"A dark future do I see for you Ascended, beset upon two sides. Remember who your true enemy is... beware the rumblings of the Earth and the scorch of the Flame..."
-Aerilis the Seer

Phase 4 of Carnival of the Ascended is scheduled to begin on Thursday, March 22. During this phase dragon parades will cease their marching and faction rivalry heats up. This is the last week that both the pinatas will be found around Telara and that the carnival games will remain open for play; the merchants will still remain throughout the rest of the event. The portals linking the Meridian and Sanctum to Shimmersand will also disappear after this stage.

The Defiants and Guardians have stationed outposts in various locations and saboteurs are attacking them! Earn your Pyrite Doubloon for this phase by putting a stop to the master saboteurs. Help progress your faction's phase goal by rooting out any other saboteurs around the outposts. Crafters have also been called upon to assist with getting supplies to the outposts.

Remember that this is the last week to easily rake in those Prize Tickets and Glass Beads!

All NA shards will come down at 8am PDT on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. This update and hardware maintenance will take an estimated two hours.

RIFT 1.7 Hotfix #12 - 8:00am PDT 3/21/12 [NA] - 1:00am GMT 22/3/12 [EU]

GENERAL

• Fixed a case of drag-and-drop not working for equipping Planar Essences.
• Made some pre-emptive fixes for future Carnival phases.

Source: Rift Forums

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Issue #5: Silverwood and Kelari!

Catch up on all the past issues of Traversing Telara here!

The Rift North American servers were down for about 30 minutes this morning for a hotfix.  Here's the patch notes:

RIFT 1.7 Hotfix #10 - 8:00am PDT 3/15/12 [NA] - 1:00am GMT 15/3/12 [EU]

GENERAL

• Corrected the weird FPS reduction when you had macros that used #show lines saved on a character or hotbars.
• Instant Adventure: If you were kicked from an IA group, you will be unable to re-join that group for 15 minutes. You can use the Instant Adventure window to start your own Instant Adventure group if needed.
• Hammerknell: Estrode: Reduced the effectiveness of a variety of Estrode's more problematic stolen-Soul abilities, making the encounter a bit better for a broader variety of Soul choices.
• Rise of the Phoenix: Beruhast: Fixed some locations where you were able to climb on walls during this encounter.
• Happy Pi day!

WORLD EVENT

• Random Artifact boxes have had their prices and prize rates adjusted to match currency gains.
• Ultra-Thin Hides now drop slightly less.
• Event parades are less disruptive to NPC populations now and should be more consistently active.
• The gambling game at the Shimmersand Carnival has returned!
• Fashion Show and Drinking Contest games in Shimmersand now contribute to the Carouse the Carnival daily quest.

Phase 3 of Carnival of the Ascended is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 14. During this phase the revelers start to get rowdy and the factions begin to vandalize each other's dragon parades. Assist with rooting out saboteurs, stopping your opposition in its tracks and arresting drunken revelers to earn your Pyrite Doubloon and progress the goal for this phase.

Crafters and harvesters can help their local medics in gathering and preparing supplies for those who have become injured during the celebrations. Visit the Herald of Heroes in Shimmersand to hear his latest story during the Tales of the Ascended raid quests.

As tensions begin to rise a merchant with some shady goods opens up for business. Grab your pitchfork and head for the carnival!

We've got some new content screenshots from RIFT's GDC Patch 1.8 demo, including a fantastic in-game screenshot of Laethys, the Dragon Goddess of Earth. 

You can check out the full gallery here. Stay tuned for our hands-on preview landing soon!

NA shards came down at 8am PST for 1.7 Hotfix #9. Estimated downtime is 30 minutes. Here are the patch notes:

RIFT 1.7 Hotfix #9 - 03.09.12

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue causing ability tooltips viewed on the Soul Tree to show incorrect looking numbers for abilities other than rank 1.

CARNIVAL OF THE ASCENDED

• Fixed an issue that was causing ‘Take Out the Garbage’ to get stuck on rare occasions.
• Aenycha and Icatian can no longer be attacked by players.
• All Parade NPCs will now flag players for PvP when attacked
• Tales of the Ascended Raid Rifts now have a secondary NPC to turn the quest in to when a rift is open
• The parades are now back on schedule – you should see up to four active at any time throughout Telara!

Rift's Anniversary celebrations continue as they start Warlord's Weekend bonuses an evening early! You can enjoy 50% bonuses to Prestige and Favor right now, and a different 50% bonus each weekend this month.

Click here to see the schedule of bonus weekends, and while you're in Telara check out Phase 2 of the Carnival! 

NA shards came down briefly this morning for 1.7 Hotfix #8.5. This update was already included in EU's Hotfix #8 patch. Here are the patch notes:

RIFT 1.7 Hotfix #8.5 - 3.8.12

WORLD EVENT

• Fixed an issue with the Place Your Bets gambling game so it can be re-enabled!
• The Ring Toss game now plays the correct 'hit' audio sound.

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Issue #4: Regulos and Maelforge!

Catch up on all the past issues of Traversing Telara here!