Ok, so I was reading the recent dev journal where a few ideas about how to treat soverign death are kicked around, and had a random idea I thought I would throw out there.

--Something like this might have been discussed before, but What if all soverigns start the game with some sort of item (for sake of argument, lets call it the Life Relic...or myabe Death Relic for fallen factions). This item stays around with them, and maybe stores a protion of exp and/or essence that the soverign acuires. Then if they die one way or another, one of the soverigns children (maybe one they designate as their 'heir') can take this Life Relic, and the exp/essence that was stored within it gets transfered to him, effectively making him the factions new soverign. If that is too simple/too easy, maybe you add a quest requirement to it...for example, maybe you have to build some sort of altar/pire/shrine to transfer the role of soverign over...maybe you have to research some sort of 'spell of rebirth'...maybe you have to take it the ominous volcano where it was formed! There could also be political forces to consider. What if the soverign dies in battle and the opposing army manages to get the Life Relic...maybe they could use it as a powerful barganing chip for negotiating peace terms. Now you have to either negotiate for it, go take it back, or lose!!!..or maybe they hate your faction so much that they go on their own quest to destroy your Relic. Now you have to stop them from completing this quest, or face defeat! Then once you get it back, you still have to go on your own quest to appoint a new soverign. Now what about internal forces to contend with! What if the person you have appointed as heir is very unpopular...or maybe one of your other children that is very popular/whealthy/powerful thinks they deserve to be the new Soverign...This could start a Civil that has to be fought in order to claim the title of the factions soverign. This could leave your faction completely fractured, even if you do get a new soverign. What about others that have a claim to your throne? Maybe some pompous fool from another faction that's married to one of soverigns daughters thinks they have the right to your throne. This could start a succession war between your two factions...

--While I'm sure none of these ideas are terribly original, here is something else I was thinking...What if the player lost control until a new soverign came to power (by way of quest or conquest)...So basically if your soverign dies, you have the choice of either quiting, or watching the game play out as your appointed heir tries to get the Relic and claim power!!! This would make the choice of who to appoint as heir critically important. I think this would be a kind of exciting game mechanic. This way you don't lose when your soverign dies, but you lose a powerful leader, and your factions stability is severely impacted. You as the new soverign would have alot of work to do...possibly rebuilding your empire from the groud up...literally!