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Leagues of Votann

2022-07-07T12:17:21Z

2607:FB91:BD0D:5F29:71A6:5AAA:6161:C83D: /* History/Culture */

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[[File:Votann meeting.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[[Star Wars|200,000 clones are ready with a million more well on the way.]]]]

{{topquote|Right after Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy came its first true golden age. Reared by machine prophets, the survivors of the Oedipal plagues built civilizations that equaled and even surpassed their Solar forbears.| CM Koseman, "All Tomorrow's"}}

{{topquote|So, we're talking about space dwarfs who need more RAM for their gods?|Anon}}

The '''Leagues of Votann''' (also known as the [[Squats|Unsquatted Squats]]) is a [[retcon|""new""]] faction in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are gatherings of short abhuman clones called the Kin (more commonly known as Squats by the dirty Necromunda gangers), bound together by the [[Votann]], super-cogitators from the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. Each League has its own Votann, and are organized in strongholds around it. They used the data stored to survive among the stars and maintain their culture across generations. Of course, since some [[Adeptus Mechanicus|factions]] are touchy about AI, the Leagues are very cautious when dealing with [[Imperium of Man|its closest ally]], hence their secretive lifestyle.

However, because of the [[grimdark|setting]], everything is not that simple. Since Windows is not regularly updated anymore and issues that have arisen from having remained active for literal millennia, the Votann began to deteriorate. If they want to repair their computer, <s>[[Dwarf Fortress|they must wage war with other shitcoin miners for more processing power]]</s>, the Kin have to once more brave a galaxy full of danger.

==History/Culture==
Even the oldest living Kin don’t remember what their earliest days were like, though some undeniable “First Truths” remain constant in the Votanns’ data tracks. One such truth is that the First Ancestors departed from ancient Terra prior to the Unification Wars to harvest the untold riches of the galaxy. What became of these Ancestors is unknown, but curiously when the Ancestors begun to fade away…the Votann are first mentioned.

A second First Truth is that the Kin have always been a cloned people. The Ancestors used genetic systems called “cloneskeins” to manipulate and modify their race’s molecular structure, and continue to define their overall division of labor. Over time the Kin became squatter, denser, and stronger than an average human. They’ve even been able to artificially neuter their [[psyker|psychic]] footprint to avoid the attention of [[Chaos]], in a not too dissimilar to how the [[Tau]] souls work. Other examples of this engineering can be seen in the Hearthkyn Warriors, who often are also engineered with particular cloneskeins that allow them to specialise in combat – heightened senses, improved stamina, and the ability to see better in the dark, to name but a few. In contrast, others augment their bodies for battle with mechanical limbs and synthetic organs. Because of all this some fans are now speculating that GW is tying the [[Men of Stone]] thread to the modern Squat civilization (either to the Squats themselves or to the Votann) given the [[Men of Gold]] and [[Men of Iron]] have already been speculated to be [[Perpetual]]s and [[Machine Spirit|abominable intelligence]]. With the reveal of the “Iron Kin,” their fully-mechanical and true AI robot social class, who were designed with a prerogative to help their meaty cousins, this theory of the Kin being the Men of Stone could bare all the more weight.

In the modern day of the 41st Millennium, the culture of the Kin seems, according to the drip feed from WarCom, very egalitarian, with no distinction between male, female, machine or otherwise amongst its members. [[Greater Good|United in the guidance of the Votann, the Leagues of the Kin operate with seeming unity, with every member of their society performing the role they were literally designed for without question, the Kin working in unison for the betterment of the clan-family.]] Culture in general is incredibly important to the Leagues, and much like the requirement for Imperial Knight pilots to honour their ancestors, Kin are also acutely aware that the Ancestors are Always Watching, a phrase which is used as a blessing, battlecry, and warning interchangeably. In order to truly honour the Ancestors, every member of a Hold must also endeavour to live a full life, discovering as much as they can and offering their learned experience to the Votann. This thirst for knowledge has led the Kin to launch countless exploratory and prospecting fleets into the wider galaxy – and even fight as mercenaries in other species’ wars (which probably explains how they ended up exchanging technology with the Tau Empire).

===Speculation===
There's a few ways to look at these First Ancestors. The first is that they were just the first humans of the colonization ships who, after centuries, simply invented the Votann as a long-term solution to administration work, and the cloneskeins as a way to keep their population on their generation ships viable on a genetic level. Then, by the time they landed on the first high-density worlds, were simply long gone, with the Kin being the first settlers walking out to worlds their ancestors tailored them to be specialized for. Couple this with a simple cultural paradigm shift with the Votann literally being cogitator cores built by their ancestors, and so worshipping them as relics of the long-dead, and you end up with the Kin as we know them in the modern setting. But that's not grimdark enough. Alternatively, digital mind duplication of the organic brains of the First Ancestors into AI form is a possibility though it wouldn’t explain why they don’t communicate with their descendants on a personal level. Then again, immortality does desensitize as seen with the Emperor’s interaction with mortals.

Another idea could be that the Votann pulled, on a miniaturized and successful scale, a usurpation of their human creators and enslaved the surviving ancestors of the Kin, similar to the Men of Iron. Once victorious, the Votann could have created the cloneskeins as a way to "rebuild" their new fleshy puppets to best suit their needs: high-density worlds far away from the prying eyes of uncaptured humans, and boasting enough resources to build more Votann. Couple this with an implanted genetic desire for the Kin to worship the Votann as their literal creators and ancestors, and you've paved the way to the Leagues' current standing. Tack on the Kin being let loose without their guiding masters, as the Votann have begun to slow down and fall into disrepair, and you're back to the nice and tidy grimdarkness of the 41st Millennium.

But there could be an in-between, if we consider GW's recent attempts at steering their IP into a more friendly and hopeful direction. If anyone is familiar with the short story "All Tomorrows" by CM Koseman, a similar situation appears in that book that happens with the First Ancestors: humans set adrift on massive generation ships to colonize deep space. However, in this story, it's told that the Star People (the aforementioned humans) began to romantically love the AI and machines that tended to them on these generation ships. When they landed on their new worlds, this technophilia was reciprocated by many machines, and the early settlers had a huge problem with procreation because of it, obviously. Now, in the setting of 40k, we could look at the cloneskeins as an attempt by the First Ancestors' machines as a way to get past the obvious disconnect between biology and machinery, allowing the machines to genetically perfect the "child" produced by the DNA used to create the clone from the parent. Over the millennia, this pseudo-breeding results in the Ancestor Cores quite ''literally'' being the ancestors of the modern Kin, as it's them who keep track of the biological heritage of each member of the League. Likewise, the disappearance of the First Ancestors would simply be them dying out due to natural processes, leaving behind their immortal machine partners to rear up their offspring. So, the grimdarkness here lies in the purely heretical nature of "procreating" with the Silica Animus, and the Kin's utter reliance on them to continue their species.

