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Description



    The Leagues of Votann are new to Imperial knowledge. Since the first stellar exodus, they have always been with us. We share ancestry with them but hardly anything else besides. They are the galactic prospectors of epochs past. The redoubtable craftspeople of the galactic core. A record of the Kin of the Leagues of Votann.



    The Kin are a race of stockily built humanoids shorter than baseline humans. They are often mistaken across the galaxy as Abhumans, genetic offshoots of humanity through stable mutations. The Imperial political establishment and academia are divided on whether or not the Kin are Abhumans. The Kin share a common ancestry. That much is clear and will be explored later in this record. The degree to which they have diverged from humanity, a concept integral to their culture, has led to them determining themselves to be a separate species.



    This is one of many contentious issues in Imperial relations with the Kin. Those higher than myself would insist that the Kin be deemed Abhumans, with all the implications of subservience and paternalism inherent to that designation. The Kin are far too proud and cunning to accept that terminology. They consider themselves separate from the Imperium and humanity. For this record, one must acknowledge this fundamental disagreement at the outset. It is typical of the Imperium to impose its will upon all, be they within or without. For clarity, I must grant the Kin their fundamental right to self-determination. Given the interviews and chronicles that went into making this record, it is the simplest of decencies I can offer.



    The Kin occupy vast reaches of space within the galactic core. They do so in such numbers that, if one’s research is to be believed, would stun any within the Imperium unaware of their existence. These numbers are swelled by the presence among them of the Ironkin, self-aware robotic constructs that are treated by the biological Kin as equals.



    This hybrid machine-humanoid society is held together by a series of cultural pillars that can withstand anything the galaxy can throw. The most important is the familial bonds that hold them together. Not in the strictest sense but in the sense of common cause, affinity, shared vision, and shared values. Conservative to the extreme, the Kin rarely shift their viewpoints from those they formed in their early lives. Tradition has kept their society unchanging for millennia. While this has led to stagnation in some areas, it has proven resilient in others.



    Survival underpins the entire motivating ideology for the Kin. From that core, it expresses itself throughout their daily lives. Obligations are paramount. Shirking one’s responsibility not only brings dishonor upon the self but also endangers the lives of those with whom a Kin will share a ship, Hold, or League. This is born of their void-dwelling origins and daily lives. Should a bulkhead not be maintained correctly, disaster may fall upon the ship or hold and all who live aboard her. No task is too small or unimportant for the Kin. They take this to heart in everything they do. For unity brings survival. Survival allows for prosperity. The ultimate goal of any group of Kin is to gain more resources with which to build more ships, sculpt stronger Holds, and bring more Kin into the fold. Continuing the growth and survival of their kind against all that would stand against them.



    Origins and History



    As with the history of many within the galaxy, the origins of the Kin are obscured by time. Time has whittled away at the stones of the past better than the mining equipment of the Kin. What remains are what the Kin refer to as "First Truths," facts so significant that their culture revolves around their quasi-legendary origins. It is a First Truth that the Kin departed their homeworld tens of millennia ago. This homeworld is, of course, pre-Imperial, pre-Age of Strife Terra. The Kin do not know this for sure, nor do they wish to. It is a First Truth that the Kin were miners and prospectors from the beginning. Their purpose in life was the extraction of resources and the creation of devices and technologies. It's also a First Truth that they were always a clone race. With them were born the Ironkin, artificial minds that would live and work beside them in partnership. This is the extent of the First Truths that this chronicler can confirm. My contacts have declined to make any further inquiries here.



    The Kin have a significant internal debate around other details of their origins, many of which blur the lines between allegory, chronicle, and creation myth. Almost all speak of the being Votann, known variously as the Gilded One, the Primal Ancestor, and the Stonemind. Votann can be depicted as a figure clad entirely in gold, a giant stone face, or a council of beings moving with industrial precision. While there is a debate, there is an expediency to how the Kin approach these myths. Although they are aware of the contradiction, it is never a point of contention between them. Pragmatic to their core, the Kin are not frightened by things they cannot explain. The need, the drive to answer fundamental questions about their existence, troubles them little. Even the Grimnyr, the sage shamanic figures that seek such knowledge, do so out of curiosity rather than existential dread.



    Recorded history eventually reasserts itself around the period when the first sublight, generational Long March mining fleets of the original Kin reached the galactic core. At this point, references to Votann as a being and the near-mythic ancestors fade and are replaced by Ancestor Cores. These were named in honor of the progenitor or progenitors and are collectively referred to as the Votann. The term is used interchangeably. The first ancestors awoke the generational sleepers once the core was reached, catalyzing the genetic rules that first organized Cloneskein reproduction.



