The client does not keep the NPCs in one nice table. Their names, their kinds and the sprites they use are spread over several lists, so the importer has to read all of them and put an NPC back together before I can place it anywhere.
They come and go with the map. When a region loads around me the NPCs inside it are spawned, and when I walk far enough away they leave with that region, same as the tiles and the scenery. In this shot 24 of the 36 NPCs on this map are alive.
Not only people. Dogs and butterflies come from the same list, they are just NPCs with different sprites.
