It would be nice to have you. I haven't been on much in a long time, but I'm hoping to get back on, soon. When I got my laptop, I was on more. I could take DaoC anywhere in the house (including in front of the TV)! But when I got Darkness Rising, it would keep locking up on my laptop (which was a brand new almost top of the line Dell...even got the best video card I could with it). I tried installing it on my desktop, but lately haven't gotten it to work right (plus I hate sitting at my desk all the time). If you definitely come back on, let me know. I forget to check the boards at times, but you can e-mail me at obidawsn at adelphia dot net.
As for you characters, I was told that they never get rid of your characters. I had cancelled my account for 6 months, and they were still there (I'm not sure about 2 years, though). But when I was thinking about cancelling for a while, customer support told me that they don't delete the characters. That may have changed, but that's what I was told.