The Importance of Siblings
So, as part of Hugos, I have read a lot more different original-worlds in a very short time than I have for awhile, so here is a worldbuilding rant aimed at Most Of The People Who Wrote Secondary-World Stories I Read:
If you are writing a world with a high death rate among young people - whether it's due to disease, war, accidents, space vampires, cage-fighting, spectacularly failing the magical initiation, your paper-and-balsa-wood wings failing at a terrible moment, being dragged away by Mysterious Masked Figures, whatever - your characters should not all be only children.
( Siblings. )
So, conclusion: If you are killing a lot of characters, make sure most of them have siblings, and at least some of them have lots of siblings. You can have most of the siblings be dead or in another country if you need them out of the way, but they should at least exist.
If you are writing a world with a high death rate among young people - whether it's due to disease, war, accidents, space vampires, cage-fighting, spectacularly failing the magical initiation, your paper-and-balsa-wood wings failing at a terrible moment, being dragged away by Mysterious Masked Figures, whatever - your characters should not all be only children.
( Siblings. )
So, conclusion: If you are killing a lot of characters, make sure most of them have siblings, and at least some of them have lots of siblings. You can have most of the siblings be dead or in another country if you need them out of the way, but they should at least exist.