The Daevas & Ascension
Every player character in AION is a Daeva - an ascended, winged, flight-capable being. It's the fantasy at the heart of the series: you aren't just a soldier, you're a mortal who transcended into something closer to a god. Here's where that power comes from, and why it's fading in AION 2.
✨ What is a Daeva?
Daevas are humans who ascended - mortals who connected deeply enough with Aether, the life-energy of Atreia, to gain power far beyond ordinary people. Ascension grants a Daeva their signature traits: greatly extended life, superhuman ability, and most iconically, wings and the power of flight.
This wasn't vanity - it was necessity. Aion empowered humans into Daevas specifically so they could stand against the Balaur, the dragon empire that ordinary mortals had no hope of fighting. Both the Elyos and the Asmodians are Daeva; the faction split didn't change that shared ascended nature.
🪽 Wings & flight - the signature of AION
Flight is AION's calling card. A Daeva's wings aren't just cosmetic - in the games they're tied to real traversal and combat systems. In the original AION, players could ride windstreams, catch updrafts and geysers to ascend, and engage in genuine aerial movement and combat.
AION 2 carries the wings forward as a core identity piece - the game lets you fully customize your wings as part of an extensive character creator (reportedly 200+ adjustable features). Your wings are your ascension made visible.
📉 Why the Daevas are fading in AION 2
Here's the twist that defines AION 2's era: set roughly 200 years after the original, in a world where the Tower of Aion has fallen, the Daevas are gradually losing their power. The source of ascension is no longer what it was.
That decline is more than backstory - it's the emotional stakes of the sequel. The winged immortals who once dominated Atreia are diminished, the faction war grinds on, and the Balaur still circle. You're playing in the twilight of the Daevas' golden age, fighting to matter in a world where the old power is running out.
🎮 Lore into gameplay
Understanding ascension reframes the whole experience: your class, your flight, your fight against the dragons - all of it flows from being a Daeva. When you customize your wings in AION 2, you're literally shaping your ascension. When you take to the air, you're doing the one thing that made humanity able to survive the Balaur at all.
📚 Keep going
- The Story of AION, explained - the full timeline
- Elyos vs Asmodian - the two Daeva factions
- The Balaur & Dragon Lords - the enemy ascension was made to fight
- Ready to ascend? Pick a class and grab a build.