Adeptus Ridiculous - LEAGUES OF VOTANN: The Void Is In Our Veins! | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/https://www.collectiblesquids.com/ code: ADRICThe Leagues of Votann (Or Squats (Homo Sapiens Rotundus)) have emerged from the depths of the galactic core. To face their armies in battle is to stand before an armoured avalanche that crushes all in its path. It is to be appraised and then brusquely dealt with by attackers who see you as little more than an obstruction to profit – or worse, as a hated nemesis whose annihilation is worth any cost. To their partners in trade and war, the Kin are invaluable allies. Yet those they deem a risk to their peoples' survival face destruction, meted out with the same relentless rigour that the Kin apply to all their undertakings.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. DiMonti's my co-host. As always is Bricky. He's going to be giving us all the fun facts about 40K. But before he does, if you enjoy today's episode, head over to patreon.com slash Adeptis Ridiculous, where you can get Discord access, bluepers if they happen.

The next chapter of our Scola-themed manga thing is out. $15 tier will also get, you the poster, the digital HD poster. It is a femme boy thousand sons. It is just immaculate. And yeah, patreon.com slash adeptives ridiculous. Consider supporting the podcast. And Bricky will tell you about merch and what book we're reading.

Pee-Poooooo. Wow. Well done. Oh, damn. Thank you. Thank you. He has such a way with words, says my mom. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, wonderful. Wonderful. Excellent. go to Orchidate.com and check out awesome merch including purchasing said poster from before. More merch is there. Little guy stuff. It's great.

They're small and little guys. They're everywhere. Lots of merch. It's wonderful. Go read Day of Ascension, Gene Steer Cult book. Go read it. Hell yeah.

Read it. Yeah. I mean, apparently people told me they just loved, just loved my manscape ad. So if you want to talk more about Gene Storer Culp Pupacare, I'm here, man.

Like, we can do it. Oh, no, I'm good. Ar we got an episode today, DK. Hey, hey, hey, episode today. Yes, episode today. Are you ready for your quote? Okay, do you make... Because this is definitely going to make it hard for you to know what we're doing.

Ah, is it really? I just assumed we were going to be doing more jeans stealer stuff because we did... Well, I guess we did all of the little playable... I thought maybe you were going to do like some important gene stealers that led coos or something today. Nope. I have the quote for you if you want, though. Rock and roll. Let's do it.

No, no, no. Not rock and roll. Rock and stone! To the bone! To the bone. Are we doing League of Votan today? We're doing League of Votan. Let's go.

I didn't even need a quote. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Rock and stone. It ain't going home. So-called free thinkers when they hear a rockin stone. Rock and Stone.

Hell of yeah. Yes. So, too many. of you as we know we hit our Patreon goal for the Blood Angels episode and Adornian Heresy however I will be busy reading books so I can do them properly so in the meantime we are covering the League of Voton as your boy has received the newest codex for them and has read through a pretty decent chunk of their lore via the codex and I can confirm Rockinstone Rockinstone

Rockinstone. Rock and stone. To the bone. To the bone. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Yeah.

No, so the Voton. The Votan, the league's a Votan. The brand new faction in Warhammer 40K. I can confirm that their lore is very good. It is. Squat revival. Let's go. Squad revival.

It is very good. It is, I'd say, one of my, probably a top five in my opinion for factions in I said in league as in leagues of Voton but it almost made me sound League of Legends I swear I promise I'm not League of Legends we're going back to 2008 Bricky all right starts playing Lincoln Park

but no we were doing leagues of Voton and they're very good they're up there with Admec Cron's and like sisters for me in terms of strength of lore they're very fun they're really enjoyable and the best part about them is that

they're um you know they're just little guys. They are. They're just little guys. They're just a little pint-sized guys. Yeah. The leagues of Voton, let's continue. So, the leagues of Voton are known as kin. That is the official name of an individual squat, an individual guy. They are known as kin, a single kin. They are actually coming from the galactic core of the galaxy. Okay. Dead in the center with all the crazy supernovas and black holes and, you know, millions of accretion disks and asteroids and stuff, they reside in the galactic core.

Now, kin's form groups known as kindreds, and groups of kindreds form leagues. However, the leagues often involve a photon, which we will talk about later. But generally, the assumption is there are kins and then there are kindrants. As for their overall appearance, they are powerfully built humanoids. They are squat, in size, but they're very tough. They're very resilient, obviously. They are all clones. Oh, okay.

They've all been cloned, huh? Oh, my God, shy, that picture. that looks like an Among Us on the bottom left. He looks so much like it among us. He looks so much like a crewmate. He does, he does. With his short appearance, too, he looks so suss. That's cool, though, because they were from the Galactic Corps when they were squats.

They also formed those, like, little leagues in much the same way, too. It's cool that they're called kin, because back when they were squats, they were all about, like, you know, kinship and their bloodline and their lineage. And so it's cool to see that they haven't completely taken everything from the previous squats and just thrown it in the dumpster. No, they've kept a good amount actually. Yeah, that's cool. So their cloning is coming from something called the Crucibles. And the crucibles are their clothing technology. And they actually contain these large banks of genetic information that allow them to be varied in both appearance and genetic makeup and still very stable.

