Non-Player Characters are precisely that, characters that are not played by players. These are characters that are run by Wizards or assigned persons. This is not the same as just emitting to create the general public, this is playing someone with a definite history and personality as an on-going character. If you end up running a puppet as an NPC, you must get wizard approval for this, and an application (as thorough as possible) should be completed for the character.

These are just characters that, for whatever reason, do not fall into the category of regular player characters. (For example, they may be too powerful.)