    Cloneskeins, Kin Anatomy and Physiology



    As a clone race the Kin are uniquely vulnerable to massive genetic degradation events. The geno-engineering projects undertaken by the Imperium, whether those of the Emperor or the Adeptus Mechanicum, are perilous. This risk for the Kin appears to be mitigated by the sheer variety of their mutations. The Kin do not seek, as the Emperor did, to break the boundaries of what the human template can achieve. They do not seek to make Astartes out of themselves. Their gene pool correlates patterns of mutation known as cloneskeins that can be assigned to batches of clones as necessary.



    Often minor, these changes can be as simple as improving eyesight, bone durability, or the skin’s radiological resistance. The first ancestors developed a durable reproductive system through broad and varied changes rather than hyper-specific or radical augmentations.



    The Kin record these early fleets working immediately through pressing genetic modifications, more robust bone structures, denser musculature, and higher white blood cell counts. This is likely the origin of the Kin’s squat physique. The worlds of the galactic core are prone to having high gravity, and the region is awash with gravitic anomalies. A body best suited to these conditions will last much longer than a baseline human. It was around this time that Kin society, as it exists today, emerged with the first Leagues of Votann.



    On the Votanns or Ancestor Cores



    The foundation of these Leagues was built upon the Votann, after whom they were named. These artificial minds are, to put it mildly, an abhorrent concept to any within the Imperium. They are intelligences born of the Age of Technology. Things believed to have perished in the machine wars preceding the Age of Strife. Somehow, they escaped the conflicts that engulfed the galaxy, presumably because of the Kin’s isolation within the galactic core worlds.



    Operating as a hybrid leadership entity, digital archive, and STC system, the Votanns were expected to be repositories for the Kin. They are a fount of wisdom, knowledge, and technology that would allow the resources of the core to be extracted, processed, and shipped outsystem to the worlds of the pre-strife human dominions.



    The Votann’s cogitative power and depth of knowledge are beyond the comprehension of anyone within the Adeptus Mechanicum. Their power almost lends them a supernatural mystique. Some mistakenly believe that the Votann are the gods of the Kin because of the oblique way the Kin refer to them. It does not help that the Kin only speak of the Votann to outsiders under extreme duress. To get the information one has for this record, the contacts in question only provided scant details under oaths of paramount secrecy. The rest of my information is from sequestered archives of the Orders Metallic and Mechanicum.



    The value of an ancestor core cannot be overstated. Their quantum archive stacks house all of the knowledge humanity of the Age of Technology left its void-mining fleets. The Votann also serves as a repository for the Kin themselves. When a member of the race dies, they upload their knowledge and memories to the League’s Votann. In this way, they will join their ancestors and contribute to their prosperity. The Votann is so powerful that it can also serve as a quantum beacon. This provides the Kin with a way to navigate through the Warp, albeit in tiny jumps compared to the astronomican. The Kin cannot let knowledge of the Votann be known to outsiders. Few would understand, fewer would desire to, and far too many would seek to destroy or pillage.



    League Space



    The galactic core is a cyclopean region of space, vast despite its compact volume. The sheer density of stars drawn into the orbit of the supermassive black hole at its center is staggering. This presents dangerous risks to any voidcraft seeking to traverse the area. Gravitational anomalies abound, as do electromagnetic squalls, radiation cascades, and stranger things. Records of the Kin have spoken of sentient nebulae, mendicant black holes, and something referred to as the greystars. It's no wonder why the races don't venture there. All except the Kin, who have been bred to exploit its wealth, the risks outweighing any potential reward. The riches here are plentiful. Rogue planets are torn from their home systems and hurtle through the void, their mineral wealth unclaimed. Asteroid belts are teeming with spacehulks everywhere. It is upon this wealth and more besides is where the Leagues of Votann were founded and grew.



    The Kins Survival Old Night



    That they have maintained these secrets for thousands of years is a testament to their unity of purpose and ability to hide. How they conducted themselves through the trials of the Age of Strife is unknown, and few speak of those days. Their lack of a Warp presence is crucial to this. Because of their status as a clone race, the Kin appears dimmer in the Warp than baseline humans. They are much less prone to rampant psychic mutations or emergence than humans are. Only psychically sensitive individuals possess their abilities thanks to specialized Cloneskeins and technological enhancements. Because of this, the Kin is unlikely to succumb to neverborn possession or Chaos's temptations. Thanks to this rare resistance to the immaterial, the Kin no doubt avoided the rash aetheric incursions and mad psyker plagues that engulfed many human worlds throughout the Age of Strife.



