Basic Premis:
A Death Overhaul, inspired by the computer game "Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver / Soul Reaver 2 / Defiance". Includes a tiered Death System, allowing four possible Death situations: three for normal people, and one for the "Spirit Reaper" which the Player can become later.

Consequences of Death... For Mortals
Less than 20 Willpower
Those who die with less than 20 Willpower will find their Soul shredded by the Etherial Winds of the Spectral Realm, resulting in their complete destruction. This necessitates a Reload.

Less than 80 Willpower
Those who die with less than 80 Willpower will find themselves transformed into a Denizen of the Spectral Realm-- a creature condemned to live outside of the Mortal World, but forever aware of it.
In this form, you are stripped of all Items and Weapons, except Quest Items.

More than 80 Willpower
Those who die with more than 80 Willpower will find themselves transformed into a Corporal Spirit, gaining considerable benefits, and being able to continue their interactions with the world as though they were not dead.

Consequences of Death... For The Spirit Reaper
On becoming the Spirit Reaper, you are forever transformed. If you should die in the Mortal World, you will be forced into the Spectral Realm, becoming an incorporal Spirit. In this form, you are stripped of all Items and Weapons, except Quest Items.

Existing as a Corporal Spirit
If you die whilst your Willpower is greater than 80 (Base or Fortified), you will become a Corporal Spirit. In this state, you will remain a resident of the Mortal World, but acquire a transparent glow, and several significant changes to your existence:
As a Corporal Spirit, you will gain the following Passive Bonuses:-

		Fortify Magicka		1000		Full Health Restore		Resist Disease			100		Resist Paralysis		100		Resist Posion			100		Resist Normal Weapons	100		Water Breathing		Water Walking		Immunity to Water Damage		Stunted Magicka		Immunity to Fall Damage

Corporal Spirits do not have Health like normal beings-- any damage they take is instantly restored at the cost of their Magicka. However, a Corporal Spirit's Magicka is constantly degrading as time passes-- and if their Magicka should reach Zero, they will be expelled from the Mortal world, forever.
When expelled from the Mortal World, a Corporal Spirit will become a Denizen of the Spectral Realm. This is a one-way trip, and there is no way back to the Mortal World once you enter the Spectral Realm.

Existing as a Denizen of the Spectral Realm
If your Magicka is reduced to Zero as a Corporal Spirit, or your Willpower is less than 80 when you die, you will become a Denizen of the Spectral Realm. In this state, you will exist beyond the Mortal World, but have limited interaction with it: you will be able to see the residents of the Mortal World as ghostly refractions, use doors, and knock things aside through force of will alone (such as by jumping on a table). Beyond this, you will not be able to interact with the Mortal World-- you cannot talk to people, or pick up items, et cetera.
As a Denizen of the Spectral Realm, you will gain the following Passive Bonuses:-

		Resist Disease			100		Resist Paralysis		100		Resist Posion			100		Resist Normal Weapons	100		Water Breathing		Water Walking		Immunity to Water Damage		Stunted Magicka		Immunity to Fall Damage

In the Spectral Realm, your Health constantly regenerates over time.
If your Health should ever be decreased to zero, however, you will be destroyed-- your Soul shall be torn apart by the Etherial Winds of the Spectral Realm, and you will cease to exist at all.

Credits
Wrye, Scanner and the COBL Team - For solving the issues with PC Death affecting the Camera, and stripping the PC of all their Spells, without which much of this Mod would not work.

Progress:-
- Mortal Death System - Completed
- Reaper Death Ssytem - 90% (Needs Spectral Realm Death, associated with Plot Line)
- Plot Line - 0%
- Spectral Enemies - 0%
- Spectral Allies - 0%

This actually looks pretty good. Hope everything works out and you see it finished.

Hey CDM,

This idea is great No offence meant mate, but can't you better finish one of your other mods first before you move on to the next?

LOD, that was why I took a break originaly, unfortuantely-- I have too many ideas I end up jumping too much :S Hopefully, though I'm a little more focues (I've four WIPs at the moment, as opposed to the 7-8 I used to have-- Weapon Smith is More-or-less Finished, just a few bugs to work out for the next release; SK is going OK, just a little short on ideas; this is doing well so far and another one that's probably going no-where, but it's my first attempt at making a proper town )

ahh okay, that clears things up. Good luck with this, i'll be watching this one.

