Baile Eisg (Seavale), capital of Baeron Ur colony, c. 1660

In 1660, the colony of Baeron Ur, now Baranor province (see here), on the shore of the southern Argean Sea, was small and thriving. Founded by settlers from Noronica in the early 1650s, the coastal capital of Baile Eisg (now Seavale) was an expanding port, absorbing shipping traffic from the Noronnican imperial possessions and the Khas-Kirati Empire, modern-day Athara magarat. In 1661, a group of forty-five Western Kirati traders (although bearing Eastern Kirati names), members of the Kumal tribe, stepped off a trading vessel at the Baile Eisg quayside. They were led by Indhang Kumal (1618 - 1664), a well-known trader in the Isles with a commission from the Kirati emperor.

Indhang's 1661 trading embassy was received poorly by the local Almorean Nyssic population of Baeron Ur. The governor of the colony, Iain Flachnan, or John Flanagan (1616 - 1671), grudgingly allowed Indhang and his fellow Kumals to settle in the northwestern quarter of Baile Eisg, at the edge of the town and directly below its flimsy wooden palisades. The Kumal population of Baile Eisg beat the odds, surviving Indhang's death in 1664 and several devastating native raids over the next few years to number over 2,500 by the year 1700. In 1690, Misek Sammang Kumal (1645 - 1710) was appointed "hang" or ruler of the Kumal hangate, and was deputized by the Kumal traders of Baile Eisg to negotiate for more privileges with the council of Baeron Ur. The result was a conflict with local authorities that saw the Kumals briefly proscribed in 1691 and their houses burned. Led by Misek Sammang, they fled to St. Mabel up the coast, and from there continued north to the St. John's Peninsula. In 1699, their privileges were assured by the Noronnican Crown.

In 1700, local Nyssic militias assembled at Knockater Church on the peninsula and raided the Kumal trading settlements. Sporadic conflicts continued during the period before the outbreak of the Almorean Revolution in 1749. For many years, a posse of horsemen led by Chotlung Kumal (d. 1732) terrorized the isolated "old church" Nyssic villages on the north coast of the peninsula, until Chotlung was hunted down by Noronnican royal dragoons and killed. In 1734, a group of 500 Baranor militia led by Ger Christopher MacNiven (1689 - 1755), the vice-governor of the colony, attacked a group of Kumal settlements in Causland county and burned them. MacNiven escaped censure. Four years later, in 1738, his fellow officer John MacAra led another impromptu raid on the Kumals, but was cornered and killed. During the Revolution, many Kumals sided with the Crown, although the far-sighted Hang Anjiri Kumal (1707 - 1797) lent official support to the Free Congress, allowing the Kumals to ultimately survive Almorean independence in 1763.

The Peacetown anti-Kumal riots of 1853

Hang Anjiri provided stable leadership for the Kumals, accruing respect over time as he lived to the age of ninety. His death in 1797 could have led to disaster, but the Kumals managed to capitalize on early Almorean industrialization to emerge as pioneers of steam technology in the 1820s. During the period 1833 to 1842, when Almorea was ruled by the conservative, militarist regime of President Finn Birse, the Kumals were persecuted by Congress. Birse's puppet Grand Union Party passed laws forbidding native-language education; the Almorean government would demand English-language teaching in Kumal schools until the next century. Anjiri's great-grandson Lepmuhang (1782 - 1865) navigated the chaotic 1850s, a time of political unrest in Almorea that culminated in a civil war that lasted from 1861 to 1864. Lepmuhang chose the path of peace following anti-Kumal riots in Peacetown in 1853 and earned the support of the Almorean government as a result. During the civil war, hundreds of Kumals fought for the Federal Union in the 79th and 80th Baranor regiments of blue-coated infantry.

Lepmuhang's grandson Manghang (1838 - 1911) was the last of the Anjiri line to serve as Hang of the Kumals. After his grandfather's death in 1865, Manghang took the reins of power within the Kumal community. During the 1870s, the Second Industrial Revolution and a time of booming economic prosperity in Almorea, Manghang created a Kumal legislative assembly and, in 1871, held the first elections for "deputies" among the Kumal community in Baranor. Threatened by this display of autonomy, Congress outlawed the assembly in 1875 and denied any Kumal rights to self-determination. Manghang's credibility in the hangate faltered, but he held on until the Panic of 1884 damaged Kumal economic interests. After Manghang's departure from his family's seat in 1884, the Kumals entered upon a dark period which lasted for decades. Racial riots in the 1910s were succeeded by organized fascist action against the Kumals during the 1920s. In 1931, the rightist government of the Almorean Sovereignty Front party arrested then-Hang David Phejiri Kumal (1887 - 1939) and hundreds of the Kumal community's brightest leaders.

Anthoneburgh (Khambek), a Kumal town of 4,500 people, in 1968

This persecution continued during the Imperial War, which lasted from 1941 until 1949. Much of southern Almorea was occupied by Athara magarat's allies, and the Almorean public vented their anger on the Kumals. In 1942, police intervened to stop lynchings in Seavale, but in the summers of 1944 and 1945 hundreds of Kumals were killed in a three-way struggle between the Baranor militia, armed Kumals, and militant nationalists. After the war ended with an Almorean and Free Powers victory in 1949, the National Victory Coalition government of William J. Adams (1890 - 1967) encouraged Kumals to emigrate to the Almorean occupation zones in Athara Magarat. By 1960, only about 3,000 Kumals remained in Almorea, and their economic influence had been completely destroyed. Titular hangma Isri Kumal (1914 - 2005) urged technical education to allow the next generation of Almorean Kumals to advance higher. This push proved wise, as the rise of the digital economy in the 1990s allowed the Kumals to return to local prominence. In 1988, Lasemi John Kumal (b. 1935) founded the Nazieu Financial Services Company, which became the Nazieu Financial Conglomerate in 2001 and eventually merged with Taigh Bancaidh in 2016. Lasemi became the first Kumal billionaire in 2020.

Kumal footballers at a game in 2020

In the present day, the population of the Kumal hangate numbers over 21,000. In 2006, the Crawford administration restored the hangate's right to "informal" self-determination. Today, Kumal traditions are maintained by the Kumal Cultural Association of Almorea (KCAA) and the Shristhikarta Ishwor Association (SIA), which include thousands of members in parades, festivals, and celebrations. The Cobra King Stadium in Seavale hosts Kumal football games, which are televised on Almorean television Channel 18, Kumal Television (KTV). KTV also broadcasts news programs aimed at members of the hangate. The University of Baranor maintains a campus at Peacetown which affords low-cost tuition to Kumal students.