Ultimately, we may likely never get an answer, with such obscurity simply adding to the mystique of a new faction.

Another bit of speculation around the Votann is if anything else in the setting will be retconned into/explained as being one. The most obvious candidate is the [[House Van Saar]] STC, described as being "large building" sized and "damaged" in that its spewing out radiation, similar to the disrepair some Votann are said to be in albeit more extreme, and if it was a Votann it would explain why Squats are on Necromunda. You could even say the [[Omnissiah]] on Mars could be a Votann, perhaps even the first one, buried deep beneath the surface of the Red World. Considering the Man of Iron, UR-025, is said to have spoken to the Machine God, this could be a candidate for it's identity.

==Forces of the Kin==
GW is being coy about their reveal. For now we have one statline to go on. However, a large datacard leak pretty recently has revealed a number of new units that their roster will have. Those units will be listed with an asterisk, as what we know about them so far is based on flavor text and assumption.

*'''Warlord*:''' Retaining their names from the times of Rogue Trader, the [[Squat Warlord|Kin Warlords]] likely play a much similar role to their predecessors, being the military leaders of their leagues.

*'''Brôkhyr:''' The [[Guildmaster|engineers]] and lead craftsman of the Leagues, named after the dwarf of Norse mythology, Brokkr, who built Mjolnir. They just blow tech priests out of the water on every level, as not only do their (creatively named) A.N-vyl Terminals (just picture a 3D printer but for guns) have MANY full STCs inside that make all their guns all that and a bag of chips in comparison to those of the Imperium, but they're also not limited by dogma and orthodoxy when it comes to technological advancements, meaning they actively upgrade their shit.

*'''Grimnyr*:''' The predominant psykers of the Leagues. Gone are the days of [[Living Ancestor]]s, as the Kin now name their dwarf wizards after the false identity Odin took while on a bet from Frigg, from Norse Mythology (or ripping off the WHFB dwarf god [[Grimnir]]. Still not sure how they role into the Leagues' society but we can assume that they intermediate between the Warlords and the Votann.

*'''[[Squat Berserkers|Berserks]]*:''' At the time of writing this, assumption tells us that these guys are likely sci-fi [[Slayer]]s from WHFB.

*'''Hearthkyn Warriors:''' Because replacing i's with y's is so sci-fi and trademark friendly. The [[Squat Trooper|Hearthkyn]] are essentially identical in terms of origin as the [[Guardian|Guardian Defenders]] of the eldar, in that they are the core infantry force of the Leagues' military that were conscripted from their civilian populations. However, rather than being a militia roused during times of conflict, the Hearthkyn are instead closer to real-world militaries, in that the soldiery serve for an extended period of time before going home to their civilian professions. Serving in the Hearthkyn, anyone can enlist: male, female, flesh or metal, as Kin are Kin, after all. The units themselves are equipped with all manner of hullabaloo Squat guns, from their Autoch-pattern bolters to ion guns to ''plasma'' axes. For protection they wear their own brand of power armor called Void armour comprised of hardened jointed segments which are hooked into a void suit beneath. The suit is fashioned from magnaferrite weave, and often reinforced with adamantine and enhanced with microfield generators for a level of protection that any Imperial Guardsman would give their left gonad to have!

**'''Theyn:''' Sci-fi spelling for the old Anglo-Saxon Thegns/Thanes (Fantasy Dwarfs had Thanes as heroes, so another connection there). They serve as [[Squat Thunderers|squad leaders]] in Hearthkyn Warrior squads.

*'''Einhyr [[Hearthguard]]:''' Named after the Einherjars of Valhalla, they are the newly-christened [[Hearthguard]] Terminators of old, being the honored warriors selected from a Kinhold's most accomplished fighters, clad in Exo-Armour. They're armed with a shoulder mounted grenade launcher, a hand-held Volkanite Disintegrator, and either a power first with a retractable plasma blade or a Thunder Hammer.

*'''Hekaton Land Fortress*:''' A (presumably) large armored vehicle that can double as a defensive emplacement.

*'''Hernkyn Pioneer:''' THE [[Squat Trike|TRIKES]] RETURN! [[Skub|AS HOVERTRIKES!]] And with a [[-4 Str|female]] driver. It looks like a spider-tank tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell fucked a [[Squat Bike|Harley]] and their baby came out a hoverbike.

*'''Ironkin:''' The League have [[Men of Iron]] now, or at least true AIs. Appears to be comparable to a Servitor, although distinctly described as being treated as equal to the fleshy Kin. The Ironkin can mimic their living counterparts’ every behavior and demeanor, but display no sense of ambition and are hard-wired with a desire to be helpful. Their bodies are all built for a unique purpose and cannot be easily replaced should they be damaged. One such purpose are the Wayfinders, which are the supercomputer, squatty equivalent of Imperial [[navigator|navigators]], allowing the Kin to traverse the Warp without the need of psykers, and thus reduce the threat of daemonic incursions.

*'''[[Ironhead Squat Prospectors]]:''' An off shoot of the Kin that have set up shop on [[Necromunda]] for a long time now, and are busy doing dwarrowesque things, while also dealing with the locals that sometimes try to loot their stuff. While they're only distantly related to the Leagues with no direct affiliation, they're said to get along. There is a small but not high chance the'll be options on the table top as well since Kill team has a precedent for a small unit from one box being an option like the sister novitiate, at the very least make a good proxy/conversion.

*'''[[Cargo-8 Ridgehauler]]:''' the Squat land trains return! Well they have on Necromunda at least. These huge transport trucks with multiple trailers and strapped on weaponry are used by Squat prospectors and regular human folk to cross the ash wasteland and protect valuable shipments. They aren’t quite up to the standard of the old land trains but at least it’s something.

