Humans can ascend, though how often this mysterious process happens appears to be based on how they live their life: the relationships they form, the risks they take, the changes to themselves they pursue or enable. There are a few things that are known, though.
Some people never ascend. Some people ascend so quickly they hoard ascensions.
Demons have told us that the basic ascension paths are linked to actions, not fate. Because of that, a prominent demonologist who was a tarot reader ironically named the different known or speculated paths after tarot cards, names which stuck.
Each tier of ascension gives a human host another 25 or so years onto their natural lifespan. Note that a violent death will still kill them, just not the natural process of aging. This doesn't get tacked on to the end, or allow someone to regain lost youth: rather, it becomes as if, from that point their maturation was at, they started aging as if they had 25 more years elongated over the rest of their human life. If you were 25 at your first ascension, you'll look under 40 when you're 50. If you're 60 at your first ascension, you'll still look under 70 when you're far older than that.
Ascending at higher tiers allows a human to change shape into their ascension form. All aspects of an ascension form don't have to be kept (you could, for example, keep the animal ears but not the matching tail). When you go beyond that ascension's basic path, reaching say tier 4 after tier 3, you lose tier 3 of that path's ascended form and ascension. You may refuse to follow the roads placed before you. If you do, you must do something worthy of ascending again in that path to achieve another chance to ascend. Choose wisely.
You can follow more than one ascension path, but you cannot gain 25 years to your lifespan unless you reach a higher level than you’ve reached in another ascension path. 10 ascensions won’t get you 250 years to live, and certainly not if they’re all at tier 1, as demonologists mark it. But when you ascend past the first tier in any of those ascensions, you will now have another 50 years to live.
Ascensions are also known to affect demons, amplifying their power over some of their dominions and sometimes changing their form, particularly primal demons.
Ascending is viewed by some as the key to immortality, to a human living an eternal life. No one knows how high the levels of ascension grow.
Ascensions and gaining new dominions only happen organically. You can’t farm for ascensions, though believe me, people have tried. If you genuinely improve or debase yourself, you are likely to ascend or gain the plant dominion. If you interact with flowers in ten instances, that won’t give you the plant dominion. Seek to better yourself — or worsen yourself!
Ascension Paths
There are many possible pathways that can be unlocked. A human can follow one, or several; there is no limit to ascension pathways that can become available.
The Fool
The Fool is about starting a journey without knowing where it will end or being really in any way prepared for it. Idealism, foolishness, lightheartedness, and innocence are big themes of this card. On the darker side, it can be dangerous naivety.
Gaining This Ascension
Getting ridiculously lucky
Not being killed when by all rights you should have been
Heading into something completely unprepared with no thought to consequences
Starting on a quest or journey alone or with others
Potential Physical Traits
Animal characteristics, especially animals known as tricksters (coyotes, monkeys, spiders, rabbits?)
“Goofy” or “Clownish” traits
Ascension Powers
You can also manipulate luck. Be careful — luck might manipulate back. You will now receive either -1, 0, or +1 marker on all rolls in admin events, decided by a three-sided dice roll.
Flight is augmented
Phasing is augmented
Dreams is augmented
Hallucinations is augmented
The Magician
What the Fool lacks, the Magician has in abundance. This card signifies subtlety, skill, diplomacy, and self-confidence based on ability (as opposed to foolish optimism). People on this path are prepared for the life they choose and attack it with a plan. The card also can be a portent of illness, be it physical or of the mind.
Gaining This Ascension
Preparing for a journey or event
Gaining a new skill
Mastering a skill
Making elaborate plans
Giving speeches
Settling disagreements through diplomacy to your own advantage
Worsening health
Potential Physical Traits
A dramatic voice
A light glow around you
Ink-stained fingers
Worsening health
A persistent cough
Fatigue
Physical weakness
Ascension Powers
You can now cause minor illness in yourself and others.
Technopathy is augmented
Magnetism is augmented
Alchemy is augmented
Psychic is augmented
Biomancy is augmented
The High Priestess
The High Priestess is about science, wisdom, knowledge, and education. The reversed/dark side is passion, moral or physical ardour, conceit, surface knowledge. The High Priestess is somewhat secretive about her knowledge.