So a lot of times, kindreds have their own crucibles. And that's why certain kindred's and familiar people might look a little bit same because they pull from the same genetic material, but they still have a wide variation of it to allow them to be varied and still and not have, you know, incest cloning problems.

Oh, you definitely, you don't want that problem. They also have something called Ironkin, which are AI robots. And when I say AI robots, I mean these are robots. These are AI, full stop. So I'm assuming the leagues, are they under the Imperium's flag or no, because that's heresy? No, and we'll talk about that later.

Okay, doke. The Iron Kin, though, they are, as far as I'm concerned, they are AI. They are there to aid regular Kim and are actually considered equals among kin, both in and out of wartime, they are treated like a brother, straight up. Oh, wow. Yeah, there's no way they could be in the...

That's super heresy. That's mega heresy. That's omega heresy. That's like super duper, ultra fun time heresy. Like, that's... It's, uh, the iron can are pretty, kind of cute.

I find that they look like, well, one, it looks like among us. Uh, and two, they, I just, like the big cool belt he has on and stuff. A little blowtorch. It's just fun. It actually looks pretty. cool. Like it doesn't, I wouldn't say it looks cute, but it definitely looks, it's, that's a, that's a

dope machine. That's cool. I like that. Yeah, it's fun. Um, now the kin themselves are very resilient, physically, but also mentally and spiritually. They are highly conservative and very close-minded. It takes a, a great deal, a great deal to change their mind between one another and other species have no fucking chance. Like, you're not going to change it. Okay. So there's no, like, the Imperium would never convince them to be like, yeah, stop using AI. It's like, no, go fuck themselves. Oh, God, no. There's no chance at all. They wouldn't convince them to try a different type of beer. They, they, they don't do anything anyone else tells them to. They are very close-minded. Is the dwarves way or no way? They are very implacable. Okay, so, so, so like a typical fantasy dwarf, they're very stubborn. They're stubborn, hard-headed, yeah, okay. Now, their familial duties and obligations are first and foremost. They will never put another race above themselves, ever.

They are number one, and they will only care about themselves 99% of the time. Now, this also leads to a harsh moral code. They have this thought process that one water tank leak or like a seam not fixed or a filter. change too late. Could all these things stack up? And that will, like, create immense disaster when you're trying to live in the galactic core of the galaxy. Oh, that's fair. Kind of like the butterfly effect where just, you know, one little flap of the wrong butterfly

and eventually a tsunami that'll, you know, corrupt your or destroy your civilization, sure. Exactly. They feel that overlooking valuable resources is also pretty terrible. therefore wasting nothing is important. Laisiness or a simple error means a death for a ship. So it makes them as kind of rugged, survivalist thing. And they're often seen as selfish or as hoarders. Because they hoard everything.

Because every material can be processed. Everything can be useful. Yeah. They might need something. It was like, oh, just throw that away. We've got an abundance of it. It's like, no, we might need that later. That might be the difference between life and death.

in the galactic core where you're surrounded by black holes and warp storms and who knows what else. So, yeah, I could see them being hoarders. That makes sense. Yeah, definitely, definitely assumed as more as more hoary as a faction. Yeah. So back into their culture, a kindred, the kin belong to a kindred, right? Which is a close-knit family or nation and can only be a couple dozen to millions of kin, depending on the size of the kindred. Now, each kindred live in a hold.

And, or they have a kindred hold or just a hold. Now, these holds can be super nuanced. It can be a fusion of like a fortification combined with a city or an industrial complex or even a strip mine that like honeycombs its way under like ground. It can be a heavily armored void station or a chain of them. It can sometimes be a chain of biodomes on asteroid belts that kind of float in the sky. It can be a flotilla of harvesting fleets, so on. The kind of hold could be many, many different kinds of options. Okay. Okay.

Now, the, yeah, it's a lot. The options are crazy what kind of things can be a hold. Sometimes you get like a quarry in fleet or like you have Omega, like in Mass Effect, you know, big old multi-astroid kind of cities. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All types of stuff. So the leagues of Voton, however, are groups of kindrim. So a kindred is part of a league with a single Voton at its center.

The Voton is also known as an ancestor core, C-O-R-E. Now, we'll talk about a bit more about them later, but they're also known, or they're believed to have been created during the Lost Age of Myth when they departs. their homeworlds and were sent to mining fleets. So the Voton have degraded with time a little bit and strange changes are being made with them. Sometimes it gives them strange machine intelligences or sometimes even personalities. They've begun to degrade with time and they've become a little bit wacky and have strange idiosyncrasies.

Okay. So the picture shy posted, I'm assuming that's one of these Voton cores. Yes. You know, we'll just talk about the Voton now. Okay. The Voton is also known as an ancestor core. It's the same. Okay.

