Skaven (Warhammer Fantasy)

Latest revision as of 10:34, 25 May 2024

The Skaven.

The Skaven are a species that feature in Warhammer Fantasy.

History

The Skaven were a hybrid race of humanoid ratmen that came to emerge in the Old World. A few radical scholars and university professors argue endlessly over the true origins of the Children of the Horned Rat, known simply as the Skaven race. Some have speculated that the Skaven are an off-shoot or a variant of the Beastmen race, while others insist that the Skaven were not descended from man, but an evolved and mutated version of the normal rat. However, the most terrifying thing about this subject is that the vast majority of mankind would agree that there is no such thing as a Skaven, and those that dare to speak openly about such matters are often shunned by normal society, and at worst burned at the stake for such heresy. One account of the Skaven's origins was traced to a Tilean poem called "The Doom That Came to Kavzar" hat spoke of a myth detailing a building project by Dwarves and Men which was cursed by a mysterious stranger. This resulted in a warpstone shower which mutated the rats of the city and any new-born Humans who were turned into the Skaven. The rats then proceeded to exterminate or enslave the Human and Dwarf population of the city which they turned into their capital. Copies of this tale have all been destroyed or have since gone missing over the course of centuries. Some speculate that Imperial authorities accused the text of being heretical and burned all the knowledge it held. Others believe that the Skaven might have even had a hand in its disappearance.

Over the next two hundred and eighty years or so the newly born Skaven race grew rapidly. There was pressure to expand the tunnels under the city, as the surface world was too dangerous for the Skaven. Eventually they began work on a huge device that they thought would open up large rifts beneath the ground for the Skaven to inhabit. Unfortunately for them the great warpstone-powered machine failed catastrophically - releasing huge waves of magical energy across the globe. The Worlds Edge Mountains - still recovering after the Great Realignment of the Slann - were hit hardest. Tunnels opened up beneath the Dwarf Holds through which lava from deep beneath the earth spilled up.

Following the great catastrophe that had befallen the Skaven race, their once mighty city was laid low as crumbling masonry littered the streets with rock and debris. But even this dreadful event had not relieved the world of the Skaven threat, for from underneath the ruins, small pockets of survivors began to claw their way out. As they emerged all they saw was destruction; no building stood undamaged, all was in ruins except for the great bell tower that loomed over the great city. A seething mass of these survivors began to crowd around the great temple doors as they begged their god for guidance in this "Time of Woe", but none dared to enter, lest they incur his holy wrath. Even as the Skaven began to squabble and fight at the temple's footsteps, the great chapel door swung open and twelve figures emerged, eerily backlit by an ominous light shining within the temple. The twelve grey-clad ratlords, aptly called Grey Lords, spoke with one voice to the assembled multitude. The time had come for the Children of the Horned Rat to spread across the world, to multiply in the dark places, to gather strength. The Great Horned Rat had whispered his plan and it was the Lords of Decay, as they named themselves, who were to lead them. With the Skaven hordes finally united under the guidance of their god, the hordes began to burrow once more into the caverns of the dead sorcerers. Upon their entrance, they found that the sorcerers had indeed succeeded in their ritual. Great cracks within the earth had created long passages that connected the city of Skavenblight to a massive highway of tunnels beneath the spine of the Worlds Edge Mountains. The surviving Skaven heeded their god's will, and the hordes began to divide into twelve armies, each led by one of the Lords of Decay. Like a cancer eating at the world, the Skaven spread far and wide amongst the tunnels and caverns that their sorcerers had provided them. Within months, the Skaven had already begun numerous raids and assaults against Dwarfen mines and settlements along the spine of the Worlds Edge Mountains, and from this, the glorious Under-Empire had been brought to reality.

Overview

Biology

Children of the Horned Rat.

