The nature of "soul"

[Smoke_Z]

It seems to me that when the SR characters are talking about soul, there are two things that they are referring to.

The first one seems to be the core of the being, that which is the driving will.

The second seems to be the energy which fuels the core being.

In William's chapel, Raz's soul got leeched to repair the blade. I think here he's referring to the energy.

Kain used part of his soul to create his Lieutenants. Again, probably the energy without the core.

If you beat a Sluagh and let it run away, it will consume a soul and come back at you.

In SR1, if you never attack a human, most humans will kneel down and let you "sip" from them. According to the manual, you've got to be careful not to drain them completely, they'll recover their energy.

The core of the soul is probably dragged out with the last of the energy.

Free-roaming souls probably couldn't be seperated from their energy, or at that point their energy was so low that there was nothing but core left.

[mortaniusgod]

that's an interesting theory.
Fortunately, it doesn't change LOK universe. So it might as well be correct.