It could be your Master Merchant database is getting huge and that initialize at character loading.
You can do a reset or simply change the setting picking the option to delay the process until your character is fully loaded.
Now, this couldn't be your problem but it's been mine, so if you are running master merchant I suggest you to give it a try.
lll "I really don't know who the **** came off with this change. Definitely somebody who does not play the game, that's for sure".
lll
thx - tried that but no luck - I get to my list of alts but then get thrown out after trying to log in to any of them
So you didn't had a chance to change the setting since you cannot get in game at all? If I understood correctly and this is the case, you could edit the .lua in the saved variables, change to true the delayinit.
Otherwise, you could make a backup of your live folder and load the game with no addons at all, if the problem is gone, then the culprit is most likely a huge database and most likely MM need delay.
At any rate, hope you can solve soon, that error has been very annoying, at first I didn't thought about addon but that was for me.
lll "I really don't know who the **** came off with this change. Definitely somebody who does not play the game, that's for sure".
lll