The Subjugator-class Heavy Cruiser was initially conceived by the SoroSuub Corporation and represents the shipyard's first attempt at developing a Star Dreadnought. Unfortunately, the concept was much too ambitious, and the vessel was tragically underpowered in every simulation. Without a practical solution to the inherent issues, a scale model would have been far too expensive, and the project was abandoned. When a maverick Sullustan shipwright named Ruggle Schmong approached the Confederacy of Independent Systems seeking to develop his innovative power recycling technology, it was the Subjugator-class that he proposed to use as his platform.

The sheer size of the vessel was necessary to accommodate the massive naamite power banks, and with the CIS financing the project, the Quarren shipyards of Free Dac and Pammant went straight to work on the prototype. The result was a military titan designed to use powerful batteries of ion cannons to disable opposing warships and then pick them apart with torpedoes and conventional turbolasers. Initial trials demonstrated that the native power issues had been solved, and the pioneer vessel, the Malevolence, was deployed directly into battle without further testing. This proved to be a mistake, as the interconnectivity of the ship's energy grid permitted surges to travel between unrelated systems with potentially dire consequences. The Malevolence took a critical hit to its ionic weapons, causing a power spike that crippled her hyperdrive and wrecked the deflector array.

Despite this fundamental flaw, the Subjugator-class still posed a serious threat in battle and a single ship of this type is capable of disabling and destroying entire battle squadrons of capital ships by itself. Smart admirals would never leave this leviathan unsupported, however, as it mounts relatively few anti-starfighter weapons, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from strike craft despite being able to carry a modest fighter wing of its own. Alarmed at the warship's appearance, Republic admirals were known to devote a large portion of their resources to dealing with it. Later production runs were moved to a staging area while Quarren engineers frantically worked to devise power sinks that could absorb dangerous surges at key grid junctions. But the yards were overtaken by Republic forces, who deactivated the ships and left them behind to continue pursuing the Separatists across the galaxy. By the time engineers arrived to inspect the Subjugators, many had vanished and have never been accounted for. These dreadnaughts were only partially armed, and the proprietary technology used in the Subjugator-class' construction makes retrofitting the ships with new weapons prohibitively expensive. Any Subjugator encountered today is likely to be one of these modestly armed variants, rather than their much-feared wartime predecessor.