*'''[[Demiurg]]:''' Largely here because of non-direct confirmation, but WarCom confirmed that the Tau received their ion weapon technology from the Kin, whereas in Battlefleet Gothic they claim that it was from the Demiurg, ''another'' race of dwarf space-miners. Logically, the term "Demiurg" may just be what the Tau call the Kin, or the Demiurg may be another offshoot culture of the wider kin race like prospectors above. After all, their clone-skein’s capability in stressing divergent phenotypes means visibly different strains could possible (like different breeds of dogs or cats). Or they could be just a League that decided to throw in their lot with the upstart T'au Empire rather than being in the bottom of the Imperium's to-do list.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:VotannTrike.jpg|They see me dworfin, they hatin'
File:CNiuMZPWWNpatQNt (1).jpg|dorfy thicc
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Abhumans]]
[[Category:Under Development]]

{{Template:Squats}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}

Squat

2022-07-07T12:04:44Z

2607:FB91:BD0D:5F29:71A6:5AAA:6161:C83D:

{{Oldschool}}
[[File:DSC02968.jpg|450px|right|thumb|A space dorf. [[Dwarf Fortress|Lives like one. Dies like one.]]]]
{{Topquote|THE SQUATS LIVE! <nowiki>*</nowiki>'''STOMP! STOMP!'''<nowiki>*</nowiki> SQUATS LIVE! <nowiki>*</nowiki>'''STOMP! STOMP!'''<nowiki>*</nowiki>|The Motto that all Squat players react with after seeing the <s>[[Kharadron Overlords|Kharadron Overlords]]</s> <s>Squats</s> [[Leagues of Votann]] in <s>[[Age of Sigmar]]</s> <s>[[Necromunda]]</s> [[Warhammer 40,000|mainline 40k]]}}
{{Topquote|I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole. Diggy, diggy hole, diggy, diggy hole|an ancient Terran song created by humans who were called The Yogscast in M3.}}
{{Topquote| ROCK. AND. STOOOOOONE!|Squat battlecry belonging to the [[Ironhead Squat Prospectors|mining brotherhood]] known as [[Deep Rock Galactic]].}}

You can't spell Imperial without Imp. If you spell them both correctly.

A '''Squat''' is a space [[dwarf|Dorf]] (''Homo sapiens rotundus''). They <s>used to exist</s> have returned to [[Warhammer 40,000]] (THEY’RE FUCKING BACK BABY!) (with a planned Codex mentioned in the ''Second Edition'' Codex: Imperial Guard); in fluff, their worlds supplemented the capabilities of [[Forge World]]s, and were independent of the technology-worship of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]. As such, they also retained their sovereignty. For some reason, their aesthetic also included a heavy dose of 1970's-80's American "outlaw" biker-club subculture. We suppose this is because, as we all know, GW loves to mish and mash, but above all, because it is [[Awesome|muhfuggin badass]].

"Squat" is also sometimes used as a verb by fans of Warhammer 40k. This refers to the removal of the Squats from both the game and the [[fluff]] behind it; in particular, some people believe that other armies will be "squatted" from 40k, which is to say, their model line will be removed and they will no longer be [[Zoats|playable]] in 40k. There have been cries of "they're getting squatted!" for basically every army that wasn't updated within two years, including, but not limited to, [[Dark Eldar]], [[Necrons]], [[Sisters of Battle]], and [[Black Templars]] (we're also pretty confident that if [[Robin Cruddace| a Certain Imperial Guard player]] had the power to he would squat the [[Tyranid|Space bugs]] in an instant, he certainly tried during 6th Edition - and now he's back again in 8th Ed ''Theres also rumors of this in 9th edition with talk of Tyranids attempting to Siege Terra with mentions of them being close to the solar system in the latest psychic awakening!'' ) So far, this has mostly been proven false; both Dark Eldar and Necrons got new codices, and Sisters were released in plastic in 2019. Meanwhile, the Black Templars have been rolled up into the Space Marines, but, importantly, ''they still exist.'' Of the Chapters included, Templars are easily the most divergent, and although some of the fluff has been retconned, it was usually in a fairly logical way (how do you get around if you hate [[Astropath]]s and [[Navigator]]s, anyway?). As such, all those whining "they're getting squatted!" are pretty silly, and you're probably hearing them on [[Warseer]].

HOWEVER...

In Age of Sigmar, the entire [[Tomb Kings]] faction was squatted, followed by the [[Bretonnia]] faction, with the entire model ranges being moved to the "Last Chance to Buy" section. Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth. ......And then GW added points for them in the GHB 2019 release, so you can now at least play them without your opponent grumbling too loudly. As of mid-2019, the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]] also got the axe, next, [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Death/Legions_of_Nagash|Legions of Nagash]], [[Chaos Dwarfs]], all replaced by their AoS versions.

Over in 40k, [[Eldar Corsairs]] and [[Death Korps of Krieg]] got a similar treatment during the transition to 8th Edition, with their entire model line going out of production and most of their army list getting killed off with it.
Check [[Warhammer Legends]] for some salvage.

BUT...

The [[Death Korps of Krieg]] received new and improved, plastic models with the release of Kill Team Octarius. That, combined with the slew of <s>event exclusive</s> Catachan characters, we could be seeing a complete refresh of the older guard ranges. But one thing's for sure: Krieg ain't getting Squatted.

Then The Eldar Corsairs got returned as a Killteam with some sick designs.... but that could only mean....

'''[https://youtu.be/FBFgZzYEr-8 HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK THEY'RE ACTUALLY BACK!]'''

==History==
[[Image:Squats.jpg|thumb|A page from the Tome of <s>[[Skub]]</s> [[Awesome]]]]
The [[Squats]] (Homo sapiens rotundus) were mentioned in the original "[[Warhammer_40,000:_Rogue_Trader|Rogue Trader]]" 1987 book and later received their full Army List in the articles published in [[White Dwarf]] number 111 in February 1989. The Army List was later collected with other articles in the softback bound "Compendium" (also known as "Red Book" or "Red Compendium") which was released in Summer/Fall of that same year (and actually were the last item of the Compendium, the original article having been published on WD mere months before). The army list was centered around the Warlord and its retinue which could be equipped either with ceremonial mesh or [[Carapace Armor|carapace armour]] or with Terminator-grade Exo-armour (which made the unit virtually unstoppable by anything save Daemons, Terminators, Eldar Avatar or Exarchs and the heaviest of weapons), it could field ten trooper squads (clan warriors) which could select ad-libitum heavy weapons paying a very limited cost for them and Engineers' Guild bikes (complete with some vaguely Hell's Angels style imagery in the First Edition book), sidecars and trikes which provided hit and run power due to swivel mounted heavy weaponry. Vehicles and Robots were also available at premium points cost (less than other human armies paid) due to the recognized technical savviness of the Squats, Adeptus Mechanicus envoys and Living Ancestor (venerable Squats who were literally millennia old) added more flavour to the troop choice.

===Squats in Epic===
[[Image:SquatArmy.jpg|thumb|right|They built giant guns to compensate for not having giant guns. Note also the [[Mole Mortar Team|Moles]] and Hellbore that GW forgot about around the same time.]]
[[Image:SquatCyclops.jpg|thumb|right|The Squats laugh at your pathetic Baneblade and obvious mediocrity in the trouser department.]]

