Readers of Alyssa Wong’s always entertaining Doctor Aphra run will be familiar with the Ascendant and its incredibly deadly weapon the Spark Eternal, and writing over at StarWars.com Emily Shkoukani delves into the lore of the Ascendant to lay down precisely what a threat it is, not only to Aphra and friends but potentially for the entire galaxy.
There are two things that define the Ascendant: technology and the occult. The Ascendant were not Force users but Force fanatics, obsessed with replicating the effects of the dark side in similar ways to how the Sith used it, and beyond. To do this, the Ascendant used clever tricks, technology, dark sciences, and rituals to achieve this mimicry of the Force.
One such technology was the thought dowser, a device capable of amplifying the wielder’s thoughts in order to persuade another being to do whatever they wanted. Using a special material to amplify the user’s thoughts, the thought dowser was effective and, although the Sith were generally wary of the Ascendant, they were known to use this type of technology to aid their apprentices in honing their innate abilities.
You can hear Alyssa discuss Doctor Aphra during our chat with her in Artists Alley at New York Comic Con earlier this month below, and on a special NYCC 2022 focused episode of Canon Fodder.
