oct 2012? so that was pre merge.
main thing to know is all three servers, ymir, ygg, and valk were merged into one renewal server named chaos.
any characters u had on those servers from the same account, are now all accessible from one account.
because of the merge, everyone got 3 storages with 600 item limit. storage 1(ymir), storage 2(ygg), storage 3(valk).
currently only storage 1(ymir) is free and open, storage 2(ygg) is open if you have vip, and to access storage 3(valk) u need to buy a kafra card from cash shop.
since the last time u played was b4 merge, you can send in a ticket to have all 3 storage open temporarily, so u can moves all ur stuff to the main storage(storage 1)
none of your characters or items were deleted because of the merge, everything should still be there.
other big change was removal of mail system. there is no more mail!!! so anything u had stored in ur mail is gone forever T.T
hope this helps <3