The Doppelganger Slime has gone beyond simple mimicry and now steals the lives it has claimed entirely.
Levels, Class, Race, Emblems, Traits, and Skills - all are copied at the time of the prey's death and form a perfect transformation.
Doppelganger forms, however, cannot be improved beyond their originals, but who needs to grow when you can take more?
Almost no information is available for this species and rumored to be only a theoretical possibility.
Levels, Class, Race, Emblems, Traits, and Skills - all are copied at the time of the prey's death and form a perfect transformation.
Doppelganger forms, however, cannot be improved beyond their originals, but who needs to grow when you can take more?
Almost no information is available for this species and rumored to be only a theoretical possibility.
— Syl [A Slime Monster Evolution LitRPG], Chapter 61
Shapeshifting is an ability that is very useful for various circumstances, from espionage and sabotage to battle. However, not all shapeshifters are born equal and are limited in what forms they can take.
Necromorphosis is when a shapeshifter is limited solely to assuming the visages of those who are deceased. The mechanics of this may vary; while some can simply change into the dead person's form, others may require more complicated steps such as consuming their bodies, stealing their souls or wearing their skin like a suit.
This limited ability can be quite problematic for the shifter if others are aware the person they are posing as is already dead, but it can be pretty useful for mind games like a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip or making the target think they are being haunted by a ghost.
Super-Trope to You Are Who You Eat and Face Stealer. May lead to Kill and Replace. Compare Possessing a Dead Body.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Bleach: The 9th Espada Aaroniero Arruruerie gains the knowledge, abilities, and physical form of any Hollow he has eaten. One of these is an artificial Hollow named Metastacia, who had fused with the Shinigami Kaien Shiba. This also allowed Aaroniero to assume Kaien's form and powers.
- Boruto: Shojoji, the leader of the Mujina Bandits, can gain the knowledge and abilities of his victims as well as assume their likeness by eating their brains.
- Chainsaw Man: Joey, Aldo, and their unnamed brother are three hitmen who, through their contract with the Skin Devil, can change their appearance into anyone else by touching their corpse.
- Monkey Typhoon: The titular protagonist of Episode 23, "Devil in the Maze. Demona", is a Copy Asobot, a type of Asobot created to help the bereaved by shapeshifting into their dead relatives or pets. However, he goes against his programming due to being infected by the Destruction Virus and shapeshifts into living people to sow chaos and discord. This escalates into driving a young woman to suicide in front of her brother, who then retaliates by locking the rebellious Demona inside a museum.
- To Your Eternity: Fushi can only take the appearance of someone who is dead. This serves as a signifier that a past ally has been Killed Offscreen, as is the case when he transforms into Parona for the first time.
Comic Books
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage): The Paramecia Clonex are a species of "colony worms" created by the Foot Clan using a combination of science and magic. They have the ability to form into a replica of a person after feeding on their remains, an ability the Foot Clan used to create a perfect clone of the Shredder.
- The Ultimates (2002): The Chitauri have to consume a human in order to take their shape.
Films — Live-Action
- Mortal Kombat (1995): Shang Tsung's shapeshifting appears to work this way. He primarily morphs into people whose souls he's taken after death, such as Johnny Cage's martial arts teacher Master Boyd and Liu Kang's younger brother Chan.
Literature
- In The Devourers by Indra Das, the titular shapeshifters can replace their human forms with the shapes of other people, but only after consuming their bodies. This leads up to the reveal that Gévaudan only became a Predator Turned Protector towards Cyrah because he was planning to become her, in a twisted attempt to get the attention of his unreciprocated crush Fenrir, but failed to work up the nerve.
- Mistborn: Kandra are metamorphic Blob Monsters who can disguise themselves as humans if they can absorb a skeleton. Artificial skeletons can suffice if they're not trying to look like anyone in particular, but to impersonate a specific person, a Kandra needs to take their bones and hair, which isn't survivable by any Healing Factor yet shown in the series.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: The Faceless Men are a cult of assassins who worship a deity known as the Many-Faced God. They can fully assume the guise of a dead person using a mask made from the face of the dead person.
- Syl A Slime Evolution Lit RPG: As established in Chapter 61, the Doppelganger Slime can claim the level, race, class, emblem, traits, and skills of whomever it kills.
