This is a dangerous topic for me.

Balancing lore and fun. And this is where I have to lean more on fun. Changing the death penalty after game launch to something stricter may result in a massive rift *Bahamut wrestles Regulos away from thread*.

An extreme lore faithful death would be permanent character death (or then come back as a zombie NPC).

At present, people seem to get frustrated with their current deaths, even if raised on the spot. They already start to loath party members for these deaths. I can only imagine more severe death penalties would result in people jumping out of their seats, foaming at the mouth, doing a floor-copter, while flailing their arms about.

For now, I think the death penalty is best left alone. Maybe after all the foundations are set, SE can revisit death penalties in 2.0.