Lore Behind Fae Yule:
It's really hard to find any definitive lore behind Fae Yule. From what I've been able to gather by reading quest dialogue and doing the activities, is that, ever since the beginning of Telara's creation, the Rifts have always been present. It wasn't until the Ward was erected that the Rifts were unable to interact in such a strong way with Telara. But even after that, there were dark things that stirred upon the land. This was never more evident then when the months shortened, became colder, and the land took on a more "darker" aspect. Long periods of black would overtake certain areas in these shorter months, where evil could gain a stronger foothold. Adventurers would become lost and confused, and many would never be heard from again. Until one winter, a determined young High Elf hunter by the name of Illuminaria decided to do something for the poor unfortunate souls that became lost her home of Silverwood. By setting out small, magical candles that burned brightly despite the darkness and refused to go out no matter the wind and the cold, she was able to guide lost travelers back to the safe roads that led throughout the wood. She saved many lives that winter, lighting candles wherever she went to help those less fortunate. As the winter wore on, the story of her heroic deeds became more widely spread, and it cheered people's spirits. Eventually, this gift of setting out magical candles became commonplace among the sentient beings of Telara, leading to other such traditions like handing out special gifts, performing fun activities, singing holiday carols, and drinking spiced beverages to ward off chill. All these activities and traditions eventually became known as a festival, which was simply named Yule, after Illuminaria the "Yulemother" as she had become known as. Through the years, the people of Telara kept up the tradition of the Yule festival, setting out candles for lost adventurers, giving gifts of cheer and joy to their neighbors, partaking in special drinks, and having a merry old time. By doing this, they were able to forget about and push back the dark despair that was the winter months on Telara. Especially in the northern regions of the world, where the mountains and the snow ruled over the passes and the locals became trapped in their small towns.
During all these years, the Fae, creatures of the Plane of Life, were under the thumb of Greenscale. When Greenscale was finally defeated by the combined might of the Ascended just recently, the fae were finally freed from his iron control. Being the fun loving, trickster types that they are, the Fae immediately fell in love with concept of festivals and holidays. One such holiday that they became heavily involved in was Fae Yule. Now, a bogling by the name of Greatfather Frost and a whole host of Fae creatures, including satyrs, have decided to make Yule a holiday that no one-Ascended included-will likely forget! From the green grasses of Freemarch to the distant peaks of Iron Pine, you can hear the tinkling of bells, see the brilliant colored lights, and smell the delicious scent of rich foods. As the days grow ever shorter and darkness again crosses the land, you can find Telara sprinkled with festive lights and packages, beautiful sparkling trees and dancing Fae. Even the poor treants that have become native to Telara over the millennia haven't been left out of the festivities, being festooned with strings of blinking red and green lights.
Unfortunately, all is not as merry as it seems. Crucia, the dragon of Air, has developed an intense aversion to everything Yule. Subtle manipulation being her forte, she's been moving behind the scenes, sending her Storm Legion troops in secret to destroy the Yule decorations, wreak havoc in the northern towns, and turning the weak willed treants against Telara. One such treant, a powerful, mighty creature named Yulelogon, is now rumored to run amok across the land, stomping through the forests and mountains of Telara, crazed by Crucia's insistant whispers and mindlessly killing any creature he comes across, forcing the reluctant heroes of Telara to take up arms against him. In previous years of Fae Yule, Atrophinius, the famous Satyr that Trion seems to love plunking down everywhere, was also rampaging around, blaming the festivities on his lack of mead and furiously smashing up all the decorations and presents he can find. This year it appears like he's finally come to his senses, although sadly his mead is still gone. Seems some thieves stole it or something. But Greatfather Frost is determined that Atro be part of the holiday cheer, even though he's nothing but an ornery drunk. Did I say that out loud?
The Phases of Fae Yule:
There's 3 phases to Fae Yule. Each one will be unlocked on a specific date. You have until that date to complete the previous phase's quests. Some repeatable quests, though, will carry over into the other phases. As the phases unfold, they will reveal more information on the story of Fae Yule and what Crucia's plan is about ruining it. For this year, here are the phases:
- Phase 1: Remembering the Yulemother (December 10-16)
- Phase 2: Reclaiming Fae Yule (December 17-23)
- Phase 3: Fae Yule Celebration (December 24-January 1)
- 20$ worth of credit will give you the reward of a Jolly Hellbug Pet, which sounds really cute.
