Vilkas and Marcus (my Dragonborn) have gone on many adventures. On their way to clear out a Forsworn dungeon, they were set upon by an Elder Dragon. Being only lvl 32, we were getting our butts kicked. Luckily, Marcus is an adept at Restoration and had plenty of healing potions of various potencies on hand. Although the battle lasted nearly an hour and was quite epic (I can't tell you how many times I had to run for cover and dual cast Fast Healing), Vilkas fell during the battle. Now while I do not play DiD, as I personally find the concept dumb, I do try not to reload just because a follower dies unless it is just a ridiculous death...like the time I Fus Ro Dah'd Lydia off a mountain peak along with the giant we were fighting...so it is with a heavy heart that I raise my tankard of mead to Vilkas, my shield-brother, hero of the Battle of Karthwasten.

What boon companions have you lost and how did it happen?

Lydia died while I was Dwarven ruin diving, not sure how. After sort of a nasty battle with a whole bunch of bandits and machines flailing around, I looked around and found myself alone. Poked through the pile of corpses and there she was. Not sure if it was a trap, crossfire, or one of my own errant swings that got her. Probably that last one. I'm wearing Dwarven armor (I don't know how anyone can see or move in that tin can) widlly swinging a warhammer in arcs. Why the [censored] would you stand anywhere near me you dolt?

Oops. Well nobody will be seeing her again. Officer, she was just dead like then when I found her.

What exactly is DiD? Dead is Dead?

Lydia has saved my bacon on many occasions. She's been the one to slay the dragons that have swooped upon my level 10 self that was woefully unprepared. She has killed the witches in Orphan's Rock. She's taken on frost trolls. But the group of Alik'r warriors was too much for her and she was overcome while I was hiding and healing myself.

For me it seems that enemies are unable to kill followers. They will only go down on one knee when their health is down.
Anyway I lost Belrand in the fight with two Ice Wraiths on a shrine of Talos. I don't know how he died. It probably was a bug or then there has to be a moment when my hit has reached him when he has been down on a knee. Anyway there was no murder count in my stats so it probably was a bug which made him to die.

Belrand survived through the civil war and we were coming from the battle of Windhelm when he died. He was a good fellow but he had a fair death in a battle. I can never imagine better death for a gallant Nord warrior than die in a furious battle on the shrine of Talos. It has been long time since Belrand died but his dwarven sword still lies on the front of the statue on the shrine. Sometimes I visit there to honor his memory.

That's how it is, sort of. When a follower drops to their knees, enemies will not target them. However, they can still die from applied poisons, traps, crossfire (say, an archer is aiming for you and the follower is between the enemy and you, and the arrows hits them), and you can kill them yourself unintentionally. I'm not sure about AoE damage from enemies, but I'd say it will kill them too.

Well that explains how Belrand died in the battle. It was probably an ice wraith's ice spell which encountered the area around me and killed him.

I think this is true. Since all the talk about this, I've been watching carefully. The only time Lydia dies is when I hit her at least once. Now that I've got nuclear powered swords (not really, but they're very powerful from smithing and enchanting), one hit is pretty catastrophic. It becomes a lot more evident when I accidentally hit her when she runs in front of me unexpectedly.

I am so sorry for your loss. I shall slay an elder Dragon for you as a mark of the beging of the revenge you shall get on the rest of these hideous beasts.
He was a good man, I know he loved you as best he could.

My name is Inigo Montoya the Dragonborn, you killed my father friend Vilkas, prepare to die!

Well, I don't know if she died or dissapeared, but i've never been able to find Anneke after going into the ratway

the merc that you hire from the inn inside solitude. he was a battlemage and his death involved him, a falmer, a swinging door trap, and my magic fireball.

I lost Ria. I should never have asked her to come with me into Forelhost. I thought it would be good training.

I can still hear her now... 'I killed a bear yesterday. Did you kill anything?'

lydia died the very first time she became my housecarl, i left whiterun ran into a giant, and he killed her i was only level 5, but i then went to the giant camp and killed both giants and all the mamoths, took a while but felt i had to, for her

I lost a horse and a dog. Some apprentice Mage shot the horse with fire - before I knew they could actually be killed. I was stunned. $1k down the tubes.

I was in Aftland fighting the giant Dwarven robot thing which is apparently all but immune to sword attacks. So I was busy throwing fire at the thing and then running around behind him to do it again. When I finally killed him I was looking around for loot and I got a prompt on my screen to "Search Lydia." I was like whaaaaat?? ... Oh, .... DAMNNNNNN!!!!!!!! Now whenever I go home to Breezehome in Whiterun the house just fells empty.

ive only lost one, lydia in that god forsaken cave, dwindler's den.

