Leagues of Votann - Cthonian Mining Guilds: The Cthonian Mining Guilds, which carry out most of the Leagues of Votann's mining and resource extraction activities, embody the belligerence and acquisitiveness of the Kin. Fearless in the cause of locating, securing and harvesting resources for their race, the Cthonians think nothing of braving environments so extreme that even other Kin would baulk at their hazards.From violent gravity maelstroms, meteor collision fields, savagely irradiated nebulae and plague-ridden planetoids to sweltering magma caverns, crushing oceanic depths, hypersonic shard-storms, the gnawing fringes of black holes and even nightmarish space hulks adrift on the tides of the Warp, the Kin of the Cthonians take grim pride in braving them all.This bloody-minded approach extends equally to living or sentient hazards, such as predatory aliens or hostile stellar empires. Included in this category are also many advanced and militarised starfaring civilisations, with what would seem to be entirely legitimate claims to the resources the Cthonians covet. Many Cthonian Mining Guild surveyors think nothing of assessing other species' assets such as plasma storage plants, promethium stockpiles, void-going ore barges and even fully functional industrial infrastructure as simply desirable concentrations of harvestable resources.Such assets are viewed no differently than veins of precious ore locked away within a rock face, waiting to be claimed. In such cases, trade is often attempted as a first recourse, for war is wasteful. If such measures fail, then violent acquisition is viewed by the Cthonian Guilds as the next logical step. As the Kin Truth has it, "Luck has. Need keeps. Toil earns." In short, they who want something the most, and fight the hardest for it, deserve to possess it. If that is the Kin, then what they claim by conquest is theirs by right.Not all Kin miners join a Cthonian Guild. There are hundreds of unaffiliated asteroid mines and void-harvesting rigs scattered across League space. However, a substantial majority of Kin miners do choose to acquire Cthonian Guild accreditation, for firmly pragmatic reasons. Most Cthonian Guilds are rich and prestigious enough to operate their own fleets of ruggedly fortified voidships, which give them an edge amidst the fierce competition for the richest claims. Most are also willing to supplement the equipping and surgical, cybernetic augmentation of their members, investing in their future successes.Most Kin who join the Cthonians are already adapted for hardiness. They possess cloneskeins that imbue them with hyper-dense bone structures, extreme tolerance to harmful radiation, the ability to perceive esoteric energy spectra, vacuum-hardened organs and circulatory systems, and so on.Added to this, they willingly submit to repeated surgical procedures that augment them with reinforced skull plates, advantageous bionics, artificial organs and other mechanical adaptations to help them endure the most extreme environments. There is a culture of cheerful rivalry amongst Cthonians regarding how heavily adapted and scarred they are, both for and because of their labours. The hardiest amongst them are nicknamed "luggers" -- quite literally those who can carry the most, both in terms of literal and metaphorical burdens.With typical understatement, the Leagues of Votann refer to most resource harvesting operations as "mining." It is a humble word for such an incredible range of technologically breathtaking operations, undertaken at a colossal scale. Global magna-extraction and tectonic delving topple mountain ranges and shatter worlds as the Kin free the resources they want from the surrounding extraneous planetary structures. Stars grow dim under the attentions of Cthonian stellar syphons. Stellar phenomena that Humanity view with superstitious terror are torn apart and processed by the Kin through methods such as atom-delving and trans-etheric resubstantiation.Nor do the Cthonians shy away from mining operations in active war zones. Indeed, it is not uncommon for such conflicts to have been triggered by the Cthonian Guilds' own acquisitive efforts. Their ships are capable of deploying temporary defensive structures -- from atmospheric engines dropped from gunships to energy field dome generators and heavily armoured harvester plants -- that the Kin soldiery use to defend their ongoing extraction processes. The Cthonians themselves will gladly fight alongside the Hearthkyn and Hernkyn also, as sappers, combat engineers, indomitable linebreakers or extreme-environment infantry.Cthonian Beserks, in particular, relish the opportunity to turn their concussion mauls and heavy plasma axes against their foes, smashing, bludgeoning and blasting as they compete to prove themselves the toughest lugger.