Turns out my friendly Redguard brother Amren had died. How? I don't know, but it really ticked me off. I hadn't been to Whiterun in days! And now I'm really annoyed. I hate having characters die, and the fact I didn't know how or when he died is also annoying me.
Are you guys the same? Do you hate these unintentional deaths?
Amren likely died in a vampire attack you did not witness, which is very possible in Whiterun. Whenever I arrive at Whiterun at night, or even just exit a building at night (like the Bannered Mare), I make a point of checking out the front gate for vampire attacks.
On the other hand, Jon Battleborn once died on me in the middle of the day as a result of my decision to use the "wait" function. For some reason the game decided to reposition him twenty feet above the sidewalk and he promptly plunged to his death. I happened to be facing in his direction when this happened.
And do you hate getting that letter of inheritance and knowing what you're about to read?
Hate them? No, I love those letters. If it weren't for those letters, it might take me days or weeks in-game to realize an NPC has died. But thanks to those letters, I know that someone has died quite recently and I can therefore reload from a point before they died without losing too much progress.
Those letters are the main reason I do favors for NPCs, actually. So I can keep tabs on their ability to breathe.