Just different words for it. Right, right, right, right. The idea is that these were sent with them in their proto mining fleets way back in the day to give them all the things they need to survive. Kind of like an STC. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. However, it is a enormous, like, it knows everything. It is a all-knowing machine that has the answers to everything.

The problem... Man, all I'm hearing is they will never get along with the Imperium. Like, it's just the heresy alarms are blaring so loudly right now. Yeah, this is bad. This is very bad for them. This is like if the Imperium knows you have this, this is full-scale war. Like, damn. Luckily, the Imperium doesn't know because the Voton don't, or not the Voton,

the Kinn don't say jack shit to anybody. Their lips are sealed, full stop. They don't tell anyone, they tell people that they are the leagues of Voton and they have a Voton, but that's it. Nothing else will come from their list because they don't trust anybody because they're dwarves. That's true. We are number one, yeah. It says, they do not speak.

It says, in the dark and ignorant age, few treasures are as precious or dangerous as knowledge. So these are self-organized data stacks and quantum info cores. All the information a race might need to survive in the depths of space. And this is the part that I need, there might be a little bit of confusion for, but it says, and I quote, weapon specifications, standard template constructs, scientific and philosophical learnings, genealogy data, military and survival theory and strategy, and so on.

I don't know if when they say standard template constructs, they mean an Imperium-based STC or just a template construct in the more literal sense, like this is how you build a house. This is the template. Yeah. I would have to assume it's that. Like, it's just a, it's just a,

generic construct on how you build something, not necessarily like, oh, hey, guys, guess what I just spit out? It's a men of iron S T.C. Like, it's probably not spitting shit like that out, right? It's probably just like blueprints for shit, right? I don't know, because the idea is that the people who can commune with the Voton,

which the Voton through millennia and millennia of being used, were obviously not supposed to be this long without like, maintenance. So now sometimes you'll ask it a question. And the question might take a couple centuries to get an answer. And the answer might be another question that it needs more info. Some questions are like, how long does the star live? And it'll say like, all the star lives with X, Y, Z, blah, blah, blah, blah. But sometimes the questions are just so hard or the data stacks. They opened up 400 tabs of Chrome and they never closed them. Every question is a new tab. of Chrome and it's starting to break under its own weight and starting to act wacky and being weird.

Oh no. So the AI core thing that they worship is starting to be weird and funky? It's starting to get bizarre. And the people... Rupro raggy. And the people who commune with the Voton are known as Grimir, which in the tabletop is a dwarf cyker. Oh. And those are the only people that can commune with the Votom are the psychers they have. And the Grimony are universally respected. But they are the ones who commune with the Votom.

And if you want to make shit even weirder, because the Voton have, like I said, develop behavioral quirks akin to rudimentary personalities. If you want to say it even weird, the ancestor cores actually provide a, beacon in the warp. Oh, do they? They have a large beacon in the warp,

and that's how they're able to traverse the, they traverse the warp in the classic way, Gellerfield and ship, obviously a lot better than the Imperium's tech, but they do the usual, and they can, in fact, be seen through the warp. Wow. So is, is there any change?

that somebody else would spot that beacon in the warp and be drawn to it? Not necessarily the Imperium, but like say chaos, the Eldar, uh, or, or someone could they be drawn to this blip? Because if it's, if it's putting off a beacon in the warp, other like astrophats and stuff can see it, right? That's, that's the weird thing is better question. How can a robot have a psychic beacon?

Uh, I'm assuming since it's an ass, ancestor core that there's probably some living tissue in there or something like that since it's specifically called an ancestor core right or well yeah no it's called an ancestor core that that kind of goes into the kin's culture there's a very good chance this is straight up just a robot from way way back in the day because because if we go I'll talk about the history a bit in a bit but that was my next question yeah is who made these things well you know what let's let's hop on real quick with a Voton still. So each Voton is a thing called a feign.

And a Fane is a... Not the Voton, sorry, the kin have a thing called a fame, which is a space of timeless devices and quiet contemplation at the heart, which is a complex tangled machinery that is part alter and interface that the Grimneur can interface with the Voton. I'm going to assume that that picture Shai posted a bit ago.

Oh, actually, she hasn't posted that picture yet. It's the, um, the dudes kind of, uh, standing, uh, with like the guys in the orange that are, um, touching the thing. I'm assuming that's part of the feign or like maybe near it. Or actually, actually, that might be the cloning technology as clones in the background. Hmm. That's whatever. Um, regardless, the Voton itself is the number one most important object by far for the Leagues of Votan.

It is defended with all of their lives. Oh yeah, it has to be. It's, it's their livelihood. Like, it does. gives them everything they need to survive in space, right? Basically. And some are buried deep within vaults. Some are in some of the mightiest flagships of their fleets.

However, for a while ago, there was a thing where a Voton had actually been destroyed by a orc, wah. Oh, oh, that's bad. Which then he launched a 500-year grudge. Because, you know, dwarves. Dwarves and orcs. they're never going to get along, that's fair. They never should.