I generally abuse their corpse because they got in the way of a good axe swing

I usually reload to save followers, but in this one Falmer cave, Sven kept dying on easy fights so I figured the ancestors were calling him to Sovngarde. A few levels later I remembered his elderly widowed mother...

uthgerd the unbroken

when i made a new mage char, i decided to ask her to be my guardian right after i escaped helgen. so she already travel with me from the very beginning. thanks to her i managed to become the arch mage and gain level up to level 18.

one day we explored this dwarven ruins when the disaster happened. the falmers are no match for us, well, until the falmer marrauder appeared. uthgerd charged in and attack the thing while i support her by throwing firebolts. the falmer was too strong and it managed to make uthgerd knelled down. when the falmer tried to attacked me, it triggered a pressure plate and activated a swinging door trap which kill them both. i can hear her scream when that trap hit her. what an awful experience.

i then decided to drag her to one of the falmer's hut, lay her down on the bed of straws, put her weapon on top of her, and burn down the hut with flame magic. i walked away while the fire still burn down the hut. i also took her helmet, enchant it with something so i can rename it, put her name on it, and now the helmet is sitting in my room at the arch mage quarter.

may you rest in peace in sovngarde my friend

I'm always somewhat distraught when my followers die, J'zargo in particular. I accidentally killed Lydia yesterday, I was having her fight the Riften guards, and then I tried to Fus Roh Dah her into the canol, and instead she took the full force of the blow and slumped over the railing, dead. We were just having a little fun.

the reasons why my followers die is either becuz i hit them accidentally, which only happens to that mercenary in rorikstead(the guy who wants to be an adventurer but his dad doesnt want to), i think his name is Eriker or something... anyway, 5 forsworns are chasing me, and i have about 5% health, no MP to heal, no hp/mp pots, and i m about to die. Then my mercenary came up and slash slash 3 of the forsworns while i hide like a coward. When he is about to kill the last forsworn, his health is already like 2%, and thats when i come in with my AOE fireball, only killing him and the forsworn...
I had him placed somewhere around the karthspire.

As for other followers, i kill em cuz tey block my way!!!

On the 360, I can never get them to drag bodies.

One day while traveling with Annekke, I decided to work on the main quest and hunt down Esbern in the Ratways. At one point, Thalmor Justicars popped up and Annekke rushed in with sword and shield while I stood back and fired away with arrows. In enclosed spaces like the Ratway, it's hard to aim at one target. So I just started shooting at Justicars randomly. Anything in glass armor.

When they were dead and the danger had passed, I wondered where Annekke was until I remember she was in full glass armor too.

To this day, I make sure my followers DO NOT wear helmets so I can tell who is who.

I've stopped mourning after I turned at least 5 followers to ashes because of an accidental Chain Lightning that hit them.

3 words can solve some sad accidents:[u] 'reload saved game'
..or if u really like them enuff to mourn them, then take them home to where u got them if the enemies are too tuff for them.. Some followers can level up past 20 or 30 but others such a House Carls can get to level 50. If u have outleveled your follower past their threshold u can send them home and get a tuffer follower to try. Further, followers may be stuck at the level they were when u first met them, But If u want to keep them longer and bring their level up to yours when they have failed to level up with you properly, which is pretty near always the case, I have heard said that u must release him/her as follower then rehire , hit console, whilst clicking on them, type in without the brackets then enter, then type in then hit enter and save game. Reload and your follower should now be leveled up with u (at least as far as they are able to be, depending on their max level cap)
However in some of the situations u described the Follower was killed accidently sometimes by the player (you) and that is the kind of thing u can fix by saving games before u rush into battles and at critical points or for, so u can reload if your follower dies by accident etc..and u don't have to go that far back to reload him/her with u and learn from your mistake. Nothing wrong with saving games, then deleting most older ones for more space, or overwriting them with new saves as u go along. That's what it's there for, eh. There are some sad stories here of lost followers. Awh..

That said, when Golldir died in a mass battle, where the enemies had range-paralyzed me for a moment as soon as i came thru a waterfall and he rushed in and defended me alone against many, when i got to him i saw he was dead on the top of the pile bodies he downed with his warhammer and had took some final arrow thru him from afar, and that was so sad. I did reload, and do the battle over, cause in the split seconds i saw him dead after all our battles together..i was like 'oh my god!' Not Golldir!!! i held the curser over him, and sure enough, it said 'search Golldir' on it. Just really glad i had a recent saved game, after we got outta there the second time with him alive, i was so relieved and went and got him new armor and gave him a little break after that scare. LOL He is fine now: D What would be worse, is if they died when going home from battle after being released, and something got them whilst they were alone on the way back to their spot and they just disappeared out of the game, and u never know why.. ( So I always get a follower back to where they came from with good armor for them, before i release them from service. If u do that then save game and reload before going on your way, i've found they are always there alive for re-hire when u come back) Which is a good thing. IMHO