- 100$ worth of credit will give you a Jolly Hellbug Mount reward. Pretty steep cost though.
Fae Yule Quests:
This isn't a complete, comprehensive list, cause that would take too long, it's no doubt been done already on more popular sites, and I'm a firm believer in using your own brain and doing something for yourself. So while I'll give basic instructions for each quest, I'm not going to sit down and draw you a step by step diagram for everything. Where's the fun in playing a game if everything is done for you? Might as well just make a bot and go draw a stickman somewhere....All the quests marked with (Random Daily) are just that. Quests that are cycled at random and can be repeated once a day for the duration of the event.
Phase One Quest List:
- Gifts of the Yulemother (Random Daily)-Use a Yulemother's Gift on those who are less fortunate. Just wander your capital city until you find a "humbug". Hint: they also have grey clouds above their heads.
- Reward: 1 jingling bell (a container with random Yule rewards inside) and 25 Unique Snowflakes (Yule's main currency in Rift)
- Cheer Up (Random Daily)-Collect stolen holiday cheer from Rift creatures that grant experience. Go out in the world and kill Rift critters. Don't forget to mentor yourself to the lvl of the zone you are in, if needed!
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Season's Greetings!( Story Quest)-Invite Atrophinius to the Fae Yule Celebration. This is a story quest, which gives you a bit of background for Fae Yule. You need to go find Atro and go through a little conversation with him about his mead(or lack thereof) and convince him to participate in the festivities on behalf of Greatfather Frost.
- Reward: 1 dark ice bell and 10 Dark Icicles (the bell has a chance of giving you a cool pet and not sure what the Dark Icicles are for yet)
- Sled Slalom (Repeatable)-This quest you get after you first gain the quest "Sledding and Snowmen", found with the other questgivers in Sanctum/Meridian that tells you to go through the portal into Iron Pine Peaks. Once there, follow the road of candy canes to another quest giver, who gives you this quest, which is repeatable as many times as you want in a day. Grab a sled at the top of the hill(follow the flags up the hill to find the platform) and slide down through the gates(again, flags, alternating Guardian and Defiant themed) and over the final jump. You will be flung a ways, be knocked off your sled, and land in a snowbank surrounded by candy canes. Just get up, follow the candy cane road back to the questgiver, and start over, or take the giant portal back to Sanctum/Meridian.
- Reward: 5 Unique Snowflakes
- Snowman Snowpocalypse (Repeatable)-Grab your sled at the top of the hill and hit snowmen on your way down. Explanation on how to get there is in the previous quest description. Note that this quest can be kind of a pain because every time you go over a slight bump or a turn, your sled has a tendency to shoot you miles over your intended target, forcing you to backtrack if you want to complete the objectives. You need to hit 10 snowmen as WELL as complete the sledding course for this to count.
- Reward: 5 Unique Snowflakes
- Note: After the first few times, I don't find these quests entertaining enough to be worth the 5 snowflakes. The novelty wears off after the first few quest completions.
- Light the Way (Random Daily)-Not marked as a story quest but gives you some lore info on Yule and Illuminaria. The objective is to use a special candle to lead 3 lost travelers to safety out of the darkness. This quest kind of confused me a bit at first. What you do is go outside the city and find large patches of black smoke. Inside the black smoke is a terrified lost traveler. Just place the candle near or on top of them, and it will dispel the dark cloud. Can only be done in Freemarch or Silverwood.
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- A Frosty Free For All (Random Daily)-Celebrate Fae Yule with a fun snowball fight. Hit 8 combatants with a snowball. You can hit players or specific npc's that run across the snowball "arena", called Brazen Reveler(Guardian) and Fearless Celebrant(Defiant). You have to be in a specific area of the capital city in order to do this quest, probably because otherwise it would just get annoying for anyone else...you'll know when you're in the right spot cause you'll get a snowball icon on your action bar and your character will glow green. It's a small area marked off by a line of snowboglings
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 5 Unique Snowflakes
- Dashing Through the Snow (Random Daily)-Collect 10 white flowers(called Icebuds) located around your capital city to feed to Greatfather Frost's Vaiyuu. The icebuds are easy to spot, they are sparkling frost covered white flowers found all over in Sanctum and Meridian. Grab 10 and done!
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Holiday Thievery(Random Daily)-Collect stolen gifts from Air Rifts that grant experience. You need to collect 2 of the gifts. Don't forget to mentor down if applicable so you get credit!
