If the candidate is considered to meet the requirements, they must officially state their wish to abandon their humanity in the service of Heaven. This process is known as ''ascension'', as it is implied that becoming angelic is to be above being human. The process is extensive and deeply changing, transforming the candidate's body, mind, and capabilities to such a point that they are no longer recognizable. All potential candidates are informed of the changes that will occur should they ascend.
The first changes are physical; regardless of the age, species, and biological sex of the applicant, their body will be transformed into the general shape of a young, female human. If they happened to already match that description, their physiological traits will be modified to make them unrecognizable. Smaller details, such as skin tone, eye and hair color, and other miscellanea are usually retained. The new body is what Heaven refers to as ''"permanent purity"''; shrine maidens become permanently sterile, but in exchange, they also cease visibly agingbecome ageless, permanently young creatures. The life expectancy of a shrine maiden is not unlimited, but is over double that of an average human, at roughly 150 years. This, however, only explains half of the meaning behind the word ''maiden''.
The second set of changes is mental; shrine maidens partially lose their sense of self and are hardwired to see themselves as an extension of Heaven as an entity more than as individuals. Some have debated whether this constituted losing free will, but this question is considered taboo; bringing the subject up is a great way to be thrown out of an Angelic town. As part of this loss of "sense of self", there is also a sense that their identity is "Angelic". Though it is customary and polite to refer to all shrine maidens as female, using female pronouns, evidence suggests that they may really be neither male, female, nor anything in between and that their "true" gender is some Angelic form of non-binary; thus explaining the other half of the meaning behind the word ''maiden''.