Shard

A shard is an instance of the Rift: Planes of Telara (RIFT) game world. Shards are hosted on physical devices called servers (for this reason, the terms "shard" and "server" are often used interchangeably).

To play RIFT, you must first choose a server (shard) to play on. You then connect to this realm over the Internet. Trion has servers in the US, and Europe.

See the shard list below for a list of shards kept up-to-date by Telarapedians.

Why Multiple Shards?
Trion uses shards as a way of keeping server population controlled. Using multiple servers keeps any one server from being overpopulated(keeping the servers operating properly, and not overtaxing them.) Trion also uses them to let the players play the game in different languages, and rulesets.

Shard Status
Trion is also keeping up a Shard Status page to let you know the status of the servers including up/down, ruleset (type), population level, queue length, and language.