The Lord of the Rings Online is closing one of its Legendary Servers, Ithil, on June 15th, Standing Stone Games announced today. Characters will be able to be transferred to any server they wish, including the other Legendary Server, Anor, for free until December 31st.
Ithil was opened back when the Legendary Servers first launched a few years ago thanks to the overwhelming response to the original server, Anor dealing with popluation issues. However, in the announcement today, Standing Stone Games has stated that Ithil is one of its "lowest populated servers" and as such will be closing down on June 15th. It's a rather short window before the server itself closes to public log-ins, though that could simply be due to how low the population is on Ithil.
"The Legendary World of Ithil will be closing to public log-in after June 15th, 2021, with the world formally becoming unavailable after our regular 8:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) weekly restart on the 16th. Through the end of the year free character and shared item transfers will remain available from Ithil to any other game world, including our remaining Legendary World of Anor. After December 31st, 2021, the Ithil game world will be closed permanently, and any remaining characters will not be able to be transferred or accessed. Kinship leaders should log in to abandon or sell their kinship houses before June 16th to allow for successful character transfer. Mail does not transfer, so please login all characters before June 16th to detach any mail attachments. Thank you!"
Interestingly, SSG isn't restricting the transfer of characters to just Anor, as players will be able to bring their toon to any of the existing servers, including the main EU and US servers themselves. However, as the announcement stresses, mail does not transfer, so if players are using mail as an extension of their vault space, you'll need to log in before the server closes on the 15th to grab your attachments.
Ithil Closure Notice and Free Transfers AnnouncementPlease read more about the upcoming closure of the Legendary World of Ithil and your ability to transfer your characters for free on https://t.co/Kc31if2MLz: https://t.co/hJduxO4wGQ #LOTRO pic.twitter.com/HBNjegu0NK
— LOTRO (@lotro) May 19, 2021
LotRO's Legendary Server is a classic progression server, allowing players the ability to go back and experience the MMO in somewhat the same way it historically was. While not a complete classic remake, as LotRO's servers always used the current game client and had features that weren't there in the beginning, the progression servers have, erm, progressed with plans to bring Mordor to the servers this year. However, it seems that any update that happens with the Legendary Servers will be done without Ithil when closes next month.