Illusion, misdirection and terror are the psychic tools at the disposal of the Shadowseer. Wherever the Shadowseer treads on the battlefield discipline collapses, replaced by a bedlam of screams, gibbering and panicked, aimless gunfire.
Brôkhyr are the artisans of the Kin, makers of technological marvels – when one of these seasoned engineers hooks into a powerful exo-frame, they become Thunderkyn. Adapted from void-rigs used to maintain the spacecraft of the Leagues, the armoured exo-skeletons worn by the Thunderkyn exchange repair tools for massive heavy weapons, which the Brôkhyr use to pick off enemy armour and lay down covering fire for their Oathband.
The Aeldari once ruled the galaxy, before their civilisation collapsed beneath the weight of its own hedonism. Now the Asuryani sail the stars aboard massive vessels called craftworlds, their citizens keeping to highly disciplined Paths to avoid drowning in the same decadent madness as their ancestors. Each craftworld's Guardians take up arms to defend their dying race, wielding deadly shuriken catapults or power blades, or shredding foes atop their swift Windrider jetbikes.
An Avatar of Khaine is an ancient deity incarnate – a burning shard of Khaela Mensha Khaine, the Bloody-Handed God of the Aeldari. Awakened for battle, he marches through enemy fire without breaking stride, laughing cruelly as his weapon – the Wailing Doom – cleaves flesh and tastes the blood of his foes with each strike.
Howling Banshees are swift and athletic troops who are famously deadly in hand-to-hand fighting, and are renowned for their ability to strike down the foe before they can so much as raise a weapon to defend themselves.
In battle, Harlequin Troupes move fast and hit hard, relying on speed and skill to annihilate the enemy before they even have time to raise their guns. Once in combat, the Harlequins are in their element, performing a lethal dance of death while their masks shimmer with their foe’s worst fears.
War Walkers are used in rough terrain, to scout out enemy positions. Its two heavy weapons provide a considerable arsenal for its size, but it lacks the armour to fight at the centre of an attack.
Embracing the role of Death in its entirety, there is no mercy in the heart of a Death Jester. His outsize shuriken cannon reaps a deadly toll on his enemies as each round, impregnated with virulent biotoxins, causes its victims’ metabolisms to spectacularly detonate.
New races in the galaxy are as redoubtable, courageous or determined as the Kin who make up the Leagues of Votann. Nor are many as ruthless when it comes to the risk-and-reward calculus of war. To face them 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 wealth and glory – or else as a hated nemesis, whose annihilation is worth any cost.
As the most accomplished hero of the Greater Thurian League, Ûthar the Destined is a Kâhl marked for greatness. His clone-birth was an event shrouded in wonder and Votannic prophecy, foretelling an uncertain fate that he has spent his whole life striving and sacrificing to prepare for. Few can assess the foe as swiftly or mercilessly as Ûthar and – once he has his enemies’ measure – he soon cuts them to pieces with the glowing Blade of the Ancestors.
Clad in formidable exo-armour and equipped with a fearsome array of weaponry, Einhyr Hearthguard are a force to be reckoned with. Whether forming bodyguards around their Oathband's heroes or striking deep into the heart of enemy territory, they are all but unstoppable on the attack and nigh-immovable in defence.
Cthonian Beserks are among the most heavily augmented and courageous of the Kin. Brandishing powerful mining tools that double as weapons of war and unleashing autonomous explosives that tunnel through solid rock, the Beserks storm enemy strongpoints and break them open like an asteroid filled with seams of precious ore.