I dared ask the question with the word “updates” – yes, plural!
About a month ago, gamigo was teasing about Rift possibly getting something new. They said that in Q1 2022 we would be getting a “first great update”. Quite obviously, this does not mean “expansion” and nobody should interpret it as Rift getting one any time soon. But “first” implies that there will be more than just one. And “great” is probably a subjective term here.
Yesterday, we got a first short announcement. It mentions “hell” a couple of times, so Rift players (at least the ones I saw discuss it in Rift’s Discord channel) guessed that it would be about Hellbugs. Possibly another “Call to Arms” event. Today, we received a marketing email which confirms it.
This event isn’t anything new. I found a player complaining about it back in 2018 (I have no idea if it really was disappointing or not – I’m just linking to it because it’s from more than 3 years ago). I also know that I have a hellbug pet and a hellbug mount already, but the mount I got as a special promotion they were doing (back when bloggers were getting codes to give away to other players).
Gamigo

If