A Kin city on a Kindred's Hold World in the galactic core.
A Kin World is the classification given to any planet that has been settled by the Kin of the Leagues of Votann. These worlds have many classifications, including serving as Hold Worlds and Mining Worlds, which are among the most common types.
Most Kin Worlds are located in the galactic core, but they can be found in other regions of the galaxy as well.
Hold Worlds[]
"By the mysteries of the crucible are they given form and strength. By the molten fires and pounding pistons of the Forge are they armed and armoured. By the Votann and by the Fane are they given wisdom and purpose. And by the searing wrath of the Hearth are they filled with the fury to overcome any foe."
- —The "Four Pillars" that maintain the society of a hold in the Leagues of Votann
A Hold World is any world that is home to a hold, or dwelling place, of a Kindred of the Leagues of Votann. Most Hold Worlds are located in the galactic core.
A hold is any major, fortified dwelling of the Kin, whether it be a city, void station, industrial outpost or even an entire planet. All Kin live, train and toil within their home hold when not abroad amongst the stars for trade, scouting, mineral prospecting or war.
The Kin habitually load apparently simple terms such as "hold" with nuanced meaning, being disinclined to even waste words. Thus, while the term is used throughout the Leagues of Votann, it can refer to wildly different structures and locations. Some holds are fusions of fortification, city, industrial complex and strip mine, the largest of which may sprawl across -- or honeycomb beneath -- much of a so-called "Hold World"'s surface. Others may be heavily armed void stations, chains of domes scattered through asteroid belts, nomadic harvesting fleets, mobile matter-energy syphoning plants riding the fringes of black holes to harvest their accretion discs, or even stranger marvels of the Kin's advanced technology.
Each Kindred -- the basic political unit of one of the Kin's leagues equivalent to a clan or nation-state -- may possess one or more holds in their territory, depending on the population of the Kindred. A Kindred's hold may boast bustling cityscapes, industrial and military powerhouses, and many of the Kin's massive voidships.
Every hold generally possesses four crucial components -- crucibles where new generations of Kin are cloned and gestated; a Forge where the engineers and artificers of the Kin known as the Brôkhyr craft the weapons, equipment, tools, vehicles and technologies required to sustain them; a Hearth that is the power source that provides energy to the hold; and a Fane, the device or node used by the Grimnyr or "Living Ancestors" of the Leagues of Votann to interface with the Votann, the self-aware machine intelligences that govern the Leagues.
Notable Hold Worlds[]
- Broken Triplets - The Broken Triplets is a Hold World of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance. The Broken Triplets are actually a trio of worlds found in the galactic core where the three planets were smashed together during some ancient catastrophe, and the colossal quantities of debris from their demise still whirls and ricochets in a vast cloud to this day, trapped by the gravitic anomaly that caused the disaster. The Broken Triplets is home to the hold of Sunder Stair, a void station that exists precariously yet safely at the heart of the three shattered worlds.
- Crimson Gulf - The Crimson Gulf is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.
- Cynder Span - Cynder Space is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate.
- Delvegard - Delvegard is a Hold World of the Ghulo Industrial Complex.
- Demmâk's Haven - Demmâk's Haven is a Hold World.
- Grandhall - Grandhall is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.
- Hold Silver Six - Hold Silver Six is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.
- Hyvôk's Kindred - Hyvôk's Kindred is a Hold World of the Leagues of Votann. Its people were once saved from destruction by the famed Hernkyn adventurer Sîmmka Farstryd and in thanks, a unique void suit called the Wayfarer's Grace was crafted for her.
- Obsyd Gate - Obsyd Gate is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.
- Tamâkh - Tamâkh is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate.
- Ûrvymm's Bulwark - Ûrvymm's Bulwark is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.
Other Kin Worlds[]
The Kin also maintain outposts and colonies on other worlds, mostly in the galactic core, that may not necessarily be host to a true hold yet are still important as Mining Worlds, industrial centres, research stations or some other significant outpost of the Leagues of Votann.
Notable Kin Worlds[]
- Törg (Mining World) - Törg is a Mining World of the Greater Thurian League. It is an outlying world in that Kin league's space and Terran years of deep-core tectonic mining 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 Kin Harvester Fortresses traverse as they mine Törg's mineral wealth. During the Era Indomitus the world was invaded by Chaos Space Marines belonging to the warbands of the Khornate World Eaters and the Nurglites called The Purge. These Heretic Astartes arrived in a small flotilla of voidships and overran the Greater Thurian League void docks that orbited Törg, before then assaulting the Kin settlements on the world itself. The miners of the Greater Thurian League's Cthonian Mining Guild were now trapped in their Harvester Fortresses. A plea for aid was sent out to the Greater Thurian League even as the Chaos Space Marines attacked. The Kin of Törg's plea was answered by High Kâhl Ûthar, whose Oathband was dispatched by the league to defeat the Chaos invaders.
Sources[]
- Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 6, 10-11, 22-24, 66
- Warhammer Combat Cards (Mobile Game), "The Battle of Törg" event