UPDATE: According to an e-mail from NCsoft, the Solorius Festival will be held from Dec. 16 to Jan. 6.

As we reported, North American Community Manager Andrew "Tamat" Beegle recently hinted at an Aion holiday event on his Twitter page and then announced the Solorius Festival. The start date hasn't been revealed yet, but the newest Eye on Community segment sheds a little more light on the celebration.

According to the column, the remaining Solorius Festival happenings will be announced this week, "including seasonal pine trees, a giant – nay – huge piano to play on with your friends and plenty of appropriate, red attire to waltz around in." That certainly sounds like fun to us!

You can read the full Eye on Community segment after the jump for links to some fan art and other player submissions.

Hashmeer on [West]Kaisinel asks:

“We’ve heard rumours of a Christmas Event! Hopefully it will be better than Harvest Revel?”

You bet it will be better! We’re excited about this year’s Christmas event, one that we’re calling the Solorius festival. The Holiday is a day to honor all the Daevas who ascended over the last year, and more broadly to honor Daevas for their service to humanity. The holiday actually goes way back in the game’s lore, predating the Cataclysm. Now both hemispheres celebrate it in more or less the same way.

Many things will be happening. You will want to watch out for Santa Shugo for the chance to buy some Holiday themed items (go capitalism!) and if you get hungry during the festival you can always visit the bakery for a slice of cake. Of course no cake would be complete without some Victory Nectar to wash it down.

Next week will announce the remainder of the Solorius festival’s happenings , including seasonal pine trees, a giant – nay – huge piano to play on with your friends and plenty of appropriate, red attire to waltz around in.

* * *

The spirit of holiday approaches slowly but surely and the Daevas of Atreia gather once again to prepare for coming happenings. Bakeries and workshops light their furnaces in anticipation, spreading warmth and cherish to their kin. Gladiators tell stories of war to their sons, Assassins brew the finest of holiday spirits, Mages contemplate how to cover Eltnen with snow and Chanters from all corners of the world join together in jolly holiday tunes. Who could forget such classics as: “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Azphel”, “Jingle Krall” or “Frosty the Shugo”?

That said we are lucky in this realm of the living to have computers, internet and other modern curiosities for reaching out to each other. Read on to see what your fellow Aion players have been up to in the past week!

Ily’s Aion fanart
Our terrific community’s bountiful talents are by no means new in gracing our Aion lives. This thread was started by “Ily”, a member of Aionsource, but others have joined in to share even more fan art on their own!

The definitive 'GMs blew up bots on my server' thread
We have lately shared some of the progress made as a result of our firm stance against RMT and botting . Sometimes we make quite the visual in-game runs with party ensuing.

Challenge – Create a Character That Looks Like You
We’re loving this thread and might even give it a whirl ourselves at some point. The concept is as the title reveals simple and straightforward: Create a character in the game that looks like you. Make sure to contribute to the already existing array of well-made creations with your own attempt!

(PL) Aion Online – Polski Portal Competition
Where would you want to play Aion? On a wide stretched beach in the sunny Bahamas? In a fridge? Whatever floats your boat, this Polish language fansite wants you to send them a picture you’ve taken of the one place you dream to play the game at, along with a physical “Aiononline.com.pl” watermark. If Polish was your strongest subject in school, this just might be worth checking out! First prize is a European Limited Collector’s Edition of Aion.

(TU) Guide to the Lower Abyss’ Chambers

Chambers are instances which can be accessed through fortresses only by the owning faction’s players. They’re a great resource and should be incentive enough for anyone to want to conquer the Abyss. A Turkish fansite put together a guide to the chambers this week. If you understand Turkish – follow the link!

-The Aion Community Team