The second part of Underfoot's "Unfolding the Lore" series gives us a glimpse into Pellucid Grotto:

The Pellucid Grotto is one of the areas of the Underfoot where the primal mineral underpinnings of Norrath and other worlds are managed. The race collectively known as the Crystalkin has made this their home since before memories were made.

The first round of Mythics promised City Invasion changes are now available for testing on the Public Test Server!

Be sure to check out how to access the Public Test Server and join in on the excitement. Also, don't forget to participate in the 1.3.1 Focus Discussion on the official forums starting tomorrow!

Don't have a Rank 40 Character? Not to worry as we will be providing character templates for this City testing only. Simply create a new character and select the template in the top right corner or the character creation screen prior to hitting "Create". Please note, these templates will be made available prior to tomorrow evenings testing. So come and support your realm and see all of the exciting new City Invasion changes!

See the full announcement after the jump.  You can also check out the 1.3.1 patch notes here!

Spotted on the Network Status Page:

Downtime scheduled - 06/11/2009 12:00 PM London Time/ 06/11/2009 4:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

This is a notification that UK worlds will be updated at 12:00 PM London Time on the 04/11/2009. The estimated downtime will be 2 hours.

- SOE Operations team

US Scheduled Maintenance - 06/11/2009 4:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

This is a notification that All EQ2 Worlds will be coming down at 4:00 AM PDT on 06/11/09 for maintenance.
The estimated downtime will be 2 hours.

- SOE Operations team

Here's a handy time converter to help you plan!

There will be maintenance tonight, according to a post by Pex:

• Station Cash has an update planned for 9pm Pacific, which should last an hour
• The game has a 90 minute downtime planned for sometime between 9pm and midnight.

Pex warns to pay attention to those server notices!  "If you wait for the server to come offline instead of exiting the game, you may lose recent levels, stars, items, etc because your character not not be saved properly."

Plan accordingly!

Those of you anxiously awaiting the next installment of Warhammer Online's newest content patch (Game Update 1.3) are in for a treat tonight. Mythic developer Andy Belford announced in today's War Herald that the next phase of 1.3 is scheduled to go live this evening on the Public Test Realm.

Included in this phase are additional Combat and Career tweaks and new quest content for the eagerly-awaited Land of the Dead dungeon, plus a few other goodies.

Belford announced in the Herald that phase two of the 1.3 public testing will include changes to the Combat and Careers mechanics based "in large part due to outstanding player feedback during phase one." For detailed info, check out the updated C&C section of the 1.3 patch notes.

Pex posted on the Official Forums that the Free Realms website will be down starting at 9pm PDT.  It'll be down for about an hour.  If you're in game you'll be fine, but you won't be able to log in during this time.

Note:  Pex has since posted the time changed to 11pm PDT.

Hello Knights of Carnac!

We have some exciting news for you today. On April 21st, 2009, the Border Defense War event will be undergoing major changes.

The Border Defense War has been revamped so that players of a wider level range may now participate! The BDW will now be broken down into "Low Level" and "High Level" instances. These instances will be further broken down according to the player's level. Players will now be grouped together according to their specific level.

Masthead Studios, the developers of Earthrise, the upcoming post apocalyptic science fiction MMORPG, have annouced they will be attending GDC 2009 this year.

Masthead Studios will be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA March 24th – 27th, 2009. The developers will be available to meet with members of the media to discuss Earthrise and its development process. Please note Masthead Studios will not be exhibiting at this event. Media parties interested in more information please contact ecarter@themis-media.com.

Although Earthrise is not intended for exhibition at the event, fans of Earthrise anticipate the release of unreleased video, udpated screenshots, and significant lore and gameplay news following the event.

Source: Earthrise Official Forums