Balmus Cail (41 BBY – ) was a Human male from Thyferra who served as Grand Moff, diplomat, politician, and admiral in the Galactic Empire, and was later a prominent Imperial warlord. He was appointed as the Grand Moff of the Corellian Oversector by Emperor Palpatine in 2 BBY, the youngest in the galaxy up to that point.
Cail was born to relatively wealthy parents on the planet Thyferra in 41 BBY. His father was a prominent local farmer and distributor of bacta, and collected a respectable small fortune. The younger of two brothers, he joined the Republic Navy in 22 BBY at the outset of the Clone Wars; his brother had joined the Navy several years prior. Cail displayed a skill for organizing and quickly developed a commanding presence while a junior officer. He served as the first mate to his brother, captain of a Venator-class Star Destroyer, Liberator. In several instances his brother was wounded and he was forced to take command as acting captain; here, he displayed his reasonable skill as a tactician as well.
After the issuing of Order 66, he served the Emperor faithfully in the ensuing Jedi Purge and in the campaigns against the collapsing Confederacy of Independent Systems. Serving as a captain of his own Imperial-class Star Destroyer -- one of the first ever built -- he embarked on several campaigns which resulted in the destruction of over a dozen rebel groups across the galaxy, while simultaneously reining in crime and enforcing the laws of the new Empire.
In 9 BBY, his elder brother, secretly disillusioned with the Empire and its track record for repression, retired from the Navy as a well-respected Captain and returned to the family business on Thyferra. Cail continued to rise up through the ranks, becoming a full Admiral in 4 BBY after his involvement in the Nimban Crisis and the subsequent Battle of Nimban. This earned the attention of the Emperor, and two years later he was made a Grand Moff and head of the Corellian Oversector. Basing his rule out of the planet Nubia, his skill as an administrator and organizer, coupled with his seemingly natural skill as a leader, ensured he maintained his post for years. After the humiliating Imperial defeat in the Corellian Rebellion in 1 ABY, Cail personally led a second, larger Imperial fleet to defeat the Rebels and succeeded, though suffering a Pyyrhic victory at the hands of Rebel Admiral Ackbar.
Sometime after the Second Battle of Corellia, Cail made the custom-built Animus his flagship, using it as a symbol of his power. Following the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Cail immediately rose to prominence as one of the most powerful of the Imperial warlords. In 6 ABY, the coalition that he led defeated the Grand Imperial Alliance, led by the Imperial Ruling Council, at the decisive Battle of Loronar, virtually making him the most powerful and influential of all Imperial rulers in the galaxy.