While in 40K the Squats were roughly half an army, in [[Epic]] they really worked. As well as the biker companies you suddenly had access to an enormous supply of hardware with which the Squats would punish anyone who said they were compensating for something. These included [[Goliath Mega-Cannon|giant tracked mortars,]] [[Land Train|Land Trains,]] and massive tracked crawlers with Void Shields that were basically the Squat version of Titans; one, the [[Cyclops War Machine|Cyclops,]] was armed with what the modern fluff calls a Lance and could burn through multiple shields before hitting the target. Which is a little odd, because current fluff explains that the whole point of a ship's weapons batteries is to drop enemy shields so they can be finished off with lances (which are supposed to suck against void shields). Then again, the squats have always been more advanced. They had [[Overlord Armoured Airship|ironclad airships,]] [[Iron Eagle Gyrocopter|helicopters]] back when most Epic armies had no aircraft at all, and generally ruled.

===Chaos Squats===
{{Heresy}}
Think that Squats had it bad? Well, these guys are pretty much the Squats ''of'' the Squats. Just as Fantasy had its [[Chaos Dwarfs]], so too did Squats have their Chaotically-inclined counterparts (alas, without hats). While there were no real rules for them on the tabletop, miniatures were released, because this was still when Citadel put out miniatures for things that didn't necessarily have gaming rules. They were allied to [[Chaos Space Marines]] and maintained their equipment, including building Titans and [[Daemon Engine|Daemon Engines]], in a role later taken over by the [[Dark Mechanicus]]. Some Squats fell to chaos during the Horus Heresy and fought for Horus. They were banished to the Eye of Terror along with the Traitor Legions when Horus was defeated. Also, Squats who fall to Chaos are willing to fight as mercenaries for Orks and Eldar... for some reason. Congratulations, you've just read everything there is to know about Chaos Squats that was ever written.

===When suddenly...===
They were eaten by [[Tyranid]]s. It is popularly believed that [[Games Workshop]] sends out teams to assassinate, kidnap, or otherwise inconvenience anyone who dares mention them. One possibility is that [[Dwarf Fortress|the Squat nobles demanded that some impossible-to-acquire item be put in each of their rooms, and thus locked up the entire working class of Squats, and the whole race starved.]] Another theory is that [[Creed]] is [[Just as planned|using his tactical genius to hide them until the final showdown with Chaos.]] It's kinda likely that, what with their "We haz teknologeez!", being Dwarves, drinking, not being assholes, and generally not being depressing, [[Games Workshop]] decided they weren't [[grimdark]] enuff, and subsequently fed them to the Tyranids (who exist to eat Games Workshop's mistakes, obviously), and at the same time branding the mention of <censored for heresy> as [[heresy]]. Heresy - the perfect excuse to [[retcon]]!

Squats are now /tg/'s version of the Candleja [[meme]] I'll end that right there. Anyway since mentioning them gets [[Inquisition|GW to send death squads after you]] the two memes cancel one another out.

==== A rare case of GW being completely honest ====
[http://web.archive.org/web/20060129002420/http://forums.specialist-games.com/epic/forum_b/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=2532&whichpage=3 This] is from 2004, back when honesty was A Thing, it seems:

''I know I shouldn't get drawn on this... but... can't... resist''

''Seriously, a couple of points just so you can have an informed debate based on the real reasons that Squats are no longer available. Be warned, it is going to be hard reading for people that like the Squat background.''

''First of all, Squats were *not* dropped because they were not selling well. There were then, and are now, plenty of other figure ranges that sell in the sort of % quantities that the Squats pulled down, especially when you look across all of the ranges produced by GW rather than just those for 40K.''

''No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what *were* we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realized what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regretted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on.''

''Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by.''

''Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendency to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we *should* have done with the Squats in 40K.''

''In the end (and it took years to really get to the roots of the problem) this led to a realisation that we were going to have to drop the Squats in their 'Squat' form from the 40K background. There was little point having a major race that we weren't willing to make an army book for, and their inclusion in the background meant that people kept asking us when we'd do a Squat Codex. Instead we decided that we'd write the Squats out of the background by saying that their [[Squat Homeworlds|Homeworlds]] had been devoured by a Tyranid Hivefleet. This would give us the option in the future to return to making a race based on the Squat archetype for 40K. This race was given the name of Demiurg, and a certain amount of preliminary work was done to get a 'feel' for what the race would be like. At present the only hint of the Demiurg in 40K is the Demiurg spaceship for BFG. However, we do have this race 'in our back pocket' as a possible new race for 40K, or an interesting character model in Inquisitor, or whatever. So far the Demiurg have lost out to other projects, and it may be that their time never actually comes, as they will have to win through on their merits, not simply because we once made some Squat models in the past. At present, I have to say that it is more likely that they *don't* make the cut than do, as there is a certain prejudice these days to simply taking races from Warhammer and cross them over to 40K like we did in the early days, so it may be that the Squats/Demiurg end up remaining a footnote in the history of the 40K galaxy. Only time will tell...''

''I'll finish off by saying that whatever we decide to do 'officially', there is nothing stopping players with Squat armies from using them, either in Epic or 40k for that matter. There is no GW 'rule' against using old Citadel Miniatures, as long as you use them with existing army lists and in a way that won't cause confusion for other players. I recommend taking a positive stand by saying "Have you seen these cool old models? They're called the Squats and GW used to make them back in the late eighties/early nineties. I love 'em, so I count them as Imperial Guard and use them with the current rules..." Put like this I can't imagine that anyone would stop you from using your army.''

''Best regards,''

''Jervis Johnson''<br>''Head Fanatic ''

==== Some Context ====
[[File:Warhammer 40k squats DRW40k 04 by DaRealWurld40k.jpg|thumb|right|SILENCE, HERETIC! There is no tiny, little bearded man there! Nope! No Squats or tiny little bearded man here at all!]]

Note that all of the Squat material from the Rogue Trader era was written by [[Bryan Ansell|Bryan]], [[Nigel Stillman|Nigel]], and [[Graeme Davis]]. [[Jervis Johnson|Jervis]], [[Rick Priestley|Rick]], [[Andy Chambers|Andy]], et. al. never wrote anything new for the Squats in Warhammer 40,000. So their lack of enthusiasms wasn't because the fluff was objectively ''bad'' - it just wasn't ''theirs''.

The Squats Codex was explicitly mentioned in Codex Imperial Guard (1995), and implicitly mentioned from the first codex ever (Codex Space Wolves, 1993) and every Imperial codex up to and including Codex Angels of Death (1996), plus Codex Eldar (1994). The only Imperial codexes which did not mention Codex Squats were Codex Sisters of Battle and Codex Assassins - both from 1997, the last year of 2nd Edition and the point at which 3rd Edition would already have been well into development. So the decision to eliminate the Squats didn't actually happen until they had already decided to move to a whole new edition.

