Insignia of the Greater Thurian League
The Greater Thurian League is one of the largest and most powerful of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. The Kin of the Greater Thurian League are as uncompromisingly mercenary as they are driven in the causes of exploration, resource acquisition and military conquest. Boasting scores of allied Kindreds and near-inexhaustible ranks of Kinhost warriors to enforce their will, the Greater Thurian League take pride in epitomising all that it means to be Kin.
Not only is the Greater Thurian League one of the original founding Leagues of Votann, it is also one of the largest. Counting dozens of Kindreds in its alliance, and attracting more to its ranks with every passing Terran decade, the Greater Thurian League is a military, mercantile and industrial powerhouse with few equals among the Kin.
The Kin of the Greater Thurian League are skilled warriors and ruthless expansionists, instinctively working together to defeat their foes and efficiently achieve their aims. As with everything, they approach war with a grim, methodical pragmatism that is an inspiration to other leagues.
The Kin of the Greater Thurian League culturally tend toward the core Kin values of relying on trade and prospecting to honour the Ancestors, and are known and respected for being especially mercenary.
League History
A Kinhost of the Greater Thurian League goes to war.
At the most recent count, the Greater Thurian League contained over two hundred allied Kindreds. Between them, they boast vast flotillas of voidships and near-endless ranks of Kinhost warriors. Huge and wealthy Guilds -- such as Yngvâry Combined Logistics, the Starstrider Mercantile Confederation and the Cthonian Guild of Kâdokh -- see to the league's continued and immense prosperity.
Greater Thurian holds, such as the Hold Worlds of Crimson Gulf and Ûrvymm's Bulwark, are famed throughout the galactic core for their sheer size and impenetrable defences. Meanwhile, some of the most storied heroes of the Kin lead the Greater Thurian League's Oathbands to war: Kâhl Kovymm Rheyd, heroine of the Blackharrow Expedition; Grimnyr Vôk, known as the "Fire of the Votann" and Ûthar the Destined, wielder of the Blade of the Ancestors. These, and many other names besides, have found fame throughout Kin society for their exploits, and the ways in which they embody their race's core values of pragmatism, survivalism and mercenary conquest.
An Einhyr Champion of the Greater Thurian League in combat.
The Kin of the Greater Thurian League have long ventured into Far-space, whether to trade with other intelligent species, to explore and exploit new regions or to fight as mercenaries alongside the Imperium of Man. However, the recent manifestation of Warp Storm Örgvayr upon their north-eastern border has forced the league into a more aggressive stance. When the Warp storm first sprang into existence with the birth of the Great Rift, it swallowed two Thurian Kindreds outright -- Lâkhryr's Kindred and the Void Strider Kindred.
Yet those lost Kindreds' pan spectral arrays gave some small forewarning of the Warp storm's eruption, and so ragged flotillas of Kin refugee ships limped from the fringes of Örgvayr solar days after its emergence, their passengers telling of holds dissolved into raw madness or overrun by howling Daemons. The Hearthspakes of many Thurian Kindreds soon voted to remain in place and establish defensive positions from which they could weather the onslaught of the forces of Chaos that soon began to pour out of the rift in reality. While there were some Kin successes in the fight against the servants of the Dark Gods during the subsequent Battle of Örgvayr, such as the rescue of the Cthonian Guild miners trapped on the world of Törg by the Oathbands of the Kindred of Vôrtun, the conflict remains ongoing and a serious threat to the league.
Even as bristling Kin mega-cruisers ferry Kinhosts to the galactic east to bolster the rapidly solidifying Stormward Front, the Greater Thurian League are also dispatching numerous Prospects west beyond the circumnuclear disc that marks the boundary of the galactic core. They have deployed forces into the neighbouring Marsalis and Sepulchor Sectors in numbers not seen outside the galactic core since the Kin first settled there.
A Greater Thurian League Hearthkyn soldier of the line outfitted in standard void armour.