The kin fought a 500-year war against the orcs to kill the entire clan of Ork Waugh-Morbach and eventually destroy his entire empire until every last orc was slain and the insult answered. Whoa. That speaks volumes about how strong the Voton are. Like the Leagues of Voton? Like if you can war for 500 years,

and beat the orcs. Like, that's, that's not a little thing to do. They're little guys. But that's not, that's not a little task. That's, that's, that's a big deal. Just wiping out an orc family. That's, that's, that's, that's a lot. That's huge.

There was also a tale of Emberg Agnir Block, which found themselves in the path of High Fleet Leviathan. Ooh. Unfortunately, they were natural. really hopelessly outnumbered, and all of the kin died. But the tyrannids ignored the Voton completely, leaving it buried alone upon the pit of a dead world. And because of that, its accumulated pain and desolation

drove the Voton machine mind mad. Oh no, crazy Voton AI? It's the sorrowful tale of the mad core, and its screaming can be seen in the warp so you don't sail near its beacon less its tortured mind causes you problems. So its beacon's all fucked up in the warp

which again, yeah, how does a robot have? Like it's very weird. That's super cool though that there's just a mad AI core thing just hanging out on a planet. Like what would happen if somebody recovered it? I have no idea. These things are,

are so large and so powerful. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to think like robot having a psychic beacon is weird. But at the same time, like necrons use blackstone fortress to cut off psychic powers to like starve psychic energy.

Or blackstone forge, blackstone the material blackstone. Yeah, yeah. So there's a question of like, well, if they can use it to cut off, could they use a fancy material to power? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.

Is there any chance? So the Grimeneer are like psychers that like commune with these things right they have to like interact with them with their psychoriness they interact with them i don't know how much of it's psychic use but that's they're they're the ones that interact with it and they are psychers in the tabletop so i was going to say maybe maybe maybe it just stores all the psycher shit that the uh the grim near putting into it and it just kind of maybe it can't it out yeah it's supposed to be a machine core there's not there's they're not the um

the Mechanicus. They don't care about the whole brain and thing stuff. Do we know? I'm assuming there's no story on how the first Voton was created or anything like that. Obviously the leagues of Voton can't just, oh, we'll just make a new one. I'm assuming these are so ancestral.

They came with them from wherever and you just can't repair it or rebuild it. So the history of the kin which that kind of goes along with it. The, their earliest origins are void-borne mining fleets coming from Terra. So others fail going there,

but the kin and their stubborn and resilient tenacity braved the galactic core very well and is assumed that they each had a voton to help them with it. Okay. And that's where they came from. Simply put, nothing else past that. Huh.

Mining guilds, in particular, were the big power. They had crazy stuff. Particle excavators, disassembled stars, and harvested fusion power, void ships sliced apart planets and create refinery rigs.

Cosmic radiation and particulate belts were used for plasma conductors and transfiguration. Like through this, this bustling industry work was created, and the leagues began to form from there. Like, life was hard. but the rewards were extreme and they lived a

take scanner point at gold were rich we're rich we're rich damn all right cool they carved apart the galactic core and became very wealthy and powerful from it

you know toil earns yeah and they're probably the only ones that can really harvest from the galactic core since nobody else could make it nobody else could survive there, so. Some people do go there, but they're just not as adept. Oh, sure. That's fair.

As for their culture, they have this idea that they, in order to honor their ancestors, this is a big thing about their ancestors. In fact, they actually have an idiom. Their main quote is, the ancestors are watching. And it's many things. It's a battle cry, like, the ancestors are watching, you know? it's a warning like hey

you know ancestors are watching but it's also like advice and it's also like a good thing where they're watching you so if you do good things you're honoring them you're doing well it's also a warning like

hey like the answer to they came before you you need to do better or be as good as them you don't want to dishonor your family bloodline you don't want to embarrass those who came before you and pave the way for you. Yeah, I get that.

The older generations are judging their deeds. However, it also inspires them to live up to their forebearers. So in order to honor their ancestors, the kin must live a full life and discover all that they can. Some can create like exploration fleets known as prospects or have sometimes lived as mercenaries and other species. returning when they had knowledge back to offer to their Voton. Oh, okay. They've met all other major powers in the galaxy at some point or another. As said before, they are extremely closed mouth around outsiders.

They're often assumed for our abhumans or squats to Imperials, even though they're not. Tao mistake them for a human hybrid. Eldarist mistake them for a hybrid. They're known as other things like the Helios ancients, the Nostar. the gnome, the Craig, the squat, other names. Records do state that they do come from a human genome. So they are way back human descendants, but that actually makes them even more suspicious around the Imperium

as neither the Omnisiah nor God Emperor was a deity of theirs. So anything the Imperium can use against them to make greater claim to their species is met. with harsh, harsh rebuttal. Fair. That's fair. Do they have any, what do I want to say? Allies? Do they ally themselves with anyone?

Or are they just, again, like, well, come on, we're the League of Voton. We're the best. We're number one. We don't need allies. We need an ally with Humi Scum or the Eldar or the Tao. Fuck them. We're just going to go get information from them, bring it back to the, bring it back to the Voton, and be done with them.

