Dear community, we have been working very hard since our last announcement to get things running, and it's time for an update! Thank you very much for the patience you have all shown thus far. We know it is not easy to wait for something as exciting as the return of your long lost characters. So let's take a look at what's been happening, and what you can expect in the upcoming few days. **Stress testing** We will be holding a stress test on Sunday, November 20th, starting at 6pm GMT+1. The purpose of this stress test will be to push our hardware and code to the limits. We ask that all players who want to ensure a smooth launch take part. It is an extremely critical part of launching any server, and high attendance is crucial in it’s success. If we are able to locate and repair any problems now, we won’t have to deal with it at launch. The server will be running the Nostalrius code. During the test, we will be pushing the server to its limits and give you something entertaining to do at the same time. We will be spawning monsters of varying degree for the masses of level 1's to battle in order to push calculations to the limit. We would also like to inform you that the stress tests will not be branded to specific servers. This is a general test. We will begin with the old Elysium hardware in order to gauge its potential with the optimized Nostalrius core. We expect this server to cap out at around 5k players, and if it meets our expectations will use it for the smallest of the three realms. We will be holding a second stress test on Sunday, November 27th. This test will be on the new hardware, and will be able to handle far more significant numbers. In order to participate in the stress test, you will need to sign up for an account here, the link for which will be provided in an announcement prior to the test. Please be aware that the anti-cheat system will be disabled for the stress test. Again, we cannot stress how important it is to show up for this event! **Technical progress** The core has been successfully ported, and is live on our internal test realm. The character transfer process (from Nostalrius database to Elysium) has been solidified. We are hammering out a few more — details to make sure that the transfer is as simple, safe, and effective as possible. Internal testing/research of current issues and preparations for the stress test has begun. Preparations have begun for setting up the account DB transfer systems. **Elysium Project official subreddit & AMA** Tomorrow, Sunday, Nov 13, we will be conducting an AMA on Reddit. We invite all who have questions to ask us anything on our new official Subreddit, www.reddit.com/r/Elysium Project! We're looking forward to getting in touch with you all and laying any concerns to rest, as well as taking your suggestions. **Realm Names** We understand there has been concerns about whether or not we would rename the realms running the Nostalrius core and database. The majority of you has expressed your clear desire to keep the names, as you knew them. Therefore, we are excited to introduce to you today, the names of the realms. The PvP realm hosting the Nostalrius character database will be named “Nostalrius PvP” exactly as you knew it from the previous realm. The same goes for the PvE realm, that will be named “Nostalrius PvE”. The last realm, that will be running the beloved Nostalrius core, and offering a completely fresh start, will be named in memory of the, now defunct, realm: Elysium PvP **What server comes first?** We have thought long and hard about this decision. The staff is in unanimous agreement that the Nostalrius PvP realm will come first. We understand that the majority of players are looking forward to playing on the Elysium PvP fresh realm. However, there are significant reasons to launch the Nostalrius PvP realm before the fresh realm. The Nostalrius PvP server is the most significant aspect of this revival. A huge part of our success will be in the result of being able to bring your characters back. This will only add to the reputation and hype of the project, lending more respect and population. Population is also a large aspect of our choice. Releasing the Nostalrius PvP realm first will minorly effect the population of the fresh realm. However, based on polls, the Elysium fresh realm will have the most active players, and so by launching in this order, we effectively balance out the two servers. One last reason is bug fixes. By fixing bugs before launching the brand new server, we will be making it a far more pristine place early on, and in the future. However, do not fear! There will only be a 3-4 week period between Nostalrius PvP and the fresh realm. We want to thank the community again for all the support you have shown us this week. We're looking forward to the stress test, and to see your reactions as you step foot on Nostalrius once again. Expect to hear from us again next week with more instructions on how to log on to the stress test! Just for clarification, the 3-4 week time frame represents the maximum amount of time between the launch of these two servers. Assuming all goes well with the PvP relaunch, the fresh realm could come sooner than you think.