| “ | Know, first and always, who your enemies are. They are those who attack you. They are those who threaten to attack. They are those who might one day attack. Crush them before they can. | „ |
| ~ The Kronus Hegemony's Truth of War |
The Kronus Hegemony is a minor antagonist in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are a young but major league of the Leagues of Votann, factions of Abhuman clones from the galactic core, known for their incredibly belligerent and militaristic nature.
History[]
The Leagues of Votann were founded in the galactic core long before the Imperium of Man, comprised of short, stocky Abhuman clones made from the bio-engineered descendants of human settlers who migrated to the core. Said Abhumans, known as Kin (derogatorily as Squats), formed many leagues headed by the ancient Votann Ancestor Cores, sapient supercomputers built by the original settlers. Each league was comprised of many smaller Kindreds, clans and states of Kin who were cloned from a common Hold, as well as Ironkin, sapient robots considered citizens of the leagues. One such Kindred, Kôrynn's Kindred, was part of the once-prestigious but crumbling Kapellan League, up until the Kindred's Fane, an interface used to communicate with Ancestor Cores, gained sapience and became an Ancestor Core in its own right. The newly-born Ancestor Core had an insatiable drive for new knowledge and resources through conquest, and led Kôrynn's Kindred to break away from the Kapellan League and form the Kronus Hegemony.
With their new league and Ancestor Core, the Kronus Hegemony swelled in size as former Kapellan League Kindreds joined it, supplying it with swathes of Hearthkyn soldiers, and the Ancestor Core's thirst for war led the Kronus Hegemony into becoming a violent, belligerent, heavily militarized state, growing in aggression and size over the next few centuries. Any and all Kindreds that joined the Kronus Hegemony had to swear oaths of martial service, provide fleets and troops for war efforts, and conquer an allotted quota of alien worlds each year-cycle. This need to hit quotas and please the Ancestor Core led the Kronus Hegemony to take the slightest excuse to wage war on an alien world, slaughtering all who stand before them with extreme brutality. In battle, Kronus Hegemony Hearthkyn are especially bloodthirsty, stubborn, and quick to anger, seeing no problem that they cannot solve with violence. The Kronus Hegemony's belligerence has led it to throw itself at any battle they can find, their heavy firepower and advanced technologies even shattering Ork WAAAGH!s and Imperial Crusades that ventured into the galactic core.
Era Indomitus[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. Elsewhere in the galaxy, Abaddon the Despoiler led the 13th Black Crusade against the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia, where he broke open the Eye of Terror, releasing a vast Warp Storm known as the Great Rift, cleaving the galaxy in two. The galactic core was thrown into chaos by this event, the Warp energies turning stars and black holes into living predators, destabilizing other stellar phenomena, driving various aliens to invade Kin space, and allowing Chaos forces to directly invade the leagues. However, the Kronus Hegemony took advantage of the disarray to invade and conquer even more worlds, claiming that because Kin need to survive, they are simply entitled to take what resources they need with whatever force necessary.