    As a race that bred for the harshest of galactic regions and provided all the knowledge of their progenitors through the Ancestor Cores, they did not need the fragile supply lines and resource-providing client worlds that the human core systems. The prospecting race sent to the most isolated volume in the galaxy, bread for harshness, primed for endurance. None were better suited to whether Old Night than they.



    Kin Society



    All Kin belong to a Kindred, ranging in size from a group of families to a small nation-state. Their population can fluctuate from a few dozen to millions, depending on their lineage and historical prosperity. A Kindred will live in a Hold, but like Kin, which the term "kindred" encompasses, the term "Hold" is somewhat ambiguous.



    It should be noted that this is a common characteristic of these people: seemingly robust terminology that is invested with deep meaning depending on the individual or Kindred with whom one is concerned. Meaning is always contextual; thus, forming an in-group is an inherent part of the process.



     The Kin despises flowery language as a culture, preferring direct communication that appears blunt and trusting that the recipient will guide their understanding. A Hold can be a fortress complex on an asteroid, a void station lurking in the atmosphere of a gas giant, or even a group of ships forming a nomadic flotilla. In short, it is anything the Kin wants it to be or where their ancestral history has led them. It is central to their identity.



    Kindred names, too, form the basis of their identity. They may be named for a superlative ancestor like Vikits Kin or some essential nature or role like the Star Deliver Kindred. Location, too, is used as with the Kindred of Thousand Stars, but even to this day, relatively basic kindred names persist, such as the famed kindred six or kindred Eleven-D. These latter names likely are the oldest, their origins lost to the galaxy as the Age of Technology that birth them.



    Four Pillars of a Hold



    For all Kin, however, their Hold is built around the so-called four pillars: Hearth, Forge, Fane, and Crucible. Sturdy terms, but again as nuanced in meaning as the Hold itself.



    The Hearth is not a fire pit. It is the location of a reactor or other power source, the primary flame that powers everything within a Hold.



    Forge is more direct. It is a technological and weapons factorium from which all the Kin derive all devices they require.



    The Fane is where the Votann is kept, attended to by the so-called living ancestors, the Grimnyr shaman technicians that preside over and commune with the Votann to discern their wisdom.



    Lastly, the Crucible is the gene wombs, the gestation devices, and the genetic processing technology from which new generations of Kin are born. To serve alongside their kindred in whatever role the Votann demands of them.



    The Hold is politically controlled by a parliament known as a Spakerönde. The elected representatives of the Guilds, the senior officers of the military Kinhost, and the chiefs of the Grimnyr attend this legislative assembly. Despite being nominally of the same kindred, the Spakerönde is a chamber of strident debate and often deliberate obstinacy. The conservative Kin enjoy debate, but it rarely changes their minds. The largest assemblies can discuss a single topic for weeks or months without making progress. To the Kin, this is not a political impasse. It is a point of pride that matters are considered with the depth and gravity they deserve, despite little being accomplished.



    The Guilds



    The previously mentioned Guilds are crucial to modern Kindreds and function in the same way as their terminology would suggest in other human societies. They are mercantile and, after a fashion, capitalist, trying to control and order all Kin who inhabit the strata of civilian life, from ship mastery to engineering.



    Every Guild is ruled over by its Guildmasters, who establish standards for Guild accreditation, expected levels of craftsmanship, and the tithes their members’ levy. The exploitation of the worker Kindreds is debatable, but the Guilds offer civilian Kin a means to affect political change.



    Ostensibly speaking, Guilds are expected to supersede affiliations with any Kindred, Hold, or League. This is not the case. Small guilds will rarely operate outside of their Kindred territories. Larger Guilds use their power and influence to direct trade operations beyond the bounds of many Leagues.



    Similarly, Kin are not expected or required to perform guild service. A significant amount of competition exists between Guild members and freelancers, and sometimes outright hostility is displayed. The former sees the latter as feckless gadabouts. While the freelancers view the former as maddeningly obstinate and hidebound.



    Whatever strife they may cause, it is impossible to deny the value that the Guilds provide to the culture of the Kin. They smooth trade, commerce, and transit between Kindreds. They provide organizational administration and support throughout the Leagues. From star-mining and gravitic fracking to smoothly-functioning military supply chains, voidcraft repair, the provision and preparation of food and drink, the construction Holds, and every other aspect of Kin manufacture and distribution, it all functions better thanks to the Guilds' high standards.



    The Leagues



    Above all of this are the Leagues. In the earliest days of the Kin, they were simple designations for multiple mining fleets to work in concert. Over time, they evolved into military alliances to protect the Votann from the hostile xenos of the galactic core. From there, they grew into multi-system stellar nations consisting of many Kindreds.