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The First Evil can only take the forms of those who are dead. In its debut episode of the third season, it uses this power to pose as the ghosts of Angel's previous victims in order to guilt him into committing suicide. The First returns in the seventh season, where it shows that it can also take the form of those who have temporarily died, like Buffy or Spike.
- Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Mysterons have the ability to replicate the exact likeness of a person, but only after the target is dead.
- Lost: One of the Man in Black's abilities is assuming the form of any person so long as they are dead. At some point, he seemingly loses this power and is stuck between his smoke monster form and John Locke's form.
- Supernatural: One of the powers of ghouls is that they can assume the form, and inherit the memories, of anyone they've fed upon. The most prominent example assumed the form of Adam Milligan, the Winchester's previously-unknown half-brother.
Tabletop Games
- Call of Cthulhu: The spell Consume Likeness effectively enables a person to Kill and Replace a victim by eating their body, and is used not only by human magic users but by carnivorous humanoid monsters like deep ones and ghouls to disguise themselves as humans. For example, Scott Dorward's scenario "The Meat Trade" involves a tribe of ghouls taking advantage of World War II to infiltrate aboveground London by eating the bodies of those killed by the Blitz — or by the ghouls themselves — and assuming their appearances.
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: While Mimics typically take the form of the iconic Chest Monster, they can take the form of any object. Since the game's rules count dead bodies as objects, this means a mimic can technically take the form of a corpse.
- Pathfinder: The spell Transplant Visage grafts a creature's skin onto the spellcaster for a permanent disguise that can fool detection spells like True Seeing and Detect Magic. The donor needs to have died within minutes of the spell being cast, but, given that Death Is Cheap, there's no need for them to stay dead.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Some cards have an effect that allows them to assume the name of another card used by the user of their opponent. Certain cards are specifically limited to taking on the name of a card in the graveyard.
- The Tyrant Neptune
can assume the name and effect of an Effect Monster that was used to Tribute Summon it.
- Once per turn, Phantom of Chaos can assume the name, attack points and effects of a monster in the owner's graveyard.
- Once per turn, Batteryman Solar can take on the name of a "Batteryman" Effect Monster in the owner's graveyard.
- CXyz Barian Hope can assume the name and effect of a "Number" monster in the user's graveyard until the opponent's next end phase.
- Scanner can assume the name, attribute, level, attack points, and defense points of an opponent's banished monster.
- Gem-Knight Master Diamond can assume the name and effect of a level 7 or lower Gem-Knight Fusion monster in the user's graveyard at the cost of the user banishing that monster.
- Genex Recycled can take on the name of another Genex monster in the user's graveyard.
- If Gladiator Beast Attorix is Special Summoned by another Gladiator Beast's effect, the user can send one card from their main deck or extra deck to the graveyard; until the end phase, Attorix will be treated as if it has the same level and name as that of the discarded monster.
- Hundred Eyes Dragon's effect allows it to banish one Level 6 or lower Effect Monster with a dark attribute to take on that monster's name and effect until the end phase.
- The Tyrant Neptune
Video Games
- Minecraft: The Morph mod allows the player to take the form of various mobs upon slaying them, inheriting their unique traits and abilities.
- [PROTOTYPE]: Alex Mercer can consume humans, collecting their genetic code, memories, and skills while healing himself. While the story states he can transform into anyone he has ever absorbed, for gameplay purposes, he only has access to the form he most recently acquired.
- Team Fortress 2: "Your Eternal Reward" is a dagger that can be used by The Spy. By Backstabbing an enemy, The Spy can instantaneously disguise as the victim without the usual delay and puffs of smoke that surround a disguising Spy. Downplayed due to the fact that the Spy still has access to the Disguise Kit (which has a cost when The Eternal Reward is equipped) with access to any class, and that players can respawn.
Webcomics
- Phantomarine: Cheth lost his body in a Divine Conflict but can appear as any of the souls in his custody, or even a huge group of them simultaneously. He has a few avatars of choice but uses others for special occasions — great masters from history when people challenge him, deceased relatives when people really annoy him, and so on. His disembodied state has left the planet Barred from the Afterlife for 5000 years, so he has a lot of choices.
Western Animation
- Devil May Cry (2025): Inverted with the Plasma demon; he can only take the form of those who are alive, an ability Lady takes advantage of by tricking him into taking her form so that Echidna will attack him.
