It is pretty much inevitable that at some point, usually early on in your
time here, your character will die. Your character can die of starvation,
thirst, or physcial harm (falling, drowning, or attack). While starvation and
thirst are very gradual processes, physical harm can be sudden indeed. Most
attacks and accidents will slowly lower your health, until it drops to 0% and
you fall unconscious. Further damage will kill you. However, you can also
die suddenly, of massive trauma, such as decapitation in combat, falling from
an incredible height, or being hit by a very powerful spell or trap.
After reaching level ten, when your character dies, their essence is
transported to the Realm of the Dead. Your corpse is left behind where you
were killed, together with everything that was in your possession at the
fateful moment. Items should not be stolen from your corpse while it is
whole, save for the exception outlined in the PKill helpfile. Any spells
which were affecting your physcal self are canceled by death. While in the
Realm of the Dead, you may send mental requests to the living to plea for
help in being returned to life. See the Returning to Life helpfile for more
details on your options.
Corpses decay to dust after about five days of real time. When a corpse
decays the contents will spill out onto the floor of the room where the
corpse was, and anyone finding them will decide ICly what to do with them.
For more details, see the corpses helpfile.