    A mixture of state, military, and mercantile alliances, all Leagues bear a shared heraldry seen across all space claimed by them, and all kindred pledged to their banners. Given the kin, these leagues developed into a specific cultural bent or specialism, which quickly became established as tradition. Thus, the greatest and oldest Leagues are nearly identical to how they appeared tens of millennia ago. The Kindreds pledged to them all know that their traditions are the most successful and robust and see no reason to change them.



    The Kronus Hegemony and Grendl Dominance are warlike, having suffered endless xenos incursions since their earliest days. The Greater Thurian League is far more mercantile in its outlook. While the Trans-Hyperian Alliance is renowned as explorers and voyagers. These are but four of the most eminent Leagues. There are no dictates on the size one has to take to earn the term. As discussed previously, Kin language is subtle and nuanced. A League can hold as little as one system with two Kindreds bound by a shared custom and outlook. What begins as a simple written or spoken agreement can evolve into the most rock-solid of traditions.



    Territorial claims work similarly. Once a League has laid claim to a volume of space, it rapidly becomes hollowed ancestral ground. Boundaries rarely shift as they had become traditional. Should territory change hands, it is almost always due to some form of agreement, shifting allegiance of a particular kindred, disaster, or external invasion. Civil wars are not unheard of between Leagues. Such occurrences are rare, for they are viewed by the Kin as dishonorable and wasteful.



    Should the annexation of new territory occupied previously by humans or xenos be necessary, the Kin takes on an altogether different mean. If the original inhabitants prove agreeable, the Kin will allow them to continue as they had before. Cohabitation is acceptable as long as the resources sought by the Kin are available to them. This relationship may even be mutually beneficial. Those living in non-League space often intervene on the side of their hosts in times of peril, regardless of whether it is strictly to protect what they are there for. If they encounter resistance at the outset or even when they have coexisted for centuries, the Kin proceed in a warlike manner. They display a resolve that seems astonishing to their unfortunate opponents.





    The Kin and the Wider Galaxy

    Warfare is not unknown to the Kin; they are occupants of this most hateful of galaxies, just like the rest of us. From the earliest generation ships to millennia-old Leagues, the days of the Kin have been marked by many conflicts. Both in defense of the coreward Hold Worlds and in seeking new volumes to plunder and settle.



    Their greatest hatred is reserved for the Orks, the Kin's most enduring enemies. The Greenskins flourish just as well in the galactic core as they do everywhere else. Their anarchic, destructive nature is anathema to everything the Kin value. A similar revulsion is reserved for the followers of Chaos, whom they view with disgust and bewilderment.



    Many Kindreds have accidentally unearthed subterranean stasis tombs of the Necron Dynasties. This often leads to cataclysmic conflicts as the rashly awakened dynasts seek to reclaim their supposed birthright from the Kin.



    Not all relations between the Kin and the larger galaxy are hostile. They have conducted sporadic, profitable, if often tense, trade with the Aeldari. Although they have little respect for what they see as the arrogance of the Asuryani and none for the gruesome excesses of the Drukhari, this is an equitable arrangement.



    Relations between the Kin and the Imperium are complicated and often contentious. For a start, the Imperium is unaware of the scale of their civilization, something the Kin seeks to perpetuate. The Cloneskeins of the Kin have given them an appearance so different from baseline humanity that they were mistaken as different minor xenos races during the Great Crusade, including the "Gnostari," "Grome," and "Kreg," among others.



    In other cases, they are determined to be Abhuman bands, leading to the pejorative term "Squats." This designation is often applied to bands of Kin that have settled in Imperial space for one reason or another, be it prospecting, exile, or accidental stranding. The Kin, for their part, do not seek to disavow the Imperium as a whole of this notion. The existence of the League and, more importantly, the Votann are facts they know should be kept secret. Whatever genetic links between the Kin and Old Earth, they have little love and respect for the Emperor and His empire.



    Humanity has been the enemy of the Leagues as often as their allies. Inquisitors of the Orders Metallic and the more zealous Space Marine Legionaries name the Kin as xenos and demand their purgation. As a result of their acquisitive nature, the Kin have invaded Imperial systems to obtain their minerals.



    The Adeptus Mechanicum views the Kin with a deep suspicion that would no doubt blossom into hatred should much of what the Leagues conceal be revealed. The concept of artificial minds is forbidden by Imperial Lex and Mechanicum dogma. Should any Tech-priest learn of the existence of the Votann, a Mechanicum crusade of staggering proportions would be launched upon the hapless League the eyes of Mars have settled upon.

