Warfronts! ended, but it was such a great beta private event. We had the chance of experiencing PvP, rushing towards the enemy in interesting battlegrounds. But the path leading to launch date must be walked and Trion seems to know this well. Now, a new zone known as Scarwood Reach, has been revealed for the joy of everyone following the development of Rift: Planes of Telara, with interest.

There’s an official description for this new zone, explaining all you need to know, before you explore it, once the game comes out:

The very name Scarwood Reach is a tragedy, a testament to the glorious, enchanted forest that grew here, and to the bleak fact that the woods have been cut away, perhaps forever. Now, only a few of the trees that dominated the landscape remain. The servants of Greenscale seek to cover Scarwood in new growth: not stately evergreens, but the unchecked growth of the Plane of Life, which will choke out the native life as roots can choke a riverbed, spreading out from Scarwood to cover all Telara.

Granitewoods once covered this area, trees as gray and solid as their namesake stone, wrapped with vines and growing nearly to the sky. The sacred forest was a testament to the eternal might of the gods. As such, the Mathosians thought it only right that the gods’ chosen servants cut down a few granitewoods to build the central parts of Port Scion. With enchanted axes and much ritual, the Mathosians logged a few of the sacred trees.

The Mathosians cut down granitewoods responsibly, (Rift Gold)taking only what they needed for the grandest works of architecture. Then during the reign of Aedraxis, the forest fell at an alarming pace to build war machines for the tyrant. Soon, scant few granitewoods were left save mighty Auldwarden and a small copse purchased as a preserve by Carwin, farseeing bastard prince of Mathos.

Sins of empire
Today the Guardians leave Scarlet Gorge to face a dustbowl full of hills bare as diseased scalps. Carwin’s preserve stands in dignified mourning over Scarwood, a stone monument to Carwin himself nestled between the roots of one tree.

This memorial is one of a network of shrines to brave Mathosians that served to protect the forest from harm. In his haste to harvest granitewood, Aedraxis neglected these shrines, and now their power lies dormant, unable to stop Death itself from gaining a foothold in what was once the most vital place in all Telara.

Two-headed ettins, stitched together from pilfered meat, misshapen flesh golems, and worse have been spotted in Scarwood of late. The locals have begun to disappear, and their family members dream of loved ones screaming in agony and wake up itching as if someone has been passing a needle and thread through their skin.

Perhaps by reactivating the shrines, the Guardians can save their people from whatever hideousness is afoot. But to do so they must travel all through Scarwood, from the troll-haunted hollows of Auldwarden, largest tree in all Telara, to the resting place of Carwin deep under the chalky earth.