The remit of these forces is to claim new worlds for those Kindreds dispossessed by the Chaos invaders pouring from the Warp storm, and identify safe star systems for the league to fall back to should its defences fail or the fight become too costly. Imperial planetary governors throughout both sectors have responded to this apparent invasion with a predictable mix of panic and zealotry, hurling armies at the encroaching Kin even as their astropaths' fragmentary distress calls wing their way out to the wider Imperium. The Greater Thurian League thus finds itself embattled now upon two fronts, yet their Kindreds remain as determined as ever to survive and to prosper.
Notable Campaigns
- Battle of Örgvayr (Unknown Date.M42) - The Battle of Örgvayr was a conflict waged between the Greater Thurian League and the forces of Chaos, including elements of Heretic Astartes warbands from the Khornate World Eaters and the Nurglite The Purge in the region of the Örgvayr Warp Storm in the galactic core. Though the Kin proved victorious in this engagement when they rescued the Cthonian Mining Guild miners trapped in their harvester fortresses on the world of Törg, the battle simply marked the start of an ongoing, wider conflict between the servants of Chaos and the Greater Thurian League for control over their region of the galactic core in the wake of the birth of the Great Rift.
Notable Kindreds
- Deeprock Kindred - The Deeprock Kindred was one of many Thurian Kindreds whose Hearthspake voted to take up defensive positions and face the onslaught of the forces of Chaos pouring out of Warp Storm Örgvayr after it was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus.
- Khâld's Star Breaker Kindred - Khâld's Star Breaker Kindred was one of many Thurian Kindreds whose Hearthspake voted to take up defensive positions and face the onslaught of the forces of Chaos pouring out of Warp Storm Örgvayr after it was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus.
- Kindred Crimson-Two - Kindred Crimson-Two was one of many Thurian Kindreds whose Hearthspake voted to take up defensive positions and face the onslaught of the forces of Chaos pouring out of Warp Storm Örgvayr after it was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus.
- Kindred of Vôrtun - The Kindred of Vôrtun's Hold World is the world of Obsyd Gate. This is the home Kindred of the famed Thurian kâhl Ûthar the Destined. It was the Kindred of Vôrtun's Kinhost that provided the Oathbands led by Ûthar to rescue the Cthonian Mining Guild personnel on the world of Törg during the Battle of Örgvayr. This operation occurred only after Ûthar convinced the Kindred's Hearthspake that they must take offensive action against the forces of Chaos spilling out of Warp Storm Örgvayr rather than taking up purely defensive positions.
- Lâkhryr's Kindred - This Kindred was destroyed when Warp Storm Örgvayr was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus. Its pan spectral arrays, alongside those of the equally doomed Thurian Void Strider Kindred, gave some small forewarning of the Warp storm's eruption, and so ragged flotillas of Kin refugee ships limped from the fringes of Warp Storm Örgvayr solar days after its emergence, their passengers telling of holds dissolved into raw madness or overrun by howling Daemons.
- Void Strider Kindred - This Kindred was destroyed when Warp Storm Örgvayr was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus. Like Lâkhryr's Kindred, its pan spectral arrays provided some small forewarning of the sudden emergence of the Warp storm, which allowed some number of Kin to escape the Kindred's destruction.
League Worlds
Map of a portion of Leagues of Votann space in the galactic core during the Era Indomitus showing the location of the Greater Thurian League.
- Ûrvymm's Bulwark (Hold World) - This Hold World is situated in the western region of Thurian space, and lies on a major Kin trade hub and is near multiple mining epicentres. Ûrvymm's Bulwark is famed among the Kin alongside its fellow Thurian Hold World of Crimson Gulf further to the galactic east for its sheer size and nearly impenetrable defences.
- Grandhall (Hold World) - Grandhall is situated in the southern region of Thurian space and lies on a major trade hub near three important Thurian mining epicentres.
- Crimson Gulf (Hold World) - Crimson Gulf is situated in the central region of Thurian space and is a major trade hub for the Leagues. Crimson Gulf is famed among the Kin alongside its fellow Thurian Hold World of Ûrvymm's Bulwark for its sheer size and nearly impenetrable defences.
- Obsyd Gate (Hold World) - Obsyd Gate is situated in the northern region of Thurian space, and lies on a major Kin trade hub. Obsyd Gate is the hold of the Kindred of Vôrtun and is the birthplace of the famed Thurian hero and kâhl Ûthar the Destined.