Description



    The Leagues of Votann are new to Imperial knowledge. Since the first stellar exodus, they have always been with us. We share ancestry with them but hardly anything else besides. They are the galactic prospectors of epochs past. The redoubtable craftspeople of the galactic core. A record of the Kin of the Leagues of Votann.



    The Kin are a race of stockily built humanoids shorter than baseline humans. They are often mistaken across the galaxy as Abhumans, genetic offshoots of humanity through stable mutations. The Imperial political establishment and academia are divided on whether or not the Kin are Abhumans. The Kin share a common ancestry. That much is clear and will be explored later in this record. The degree to which they have diverged from humanity, a concept integral to their culture, has led to them determining themselves to be a separate species.



    This is one of many contentious issues in Imperial relations with the Kin. Those higher than myself would insist that the Kin be deemed Abhumans, with all the implications of subservience and paternalism inherent to that designation. The Kin are far too proud and cunning to accept that terminology. They consider themselves separate from the Imperium and humanity. For this record, one must acknowledge this fundamental disagreement at the outset. It is typical of the Imperium to impose its will upon all, be they within or without. For clarity, I must grant the Kin their fundamental right to self-determination. Given the interviews and chronicles that went into making this record, it is the simplest of decencies I can offer.



    The Kin occupy vast reaches of space within the galactic core. They do so in such numbers that, if one’s research is to be believed, would stun any within the Imperium unaware of their existence. These numbers are swelled by the presence among them of the Ironkin, self-aware robotic constructs that are treated by the biological Kin as equals.



    This hybrid machine-humanoid society is held together by a series of cultural pillars that can withstand anything the galaxy can throw. The most important is the familial bonds that hold them together. Not in the strictest sense but in the sense of common cause, affinity, shared vision, and shared values. Conservative to the extreme, the Kin rarely shift their viewpoints from those they formed in their early lives. Tradition has kept their society unchanging for millennia. While this has led to stagnation in some areas, it has proven resilient in others.



    Survival underpins the entire motivating ideology for the Kin. From that core, it expresses itself throughout their daily lives. Obligations are paramount. Shirking one’s responsibility not only brings dishonor upon the self but also endangers the lives of those with whom a Kin will share a ship, Hold, or League. This is born of their void-dwelling origins and daily lives. Should a bulkhead not be maintained correctly, disaster may fall upon the ship or hold and all who live aboard her. No task is too small or unimportant for the Kin. They take this to heart in everything they do. For unity brings survival. Survival allows for prosperity. The ultimate goal of any group of Kin is to gain more resources with which to build more ships, sculpt stronger Holds, and bring more Kin into the fold. Continuing the growth and survival of their kind against all that would stand against them.



    Origins and History



    As with the history of many within the galaxy, the origins of the Kin are obscured by time. Time has whittled away at the stones of the past better than the mining equipment of the Kin. What remains are what the Kin refer to as "First Truths," facts so significant that their culture revolves around their quasi-legendary origins. It is a First Truth that the Kin departed their homeworld tens of millennia ago. This homeworld is, of course, pre-Imperial, pre-Age of Strife Terra. The Kin do not know this for sure, nor do they wish to. It is a First Truth that the Kin were miners and prospectors from the beginning. Their purpose in life was the extraction of resources and the creation of devices and technologies. It's also a First Truth that they were always a clone race. With them were born the Ironkin, artificial minds that would live and work beside them in partnership. This is the extent of the First Truths that this chronicler can confirm. My contacts have declined to make any further inquiries here.



    The Kin have a significant internal debate around other details of their origins, many of which blur the lines between allegory, chronicle, and creation myth. Almost all speak of the being Votann, known variously as the Gilded One, the Primal Ancestor, and the Stonemind. Votann can be depicted as a figure clad entirely in gold, a giant stone face, or a council of beings moving with industrial precision. While there is a debate, there is an expediency to how the Kin approach these myths. Although they are aware of the contradiction, it is never a point of contention between them. Pragmatic to their core, the Kin are not frightened by things they cannot explain. The need, the drive to answer fundamental questions about their existence, troubles them little. Even the Grimnyr, the sage shamanic figures that seek such knowledge, do so out of curiosity rather than existential dread.



    Recorded history eventually reasserts itself around the period when the first sublight, generational Long March mining fleets of the original Kin reached the galactic core. At this point, references to Votann as a being and the near-mythic ancestors fade and are replaced by Ancestor Cores. These were named in honor of the progenitor or progenitors and are collectively referred to as the Votann. The term is used interchangeably. The first ancestors awoke the generational sleepers once the core was reached, catalyzing the genetic rules that first organized Cloneskein reproduction.