In appearance, the Skaven were a cross between a rat and a man where a typical specimen stood between four and five feet tall on average. Their body posture was often hunched with this being a trait that was developed from the cramped conditions of their natural habitat. Skaven fur was often fine and thick thus making it excellent at insulating the body from the cold. The skin also secreted a layer of fine oil upon the fur that makes their bodies almost water-proof. This oil that was common amongst aquatic rodents contributed to the Skaven being competent swimmers. This same oil was a pheromone that a Skaven can use to deduce the emotions or motives of another individual. Certain pheromone smells can mean certain emotions that only a Skaven nose can identify, such as fear, agitation, or stress. On account of their appearance, they came to be called ratmen and Ratkin but referred to themselves as the Children of the Horned Rat as well as being named the Underfolk. These large bipedal rats and possessed a conniving and distrustful intelligence.

Most have brown, often dirty or matted fur, with large fangs in the upper jaw structure, red blood-shot eyes, over-grown claws, and a naked tail growing to the size of its body length. The large majority of Skaven are normally malnourished, having scrawny arms and legs, and lacking greatly in terms of strength or weight. Though physically weaker than most races, Skaven are naturally faster, more agile, and natural diggers. As such, a Skaven can never truly go head to head with a human, and due to their cowardly nature, they will more likely run than engage in direct conflict. Only when cornered will a Skaven fight with a reckless sense of rage.

In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplement "Children of the Horned Rat", the average Skaven expected lifespan of about 20 years, asserting that, were it not for the (often violent) internal competition of their species, they might live well past 50.

More powerful members of Skaven society such as the dreaded Council of Thirteen tend to live far longer, even hundreds of years, due to the use of drugs, magic or frequent use/exposure to the unstable magical substance, warpstone.

Culture

Skaven represent the worst aspects of humanity, with none of its redeeming features. All Skaven are selfish, spiteful, paranoid, cowardly, treacherous, greedy and hateful. Concepts such as love, loyalty, self-sacrifice and honor are alien concepts to the ratmen. From birth to death all Skaven attempt to climb the rungs of power by backstabbing, cheating and killing to gain any position ahead of their rivals.

Skaven are roughly man-sized, the typical specimen being between four and five feet tall on average. Most have brown or piebald fur, although this can vary. White and grey-furred ratlings are prized among Skaven litters, as they often become Grey Seers (the Skaven equivalent of priests and wizards). Black fur is looked upon as the sign of a true killer, so the elite Stormvermin corps draw their members from black furred ratlings, it is also common for lighter colored Skaven to dye their fur. Whole Skaven clans sometime dye their fur as well to represent their clan allegiance, an example of this is Clan Volkn whose warriors dye their fur dark red. Albino Skaven are rare but not unheard of. The Stormvermin in charge of protecting the Council of Thirteen (the Skaven ruling body) are all albino.

Male Skaven are Warriors or workers/slaves. Females are called breeders and are docile, barely intelligent creatures who spend much of their lives hidden away in the nest to breed. Though they are far larger than the average Skaven (about 10 foot tall), female Skaven can't take care of themselves and rely on eunuchs to feed and protect them. Female Skaven typically produce three to five litters a year, each containing about 20 young called ratlings.

As a clan-based society, Skaven were composed of numerous such groups that included:

