It doesn't matter how you die - whether by normal means (i.e. via mob or trap), game bugs (such as the infamous "falling" bug), normal game play (i.e "The Shroud" raid in which the mechanic is that all party members die to advance to the next part of the raid, falling damage, drowning), PvP play, "friendly fire*", guild buff rooms (well, OK, "room" since as far as I know only the "Danger Room" can actually kill you), or network-related means ("lag", disconnecting at an inopportune time, etc.); if you die, that is it - "dead" is "dead".
However, "incapacitated" is not "dead" so even if you fall to below 0 HP, you are not actually "dead" until you are dead.
But if you do die - and there have been a lot of deaths - your character is banished to the "Land of Lost Souls". And there is not much you can do there. Mainly look at the pretty scenery. Now, if you're only encounter is your first foray into the LoLS, you may be wondering what I mean, because upon initial death (and yes, I do know by first-hand experience), the entire surrounding area is purple. But if you ever log back in on a toon so banished, it is no longer all purple. So if you haven't done so, you might want to - at least once.
So your toon died; now what? Well, as stated above, you can admire the pretty scenery on your dead toon (not real exciting after the first 2 minutes or so) or roll-up a new toon and start all over again from the beginning at level 1.
Why would anyone want to put themselves through this? There are several reasons. The most obvious is "to see if you can do it". Some like the challenge**, some just want to see what it's like, some want the bragging rights, and some want the rewards.
Oh, did I not mention there are rewards? Well, there are unique cosmetics that will only be available at certain "milestones". If you make it to level 20, you get the "Death Walker's Sash"; reach 1750 total favor, and you get "Eyes of Darkness" cosmetic ("Death Watches You" feat); reach 5000+ total favor and you get "Bloody Footprints†" cosmetic. For the really brave††, reach 10 reaper-points (100k total reaper XP) get the "Death Walker's Cloak" (which is different from the sash), and at 20 reaper-points (400k total reaper XP) you get the "Blood Reaper" pet. And lastly, if you make it to level 5, you get your toon name published in a special edition of the "Stromreach Chronicle"...but only IF you survive until the end of the event (if you die after reaching level 5, you will not be mentioned).
Once the various rewards are unlocked, they will be unlocked for all of your toons on that account, regardless of which server they reside. A word of caution: You MUST first talk to Mortality on the Hardcore server after reaching each milestone to unlock the reward. If you forget to do thus and you die, then "No soup for you!". So do not forget. (Note that this does not apply to the level 5 "reward" - the only way to get this one is to reach level 5 and then survive until the end of the event.)
I am not an "elite" player. And that's fine with me. I don't have to "prove" anything to anyone. But I do want to see if I can actually make it to level 20 on the Hardcore server. That is my goal. So far, I have had four deaths. Three of them on the same character (OK, OK - technically different characters, but instead of just rolling up a new toon with a new name, I deleted the original toon and re-rolled using the same name). And frankly, all of the deaths were pretty much due to stupidity. First death (at level 2), I took a misstep in the Korthos‡ Wilderness area and fell down a cliff side. Falling did not kill me, however - I was just incapacitated at -1 HP. Unfortunately, I was alone with no means to self-heal, so I could do nothing but watch each stabilization roll fail one after the other until *DING*. Second death (at level 7), hit by an un-disarmable trap. Third (at level 5) - and this one I think hurt the most - was being held by "hold person" while in water and accidentally calling my hire to me (in the water) instead of letting them kill the shaman.
The fourth was due to an unnoticed trap while running with guildies (and I was the trapper - oops).
From the beginning, I had been running all quests on "elite". But since my goal is to reach level 20 and not necessarily worry about reaching the favor milestones, I have decided (starting with the level 4 quests) to run "normal". The exception is that for current quest-chains which were started with "elite" will be finished with "elite". This applies to the Splinterskull chain, Shan-to-Kor, and Catacombs. It is much less of a challenge, but I'm OK with that.
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* While there is really no "friendly fire" in DDO, per se, one can cause the death of another, such as through use of the grease spell near a cliff side, aggro'ing mobs and running them back to others, and other means.
** There are "perma-death" guilds and players that basically play this way all the time. Well, not exactly "this" way, but similar in that "dead" is dead.
† Currently, the bloody footprints cosmetic is can only be seen by the cosmetic owner and not other players. This has caused some disappointment to be expressed by several players. SSG has stated that they *may* see about changing this (no guarantees).
†† Or "stupid" - you decide (hehehe).
‡ Korthos is the current starting area for all level 1 toons. There is supposed to be a new, additional starting area added to DDO, but not as of this posting.
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