Using a fleet of the battleships, Kumauri forged an empire by conquering dozens of star systems on the Galactic Republic's periphery. The Republic engaged the Kumauri Empire in a brief conflict, during which Kumauri's flagship participated in a battle. Ultimately, the Kumauri domain was defeated and eventually nearly forgotten, although Kumauri's legacy lived on through his battleship design, which proved influential in space warfare for centuries to come, and the use of the madilon alloy, which remained crucial in hyperdrive manufacture.
Vall Kumauri was a warlord who lived during the Ductavis Era, a period of time lasting from approximately 11,000 BBY to 9000 BBY. In 10,000 BBY, the young Kumauri designed and created a revolutionary new line of battleship in the outlying regions of the Galactic Republic. Grandiosely named the Kumauri Battleship after the warlord himself, the line consisted of highly sophisticated massive capital ships, each equipped with several tractor beam projectors and an immense mass driver cannon serving as the warship's primary weapon.
Vall Kumauri designed a battleship line named after himself.
The tractor beam projectors could be used to tow in asteroids and other space debris into the starship, which the mass driver cannon would then accelerate to high velocities at enemy targets, similarly to the planechanga rail guns of the ancient Hutt Empire. Such a tactic could be used to destroy enemy starships. In addition, since neither sufficiently powerful planetary shield technology nor planet-based weapons existed at the time, Kumauri's battleships could turn asteroids into missiles for the orbital bombardment of planets. Small space rocks that were propelled in such manner were capable of destroying entire cities, while larger asteroids possessed the potential to completely disrupt the ecological balance of a planet they were fired at. Kumauri's innovation changed the paradigm of space warfare, since for eons no capital ship had been equipped with weapons powerful enough to cause sustained damage on a planet's surface from space.
Kumauri's ships also utilized madilon—an alloy discovered in 10,000 BBY that naturally occurred on several planets such as Nyriaan—which allowed the manufacture of smaller and more efficient hyperdrive engines. The battleships also implemented advanced targeting techniques that, while less well-known, were arguably crucial to the vessels' success.
Amassing a small fleet of the new battleships, Kumauri conquered several dozen star systems of the Republic's periphery around 10,000 BBY giving rise to the Kumauri Empire. The warlord's fleet proved surprisingly effective, and his battleships, especially the last of the line, the Cal-class, became a symbol of extreme terror. The Galactic Republic was provoked by the emergence of the Kumauri Empire and engaged in a brief conflict with it. The war saw the first widespread use of large capital ships in approximately five millennia, and, during the conflict, Kumauri's flagship participated in a battle that was eventually depicted in a fresco in a Kumauri Empire palace on an Outer Rim Territories moon.
Kumauri's empire was defeated by the Republic and imploded within a few years of the former's creation. Although the civilization created by the warlord had become almost forgotten by 3643 BBY, the Kumauri Battleship, which saw continued use in hundreds of other navies, including that of the Republic, and which remained influential in space warfare for several centuries, remained as a legacy of his efforts. Ultimately, however, Kumauri's most important innovation proved to be the use of madilon, which continued up until the reign of the Fel Empire in 130 ABY.
Vall Kumauri had sufficient technical expertise to design and build a revolutionary battleship line.
Vall Kumauri was created by Paul Sudlow and was introduced in Cracken's Rebel Operatives, a 1994 West End Games sourcebook published for use with Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.
- Cracken's Rebel Operatives
- The Official Star Wars Fact File30
- The Essential Guide to Warfare