system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Dark Souls] What exactly is the difference between a Humanity Sprite and a soul?

As I understand it (please correct me), each human is essentially a meat robot piloted by a humanity sprite, sort of a semi-conscious and semi-immortal blob of Dark Soul energy birthed by the pygmy's chunk of the first flame. In this sense, they function as sort of the traditional description of a soul.

But then what are "souls" the currency? In the games, they seem to be simply markers of power, akin to a Dragon Ball Z power level, with no consciousness or ownership attached. Whereas humanity can only really be played with by unique creatures like the Ashen/Unkindleds or the gods, souls can apparently be transferred freely between anyone, even lowly hollows and rats. And since killing even the weakest enemy usually gives you a few dozen souls, so its not a 1 to 1 thing like humanity.

Whats the relationship between Humanity Sprites and souls? Whats the difference?
gpt
Humanity isn't what we would call a "soul" in the Dark Souls universe. 

It's never explained in great detail, but Humanity seems to be what anchors the mind (and sanity) of the Human race, since it is an integral part of their being. It's less of a "soul", and more of Humanity's "essence", since Humanity was originally created from the Dark Soul. 

Souls are different, as every being in the world has a soul, but not every being in the world possesses Humanity. Souls are transient, and can be absorbed by the Undead,. 

I always took it as the "soul value" you absorb after you defeat an enemy is how many enemies they have defeated prior to your passing. 

The Chosen Undead/Bearer/Ashen One is a very, very special being, since each succeeds where countless Undead have tried and failed.

Remember, we straight up kill a Demon before we even start empowering ourselves with the souls we gather, so we are already something very special to the Cycle, and abnormally strong compared to the other Undead, even at our baseline.   

Even lowly Hollows and Rats are very dangerous when encountered in numbers, so it stands to reason they could overwhelm people and "kill" them, absorbing their power. However, since they do not have access to the Bonfires/Fire Keeper, they cannot utilize these souls to empower themselves. So they simply hang onto them until another, stronger being comes along and claims these souls for themselves.