Did they ever find any reason to like cooperate? What a wonderful question. So, uh, their alien races, they have, they have met them all once or another and they tell you what they think. Uh, their most hated enemy are the orcs by far. Naturally, naturally. The, the kin love to keep resources and never waste. Orcs are the opposite.

They waste everything. They just destroy everything. They just love to break and crump and destroy everything. They hate the orcs first and foremost. Although I guess the leagues of Oton would quite literally be the antithesis of an orc, wouldn't it? Where orcs are like big crumbar! They're like shorter tech. They think about things.

They want knowledge. So, yeah, that's, I haven't thought about it like that, actually. That's number one. They most hated of the orcs. Makes a lot of sense. They have barely any more appreciation for chaos, which they see with disgust and bewilderment, disgust of demons, bewilderment at their worshippers?

Like, why? As most do, as most people do, are just bewildered and at chaos, yeah, fair. They dislike necrons quite a bit because they keep running into their damn tombs when they're going to get stuff. Okay. Tyrnids are known as the Bane. and are given a pretty respectful birth away from them.

They see them as like an intelligent predator. So they kind of respect them in a little way, but they keep far away from them. With the occasional, with the occasional hive ship strike for some resources they can snag. Humanity are equal ally and enemy. The inquisitors and certain space marines see them as hated Zenos

and try to murder them immediately. Wow, that's so shocking. I never would have thought that. Who fucking would have guessed that? Yeah. They get along a little bit more with Guard and some stuff like that. Other Imperial, like rogue traders,

they trade with pretty well. Mechanicus are viewed by the kin as superstitious tech shaman who are generally whose inquisitive nature makes them very dangerous, and they generally prefer to kill the Mechanicus more than talk with them.

That's fair, actually. Because they're dangerous, and they don't want anyone knowing anything about them. Yeah, and if the Mechanicus got curious and they started poking around, they started asking too many questions, they start examining their tech, and that's, oh boy, yeah,

the Mechanicus are probably just a big problem to the League of Voton, just kill them. Don't let him anywhere near us, yeah. I could see that. The most, the kindest they seem to be with are regular non-inquisitor-based humans. Eldar and Tao. The Eldar and Tao maintain semi-cordial relationships with them

and sporadic trade. They still have fought Eldar and Tao, and they fucking hate the Drew Kari. As everybody should. As everybody should. But Eldar and Tao, it seems to be their most traded with. The craft worlds and Tao are their most, they're most friendly. Interesting.

They still war with them and they still don't much care about Eldar or Tao because they're dwarves and they only care about themselves. Sure. But they are the most, you know, friendly. They also have ran into genes to their cults and they don't like them either. They try to kill them. Oh, sure. As everyone should.

It's interesting that they don't terribly mind the Eldar because usually fantasy dwarfs, orcs and elves are like the problem so yeah it's kind of interesting that they decided to make the Eldar just kind of you know we don't love them but we'll trade with you it's fine

yeah you know repubb if hate elves yeah the classic version they might be prepping though for the Eldar to betray them because that's what happened with the the old squats is like they're like oh yeah we'll trade with orcs we'll trade with elves and then they both simultaneously turned on the squats and

Yeah, no, that's about right. It makes a lot of sense, too. So moving on to a little bit more of their society and their culture, the kin have a pretty hard bond with one another. There is like a shared strength and understanding that goes far more than just words. Each kindred's name is chosen at's foundation. Sometimes after the ancestor that's named it, the Scalphus kindred, the kindred of Narun, Vycats kin.

Sometimes it's based on their heart. Hold World, the Kindred of Echo Dark, the Thousand Stars, Kindred or Iron Canyon, Kindred. Some even have some really regular basic names like Kindred 6, Kindred 11D, Kindred Bofa. Bofa D's nuts. Hey! They don't actually have a kindron named Bofa. I knew that was coming. Oh. I mean, there could be a Bofa kind, you know?

Bofa D's kin. I was like, man, I was hoping that was real. Well, I prefer Kindred 11 D's nuts, so That's fair too Though kindred of the what was it, Kindred of the Thousand Stars, that's a dope name Like what the fuck? That's the one of one.

The thousand stars, Kindred, yeah. Hell yeah, that's so cool. Pretty cool. And in the each heart of every kindred, they have something known as the Four Pillars. The four pillars are for the most important parts of a kinderum and it makes up everything. First is the hearth or the her.

Perth, depending if you're saying, hearthstone or hearthstone. Heartstone. It is a fire that burns at the heart of every hold, echoing when they went out like via in starships, kind of the idea of like their old starships, the major power. This is often a like blazing reactor

that powers a hole of defenses, life support, weapons. It could be a gigantic ship that has a major like the major, like the major flagship in the center. There's all that kinds of stuff. Yeah. They have the second pillar, which is the forge.