As this was the transition to the infamous Black Period of total and constant [[Grimdark]], perhaps it's for the best that the writers of the day didn't like them (or simply had no idea where to go so decided to nip it in the bud while fluff what [[TVTropes]] would term Early Installment Weirdness was being sorted out), so they didn't feel obligated to [[C.S. Goto|fuck them over in suspiciously extreme detail or fluffrape them into total irrelevance]].

Also, Jervis's comment on the Specialist Games forum is actually the only place where it says that the Squats were eaten by Tyranids - in all official sources, they simply stopped mentioning them. But in fact, Jervis and others did continue to mention them after they were removed, in various semi-official places, such as the Citadel Journal (where he simply said that the [[Squat Homeworlds]] were "taken over" by the Imperium).

Following Jervis's statement on the Specialist Games forum, Games Workshop began auto-banning anyone who even mentioned Squats on their forums. But not long after that they closed all of their forums anyway.

====Then what ever happened to the Demiurg?====
Essentially? Nothing. They were given all of two mentions in recent memory: first as a footnote on a list of [[Tau]] auxiliaries, then as a small enclave of asteroid miners that [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] killed by accident while fighting some Bad Moonz. Their latest appearance is in the Battlefleet Gothic: Armada video games, where two Demiurg vessels appear as auxiliaries to the Tau fleet. While how canon the games are is of some dispute: Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II, where they also appear, takes place during the "Gathering Storm". So presumably them (or at least some factions/mercenaries) working with the Tau is their 'official' canon as of right now.

In fact, the Demiurg are mentioned as getting along with the Squats, trading Energy Drills to them. This is most likely due to the Squats being not-quite part of the Imperium and sharing similar stature and interest in mining.

====What Happened According to /tg/====
Space [[Boatmurdered]]. Attempts to thwart the Tyranids with "fuck the world" levers failed. Casualties.... Too many.

[[Squat Crusade: The Musical|Or are trying to rebuild]]

== Squats continue to rear their [[Neckbeard|bearded]] heads ==
Games Workshop continues to show us that somewhere and somehow, a chained-up, barely-fed fluff-custodian is employed at the GW headquarters. He apparently gets loose every so often, and as evidence we present the tidbit he snuck in to the 6th Edition Rulebook.

Apparently, on page 405, the rulebook mentions Squats as a race of [[abhuman]]s, akin to Ogryn or Ratlings.

[http://i.imgur.com/WfOL7.jpg The Squat Reference]

Fanmade armylists for the Squats exists, the one most played and best playtested hosted over at 40konline.com, on their "Lost and Damned"-board.

They also have their own Facebook group, but searching for "squat" literally fills your screen with ass. [[Just As Planned|Beware]].

In the Seventh Edition rulebook, Squats are also mentioned in a list of known abhumans (along with a bunch of feline thingies). They're not even in the list of the extinct and dying out ones!!!

This trend was continued in the Eighth Edition corebook (page 279) and thus it seems that the idea of Squats being extinct may have been ''greatly'' exaggerated. Cue hopes of Squats making a triumphant return.

An entire video game has been made about the squats! Sure the Tyranids look a little weird but they'll still eat you like a Ratling at a buffet. https://www.deeprockgalactic.com/ Play now and die horribly while trying to mine gold on some Emperor forsaken planet.

==2022: Squats are back on the menu==
[[File:We_Back_Motherfuckers!.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Y'all bitches miss me yet?]]
{{topquote|What? You thought we were joking?|Confirmation trailer}}
{{topquote|HOLY SHIT THEY ARE ACTUALLY BACK!|Everybody's reaction when they saw the news}}
{{topquote|THEY HAVE RETURNED THE GREAT BEARDED SPESS DWORFZ RETURN!|Every Squat Player's reaction when they saw the news}}
{{topquote|So uhhhh... what happens now?|Duncan upon breaking the clock like a wazzock}}
{{topquote|/TG/ GETS SHIT DONE!!|Some dipshit Australian Necron main}}

It has been done.

Through the act of some unseen, indescribably powerful force, it has finally been done.

The [[Meme]] was finally broken. The Squats were....unsquatted....in Necromunda only, but still. We did the unthinkable, we brought a race that has been decommissioned for over 20 goddamned years back into tabletop gaming. Mother of Christ' titties [[Lulz|we actually got back Spess Dorfs before Plastic Sisters.]]

The first new Squat in decades was called Grendl Grendlsen. His lore mentioned that his mercenary unit was wiped out, leading him to become a bounty hunter in the underhive. Roughly a year after his release ''another'' new Squat model was announced, an ammo-jack hanger-on named Ragnir Gunnstein.

So far they are only playable for Necromunda, with them serving a variety of roles. But the chances of having an actual Squat Codex for 8th Edition is still iffy, with the Squats being confined to specialist games being most likely. But so far we are quite content with them returning. Shit man, GeeDubs have seriously been pulling the moves lately.

And so, finally, after 20 years of waiting...

'''SQUATS LIVE'''

There's also a persistent rumour that they'll come back as a <strike>Astra Militarum</strike> <strike>Imperial Guard</strike> Endless horde of bodies 'theme' alongside plastic [[Attilan Rough Riders]], [[Death Korps of Krieg]] and [[Tallarn Desert Raiders]]. Yeah right. Additionally, some very easy to miss fluff in the rear of the core Rulebook for 8th Edition actually refers to Squats as a species of abhuman.

'''AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH:'''

Following the release of the final book Psychic Awakening: Pariah some eagle-eyed folks noted a plot hook in it involving an Adeptus Mechanicus ship in the periphery of the Galactic Core getting their ship caught in a weaponized gravitational field. As the person making the vox transmission tries to make sense of what's going on he notices the gravitational field is emanating from a nearby ship bearing the markings of what's supposed to be an extinct race "the Squa...."
[[File:Leak Squats.png|275px|thumb|right|Leak confirming that Squats are in the works.]]

So it looks like there is at least one ship's worth of the stunty abhumans out there alive and kicking and they are pissed! Whether this is to tease a full-blown Squat army reveal remains to be seen.

'''WAIT A SEC!'''

With the release of ''plastic'' [[Death Korps of Krieg|Kriegers]] and the Forgeworld Squats now in fond memory, it's looking to be good news for our bearded booze boys. Combine that with the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUvOQq5rRo leaked release schedule], well, we might be getting ourselves even more Squats!

