Realms are being brought back online [Updated at 11:50 pm EST]

The opening announcement just told us all that realms are coming back online now. All the realms will be completely back up by 10:45pm EST / 7:45pm PST. Realms have been down today for an overly-extended maintenance period.

There will be an in-game mail sent to all players concerning the mail issues today. For those that are unaware, all mail that was in the mailbox prior to the downtime today was gone when the servers came up for a brief time today. We have covered everything we currently know about this. The mail will be reimbursed.

Let's all say a silent prayer that this is not how the next couple of days look. I don't know about all of you, but I actually want to play Wrath of the Lich King when it's released.

Update 11:50pm EST - All the realms are coming back up. We'll have more on fallout of this tonight and tomorrow.

Update 11:30pm EST - We've sent word to our contact at Blizzard asking for more information about today's issues. We'll let you know the response we get.

All previous updates are being kept after the break, check there to see a log of what's been going on.

Are you ready for the challenges that await you in Northrend? WoW Insider has you covered with our 8-day guide to Preparing for Wrath. Also, check out our feature on AddOns new, old and outdated and Essential AddOns for Wrath written especially with the expansion in mind.

Update 8:57pm EST - Realms are now scheduled to be brought online at 10:00pm EST / 7:00pm PST. This information is from the login screen.

Update 9:00pm EST - Syndri tells us that they are doing more internal testing before bringing the realms back up.

Update 9:45pm EST - Realms should be back up in 15 minutes. All worldofwarcraft.com sites are down still.

Update 9:52pm EST - worldofwarcraft.com is back up and running. Realms soon to follow (hopefully).

Update 10:10pm EST - Realms are not yet up.

Update 10:25pm EST - The in-game announcement now tells us that realms will be up by 10:45pm EST / 7:45 PST.

Update 10:49pm EST - 10:45pm EST / 7:45pm PST has passed, and the realms are still down. Awaiting more information from Blizzard.

Update 11:00pm EST - The following is the announcement from Blizzard:

Update 11:00pm EST - The in-game announcement now tells us that they are working to bring the realms up. There is no time-frame as to when the realms will come back. Check back to this post for more information. The full (and short) announcement from Blizzard is after the break.

Update 11:22pm EST - Realms are still not up. Looks like this might be a long night. We hope to have something more to report soon, check back often.

Update 11:45pm EST - Kalecgos, Sargearas, and Moonrunner are all up! Yes ladies and gentleman (I'm doing my Joker impersonation as I'm saying that), we have three realms we can play on. Current queues are approaching 5,000 for each realm. All the realms are locked though, so character creation is not possible. More updates when more realms are up.