Leagues of Votann - Beyond the Core: None of this is to say that the Kin never ventured out into the wider galaxy. The boldest amongst them were driven to prospect beyond the galactic core, or to establish trade with starfaring species other than their own. More than this, there is a prevailing belief within Kin culture that, in order to truly honour the Ancestors, one must live a full life and discover or learn all that one can.This was reason enough to see countless Kin exploratory and prospecting fleets -- commonly called "Prospects" -- set out into the wider galaxy. It also compelled bands of Kin to leave their people and to fight as mercenaries in the wars of other intelligent species, returning only when they had gathered knowledge and experience fit to offer to the Votann.Between these Prospect expeditions -- and contact with alien races also able to endure the galactic core -- the Leagues of Votann have encountered all of the galaxy's great powers in one context or another. However, in many cases these contacts were isolated to a single fleet, conflict or trade agreement. The Kin remain close-mouthed around outsiders, seeing no reason to reveal the full extent of their holdings in the galactic core, or risk revealing the existence of the Votann.Many peoples they came into contact with thus mistook a single Kindred or league for the entirety of some comparatively minor alien species. In Imperial records it is impossible to say how many itinerant nomad races, unclassified xenos trade fleets or so-called "Abhuman" enclaves have actually been the Kin.Where they have been identified consistently, the Kin are typically known to the Imperium by the rather pejorative term "Squats," and vary in their classification between Abhuman and true xenos. The Kin have been mistakenly known to the T'au and Humans alike as the "Demiurg," to the Aeldari as the "Heliosi Ancients," and to various other starfaring species as the Gnostari, the Grome or the Kreg, amongst others.The Kin bear all this with a mixture of contempt and amusement. Their own, most ancient surviving records do much to confirm a link between the Ancestors and the ancient civilisation of pre-Imperial Old Earth, but to the Kin this only encourages even greater care in their dealings with Humanity. The Leagues decided long ago that neither the God-Emperor nor the Omnissiah were any deity of theirs. As such, they see anything that might offer the Imperium a greater claim to impose its will upon them as something to be avoided.Alongside exploration, trade and prospecting, the Kin have also fought countless wars. A disproportionate number of these campaigns have been waged against the Orks, who remain the Kin's most hated and frequent foes. The Greenskins' crude but hardy civilisations flourish as well in the galactic core as they do everywhere else, while their anarchic, destructive nature is anathema to everything the Kin value. It is a combination that has seen mutual aggression rage between the two species many times. The Kin have scarcely more time for the mortal worshippers of the Dark Gods, who they view with a mixture of disgust and bewilderment.The Kin also dislike the Necrons, against whom they have fought numerous times -- when their excavations disturb subterranean stasis tomb complexes or ancient Necron Dynasties return from the Great Sleep to reclaim worlds settled by the Kin.The Tyranids, meanwhile, are known throughout the Leagues of Votann simply as "The Bane," and are afforded the wary respect one gives to especially intelligent and dangerous predators. This has not prevented some Kindreds from actively stalking Tyranid splinter fleets, striking at isolated Hive Ships in order to harvest their resource-rich bounty of biomatter.For their part, Humanity has been the enemy of the Leagues as often as their allies. Inquisitors and intolerant Space Marines are quick to name the Kin as xenos and demand their slaughter. The Adeptus Mechanicus are viewed by the Kin as superstitious tech-shamans, whose acquisitive yet deliberate ignorance about the true nature of science and technology makes them dangerous, and who are to be swiftly eliminated where they cannot be avoided.With the Aeldari, the T'au and a number of other starfaring alien species, the Kin have maintained semi-cordial relations and achieved sporadic trade and commerce. Exceptions have still arisen, of course; the Kin have little patience for the gruesome excesses of the Drukhari, or what they see as the arrogance of the Asuryani, and of late have clashed around the fringes of the Chalnath Expanse with the dynamic T'au Empire.