HOLY CRAP! This looks totally and epically AMAZING! seriously though, it sounds like a very good Idea to me and it also ironic becacse I was thinking for the past two weeks that a death overhaul EXACTLY like this was necessary in oblivion. Many thanks and luck to you!

A Demo Versions is now available : http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33515

It contains JUST the raw death contols-- entering Sepctral is pretty boring right now, sincet there are no enemies to encounter, and only the Soul Reaper can get back via ONE portal (in the Temple of the One, in the Imperial City).
This Demo is just to show off the Death System, and allow feedback-- there's still a long way to go before an actual release-release.

If you find any issues, or have any suggestions, let me know

Very nice idea

Makes the powerful characters seem powerful enough to beat death itself.

It's "corporeal", not "corporal".

And how do you "come back" after you've become a spirit? You mentioned something about the Temple of the One - do you have to reach a church and activate the altar to regain living status again?

Hmm, apparently it can be either-- I'm guessing it's a language difference, so will d-check later (App. Corporal comes from Corpus, and Corporeal from Corporeus)

Only the Spirit Reaper can come back from being a Spirit right now-- later, I may add the option to become alive again for Ghosts You just go to the Temple of the One, and there's a glowin gate like the one to Paradise. Eventually, there will be one in each Cathedral -- the demo is the bear minimum, though.

This sounds amazing! I haven't tried the demo yet, but this sounds like a game-changing kind of mod. And if it's difficult / impossible to come back after becoming a spirit, that gives hardcoe players another reason to really avoid dying in the first place. I can also see this adding tons of roleplay potential.

This seems like an interesting idea, but lemme see if I understand. If you die with 20-79 willpower, you go to the spectral realm and do a quest or something to become a spirit reaper and be able to return to "normal" in the temple district? And if you have 80+ willpower, you change into a different form that, when you finally run out of mana, you go to the spectral realm, etc etc?

You mention that you lose all your items and such, does this mean you have to return to where you died and you find a dead you with your stuff and have to reloot your stuff? Could be kind of neat and some added penalty for dying and a reason to keep backup gear in one or more of your houses and have the body disappear after you interact with it or something.

Also, assuming I'm understanding right, once you die and do what needs to be done to become a spirit reaper, if you die again do you just go right to the portal or will you have to "regain" access to the portal?

That is more or less it, but with the previso that this DEMO doesn't have all the features, so...
- If you die between 20-79 Willpower, you are STUCK in the Spectral Realm until your eventual death. It's a kind of "Afterlife". In the final version, this does lead to you being able to become the Spirit Reaper, and having access back to the Material World.
- The Spirit Reaper can use any Portal to the Material Realm. In the Demo, there is only one-- in the finished version, there will be one in each Cathedral, and the Temple of the One, with the possibility to unlcok "shift at will", which lets you move between the two whenever you want.
- Items are confiscated on death (Except Quest Items), and will be returned on movement back to the Matieral realm-- the possibility of a body is under consideration (it was my original idea), but for now it's just auto-returned.
- Once you're the Spirit Reaper, you move to the Spectral Realm on death, and have to go back to the Portal (but only going to it, not "unlocking" it like you have to when you first become the Reaper).

Hopefully that cleared a few issues up In the final version, it'll be a bit easier to explain-- this is just to show how the concept works, since dealin with Death is the biggest part of the Mod, and feedback would be great-- I know of at least one issue (mentioned in the Read Me), but there may be more; and what people think of the methods will be helpful.


If you want to be the Reaper, type:

Set ZCDMSRMain.PCIsReaper to 1

in the console, which will show what it's like after unlocked Reaper Mode (which is dealt with through the Story line-- although it will probably only be a basic storyline, since the focus is dealing with death, and a storyline is just to explain why the PC is special).

"Corporal" is an obsolete synonym for "corporeal" (just looked it up). So you were right, more or less.

Cool I was thinking yesterday that maybe it was more metaphoric-- Corporeal as in "being in the flesh/physical", and Corporal as being "related to the physical" (like when we talk about the idea of Lord Temporal or Spiritual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_Temporal). Either way, I'll be changing it for the next version-- corporeal sounds better to me (though I supose corporal might be suitable given the time-period of TES)

this is all oblivion lacks in mods to make me happy and complete the game for me, good luck and hope to see this finished soon

very happy to see this thread !