    Cloneskeins, Kin Anatomy and Physiology



    As a clone race the Kin are uniquely vulnerable to massive genetic degradation events. The geno-engineering projects undertaken by the Imperium, whether those of the Emperor or the Adeptus Mechanicum, are perilous. This risk for the Kin appears to be mitigated by the sheer variety of their mutations. The Kin do not seek, as the Emperor did, to break the boundaries of what the human template can achieve. They do not seek to make Astartes out of themselves. Their gene pool correlates patterns of mutation known as cloneskeins that can be assigned to batches of clones as necessary.



    Often minor, these changes can be as simple as improving eyesight, bone durability, or the skin’s radiological resistance. The first ancestors developed a durable reproductive system through broad and varied changes rather than hyper-specific or radical augmentations.



    The Kin record these early fleets working immediately through pressing genetic modifications, more robust bone structures, denser musculature, and higher white blood cell counts. This is likely the origin of the Kin’s squat physique. The worlds of the galactic core are prone to having high gravity, and the region is awash with gravitic anomalies. A body best suited to these conditions will last much longer than a baseline human. It was around this time that Kin society, as it exists today, emerged with the first Leagues of Votann.



    On the Votanns or Ancestor Cores



    The foundation of these Leagues was built upon the Votann, after whom they were named. These artificial minds are, to put it mildly, an abhorrent concept to any within the Imperium. They are intelligences born of the Age of Technology. Things believed to have perished in the machine wars preceding the Age of Strife. Somehow, they escaped the conflicts that engulfed the galaxy, presumably because of the Kin’s isolation within the galactic core worlds.



    Operating as a hybrid leadership entity, digital archive, and STC system, the Votanns were expected to be repositories for the Kin. They are a fount of wisdom, knowledge, and technology that would allow the resources of the core to be extracted, processed, and shipped outsystem to the worlds of the pre-strife human dominions.



    The Votann’s cogitative power and depth of knowledge are beyond the comprehension of anyone within the Adeptus Mechanicum. Their power almost lends them a supernatural mystique. Some mistakenly believe that the Votann are the gods of the Kin because of the oblique way the Kin refer to them. It does not help that the Kin only speak of the Votann to outsiders under extreme duress. To get the information one has for this record, the contacts in question only provided scant details under oaths of paramount secrecy. The rest of my information is from sequestered archives of the Orders Metallic and Mechanicum.



    The value of an ancestor core cannot be overstated. Their quantum archive stacks house all of the knowledge humanity of the Age of Technology left its void-mining fleets. The Votann also serves as a repository for the Kin themselves. When a member of the race dies, they upload their knowledge and memories to the League’s Votann. In this way, they will join their ancestors and contribute to their prosperity. The Votann is so powerful that it can also serve as a quantum beacon. This provides the Kin with a way to navigate through the Warp, albeit in tiny jumps compared to the astronomican. The Kin cannot let knowledge of the Votann be known to outsiders. Few would understand, fewer would desire to, and far too many would seek to destroy or pillage.



    League Space



    The galactic core is a cyclopean region of space, vast despite its compact volume. The sheer density of stars drawn into the orbit of the supermassive black hole at its center is staggering. This presents dangerous risks to any voidcraft seeking to traverse the area. Gravitational anomalies abound, as do electromagnetic squalls, radiation cascades, and stranger things. Records of the Kin have spoken of sentient nebulae, mendicant black holes, and something referred to as the greystars. It's no wonder why the races don't venture there. All except the Kin, who have been bred to exploit its wealth, the risks outweighing any potential reward. The riches here are plentiful. Rogue planets are torn from their home systems and hurtle through the void, their mineral wealth unclaimed. Asteroid belts are teeming with spacehulks everywhere. It is upon this wealth and more besides is where the Leagues of Votann were founded and grew.



    The Kins Survival Old Night



    That they have maintained these secrets for thousands of years is a testament to their unity of purpose and ability to hide. How they conducted themselves through the trials of the Age of Strife is unknown, and few speak of those days. Their lack of a Warp presence is crucial to this. Because of their status as a clone race, the Kin appears dimmer in the Warp than baseline humans. They are much less prone to rampant psychic mutations or emergence than humans are. Only psychically sensitive individuals possess their abilities thanks to specialized Cloneskeins and technological enhancements. Because of this, the Kin is unlikely to succumb to neverborn possession or Chaos's temptations. Thanks to this rare resistance to the immaterial, the Kin no doubt avoided the rash aetheric incursions and mad psyker plagues that engulfed many human worlds throughout the Age of Strife.



