Mathurin disappeared for a good long time (he paused the character I believe), but he announced his intentions ahead of time and it was roleplayed that he was going into religious seclusion. He eventually came back, obviously, but he was out for quite a while, and SA did just fine without him. SA had some serious momentum on its own by that point though.
Lucky for him, back then, pausing didn't mean removing all guild ranks... No way to regain the top ranks otherwise.
