I had a character I had invested a lot of time into, and I believe I last played this fall of last year. His name was Geist Elegy, and for some reason he seems to have disappeared after logging in today. I can't even find a lot of the clothes he was wearing available anymore.

What the hell happened?

Íf you've been away awhile, game stores your characters. Log in game and it should be there. And the missing costumes is probably 'The Streamlined Character Creation', you've been flagged as new player. After compleating Tutorial, pieces should be back.