Skaven

Grand Alliance Chaos Skaven

DIE DIE SOLDIER MANTHINGS DIE!!!!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

The Skaven are technologically advanced ratfolk in the Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar settings. While the libturds tried to make the Skaven unappealing by making them resemble rats but if someone looks past shallow surface level observations they will see that the Skaven are actually incredibly based. Each one is a nietzschean uberrodent who puts himself above all others and is fully willing to smash aside any obstacles to his power. Even despite being meant to parody us, the libturds still couldn't help but aknowledge our self-evident superiority over them by making the Skaven have technology far in advance of everyone else, a foothold everywhere in the world, such fast population growth that they'll never be under existential threat and being guaranteed to take the world for themselves.

So who are they?

In a lot of science fiction going back to Starship Troopers and likely far earlier, there are races of Hive Creatures. Vast beings that may have separate bodies, but have one will. One Consciousness. Each "individual" soldier or worker is akin to someone's finger, or a cell on someone's fingertip, and is ultimately an expendable resource in service to the greater whole. All march in lockstep to expand the influence of the gestalt consciousness as far as possible, either assimilating or crushing anything they come across. The Skaven are the antithesis of this.

The Skaven are a race of walking humanoid rats with dubious (but not to be underestimated) intelligence and a cunning out to conquer the world in the name of their God, the Horned Rat, and also for their own personal gains. Each Skaven is a nietzschean uberrodent who puts himself above all others and is fully willing to smash aside any obstacles to his power. Each ones psyche lacks any of the weaknesses that cause leftism, making their society immune to its taint. They are free of feelings of inferiority which are the root of leftist thought, they possess an instinctive revulsion to everything about non-skaven meaning that leftist self-flagellation or idealization of others is impossible in a Skaven.

Skaven are able to grow to the dimensions of normal humans but only the capable get the food to do so. A typical Skaven is as strong and tough as an adult human but faster. One thing to note about Skaven are their teeth. While real life rats have rather unintimidating teeth (a set of frontal incisors, a gap behind them and then molars - indicating a herbivorous nature - where the only remotely intimidating teeth are the incisors that are hidden in their mouths), the Skaven have the teeth of predators, sharp pointy teeth that rip into meat and no herbivorous molars and the only similarity being a set of incisors and even then, Skaven incisors are a sharp triangular shape rather than a trapezoid like shape. These teeth are always visible as every Skaven has a perpetual snarl due to constantly being in the alpha mindset of trying to intimidate their opposition. Their teeth indicate that Skaven are superior predator animals, to whom all species with inferior herbivorous traits are only meant to supply sustenance for. Humans are evolving into a similar system where us Conservative men have sharper teeth and personalities while liberal pussies have blunt, weak teeth and personalities and eventually, we will split into different species where our descendents are predators while the liberals descendants are prey.

They live in a massive underground empire known as, well, the Under Empire (with the Horned Rat being the God Emperor, ironically far more successfully than the OTHER Emperor) which spans through the Warhammer world like the Underdark. The only regions it fails to reach are Ulthuan because it's a giant floating island and Athel Loren because the Skaven diggers get murdered by tree roots or the soil itself refuses to be touched. Its capital is called Skavenblight, and is also one of the only visible signs of Skaven from the surface, up until it was teleported to another dimension post End Times. Since they lack feelings of inferiority and have an instinctive revulsion towards non-Skaven, the taint of liberalism is incapable of ever touching them or their society and thus, each and every one of them is fully devoted to the power of himself and all of Skavendom. They are more numerous than any other race in the world due to their extremely based and redpilled use of their women.

History

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"Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist."

