Vall Kumauri, a warlord, existed around the time of 10,000 BBY. During that year, the youthful Kumauri conceived of and constructed a ground-breaking series of battleships. These vessels incorporated tractor beam projectors along with mass driver cannons, allowing the user to launch captured asteroids at opposing starships and even planets in a method of orbital bombardment.
Kumauri utilized a fleet composed of these battleships to establish an empire through the conquest of numerous star systems situated on the edge of the Galactic Republic's territory. The Republic became involved with the Kumauri Empire in a short conflict, in which Kumauri's flagship took part in a battle. Ultimately, the Kumauri dominion was overcome and subsequently almost entirely forgotten. However, Kumauri's impact remained through his battleship design, which exerted considerable influence on space warfare in the centuries that followed, as well as the continued importance of the madilon alloy in the creation of hyperdrive systems.
Vall Kumauri was a warlord who lived during the Ductavis Era, a time period spanning from approximately 11,000 BBY to 9000 BBY. Back in 10,000 BBY, Kumauri, still a young man, conceived and constructed a revolutionary new series of battleship within the far-flung regions of the Galactic Republic. This series of ships, grandly named the Kumauri Battleship after the warlord himself, consisted of highly advanced and extremely large capital ships, each fitted with several tractor beam projectors along with a massive mass driver cannon which served as the warship's main armament.
The tractor beam projectors were capable of drawing in asteroids and other space debris toward the starship. The mass driver cannon would then accelerate these objects to high speeds, launching them at opposing targets, in a similar manner to the planechanga rail guns employed by the ancient Hutt Empire. This tactic could be employed to obliterate enemy starships. Moreover, since neither sufficiently potent planetary shield technology nor planet-based weaponry existed at that point, Kumauri's battleships could transform asteroids into missiles for the orbital bombardment of planets. Smaller space rocks propelled in this manner were capable of destroying entire cities, whereas larger asteroids possessed the capacity to thoroughly disrupt the ecological equilibrium of a planet they struck. Kumauri's innovation altered the nature of space warfare, since for countless years no capital ship had possessed weapons with sufficient power to inflict sustained damage on a planet's surface from space.
Kumauri's ships also made use of madilon—an alloy discovered in 10,000 BBY that naturally occurred on planets such as Nyriaan—which facilitated the creation of more compact and efficient hyperdrive engines. The battleships also used advanced targeting systems, which although less well-known, were arguably critical to the success of the vessels.
By assembling a small fleet of the new battleships, Kumauri conquered several dozen star systems on the Republic's periphery around 10,000 BBY, thus establishing the Kumauri Empire. The warlord's fleet proved surprisingly effective, and his battleships, particularly the last of the series, the Cal-class, became a symbol of extreme terror. The Galactic Republic was incited by the emergence of the Kumauri Empire and engaged in a short conflict with it. This war marked the first widespread deployment of large capital ships in approximately five millennia, and, during this conflict, Kumauri's flagship participated in a battle that was later depicted in a fresco located in a Kumauri Empire palace on an Outer Rim Territories moon.
Kumauri's empire was defeated by the Republic and fell apart within a few years of its inception. Although the civilization created by the warlord had been almost forgotten by 3643 BBY, the Kumauri Battleship, which saw continued service in hundreds of other navies, including that of the Republic, and which remained influential in space warfare for several centuries, persisted as a legacy of his efforts. Ultimately, Kumauri's most significant innovation turned out to be the use of madilon, which remained in use up until the reign of the Fel Empire in 130 ABY.
Vall Kumauri was a creation of Paul Sudlow and was first presented in Cracken's Rebel Operatives, a 1994 West End Games sourcebook intended for use with Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.