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Stormproofing The Wardstones (Random Daily)-Use your character's Ascended ability "Nexus Infusion" on a Wardstone. There's one right outside Sanctum across the bridge and outside Meridian once you go down the steps. Just target the Wardstone, and click on your Nexus Infusion spell. You do need to have at least 1 Planar Charge though in order for this to work. Planar Charges are those little blue crystals on the far left side of your character portrait, at the bottom. You can commonly hold 3, but characters can extend that with PA lvls and other things. When you use the Nexus Infusion ability, one of the Planar Charges will be lost and you'll have to close a Rift to recharge.
- Surely Sober Satyr (Story Quest)-Atrophinius is mad that he's sober and he's not enjoying himself, so wants you to go fetch some things to make some alcohol for the poor satyr. Collect some Wassail from Greatfather Frost, then go to Freemarch (Guardians and Defiant both have to go to Freemarch. Seems only fair since Atro was in Silverwood for the 1st part) and collect:
- 5 Frostblossoms, 5 Nutleaves, and 5 Winterglory
- Reward: 1 Dark Ice Bell and 10 Dark Icicles
- Wassail for Atrophinius (Random Daily)-Collect 5 bowls of Fae Wassail located around the capital city. They are easy to spot. They are small stone dishes with green liquid that sparkle to indicate they are quest items.
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Baffling Crucia's Winds (Random Daily)-Close Air Rifts that grant experience. Exactly what it says. Go find some Air Rifts, which are the pretty silvery Rift markers on your map. Don't forget to lower your lvl if in a low lvl zone.
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Deck the Halls (Random Daily)- Go to the Lodge of the Planes (Guardian) or Spirit of Rhaz'ade (Defiant) and place holiday wreaths on the walls. These 2 places are the capital cities' taverns/Inns, and aren't hard to find, especially if you play on an RP server.
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- The Safest Way (Random Daily)- Kill 15 Rift creatures that grant experience. Just go out and beat up some Rifts. Just remember to mentor down!
- Reward: 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Gift For a Bogling (Story Quest)- Rescue the 5 stolen presents that Crucia's forces have made off with. You'll have to travel to Iron Pine Peaks for this quest. The location is the Howling Caves, which is north of Whitefall. Inside the cave, the piles of presents will just be laying around for you to click on. Keep moving as you pluck up the presents, because they don't have a normal respawn timer, instead appearing elsewhere once picked up at that location. Kind of weird.
- Reward: 1 Dark Ice Bell and 10 Dark Icicles
- Yuletide Exchange (Daily)- This quest is a bit different than the others. For one thing, the quest giver is in a random spot. In Sanctum he's up on the top balcony of the Inner Sanctum and in Meridian he's located in the same part of the building as Orphiel is. Just go inside, and go up the ramp behind the Wedding Co-ordinator. He's located just above our heads in that main room. You don't need to use the little portal thing in the center of the room. The quest wants to take a present from the pile next to the questgiver (a bogling named Rellop) and deliver it to someone in need in a random location around Telara. But don't worry, you can take a shortcut to get there. Next to Rellop is a giant magical wreath portal. Just jump through it and you'll arrive next to who you need to deliver the present to. Once done, just jump back through the portal again.
- Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- That's the Fae Spirit (Daily)- Drink from a bowl of Fae Wassail, which as far as I can tell, is a really cool alcoholic drink that also has the benefit of transmogrifying your physical state into something else. In this quest, that happens to be a Faerie, or a Satyr. Once you've drank from the bowl, which can be found in a few out of the way spots around the city, you need to go kiss someone in 3 separate locations. This quest was actually the most annoying for me because I couldn't figure out how it worked. Just walk over to the spot you need and type /kiss. You don't need to target anyone. You can tell your at the right location because there will be a big red bow and some mistletoe above you. It's neat seeing the interaction of the Fae NPC's as you perform the deed.
- Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Bring Me Gifts! (Daily)- Bring Captain Jack Skyeling (located at Port Scuddra) a gift off the corpse of a random mob. Just go out in the surrounding area, kill the specific mob, loot the gift, and return it to the questgiver.
- Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes, with the addition of 50 rep points for the Cerulean Rhenke
- Spirit the Kindling of the Season (Daily)- This quest is located at Ghar Station Rosh in Draumheim. You need to go out and slaughter some treants that are causing trouble and bring 8 pieces of kindling back to the questgiver.
- Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes, with the addition of 50 rep points for the Atragarian faction
- Visions of Sugar Plums (Daily)- Located at Ghar Station Mem in Goboro Reef. You need to jump up onto a bed and dream up a present for a specific NPC. The NPC will differ from day to day, and could be located in a different spot, at the Temple of Ranri. You have to interact with an item in order to begin dreaming.
- Reward- 1 jingling bell and 25 Unique Snowflakes
- Faeblight Sparkle Returns (A High Level Quest)- Collect 500 Faeblight Sparkles from various tasks around Telara. Once you have 500, you can turn them in and get a Faeblight Sparkling Shard of Wonder, which you can then turn in for a piece of Nightmare Tide gear. You'll have to be pretty dedicated if you want any of these. Here's where you can get the Faeblight Sparkles:
- 6 from lvl 65 random warfronts, or 2 if you don't have random charges left
- 6 from lvl 65 random expert dungeons, or 2 if you don't have any daily charges left
- 4 from a few Nightmare Tide daily/weekly quests. These are Spirit of Adventure (weekly instant adventure quest) Five If By Sea (weekly Nightmare Tide Zone Event quest), Cerebral Catharsis (weekly raid rift quest), Sea of Ladon (daily Raid Rift quest).
- 10 from Conquest if you win
- 1 from Zone Events
- Reward- This is a one time only reward, and it will be either a DPS/Healing Nightmare Tide item or a Tanking Nightmare Tide item. Once you choose which one you want and click accept, you can't take it back and you can't get a new.
This Fae Yule, you can buy a specific minion from the World Event tab in the store called Grish. You'll need him in order to do any of the Fae Yule minion stuff or gather more Fae Yule minions, because the start of the special Fae Yule minion adventures can only be completed by him. You can purchase him with 10 Dark Icicles and 500 Unique Snowflakes or 750 credits. Yes, that is a little steep. After you buy Grish, he can be sent on the first Fae Yule Minion Adventure, which will reward you with another minion as well as a chance at other Fae Yule things like:
- 10-20 Unique Snowflakes
- Dark Icicles
- Jingling Bells
- Fae Yule dimension items, both previous years and current
- Fae Yule mini pets
- Fae Yule wardrobe armor and new weapon looks
- Festive holiday food and drink
Don't lose track of which missions you've done if your aiming on getting the minions, because sometimes its hard to remember which missions you've completed or not. For me, I just write stuff down in my Rift journal. Of course, not everyone has a gaming journal like I do cause I'm a crazy nerd...
- 2015 Minion Cards:
- Grish
- Sundereth
- Atrophinius
- Xharlion
- Seoras
- Grendelkhan
- 2014 Minion Cards:
- Rudy
- Ivory
- Slobberjaw
- Atrophinius
- Yulelogon
- Greatfather Frost
Fae Yule Instant Adventures:
These can be found in IPP or by hitting the > key on your keyboard to bring up the IA window, where you can than click on the Fae Yule holiday ones, which will take you to the designated area in IPP. Like all IA's you can join and leave as you wish, and mostly revolves around killing mobs or grabbing things off the ground to complete the task. These IA's are narrated by various Fae Yule NPC's, and it's actually pretty funny listening to them, especially Atrophinius, who is so drunk he can't even narrate for you properly lol! Above is a short video clip of a part of my IA experience. I won't write a list of all the IA's, or what you need to do, because that's rather obvious once you join the queue. At the end you will face a random, holiday themed boss and gain a cache with a chance to win the Fae Yule currency and/or other item.
Fae Yule Achievements:
There's also a ton of Achievements relating specifically to the holiday time! A lot of these achievements are easy to earn, just do your Fae Yule quests and you'll get the achievs along the way. Here's a list of the achievs and their requirements!
- For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls- Collect and summon the list of holiday mini pets from your reward bags or from the Rift store. There are 10 critters in total. You need to summon them as well as just collect them!
- Reward: Snow Ki Rhin. A white dragon horse mount thing.
- Snowmancer- Collect and use 4 snowman clickable trinket things that you can earn throughout the holiday. There's Satyr, Bogling, Holiday, and regular Snowman. Click on them to use them to gain credit toward this achievement. They are easy to obtain and can be gotten through any of the Fae Yule activities.
- Reward: "Snowmancer" title and a "Call of the Snowmancer" clickable item that lets you strike fear into the hearts of Ascended everywhere with your mastery of fluffy soft snow by calling up a blizzard.
