Spherical plants of varying size, dovin basals were able to generate powerful gravitational fields that were used mainly as propulsion devices and shields. They were capable of creating micro-black holes that could absorb laser shots at spacecraft, as well as almost anything else, from proton torpedoes to concussion missiles. Groups of dovin basals were capable of generating inhibition fields which served as a type of force field to trap enemies in certain areas. These fields could also pull ships out of hyperspace.
Dovin basals could also dramatically drain deflector shields from nearby enemy craft. However, New Republic technicians developed an effective counter to the shield-draining technique. By expanding the sphere of the inertial compensator to thirteen meters, it would protect the shields like it would protect against any other stress on the craft. Nevertheless, if enough dovin basals locked their gravity beams onto the shields, the inertial compensator would expend too much energy, tearing the craft to shreds.
Dovin basals were grown in the company of yammosks. A yammosk would bond with the dovin basals to which it was assigned as it would its children; a well-kept yammosk produced faster dovin basals. The dovin basals used to propel ships were telepathically linked to the yammosk, which would propel the craft to keep its children from harm. It was noted that the Yuuzhan Vong's navigational system was based on their gravitational technology with each vessel possessing a unique gravitic voice, much like a fingerprint.
Some Yuuzhan Vong vessels also contained a Keeper which held a powerful dovin basal. These were used to counteract the tactics of the inhabitants of the Promised Land, sometimes pouring intense firepower to weaken the gravitic organisms. The keepers were well protected and were assigned a more powerful warship to protect it. These protector ships would have an especially large dovin basal, presumably for better shielding ability.
Furthermore, they could be used as weapons against planets: a powerful dovin basal dropped on the surface of a planet could target a moon to slow its orbit and cause it to crash on the planet, decimating both, in a tactic known as Yo'gand's Core. Another tactic involved the insertion of planetary shielding teams who, once deployed onto a world, would place a dovin basal upon a moon in its planetary orbit. The planet's defense platforms could then be swept out of their positions.
Dovin basal mines were used extensively as interdiction tools and were used throughout the Yuuzhan Vong War. The organisms' gravitic nature meant that they were just as easily able to move about space and enter a battlefield where they could be commanded to strip the shields of enemy ships.
One type of subspecies of dovin basal, shaped like small stars, were used as a jamming tool. These were seeded onto infidel ships in the Promised Land, where they created gravitic distortions that prevented the enemy from sending any transmissions as they were sucked into a black hole.
Master Shaper Nen Yim created a special breed of dovin basals which she installed on a captured Sekotan Personal Starship. They were a prototype for a new type of dovin basal which was capable of collapsing gravity disturbances like those generated by an Interdictor.
Singularity mines were a small type of dovin basal used as mines that created a small quantum singularity to consume objects around it.
The Mabugat kan was a species that was bred from dovin basals. It was used to hamper HoloNet communications.
Dovin basals were first used as a devastating weapon on the planet Ygziir in the Yuuzhan Vong home galaxy, by the ancient Warmaster Yo'gand during the Cremlevian War. They were later used to power the exodus of the Yuuzhan Vong Worldships from their home galaxy to their Promised Land.
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, the alien invaders used the tactic against Sernpidal through its moon Dobido, and Kalarba through the orbiting Hosk Station and its living moon Indobok. The dovin basals proved to be a potent weapon of the Yuuzhan Vong as they were used to strip enemy ships of their shields until the New Republic developed means to compensate for this advantage.
The planet Tynna was an ideal location for dovin basal growth, and its crystal blue waters were degraded to a sickly pale yellow by the Yuuzhan Vong while the native Tynnan stood by in fear. This allowed the Yuuzhan Vong empire to grow dovin basals of suitable size for the conquest of Coruscant and to take out the planetary shield.
During the conquest of Borleias, the Yuuzhan Vong deployed a planetary shield team onto its surface in order to place a large dovin basal on the planet's moon which was used to sweep away the orbiting defenses.
The Yuuzhan Vong also began the process of seeding hyperspace routes with dovin basal interdictor mines which were programmed to bring infidel ships out of hyperspace. They were also covertly used to map the gravitic signature of Yuuzhan Vong ships and report them to the Warmaster.
Qelah Kwaad was also involved in the use of merging dovin basals with that of a navigational drone which were used to disrupt the infidel use of the HoloNet by destroying the transceiver stations.
After the Yuuzhan Vong War, all surviving dovin basals reverted to their pre-engineered forms on Zonama Sekot and melded with the planet's environment.
- The Essential Guide to Alien Species
- The Official Star Wars Fact File9
- The New Jedi Order Sourcebook
- Coruscant and the Core Worlds
- Starships of the Galaxy, Saga Edition
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Guide to Warfare