Home › Units › Leagues of Votann › Hearthkyn Warriors
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Hearthkyn Warriors are the soldiers of the line of the Leagues of Votann. They are the main infantry and the backbone of most Kinhosts and Oathbands. A Kindred's Kinhost is normally built around a solid core of these "soldiers of the line", and the Hearthkyn are the most common of them: stoic, dependable bands of Kin who hold the battle line. They are technically a citizen militia. They are drawn from the populace of the Holds regardless of gender, occupation or social role, and many have trades and interests of their own in peacetime. Unlike Space Marines they are not bred solely for war. They do have the genetic aptitude for it, though, and they drill as often and as hard as the elite warriors of many other starfaring races.
The Kin do nothing unless they mean to do it as well as they can, so Hearthkyn have excellent discipline and formidable martial skill. A trainee cannot join a band until they pass a demanding series of tests of endurance, marksmanship, aggression, tactical sense and courage. Those who aspire to the role usually have cloneskeins suited to it: resilience, quick thought and action, rapid healing, low-light vision and similar traits. The Kinhost also invests heavily in augmetics, and many Hearthkyn have augmetic organs or limbs, cerebral communication chips and ocular targeting implants.
No Kin soldier is regarded as expendable. Every Hearthkyn is a valuable combat asset, and also family and a scion of the Ancestors. Kinhost doctrine calls for lives and materiel to be used intelligently and never wasted out of anger or vainglory. Strong bonds of loyalty hold each squad together and link one squad to the next. The squads are not purely organic either. The intelligent machines called Ironkin often serve among the Hearthkyn, and the organic Kin accept them as full equals.
Appearance & wargear
Hearthkyn go to war in solid void-hardened armour made by their Kindred's Forge, which equips the Kinhost ahead of every duty except essential hold maintenance and voidship construction. Their standard arms are Autoch-pattern bolters and bolt pistols, ion blasters and gravitic concussion grenades. Specialists carry HYLas auto rifles, L7 missile launchers, EtaCarn plasma beamers or magna-rail rifles, and some bear a medipack, a multiwave comms array or a pan-spectral scanner. Many Kindreds paint numerical glyphs on the left shoulder plate to show squad number, while others use them to mark membership of an Oathband. A theyn, the squad leader, wears a weavefield crest.
Weapons & Vehicles
The superior Ancestor-Core STC weaponry of the Leagues of Votann—from Mor'tonium-powered Ion Blasters and Magna-Rail Rifles to life-snu…
The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Led by their theyns, Hearthkyn squads lay down a hail of fire, shrug off the enemy's return volleys, and then storm in to break wavering foes for good. Their martial tradition and the Votann's armour let them hold their own against the best the galaxy can field, whether at range or in close combat. Squads of up to twenty include field medics, scanner operators and communications specialists, so each band can fight as a largely self-sufficient unit.
Notable battles & users
- Theyns: a Kin who shows particular drive and talent for leadership is nominated by superiors or comrades for promotion to theyn, roughly squad leader. It is an honour and a burden most try hard to live up to.
- Einhyr and kâhls: Kin who truly excel may join the elite Einhyr or rise to kâhl. Choosing one path does not rule out the other, and some have belonged to both elite circles at once.
- The Greater Thurian League: one of the major leagues whose Hearthkyn appear in published artwork, laying down steady fire as soldiers of the line.
Related
Characters (1)
Ûthar the Destined · Kâhl of the Greater Thurian League
