RIFT's 1.3 "Waves of Madness" deployed earlier today, but a new issue has turned up following the update's release prompting Trion Worlds to bring down the shards while it's resolved.

Sorry everyone, we're investigating an issue that requires the shards to be relocked temporarily. We'll be back with updates as soon as we have them. ^Zann

Currently there is no ETA on shards returning, but RIFT Community Coordinator Amanda ‘Amary’ Fry has posted that the fix is almost ready internal testing.

Source: RIFT Facebook Page

Update: Servers are back up.