Gaining This Ascension
Finally understanding something you have struggled with
Deciding to further your education.
Approaching something scientifically
Becoming passionate about a cause
Showing a new level of conceit
Doing something with only surface knowledge and believing yourself a master
Discovering and keeping important knowledge of the world as secrets
Potential Physical Traits
Sphinx-like
Owls
Gods of Intellect (Athena, for example)
Feminine traits
Ascension Powers
You can now experience improved concentration, memory and academic skill.
Paper is augmented
Animation is augmented
Shadow is augmented
Sound is augmented
The Empress
The Empress card is about the female aspects of ruling, creating, care-taking, and mothering. It has a definite dark side-- those on the path of the Empress can become overly invested in the lives of their charges, smothering, and controlling.
Gaining This Ascension
The first steps on the path of the Empress almost always involves having a child or taking in someone younger, weaker, and/or in more need than yourself.
Sometimes a project or a cause can be substituted, if it is treated as tenderly as a child.
Progression on this path happens as you become more and more invested in the life of the person you’re caring for, be it for better or worse.
Potential Physical Traits
“Womanly traits”
Weight gain and curves are somewhat common
You may acquire a more calming touch, a gentler voice, warmer hands, and/or the inexplicable smell of baking bread
Earthy, tree-like growths have also been reported.
Ascension Powers
You can now calm and cajole others, gaining the automatic trust of children and lost youth. You now gain additional strength when fighting to protect others (+2 on all rolls of that kind).
Superior Endurance is augmented
Earth is augmented
Plants is augmented
Water is augmented
The Emperor
The Emperor path is about the male side of ruling and conquering. The ascendant on the path of the Emperor is becoming more powerful, gaining stability and control in their life, and accepting leadership over others. In the negative sense, the Emperor can become a tyrant.
Gaining This Ascension
Being or becoming the head of a household, organization, task force, or other group of people
Exercising power over others, whether for their benefit or not
Gaining material wealth or recognition
Adhering to a strict moral code or set of rules that does not allow for exceptions or grey areas
Having control over a number of resources
Potential Physical Traits
“Manly” traits-- beards, muscles
Weight gain
Increases in height
A deeper, more authoritative voice
Becoming more intimidating to those around you
Ascension Powers
You seem to attract wealth and power.
Earth is augmented
Superior Strength is augmented
Superior Speed is augmented
Gold Touch is augmented
The Hierophant
The Hierophant is about the teacher/student or mentor/mentee relationship. This card is a symbol of knowledge, especially knowledge rooted in tradition and shared somewhat freely. Where the High Priestess and the Hermit keep their secrets, the Hierophant teaches others. If the card is reversed, the relationship is unhealthy-- the teacher asks too much of the student, the mentee becomes an indentured servant.
Gaining This Ascension
Becoming a teacher or mentor
Gaining a teacher or mentor
Learning a trade
Learning in general
Reading constantly
Following a strict tradition or path of study
Being manipulated over a long period of time
Being enslaved
Owing something to another
Potential Physical Traits
Stronger eyesight
Metal cuffs around wrists and/or ankles
Nimble hands and fingers
Ascension Powers
You can now read and learn more quickly and understand more of what is read.
Paper is augmented
Technopathy is augmented
Telepathy is augmented
Empathy is augmented
The Lovers
The Lovers card represents attraction, love, beauty, and trials overcome. The Lovers card can also represent perfection, harmony, and mutual attractiveness. On the reversed side, however, it represents failure, avoiding responsibility for your actions, rushed decisions, and the challenging of your personal belief system. A Lovers’ bond to another is prone to be toxic, if one allows it to be.
Gaining This Ascension
Making reckless decisions
Valuing beauty/clothing
Being a social butterfly
Trying to enact a change on a public affair
Overcoming a challenge (ex. Finishing a project long overdue or getting a promotion)
Trying to find love in all types of places
Failing to put blame on one’s self when a problem arises
Forming a strong bond with another person
Having an unrequited love
Taking control of a risky situation
Always trying to be perfect for one’s self or for another
Obsessive choices
Getting married
Potential Physical Traits
A glowing light around the body
A gentle, softer voice
A slightly androgynous body figure
Ascension Powers
You can now easily persuade other people. The empathy dominion has a greater effect on you than on most. Any dominion you and the person you most care about share is also augmented.
