The developers from NCsoft have announced plans to merge Lineage 2 servers in North America. Why? Well, it seems that ever since character transfers were opened in the game, players have been migrating to more heavily populated servers.

These upcoming server merges will be happening on July 8, 2008 so you should have enough time to prepare for it. Here's a list of the servers that will be merged as taken from Community Manager Alyra's post:

Server 2 (Sieghardt) + Server 5 (Erica) = New Server A
Server 3 (Kain) + Server 4 (Lionna) = New Server B
Server 6 (Gustin) + Server 8 (Hindemith) = New Server C
Of course, the server merges will entail a number of other changes to the game itself. Here's a list of the other changes that will be happening when the server merge happens:

Servers to Be Merged

Characters will transfer over with all of their individual belongings, including all items and Adena in their private warehouse, inventory, and equipment slots. Individual character status and info, such as quest info and karma, will also transfer over intact with the exceptions of hero status and Olympiad points, which will be reset.
Dormant Character Deletion

In order to minimize duplicate character names, all characters that are level 10 or lower and have not logged in for more than one year will be deleted.
To prevent the character deletion, that character simply needs to be logged in once prior to the server merge.
Character Name Conflict Rules

Details to be posted soon
Character Slots

If you have more than a total of seven characters between two servers that are being merged, the seven characters that have the most EXP will be kept¡ªthe rest will be deleted.
If you have more than a total of seven characters between two servers that are being merged, and their EXP is the same, the older character(s) will be deleted.
Miscellaneous

All characters will be moved to the nearest town.
Character creation will be turned off on the merged server for one week after the merge.
All unique colored names from Battle Tournament will be reset.
Clans & Alliances

All alliances will be disbanded.
Clan information and organization, such as Clan Warehouse, Reputation Points, Clan Skills, clan level, clan leadership and ranks, etc. will be transferred.
The in-game clan community board and clan crest will be reset.
All clan wars will be ended.
Clan Name Conflict Rules

Details to be posted soon
Castles, Manor, & Clan Halls

All castles, manors, and clan halls will be reset.
All clans that own a castle/siegeable clan hall prior to the merge will be reimbursed with clan reputation points.
Castle Warehouse will be initialized and all items will be deleted.
All clans that own an auctionable clan hall will be reimbursed with Adena (winning bid amount) two weeks prior to the merge. The reimbursed Adena will appear in the Clan Warehouse. Clans who purchase an auctionable clan hall after the two weeks prior to the merge will not be reimbursed.
The manor system and all items associated with it, such as seeds, will be reset.
All fortresses will be reset.
The first castle siege time for a merged server is to be determined.
Olympiad

Olympiad points will be reset.
Hero status and associated hero weapons will be reset.
Miscellaneous