One of three Klingon fugitives rescued from the freighter Batris in Heart of Glory, who dies of his wounds and is sent on with the Klingon death ritual.
Kunivas is a Klingon warrior and a companion of Korris and Konmel, renegades who reject the Empire's peace with the Federation. He appears in the first-season episode Heart of Glory.
The three are found aboard the crippled Talarian freighter Batris in the Neutral Zone. Kunivas has been gravely injured in the battle in which they destroyed a Klingon cruiser sent to bring them back, and Doctor Crusher cannot save him.
As he dies, Korris holds his eyes open and he, Konmel and Worf roar towards the ceiling, a warning to the dead that a warrior is on his way. It is the first time the death ritual is seen, and it startles the sickbay staff. Korris tells them the body is now only an empty shell.