Warhammer 40K: Leagues of Votann Take the Grim Out of the Grimdark
The Leagues of Votann are here, and with them, GW is making 40K a little less grimdark, and a lot more hard sci-fi.
We all know the defining characteristic of the Warhammer Universe, is its gothic, grimdark vibe. Maybe not so much anymore. After almost 30 years of absence, the long-lost Squats have returned to Warhammer 40,000 in an all new form – the Leagues of Votann. I’ve read through the entire lore portion of the upcoming codex (which is thorough, and wonderful) and am starting to see a trendline.
GW is slowly but surely dragging Warhammer 40,000 into a more general sci-fi setting. It’s been a long time coming.
Early Hints
Remember the new logo for 9th Edition? A lot of folks who play don’t really pay attention to the marketing side of things, but that is one logo that is a pretty clear break from decades of dark brooding imagery for 40K. Sure the double-headed Imperial Aquilla is there but is just so clean and crisp compared to what came before. I had a feeling something was up.
“I’m surrounded by idiots!”
Bright Portents
Then we started getting little hints of hard tech here and there. We’ve had the hard tech T’au Empire forever, but little things like Necromunda brought back a reimagined House Van Saar with a shocking backstory. Spoiler – they are hard tech descendants of original settlers from Terra, have a fully functional STC, and actually understand what’s up with technology and the utter degradation of humanity. They just play dumb when the Mechanicum are around to not attract any undue attention. Then we got folks like UR-025, a holdout AI from the Dark Age of Technology. He certainly knows what’s up tech-wise.
40K additionally has other races who while certainly not “good guys” aren’t fascist tecnho-ignorant religious fanatics. Races like the Necrons and Eldar pretty much know how stuff works.
Enter League of Votann
Now the Leagues of Votann arrive and boy is their backstory interesting. LORE SPOILERS AHEAD!
It turns out the Leagues of Votann are descendants of some original humans who headed out of Terra, or somewhere really close to Terra (their AI’s memory banks don’t go back quite that far). They also fully understand how their technology works. Plus, it’s technology of a level higher than the Imperium. They live in the Galactic Core, which is pretty much uninhabitable to almost every other race. But with their whiz-gang hyper tech, the Leagues of Votann are thriving. They also have numerous fully fledged AIs – and in fact, have built their societies around them.
The codex specifically states they consider the Adeptus Mechanicus ignorant shamans. The Leagues understand that unfortunately humanity and the Imperium are so prevalent that contact is unavoidable. So they minimize contact as much as possible and steer clear of talking too much about their tech stuff. The codex even talks about how they interact regularly with many other races who understand technology and have a generally downward view of their distant Human cousins. They merely dislike the Necrons, and even trade with the Aeldari and T’au! WHAAT!
Welcome to the Less Grimdark!
So where does this leave the lore of 40K? Actually, it’s in a really interesting spot. You can now break down the game into factions that are sci-fi hard tech, or ignorant fascist shamans, or somewhere in between. It looks kind of like this:
Hard Tech:
- T’au Empire
- Leagues of Votann
- Drukhari
- Necrons
Magic/Funky Technology:
- Eldar
- Orks
- Tyranids
Ignorant Tech Shamans:
- Adeptus Mechanicus
- Knights
- Custodes (arguable, maybe hard-tech and they are playing dumb)
- Adepta Sororitas
- Astra Militarum
- Marines
- Chaos Marines
Oddballs:
- Chaos Daemons
40K Become Slightly Less Human-centric
This is a really cool place that GW has sleight of handed the Warhammer 40K universe into. What we have here is a large (in fact the largest) part of the Warhammer 40K universe is still indeed the Grimdark. It’s the Human part. But it’s surrounded by almost every other faction in the game that pretty much knows whats up, and has to deal with the ignorant but endless masses of the Imperium constantly trying to kill them. Or else they have such a different concept of technology that no comparisons apply. Think Daemons or Tyranids for example.
It’s a very cool expanding universe that it’s one that really does offer something for everything, from lovers of the classic Grimdark, to those looking for a more traditional sci-fi vibe. If anything, I think the Leagues of Votann have opened up the concept of a set of high-tech factions that actually are in contact with each other and endure the Imperium. It’s a fascinating revelation that kind of turns 40K on its head.
We all know 40K has no good guys, but maybe with the return of the Squats, it’s the Imperium who are REALLY the baddies?