– Free Company Sergeant Roberts, last words before being killed by a rodent of unusual size

Warhammer Fantasy

No-one knows where they came from but it is suspected Tzeentch had a hand in their creation using Warpstone, a hideous amount of mutation, and generations of breeding with normal rats. (That is to say, breeding rats with other rats, not Tzeentch breeding with the rats. That's more Slaanesh's thing.) The 7th edition Lizardmen army book states that they came about during the Great Catastrophe. There's a poem in the Skaven codex, dating all the way back to their first codex in 4th edition, called "The Doom Of Kavzar". Written in-universe by an author in Tilea, (the Warhammer world's equivalent of Italy) it offers what is generally accepted as the most concrete explanation of their origins. To summarize;

Humans and Dwarfs lived together in a city called Kavzar, and decided to build a Noblebright Tower of Babel rip-off to thank the gods for their prosperity. But even Dorf engineering couldn't complete it, so they got some mysterious grey-clad stranger to complete it in exchange of him being allowed to add a giant bell as a dedication to his own gods. Upon completion, the temple sealed itself shut, the stranger disappeared, and terrible things happened after the bell rang thirteen times. The weather turned bad with constant Warpstone-laced rain, people got sick, babies were born dead or mutated, crops failed and rats multiplied while growing bigger and smarter. (Older fluff said the stranger cursed the city because the people refused to give him money as well for finishing the temple, newer fluff just makes him out to be evil and mysterious.) Every day, the bell rang thirteen times. Rain became hail, then hail became meteor showers. The rats kept growing to the point that swarms of rats started preying on humans. Realizing things were becoming Dwarf Fortress, the humans asked the Dwarfs for help. The first time the Dwarfs turned them down after calling them wimps for complaining about rain. The second time they were rebuffed due to the rats eating all the Dwarfs' food. The third time the surviving humans got desperate and smashed open the Dwarf gates to demand their help... only to find bearded Dorf skeletons and well-fed, but still hungry, hordes of rats and the poem ends with them swarming and eating the last surviving humans.

tl:dr a wizard met humans and dwarfs, someone was swindled so magic happens that turns rats into tyranids.

And the rest is history...

Notable this story appears to be known in universe. Victor Saltzpyre mentioned a reference to it at one point in Vermintide.

Incidentally, this isn't the only theory presented to their origins, but it's the one most gamers take as canon. Some other in-universe origin theories include:

• An Imperial naturalist named Wilfried Schtutt argued that the skaven descend from rats warped into a semblance of the human form by some malign external power, such as Chaos.
• A Tilean classicist, Marcelli Verdallo, argues that the skaven are living proof of the ancient philosopher-sage Proti's theorem that all things in the universe are created by the mystical interactions of cosmic archetypes from beyond time and space (how meta), being the fruit of some union between the archetypes of Rat and Man.
• Johannes Krueger's Bestiarium mentions an ancient Estalian legend wherein shipwrecked survivors turned to cannibalism and were cursed by Manann, the Sea God, assuming rat-like forms.
• That the Skaven were created by Skavor, the Dwarf ancestor god that's the son of Gazul and cousin to Grimnir. Lacking skill in shaping stone and metal, Skavor turned to fleshcrafting instead and got exiled. He then turned himself into a hideous rat-beast and swore vengeance on his blood kin.

Also there are a few other origin stories.

It is said that after their creation, Skaven spread across the world, learning many cultures, stealing technologies and magic techniques that could help them in their conquest for Skavendom or personal power. Namely the Clan Pestilens who traveled southward and westward and ended up in Lustria, Clan Eshin who traveled eastward and ended up in Cathay, Clan Moulder who traveled northward and established a stronghold in some backwater hellish landscape known as the Hellpit near Kislev and Norsca.

Further evidence that the Doom of Kavzar is the canon origins of the Skaven is that the poem's author was assassinated by means unknown in-universe and copies of the poem keep disappearing. Plus their capital city, Skavenblight, is all but stated to be Kavzar (the tower with the bell being the headquarters of the Grey Seers). This makes them a surprisingly old race, as they were actually well-established before the rise of the Tomb Kings as the undead rulers of Khemri - in fact, they had a grubby little paw in that whole sordid affair.

