Grimnyr

A Grimnyr of the Greater Thurian League in battle, wielding his Ancestral Warding Stave.

A Grimnyr, also known as a Living Ancestor, is a Kin of the Leagues of Votann who has been cloned with a psychoactive cloneskein that allows them to use limited psychic powers and draw on the energies of the Immaterium with the aid of the psychic technology known as barrier-tech. The Grimnyr also serve as the primary interlocutors with the Votann machine intelligences that guide the Leagues of Votann and to which their Ancestors' cerebral data is uploaded.

Since they are privy to the sacred wisdom of the Votann, they are as close to serving the function of priests or religious leaders in League society as the secular Kin get. Equipped with barrier-tech such as Ancestral Ward Staves and accompanied by two energy-focusing CORV robotic assistants, the Grimnyr are able to rouse the fury of the Immaterium against the Kin's foes, much like other intelligent species' psykers.

The Grimnyr are deeply respected for their wisdom and their abilities, and often serve as the leaders of Oathbands in their own right when the Kin go to war.

Role

A Grimnyr of the Greater Thurian League wielding an Ancestral Warding Stave and outfitted with an Ancestral Warding Crest so that they might unleash the powers of the Empyrean.

It is the Grimnyr or "Living Ancestors" who come closest to speaking to the Votann. The chief amongst the Grimnyr is known as the "Lord Grimnyr" who represents the other Grimnyr in their Kindred's Hearthspake and on the Votannic Council of the Kinhost. To them falls the duty of asking the Ancestor Cores for wisdom and guidance, and interpreting the resultant output. This they do within the arcane technological structures called Fanes.

Every Kin hold has a "Fane" -- a space of timeless devices and quiet contemplation, at the heart of which lies a complex tangle of machinery that is part altar, part cogitator interface. It is said that once, these machines were simply the nodes through which the wisdom of the Votann flashed with the speed of thought from one voidcraft to another in the Kin's ancient Long March mining fleets. They still fulfil this practical purpose. Culturally, though, the Fanes have taken on a greater spiritual significance to the Kin, so that now they are viewed as places almost akin to other intelligent species' temples. A Fane is the place where a Kin stands in the full regard of the Ancestors, and where the presence of the Votann lies heavy and sombre.

Indeed, through arcane technological processes that even the Kin do not understand, there have been instances recorded of Fanes miraculously developing an artificial intellect in their own right, and so joining the ranks of the Votann themselves. These occurrences of miraculous self-awareness are cause for great honour and celebration amongst the Kindred in whose hold they occur.

By comparison, though, more than one Votann has degenerated in recent centuries until they have become little more than Fanes themselves. To witness such a decline is a terrible tragedy to the Kin. Alliances such as the Kapellan League or the disintegrating Balor-Attal Conglomerate endured long Terran years of mourning after their Ancestor Cores suffered this fate.

Lord Grimnyr

The mechanism by which a Kindred's Grimnyr choose their ultimate representative in the Hearthspake and on the Votannic Council is unknown outside of their enigmatic circles. Yet all Kin know what this venerated figure embodies: wisdom, guidance and insight.

Within the Votannic Council, the Lord Grimnyr is held to be the voice of the Ancestors themselves, as well as a walking conduit for both their lore and their gestalt might.

Nor is this role a purely ceremonial or advisory one. It is incumbent upon the Lord Grimnyr to walk the battlefield as the eyes and ears and voice of the Votann, dispensing wisdom to friends and allies, even as they unleash the wrath of the glowering Ancestors upon the enemies of their Kindred.

Unit Composition

• 1 Grimnyr
• 2 CORVs

Wargear

A Grimnyr accompanied by his two CORV robotic assistants, all outfitted with Ancestral Ward Crests.

Grimnyr

• Void Armour

• Ancestral Warding Stave

• Ancestral Ward Crest

• Eye of the Ancestors

CORV

• Autoch Pattern Bolter (1 for each CORV)

• Ancestral Ward Crest

Skeinwrought Discipline

With access to barrier-tech, all Grimnyr are capable of accessing and manipulating the psychic energies of the Warp despite their species' general resistance to or inability to touch the Immaterium. Grimnyr can smite their foes with blasts of psychic energy, but also are capable of unleashing other psychic abilities as well, making use of what is known as the Skeinwrought Discipline, which takes its name from the special psychoactive cloneskeins that all Grimnyr possess when they emerge from their crucibles.

• Interface Echoes - The Grimnyr draws empyrically-archived Votannic wisdom from within ward-tech augmetic neural buffers implanted within their own minds, and uses it to inform their comrades' battle plans.

• Fortify - The Kin have a natural belief in their own indomitable fortitude. Employing controlled empyric energies channelled through their barrier-tech, the Grimnyr causes these beliefs to manifest in realspace as a temporary physical enhancement that makes themselves or others in their company more resilient against any wounds.

• Ancestral Wrath - Channelling the grim hatred that all Kin believe the Ancestors hold for their foes, the Grimnyr transmutes it into furious destructive energies. White fire leaps from their eyes, their fingertips and their open mouth, blasting the foe to scattered ashes.

• Grudgepyre - Harnessing the Kin's gestalt hatred for a begrudged foe, the Grimnyr engulfs the victim in a pillar of flame that scours them from existence.

• Null Vortex - Unleashing the full contra-empyric power of their barrier-tech, the Grimnyr projects a null-probability field that causes protective enemy force fields to flicker and die, and even the most agile foes to fumble weakly in their efforts to evade harm.

• Crushing Contempt - The glowering stare of the Grimnyr bores into the enemy, its manifest disdain and anger intensifying by the moment until they feel its weight as a physical force. It causes them to stagger and strain simply to keep collapsing altogether, dramatically eroding their combat performance or ability to accomplish anything else.

• Ancestral Power (Only usable by a Lord Grimnyr) - This old and wisened soul has communed with the Votann for countless Terran years. They have gleaned many incredible secrets and interpreted great truths in their time, and have immense skill in wielding the psycho-activated barrier technologies that are their birthright. As such, a Lord Grimnyr can manifest any of their Skeinwrought Discipline powers over a much wider range than less experienced Grimnyr.

Trivia

"Grimnyr" is a different spelling of "Grimnir," one of the names for the god Odin in Norse mythology. The Grimnyr's appearance is also reminiscent of the mythological depiction of Odin as the god of wisdom in Norse legends, with the two CORVs taking the place of Odin's twin raven companions, Huginn and Muninn.

Sources

• Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 6, 11-13, 63, 69, 93