Create better serialization/deserialization testing

[LastTalon]

Problem

Currently much of the serialization/deserialization code is not tested as it can't be isolated from data stores it uses. This makes it brittle as we only know it's working in the cases we actually use it in.

Proposed solution

We should decompose parts of the serialization such as data store name resolution so that we can more easily mock parts to test others and ensure they work as expected.

Alternatives

We could attempt end to end testing here, but it doesn't really achieve what we desire with unit/integration testing our serialization.