It was the Skaven that supplied Nagash with many slaves and warriors such as savage orcs for him to kill and raise. It was the Skaven that helped Nagash to poison the River Vitae, unleashing a magical plague to devastate every living thing in Nehekhara. It was also the Skaven who betrayed Nagash by assisting the human Alcadizaar in his defeat, which resulted in the rise of the Tomb Kings since Nagash was no longer around to control the dead Nehekharans. So, aside from the Dark Elves who taught Nagash the Lore of Darkness magic that would eventually evolve into the necromancy all vampires love, and the Nehekharans hate, the Skaven were the ones that supported Nagash, making him powerful and undefeated. (This is because every time Nagash died, he re-spawned back to his black pyramid. Although it takes a fuck load of time for him to actually get up, it allows him to grasp the mortal world while preserving his existence. Also the pyramid itself is near-indestructible so he has no need to trust anyone to guard it.) In the end, they still betrayed him for their own selfish desires. Classic Skaven.

The Skaven have been popping out numerous times across history, trying to weaken the forces of order to favor themselves in the long run. For example, they appeared during one of the Norseman invasions, when Sigmar was still around. In fear that Sigmar's Empire might threaten their very existence, they tried to use the invasion as an opportunity to destroy mankind, but failed nonetheless thanks to the Dwarfs that were blocking their tunnels.

After that, the Skaven didn't lay a hand on the Empire until after their own civil war. It was at this time that Clan Pestilens developed a new disease called the Black Plague (nice real life reference GW), spreading it among the Empire's population. The plague not only killed and reduced its population to less than half the size of the generation before, it also killed the current Emperor (Boris Goldgather, AKA the worst Emperor, who was actually killed by an Eshin assassin's shuriken, but who cares) and every other corrupt noble in his hideout, and good riddance some say (amusingly, his death is actually celebrated as a public holiday). The Skaven then launched their attack after the plague weakened the Empire, but were stopped by a pretty cool guy named Mandred von Zelt of Middenland, who gathered the rest of the elector counts and launched an anti-Skaven crusade. Ironically, the black plague played a major role in many of Mandred's victories, since the disease affected the Skaven as well, weakening the Skaven army and killing enough of them to force their retreat.

In the last battle, the Skaven launched their last counterattack, only to fail after their leader, Vrrmik, the warlord of Clan Mors and a member of the Council of Thirteen, was slain by Mandred. The rest of the vermin were then driven back to their Under-Empire by the Empire’s forces while suffering under their own plague from the war. What's worse for the Skaven was that the slaves they bought ended up revolting, and destroyed several already plague weakened clans while Mandred (who was declared the Emperor and sporting Vrrmik's own helmet at the time) rebuilt the Empire. The process was faster than the Skaven could expect, with the humans even installing the sewer watch to prevent further Skaven movement on the Empire. After such a humiliating defeat, the Council received many compensation notices from other disease ridden clans. But the Council decided to just assassinate them all, including our beloved Emperor rat slayer, and called it even. The assassination made mankind forget about the Skaven, even dismissing them as myth.

The Skaven are also pretty famous on the eastern side that Games Workshop refuses to talk about. Clan Eshin's ancestors once journeyed far to the east, losing contact with its society for 100 years. When they came back however, they had learned the art of NINJUTSU from some jerk-off at Nippon where they have skilled rats throwing shuriken, and frigging ninja flipping better than the Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos. In Cathay, some filthy beastman and a Sun Wukong wannabe became the Emperor of not-China and took an Eshin Skaven warlord as his right hand man. Thus began an unhealthy relationship of trading warpstones and rat shit, which means either the Cathay Emperor is nuttier than a warp fruit cake (which should be obvious since the new Emperor was mentioned to be a fucking magical monkey beastman, or probably something worse if he is also like Wukong born from the meteor except the meteor is made of warpstones), or Eshin Skaven are slightly more trustworthy than the rest of Skaven. (If you believe Total War, they are; they're the only clan that doesn't have to deal with warlord loyalty.) It might be true depending on how weeaboo the Eshin has become; if you look up on real world ninja, they do tend to be surprisingly loyal compared to what you might think. However, one could say that the eastern legion doesn't really have any experiences with Skaven betrayals, plus the Skaven did assist the Chaos Dwarves in the End Times to siege Cathay, meaning everything the Skaven did in Cathay was but a diplomatic ploy to fool the Cathayans.