Pathfinding is augmented
Empathy is augmented
Telepathy is augmented
Pheromones augmented
The Chariot
The Chariot card represents succor, providence, and also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble in general. The reversed side of the Chariot represents riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat. The Chariot is a violent card by nature.
Gaining This Ascension
Picking a fight
Violent acts—particularly new lows
Putting a loved one in danger
Getting vengeance
Swearing vengeance
Going looking for trouble
Being involved in or starting a riot
Quarreling with a loved one
Feeling despair/defeatedness
Trying at something and failing/being overcome
Potential Physical Traits
More defined musculature
War paint appearing as if by tattoos
Ascension Powers
You can now manifest weapon(s) at will, whether or not you’re in ascension form.
Fire is augmented
Blood is augmented
Combustion is augmented
Poison is augmented
Strength
Strength isn’t just about power. It’s also about control of power. This path really splits into opposite paths: the path of controlled power, passion used to achieve goals and preserve personal ideals, and the path of mindless, directionless use of power. These are represented by whether the card is upright or reversed: Is the lady taming the lion, or is the lion eating the lady?
Gaining This Ascension
The Lady
Using controlled anger and/or passion to enact change
Calming passion when ineffective
Using reason over emotion
Playing by rules of society to get what you want
Diffusing a potentially explosive situation
The Lion
Being unable to contain your temper
Throwing a temper tantrum
Disregarding or destroying social norms
Starting fights
Escalating situations
The Lady and The Lion
Fighting for a cause
Potential Physical Traits
The Lady
Cleaner appearance
Smoother hands
Soft, soothing voice
The Lion
More unkempt/wild appearance
Longer hair
Lion traits
Ascension Powers
You can now experience increased mental capacity, but you may become more animalistic.
Shapeshifter is augmented
Superior senses are augmented
Superior endurance is augmented
Superior strength is augmented
Superior speed is augmented
The Hermit
The Hermit is about prudence, circumspection; also (and especially) treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. The reversed side is concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution. This path practices and embodies deception.
Gaining This Ascension
Lying about something you don’t want to lie about
Treachery
Backstabbing a friend
Having the ability to help someone/get involved with something, and pausing, or deciding not to do it
Concealing the truth from a loved one
Becoming afraid of something
Becoming paranoid about something
Doing something conniving
Participating in corruption
Being involved in a scandal
Potential Physical Traits
Becoming more handsome/beautiful, the more you sin
Faint impression of thorns appear on your skin
Ascension Powers
You can now tell better lies, and do better card tricks.
Mimicry is augmented
Duplicity is augmented
Pheromones is augmented
Pathfinding is augmented
Invisibility is augmented
Wheel of Fortune
The Wheel of Fortune encompasses destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Its reversed path deals with increase, abundance, superfluity. This is primarily a very positive card, but it has its dark elements: destiny is not always kind.
Gaining This Ascension
Winning a prize
Pursuing your dreams
Achieving success in your job
Finding something you should have known was there all along
Obsessing over superfluous knowledge
Gaining something after a long struggle
Happening upon someone you wanted to see or were thinking about
Potential Physical Traits
Golden glow
Wings
Ascension Powers
You now have increased luck—all your rolls during an admin event will gain a -1, 0, +1, or +2 marker, decided by a four sided dice roll.
Air is augmented
Flight is augmented
Scrying is augmented
Light is augmented
Justice
The Justice card represents justice, honesty, fairness, truth and the law. Justice reflects the search for truth. Reversed, it shows the dishonesty to yourself and to others. It shows the unwillingness to understand things on a deeper meaning, you can be very judgmental and see the world as black-and-white. Justice represents a conscious awareness that your decisions and actions have long-term consequences and your present and future circumstances are most likely a result of these decisions and actions.
Gaining This Ascension
You listen to both sides of the story before passing judgement
You stand up to injustice quickly
You choose to be honest and unbiased
You choose to work for the Legion or other criminal justice branches
You suffer from anxiety due to bad judgement
You become paranoid due to your actions to act against protocol
You protect the innocent and punish the bad: legally or illegally.