• Clan Moulder : Clan Moulder is based in the far north extremely close to Troll Country. Their stronghold is known as Hell Pit and is where Master Moulders use warpstone in a mad combination of alchemy and genetic engineering to breed all sorts of monstrous beasts for war. They are a very wealthy clan, and rent out their beasts for other Skaven to use in battle. Their war-beasts are reflected in the game by wolf-sized Giant Rats and the enormous Rat Ogres, to an Ogre, what a normal Skaven is to a man. To reflect their lower intelligence, they are led by Packmasters on the battlefield, and suffer severe penalties if the Packmaster is killed. A recent creation of Clan Moulder is the Hell Pit Abomination: a huge deformed Blind Wyrm that has been mutated beyond recognition and grafted with multiple rat ogre parts, used to both dig new tunnels and as a terrifying beast of war. Clan Moulder is the wealthiest of the four Greater Clans.
• Clan Pestilens : Clan Pestilens is based in the southern part of the world, and has been the cause for both of the two Skaven civil wars (the first war was caused by their demands for wealth and position following their resurgence, and only ended after the activities of Clan Eshin assassins forced Pestilens to sue for peace, while the second war was caused by Clan Pestilens trying to seize power after the Council of Thirteen ousted them, and only ended after the Grey Seers summoned the Horned Rat itself to restore order). The clan was considered lost in the jungles of Lustria, but when it resurfaced, it was changed. The rats of the clan had become completely devoted to The Horned Rat in his role as the harbinger of disease and plague. They are immune to most diseases and use the very plagues they worship as deadly biological weapons against the other races. Due to their diseased bulk, their plague monk troops are extremely tough, and deliriously fanatical in combat, providing a needed role of holding up powerful enemies without breaking in the relatively low-leadership army of the Skaven. They also use rats infected with various foul contagions, and the deadly plague censers, flails laden with burning warpstone, that emit lethal poison gas. Clan Pestilens also use catapults that fire their foul diseases upon the enemy ranks. Their own leaders are subject to the diseases and includes the plague Priests which can preach to their demented followers from a top a Plague Furnace, a foul wheeled carriage that spreads disease in its wake. The current leader of clan Pestilens is Plaguemaster Nurglitch, which may refer to the pestilent chaos god Nurgle.
• Clan Eshin : Clan Eshin was also considered lost for a long time, having traveled to the far Eastern lands of Nippon and Cathay. When they returned, they, too, had changed. They ended the first Skaven civil war by assassinating the leaders of Clan Pestilens and their allies. They had become the assassins of Skaven society, skilled in the art of the silent kill. In the background literature, they provide a type of secret police for the Council of Thirteen. They played a large role in the back story of the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign, as the ones who placed the Doom Hemisphere (see below) under Middenheim. They are represented in the army by Night Runners, cheap expendable units of skirmishers; Gutter Runners, who function as a scout force; and Assassins, elite close combat characters who can hide in units of regular Skaven until they strike at enemy characters. All three are described as being on one development path. The best Night Runners become Gutter Runners, the best of which become Assassins. The most feared and deadly Assassin in all of Skavendom however is Deathmaster Snikch. The current leader of clan Eshin is Nightlord Sneek (Temple of the Serpent)
• Clan Skryre : Currently, the most powerful Clan is Clan Skryre. These Skaven have devoted themselves to the study of magic and blending it with insane science and engineering. Their engineers are used to explain Skaven warmachines: the Ratling Gun (a warpstone-based Gatling gun with an obvious pun on rat), the Warpfire thrower (a warpstone-based flamethrower), the Jezzail (an extremely long-ranged warpstone rifle which is so large that it has to be carried by two Skaven), the Poisoned Wind Mortar (a device that fires delicate spheres filled with poison gas upon the enemy) and the fearsome Warp-Lightning Cannon. They also employ Warlock Engineers, who harness the winds of magic to devastating effect. In earlier versions of the game, there was a Skryre machine known as the "Doomwheel", something like a hamster's exercise wheel crossed with a chariot. This was replaced by the Warp-Lightning Cannon in the sixth edition rulebook, as the team working on the (then) new Army Book explained in White Dwarf 267 that it was too blatantly a hamster wheel and wanted something more serious; however, an updated Doomwheel was recently released to coincide with the latest version of the army book. This clan was also responsible for the creation of the "Doom Hemisphere", a device much akin to an atomic bomb, which was placed underneath the Imperial city of Middenheim. The device was intended to be detonated after Archaon's siege had either succeeded or failed, which would level much of the city and leave the Skaven to overwhelm any survivors of the blast. Fortunately for the residents, the device malfunctioned, detonating without enough force to obliterate Middenheim but resulted in a significant change to the caves and tunnels found beneath the city, as well as killing hundreds of Skaven and men in the tunnels who didn't escape the blast in time.
• Clan Mors, One of the most powerful Warlord Clans.
• Clan Rictus, known for vast armies of Stormvermin.
• Clan Skab, nearly wiped out during the invasion of Nuln.
• Clan Skurvy, possesses the largest fleet in Skavendom whose lair is Spineport.
• Clan Volkn, a pyromaniacal clan that dyes its fur a reddish orange.
• Clan Septik, has close ties with Clan Pestilens.
• Clan Skuttle, possess the second largest fleet in Skavendom. Arch rivals of Clan Skurvy.
• Clan Mordkin, whose warriors fight against undead.
• Clan Carrion.
• Clan Gritus.
• Clan Gangrous, warriors from this clan are the most vicious tunnel fighters in the under-empire.
• Clan Gnaw, orc hunters.
• Clan Ektrik, obsessed with harnessing and channeling warp lighting.
• Clan Rigens, a clan responsible for governing and controlling Skaven Bloodbowl teams (spin-off universe)
• Clan Treecherik, the Skurry-Stabers

