Spawning
Update Jun 22, 2012

Spawning is the act of reappearing in the game environment after your character dies of its injuries or you recall home.

Recall home, sometimes called spawn-recall, is initiated by pressing the Recall Home button on the primary button bar, or by pressing Alt-Backspace. Your character enters a trance, awaiting the recall to your spawn location. During this trance, you are vulnerable to the environment and its occupants. You can be seen and injured by other players and animals while awaiting spawn-recall.

Spawning causes your character to appear in the game universe somewhere. There are several possible locations at which you can spawn. Selecting a spawn location is called spawn tieing.

Your character spawns in the game universe at one of five possible locations, in the following order of precedence.

1
 Spacecraft Berth Your berth is your primary spawn location. You spawn tie to a spacecraft by joining the roster, either as a crew member or a passenger. You will not spawn aboard a ship if the empire that owns the ship is no longer friendly or neutral toward your empire, or if the ship is destroyed, or if the ship's life support system is not functioning. Your character spawns in a bunk, unless the ship has no bunks at all, in which case your character spawns at a randomly selected location inside the ship.

Your character spawns lying in the bunk. Mouse movement rotates your body between four facing positions while lying in the bunk. The bunk provides life support and enables access to your personal sea chest. Items inside your sea chest may be needed to survive the environment outside your bunk. Press E to exit your bunk when you are ready.
2
 Home City Your home city is your secondary spawn location. You declare a city to be your home by standing in the city and pressing the Declare Home City button on the primary button bar, or by pressing Alt-Shift-~ (that's a tilde, the little squiggly character). Your first city is automatically set to be your home city, either by spawning there for the first time or by creating your first town square. You can only spawn at a city if it is controlled by an empire that is friendly toward your empire. Your character spawns in the development in which it was standing when you spawn tied to the city. If that development no longer exists, your character spawns in one of the homes of the city, selected at random each time, or the town square if there are no homes.
3
 Capital City
 The capital city of your empire is the next spawn location, when a berth and a home city are not available. Your emperor selects the capital city of your empire. You can only spawn in your capital city if it is controlled by your empire. Your character spawns in one of the homes of the city, selected at random each time, or the town square if there are no homes.
4
 Random City
 When no berth, home city, or capital city are available, a city of your empire is chosen at random in which to spawn.
5
 Empty World
 When just starting as a new emperor, or when your empire is being crushed out of existence, or simply decaying away, your empire may have no cities at which to spawn. The last fallback spawn location is an empty habitable world somewhere in the galaxy. If you are already on an empty habitable world, you will respawn where you fall.