Need some help

I made the fatal mistake of letting people run me. So now I am level 12, unascended, but I have almost everytown waypoint in the game except for all the foresty type areas. So here's my dillema. I have no idea where to go at level 12...

Go back to all those towns and start doing quests to get your skills and do the missions to get the storyline. Then go and get your ascension missions.

Yup this happend to me the first time with my very first character. Didn't know what was a forge run and it was free so I tagged along. The people were kewl and I joined there guild, guilds can be very helpful on the progess or any questions you may have,

Getting run past everything is something some players do with multiple characters who don't want to go through everything again and just look to put key areas on their map. They have the knowledge, experience, and cash to buy what they need and will likely not need to go revisit certain missions to accomplish their goals.

This is not a good plan for a first time player. Even when you do this, you may be a fully buffed out lvl 20 player and some guildie wants your help in Aurora Glade and you don't even have it on your map. Hard to explain to a new player that you can't get where he just fought his way too at lvl 15.

Go back to Ascalon and start looking for anyone that has an exclamation mark above their head. Go back and redo the missions (towns with Shields rather than circle/dots) to get a better understanding of the story.