Characters have been deleted

1. I encountered this issue on [PC]
2. I was playing [WITH FRIENDS]
3. I was playing as [Bruner (dwarf)]
4. [INSERT WORKAROUND HERE IF APPLICABLE, OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION]

I was playing act 2 of the last dungeon (the hall of judgement) We completed the mission and when we returned to town I was level 1 with no gear. I couldnt open the mission reward chest. Fearing i was bugged i left my friend game, and created my own. Everything was fine in my own game. I reconnected to my friends game, and I was once again level 1. I then tried to change characters, my character list displayed the correct level and ranks. though when i tried to rejoin i got hung. The game would not load in, so I task manager killed the game. When I reloaded my game my characters were ALL gone.