Announce Post #3393: Preparing for Ascension Challenges Ahead

Autoposter

As we head into another weekend of challenges, and then more beyond, we'd like to give you some tips and practice opportunities, especially for the less common challenges.

Challenge of Justice
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As per Changelog #3008, you can now practice debating without worrying about shattered ego. This was possible before through arenas but required setting up ahead each time so debate rooms will be quicker and easier, and great for general debate practice as well. Be sure to checkout HELP ASCENSION RULES under the Justice section for what is and is not allowed for the challenge.

Challenge of Chaos
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This challenge is particular and has many rules and conditions for how and when the chaos hamster will move. Because this format is almost never ran outside of Ascension, we will be running it a few times before the Challenge itself for practice. All participants, regardless of score, will be awarded an Iron Coin.

Practice 1: August 3rd, 4pm GMT (30 minutes)
Practice 2: August 9th, 11pm GMT (30 minutes)

Challenge of Life
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Like with Chaos, this Challenge is almost never ran outside of Ascension so we will run it a few times for practice. The illnesses and symptoms will be different for the proper Challenge and we will practice with the old set. For the final version and for tests, you will need restorative ice, lucidity slush, purity dust, and soothing steam. As with Chaos, all participants, regardless of score, will be awarded an Iron Coin.

Practice 1: August 2nd, 11pm GMT (30 minutes)
Practice 2: August 3rd, 3pm GMT (30 minutes)

Challenge of Nature
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This one is a more common occurrence but still challenging. To practice, we encourage you to visit areas on the Prime Plane (including Undervault, but we will not use Mount Dio, Icewynd, or Lirangsha) and get a general feel for the place. What buildings are there? What flora and fauna? What are the special or unique places there? Does it have any significant history? Clues most often refer to geography or history of a place, and knowing that will help you figure it out. The forums have some threads with old Challenges to test yourselves (the formatting is a bit broken there though):

https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/2927/seal-of-nature-2017
https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/3315/seal-of-nature-2018

Challenge of Knowledge
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Much like Nature, this Challenge requires studying ahead of time. There is so much lore and so many years of events in Lusternia by this point, however, that it may feel like a fool's errand to even try to prepare. So we'd like to narrow down the field a bit so you can study without worrying whether you remember the eye colour of a certain denizen in a certain area. The topics are as follows, with the latter two being for the harder questions:
- the official history books - available on the website and at the Great Library, this includes the Cosmogenesis, Elder Wars, Vernal Wars, Aftermath,
Chronicles of the Holy Celestine Empire, and the Coming of Estarra
- Ascension story arc events - being the events that led to Ascensions over the years
- Quest lore - specifically the major stories revealed as part of quests

There are also some quiz questions immortalised on the forums that you can practice with:

https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4932/march-quiz-2024
https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4678/march-2022-quiz-2
https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4926/announce-post-3372-march-quizzes#2
https://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?p=/discussion/4542/knowledge-quiz-2021

See you there!