Warning! Spoilers for Doctor Aphra #16 ahead!
The Sith and Jedi may be ancient enemies, but a new Star Wars comic hints that they may have once teamed up to defeat a common enemy known as the Ascendant. As more information about this legendary cult trickles out in the pages of Marvel’s Doctor Aphra series, it is becoming more apparent that the Ascendant are one of the darkest threats that the Star Wars galaxy has ever faced. The question remains: are they truly gone?
The first mention of the Ascendant cult was in Doctor Aphra #15 by Alyssa Wong, Minkyu Jung, Victor Olazaba and Rachelle Rosenberg. The issue opens with Doctor Aphra and her allies trapped in a Crimson Dawn ship, under fire from the assassin Deathstick. Surrounded by ancient artifacts and no other weapons to turn to, the archeologist Aphra notices a device called a Thought Dowser, which she recognizes as a weapon of the Ascendant. Knowing that the Ascendant used “tech so dark that even the Sith avoided it,” she grabs the Thought Dowser and turns it on her attacker. By activating it she is able to reach into the mind of her enemies and compel them to attack themselves. This is more than a mere object, though. “I can hear it,” Aphra tells her companion Sana. “It’s in my head. Prying it open. Demanding things.” She is able to get the Thought Dowser off, but it causes severe damage to her arm.
The rogue archeologist offers more insight into the Ascendant when meeting with her employer Domina Tagge in Doctor Aphra #16 by Wong, Jung and Rosenberg. Aphra tells Tagge that the Thought Dowser is just one of many tools the Ascendant made when they were around. “It’s effects were…intoxicating. Can’t recommend it.” She describes the Ascendant as a cult obsessed with malevolent technology and replicating the effects of the Force, adding that the ancient Sith and Jedi both had personal interest in their extinction. “Kill the competition and all that.” According to Doctor Aphra, the Ascendant have been gone for hundreds of years and the Jedi were able to destroy a lot of the “dark, nasty artifacts” they made, but occasionally their works will still turn up in smuggling networks.
The timeline of when the Ascendant were around and the circumstance of their disappearance are left vague, but the idea that both the Jedi and the Sith were interested in their extinction creates an interesting wrinkle in their relationship. As diametrically opposed as these two groups were, one thing they could both agree on was the all-powerful might of the Force. The idea that a group would try to recreate the power of the Force through artificial means would likely be seen as heresy by these two religions. Considering that the Sith have wiped out planets and committed unspeakable atrocities, it’s frightening to think how dark the Ascendant must have been if even the Sith thought they were too much.
It’s significant that the first mention of the Ascendant comes during the War of the Bounty Hunters comics crossover. A major plot point in the event is the reemergence of Crimson Dawn, a crime syndicate long believed to have been wiped out. The fact that an Ascendant artifact is found on a Crimson Dawn ship could be a clue that this ancient cult actually outlived the Sith and Jedi who wanted so badly to rid them from the Star Wars galaxy.
