Just walking away from the characters they've grown to love over the past year seems to be difficult for my players so I've decided to let them keep them as we start the next campaign.  Through some divine intervention and a some high intrigue, they will be given a mission that sends them into deep cover in the Elsir Vale to get to the bottom of a plot that threatens to destabilize the entire region if not the world.  They'll be given new backgrounds, new identities, and asked to pose as 1st level adventurers so as not to raise suspicion.  They'll have the opportunity to change race and class too, if they so desire.

To aid in the believability of the scenario, I'm going to let them retain one of their current encounter powers at it's current to hit and damage value as an extra daily power until they reach level 4 in the new campaign.  Flavor text would be something like "As your enemies press the attack, you momentarily forget your cover story and strike back with your full might."

Yes, it's a cheap trick, but I want to encourage these guys since they're new players.  Taking away the characters that they've spent a year developing, even though they're only 4th level, would only serve to foster resentment at this stage of their introduction to D&D.  Now when Scales of War is over, all bets are off.  By that time they should be seasoned D&D players and will probably welcome the fresh perspective of a new character.

We'll see how it goes.