D&D General Spirits and Souls in D&D. What the Heck is the Difference?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This thread isn't so much to discuss the official lore on this matter, but can include that and what the difference is in your world and campaigns. I know that in some people's worlds, they're just two different terms for the same thing, but I want to know what the community thinks of them. Answer the survey above, and feel free to discuss below. I will add what the difference is in my world when I get the time.

 

[Voadam]

In D&D there used to be a difference in AD&D that affected raising versus reincarnation for humans and most demihumans versus elves and I think most humanoids.

In 3e and 4e and 5e it has not been a difference that I remember.

I prefer less baroque cosmology of souls along those lines. I prefer my soul complexity to be along lines like what can trigger different forms of undeath. Making elves and orcs cosmologically different along death stopping magic lines from dwarves and humans is not something I am interested in.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The spirits can be no-humanoid creatures, for example animal totems.

 

[overgeeked]

The way I think about it is everything has a soul. Rocks, trees, groves, mountains, people (all humanoids, anything sentient, etc), etc. Think Animism and/or Shinto. But when the physical form dies or is destroyed the soul can move on (to whatever end, reincarnation, recycling, etc) or it can linger...which makes it a spirit. So a spirit is a disembodied soul. It lingers for any number of reasons, has any kind of disposition, want any kind of thing from people, etc. Not necessarily undead, but kinda yeah. Mindless undead have no soul. They’re thankfully empty husks...unless it would make for a scarier story for them to retain memories, etc. I’ve had lingering spirits seeking the destruction of their animated corpse before. It can be fun. Sentient undead sometimes retain their souls or sometimes a different spirit inhabits the body. It gets messy. Dead PCs can have their souls put into “empty” bodies...think Minder from FR or the reborn lineage from Ravenloft.

 

[Tonguez]

Personally I treat the Soul and the Spirit as distinct parts of the living entity.

The Soul is the animating life essence of a person, a unique living part of the Person that is seen as the aura and makes a persons unique nature. The soul is what dies (making the body go cold) and it can be stregnthened, dminished, consumed and even traded and used as an energy source by magical entities (usually demons who will make deals to possess them).
Everything that exists has a soul.

The Mortal Spirit is the Immortal part of a person that is anchored to the body in life and continues its ‘Being, Personality and Self’ even after death. Depending on religion a Spirit can go back to its Diety, become an Ancestral Spirit or hang around as a Ghost/Wraith/Spectre.
There are Spirits who are not Mortal Spirits and thus do not have bodies, some like Elementals and Djinn find their own anchors to the Material World, while some manifest from the concious existence of groups of things (eg Nations, Types of Animal, Beleifs). Spirits can be manipulated, summoned, enslaved and banished but generally can not be destroyed except in extreme circumstances.


A Body & Soul with no Spirit = Mindless Undead
A Body & Spirit with no Soul = Living Dead, Mummy, Vampire etc
A Soul+Spirit with no body = Ghost
Soul + Anchor = Haunt
Spirit + Anchor = Elemental, Wraith, Spirt

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Personally I treat the Soul and the Spirit as distinct parts of the living entity.

The Soul is the animating life essence of a person, a unique living part of the Person that is seen as the aura and makes a persons unique nature. The soul is what dies (making the body go cold) and it can be stregnthened, dminished, consumed and even traded and used as an energy source by magical entities (usually demons who will make deals to possess them).
Everything that exists has a soul.

The Mortal Spirit is the Immortal part of a person that is anchored to the body in life and continues its ‘Being, Personality and Self’ even after death. Depending on religion a Spirit can go back to its Diety, become an Ancestral Spirit or hang around as a Ghost/Wraith/Spectre.
There are Spirits who are not Mortal Spirits and thus do not have bodies, some like Elementals and Djinn find their own anchors to the Material World, while some manifest from the concious existence of groups of things (eg Nations, Types of Animal, Beleifs). Spirits can be manipulated, summoned, enslaved and banished but generally can not be destroyed except in extreme circumstances.


A Body & Soul with no Spirit = Mindless Undead
A Body & Spirit with no Soul = Living Dead, Mummy, Vampire etc
A Soul+Spirit with no body = Ghost
Soul + Anchor = Haunt
Spirit + Anchor = Elemental, Wraith, Spirt

I somehow got in my mind that "soul" came from a term that meant "self", and therefore in my non-D&D design tend to use a similar system to yours but with the words reversed. But then I just looked it up and couldn't find any strong basis for the idea I had. :/ At least in D&D I don't have to worry about it because I don't make a distinction.

 

[Aldarc]

Interesting @Tonguez, because I would nuance it differently, but my own perspective tends to be influenced by biblical theological anthropology. In the Tanakh/Old Testament, it's ruach (spirit/wind/breath) that serves as the animating life essence of a person rather than the "soul." The "spirit" is the vital life-breath that empowers life in a creature. It is only when the body is imparted with a ruach that it becomes a living being/soul (cf. Adam in Genesis 2:7), and its absence in a creature is synonymous with death. Nephesh (soul/person/throat) is the living person/creature and the total essence of a person's being, self, and life. The spirit and soul of a person are distinct, but interconnected with blurred lines.

 

[ccs]

Odds are that your PCs won't be learning the definitive answer to this question.
Therefore I don't need to come up with the answer & the differences between spirits/souls can be whatever I need it to be atm.

 

[Oofta]

A soul is created and grows as part of a living creature. A spirit does not. Some spirits may inhabit living things but their creation is separate from the creature. When the soul leaves the body because a creature dies, it becomes a spirit.

 

[Seramus]

Everything has both a hun spiritual, ethereal, yang soul which leaves the body after death, and also a po corporeal, substantive, yin soul which remains with the corpse of the deceased.

I have most undead continue to be animated by the po. Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc. Incorporeal undead are po that are detached from their corpse.

The hun always moves on, and can make a great story hook if you bring it back to confront the po. Hun is also what becomes petitioners, larva, and what devils bargain for.

In a few cases, the hun is trapped and used as fuel, bargaining, etc. A lich is a great example of a po trapping their own hun.