Leagues of Votann - Squats

Warhammer 40,000 Game News, Reviews, Editorials & Unboxings for all things Leagues of Votann, aka The Squats.

The Leagues of Votann are a faction from UK-Based Games Workshop's Tabletop Wargame Warhammer 40,000. The Leagues of Votann are a prominent Squat civilization based around the Galactic Core. For thousands of years, they have exploited the riches of the core and overcome the dangers of the perilous region. Over these many millennia they have battled many of the galaxy's races, while just as frequently trading or acting as mercenaries.

The Votann are a rugged survivalist culture, having derived their society from the dangerous merchant-fleets of the Dark Age of Technology. They find strength and unity in the endless quest to acquire the resources they need to endure. While many judge them as selfish hoarders, they see these actions as necessary to ensure the survival of their race. Few other races can match the cloned Kin of the Leagues of Votann in the resilience of mind, body, and spirit.

The Squats of the Leagues of Votann refer to themselves as Kin. All Kin belong to an extended familial and biological grouping known as a Kindred. Kindreds dwell in Holds, which while simple at first glance often are wildly different in their structures and locations. Each Kindred is ruled over by a Hearthspake, and nearly all Kindreds and their Holds in turn pledge their allegiance to a League that make up the Leagues of Votann. At the heart of every one of these Leagues is a Votann Ancestor Core, a venerable thinking machine created long ago and placed aboard the first Kin mining fleets.

Kin of the Leagues of Votann, often referred to as Squats due to their build, are known to be extremely hardy and resilient. This is thanks to their Cloneskeins, genetic templates that give the cloned Kin a variety of physical and spiritual abilities. Their species also have higher red and white blood cell counts, and formidable strength and resilience.

Much of the basic technology of the Leagues of Votann is broadly derived from the same STC patterns of those used by the Imperium, so the two maintain a great deal of base similarity. However, Kin designs are of superior build and effectiveness to their Imperial counterparts. The engineers of the Votann, the Brokhyr, are known to slowly modify and improve the original STCs in a manner that would horrify the Imperium. This lack of dogma extends into the sphere of Artificial Intelligence, for the Votann utilize large amounts of fully sentient Robots.