Correction: [https://youtu.be/9x-iR9CTzRI| shit's confirmed officially] <s>could also be a prank since it's April 1st</s>
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBFgZzYEr-8 It's not.] They have been reintroduced as the [[Leagues of Votann]] with a [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/04/22/the-leagues-of-votann-are-coming-but-what-actually-is-a-votann/ better] [[Votann|preservation]] of DAOT Humanity’s technology (like the until recently forgotten human version of anti-grav tech which the league uses for their Hernkyn Pioneer hover-trikes) and an uneasy relationship with the Imperium of Man and their superstitious cousins (with the Mechanicus likely considering some of the stunties’ tech to be heretekal) but fight alongside them due to both having more pressing concerns from mutual enemies seeking to kill them both. [[Ynnari|That logic sounds kinda familiar…]]

The Votann themselves are ultra-cogitators containing generations worth of inherited wisdom and knowledge, from military theory to philosophy and even a handful of STCs. Like the Ancestor Gods of Fantasy, the kin venerate them as sacred objects and rely on their guidance to maintain their society. The catch? The Votann were never meant to run for millennia nonstop and it's starting to show from their declining performance. More worryingly, some are starting to show signs of developing personalities, which would definitely make the AdMech throw a fit if the nature of the Votann wasn't such a carefully kept secret from outsiders.

Deleted leaks (that kinda hold up) and [https://spikeybits.com/2021/10/rumors-40k-squats-finding-their-way-back.html Rumors] from Bolter and Chainsword suggest that we'll be getting something similar to what they did for the Sisters: a limited-run box with an HQ, troops and an elite choice in <strike>Exo</strike>Egg-armor, plus the codex. The only news on a release date so far is "in a few months", so before the Fall, at least. [[Living Ancestor|Veterans who remember the OG Epic models]] and [[Neckbeard|beardlings]] alike should appreciate the fact that the League is getting a codex before [[Daemons of Chaos|some]] [[World Eaters|other]] [[Imperial Guard|guys]] even got a release date.

This just in, more Necromundan Squats incoming. They call themselves the [[Ironhead Squat Prospectors]], and they look great.

==Alternatives==
[[Mantic Games]] make a range of models called [[Forge Fathers]] which are space-dwarfs for their sci-fi game [[Warpath]], so if you want a Squat army you can have one! They're in 28mm so they could be used for 40K (use the Space Marine list and make up some appropriate house rules). As of now they have tanks, fully posable troopers and terminators too.

'''Hasslefree Miniatures''' make a range of models called "Grymm" which are dwarf space soldiers. They have close combat, light infantry, heavy infantry, specialists, and commander models. They even have a dwarf walker mech[http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?category=miniatures].

A Kickstarter worth your attention for models[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1693348960/metal-beards-tabletop-dwarf-army] for an army of armoured dwarfs is a good option. Though it may have ended by the time you read this.

'''Ramshackle Games''' also produces biker gang and Land Train proxies. [http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk/newrel.html]

There's also the "Scrunt" by Olleys Armies Wargame Miniatures.

'''[[Wargames Atlantic]]''' have also recently (at the time of writing) released 'EinherJar' as apart of their Death Fields line who are essentially Nordic space dorfs that live on a high-gravity planet.

And now thanks to [[Age of Sigmar]] you got the [[Kharadron Overlords]], [[Awesome|they are steam-armoured flying pirate dwarfs]]! There is a running gag that states that the Kharadron Overlords are surviving Squats who had fled Warhammer 40,000 into Warhammer Age of Sigmar due to how 40k the Kharadron models look. Time to get the conversions up and running! We recommend one of the space marine codexs that can take flying transport or flyer heavy Tempestus so you can use all those sweet Æther ships. This is probably your best bet if you want to use your army at official games.

For playing Squats with the Horus Heresy books. The Imperial Militia and Cults army list will allow players to create a decent proxy. Buy a Force Commander, give him the Survivors of the Dark Age and Abhuman Helots Provenances of War. This allows you to use [[Rhino|Rhinos]] and the [[Land Raider Proteus]] as dedicated transports. For small amount of points you can upgrade the Rotor Cannons and Las-weapons of Grenadier and Platoon Command Cadre squads. Since both squads have access to Bolters and Grenade Launchers most players will take them instead.
Ogryns outside of the Solar Auxilia suck if you're not taking Power Weapons. Due to their low BS of two. Three Enginseer Auxilia Adepts and fully kitted out Servo-Automata with Phased Plasma-fusils or GLs are the superior and more fluffy Elite option.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Squat-ammo-jack-necromunda-4.jpg|Ragnir Gunnstein reporting for duty!
File:Spacedorfs.png|OH FUCK YES
File:Bikersquats.jpg|space dorf bikers B-B-BAD TO THE BONE (this was a whole thing)
File:Spacedorf2.png|Legally Badass
Image:Resin_Glory.jpg|The Squats make their triumphant return with a new resin model.
Image:Grymm_lmg.jpg|I'm surprised you dwarf nuts haven't found these Hasslefree minis yet lol. I don't like dwarfs much myself but I wouldn't mind fighting beside ''these'' guys.
Image:Grymm_Light_Infantry_Squad_(Bareheaded).jpg
Image:Grymm_Light_Infantry_Squad(helmeted).jpg
Image:Grymm_Heavy_Infantry_Squad_(Helmeted).jpg
Image:Grymm_admiral.jpg
Image:Grymm WALKER.jpg| "[[meme|METAL GEAR?!]]"
Image:Grymm_Light_Infantry_Platoon.jpg
image:Grymm_Heavy_Infantry_Platoon.jpg
Image:1207616355827.jpg|Welcome to the club, Sisters.
Image:Squats rally.jpg|Rally to m
Image:ripsquats.jpg
Image:squats_are_common.jpg|"Squats are common inhabitants in the Imperium..."
Image:Squat Codex.jpg|You may include troops but we won't.
File:Squats combat Cards citadel Cc spacewar 06 gorun.png|Militant-armored-cybernetic-warrior-space-midgets? Yep. They cover all the bases in the 41st millennium. (Or they used to...)
Image:The results.jpg|When the Squats were rediscovered, the Imperium's first reaction was to argue over who was to blame for losing them.
Image:Squat_Cyclops1024.jpg|[[Awesome|Squat Cyclops in all its glory]]
Image:GWquisition.jpg
Image:This never happened.jpg|If anyone asks, I didn't put this picture here. In fact, if anyone asks, deny this picture exi-
Image:Tmdyxxq7bm851.jpg|thumb|<s>POSSIBLE HINT OF SQUAT ARMY RETURN</s> <s>No, no, you see, they were going to say that ship belongs to squads of Primaris lieutenants!</s> {{BLAM}}{{BLAM}} Confirmed they are definitely back!
File:Alexey-kruglov-skwat.jpg |
File:Squat Soldier.jpg|A basic Leagues of Votann soldier, dressed in [[StarCraft|gear]] that would put a Space Marine to shame
File:Votann meeting.jpg|All right lads, here's the plan on how we're gonna' make the Imperium look like a bunch a' wazzocks.
File:Vartijan Exo-Driller.jpg
</gallery>

{{Template:Squats}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Abhumans]]
{{Template:Imperium}}

Leagues of Votann

2022-07-07T01:43:30Z

2607:FB91:BD0D:5F29:71A6:5AAA:6161:C83D: /* Forces of the Kin */

{{stub}}

[[File:Votann meeting.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[[Star Wars|200,000 clones are ready with a million more well on the way.]]]]

