If you do the loner prelude and are below level 5 when you die you cannot respawn, it doesn't give a reason why and the dialogue with the Ether Spirit just cuts out without any indication.
I assume this is a bug because the starting area gave no indication there would be no respawning.
You should be able to respawn to your corpse. You cannot respawn anywhere else but your corpse, but that respawn should be available.
If you cannot respawn to your corpse, that is a bug, but otherwise it is not, and reads if you examine the portal.
Is the problem that you cannot respawn to your corpse?
Below level 5 you cannot respawn at all and the dialogue just ends when you say "I can still live?".
However above level 5 you can respawn at corpse and that's all you can do.