Hi! Thank you for the message, I was notified of this just now.
I think I can see the confusion. There are currently a few things you can pick as a player:
Your Lord Type: Ascended Champion.
An Ascension Trait that you receive when you win a game and your lord enters the Pantheon.
As shown in the image shared before (I will share it here as well), the lore of the Ascended Champion lord type (when you pick it) is that they are already Godir (Ascended being past tense). However, we like the flavor that the player can apply themselves, that their first time playing means they are on their way to ascension. The first Story Realm plays with this idea too: it tells the story of a ruler who ascends afterward, even though they are already playing as an "Ascended Champion". But for the story in story realm 1, it felt fitting to play as a new ruler who ascends through the story.
Even as an Ascended Champion who may start the mission as a mortal, you wield cosmic powers of increasing scale throughout the game. And all rulers, even new ones, start their journey through the Magehaven portals.
From a technical/time perspective we can also not differentiate between whether this is your first time playing or not. So for events we try to keep it in the middle whether you are recently ascended/pre-ascension, although some events imply you are at least already far underway-- your people worrying about you losing your connection to them, reminiscing about the life you had before being a Godir was even within reach, et cetera.
I personally like the storyline of an Ascended Champion's first run being their ascension from their mortal status
I think it provides a nice story. But it is not something we force upon a player who wants to play their Ascended Champion as if they have been around for a long time.
As far as any bonuses the lord type "Ascended Champion" grants, I personally see it as that your legend as a Ruler has already gotten big enough for these bonuses to apply and your people already revere you, regardless of your actual "Pantheon Status", so to say
So, tl;dr: Lore implies they have already Ascended, but we try to allow the freedom for them to be in the states in-between as well ^^
Ascension Traits that you get after winning a game and when the Ruler is added to your Pantheon, are different from the Ascended Champion ruler type and its related bonuses. I do understand the confusion though.
I hope this helps!
