Editing Skaven (section)

== Thematic Stuff ==
In Warhammer, seriousness and farce walk hand in hand. Some factions are in general more jokey like the Greenskins and others are more somber like the Druchii, but all of them are capable of both. This is especially true of the Skaven. On the one hand, they're a malignant horde of self centered sociopaths in which every twisted manifestation of this fact is explored, driven on by a malevolent deity, spreading underground like a cancer that surges forth to lay waste to the realms of men, leaving nothing behind but ruins and gnawed bones, and they are ultimately responsible for bringing about the End Times. On the other hand they're a species of Cartoonish Ratguys with Mad Science super-weapons, Ninjas and convoluted plots that often blow up in their filthy faces with odd verbal ticks which can, despite it all, sometimes be, well, cute. Ugly cute, but cute none-the-less.

The Skaven have no direct counterpart in Warhammer 40,000. In of itself this is not unprecedented. After all, neither do the Lizardmen or Vampire Counts and on the same note you don't have any Tau or Tyranids having raves in Athel Loren keeping the wood elves up. Also noting the two settings while starting remarkably similar diverged heavily in the intervening decades, so one-for-one comparisons aren't completely applicable anymore. Even so, they do seem to be a natural fit. After all, they are one of the most technological factions and it's not a huge leap to imagine their space fleets and similar. They're also GW original content, so why are they not a thing? One possible answer is that while they could fit into 40k, they would be kind of redundant. Simply put the role of Theocratic Empire with cutthroat internal politics ruled through fear, driven by hatred of The Other on which a small privileged elite rules over a vast ocean of individuals living cheek to jowl in huge labyrinthine warrens either as disposable factory workers or soldiers expended like ammunition [[Imperium of Man|is already filled in 40k]]. In fact the parallel may be more direct then accidental given that there are explicitly 13 high lords of Terra, same as the 13 Lords of Decay. In addition a big issue would be how they would integrate with the somewhat darker tone of 40k as a whole. As an alien race of ratman would harder to justify next to true xeno horrors such as the Tyranids or Necrons. The Eldar and the Orks being easier conversions for a sci-fi race. Which is also a big reason why Squats took so long to come back, as they needed a less campy integration into the 40k lore.

In contrast the Empire of Man is not The Shire or some other idealized fantasy utopia, but on the same note in of itself it's not actually that bad by the standards of the era it was based on. Most of it's big problems are external (chaos, greenskins, druchii, whatever) and most of the crappiness you'd find in it is the sort of stuff you'd find in basically every early modern state along with the virtues there-of. In some ways it's better than the other Good Guy factions.

As to how this pertains to the Skaven, a way they are often framed is as a dark mirror of mankind. One in which our virtues are absent and our common failings are magnified. In particular they reflect modern mankind's excesses. Beings which are intelligent, but driven soully by greed, lust for power and hatred for The Other. They see everything and everyone else as an expendable resource driven towards endless growth and expansion consuming everything in their path, leaving wastes in their wake. They don't think in terms of The Future, they can drop a bomb on that bridge when they come to it. All that matters is you, here and now. In that regard, the Skaven are a better Green Aesop story than the ne'er-do-wells of the [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|Captain Planet, Furry Edition]].