A Klingon zealot who sought to unite the Great Houses against the Federation and ignited the Klingon War at the Binary Stars.
T'Kuvma was the leader of an ancient but diminished Klingon house who preached that the Federation threatened Klingon identity and that the scattered Great Houses must unite to resist it. From his sarcophagus ship, equipped with a cloaking device, he lit the long-dark beacon that summoned the houses to the Binary Stars.
There the USS Shenzhou confronted him, and the battle that followed began the war between the Klingons and the Federation. During the fighting T'Kuvma killed Captain Philippa Georgiou in hand-to-hand combat aboard his ship, and Michael Burnham, who had come to capture him, shot and killed him.
His death made him a martyr to his followers. His chosen torchbearer Voq and the warrior L'Rell carried his cause forward, and L'Rell eventually became chancellor of the Klingon Empire.