Ascending Path
The Ascending Path is one of the sects that arose in the aftermath of Wishgranter's Passage. Like most of them it attempted to weave the phenomenon in questions (and the individualities that it brought to the world) into its system of beliefs, taking advantage of the uncertainty and chaos of the new area to make people flock to it in hopes for finding answers.
It is generally considered to be most successful modern cult of this particular branch of religions. This didn't stop the Ascending Path from becoming a part of the VIllain Alliance of America and participating in the Liberation Festival attack, being thus designated as a villainous organization.
Structure
As one can expect from a cult, all of the followers of that particular religion double as members of the Ascending Path as an organization. The organization is strictly hierarchical, divided between three main strata.
The first one are regular followers, typically trained in combat for the sake of defending and maintaining the temples of the Ascending Path. They are basically speaking the AP's equivalent of mooks. Expect them to be fanatically loyal to the cult, on several occassions to the point of acting as suicide bombers to delay the assault.
Above them is the priesthood. Priesthood of the Ascending Path is uniformly composed of the exalted - people that underwent a form of apotheosis at the hands of Judgment, becoming something distinctly different than humans. They are minor shapeshifters, fused with their individualities (or, in a certain way, 'granted' those in the process when they lacked one to begin with).
They lack biological bodies, being capable of regenerating from otherwise mortal injuries while having their individualities slightly strengthened. Their local structures typically include a single High Priest that's supposed to oversee the operation in question while commanding the priesthood and through them, the local followers.
Above the priesthood are the Disciples. Disciplies are converts of particularly powerful individualities that underwent the exaltation and become fervent followers of Judgment. They are almost uniformly former heroes and villains of strong and well-trained individualities, playing the role of villain lieutenants for the Ascending Path.
Most of them accompany Judgment for most of the time, but sometimes they are deployed to assist the local cult branches or to strike against the enemies of the Path. Their words - as one coming from those close to Judgment herself - carry great weight, surpassing even the most important of high priests.
Public Agenda
Ascending Path is an enemy of the Government by the virtue of Judgment finding her own faith incompatible with what can be considered the country's common sense. Ascending Path is, in the end, a form of a suicide cult, one worshipping daughter of Archvile as a deity. From Judgment's point of view, Heroes storming the Path's facilities was just a matter of time.
As a result, her participation in the Liberation Festival was a form of a preemptive strike. A fact much more logical when you take into account the fact that the heroes DID, in fact, planned a crackdown on the Path operations, treating it as a 'normal' cult and completely unaware of the true scope of exaltation.
History
Judgment began to organize the Ascending Path during the last months of the First Villain War, taking advantage of the Villain Academy's network of contacts and her father's name to add some weight to her promises of apotheosis. She immediately cut her ties with the Academy following her betrayal of her father and his subsequent death.
She is known to have supported Revenant during his ascension to the seat of the president of the VIllain Alliance of America, and pooled her forces with the rest of the organization during the Liberation Festival.
Divine Origins
It is unknown why Judgment decided to establish a religion in question. However it is known that she wrote the theological foundation of the cult personally. Some claim that she used a past-seeing individuality to observe the Wishgranter itself during its procession through the Solar System, and somehow managed to not be driven mad - and that's what gave birth to the Path's theology.
In the end, what's certain is that she began to establish the organizational foundations of the Cult in question a few months before the conclusion of the First Villain War.
Cosmological Views
Ascending Path sees the Wishgranter as a god that has given Mankind a chance at ascending to the next step of its evolution - namely, becoming exalted and abandoning its 'prisons of flesh'. Judgment is the vessel of his will, a voice translating his words into the languages of Men, and also a part of Wishgranter itself (the intentional parallels with Christianity and its Messiah are, as stated, intentional).
Whether Wishgranter was actually a Creator of a world, its messenger or something else entirely is a matter of theological debates within the ranks of the Path.
Tenets of Faith
The Ascending Path espouses personal strength and readiness to defend the community (i.e. other followers of Judgment) with it. Perhaps due to Judgment's own trust issues leading to her personal hatred of lies, tricks and even white lies, honesty is considered to be one of the chief virtues (together with bravery, loyalty and diligence) of the Path. This gave birth to a certain form of martial honor that makes the Path forces prefer frontal engagements to acts of combat deception of trickery.
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