The Leagues of Votann are a young faction in the scheme of Warhammer 40,000 – the amazing April Fools’ Day announcement seems like it was just yesterday – and this means that every new Codex is an opportunity to learn about their lives and place in the 41st Millennium. We had a look at the rules for their new characters earlier this week, and now we’re going to learn more about the backstory behind them.
Naturally, we’re going to start with Buri Aegnirssen, the celebrated hero known as much for his propensity for wearing Tyranids – which are known to the Kin as ‘the Bane’ – as his unmatched skill at killing them. Buri is the last survivor of the Emberg‑Aegnir Bloc, a League swallowed by a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan. They defended their precious Votann until the last scrap of biomass was stripped from their bones and the hive fleet moved onwards.
Heavy with the hopelessness and grief of those lost in its defence, the Votann was driven insane, and for all the other Leagues mourned its fate, they dare not approach the so-called Mad Core lest their own beacons and fanes become corrupted. Only one remained to seek vengeance for all that was lost, and some say that Buri now seeks to balance the debt of lives against Leviathan one monstrous bioform at a time.
Onlookers are mesmerised by this implacable warrior’s die-hard resilience and mental fortitude: Buri has never once backed down from a fight and doesn’t intend to start any time soon. On at least one occasion he has leapt into the yawning maw of a colossal leader-beast and cut his way out from the inside, and his sometimes unhinged obsession with eradicating the Bane leaves more level-headed Kin wary of his destabilising influence.
“The Bane are there; that is where I need to be. The only inefficiency is this talk, which delays my blade reaching their guts. Take me there.
Or I will find one who will.”
– Buri Thrice‑devoured, negotiating transit to the heart of the Jordrunn II Swarm
Only those Ironkin blessed by the Votann with superior intelligence and organisational ability become one of the celebrated Memnyr Strategists, as the duties of their role extend far beyond the simple formulation of battle plans and tabulation of costs. They comb through every last scrap of information they can access on a given battlefield or opponent, collecting the sum total of available knowledge until they know almost as much about the enemy as their own warlords do.
Book study isn’t the sole end, however – the Memnyr have to parse millions of data points and cross-reference them with the capabilities and resources of their kinhost before they can begin to offer guidance to their Kâhl. All of this is often done in the heat of battle while bullets and blades flash by, but should the Strategist need help, they frequently turn to helper Cerebral Units with specialised knowledge fields.
On the opposite end of the scale, Arkanyst Evaluators are forever keen to jump into the fray and demonstrate the latest technology with gleeful abandon. The Arkanyst science guilds are always tinkering and twisting technology for martial and material use, and though the results are unquestionably useful, few kin are willing to stand around Evaluators and their concerningly glowing gewgaws.
The most common weapon brought in for field testing is the transmatter inverter, which brutally defragments and realigns the atomic bonds in the target until the victim falls to bloody pieces.
“Leave the beast to me. Its death will be instructive.”
– Ûtann Gylûr, Arkanyst Evaluator
We’ll chat about Steeljacks when we have a closer look at the Ironkin later this week, so don’t miss that one! The new Codex: Leagues of Votann is up for pre-order this weekend alongside all of the new units – perfect timing to start a one-man crusade against the Tyranids.
