The Votann Ancestor Cores are ancient quantum computers that store the collective wisdom and memories of the Leagues of Votann. They’re the closest thing the Kin have to gods, and they’re slowly breaking down.
What the Votann actually are
Each League secretly keeps one of these machines, and they call it the Votann to hide what it really is. Underneath the name, it’s a quantum computer packed with self-organising datastacks and infocores. It holds everything a Kin society needs: weapon specs, military theory, genealogical records, science, philosophy, and even Standard Template Constructs.
They’re far beyond anything the Imperium fields. A Votann outthinks any cogitator or battle robot the Mechanicus has, and that gap is part of why the Leagues guard them so fiercely.
Where they came from
The Ancestor Cores were built for the original human mining fleets that left long before the Age of Strife. Their creators gave them thinking machines to guide and aid them on a journey they knew would be brutal.
Millennia of constant use have changed them. They’ve grown ponderous and senescent, but they’re still potent repositories of knowledge. Nobody’s quite sure how much they’ve forgotten.
Creation, death, and the Kin afterlife
The Votann oversee the birth of every Kin, organic and Ironkin alike, through Cloneskein Crucibles and Forges. When a Kin dies, their memories and experiences are uploaded into the same core that made them. That’s how the race’s collective knowledge keeps growing.
To the Kin, this isn’t just data transfer. It’s an afterlife. The individual joins their ancestors inside the machine, and that belief makes the Votann sacred in a way that outsiders struggle to grasp.
Why they matter now
The Cores are developing quirks and deficiencies. Their makers never designed them to run this long, and even near-limitless cogitators eventually run out of memory. That decay is a quiet crisis for the Leagues.
The Kin would die to protect a Votann, even against the Imperium. If the galaxy ever learned what these machines truly are, the uneasy alliance between the Leagues and the Imperium would likely shatter.
Only Grimnyr, sometimes called Living Ancestors, can commune directly with a Core. They’re respected everywhere the Kin go.
Key facts
- Each League of Votann secretly possesses one Ancestor Core, called the Votann.
- They’re ancient quantum computers holding self-organising datastacks and infocores.
- They oversee Kin creation via Cloneskein Crucibles and Forges, and absorb the memories of the dead.
- Grimnyr, or Living Ancestors, are the only Kin who can commune with them.
- The Cores are decaying after millennia of use, developing quirks and memory loss.
- They outclass any Imperial cogitator or robot in cognitive power.
FAQ
What is a Votann Ancestor Core?
It’s an ancient quantum computer that holds the collective wisdom, memories, and technical knowledge of a League of Votann. Each League keeps one and calls it the Votann.
Why do the Leagues of Votann worship the Ancestor Cores?
The Cores create new Kin and receive the memories of the dead, which the Kin see as an afterlife. That makes them sacred, and Kin will die to protect them.
What’s wrong with the Ancestor Cores?
They’re decaying after millennia of constant use. They’ve become senescent and developed quirks, because their creators never designed them to last this long.