The unasked question here is why you want to delete, rather than re-spec, a character. Since you can change everything except class, you lose so much by deleting and re-creating, that it can't be worth it. I'd have thought that a character that has advanced enough to learn a worthwhile motif is one to keep, even if they need a race change, sex change, and complete re-build. There's got to be a lot of effort going to waste.
The unasked question here is why you want to delete, rather than re-spec, a character. Since you can change everything except class, you lose so much by deleting and re-creating, that it can't be worth it. I'd have thought that a character that has advanced enough to learn a worthwhile motif is one to keep, even if they need a race change, sex change, and complete re-build. There's got to be a lot of effort going to waste.
And you can always use alts as mules, 200 inventory slots and sweet crafting writs.
As promised....
Testing conditions and process:
Single character steam account used on PC NA
Character only knows its own racial motif
New character is created
Dremora shields purchased and learned with new character
logged character off and checked original character
Original character had access to dremora shields style at outfit station
logged out original character and then deleted newly created character that learned Dremora shields
logged in original character again and still had access to Dremora shields style at outfit station
quit game and restarted
logged original character back in and still had access to Dremora shields style at outfit station
Went to wordworking station and attempted to craft a dremora shield but the style showed as unknown
Conclusion:
Although the ability to CRAFT shields is lost with a deleted character, the ability to use the style with outfits is not lost.
I'm going to go further and hazard a guess that this applies to all motifs, but only based on my test above. You will need to decide for yourself if you want to risk it.
One would hope.
However, I don't think all Motifs do the Collectible thing. Like the original 16.