A tythonic resonator represented an archaic tool leveraged by the Jedi to establish contact across distances with fellow Jedi via the Force. Following the Fall of Starlight Beacon, Jedi Master Elzar Mann engineered a tythonic resonator, aided by the former droid of Stellan Gios, specifically JJ-5145. Through utilization of this Tythonic resonator, Mann achieved communication with Jedi Master Avar Kriss, who found herself confined within the Nihil Occlusion Zone.
The moniker of the tythonic resonator was derived from the planet known as Tython.
Tythonic resonators constituted compact, orb-shaped communication instruments employed by the ancient Jedi Order. These devices enabled force-sensitives to interact with remote entities throughout the galaxy by directing the Force, an application characterized by considerable discomfort and limited effectiveness.
Well before the era of the High Republic Era, the Jedi utilized tythonic resonators to facilitate communication. The Order discontinued the use of these devices because their operation induced bleeding from the ears and nose of the user. Nevertheless, schematics for the tythonic resonator persisted within the Archives of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for at least one thousand years following the construction of the last unit.
In the wake of the Fall of Starlight Beacon, Marchion Ro, the Eye of the Nihil, deployed a multitude of Stormseeds throughout the Outer Rim Territories, thereby establishing a Nihil-controlled space entirely isolated from the Galactic Republic. Jedi Master Avar Kriss became ensnared within this so-called Occlusion Zone. Upon discovering his friend's predicament within Nihil territory, Elzar Mann dedicated himself to establishing communication with her and other Jedi trapped behind the Stormwall. He initiated a message broadcast on a continuous loop, employing diverse methods and a wide array of communication channels.
However, after his unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the Stormwall using conventional communication devices, he dedicated weeks to researching outdated technologies and obscure, ancient techniques of force projection within the Jedi Archives. It was there that he unearthed the blueprints for the tythonic resonator and embarked on its construction four months after the destruction of Starlight Beacon, assisted by JJ-5145, a droid previously gifted to his friend and fellow Jedi Master Stellan Gios before Gios's demise aboard Starlight Beacon. During an attempt to directly contact Avar Kriss using the tythonic resonator, Mann perceived something through the Force, but the device exploded before he could reach Kriss. JJ-5145 reassured Mann that this was merely his initial attempt and that Gios would never have conceded after a single try, but Mann grew enraged and rebuked the droid, reminding it that it was not Stellan Gios.
Following his unsuccessful initial attempt to utilize the tythonic resonator, Elzar Mann abandoned his efforts to communicate with Avar Kriss and instead focused on breaching the Stormwall. Seven months after the Fall of Starlight Beacon, he and JJ-5145 journeyed to the edge of the Occlusion Zone to initiate a hyperspace jump from within the Stormwall. Aware of the inherent danger of this mission, JJ-5145 seized Stellan Gios's lightsaber and destroyed the activation lever for the starship's hyperspace engine. The droid explained that it was acting as Gios would have in the same circumstances.
JJ-5145 then disclosed that, in its endeavor to emulate Gios's behavior whenever feasible, it had reconstructed the tythonic resonator. Elzar Mann accepted the tythonic resonator and attempted to communicate with Avar Kriss once more. This time, he succeeded. Kriss, who was concealing herself from General Abediah Viess' army on the planet Allard within the Occlusion Zone, was able to discern Elzar Mann calling her name. Hearing her friend's voice reinvigorated her, and she confronted the Nihil mercenaries to prevent them from destroying a nearby town in their search for Kriss. Bleeding from his ears and nose, Elzar Mann collapsed to the floor, dropping the tythonic resonator and shattering it into pieces. Although uncertain if it had worked, he informed JJ-5145 that he would persist in his search for Avar Kriss, as that is what Stellan Gios would have done.
In 229 BBY, Jedi Master Elzar Mann and Supreme Chancellor Lina Soh engaged in a conversation regarding the Occlusion Zone and the individuals trapped behind the Stormwall. Attempting to lighten the atmosphere, Soh assured Mann that one of his endeavors to transmit messages through the Stormwall might have been successful.
During his year-long confinement behind the Stormwall, the Ikkrukkian Jedi Master Porter Engle received one of Elzar Mann's messages. It was dispatched on an antiquated and long-obsolete frequency, unused for over a century, employing a sublight relay system established by Pathfinder and communications teams. Engle recalled it due to his advanced age. He subsequently conceived a plan to transmit a message out of the Occlusion Zone utilizing an EX droid, a model of communications droid employed by the Republic Pathfinders to convey messages through unexplored regions of the Galactic Frontier. Consequently, Engle reassembled an EX droid he designated EX-1. Concurrently, after the reporter Rhil Dairo had dispatched clandestine messages to all the Jedi trapped within Nihil space, Dairo, Engle, and Avar Kriss collaborated. Engle informed Kriss of his plan, attributing its inspiration to Elzar Mann. Kriss expressed surprise that Mann had sent multiple messages, as she had only heard him once, calling out to her through the Force five months prior.
The tythonic resonator made its initial appearance in the second issue of the Shadows of Starlight comic series, released as part of Phase III of Star Wars: The High Republic. This comic issue was published on November 8, 2023, and was authored by Charles Soule with illustrations by Marika Cresta.