The insignia of the Urani-Surtr Regulates or URSR
The Urani-Surtr Regulates, also called the URSR, is a stoic and long-suffering major league of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. The Kin of the Urani-Surtr Regulates have a reputation for survival against the odds. Courage and hardiness are their watchwords and, while they might seem more dour than most of their species, there are none more dependable to have at one's back in the face of peril.
The Kindreds of the Urani-Surtr Regulates prize stoicism, self-reliance and -- unusually for their race -- inflexible determination no matter the odds of success. They disparage wastefulness above all else, and will subsist uncomplainingly upon the absolute minimum if doing so will bring them victory, and their Kindreds survival.
The URSR have suffered greatly over the millennia, yet still they endure. Their grim warriors have disdain for every foe, and are known to fight to the last. While they can still stand, they can fight.
League History[]
A Brôkhyr Thunderkyn of the Urani-Surtr Regulates brings his SP Conversion Beamer to bear against the foe.
Known throughout the Leagues of Votann as the "URSR," this league and its Kindreds have long held onto a swathe of heavily contested and foe-haunted territories in the southern reaches of the galactic core. On one border they face the awakened and warlike Necrons of the Samnokh Dynasty, whose single-minded phaeron appears intent upon claiming the Urani-Surtr Hold Worlds. From the Shattered Stars to their east come the raiding fleets of Bogg Da Freeboota King, an Ork privateer who commands a seemingly endless empire of ragtag Greenskin pirates.
Then there is the Gnawstar Cluster, lodged like a splinter amidst the URSR's northernmost Kindreds. These worlds are haunted by an infestation of Tyranids that exhibit strange, almost nesting behaviour patterns unusual for their species, and are ever-hungry to claim new worlds to infest.
Other Kindreds might have given ground in the face of such relentless threats, but the URSR refuse to do so. Nor do they show any inclination to explain their apparent stubbornness to the other leagues, beyond asserting that the Ancestors would abandon them forever if they gave up tl1eir Hold Worlds, or allowed them to fall.
A Urani-Surtr Regulates Hearthkyn
Some among the Grimnyr believe that the Urani-Surtr guard some secret site of great import, or are privy to knowledge whose burden they shoulder alone. Others suspect they are bound by rash Grudges sworn by their forebears against their encroaching foes, and that they must see these through to whatever bloody end. The most cynical claim that the Kindreds of the URSR are simply too stubborn to admit the poor return they get for their hardships, and too proud to relinquish their lands.
The Kin of the URSR give no outward sign that they care what the rest of their species thinks of them. They admit new Kindreds into their ranks only infrequently, and then only after rigorous tests and secretive meetings -- about which the new applicants are oath-sworn never to speak. No Kindred has ever left the URSR once admitted, though whether this is out of loyalty or for some other, more sinister reason, remains unknown.
It is expected of every URSR Kindred that they maintain as large a population as they can, accepting an ascetic lifestyle with the bare minimum of food, light, air and heat in exchange for keeping their fighting ranks replenished. This selfless commitment to their cause is writ large upon the battlefield when the Urani-Surtr march to war. Their Kin are ferociously loyal to one another, and to their league, and they refuse to countenance defeat or despair while breath remains within their bodies.
League Relics[]
Abiding Mantle[]
By their own insistence, the name of whichever skilled URSR craftsman fashioned this cloak was never recorded. Laced through with chamelioweave and contramotive optic damper circuits, this seemingly plain garment, the Abiding Mantle, causes its wearer to blend in amongst the ranks of their comrades -- their survival aided by understated anonymity.
League Appearance[]
League Colours[]
The Kinhosts of the URSR wear dark and light green.
League Insignia[]
The insignia of the Urani-Surtr Regulates is Kin script in the form of a large, green "R" placed on a line above a smaller green inscription that says "UCS."
Trivia[]
"Surtr" is a reference to Surtr, a jötunn in Norse mythology. Surtr is attested in the Icelandic Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Surtr is foretold as being a major figure during the events of Ragnarök; carrying his bright sword, he will go to battle against the Æsir, he will battle the major god Freyr, and afterward the flames that he brings forth will engulf the Earth.
In a book from the Prose Edda additional information is given about Surtr, including that he is stationed guarding the frontier of the fiery realm Múspell, that he will lead "Múspell's sons" to Ragnarök, and that he will defeat Freyr. The use of this name would accord with the general reliance upon Norse imagery and mythology used in the fictional culture of the Leagues of Votann.
Sources[]
- Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 30, 55