Definitely a neat and spooky thought.

I'm down. Really reminds me of Revival.........

Definitely a cool idea. But my first thought when seeing the title and taking into account the sub forum was to use the spirit walk to give hints as to what latent talent you might have and\or a clue to unlocking them.

Probably would be better if these clues only show up later in life which would presume that you had not managed to unlock your talent naturally. Talents are soul bound but if you fail to unlock a talent would the latent talent still follow the soul through permadeath and into a new character?

If not, then I think this mechanic could have merit. It would be a trade-off between making it back to your body in time and spending a bit of time investigating these faint, gossamer clues that disappear at certain angles and are always just wayward of your soul link.

I'm curious how the decline of a character will look at the end. I'm guessing since the stamina bar will get smaller till it's impossible to do much without passing out. But even once the soul energy runs out, that doesn't come into play until we have to spirit walk. If we remained very calm, in a safe house, with no chance to get knocked out, will the character ever actually drop dead from old age? Or will they be able to sit their dreading the end until maybe, like you say, apparitions of death start to appear and drive them mad.

Granted it wouldn't be very efficient to play this way since you'd be unable to progress your skills further or accomplish anything, just a thought.