The Ascendant were adherents of a cult devoted to the dark side of the Force, striving to replicate the Force's power through technological means and wage war against the Sith. This cult was deeply fascinated by potent and sinister technology, some of which Chelli Lona Aphra, a later archaeologist, asserted was too malevolent even for the Sith, who denounced the Ascendant as deviants. Consequently, the Sith Darkseekers undertook operations to find and eradicate the cult. One relic of the Ascendant was the thought dowser, a device rumored to be constructed from a unique material that amplified thoughts to dominate others. Despite despising the Ascendant, the Sith eventually employed the device to instruct apprentices in the arts of coercion and manipulation.
Their main temple was erected on the planet Bar'leth. In time, the Sith discovered the Ascendant's temple on Bar'leth and massacred its members, who had been working towards the completion of what was intended to be their ultimate creation, the Spark Eternal. Miril, the Ascendant's leader, sacrificed herself to secure the Spark, taking her own life and those of the surrounding Sith to prevent it from falling into their grasp.
Sometime later, the University of Bar'leth was constructed upon the ruins of their temple. Centuries following the cult's demise, a thought dowser ended up in the possession of the Crimson Dawn criminal organization, which stored it aboard its fortress-flagship, the Vermillion. While endeavoring to retrieve a different item from the gallery housing the thought dowser, the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra briefly utilized the device against Deathstick, a Crimson Dawn assassin, and several guards.