As of March 03, 2009, there is a rule regarding characters of members who either:
-- Go inactive for more than 2 months without warning.
-- Formally leave 1KPA.

Excluding the situations listed below, any characters still active/important within a multi-player topic are allowed to be played out by the other players in that topic until the topic's end, at which point they are to be sensibly played into inactive status. (For example, deciding to go out on a long journey, etc.) If the other players so choose (for lack of time to take care of the additional char(s), etc.) they may, of course, be sensibly played out before the rest of the topic ends, as well.
-- A player may also REQUEST his/her character(s) be played out as soon as possible, usually before topic's end.

This simply prevents other members from getting completely stranded in situations where a suddenly unplayed character had been key to their journey. After all, no one likes their journeys suddenly killed.

Please note, this rule does NOT apply when:
-- A character of a leaving or inactive player is not in a topic, obviously. (In other words, especially in the leaving circumstance, you can avoid this by just pulling out a few more posts to write the character out yourself. ^.^)
-- The member IS active, and just not playing that char. (In this case, PM the member politely requesting reply, and in the event they refuse, politely request you might take temporary, partial control of their characters under their terms. If they refuse this as well, I'm afraid there is nothing that can be done.)
-- The member has posted notice of their absense, had a friend post it for them, etc.
-- For whatever reason or special circumstances, the characters are declared protected by an Admin for a prolonged period or even permanantly.
-- In leaving or during absense, the member has requested a SPECIFIC member take over his/her characters.

----

This does NOT mean your characters must be "given away". This simply means that you agree to allow them to be BRIEFLY used in order to not completely strand others in a topic, just as you yourself would likely prefer not to be stranded. As stated, when possible, you have every right to write the character out yourself, removing any oppurtunity for others to touch it. :3

Outside the current topic situation, you still have every right to assign your characters to specific members, put them up for grabs, or declare them untouchable once played into inactive status.

I do, however, strictly forbid one option: completely removing any characters that have been used. You may edit your beautiful bios to a summarized version to protect that writing. You may remove your sprites. But even though those ARE your characters and your work, the experiences the character had, even with only a Mod as the other 'player', belong to everyone who was involved. To pretend that never happened may be the single most selfish thing a RolePlayer can do, especially to the people they called friends. Of course, if you had editing priveleges when you left, I obviously can't physically stop you, and no punishment can be given to those who are already gone. All I can do is ask you to consider just how you'd feel if a character you adored and had RP'd with for months suddenly vanished, leaving you and yours as if nothing had happened. I've been there. It hurts. (To draw from other-site experience, how am I supposed to keep playing Neo Valor, acting as though he did NOT join a clan, fall in love, or have children?) So as not an Admin, but a friend, I ask you please not do this.
(On that note, characters who were created but never RP'd are fine to remove if you like. *shrug* They are truly yours alone, never having done anything with anyone else.)