This year has taught me that NPC-theory is most-likely literal. Like, these people literally have no souls. They are facsimiles of human beings; mere representations: controlled by whoever is the best social-engineer that has access to their minds. Maybe some of them can awaken their spirit, via divine intervention: but most are irredeemable. Literal bags of flesh who will either die permanent deaths, or worse still: be eternally damned, if they give in to the embrace sin.