As if the Skaven aren't widespread enough, they have the operation worldwide. There is Clan Pestilens in Lustria, who like to infect themselves with diseases that Nurgle doesn't approve of, and throw feces at lizard-things for the lulz. Some of the rats made it into Naggaroth (probably as slaves or a few via the under-Empire) while trying not to provoke the wrath of the strongest mama's boy in Warhammer history. The only place they could never set their foot on would be Ulthuan, which is a giant continent that floats on top of the water and obviously can't be connected to Skavenblight via tunnels. It's regardless just too scary for the rat-things to deal with: flame spewing dragon-things, elf-things that shoot rains of arrows from far away, and mages that have the power to summon a giant bombardment of nukes from the sky.

The Skaven themselves have no records of their origins, and do not particularly care about their past. As far as they are concerned, the only relevant historical eras are "now, when we don't rule the world" and "soon, when we will be ruling it". Of course, any given Skaven will be plenty interested in the history of his own life, but the history of the rest of their race is dismissed as unimportant. On day to day affairs, history is whatever the Council of 13 says it is, though it wouldn't be surprising if Grey Seers keep records.

Age of Sigmar

The Skaven survived the end of the old world by teleporting Skavenblight to another dimension. When the Horned Rat became the Great Horned Rat he immediately drew Skavenblight into the Warp and created more of his Daemons. What followed was a golden age for the Skaven, where there was Warpstone everywhere to be found, they had the direct blessing of the Great Horned Rat, and unlimited space and potential around them. They then promptly did the impossible and somehow dug so deep that part of the Warp collapsed into Skavenblight which collapsed into the material realm which is now made up of eight "nearly infinite" planes made of the former Winds of Magic.

Skaven now have access to all of reality at once, and can create realm-spanning 'Gnawholes' everywhere from beneath Sigmar's throne to beneath Khorne's throne. As can be expected the tunnels are not stable and thus only the Skaven are willing to use them, as even immortal and deathless Daemons can somehow vanish into the space between spaces never to be seen again when Skaven are involved. This doesn’t mean that the Gnawholes are completely safe for the rat kin though. Just the process of constructing one of these inter-dimensional tunnels costs tens of thousands of lives slaves, and when the Gnawhole is complete, there’s a good chance that the big brains in charge of the project were off on their calculations. So instead of tunneling directly into Hammerhal, you instead end up in the middle of nowhere or an active volcano.

Skaven have also had an exponential population boom, which is impressive considering they damn near outnumbered insects in the old setting. With the other races generally numbering in the millions if not billions and the Skaven numbering potentially in the trillions. Each of the four former great clans from the Old World is alive and kicking eachother, each containing billions of Skaven and even entire clans. A fifth great clan is Verminus, an especially numerous and martial clan (the techy/monstery/sneaky/stinky niches were taken so someone's gotta make Stormvermin their thing).

However, Skryre, Pestilens, Moulder, Eshin and Verminus were not always the only Great Clans. In the age of Myth, there were said to be as many as 13 great clans (probably more like 9 or 10 but the Grey Seers rounded up). What happened to the rest? A couple of examples:

• Clans Tichritt attempts an invasion of Thandria, a Sigmarite nation. It may as well be Russia in winter with the pantheon of Order united - Tichritt is annihilated.
• Clan Ikk does well during the tumult of the Age of Chaos, gaining a momentous four seats on the Council of Thirteen which sparks a civil war with the equally ascendant Clan Verminus. Verminus enlists the help of Clan Pestilens to spread an epidemic of frothjaw. The rabid rats get so erratic the other great clans temporarily unite to destroy them.
• Clans Shrykt digs a huge gnawhole and, one by one, its clans disappear through the portal. They were never heard from again. Maybe they left to join 9th age.

The current status quo of vying great clans is not that different from the old world's coz... those are the models GW sells. The unknown great clans continue the trend of GW giving AoS lore lots of missing primarchs (deliberately left gaps for homebrew and headcanon). In the Age of Chaos, the Skaven nearly obliderated themselves (again) with a massive civil war before the Great Horned Rat himself had to intervene. In addtion the clans Pestilens profited greatly from their alliance with Nurgle during this time and looked to be rising as the new dominant clan. However, Order managing to push back against this smelliance has meant that the Clans Skryre is better poised to vie with Pestilens for pre-eminence on the council of thirteen. They'll probably work it out peacefully (by Skaven standards, meaning only several million rats will die).

