The Ascension Corps

## The First Climbers

The Ascension Corps were the first set of Climbers, originally called Black Tower Ascenders. They mapped the earliest routes through the first 10 Floors, and established the camp that would later prosper into Purgatory. The Ascension Corps numbered 30, and consisted largely of people from what would become the Western Eurnu League.

## Legacy [MAJOR SPOILER WARNING]

Over a thousand years ago, they landed on the shores of the island, and were greeted by the Melei people, who they knew as the Garena. The elders of the Melei explained that they bore the color purple, which tied to an ancient prophecy, one clad in purple would ascend to the top of the Obelisk and become as a god.

The Ascension Corps pressed on, losing their translator, Andre, and a doctor, Tobias, on the ascent. When they reached the impassable 10th Floor, the disheartened Corps descended the Obelisk. However, several of the members among them were struck with the Shadow Virus, and one withered away before they realized the danger of the sickness.

[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE ENTIERETY OF KIERAN DRIFTER'S STORYLINE]

The Corps would later find themselves stuck in the fourth Floor, the Ice Slopes, as the sickness gradually took them, and a blizzard rolled in. the leader of the Corps, Marcus, and his lieutenant, James, broke into a fight as a blizzard threatened to roll in. James insisted they would have better odds trying to get past the blizzard, and Marcus demanded that they stay and attempt to stop the sickness here.

After they came to blows, James and three other Ascension Corps members would leave, heading towards the bottom of the Obelisk. Meanwhile, Marcus looked into an old fable that the Melei had told the Corps of "Rocks that heal briefly", and found his answer when he cracked open a rock from the eighth Floor. Inside was a strange, red substance akin to a moss. The substance, when ground into a paste and applied to the sickness, would seemingly cure it.

Marcus and Blake Baines, the last two healthy members of the Corps, would watch as their friends grew healthy, and then seemingly began to grow ill again overnight. This time, they gradually melted into a red substance like moss, lichen, and slime mixed together. Marcus, horribly distraught, began to lose grip on sanity, and would wander out into the Ice Slopes for extended periods of time.

Baines went to sleep one night to find the next morning that her sick friends fully melted in the morning, fusing her from the waist down with the red mass. Marcus would return, psychotic, and accuse her of planning this against him. When he raised his sword to attack her, he came to the realization of what happened, and stumbled outside before committing suicide on his own blade, leaving Baines to die as the red substance gnawed away at her.

But it stopped spreading. Nourished for hundreds of years in a sealed-away cave, Blake Baines was completely isolated from reality, until she was contacted by an outside voice. The voice of a Keter-Class Climber, who would become her lifeline to reality.

James and his small group would descend back to the camp, and eventually found Purgatory, never knowing what happened to their comrades. All they found was Marcus's Cane Sword, buried in the snow.

## Notable Members

Blake Baines: The last surviving member of the Corps, trapped inside a cave in the Ice Slopes.

Marcus: The Captain of the Corps, committed suicide after going insane in the Ice Slopes.

Andre: The translator of the Ascension Corps, died when attacked by the Green Hounds.

James: The Lieutenant of the Ascension Corps, founded Purgatory.

Tobias: A doctor of the Ascension Corps, died when his cables broke, dropping him off the edge of a cliff in the 8th Floor.