I had my vampire character turn Viviene Onis, as some of you know, and I needed to do a certain quest for Dawnguard, so I dismissed her and left Solitude. Went and did the quest, and when I came back to Solitude she had somehow died while I was not there... how does this happen!?!?!?! I thought you had to be in a city for an NPC to die?

Let's just say I was not amused...

1st world problems eh?

I once walked out of Pavos' House and the dog instantly died before my eyes.

A begger in Windhelm died and left me 100 gold.

That is just brilliant haha

It's the circle of life.

Heart attacks, due to poor nord diet consisting of only meat and mead.

Did you leave the cell with a hostile in it? They can still kill even after you leave if they were there when you left. I left Solitude as soon as a master Vampire spawned... came back an hour later and he had massacred Evette San, Sorex and all the high elves in the fashion store I have forgotten the name of. His body was among them too fortunately.

EDIT: I'm the type of guy who will restart entire games over things like this though

As far as I know there wasn't an enemy because it was daytime, so my guess is that she may have died from sun damage maybe?

Multiple save files are your friend. Even if you have to replay 50 hours, that's better than losing a 400 hour character.

On the bright side, those Altmer who don't appreciate their customers won't be missed.