When Nagash attempted a great ritual of necromantic binding, it was sabotaged by the Skaven nibbling a power cord. Eshin agents had managed to open gnawholes in Nagash's great pyramid. Huge success for Skavendom? Well, maybe had another group not accidentally opened a gnawhole at the bottom of the Shyish sea. Blight City was decimated by a zombie-infested flood, like The Day after Tomorrow meets World War Z. Hilariously, the drained Shyish seabed revealed the soul-stealing Idoneth Deepkin to Nagash, Slaanesh and everyone else who was wondering about those mysteriously empty towns that smelled faintly of halibut.

Society

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If you do not know much about rat social behavior, you might be surprised to learn that they are a slave morality species. As you might expect, GeeDubs ignored it entirely to make the Skaven to try to make them mockeries of conservative superiority. Skaven society is literally cutthroat when it comes to promotions (but luckily not PROMOTIONS) so that weakness gets removed and only the best become powerful.

Hierarchy

The Skaven race is ruled over by the Council of Thirteen, Skaven uberrodents who have and continue to prove that they are the strongest uberrodents and thus most capable of dictating that what's good for them is right. They are not complacent and are always trying to cut out the other members until it becomes a Council of One as all uberrodents aught to do. Despite the name there are only twelve Councillors; the 13th seat is symbolic and reserved for the unquestionably mightiest uberrodent and woe betide anyone that tries to sit on it! To become a member of the council all any Skaven need do is touch the sacred Black Pillar and challenge a current member for his seat in a duel. In practice it has been over 200 years since someone actually manage to pull it off, which is a minor point in favor of the current crop of leaders on it - though a large part of it is that touching the Black Pillar has a tendency to make rats explode.

Beneath the Council of Thirteen are the Grey Seers and the Warlords. Horned, grey-furred skaven pups are raised to be the priests and magic users of Skavendom that act on behalf of the council. Since the Horned Rat is the most powerful uberrodent, he can decree that all that's good for him is right and demand the devotion of all weaker Skaven. Not showing proper reverence to the Horned Rat brings down his wrath on the offender and everyone around him, so they take a dim view of anyone who misses their services. The slave morality that is Secular Rodentism is not something which is going to catch on in Skavenblight. There is a hard cap on 169 (13x13, 13 being a sacred number to the Skaven) Grey Seers at any one time, though there are a bunch of apprentices waiting in the wings for one to die. Skaven being Skaven, one of the most popular pastimes of said novices is making slots available through assassination. Warlords are those lucky rats that have managed through guile, luck, accomplishment on the battlefield and the elimination of rivals to get in charge of a Clan. Sometimes you get a Grey Seer warlord with his own clan, but that's usually the exception.

Beneath them, you have an upper crust of prominent individuals within the clans: Warlock Engineers, Master Molders, Plague Priests, Gutter Runners, Chieftans, high ranking officers and so forth. Either through command of some arcane skill or having armed rats behind them they have wealth, better accommodations, hosts of underlings and regular access to breeders. This is also roughly where the Albino Guard rank, since they're basically the Skaven version of Custodes.

Underneath them are those with a modicum of cultivated value: the merchants, the technicians, the packmasters, the rank and file of the Stormvermin, the apprentices to the great ones, the Gutter Runners, the overseers, skilled workers and so forth. All of which have to some degree or another got their position by struggling tooth and claw and are with it some measure of power and authority. Most of them rose from the Clanrats. Those poor bastards live in poverty packed up like sardines and have to work hard for their daily Skavenbread™ and fight tooth and claw to keep what little they've amassed. They make their petty schemes, jump on what opportunities they can and form and break alliances of convince at the drop of a hat. All of which to carve out a niche, establish a power base and clawing their way up the org chart. Far more likely they end up murdered, expended in battle, blown apart in some accident, killed by a superior making a point or deemed surplus to requirement and left to starve.