- Hold Silver Six (Hold World) - Hold Silver Six is situated in the central region of Thurian space, close to Crimson Gulf, and lies on a major Kin trade hub near an important Thurian mining epicentre.
- Törg (Kin World / Mining World) - Törg is an outlying world in Thurian space and many Terran years of deep-core tectonic mining have left Törg riven by great chasms. It is now a hostile mass of jagged stone, exposed magma veins, convulsing super-volcanoes and toxic fumes, which the Greater Thurian League's Harvester Fortresses traverse as they mine Törg's rich mineral wealth. It was one of the worlds to be caught up in the Battle of Örgvayr before Thurian reinforcements under the command of Ûthar the Destined managed to rescue the miners and much of their harvest of startegic resources.
Notable Kin
- Ûthar the Destined - Ûthar is one of the greatest heroes of the Greater Thurian League, a kâhl who was chosen by the Votann to wield the sacred Blade of the Ancestors. He recently took command of the Thurian forces deployed by his home Kindred of Vôrtun battling the servants of Chaos during the Battle of Örgvayr.
- Kôvymm Rheyd - Kâhl Kovymm Rheyd was the heroine of the infamous Blackharrow Expedition.
- Yôht Grendok - Grendok is a young up-and-comer of a Kin kâhl, the proud war-leaders of the Leagues of Votann, in the Greater Thurian League. His wargear is decorated with fine gems, and topped by an ornate Rampart Crest decorated with leonine imagery.
- Hêmmyk - Hêmmyk was the commanding voidmaster of the fleet sent by the Kindred of Vôrtun to the world of Törg to accompany the Oathbands that rescued the Cthonian Guild miners under assault by the Chaos Space Marine warbands of the World Eaters and The Purge during the Battle of Örgvayr. Hêmmyk coordinated her small but potent fleet with consummate skill, fending off each assault by the Chaos worshippers and handing out far worse punishments than her own warships suffered.
- Svêkh Thûrkann - Thûrkann is a kâhl of the Kindred of Vôrtun. She commanded one of the Oathbands that rescued the Cthonian Guild miners on the world of Törg under assault by the Chaos Space Marine warbands of the World Eaters and The Purge during the Battle of Örgvayr.
- Khôhn - Khôhn was a Grimnyr of the Kindred of Vôrtun. She was slain by the World Eaters Chaos Lord Urthak Skullripper and his band of Chaos Terminators during a teleport assault on the world of Törg at the Battle of Örgvayr. The surviving Cthonians and many of the Hearthkyn who served on Törg have since formed the Grudgeband of Khôhn -- they will be avenged upon Urthak Skullripper or die trying.
- Nôkh - Nôkh is a Hernkyn who commanded a force of the Kindred of Vôrtun's Hernkyn Pioneers that struck a World Eaters force in the rear during the assault on Törg at the Battle of Örgvayr.
League Relics
Kôrvyk's Curiass
Amongst the earliest records of the Greater Thurian League is an account of the famed Brôkhyr Kôrvyk the Hammer fashioning this remarkable chest plate known as Kôrvyk's Curiass. Said to be crafted from one of only three small transubstantium deposits ever discovered by the Kin, and with the direct aid of the nascent league's still-lucid Votann, it is a truly remarkable piece of void armour. It is said that Kôrvyk's Cuirass is as unyielding and resilient as the very spirit of the Kin race.
Blade of the Ancestors
The Blade of the Ancestors is a legendary relic Plasma Blade wielded by one of the Greater Thurian League's greatest heroes, Kâhl Ûthar the Destined. Along with the relic Ancestral Warding Stave known as the Murmuring Stave, it is said to be one of only two weapons ever fashioned through immaculate forging by the Votann themselves, though prophecy speaks of a third still to be wrought.
League Appearance
League Colours
The Kinhosts of the Greater Thurian League wear colours of green and white.
League Insignia
The insignia of the Greater Thurian League is a red cog wheel set above Kin script.
Sources
- Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 11, 16-17, 22, 28, 51, 67
- Warhammer Community - Celebrate Store Anniversaries in 2023 With a Kâhl, an Admiral, an Anthology, and Warhammer Swag