One might reasonably think that this is a mini I got for my local game store recently, but my pile of shame knows no shame. This is actually from the first time this mini was mini of the month several years ago, and I finished her today. C&C welcome.
Now the Berget & Stenn Consortium is a League of 2.
I haven't played a game of 40K since 1999, when I sold off my Orcs and almost all of my Dark Angels. But when the Kin were announced, I just had to rush out and start a pile of shame. Here's my first finished mini in over 25 years. (Nearly. Advice on protective varnishing welcome.)
The Berget & Stenn Consortium is a relatively young league. If I spent as much time painting as I do dreaming up their lore, well, I'd probably have 2 or 3 kin painted by now.
In 404.M41. Berget's Kindred of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance made an exciting discovery. Trade brought rumors and small samples of a strange black crystal with incredibly valuable properties. Berget's Kindred dispatched Hernkyn expeditions to find the mineral, and one sent word back of an asteroid belt with rich deposits. Unfortunately, the deposit was far from the Galactic Core, almost all the way to the Gleptid Reach.
Most kin are loath to venture into Far-Space, but the lure of new knowledge and great wealth in one seam was too much for Berget's Kindred to resist. They invested their wealth in a Stronghold-class starship to ferry them to the new seam. With all of their kin headed towards one destination, Berget's Kindred needed to ensure the success of the mission. For security, they hired Stenn's Kin, a sizable mercenary outfit from the Greater Thurian League that boasted their own Bastion-class Commerce Vessel, as well as hiring on kin from the Cthonian mining guilds and a couple of smaller mercenary kindreds. Their daring expedition staffed and supplied, Berget's Kindred set out for the mysterious star designated as Andvari.
The fleet arrived after many plunges through the warp, and found the asteroids at the center of a nascent Waaagh! The expedition spent the better part of a year methodically stamping out the Orks in the system, ruthlessly exterminating every last grot. Many kin gave their lives to secure the system, but fortunately Berget's Kin had brought along several massive Legacy Vaults, intended to safeguard any who fell on the risky trip until the expedition could return to the Galactic Core and the Votann.
With the Ork infestation clear, the Cthonian Guilds set about surveying and harvesting the asteroid belt. The kin's small fleet set up an orbit near asteroid Andvari-Prime, a massive asteroid with the richest deposits of wealth. Basic infrastructure was deployed and built up on the surface of several asteroids, with Stenn's Kin adding in fortifications and ordnance in case another threat emerged.
By 545.M41, Berget's Kindred was running a thriving operation, luring brave kin from across the Core into Far-Space and shipping rich payloads of minerals back to the Holds. Coordinating the labor of so many disparate kindreds, kinhosts, and guilds, as well as the logistics of trading with several other leagues, was an operation too complex for the Fane of Berget's Kindred to manage alone. In order to facilitate the orderly conduct of business, Berget’s Kindred negotiated a contract to network their Fane with that of Stenn's Kin, and open up routes for visiting Grimnyr to interface with the system as well. Since neither kindred could tolerate their precious Fane being housed on another kindred's ship, they constructed a joint station for the purpose on Andvari-Prime.
The project had just been completed when a Kabal of Drukhari attacked the facility. The treacherous raiders were rebuffed, and less than half their original number managed to flee back into the webway. Still, the Legacy Vaults were loaded with the neural maps of many departed kin in the attack. Worse, the network of the fanes was damaged, and only the quick thinking and sacrifice of the Grimnyr on duty saved the network. She did so by routing the Fanes' spirits into a hastily constructed drill rig and sending it into the heart of Andvari-Prime.
Then something miraculous happened.
Perhaps it was the pressure of so many kin entering the Legacy Vaults on the network, or the influence of some twisted Drukhari technology used in the assault, or even exposure to the unique geology of Andvari-Prime. Whatever the reason, the joint network of the two fanes within the rig not only survived, but ascended into a single Ancestor Core. A new Votann was born.
This joyous occurrence, however, created a new problem. The Ancestor Core was born from a union of two kindreds from two different leagues, plus the neural makeup of kin from many other groups. Neither the Trans-Hyperian Alliance nor the Greater Thurian League could possibly give up anything so precious as a new Votann, and tempers flared as the kin tried to determine what to do with the Andvari Votann. Yet all kin present knew protecting the Ancestor Core at the heart of the asteroid was paramount. This left them at an impasse, and wise elders from several leagues were called in from the Galactic Core. After months of negotiations, Berget’s Kindred and Stenn's Kin agreed to found a new league: the Berget & Stenn Consortium. Neither of the great leagues involved were happy with this outcome, but they were compensated for their losses and, more importantly, it was the will of the Andvari Core that it remain with the Kin who helped birth it.
Today, the Berget & Stenn Consortium is a league on the edge. Far from the galactic core, the mineral wealth of Andvari has mostly been extracted. Despite their successful operation, the league and its kindreds are deep in debt, as they had to pay the Trans-Hyperian Alliance and the Greater Thurian League excessive fees and penalties for seceding with a fleet of starships and a new Votann. The Kindreds of the Consortium are commercially driven and ruthlessly mercantile, trading and selling their services wherever they can. It isn't greed that drives them, but purpose: the Andvari Votann insists that it wants to return to the Galactic Core, yet also refuses to be separated from Andvari-Prime. And the kin of the Berget & Stenn Consortium know that once they find a way to safely move the entire asteroid home, it's going to be incredibly expensive.