Death of a Capsuleer

CCP has been getting very George R.R. Martin with its in game characters lately. Minmatar ex-prime minister's assassination two years ago was unusual. But this past summer we've seen Hilen Tukoss reportedly killed and now Jamyl Sarum, the empress of the Amarr empire, is dead at the hands of the Drifters as well.

But what's really unusual besides CCP's slide into charactercide is that both of those individuals were not only capsuleers but were in ships in space when they died. As every player knows, if you die while in your capsule, an immediate brain scan occurs and your consciousness is transferred to a brand new medical clone so you live once more.

In the case of Hilen Tukoss, the investigation of the corpse that was found floating in space at the Drifter Hive showed that there were anomalies in the brain scan upon capsule rupture (thanks Hydrostatic Lore Panel!) so he did not go successfully to his medical clone as far as we know.

For the Empress, things are not so clear to me. Its possible that in order to keep up appearance of the Doctrine of Sacred Flesh, she did not have any known medical clone anywhere (although she might have another hidden one again) so they are announcing her death but really she is alive and well somewhere else, or its possible she really is dead.

Taken at face value, these two incidents represent a couple of the unique ways a capsuleer can die even while in a pod. We may be immortal, but we're not "Immortals".