Ascendant

The Ascendant was a cult aligned with the dark side of the Force that sought to recreate the power of the Force with technology and fight against the Sith. The cult was obsessed with powerful and dark technology, some of which the later archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra claimed was too dark even for the Sith, who decried the Ascendant as heretics. As such, the Sith Darkseekers made efforts to locate and destroy the cult. One artifact of the Ascendant was the thought dowser, a device that, according to legend, was made of a special material that amplified thoughts to control others. Despite their hate of the Ascendant, the Sith came to use the device to teach apprentices how to compel and manipulate people.

They built their main temple on Bar'leth. Eventually, the Sith located the Ascendant's temple on Bar'leth and slaughtered its members, who had been working on completing what was poised to become their crowning achievement, the Spark Eternal. Ascendant leader Miril gave her life to lock the Spark away, killing herself and the surrounding Sith to ensure it would not fall under their control.

At some point, the University of Bar'leth was built on the ruins of their temple. Centuries after the cult's destruction. one thought dowser fell into the hands of the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate, which kept it aboard its fortress-flagship, Vermillion. While attempting to retrieve another item from the gallery where the thought dowser was kept, the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra briefly wielded the device against the Crimson Dawn assassin Deathstick and several guards.