Souls were often interpreted as a sentient creature's consciousness and personality, separate from the physical body.

Nature

In reality, souls were the imprint of a sentient consciousness on the Weave. The strong emotions and thought patterns of a creature over time embedded themselves strongly into the Weave, to the point where they became an image separate from the physical organism. Typically, these souls remained bound to their living parents until their death. Separating a soul from its parent could only be achieved by tearing the entirety of the Weave in and around the creature, a process which could rarely be accomplished without killing or seriously harming it.

Appearance. The Weave did not have a substance that could be visualized; its appearance depended on the perception of the beholder. Accordingly, souls could take all manner of appearances. It was common however for souls to be portrayed as vague shadowy forms resembling the outlines of their parent bodies.

Physical Death

When a living creature died, its soul separated from the body. Separated souls were not or barely self-aware, as they were just impressions of a creature's consciousness, not a consciousness in their own right. Typically, a soul remained near its dead body for a little while, before moving off at great speed towards its afterlife.

Magical resuscitation almost always required the soul of the dead creature, as the "blueprint" of the creature's consciousness was extremely helpful in recreating the finer parts of a creature's organism.

If a creature died in an antimagic zone, its soul did not survive for long, going lost rather quickly.

Selection of Afterlife

All souls went into an afterlife. Most commonly, the afterlife of choice was the one in which the creature believed: for example, a follower of the Star, even if they'd devoted their life to Tyr, would head to Zorl, because that was the faith's teaching. Belief, not wishes, counted.

Any souls who didn't have the slightest belief or connection to any potent afterlife were instead attracted to special kinds of afterlife. Typically, the selected afterlife depended on a soul's personality.

Supernaturally powerful entities such as gods rarely headed for a typical afterlife. Instead, their souls remained in the location they called home, and were often able to manifest some sort of presence in the real world. It was common for gods to reform on their own. However, it was common for god-killers to have means of imprisoning or destroying their target's soul.

Use of Souls

Many supernatural entities made use of souls. Souls could be used as an easy source of knowledge to accumulate and store; their complicated consciousness could be used to imbue new creations with life; and through tortuous means, various sorts of energy could be derived from them.

Soul Death

It was also possible to "kill" souls. Various spells and effects could ensnare or diffuse the fragile imprint that constituted a soul. After that, it was gone forever.