AWOL
Well, well.
One of my crafter alts is a Kojani human--for which read "Chinese" or "Japanese". The starting area is on a little island just north of the big Kojani city, Tanvu. So I got the character started and ran through the first couple of quests, but then I decided to go down to Tanvu and get the whole crafting tutorial over with (it's not worth skipping, because you get starting gear and so forth, but it gets tedious when you do it for the fourth or fifth time). Which was fine, except that leaving the island caused my gear and weapon to disappear, because apparently it was army-issue and leaving the island counts as deserting or something. Which in itself doesn't bug me so much, but now the character can't kill mobs of even her own level and is therefore not going to be advancing in adventuring unless I can get her some stuff.
Which, granted, is what the whole team-of-crafter-alts thing is for, but it's going to take some work...