Ascension Rites

The Nakhti Ascension Rites are a competition the Nakhti use to find a new emperor when their current one is unable to lead them. Traditionally only Nakhti are allowed to fight, and only a Nakhti can become the new emperor.

The Rites consist of numerous tournaments comparable to those in the Liandri Grand Tournament. However, competitors are allowed to bring a set of personal guns which can be used to freeze opponents, and more importantly, bring a melee weapon of their choice. These melee weapons can be used to fight opponents, reflect incoming projectiles, and to generate a shield, comparable to that of the Shield Gun.

Unreal Championship 2
The story of the 523rd Nakhti Ascension Rites is told in Unreal Championship 2. For the first time the Ascension Rites are sponsored by the Liandri Mining Corporation, who use them as a qualifying tournament for their Liandri Grand Tournament by allowing outsides to participate in the earlier tournaments.

Unknown to the public, the Liandri have an ulterior motive; by entering their puppet Selket, a powerful Nakhti fighter, they want to be able to control the Nakhti people. Anubis, member of the Nakhti Imperial Legion and former suitor of Selket, realises this and signs up for the Ascension Rites to stop her. Both Selket and Anubus fight their way through the tournaments and are finally pitted against each other in the final round, which is traditionally played with the respawning technology turned off.

Anubis manages to kill Selket and win the emperor's scepter, but grieves it has come to this. The Liandri realised this could happen as soon as Anubis entered the Ascension Rites and had already formed a contingency plan. They offer Anubis to bring back Selket as a Necris by paying the Phayder Corporation an insane amount of money even the Nakhti emperor wouldn't have access to. Anubis accepts the offer but is forced to fight in the Liandri Grand Tournament against his wish.