Does linking steam account delete characters?

"

Drexif21 wrote:

I only play the game through Steam and I just linked my Steam account to my account on this website. However, the duelist character I've been playing on Steam did not appear here. Soon afterward, I started up the game to find that the duelist character is now missing, presumably deleted. Is this a side affect of linking my account or do I have to play POE through something else to access that character?