Unable to log into my characters

So I can log into my account and get to the character selection screen that shows all of my characters modified to level 50. I was even able to play for about 45 minutes. then everything froze and i had to restart the game. Since then (hours ago) I have been UNABLE to log into my characters listed and keep getting the error message box “Character not found.” 12 years of playing and I have NEVER encountered this issue before. Did they really loose my characters? anyone else experiencing this? Any advice?

Great tips here: