Ninomiya returned to Tokyo during the battle of Evermore, he saw the Grand Angel Hotel burning on television. This implies that the two locations share a connection. However, this may simply show that many people in Tokyo were dying because their specific soul mates in Ni no Kuni were killed in the battle.
List of known soul mates[]
| Ni no Kuni | Ichi no Kuni |
|---|---|
| Esther | Myrtle Cartwright |
| Rashaad | Rusty Cartwright |
| Queen Lowlah | Leila |
| Tom Tildrum XIV | Timmy Toldrum |
| Pip | Philip |
| Kublai | Genghis |
| Tengri | Denny |
| Shadar | Oliver |
| Doloran | Roland Crane |
| Kotona Takashina | Astrid Astrum |
| Yusuke Ninomiya | Haruto Ichihara |
| Bertha Roam | Saki Mishima |
| Zeelok and his assistants | Three motorists in Tokyo |
| Evermore | Grand Angel Hotel |