Shell

Souls and Shells
Barovians are made of flesh and blood. They are born, they live, they age, and they die.

But not all of them—only about one in every ten—have souls.

When a being with a soul dies in Barovia, that soul remains trapped in Strahd’s domain until it is reincarnated in a newborn. It can take decades for a bodiless soul to find a host, and Barovians who share the same soul over generations tend to look alike.

Strahd needs loyal subjects to feed his ego. Barovians without souls are empty shells created by his consciousness to fill out the local population. Although they are physically indistinguishable from Barovians with souls, they tend to be bereft of charm and imagination and to be more compliant and depressed than the others. They dress in drab clothing, whereas Barovians who have souls wear clothes with a splash of color or individuality.

A Barovian woman, soulless or not, can give birth. A child born in Barovia might have a soul even if one or both parents do not. Conversely, the child of two parents with souls isn’t certain to have a soul of its own. Barovians without souls are maudlin folk who experience fear but neither laugh nor cry.

Strahd periodically feeds on the blood of Barovians who have souls, but he can’t draw nourishment from the blood of the soulless. He can tell at a glance whether a Barovian has a soul or is merely a shell.

''Adrian scribbles in the margins, 'souls are trapped, recycled. For generations.'''