Press Release: Asmodian Ascension Quest

[Mark]

EDIT: Here's the "FINAL" Ascension trailer. Haven't had time to watch it, seems to be the same.

YouTube - AION Asmodian Ascension Trailer FINAL

A press release describing the Asmodian's first main storyline quest follows. Fans of the anime "Oh!/Ah! My Goddess!" should recognize some of the NPC names mentioned below.

Aion: The Tower of Eternity The Asmodian Ascension Quest

Thursday 28th August - Brighton, UK/... NCsoft® Europe presents details of what Asmodians must do in order to be able to fly in the epic and beautiful Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) RPG, Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The chance to earn your wings and become a Daeva comes relatively early in the life of every true Asmodian, though the path itself can be hard and somewhat mystifying. As you reach level 9 you discover that you must find the Asmodian known as Munin, who has been detained deep within the Ishalgen Prison Camp. (MARKNOTE: The graveyard area I described in one of my journals, I think.)

Trapped within a crystallized prison cell, Munin is your key to Ascension. This Daeva can discern the future, even trapped in his cell. This expert fortuneteller will be able to tell your future and how you will ascend to be a mighty Asmodian, but first he needs items that can help piece together your past. He will need these items, the cards of fate, from three different disciples in order to proceed.

The first appears as an old tailor by the name of Urd, who resides in Aldelle Village, which you should already be familiar with as it was one of the first places you would have passed through as a young Asmodian. Urd give you a card that represents your past—“I see two twisted creepers”—and sends you to the next disciple, the Old Lady Fortuneteller.

She lives out in the Munihele Forest, located roughly halfway between Aldelle Basin and the Prison Camp. You can find her near a small log cabin, well off the beaten path, where she goes by the name of Verdandi. The hermit will read your palm and gives you a card of fate detailing your present state, though you are warned you will not understand what it means (though Munin will).

Verdandi then directs you to your next and last stop, this time to have your future read by a young woman named Skuld. She resides on the cliffs above the sea just south of Anturoon Crossing. Be careful, this will be one of the most perilous journeys—the cliffs are swarming with Eyvindir pirates, who don’t take to people invading their private space lightly. Also beware of the Fang Karnifs, aggressive cat-like beasts that like to pick off stragglers or unsuspecting Asmodians.

Skuld will read your future and imprint it on yet another card. Now you must deliver all three cards back to Munin, which should be an easy run on the path all way north, back to the Ishalgen Prison Camp. Munin is pleased you’ve gathered the cards from his disciples, and his motives in helping you aren’t entirely clear, but evidently he intends to change the future he sees, and the only way to do so is through you—but first he must reveal your own future.

As he reads the cards, he begins to weave patterns in the Aether, and suddenly you are transported to an outer-worldly realm, wearing a full set of Asmodian armor; the sky is a mix of dark, blood-like colors, and scattered about are several giant, swirling vortices--Portals. This is the Abyss, the nether region nestled between the two shattered halves of Atreia, and you’re standing on one of the many small, floating rocky islands that dot the Abyss. You see a line of wounded Asmodian soldiers before you, but the apparent leader—Archon Legionary Hagen—beckons you forward.

The Asmodians are in a desperate struggle to attain the floating island of Narsass, but the Elyos Legatus known as Hellion is successfully standing in their way. You must fly to Narsass and defeat Hellion personally—that is your destiny. Immediately you spread your wings and spring off the island, passing groups of Asmodians and Elyos engaged in aerial combat, before you reach the foreboding Narsass.

After defeating several Elyos soldiers, you come up against Hellion himself, and the battle does not go well. You are soundly defeated after a blinding assault. Suddenly, you seem to recover, but you’re back in your old armor again, and the form of Munin appears nearby. “The future is not fixed,” he says, and he reveals that trying to change the future is why he was imprisoned in the first place. You agree to mutually help each other—Munin claims he will need help in the future, and in return he will help save your life down the line—but first you must become a Daeva and pick a class.

Once your specialized class has been chosen, you then teleport to Pandaemonium, the Asmodian capital, where you will need to talk to friendly Heimdall of the City Guard (he’s not hard to find). The formal Ascension ceremony takes place in the Great Temple of Pandaemonium and is overseen by the high priest, Balder. There is a great ceremony—some of the Asmodians will mock you, others will be more encouraging—where the elders recognize you as a Daeva, newly Ascended, ready to prove that the Asmodians hold the true power in Atreia. The ceremony ends with the granting of your new wings, which you can now use to fly and customize as you wish.

Now this is truly the time to take a hold of your destiny.

Ends.

I've attached some screenshots that were released along with the text. There are other unrelated screenshots, but I'll upload those later. I also have a video to upload, the "Final" version of the Asmodian Ascension Quest vid. Probably not all that much different from the one we've seen already.

Gotta get to a college class, see you later.

[lyankyj]

I cant understand why they are so in need to spoil the first 10 levels for us... why would any1 read these if they are planning to play the game?..I'd just play it along myself...

