- "The Tessent? Half-meter-tall chunk of rock. Clear in places, kind of milky in others, with bands of color running through it.""
- ―Barzur Antilles
The Alsakan Tessent was one of two infamous statues, the other referred to as the Ayrou Tessent. The Alsakan version represented the creature of that world's legends, a fierce feline-avian that supposedly came to the aid of its early rulers in times of need.
Description[]
This version of the Tensest was dedicated to the ancient Kings of Archais who united the tribes of Alsakan. According to legend, the Tessent was a representation of the guardian of Saml Previl and the ancient Kings, and was a symbol of patriotism.
Properties[]
Described as having the head of a felinx and the body of a farlus hawk, the chalcedony it was composed of was unremarkable, of a kind common in the region.
Rumors abounded of the idol possessing hidden secrets, including microscopically etched coordinates only visible in ultraviolet light existing on its base, or a datachip resting at the Tessent's heart. Most fanciful was the notion that the statue is a holoprojector that must be activated by a code phrase in order to see a secret message. The secret information was invariably linked to treasure or weapon caches hidden away in Alsakan's past.
History[]
The Tessent was created ca. 1000 BBY by a sculptor from the primitivist school of Collus Elder, out of milky chalcedony from the Archais quarries. Shortly before 0 ABY, the Tessent mysteriously vanished. At that time, massive rewards for its safe return were posted by the Alsakan. One Follnor Callat, a xenoarchaeologist, became a prominent seeker of the Tessent.
After its theft, reliable accounts of its whereabouts fractured into multiple theories, each equally unverifiable. One tale described the theft of the Tessent by a Guard of Aldera who fled to the Ast Kikorie system, where he met his fate in a meteorite shower in orbit of the primary planet, leaving the Tessent in the debris field of the destroyed station.
Alternately, it was said to have become the possession of a crime lord who resided on Sarafur, or fallen into the hands of grave-robbers on that world. Shistavanen lore held that the Dark Jedi Jilst Bindalin stole the Tessent to present as an offering to the Killik Sith Lord that once lived there.
Behind the scenes[]
One possible depiction of the Tessent
A number of telling continuity issues and typos in the article strongly indicate that the original name of the statue was the Alderaan Tessent, and was intended to have that world as its origin. At some point, the location was changed and all references to "Alderaan" were changed to "Alsakan." This left a few vestigial terms such as "Aldera" and "Alderaanian" present in the final product, as well as a reference to a pacifistic world and the destruction of "Alsakan".