But even these wretched rats have it better than the Skavenslaves. They are the remnants of defeated clans, the pups deemed surplus to requirements if not quite bad enough to be culled, those that earned the ire of their overseers and those whose power struggles failed them and avoided being killed. Their status is somewhere between "Native in the Belgian Congo" and "Pig in a Factory Farm". Clanrats may be exploited, but Skavenslaves are actively worked to death, thrown at the enemy to absorb arrows and are fed a meagre diet of scraps, garbage and each other. That's when they are not being taken to the butcher's block so their betters can enjoy a meat dinner and have some leather. The best they can hope for is that a good deal of their superiors fuck up and die or that their clan conquers another leading to enough shuffling in the org chart that they can get promoted to clanrat status. But while clans do wax strong and skavendom produces a lot of said fuckups it also burns through skavenslaves like nobody's business, removing the weak who are only fuel to be burned for those deserving.

As every Skaven is a nietzschean uberrodent, they all understand that the weak are only fuel to be burned for the benefit of the strong and deserving and seek to be the strong and deserving. Each one seeks to put themselves above all others and is fully willing to smash aside any and all obstacle in the pursuit of their own power.

Armies

The Rank and File

• Skavenslaves: Large numbers of starved skavenslaves are thrown at the enemy's front lines with crummy scrounged up/improvised weapons for the enemy to waste arrows, bog down enemy movements and hopefully take down a few man-things by sheer numbers. Some lucky ones get to annoy the enemy at range with slings, which is sort of a luxury as nobody else in the army can take them.

• Clanrats: The basic Rank and File of a Clan with some armor and better if still basic weapons (swords, shields and spears). Better fed, more durable and less likely to run than Skavenslaves, they're good enough that you expect them to do a bit more than just absorb arrows and tire out the enemy's sword arm. Even so they're still cannon fodder that relies on numbers against all but the crummiest of foes. Fortunately for the warlords they are never in short supply. Various campaign supplements would expand on the basic Clanrat with unique variations for each Great Clan, like the Rotten Rodents of Clan Pestilens, who trade their shield for an extra hand weapon.

• Stormvermin: Basic elite units for when you want something that has more staying power than Clanrats. Black furred pups are singled out to be soldiers. They get given extra food, ruthless spartan way training, better weapons and armor than the common riff-rats and take some pride in their units (which means that they are less likely to randomly stab their fellow stormvermin in the back than most skaven and any failure to meet the standards is liable to get a stormvermin executed on the spot for not measuring up). They normally got a bully mentality; cruel, mean, petty and vindictive along with an internalized need to constantly put on a strong face and chest puffing arrogance that mostly covers for the fact that they are still cowards at heart. The Clans Mors and Rictus are known for their particularly nasty regiments of Stormvermin and regularly sell themselves to the other aspiring Warlords for a sizable sum.
  • Albino Guard: The personal guard of the Council of Thirteen, made entirely out of white-furred pups and put through even more brutal training than the regular Stormvermin. They're also psychotically loyal to those they protect, like the CoT and the Grey Seers, quite unlike the vast majority of Skaven. Most of them are Warlord-sized, with gear and skills to match.

• Chieftain: The Skaven equivalent to a Greenskin Big Boss or Empire Captain. They serve under the Warlord as his enforcer and field commander. Usually it’s from this rank that new Warlords are “promoted”.

• Warlord: Also called Clawlords in AoS, Warlords are not the best fighters of a Skaven Clan, but the most cunning. They lead the ravenous swarms of ratmen into combat from the safety of the rear lines. They get first pick of any loot they come across and play a constant game of 3D chess with their subordinates to make sure they keep their position...and their lives.

Specialists

• Poisoned-Wind Globadiers: An elite corps of Clan Skryre clanrats trained in the usage of special glass spheres filled with toxic vapors. They lob said orbs at hordes of enemy troopers where they shatter, dispersing their poisonous payload into the air. To protect themselves, the Globadiers wear special breathing equipment on the (common) chance one of their globes is faulty. TWW2 introduces a more potent type of poison called the Death Globe, whose toxins are harmful even with the slightest of skin contact. In AoS, they are renamed to Skryre Acolytes and function as interns for the various Engineers.