I feel these ascension articles/vids idiotic...

[dalin]

^^aye, but you have to remember who these marketing pieces are aimed at... the general populace doesnt know 1/10th as much as the fans...

this provides a nice backstory for the game, and highlights some of the selling points (flight, etc.)... by showing how detailed the world is (storylines, quests, etc.), it takes the edge off comments like "o rly? this is just another Asian grinder"...

[lyankyj]

It's not about fans/not fans...with this, everyone (old or new fan) will be aware of the 'twists" and happenings of the early levels

Instead of telling us the story of the first levels, why don't they just continue their asmodian/elyos lore on the off. site?
It could be an intro to the world aswell - even better.
It's like i'd tell you every spoiler from the whole first season of Lost instead of telling you only the main plot of the first episode.

They should release things that are not part of the actual gameplay, but it would still expanding the lore and storyline..again, like the journals on the off. site...they should work with those..

[dalin]

well, that is a good point... this was a pretty thorough look at the Ascension, wasnt it...

[TheSaintACE]

Everyone's got an opinion and around here you're lucky if you don't get flamed for it.

But anyways, I'm interested to see it myself. I wonder if the Elyos quest string is similar or will have it's own completely different way of doing things. It kind of sets you up to try both races at one time or another. I think I might just to answer my own question. ^_^

Very cool. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

[knite16]

Originally Posted by lyankyj

It's not about fans/not fans...with this, everyone (old or new fan) will be aware of the 'twists" and happenings of the early levels

Instead of telling us the story of the first levels, why don't they just continue their asmodian/elyos lore on the off. site?
It could be an intro to the world aswell - even better.
It's like i'd tell you every spoiler from the whole first season of Lost instead of telling you only the main plot of the first episode.

They should release things that are not part of the actual gameplay, but it would still expanding the lore and storyline..again, like the journals on the off. site...they should work with those..

I understand what you're saying, lyan, but story and gameplay are two different things. I'd love to see more of the Lore Chapters introduced, but what this write-up shows is that Aion is not just pretty graphics, it has a deep moving back story that you're involved in. Your game can have the best description in the world on its back cover that makes everyone want to buy your game, but when the reviews start coming in saying your game is crap, people will know the words are only skin deep.

This way, some lore has been put out there, now they are enforcing that lore with showing how YOU, the player, take part in it. It shows Aion isn't a grinder, but has rich and epic quests that go to the very core of the story and make you feel like a (the) main character.

[TheSaintACE]

Anyone else notice where it says "which you can now use to fly and customize as you wish." Anyone else go..."customize wings??" HAAAAWWWWWT. I wonder if this is a default thing where you can actually choose a bit how your wings will look on you from the get-go. We know there are 'Abyss wings' that you can win through PVPVE but it would be AWESOME to be able to tweak your wings a little bit from the start!

EDIT: Of course it might also be like armor dying, where you purchase ways to make your wings look different. Perfect World actually does something similar to this. That would be cool too...but I'd like to see some actual variety from the moment you get them. We'll have to see. There's also how they mentioned 'buffs' for the wings to get longer time through armor/potions/items/levels etc. (which PW has as well) which MIGHT be what they are referring to. Hard to tell...but yeah like I said, if we can customize them...awesome...

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by knite16

now they are enforcing that lore with showing how YOU, the player, take part in it. It shows Aion isn't a grinder, but has rich and epic quests that go to the very core of the story and make you feel like a (the) main character.

Indeed, for these reasons this Ascension Article is a really nice thing...and I'm not complaining because of that, I too like these detailed descriptions. I'm complaining because if they want, they could easily do this without spoilering -with a so detailed way- the actual ingame story. They could write other scenes, or again, they could continue the journals in a similar way they did with this article.


Yeah, I'm from the Anti-Spoiler Group (ASG), maybe that is the reason why I still havent watched any vids regarding storyline or cut-scenes I want to experience the game by myself, and I know that I'm not the only one (anti-spoilerists, they are huge part of the 'costumer base' as its known from tv- and movie business), that is why I'm concerned about other fellow ASG members, who are not yet familiar with the game. These spoilered descriptions are not the best way to get their interests toward the game - so if I were them, I wouldn't release these kind of things.

Again, I like the way they described the world and the whole process, I love the detailed story, but they should work with materials that are not exactly the same ingame. Hope they understand that

[TheSaintACE]

Maybe things should have a spoiler warning? *shrug*

[Ligisttomten]

Ah! Megami-sama ftw! They should be Elyos though.

[Hexxeity]

What's with the bat wings? I thought those were history. Maybe you can customize them to be the new kind?

[solidbrim]

The customized wings could be the choice between 'new" and "old" style. I noticed in the screen shots that the quest involved the old style. I thought I read previously that the 'feathery' type were the new style for the Asmodians. This new info has me wondering if NC has left it up to the individual to decide.

As I began reading I assumed that some of the information was going to spoil the wing quest. I just scanned through it roughly. I did however give some good in sight to lore.