I've been overseas for the last 6 months. I went to login to check my account but was taken to the character creation page. Was i purged off of the server?
Unfortunately, it sounds like your account has lapsed From what i gather, if you log in once every 6 moinths for a few seconds your account will be refreshed.
The time of deletion actually varies according to how much time you spent on the shard prior to your absence. Ie. the account of someone who spent less than a week on the shard will be deleted much faster than one of a 3 year veteran.
You can contact the Coordinating Administrator (e-mail is on the main page) and ask if there is anything to be done, but there is a high chance that your account has been lost permanently and you will have to start over.