Good news for you then! The guys and gals over at Square-Enix have finally decided to drop their timed campaign and bring in a new permanent solution for those of you who have deleted your characters from the system but would like to get them back -- character reactivation.
The new service allows people who have canceled and deleted their Content IDs, people who have deleted characters and canceled their accounts, or people who have canceled their accounts and let the account sit for too long to go back in and restore old data to the account. This means when you now /ragequit Final Fantasy XI and press that delete key too hastily, you can now undo that mistake you made.
Sadly, this method won't offer anniversary rings like the "Return Home" campaign did, but hey, you can get your character back anytime you want now! What's not to love?