The Council of Thirteen is the ruling body of the Skaven race. They rule from a giant horse shoe shaped hall which contains thirteen raised daises on which thrones are placed. a 13 sided black pillar made of pure warpstone and engraved with the Horned Rat's commandments sits behind the middle one. The order for the seats from left to right is 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7. The 13th Seat (the very middle of the horseshoe table) is the symbolic seat of the Horned Rat, and it acts as a tie-breaker in votes amongst the other members, with the "Horned Rat's" vote typically being interpreted by the Seer Lord. The 1st and 12th places (the right and left of the Horned Rat)are therefore the most powerful, while seat six and seven are the weakest. The council are constantly shifting allegiances, backstabbing, cheating, lying, or otherwise trying to undermine each other, even hiring assassins to dispatch their rivals, much to the amusement of their malevolent god.

This back story helps justify why a rapidly reproducing, disease-resistant race does not rule more of the world; they are too busy fighting each other. Indeed, if not for the race's constant infighting, the Skaven could easily have the means to overrun the entire surface world. Each member of the council is open to replacement at any time. The applicant must simply challenge his rival to a fight to the death; if he wins, he takes the place of the loser on the council. Though rare, more than one member of the Council has been replaced this way. The latest council of Thirteen members however has not changed in the last century. Another mystery is how the dreaded Council members maintain such long lifespans especially when a Skaven is considered ancient at 30 years (60 years for a grey seer). It is speculated that the magical warpstone enchanted council seats might be an explanation for the unusual longevity of its occupants.

The Council chambers are guarded by mute Albino Stormvermin known as the Council Guard. The Council guard are taller than average Stormvermin and wear blood-red armour of the highest quality (as far as Skaven standards go). The guard are as loyal as it is possible for any Skaven to be and are thus immune to bribes to betray their masters on the Council of Thirteen. It is unknown how the council of thirteen installs such loyalty into their stormvermin.

The Current known Council members (and their seat numbers) mentioned in the background are

• Position 13: held by the Horned Rat.
• Position 1, Lord Kritislik the Seerlord, head of the Order of the Grey Seers . (Deceased, leaving the spot free.)
• Position 12, Lord Morskittar, Lord Warlock of Clan Skryre .
• Position 10, Lord Nurglitch, Arch-Plaguelord of Clan Pestilens
• Position 4, Lord Paskrit, Warlord-General of all Skavendom
• Position 9, Lord Verminkin, Packlord of Clan Moulder
• unknown position, Lord Sneek, Nightlord of Clan Eshin
• unknown position, Lord Gnawdwell, Warlord of Clan Mors
• unknown position, Lord Kratch Doomclaw, Warlord of Clan Rictus
• unknown position, Lord Vrisk Ironscratch, Fleetmaster of Clan Skurvy
• unknown position, Lord Griznekt Mancarver, Warlord of Clan Skab

Kritislik occupies Seat number 1 on the Council, and Morskittar occupies seat 12 ; hence these two are the most powerful of the Lords of Decay (although Kritislik, being the Seerlord, gets two veto votes (one for his position and one for the absent Horned Rat) making Kritislik the most powerful member of the council.)

