Can’t login to character without the game crashing. POE 2

My game is crashing when loading into my character from the main screen. Please help, character is grey_knight

Also cannot, char is : jadenarecznym

Hey, I feel as though this post would be the umbrella under which I should air my issue instead of starting a new thread.
I have almost 90 minutes of play time but have thus far been unable to get past the character selection screen. I am able to log in, either through the steam client, or the standalone without steam running, or just in the background, i mean, not launching from steam but from the POE2 icon.
Here is what happens, Login works but is slow, I get the GGG opening cinematic and then a screen transition to two gears instead of 3, the new loading screen and then I will get the login overlay, sometimes with rendered buildings in the background, sometimes not, but it will log in and allow me to proceed to character selection.
Upon this transition I am able to hear the execution pronunciation, before the characters and gallows loads in. Once they are loaded in I can either select a character and have the client immediately crash or select and name a character and click continue to have the client immediately crash.
I apologize for the longwinded post and for having these issues in the first place.

-Bev

TL:DR client crash when selecting character in character creation screen