Using unethical ways to see justice done to those who deserve it
You choose to become a vigilante
You see the world as this or that, nothing in between
Potential Physical Traits
A warm, golden aura
Others see you as bright and trusting
An attention-grabbing voice
A tattoo of a balanced scale on the back of your left hand; a double-edged sword on your right.
Ascension Powers
You can now have increased persuasion.
Superior senses are augmented
Fire is augmented
Telepathy is augmented
Weather is augmented
The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man is all about sacrifice, trials, wisdom, circumspection, discernment, divination, and prophecy. Its reversed meanings are selfishness, the crowd, body politic. The hanged man particularly has the notion of an effigy to be burned.
Gaining This Ascension
Sacrificing yourself physically for another
Sacrificing your health or happiness for another
Putting someone’s needs before your own
Becoming a scapegoat
Showing wisdom uncommon for your age
Considering multiple paths or options carefully, and coming to a wise choice
Showing unusually discerning tastes
Being popularly disliked
Potential Physical Traits
X’s on your hands
Imprint of a noose tattoo around your neck
Ascension Powers
You can now protect others: you gain +1 on all dice rolls when fighting to or trying to protect someone. You can take some of another person’s pain, emotional, psychological, or physical, and pull it into yourself, thus relieving them of part of it. You can also take wounds from someone else and put them onto your body.
Scrying is augmented
Psychic is augmented
Empathy is augmented
Electricity is augmented
Death
Death spells out an end, mortality, destruction, corruption also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor, and for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. The reversed meanings are inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.
Gaining This Ascension
Losing someone close to you.
Experiencing debilitating mental illness
Grief in general, even if only on the loss of comfort or an ideal
Losing the protection of someone or something
Ending or losing a relationship, particularly a long-term one
Becoming ill
Facing your own mortality
Losing hope
Near death experiences
Blaming yourself for someone’s death
Potential Physical Traits
Pallor
Sunken eyes
A scythe tattoo
Ascension Powers
People now find you uneasy to be around.
Necromancy is augmented
Necrosis is augmented
Biomancy is augmented
Blood is augmented
Temperance
Temperance represents economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. Its reversed meaning is things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.
Gaining This Ascension
Joining a religion
Becoming a priest
Gaining faith in something (a cause, for example)
Being frugal with money
Being a skinflint
Managing others well
Managing yourself well
Giving up a habit, good or bad
Starting a business
Potential Physical Traits
Magpie characteristics
Crow characteristics
Golden sheen to their hands
Ascension Powers
You are now able to innately see patterns in everything you encounter.
Alchemy is augmented
Gold touch is augmented
Magnetism is augmented
Metal is augmented
The Devil
The devil is about tempting and manipulating others. In some cases it can be benign-- helping someone let go of a rigid structure and relax, tempting someone to leave a bad situation-- but it is mostly seen as negative.
Gaining This Ascension
Manipulating others
Gaining power through underhanded means
Declaring or claiming ownership over humans or demons
Committing crimes
Tempting others to break laws or moral codes
Causing damage to others
Holding grudges
Getting revenge
Potential Physical Traits
If the character is Christian: cloven feet, tail, horns, redness
If the character is Shinto/Zen Buddhist: Oni or Tengu characteristics
If the character is Muslim: Djinn characteristics
If the character is another religion or atheist: Generic evil sorts of things
Ascension Powers
You can now more easily influence or manipulate others.
Shadow is augmented
Duplicity is augmented
Fire is augmented
Combustion is augmented
The Tower
The tower is about a complete (or near-complete) disruption of something the human previously took for granted. If it is truly the Tower card, the change should be sudden (based on one or a few key events rather than long contemplation), few (if any) remnants of the security once present should be left, and the change should be long-lasting/irreversible.
Gaining This Ascension
Disowning or being disowned by a close family member
Discovering you have family when your identity was built on having none
Going from firmly believing there is a God to firmly believing there isn’t, or vice versa
Suddenly losing faith in the organization you dedicated yourself to
Being forced to seriously reevaluate your moral code and discovering you were wrong
Acting against a strongly held belief
Potential Physical Traits
Appearance becomes more chaotic
May cause onlookers to feel fear or discomfort
Ascension Powers
People now naturally find you more intimidating.