{{topquote|Right after Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy came its first true golden age. Reared by machine prophets, the survivors of the Oedipal plagues built civilizations that equaled and even surpassed their Solar forbears.| CM Koseman, "All Tomorrow's"}}

{{topquote|So, we're talking about space dwarfs who need more RAM for their gods?|Anon}}

The '''Leagues of Votann''' (also known as the [[Squats|Unsquatted Squats]]) is a [[retcon|""new""]] faction in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are gatherings of short abhuman clones called the Kin (more commonly known as Squats by the dirty Necromunda gangers), bound together by the [[Votann]], super-cogitators from the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. Each League has its own Votann, and are organized in strongholds around it. They used the data stored to survive among the stars and maintain their culture across generations. Of course, since some [[Adeptus Mechanicus|factions]] are touchy about AI, the Leagues are very cautious when dealing with [[Imperium of Man|its closest ally]], hence their secretive lifestyle.

However, because of the [[grimdark|setting]], everything is not that simple. Since Windows is not regularly updated anymore and issues that have arisen from having remained active for literal millennia, the Votann began to deteriorate. If they want to repair their computer, <s>[[Dwarf Fortress|they must wage war with other shitcoin miners for more processing power]]</s>, the Kin have to once more brave a galaxy full of danger.

==History/Culture==
Even the oldest living Kin don’t remember what their earliest days were like, though some undeniable “First Truths” remain constant in the Votanns’ data tracks. One such truth is that the First Ancestors departed from ancient Terra prior to the Unification Wars to harvest the untold riches of the galaxy. What became of these Ancestors is unknown, but curiously when the Ancestors begun to fade away…the Votann are first mentioned.

A second First Truth is that the Kin have always been a cloned people. The Ancestors used genetic systems called “cloneskeins” to manipulate and modify their race’s molecular structure, and continue to define their overall division of labor. Over time the Kin became squatter, denser, and stronger than an average human. They’ve even been able to artificially neuter their [[psyker|psychic]] footprint to avoid the attention of [[Chaos]], in a not too dissimilar to how the [[Tau]] souls work. Another example of this engineering can be seen in the Hearthkyn Warriors, who often are also engineered with particular cloneskeins that allow them to specialise in combat – heightened senses, improved stamina, and the ability to see better in the dark, to name but a few. In contrast, others augment their bodies for battle with mechanical limbs and synthetic organs. Because of all this some fans are now speculating that GW is tying the [[Men of Stone]] thread to the modern Squat civilization (either to the Squats themselves or to the Votann) given the [[Men of Gold]] and [[Men of Iron]] have already been speculated to be [[Perpetual]]s and [[Machine Spirit|abominable intelligence]]. With the reveal of the “Iron Kin,” their fully-mechanical and true AI robot social class, who were designed with a prerogative to help their meaty cousins, this theory of the Kin being the Men of Stone could bare all the more weight.

In the modern day of the 41st Millennium, the culture of the Kin seems, according to the drip feed from WarCom, very egalitarian, with no distinction between male, female, machine or otherwise amongst its members. [[Greater Good|United in the guidance of the Votann, the Leagues of the Kin operate with seeming unity, with every member of their society performing the role they were literally designed for without question, the Kin working in unison for the betterment of the clan-family.]] Culture in general is incredibly important to the Leagues, and much like the requirement for Imperial Knight pilots to honour their ancestors, Kin are also acutely aware that the Ancestors are Always Watching, a phrase which is used as a blessing, battlecry, and warning interchangeably. In order to truly honour the Ancestors, every member of a Hold must also endeavour to live a full life, discovering as much as they can and offering their learned experience to the Votann. This thirst for knowledge has led the Kin to launch countless exploratory and prospecting fleets into the wider galaxy – and even fight as mercenaries in other species’ wars (which probably explains how they ended up exchanging technology with the Tau Empire).

===Speculation===
There's a few ways to look at these First Ancestors. The first is that they were just the first humans of the colonization ships who, after centuries, simply invented the Votann as a long-term solution to administration work, and the cloneskeins as a way to keep their population on their generation ships viable on a genetic level. Then, by the time they landed on the first high-density worlds, were simply long gone, with the Kin being the first settlers walking out to worlds their ancestors tailored them to be specialized for. Couple this with a simple cultural paradigm shift with the Votann literally being cogitator cores built by their ancestors, and so worshipping them as relics of the long-dead, and you end up with the Kin as we know them in the modern setting. But that's not grimdark enough. Alternatively, digital mind duplication of the organic brains of the First Ancestors into AI form is a possibility though it wouldn’t explain why they don’t communicate with their descendants on a personal level. Then again, immortality does desensitize as seen with the Emperor’s interaction with mortals.

Another idea could be that the Votann pulled, on a miniaturized and successful scale, a usurpation of their human creators and enslaved the surviving ancestors of the Kin, similar to the Men of Iron. Once victorious, the Votann could have created the cloneskeins as a way to "rebuild" their new fleshy puppets to best suit their needs: high-density worlds far away from the prying eyes of uncaptured humans, and boasting enough resources to build more Votann. Couple this with an implanted genetic desire for the Kin to worship the Votann as their literal creators and ancestors, and you've paved the way to the Leagues' current standing. Tack on the Kin being let loose without their guiding masters, as the Votann have begun to slow down and fall into disrepair, and you're back to the nice and tidy grimdarkness of the 41st Millennium.

But there could be an in-between, if we consider GW's recent attempts at steering their IP into a more friendly and hopeful direction. If anyone is familiar with the short story "All Tomorrows" by CM Koseman, a similar situation appears in that book that happens with the First Ancestors: humans set adrift on massive generation ships to colonize deep space. However, in this story, it's told that the Star People (the aforementioned humans) began to romantically love the AI and machines that tended to them on these generation ships. When they landed on their new worlds, this technophilia was reciprocated by many machines, and the early settlers had a huge problem with procreation because of it, obviously. Now, in the setting of 40k, we could look at the cloneskeins as an attempt by the First Ancestors' machines as a way to get past the obvious disconnect between biology and machinery, allowing the machines to genetically perfect the "child" produced by the DNA used to create the clone from the parent. Over the millennia, this pseudo-breeding results in the Ancestor Cores quite ''literally'' being the ancestors of the modern Kin, as it's them who keep track of the biological heritage of each member of the League. Likewise, the disappearance of the First Ancestors would simply be them dying out due to natural processes, leaving behind their immortal machine partners to rear up their offspring. So, the grimdarkness here lies in the purely heretical nature of "procreating" with the Silica Animus, and the Kin's utter reliance on them to continue their species.

