Amusingly, the AoC designers have opted to handle the entire deal in-character. The NPC, Mara, can be found just inside the main gate to the Tortage area (just after the Ape King) and, when spoken to, offers you the use of a potent artifact that will bring you strange powers. If you take her up on the offer, you're teleported to your homeland, bumped to level 37, given a selection of blue and green gear to use (a few items are sometimes unwearable, but they're ironing that bug out) and handed 100 gold to spend. While this is more than enough for a mount and the requisite training, you have to be at least level 40 to train the requisite feat, so think twice before rushing off to buy a horse.
Later adjustments to the system will allow leveling up to higher levels, but level 37 is not bad to be going on with. It certainly allows for more interesting PvP testing than just running around on White Sands. There have been some problems with Mara going suddenly AWOL for no appreciable reason, causing some newer testers to wail that she was a cruel joke by the players all along, but don't worry, she's real.