    As a race that bred for the harshest of galactic regions and provided all the knowledge of their progenitors through the Ancestor Cores, they did not need the fragile supply lines and resource-providing client worlds that the human core systems. The prospecting race sent to the most isolated volume in the galaxy, bread for harshness, primed for endurance. None were better suited to whether Old Night than they.



    Kin Society



    All Kin belong to a Kindred, ranging in size from a group of families to a small nation-state. Their population can fluctuate from a few dozen to millions, depending on their lineage and historical prosperity. A Kindred will live in a Hold, but like Kin, which the term "kindred" encompasses, the term "Hold" is somewhat ambiguous.



    It should be noted that this is a common characteristic of these people: seemingly robust terminology that is invested with deep meaning depending on the individual or Kindred with whom one is concerned. Meaning is always contextual; thus, forming an in-group is an inherent part of the process.



     The Kin despises flowery language as a culture, preferring direct communication that appears blunt and trusting that the recipient will guide their understanding. A Hold can be a fortress complex on an asteroid, a void station lurking in the atmosphere of a gas giant, or even a group of ships forming a nomadic flotilla. In short, it is anything the Kin wants it to be or where their ancestral history has led them. It is central to their identity.



    Kindred names, too, form the basis of their identity. They may be named for a superlative ancestor like Vikits Kin or some essential nature or role like the Star Deliver Kindred. Location, too, is used as with the Kindred of Thousand Stars, but even to this day, relatively basic kindred names persist, such as the famed kindred six or kindred Eleven-D. These latter names likely are the oldest, their origins lost to the galaxy as the Age of Technology that birth them.



    Four Pillars of a Hold



    For all Kin, however, their Hold is built around the so-called four pillars: Hearth, Forge, Fane, and Crucible. Sturdy terms, but again as nuanced in meaning as the Hold itself.



    The Hearth is not a fire pit. It is the location of a reactor or other power source, the primary flame that powers everything within a Hold.



    Forge is more direct. It is a technological and weapons factorium from which all the Kin derive all devices they require.



    The Fane is where the Votann is kept, attended to by the so-called living ancestors, the Grimnyr shaman technicians that preside over and commune with the Votann to discern their wisdom.



    Lastly, the Crucible is the gene wombs, the gestation devices, and the genetic processing technology from which new generations of Kin are born. To serve alongside their kindred in whatever role the Votann demands of them.



    The Hold is politically controlled by a parliament known as a Spakerönde. The elected representatives of the Guilds, the senior officers of the military Kinhost, and the chiefs of the Grimnyr attend this legislative assembly. Despite being nominally of the same kindred, the Spakerönde is a chamber of strident debate and often deliberate obstinacy. The conservative Kin enjoy debate, but it rarely changes their minds. The largest assemblies can discuss a single topic for weeks or months without making progress. To the Kin, this is not a political impasse. It is a point of pride that matters are considered with the depth and gravity they deserve, despite little being accomplished.



    The Guilds



    The previously mentioned Guilds are crucial to modern Kindreds and function in the same way as their terminology would suggest in other human societies. They are mercantile and, after a fashion, capitalist, trying to control and order all Kin who inhabit the strata of civilian life, from ship mastery to engineering.



    Every Guild is ruled over by its Guildmasters, who establish standards for Guild accreditation, expected levels of craftsmanship, and the tithes their members’ levy. The exploitation of the worker Kindreds is debatable, but the Guilds offer civilian Kin a means to affect political change.



    Ostensibly speaking, Guilds are expected to supersede affiliations with any Kindred, Hold, or League. This is not the case. Small guilds will rarely operate outside of their Kindred territories. Larger Guilds use their power and influence to direct trade operations beyond the bounds of many Leagues.



    Similarly, Kin are not expected or required to perform guild service. A significant amount of competition exists between Guild members and freelancers, and sometimes outright hostility is displayed. The former sees the latter as feckless gadabouts. While the freelancers view the former as maddeningly obstinate and hidebound.



    Whatever strife they may cause, it is impossible to deny the value that the Guilds provide to the culture of the Kin. They smooth trade, commerce, and transit between Kindreds. They provide organizational administration and support throughout the Leagues. From star-mining and gravitic fracking to smoothly-functioning military supply chains, voidcraft repair, the provision and preparation of food and drink, the construction Holds, and every other aspect of Kin manufacture and distribution, it all functions better thanks to the Guilds' high standards.



    The Leagues



    Above all of this are the Leagues. In the earliest days of the Kin, they were simple designations for multiple mining fleets to work in concert. Over time, they evolved into military alliances to protect the Votann from the hostile xenos of the galactic core. From there, they grew into multi-system stellar nations consisting of many Kindreds.