Combustion is augmented
Blood is augmented
Biomancy is augmented
Dust is augmented
The Star
The Star represents loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says: hope and bright prospects. Its reverse meanings are arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
Gaining This Ascension
Losing something important to yourself
Losing your faith in something
Losing your innocence
Losing your ideals
Stealing from someone
Being stolen from, in a lot of different senses
Being abandoned
Abandoning another
Abandoning a cause
Being haughty or arrogant
Feeling impotent to act
Erectile dysfunction
Difficulty conceiving a child/miscarriages
Potential Physical Traits
Different types of stars appearing on someone’s skin, as if tattooed
These stars for some people can be religious symbols, if they follow that religion (for example, a devoutly Jewish person might have the Star of David on them).
Ascension Powers
You now possess the ability to steal much more easily without getting caught.
Light is augmented
Animation is augmented
Pathfinding is augmented
Steam is augmented
The Moon
The moon is a dark card. It encompasses hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Its reversed side represents instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.
Gaining This Ascension
Betraying someone from the shadows.
Being unaware of hidden enemies until too late.
Facing dangerous situations
Spreading calumny
Having it spread
Feeling oppressed by darkness within your own personality
Feeling terror
Inspiring terror in others
Embracing your darkest impulses
Deceiving others
Being deceived
Being villainous
Making a grave error
Being or becoming unstable
Being inconstant
Wrapping your lies in silence
Potential Physical Traits
A dagger under your eye
The changes of the moon appearing around your neck
The features of nocturnal creatures (bats and owls, for example)
Ascension Powers
You are now able to deceive others more easily.
Shadow is augmented
Scrying is augmented
Reflections is augmented
Poison is augmented
The Sun
The Sun is a beautiful and positive card, for the more carefree and blissful of experiences. The Sun encompasses material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment. Its reversed meaning is the same, in a lesser sense. Eternal optimists often follow this path.
Gaining This Ascension
Taking a positive spin on a negative situation
Being optimistic
Having a winning personality
Being carefree
Wandering through life
Being extremely happy and content with one’s life
Having a loving partner who you’re happy with
Being comfortable, inside and out
Being wealthy
Being content with your lot and/or who you are
Potential Physical Traits
Sunnier disposition
The rays of the sun appear on the backs of your hand, as if tattooed.
Ascension Powers
You can now brighten up a room just with your presence.
Light is augmented
Fire is augmented
Empathy is augmented
Pheromones are augmented
Judgment
Judgment is all about a change of position that the human previously held; it can also mean that there will be some kind of renewal and outcome that may come of their actions/choices. Judgment can be seen as both positive and negative, as the reverse side of Judgment can sometimes make people rather pusillanimous - aka. cowardly - and this can result in a lack of resolution, as well as a weakness, for the user.
Gaining This Ascension
Being anxious and cowardly.
Changing jobs/positions.
Helping others find a solution to their problems.
Finding solutions for your own problems.
Choosing the simplest route over the hardest route.
Making decisions for yourself and others.
Potential Physical Traits
Wings.
Oddly-colored hair.
Cowardly traits.
Small clouds roam around the body.
Clean, healthy skin.
Ascension Powers
You can now influence people more easily into making right or wrong decisions.
Air is augmented
Flight is augmented
Pheromones are augmented
Gravity is augmented
The World
The world is a card of assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Its reversed meanings are inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.
Gaining This Ascension
Being successful
Getting recompense or asking for fair recompense for a wrongdoing
Going on a long voyage
Finding the route you should be on
Emigrating to a new country or place
Fleeing something
Experiencing extreme inertia
Stagnating in your employment
A fixed worldview
Seeing things around you as permanent
Potential Physical Traits
Maps appearing on your skin, sometimes useless, sometimes for pointed reasons
Wings appearing
Taking on the form of an animal
Ascension Powers
You are now able to find your way and never seem to get lost.
Flight is augmented
Water is augmented
Earth is augmented
Dust is augmented
