Okay - my head keeps falling off every time I load my game. I've seen other posts where this can happen if you mess around with 'tim' mode in the console, but seeing as I've never done that, it can't be the problem.

This post: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1313310-immortal-mode-decapitation-glitch/page__view__findpost__p__19751652

...may just offer the right answer, but can anyone can confirm it? I've had maybe one or two incidents of 'wow that was close!', and thought nothing else of it.

And here's a screenshot for kicks & giggles - and yeah the irony of the location isn't lost on me
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/613845918414801548/1631C060FAAE39D62D53758C3083D3E0172F6BD0/

Lmfao that's awesome! Sorry for your problem , but maybe it's not exactly a glitch? If I had my hands in this game I woulda coded that in for enabling that particular cheat and sat back waiting eagerly for people to start posting screenshots about this problem and just giggling wildly to myself.Just a thought =P

Yes, TIM is a debugging and testing command and thus will probably never get patched to "fix" this behavior. They have so many real issues to deal with...

Sorry, didn't fully read OP. Yeah, see post below by B1gBadDaddy.

Are you using any mods?

Also, have you tried verifying game integrity in steam? It looks like you're missing a mesh file, or a mod has conflicted somewhere.

Nope I am running zero mods, and never have since installing the game. Totally clean install patched up to 1.3. When I load the game you can see the head falling off and blood spurting out of the neck as if it's a decapitation.

Is it possible you quickloaded right before or a little after the time you got hit with a fatal attack?

The game seems to treat quickloading and reloading-on-death differently, flushing less variables on a quickload to speed up the process, which can cause issues.

I lol each time I see this. The first post in the thread you pointed at is just plain hilarious too.

ok sorry, I couldn't help it. But Kivan's answer is indeed a possibility. It happened to me when I drank a health increase potion at the very last minute where I should have normally died.

Ah yes, there is another bug with that -- those fortify health potions will get "stuck" on you if you would have died without the extra max health, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a decapitation bug too.

Example: Drink Tree Sap that gives +200 max health, take more than your regular max health in damage and survive, now you have permanent +200 max health.

The good news is that I can use a Dragon Priest mask and any armor other than the Archmage Robes and still have a "head" of sorts. The bad news is that my character is, well, a mage and the best currently available kit is the Archmage Robes (which has as far as I can tell a set of unique enchants so can't even be replicated, even closely).

While I am sorry you are having issues I gotta say that is the funniest bug I've ever seen.

Oh no not really, the game plays fine otherwise, and having no head is something of an improvement on my character's looks to be honest.

Have you tried the sixchange command twice?

Once I get the chance I'll be trying that. I've also seen that maybe setracemenu can work, but may have other unintended consequences.

So you're the ghost I saw riding around on the road to Whiterun a few nights back?

There is only one thing left to do here: Get a modder to make you a "Need head, please give generously" tunic and take a screen shot.