Soul vs Spirit, an explanation on their meanings and distinct differences.

So I was wondering what the deal was with the word soul in Elden Ring, and in doing so I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. The word soul ingame is used less than you'd think it was, but it's very consistent. Its extremely hard for me to explain exactly how different this word is to spirit, but I'm gonna try because I'd really encourage you to think about the world of Elden Ring in this way.

Your soul in Elden Ring as far as I can tell seems to be your consciousness, your intangible being. An incorporeal energy that houses your emotions and feelings, your essence! Your soul is alive! It has force, a will, an energy and it can adapt to new emotions. Your soul is essentially immortal, if it were to die, it'd be nothing.

I find that your Spirit is a lot harder to define. Your spirit is the by-product of your soul not completely dying, or refusing to die. If your soul is alive, and would be nothing if it was dead, then your spirit is your undying soul. Your undead soul, or your spirit is fundamentally not alive. Spirits are an unnatural force. They lack the ability to adapt, only capable of echoing what their soul was, or how they were remembered.

Your soul casts a shadow, and that shadow is your spirit.

Spirit's secondary English meaning, as in, "A particular way of thinking, feeling and acting that is often related to a group, place or time." Some examples would be;

"It's in the spirit of Fromsoftware to make Nightreign 1 player, or 3 players exclusively"

"Making Elden Ring easy wouldn't be in the spirit of Fromsoftware"

"Elden Ring is a spiritual successor to Dark Souls!"

With this definition, you can also view spirits in Elden Ring like memories, characteristics or vibes. A static unchanging collection of emotions and essence based on things such as time, places, people and events. This opens up a completely new perspective into understanding the world of Elden Ring to me.

I've made this post not to offer any theories or head cannons just yet (though I have plenty) but I think it's just something I'd like people to take note of! I haven't found any contradictions to this that I'm comfortable out right disprove that this wording isn't outright canon. I might post a few of my findings in the comments later as I find them!