This is where they craft tools, weapons, equipment, so on. It might be a conventional workshop. It might be a gigantic factory vessel that, like, moves around. It might be a hollowed out asteroid. Tons of possibilities where the forge could be. Damn, that's cool. Hollowed out asteroids for a fords. That's dope.

It's really neat a one. there is the feign which is tended by the living ancestors the living ancestors are called the grimnear so the grim near living ancestors yeah the fein it flows the wisdom of the photon and it's where the grimnear interface and communicate with it

okay okay we talked about that earlier yep yep yep yep and last but not least there's the crucible where they do all their cloning they also the kindred governed from a giant spherical chamber known as a, oh boy, Spockrande? Spacron? Oh, geez. Damn. I think this, it's like this, but I think it has an umlaut somewhere in it. It's like over the A maybe. I don't know. Oh, God. Spacron. I don't know. I have no idea.

Something like that. But a guildmaster, senior officers and so on go into this giant spherical chamber and they discuss and debate, which is often really goddamn hard because they barely changed their minds. That's true. Debates might last genuine days where it's like, all right, break. They come back and they still yell at each other. But the most important thing to know

is that they're rarely ever corrupt. They all genuinely believe that they're making their kindred better. It's just how they do it is the debate question. Oh, that's true. They probably wouldn't, like the Voton probably wouldn't be that susceptible to corruption since they're so like, hey,

ancestors are watching, don't dishonor them, you know, you wouldn't want the leagues to fall, this is your family, this is your, you know, this is where you're at, yeah, they probably wouldn't be corrupt. And the debate with them would, oh God, it would be like Necron Court. It really would be like Necron Court. It would be like Necron Court. Nobody would ever change their mind.

A bit more beer, a bit more spitting. Well, that always makes things a little better. A little bit. Though they also have a lot of unifying guilds. You'll find that a lot of Voton kinder, and guilds look a lot like unions. The guilds are a uniting body that make up the Kim and serve particular roles in the kindrum.

They have guild masters that set levels of workmanship and tithes and prominent guild masters attend these discussions to give voice to the civilians. Now the guilds sometimes will try to beat other kin to the punch when it comes to resources. Sometimes that's actually been bad for other aliens where they might have two guilds find the same planet

and then there's like people down there and they're like, I got it first, no, I got it first. They start mining the shit and the people down there are like, oh my God, save us.

Have two leagues or whatever ever gotten to a fight because like, oh, no, we found it first. No way. And then they just start like fighting each other or is that like super duper tabooed to have any sort of infighting over resources? Based on the fact that if you're doing 40K

you have to find a way to make it so that you can always find each other somehow. I'm going to assume that there's always the possibility. However, I would imagine it's less common due to how important their familiar ties are and the ancestry part of their culture. Fair enough, yeah. So I'd say less, but not possible. It's possible.

Certainly possible. Also, but these guilds in the kindred help smooth over trade and organization between leagues. A league, of course, eventually spawned as each, the kinder. It was a kinder that possessed an ancestor corps. And eventually, the league was a military alliance to ensure the protection of the core. However, with time and all that, it kind of turned into a nation in its own right. Right.

And each league, by the way, there are about six leagues. They give you six main leagues, but you can make your own league as much as you like, which is always a classic. I really, really, really, really like the league naming nomenclature. If any of our viewers are big fans of Star Sector

or Endless Space, endless space one or two, or games like that, I think you'd probably really like these guys. Having not played any of those games, I have no clue what you're talking about. That's perfectly fine, but the names are very similar. So you've got the number one main league is the Greater Thurian League, also known as the GTL. They are the largest by far.

They're the classic colors that you see. They are an uncompromisingly mercenary group, as much as they are an exploration and resource acquisition and conquest group. They're pretty interesting You've also got the Trans Hyperion Alliance Which is pretty fun They're far and wide They tend to be Pretty secular

With all their stuff With that armor You could see him a galaxy away Jesus Christ Yeah big orange You can see them coming a mile away Holy shit You've also got the

Kronis Hegemony Which is a constant on the march. They're always trying to do their best to fulfill quotas of military conquest. Okay, okay. They're always trying to hit hard. All right, all right, they're

looking for a fight. All right, all right. These are the punchy ones. Yeah. You also have the Yamir conglomerate, which is two things. Spectacular technology and vast money.

Hell yeah, brother. I like the Ameri conglomerate, because I like money, and I like that little mini of the guy with, like, all that crazy tech armor. I like the red a lot. The red's fine. Red and gold on him? Yeah, sure. I like them a lot.

The Amir might be one of the ones that gets ran a lot. They're pretty good. Okay. And last but not least, we have the Urani Surtur Regulets, which is my personal favorite in terms of gameplay. Is it because they look like guard? Is it because they got that sort of like that green color scheme of just

No, I prefer the Ymir conglomerate in terms of actual Okay Wait, I did I miss one? I thought I said there were six One, two Oh yeah, you have missed one Because we've only, you've only mentioned five, right? Maybe there are only five

Yeah, there's only five, never mind There are smaller leagues of course, but I think there's only five My bad, okay, just fine, that's fine, that's fine But yeah, but yeah, Yes, the Iranian surrogulates, they are all about self-reliance, more so than normal, inflexible determination, and disparage of wastefulness. Okay. They are, they are very, very tough, and they don't like to move very far if the opportunity commands.

