(player death)
the only reasonable thing i can come up with is divine intervention. we don't have to deal with the gods at all, we can just have a vertical blast of light and some sparkles, and have the player's corpse relocated at full hp/mp in front of the king. (perhaps in front of the castle instead?) if you're back in the throne room, you get admonished as before, but the king might instead talk about the gods' will and whatnot. "dont waste this chance to drive evil from the land" or whatever. probably might say something about how you and erdrick are descended from god or something.. i'd hate to change the player into an angel, but i could see people revering you.
if i was going to remove the player from that, i'd probably rather stick him in front of the castle gates (spire of light again) at 0 hp, and the castle guards could take you in and the king could have a priest revive you at the cost of half your gold. we'd probably want to let this get skipped with (start) and get straight to the admonishment. we don't need any talk about gods or whatever in this scenario. i think i like it better.
why the king would put so much faith in you, over seasoned guards, is something i have to explain to myself (and likely my players). there's got to be some indication the king is relying on that you are - perhaps a likeness to your ancestors? i read over at www.dragon-warrior.com among other poor 'explanations of things not explained' that you don't have to find Erdrick's Helmet, because you start the game with it - seems somewhat plausible. is it important? heck no.
