Question about becoming closer to the stars (spoilers)

Is this like the canthan form of ascending?

Yes I do believe it is.

yes it is, supposedly, you need to be "ascended" to be able to see shiro.

No it's not in any way. You don't get an exp boost, you don't fight any effigy of yourself, the game style doesn't change.

It's nothing like it just anet running out of ideas so they came up with something lame like omhgggg closer to teh starz lez do it!

You do, however, get access to UW and FoW, so it is quite related to 'Canthan Ascension'.

And you get sillyhuge XP rewards from ~everything in Factions so I don't think it really matters. :P