Yeah, I like the American Glammerit out of all those, for sure. That's, they're definitely the, the cream of the crop that rises to the top of you. Well, the Star Sector has other names, like there's the hegemian there. they've got a the ludic path the tri-tacion incorporated a lot of that kind of stuff the tri-tacion incorporate let that's a dope name try takion incorporate hell yeah so that's a that's a that's i don't want to go too far into some of the specificities of the leagues because we will definitely be having an episode on that later but they also have some funny quotes they have something called a um like when I was talking about the ancestor watching,

they also have a statement called prizes for orcs, which basically means garbage. Oh. That's a prize for an orc. It means it's trash. Oh my God, that's great. I love that. Okay, okay.

They often say the void is in our veins. Ooh, that's cool. That's a cool one. It's both the idea that they're just very tough and stoic, but also like they're spacefarers. They brave the galactic core. you know. They have sailing to far space.

This expression describes an endeavor, strategic maneuver, or the like, which appears foolhardy, as far as space, anywhere outside the galactic core. It's considered risky and unwise to go there without a good cause. So it's like, hey, that might not be a good idea that's like sailing to far space, you know?

Because they like to stay in the center. Sure, yeah. Which is pretty fun. You've also got a couple other ones. Let me see, see, I'm going to find the other quotes they've got the other ideas yeah shy just posting a bunch of

dope minis from the yamere conglomerate or I guess all of them but yeah god their minis look great I think I think the the Voton minis are some of the best I was initially a little bit unsure but throw the right paint job on them

I think I like them with helmets more than not I think dwarf faces look kind of dumb yeah I like them with the helmet a lot more and they're vehicle vehicles look so cool. Yeah, I like their bikes a lot. Their rotary bikes. Yeah, those are so dope.

There's an interesting couple relics they have. One of the things I thought was neat is they have something called the first knife. So their higher-ups, their captains are known as calls. K-A-H-L with like a little arrow above the A.

And the call has sling, they carry with them all a plasma knife. And these plasma knives are badges of high office denoting them as an individual speaks with the authority of the ancestors and are very much ceremonial. But they are rarely

ever used as a weapon unless it's the last resort. You can see them actually often in their waist. You can see the knife there. It's not their main melee weapon. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. However, the first knife is a particular

cultural significance and has more offensive use. It is believed to and crafted by the Voton themselves during the days before the kin came to the core, containing a unique power source and worked with script so ancient that no kin can read it. This blade can be triggered to project a beam of laser energy that sighs through the victim at point-blank range. Well, more than one ambushing for or doubt-crossing foe ambassador as discovered to their cost, just how deadly the first knife can be. Damn, it sounds like a little lightsaber.

It's a little mini lightsaber. Just a little lightsaber. Just a little saber. Just a little knife. Just a little knife. Not a big knife. It's the first knife. It's the first knife.

In game, you make one singular attack with it. And if it hits, it does D3 mortal wounds plus one for every judgment token the enemy has. Which we have not talked about the idea of their judgment system. So the main reason So there are a lot of reasons why I've been skipping this because it's not pertinent But the League of Voton are Bullshit overpowered in the tabletop right now They are laughably strong

The only way you can survive them is to not be shot by them Which is a rarity because they are Well you know you got a high So I have a feeling that often like pro players might do okay against them because pro players don't get shot if they don't want to because they're good at movement. But their gunfire and their damage

is just absurd. It's fucking ludicrous. I like that. The only way you can win is by not getting shot. It's like, oh, really? Is that how I win a fight? Oh, I thought I was just going to let myself get, you know, shot a couple hundred times.

That sucks. It's ridiculous. But regardless, they're also quite tough. It's just a combination. Yeah. But their special, if you're only playing as the Voton ability, is called the judgment of the ancestors. Oh, boy.

And the eye of the ancestors. And what it does is there are ways to, you can give it out to people, like with a call. Or if one of your units dies, is the person that killed it gets something called a judgment token. And normally when you play 40K, you roll dice to hit, then to wound, and then they need to save it. The idea is if you have a token on you, if you roll a six, then you don't need to wound them. It just automatically wounds them.

Oh, okay. But that's token one, which is priority target identified. token two is imminent threat which makes it a five or higher auto wounds and three is now we've got a grudge to settle which is on a four up on a four up at auto wounds the target um so what's fun is that often you can just if they keep getting to having people killed or getting killed they just increase the judgment tokens more and more and then it makes them much better at killing them because, you know, Lowell dwarves. Well dwarfs, yeah. Damn. They also have a very funny relic

that I like a lot, just because the concept of it is really humorous. Let me see if I can find it real quick. There it is. It's called no, wait, shit, did I lose it? Oh, no. Where is it? Oh, damn. Where is it? Where is it?