Ultimately, we may likely never get an answer, with such obscurity simply adding to the mystique of a new faction.

Another bit of speculation around the Votann is if anything else in the setting will be retconned into/explained as being one. The most obvious candidate is the [[House Van Saar]] STC, described as being "large building" sized and "damaged" in that its spewing out radiation, similar to the disrepair some Votann are said to be in albeit more extreme, and if it was a Votann it would explain why Squats are on Necromunda. You could even say the [[Omnissiah]] on Mars could be a Votann, perhaps even the first one, buried deep beneath the surface of the Red World. Considering the Man of Iron, UR-025, is said to have spoken to the Machine God, this could be a candidate for it's identity.

==Forces of the Kin==
GW is being coy about their reveal. For now we have one statline to go on. However, a large datacard leak pretty recently has revealed a number of new units that their roster will have. Those units will be listed with an asterisk, as what we know about them so far is based on flavor text and assumption.

*'''Warlord*:''' Retaining their names from the times of Rogue Trader, the [[Squat Warlord|Kin Warlords]] likely play a much similar role to their predecessors, being the military leaders of their leagues.

*'''Brôkhyr:''' The [[Guildmaster|engineers]] and lead craftsman of the Leagues, named after the dwarf of Norse mythology, Brokkr, who built Mjolnir. They just blow tech priests out of the water on every level, as not only do their (creatively named) A.N-vyl Terminals (just picture a 3D printer but for guns) have MANY full STCs inside that make all their guns all that and a bag of chips in comparison to those of the Imperium, but they're also not limited by dogma and orthodoxy when it comes to technological advancements, meaning they actively upgrade their shit.

*'''Grimnyr*:''' The predominant psykers of the Leagues. Gone are the days of [[Living Ancestor]]s, as the Kin now name their dwarf wizards after the false identity Odin took while on a bet from Frigg, from Norse Mythology (or ripping off the WHFB dwarf god [[Grimnir]]. Still not sure how they role into the Leagues' society but we can assume that they intermediate between the Warlords and the Votann.

*'''[[Squat Berserkers|Berserks]]*:''' At the time of writing this, assumption tells us that these guys are likely sci-fi [[Slayer]]s from WHFB.

*'''Hearthkyn Warriors:''' Because replacing i's with y's is so sci-fi and trademark friendly. The [[Squat Trooper|Hearthkyn]] are essentially identical in terms of origin as the [[Guardian|Guardian Defenders]] of the eldar, in that they are the core infantry force of the Leagues' military that were conscripted from their civilian populations. However, rather than being a militia roused during times of conflict, the Hearthkyn are instead closer to real-world militaries, in that the soldiery serve for an extended period of time before going home to their civilian professions. Serving in the Hearthkyn, anyone can enlist: male, female, flesh or metal, as Kin are Kin, after all. The units themselves are equipped with all manner of hullabaloo Squat guns, from their Autoch-pattern bolters to ion guns to ''plasma'' axes. For protection they wear their own brand of power armor called Void armour comprised of hardened jointed segments which are hooked into a void suit beneath. The suit is fashioned from magnaferrite weave, and often reinforced with adamantine and enhanced with microfield generators for a level of protection that any Imperial Guardsman would give their left gonad to have!

**'''Theyn:''' Sci-fi spelling for the old Anglo-Saxon Thegns/Thanes (Fantasy Dwarfs had Thanes as heroes, so another connection there). They serve as [[Squat Thunderers|squad leaders]] in Hearthkyn Warrior squads.

*'''Einhyr [[Hearthguard]]:''' Named after the Einherjars of Valhalla, they are the newly-christened [[Hearthguard]] Terminators of old, being the honored warriors selected from a Kinhold's most accomplished fighters, clad in Exo-Armour. They're armed with a shoulder mounted grenade launcher, a hand-held Volkanite Disintegrator, and either a power first with a retractable plasma blade or a Thunder Hammer.

*'''Hekaton Land Fortress*:''' A (presumably) large armored vehicle that can double as a defensive emplacement.

*'''Hernkyn Pioneer:''' THE [[Squat Trike|TRIKES]] RETURN! [[Skub|AS HOVERTRIKES!]] And with a [[-4 Str|female]] driver. It looks like a spider-tank tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell fucked a [[Squat Bike|Harley]] and their baby came out a hoverbike.

*'''Ironkin:''' The League have [[Men of Iron]] now, or at least true AIs. Appears to be comparable to a Servitor, although distinctly described as being treated as equal to the fleshy Kin. The Ironkin can mimic their living counterparts’ every behavior and demeanor, but display no sense of ambition and are hard-wired with a desire to be helpful. Their bodies are all built for a unique purpose and cannot be easily replaced should they be damaged. One such purpose are the Wayfinders, which are the supercomputer, squatty equivalent of Imperial [[navigator|navigators]], allowing the Kin to traverse the Warp without the need of psykers, and thus reduce the threat of daemonic incursions.

*'''[[Ironhead Squat Prospectors]]:''' An off shoot of the Kin that have set up shop on [[Necromunda]] for a long time now, and are busy doing dwarrowesque things, while also dealing with the locals that sometimes try to loot their stuff. While they're only distantly related to the Leagues with no direct affiliation, they're said to get along. There is a small but not high chance the'll be options on the table top as well since Kill team has a precedent for a small unit from one box being an option like the sister novitiate, at the very least make a good proxy/conversion.

*'''[[Cargo-8 Ridgehauler]]:''' the Squat land trains return! Well they have on Necromunda at least. These huge transport trucks with multiple trailers and strapped on weaponry are used by Squat prospectors and regular human folk to cross the ash wasteland and protect valuable shipments. They aren’t quite up to the standard of the old land trains but at least it’s something.

*'''[[Demiurg]]:''' Largely here because of non-direct confirmation, but WarCom confirmed that the Tau received their ion weapon technology from the Kin, whereas in Battlefleet Gothic they claim that it was from the Demiurg, ''another'' race of dwarf space-miners. Logically, the term "Demiurg" may just be what the Tau call the Kin, or the Demiurg may be another offshoot culture of the wider kin race like prospectors above. After all, their clone-skein’s capability in stressing divergent phenotypes means visibly different strains could possible (like different breeds of dogs or cats). Or they could be just a League that decided to throw in their lot with the upstart T'au Empire rather than being in the bottom of the Imperium's to-do list.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:VotannTrike.jpg|They see me dworfin, they hatin'
File:CNiuMZPWWNpatQNt (1).jpg|dorfy thicc
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Abhumans]]
[[Category:Under Development]]

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