A Nice Boy posted:

Well, in case you were wondering, all the souls you had on your for all the deaths UP TO THE LAST ONE are gone. It only saves the blood spatter on the ground for your most recent death.

As far as I know, I believe that if you leave the world without claiming your body, it's gone. There were a few times when I gave up for the night, and came back the next day to try again, and my blood spatter was gone.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Evacuation miracle at the moment. I'm soul level 38ish and I JUST bought it. For the most part, as long as you're spending all your souls when you go to the Nexus, losing your body is never that bad of a thing. You'll lose a few thousand souls sometimes, but you can get them back pretty easily. So, don't worry too much about saving. There's an amazing grinding spot in 4-2, and when you get there, you can grind for souls and buy some of the specialty items you didn't up to that point (that's what I did).

When you get to 4-2, one of the first enemies you face is a dude who looks like the Grim Reaper. He, and all his minions that die at the same time as him, give about 4800 souls per kill, and he's right at the entrance almost. You also see him from a cliff that overlooks his room. With the compound bow you find in 4-1, and four flaming arrows you buy from the merchant like 10 feet away from the part I'm talking about, he's toast and he never touches you. It's cake. So, you can easily grind like 100,000 souls per hour or more if you want. Just kill him, jump off the ledge that'll be near you to your death, grab your blood smear, repeat.