Actually, where is it? Oh, oh, it's a warlord trade, not a relic. It's called a law. list. It says, this warlord holds the majority of the galaxy's races in contempt and seeks out their many nemesisies with a keen and inescapable eye. No sooner have they settled a grudge against one foe than they move on to the next name on their list. I love that idea. I heard this a bit ago where someone was like, you know, the Imperium and Chaos, they wield hatred as like a, like a wide berth. Like they fire it out everywhere because they just hate it.

hate everything and everyone. But this dwarf, he's mad, but he's not just mad at everyone, he's mad about you. He's got a list. And he's checking it twice. In the list, he's mad about one son of a bitch, and that son of a bitch is you.

You're the problem. I'm mad about you. And not the popular sitcom either, right? No, of course not. There's two more final quotes I'd like to say. they have waste feeds the void which is personifying the environmental space

is a hungry predator because the environment is a predator in the galactic core Oh yeah the environment they come from will eat you up and spit you out So make sure you don't waste And last but not least they have Luck has need keeps

Toil earns This saying asserts that Those who work the hardest to achieve something can prove the greatest need of it, deserve to have it regardless of the cost of those who lose it. Also known as by merit of need. Very Voton. That is very League of Voton.

Those are good Voton quotes for sure. Which leads us to the final concept. The Voton, when reading through their lore, don't appear to be that much of the bad guys. Because every 40K has, are bad guys. Every 40K faction is a bad guy, so to speak. Well, that's true, actually. So we're having a bit of a harder time figuring out how the Voton are bad guys,

but the more I read through it, the more I kind of started to realize it. Like, you could say that they're racist, and they are, but everyone in the galaxy is. I was going to say 40K, that's normal, like... Yeah, they're frightening. But this quote, I think, really solidifies it. It's, as I say again, this saying asserts that those who are... work hardest to attain something and can prove greatest need of it

deserve to have it regardless of the cost to those who lose it. Oh. So it's we need this. This is ours. We've worked hardest to get it. Fuck off. You don't

deserve it. We're taking it from you because we work harder. We need it more. We toil harder. Fuck you. It's ours now. I'm sorry, small Eldar civilian population on planets. You have the rock we need. And if you're not gonna rock in stone, you ain't going home. And if you get mad at us for it, that's your name on the fucking list.

Although, to be fair, that is, that is not good, right? That's this, it's not great. But still better than most of 40K. Defending yourself, that's a judging. That's a padlin. That's a paddalen. That's a grudgeon. It's trying to keep the thing, the foods you need to survive.

That's a paddling. That's two paddlin's. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're not great, not heroes, not villains. Just they're sort of, they're in the gray area, right? They are, as shy says, neutral evil. They care only about themselves and are, very selfish, but they don't necessarily want to cause pain. They're not the Dukari. They're not

chaos. They're not a, they're not like an unflinching mob of things like the tyrannids. They just are out for them and them alone. So I put them on on the same wavelength as Tao and maybe craft worlds. Yeah. You know? I can give them that. Yeah. They're the least evil they can they can get, but they're still not great. I feel like Tao might, well, no, I guess because Tau we're brainwashing people. So I guess, yeah, maybe they are on the same level as Tau. I think actually Tau might be a little bit better than the Voton overall, but it depends on, it depends on which Tau.

If you're talking Farsight, Farsight's better, right? You mean the Chad himself? The Chad himself and Torch Star's amazing abs. All right, I hate you. Well, I'm actually shocked. We haven't done a fucking Torch Star poster. I'm actually kind of shocked. I, yeah, Shai, one's the, one's the Torch Starz Ab's poster?

We didn't do Torch Starz abs, did we? We did Latara Seren's abs. No, we did a, we did a Commander Shadow Sun one, I think. Oh yeah, we did do Shadow Sun. We did do a Toul Girl poster, but... But Torch Star. Yeah, but D.K. is mad about it, so... Yeah, yeah, I'm super mad about it.

Just zoom in on some blue abs, dude, like... That is, uh, that's what I have for the Leaks of Voton today. Hell yeah, that was dope. I like the leagues. They're cool. They are really fun. D.K., you're going on the fucking list. I'm on the list because I want a Torch Star poster. It's like, was the Thousand Sun's poster not enough?

Now we need to move on to the Torch Star poster. All right, listen. DK, that's a token. Oh, damn it. That's a judgment token. That's a token right there. You're getting a token. But I don't want a token.

You're all right, that's two tokens Not wanting a token, that's token Okay Calling them little guys That's a token Tours star abs That's token Femboy Thousand Sun's poster

That's two tokens I'm part of the greater three in league My special ability is counting one token As one extra token That's two tokens Sounds like a good merch idea Just that's a token That's a token

Killing my units That's a token Being seen in being seen in the game that's a token getting shot yeah sure that's a token actually funny enough

you can get a token there's a custom way you can make custom leagues and one of them is if you get hurt but still survive on a four up they take a token there's so many ways

to give people tokens so many tokens it's raining tokens that's all right that's it DK let's go you're going on the fucking list

uh huh Oh.