Below the council in the fictional hierarchy of the race are the Grey Seers, prophets of the Horned Rat himself, and powerful sorcerers. Grey Seers have prophetic powers and are usually grey-furred; hence the name. While the Grey Seers are often physically weak, they make up for this in cunning, guile, and the use of magic. Most other Skaven fear and hate Grey Seers in equal measure. The most feared symbol of the Seers is the "Screaming Bell," a massive, horned bell mounted on a carriage and pushed into battle, the daemonic chimes enthusing the Skaven hordes. This holds a fairly unusual place in the game as it is based like a monstrous creature, but fielded within a unit of Skaven troops, granting bonuses to both the unit, and the larger army with its effects.

The rest of Skaven society is organized into innumerable clans. Four clans are traditionally more powerful than the rest: Clan Pestilens, Clan Moulder, Clan Eshin, and Clan Skryre. These four are collectively known as the Greater Clans, and dominate the back-story of the race and of most army units.

They worship a deity known as "The Horned Rat," who is also often referred to as simply "The Horned One." Central to their beliefs were the Pillars of Commandments which was made of the purest Warpstone. It was placed in Skavenblight by the Horned Rat himself and had 13 sides where each contained 13 commandments, creating a total of 169 edicts.

In prior editions of Warhammer (and now restored in the most recent edition), the Skaven at times would be led by daemonic beings called Vermin Lords. Believed to be some sort of Avatar of the Horned Rat, Vermin Lords were greater daemons that even the Grey Seers feared and acquiesced themselves to. Grey Seers often threaten to summon a Vermin Lord to ensure obedience, but in truth, they are loath to do so as these creatures are more powerful and cunning than any living Skaven and their lust for power and love of betrayal are legendary.

Amongst their armies included:

• Slave Rats :
• Clanrats :
• Stormvermin :
• Plague Monks :
• Plague Censer-Bearers :
• Night Runners :
• Gutter Runners :
• Poisoned-Wind Globadiers :
• Warplock Jezzails :
• Warpfire Thrower :
• Ratling Gun :
• Poisoned-Wind Mortar :
• Warp-Grinder :

Out of all the armies within the known world, no army could match the impeccable numbers of the Skaven race. When the Skaven abandon their secretive ways and emerge from their subterranean lairs, they do so for only one reason; to unleash vicious, inhuman and lightning fast warfare. It was a nightmarish scene, a ravenous horde, a chaotic and rolling tide of verminous ratmen. An individual Skaven warrior was of little match against any of the other races on a one on one fight. Without allies to aid him, a Skaven's cowardice would naturally make him flee from direct combat, only fighting if there is no other alternative except death. As such, to each and every Skaven, there is only one racial strength, and that strength is numbers.

Technology

They can make tools, converse in a developed language and develop and use advanced weaponry. They often steal technology from other races and improve upon it which usually involves warpstone. The Skaven wizards will consume warpstone to boost their power to great heights.

The majority of Skaven weapons are developed by Clan Skryre. The Warlock Engineers of Clan Skryre create infernal engines of destruction, and then bind magically energy to the machine to increase its potency and destructiveness. Some of the most feared and deadly weapons created by Clan Skryre are the Warp-lightning Cannon and the Warplock Jezzails.

The Skaven of Clan Moulder are expert at breeding and mutating other living beings to create the perfect killing creature. Their Master Moulders create unnatural creatures to sell to other Clans. Some of the more infamous creations of Clan Moulder are the Hell Pit Abomination and the hulking Rat Ogres

Territory

From there, they came to inhabit a massive inter-continental subterranean empire known in their tongue simply as the Under-Empire.

Skaven settlements are filthy, crowded places where even the majority of ratmen are always close to starvation - the smallest and weakest are often consumed by the stronger.

