Hello All,

First off, let me start by saying I have searched the internet far and wide, posted on the reddit Skyrim forums and asked friends and I cannot find an answer to this. Hopefully you guys will be able to point me in the right direction.

Lydia was my follower. We went into a dungeon together and she ended up dying. I saw her dead corpse on the floor and looted her body and put all my stuff into a burial urn next to her since I couldn't pack it back.

I waited for about a week (game time and now coming up to real time) thinking she would re-spawn in breezehome. Well she didn't. I was told to go back to Dragonsreach. She wasn't there either, just a bunch of stormcloak guards and Jarl Vignar Grey Mane with the court wizard, the dining table is all empty since the Stormcloaks took over.

I went back to the dungeon and her body was gone but all my stuff still in the urn.

This is driving me crazy. Is it possible that once she dies she never ever respawns again!?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Why would a dead NPC respawn? Very, very few do, and only due to bugs.

Lydia is permanently dead.

Imagine having NPC's respawn after they die. That would be...lame.

NPCs (except generic ones like guards) do not respawn. Once they die, they're gone for good.

Your Lydia is not coming back.

Everything you need to know about followers:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Followers

From the Wikia:

Essential characters are persons that, at some point during in http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim, cannot be killed in any way whatsoever. If their http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Health_%28Skyrim%29 is depleted, they fall to one knee, shortly recovering completely. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Follower_%28Skyrim%29 lie somewhat in this category, whereas they can only be killed if the http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Last_Dragonborn is the one to deliver the final blow or if they are repeatedly attacked in this downed state.

Wikia seems to be wrong in one thing (surprise surprise). Kneeled followers can be killed by anything. I've experienced many times when a overenthusiastic falmer kills my kneeled follower.

Essential NPC's cannot be killed. Unfortunately for you Lydia is not essential.

I assume that is why this is part of the statement that posted:

or if they are repeatedly attacked in this downed state.

Super, super annoying, especially because she was near a fire rune of mine that went off, and that killed her. I had no intention to let her die! I miss her already.....

Sorry Tazren, once a follower dies, is removed from the gameworld and it's corpse gets transferred to the cleanup cell, along with every other named npc that might have died.

Unless you kill Nazeem, raise his dead corpse and then wait for him to turn to a pile of ash. I did this and his ashes were there literally 80+ in-game days.

She's dead. But followers can die somewhat easily. Fire magic's continuing damage is a major culprit. But I once had Faendal just flat out slain by a particularly strong Briar Heart, dual wielding one sword that drained health and another that did shock