    A mixture of state, military, and mercantile alliances, all Leagues bear a shared heraldry seen across all space claimed by them, and all kindred pledged to their banners. Given the kin, these leagues developed into a specific cultural bent or specialism, which quickly became established as tradition. Thus, the greatest and oldest Leagues are nearly identical to how they appeared tens of millennia ago. The Kindreds pledged to them all know that their traditions are the most successful and robust and see no reason to change them.



    The Kronus Hegemony and Grendl Dominance are warlike, having suffered endless xenos incursions since their earliest days. The Greater Thurian League is far more mercantile in its outlook. While the Trans-Hyperian Alliance is renowned as explorers and voyagers. These are but four of the most eminent Leagues. There are no dictates on the size one has to take to earn the term. As discussed previously, Kin language is subtle and nuanced. A League can hold as little as one system with two Kindreds bound by a shared custom and outlook. What begins as a simple written or spoken agreement can evolve into the most rock-solid of traditions.



    Territorial claims work similarly. Once a League has laid claim to a volume of space, it rapidly becomes hollowed ancestral ground. Boundaries rarely shift as they had become traditional. Should territory change hands, it is almost always due to some form of agreement, shifting allegiance of a particular kindred, disaster, or external invasion. Civil wars are not unheard of between Leagues. Such occurrences are rare, for they are viewed by the Kin as dishonorable and wasteful.



    Should the annexation of new territory occupied previously by humans or xenos be necessary, the Kin takes on an altogether different mean. If the original inhabitants prove agreeable, the Kin will allow them to continue as they had before. Cohabitation is acceptable as long as the resources sought by the Kin are available to them. This relationship may even be mutually beneficial. Those living in non-League space often intervene on the side of their hosts in times of peril, regardless of whether it is strictly to protect what they are there for. If they encounter resistance at the outset or even when they have coexisted for centuries, the Kin proceed in a warlike manner. They display a resolve that seems astonishing to their unfortunate opponents.





    The Kin and the Wider Galaxy

    Warfare is not unknown to the Kin; they are occupants of this most hateful of galaxies, just like the rest of us. From the earliest generation ships to millennia-old Leagues, the days of the Kin have been marked by many conflicts. Both in defense of the coreward Hold Worlds and in seeking new volumes to plunder and settle.



    Their greatest hatred is reserved for the Orks, the Kin's most enduring enemies. The Greenskins flourish just as well in the galactic core as they do everywhere else. Their anarchic, destructive nature is anathema to everything the Kin value. A similar revulsion is reserved for the followers of Chaos, whom they view with disgust and bewilderment.



    Many Kindreds have accidentally unearthed subterranean stasis tombs of the Necron Dynasties. This often leads to cataclysmic conflicts as the rashly awakened dynasts seek to reclaim their supposed birthright from the Kin.



    Not all relations between the Kin and the larger galaxy are hostile. They have conducted sporadic, profitable, if often tense, trade with the Aeldari. Although they have little respect for what they see as the arrogance of the Asuryani and none for the gruesome excesses of the Drukhari, this is an equitable arrangement.



    Relations between the Kin and the Imperium are complicated and often contentious. For a start, the Imperium is unaware of the scale of their civilization, something the Kin seeks to perpetuate. The Cloneskeins of the Kin have given them an appearance so different from baseline humanity that they were mistaken as different minor xenos races during the Great Crusade, including the "Gnostari," "Grome," and "Kreg," among others.



    In other cases, they are determined to be Abhuman bands, leading to the pejorative term "Squats." This designation is often applied to bands of Kin that have settled in Imperial space for one reason or another, be it prospecting, exile, or accidental stranding. The Kin, for their part, do not seek to disavow the Imperium as a whole of this notion. The existence of the League and, more importantly, the Votann are facts they know should be kept secret. Whatever genetic links between the Kin and Old Earth, they have little love and respect for the Emperor and His empire.



    Humanity has been the enemy of the Leagues as often as their allies. Inquisitors of the Orders Metallic and the more zealous Space Marine Legionaries name the Kin as xenos and demand their purgation. As a result of their acquisitive nature, the Kin have invaded Imperial systems to obtain their minerals.



    The Adeptus Mechanicum views the Kin with a deep suspicion that would no doubt blossom into hatred should much of what the Leagues conceal be revealed. The concept of artificial minds is forbidden by Imperial Lex and Mechanicum dogma. Should any Tech-priest learn of the existence of the Votann, a Mechanicum crusade of staggering proportions would be launched upon the hapless League the eyes of Mars have settled upon.