Is it possible to recover your fallen characters at all? I had spent a good 6 hours just doing matches over and over the slow and safe route( 2nd rank elimination and then pugilism to heal up if needed) and i had ranked up all the way to expert and had little over 9 gold but on one match in an elimination round I made one fatal mistake and died from a peasant in rags and now have nothing, losing your character completely seems a little harsh
I feel you, lost two characters and a main
But don't worry every item you bought is still in the arsenal management. You lost your experience tho.
I really recommend to buy fine/superior/exceptional items even in the lowest ranks. For me Novice has been the deadliest tier. Novices have access to very sharp weapons so you should buy every armor piece that could help for this tier, it you play it.
Some pieces will help for higher tiers too, and once it's not useful anymore, you can sell them or give them to another character.
To play safe but earn good money, it's also interesting to play the eliminations from Master tier, with Inept/adept rank gear. Again avoid novices until you get some decent leather stuff.
My new main character is expert and went close to death many times. But less and less over time, new gear really help. Buy a decent weapon and then focus on armors, it's worth it.
edit : ah damn I get it, you lost your main character. Yeah that's worse. x)
Next time, as recomended by others, keep your leader safe, you can rank him up but be really ready ^^