Hold World

"By the mysteries of the crucible are they given form and strength. By the molten fires and pounding pistons of the Forge are they armed and armoured. By the Votann and by the Fane are they given wisdom and purpose. And by the searing wrath of the Hearth are they filled with the fury to overcome any foe."

—The "Four Pillars" that maintain the society of a hold in the Leagues of Votann

A Hold World is any Kin World that is home to a hold, or dwelling place, of a Kindred of the Leagues of Votann. Most Hold Worlds are located in the galactic core.

A hold is any major, fortified dwelling of the Kin, whether it be a city, void station, industrial outpost or even an entire planet. All Kin live, train and toil within their home hold when not abroad amongst the stars for trade, scouting, mineral prospecting or war.

The Kin habitually load apparently simple terms such as "hold" with nuanced meaning, being disinclined to even waste words. Thus, while the term is used throughout the Leagues of Votann, it can refer to wildly different structures and locations. Some holds are fusions of fortification, city, industrial complex and strip mine, the largest of which may sprawl across -- or honeycomb beneath -- much of a so-called "Hold World"'s surface. Others may be heavily armed void stations, chains of domes scattered through asteroid belts, nomadic harvesting fleets, mobile matter-energy syphoning plants riding the fringes of black holes to harvest their accretion discs, or even stranger marvels of the Kin's advanced technology.

Each Kindred -- the basic political unit of one of the Kin's leagues equivalent to a clan or nation-state -- may possess one or more holds in their territory, depending on the population of the Kindred. A Kindred's hold may boast bustling cityscapes, industrial and military powerhouses, and many of the Kin's massive voidships.

Every hold generally possesses four crucial components -- crucibles where new generations of Kin are cloned and gestated; a Forge where the engineers and artificers of the Kin known as the Brôkhyr craft the weapons, equipment, tools, vehicles and technologies required to sustain them; a Hearth that is the power source that provides energy to the hold; and a Fane, the device or node used by the Grimnyr or "Living Ancestors" to interface with the Votann, the self-aware machine intelligences that govern the Leagues.

Notable Hold Worlds[]

• Broken Triplets - The Broken Triplets is a Hold World of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance. The Broken Triplets are actually a trio of worlds found in the galactic core where the three planets were smashed together during some ancient catastrophe, and the colossal quantities of debris from their demise still whirls and ricochets in a vast cloud to this day, trapped by the gravitic anomaly that caused the disaster. The Broken Triplets is home to the hold of Sunder Stair, a void station that exists precariously yet safely at the heart of the three shattered worlds through the use of overlapping force fields.

• Crimson Gulf - Crimson Gulf is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League. It is famed for its sheer size and nearly impentrable defences, much like its western Thurian neighbour, Ûrvymm's Bulwark.

• Cynder Span - Cynder Span is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate.

• Delvegard - Delvegard is a Hold World of the Ghulo Industrial Complex.

• Demmâk's Haven - Demmåk's Haven is a Hold World.

• Grandhall - Grandhall is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.

• Hyvôk's Kindred - Hyvôk's Kindred is a Hold World of the Leagues of Votann. Its people were once saved from destruction by the famed Hernkyn adventurer Sîmmka Farstryd and in thanks, a unique void suit called the Wayfarer's Grace was crafted for her.

• Hold Silver Six - Hold Silver Six is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.

• Jâluk - Jâluk was a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate that was claimed by a Warp Storm. The only remnant of its people is the Ymyr relic armour crest known as the Last Crest of Jâluk.

• Obsyd Gate - Obsyd Gate is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.

• Tamâkh - Tamâkh is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate. The hold of Brôkhfyre is dug deep into Tamâkh's planetary mantle -- insulated against the exotic and deadly energy spectra that pour from the world's nearby star. What violent apotheosis the tortured star is undergoing, none can say, but for three Terran millennia now the Kin of the Orksbane Kindred have captured the energies of its raging solar flares using kilometres-high stellar vanes. These energies power their Forge, which is amongst the greatest in all the Leagues of Votann, renowned for the amazing weapons of war it can produce.

• Ûrvymm's Bulwark - Ûrvymm's Bulwark is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League. It is famed for its sheer size and nearly impentrable defences, much like its eastern Thurian neighbour, Crimson Gulf.

Sources[]

• Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 6, 10-11, 22-24, 30, 54, 66