Although the majority of Skaven Strongholds are situated in the Old World, the tunnels stretch under Araby, the Southlands, the Dark Lands, Lustria, Naggaroth and even distant Cathay.

Regardless, the Skaven have major lairs underneath Nuln, Marienburg and Middenheim in the Empire, Brionne and Quenelles in Bretonnia, Miragliano in Tilea. Almost every city of the world has a skaven settlement beneath it from which the ratmen drag the poor and homeless down below.

Members

• Thanquol :
• Boneripper :
• Throt the Unclean :
• Queek Head-Taker :
• Snikch :
• Ikit Claw :
• Tretch Craventail :
• Skweel Gnawtooth :
• Skrolk :

Notes

• Skaven were officially introduced into the tabletop wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the Spring 1986 issue of the Citadel Journal magazine. They were billed as "a new Chaos race". However, the race had appeared a few months earlier as a free 'giveaway' Blood Bowl team in an earlier 1986 issue of White Dwarf magazine.
• Jes Goodwin sculpted the original 1986 Skaven range of Citadel Miniatures. Goodwin also provided the original background found in the 1986 Citadel Journal. This background introduced core elements of Skaven lore, including clan structure, the Council of Thirteen, Grey Seers, and the Skaven God - "The Horned Rat".
• The miniatures proved very popular[citation needed], and the range was expanded by Goodwin over the next few years.
• Skaven also formed the core opponents of Games Workshop's popular Advanced HeroQuest adventure game, released in 1990.
• Skaven comprised one of the two armies of the 2010 Island of Blood starter set released for Warhammer 8th edition.

In other media

Video games

• In Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, the Skaven appeared as antagonists in the real-time tactical video game.
• In Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, the Skaven appeared as a playable faction in the strategy based video game. During the Chaos campaign, the Skaven Warlock-Engineer Kasquit of Clan Skrye was encountered who had angered the Skaven council. As a result, he quickly accepted an alliance with the Hordes of Chaos Champion Thorgar in order to receive his protection and aided him to locate the sorcerer Sudobaal. Players could choose one of the 3 sub-factions that included Eshin, Skrye and the Warlord clans.
• In Total Warhammer II, the Skaven appeared as a playable faction within the setting of the real-time strategy video game.
• In Total Warhammer III, the Skaven appeared as a playable faction within the setting of the real-time strategy video game sequel.
• In Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, the Skaven appeared as antagonists in the multiplayer cooperative first person action video game. Within the lore of the game, it was revealed that Skaven Clan Fester had risen up during the End Times to attack the city of Ubersreik where they were opposed by a warband from the Empire.
• In Warhammer: Vermintide 2, the Skaven returned as antagonists in the multiplayer cooperative first person action video game sequel. Set after the first game, it was shown that Grey Seer Rasknitt had not been killed but succeeded in capturing the heroes whereupon Ubersreik had fallen to Clan Fester who constructed the Skittergate bringing in the forces of the Nurgle Chaos Champion Bödvarr Ribspreader and his Rotblood Warband. However, the gate did not operate properly thus preventing the full force of the Chaos forces to gather and in the chaos the heroes of Ubersreik escaped whereupon they sought to stop the Skaven and their Chaos allies.
• In Mordheim: City of the Damned, the Skaven appeared as a playable warband faction in the tactical role-playing video game. They were members of Clan Eshin who were said to be accomplished masters of stealth and murder who long ago learnt the art of assassination in distant lands. As the most feared of the Great Clans of the Under-Empire, these silent killers served as the eyes and ears of Skavendom where they infiltrated the realms of other races along with spying on them from the shadows. Eshin struck with ambushes and utterly without mercy or honour with the endowed with ferocious speed along with a viciousness far in excess of any human. Skaven were hideous foes with a number of them in Clan Eshin seeking a chance to increase their own prestige by forming a warband and infesting Mordheim with these being ruthless and dangerous.

Appearances

• Warhammer Armies: Skaven:

External Links

• Lexicanum Entry
• Warhammer Fantasy Wiki Entry

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