Ascension

The supposed ritual of ascension is a central concept in the Moon Children cult, wherein a Moonchild 'ascends' and becomes one with Luna, the cult's principal deity. Ascension is the utmost aim to be attained by a Moonchild. Despite the great importance of the act within the cult, not much is known about it, concretely. From what can be gleaned from circumstantial evidence, ascension can be surmised, mainly, as the death of the cultist, however this conclusion isn't exactly correct. Upon ascension, a cultist seemingly dies, however their 'being', as it were, persists through some unknown means. In recent times, almost all ascensions have resulted in the 'digitization' — the conversion of the person into code — of the ascendee, who is then being inserted into a Nintendo 64 cartridge of the 2000 video game Majora's Mask.

Description

Almost nothing is known about the actual mechanism of ascension aside from a few basic principles.

Prior to the discovery of the Eternity Project, the only source which extensively dealt with ascension was the Moon Children's website, Youshouldnthavedonethat.net. Even then, it never actually detailed the process itself. Ifrit simply claimed that ascension made a person "one with Luna", and using context clues the players could only conclude that the ascendee must be dead before ascension can take place.

It wasn't until the Eternity Project's website went live, almost 10 years later, that more information could be gleaned about the ascension ritual itself. The 'About' page for the Eternity Project explains it was initially believed that an ascendee needed to be a child, as they apparently had an innate sense of purity, and that a "critical" amount of adrenaline was needed to achieve the "spiritual release" necessary for ascension to occur. This was achieved by subjecting the ascendee to a fantastic, violent death, for example, Ben drowned, and Kelbris was electrocuted. However, the practitioners evidently learned much later that such things had no effect on the success of the procedure, and gradually developed far more "humane" methods.

According to the Eternity Project, Kelbris was the first person to successfully ascend in 1998, Ben being the second in 2002. Since Ben, the ascension ritual has resulted in the ascendee being digitized and inserted into a cartridge of Majora's Mask as code. What this meant for Kelbris during the 5 year interim is unknown — the website states that he was placed in a vessel now deemed "archaic", and was in isolation for an extended period of time. It is for these reasons that some believed Kelbris had become the sadistic, violent Father known by 2010, although others assumed it was more a result of the rudimentary way he ascended.

Although ascension is given a divine and paradisiacal dimension by the Moon Children/Eternity Project, the reality of it is anything but. For one, Ascension isn't necessarily voluntary, for example, Jadusable, Alex, Ifrit, and Rosa were evidently ascended against their wills. Furthermore, as evidenced by Kelbris' transformation following his ascension, existence post-ascension is not the blissful unity with Luna promised to Moonchild cultists. Ben became little more than a puppet of Kelbris/The Father, and in moments of freedom, constantly begged Jadusable for help. Wayward Horizon, a forum on Within Hubris which served as an apparent repository for those who had ascended, contained several communications from previous ascendees: Nekko, for instance, is terrified and confused and begs for his mother, and Duskworld23 comments that there is no peace after ascension and that he's been trying to 'kill' himself so that he doesn't become "lost". Even Kelbris himself, despite his apparent insanity, expresses suspiciously lucid moments of turmoil, most infamously repeatedly claiming that "they" had taken his eyes, and with the discovery of the Eternity Project site, players discovered a new declaration that "they" had lied to him, along with a plea that he be allowed to die. Those who have ascended can also apparently amalgamate with one another if they share malicious intents, in one such instance resulting in the creation of BEN.

Known ascensions

The following individuals are known to have been successfully ascended:

• Kelbris
• Ben
• Nekko
• Ifrit
• Rosa
• Alex
• Duskworld23
• Insidiae
• Rem
• Circle
• Ryan
• Jadusable