Squats (Kin)

The Squats, who name themselves the Kin, are an abhuman strain of humanity descended from colonists who settled the harsh, mineral-rich worlds at the galaxy's edge in the earliest days of human expansion. Short, immensely tough, and stubbornly long-lived, they were shaped by generations on high-gravity worlds into a broad and hardy people. Cut off from Terra for millennia, they forged their own resilient civilization in the deep void, ordered into the great mercantile clans known as the Leagues of Votann.

The Kin revere their Ancestors above all, preserving the accumulated wisdom and gene-memory of their forebears within great supercomputer cores called Votann, which guide the leadership of each League. Pragmatic and acquisitive, they roam the stars in search of resources to mine and profits to secure, delving into worlds and asteroids that others deem worthless. They hold no love for the Imperium, which long regarded them as a curiosity or a threat, and they answer any insult to the Kin with implacable, coldly calculated retribution.

Though sometimes counted among the Imperium's abhuman strains, the Kin are truly a power unto themselves, independent and unbowed. Their armies wield superb technology, and their warriors fight with the grim efficiency of a people who waste nothing, least of all lives. Ancient, insular, and enduring, the Squats have outlasted empires by trusting in their Ancestors and their own unyielding resolve.