- Snow Puppet Master- There are mini pets you can gain through Fae Yule called puppets and you can summon them like regular mini pets. There are 5 of them and you need to collect and summon all 5 in order to complete this achievement. The puppets are Tasuil (who is an adorable tiny corgi with a giant head), Faceless Man, Dacia, Fae Yule Caroler, and Fae Yule Spirit Singer. The pets aren't soulbound immediately, so you can actually use the AH to collect them too if you need to!
- Reward: A Grandfather Frost puppet. Interesting how that is GRANDfather Frost, and when you see the NPC in the cities, it's GREATfather Frost. I also seem to remember previous years, the guy being Grandfather Frost....I'll have to check back.
- 25 Thousand Imported Twinkle Lights- Collect and use all of the Lights of Yule from Fae Yule. There are 4, green, blue, red, yellow. They are little bobbing motes of light mini pets that you can collect and summon like other mini pets. They do get annoying after a while though, just to warn you! You can get them like the other mini pets.
- Reward: White Light of Yule. I'm assuming the same design as the others, except white?
- Winter Homemaker- Buy any 3 of the Dimension Fae Yule kits from the Rift Store. Pretty self explainatory, and easy achievement! Also, if you don't want the dimension items and need the snowflake currency for other things, a sneaky thing to do is buy the dimension kits, then return them to the store unopened and refund yourself the currency. It will work for all 3 kits and net you an easy achiev!
- The Nightmare Before Fae Yule- A meta achievement that requires you to complete specific achievements in order to complete this one. These achievements are:
- Snowmancer
- Snow Puppet Master
- Winter Homemaker
- 25,000 Imported Twinkle Lights
- Reward: The Nightbringer. This is a really cool and pretty black Vaiyuu mount with glowing green eyes.
- There are also 6 PvP Achievements:
- Victory: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
- Win 5 Whitefall matches during the Fae Yule special warfront
- You Shouldn't Have...No Really, You Shouldn't Have
- Receive a Fae Yule Cake in Whitefall during Fae Yule
- He Knows When You've Been Naughty
- Kill Santa Claws and take on his form
- A Wintery Winning Wonderland
- Win a Fae Yule Whitefall match
- You Are On My List
- Kill 5 players while under the effects of "Santa Claws"
- A Bloody Fae Yule
- Complete all the Fae Yule Whitefall achievements
- Reward: The Santa Claws mini pet. A cute little white werewolf with a santa hat
- There are around 12 Other Achievements that aren't on this list, because they require doing a whole bunch of tasks or aren't really spectacular in the rewards department, although a few of them give you a title or some tiny award. These are:
- Fae Yule Grande Cape
- Stocking Stuffers
- Fae Yule Feasting
- Sled Race 2000
- Naughty, Definitely Naughty
- New Silent Night
- Inappropriate Gifts
- Sometimes The Thought Is Not All That Counts
- Making A List, Checking It Twice
- Seasonal Work
- Things That Go Bump In the Night
Like Every year, I'm having a lot of fun so far this Fae Yule. It's a nice break from trying to save the world every day to relax, enjoy the holidays, drink Wassail, and go sledding on the mountain! There are plenty of adorable mini pets to snag, cool mounts to shoot for, and neat zone events to participate in. If you turn your in game volume on while doing the Instant Adventures in particular, you can hear Greatfather Frost and Atrophinius talking about their experiences. Atro in particular is very funny with his drunken commentary on the Storm Legion. He really hates those guys, eh? As soon as I've done checking everything out for the day I'll post some pictures to go along with this summary. Actually, I think this is the most detailed summary yet of an in game holiday! This is in part, thanks to research on the interwebs about Fae Yule and that I actually have free time to sit down and write up an extensive guide to the holiday! (AKA I'm broke from BlizzCon and Christmas and therefore can't afford to make any new cosplays or go shopping or do any of the other millions of things I'm always working on instead).
So, happy holidays everyone, enjoy your Fae Yule, but don't drink too much Wassail (or eggnog hehe!) and try not to get on Atrophinius's bad side. I can't believe that 2015 is already ending. It feels like it just got here. It's so shocking that as we get older, the years seem to just blur by. But I had a great year, nothing that I regret too much, and I'm looking forward to the year 2016! Especially BlizzCon 2016! Although I plan on adding a few other cons to next year too, if I have time and money! I have so many non Blizzard cosplays I'd like to try, including a Rift one! If you're curious to see any of my cosplay, by the way, you can find a link to my page in the About The Journalist tab of my blog! :)
~Dark Out!
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