Disappearance of Characters

[Character Gone]

I have played the Closed Beta and I had few characters made along with my main character in the account. However, when I accessed the game today after it was officially released, I could not find any characters in my account. I would like an answer to this problem as soon as possible.

[Trace Sukira]

If I'm not mistaken, the Beta characters were wiped when the game exited the Beta.
((On a sidenote, One thing I'm not sure of is whether it was closed or open...))

I do know that a friend of mine did recieve exp coupons, though, that increased the character's level to a certain point... Not sure what, tho.