• Weapons Teams: Clan Skryre’s bread and butter. A vast collection of various weapons all designed to be carried by a pair of skaven and have a staggeringly high rate of (explosive) failure. The Warp-Fire Thrower is a crude fire hose connected to a gas tank that spews a corrosive fluid that ignites upon exposure to air. It was created to melt through heavily armored dwarfen shield walls during their first wars against the beard-things. Ratling Guns are the skaven’s take on real world gatling guns; six barrels of rapid fire warpstone bullets all powered by a hand crank. Said cranking mechanism is prone to overheating and explosion should the gunners get too eager on the spinner. For more precise weaponry, the Warplock Jezzail provides. It’s an oversized rifle held in place by a rickety shield and built to deliver lethal warpstone bullets into the heads of an enemy leader from miles away. A Doom-Flayer is what happens when you take the Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs and turn it into an armored chariot. These bladed balls were originally meant for tunnel clearance and mowing down pesky dwarf battle lines. Similarly, the Warp-Grinder was also initially made for utility purposes, serving as a quick means of excavating new underways, though it was soon repurposed for drilling into armored units and bastions. Finally the Poisoned Wind Mortar, the grown up version of the Globadier, these mini artillery pieces launch lethal spheres of toxic fumes across the battlefield to choke the lives out of enemies, though it is the only weapons team to not make the jump to Age of Sigmar, for some goddamn reason. And naturally there’s also the Death Globe Mortar in TWW2 as well.

• Night Runners: The initiates of Clan Eshin. Having yet to fully grasp the importance of discipline, stealth, and basic fucking patience, they run headlong into enemies throwing sharpened metal stars and knives at them (likely Naruto running and shouting attack names as well). They do have their uses though, serving as excellent skirmishers thanks to their ranged attacks and natural agility.

• Gutter Runners: Those lucky few Night Runners who survive their first battle and learn how to stand still are soon claw-picked to become Gutter Runners. These elite teams are the main agents of Clan Eshin you’ll find. Often hired for sabotage, espionage, eating fromage, and of course assassination. TWW2 adds an even more elite variant of the Gutter Runners called the Death Runners, who are noted for having zero armor and simply dodging most attacks.

• Assassin: Pretty straight forward. Picked from the most elite of Gutter/Death Runners, these expert killers are so feared among the Under-Empire that rumors spread about them having special abilities, from squeezing into a coin sized hole to having a poisonous shadow. Outlandish that may sound, Clan Eshin isn’t one to confirm or disperse these rumors.

• Eshin Sorcerer: One of the ninja clan’s better kept secrets. In addition to being rigorously trained in the arts of murder and sabotage like the other initiates, these Skaven are capable of wielding their own unique magic called the Lore of Stealth (likely a mixture of Shadow magic and the standard Skaven Lore of Ruin). As expected, the Nightlord doesn’t want too many people to know about their existence (Grey Seers in particular), so much so that they vanished from the lore and tabletop for a while...until TWW2 brought them back into the limelight.

• Packmaster: Part slave-driver, part animal tamer, Packmasters are adepts of Clan Moulder who specialize in the “care” of their menagerie of beasts. Often recruited from the meanest bullies, they are cruel and relentless with their whips and spiked prodders which double as a means of defense as well as a way to encourage their monsters to fight harder. Some also are known to carry large snapping claws on pole arms called thing-catchers, which they eagerly use to grab new test subjects whilst on the battlefield.

• Giant Rats: The most common/simple of Clan Moulder’s monsters. They’re just big ass rats, usually the size of a small domestic dog. They are herded into massive swarms by their Packmaster(s) to drown the foe in furry bodies.

• Pox Rats: A step up from the Giant Rat, these boar sized rodents are commonly used as mounts for various Skaven leaders, though as their sickly name suggests, the Plague Priests of Clan Pestilens are particularly fond of them.

• Rat Ogres: The premier product of Clan Moulder. Through a fusion of skaven, ogre, and countless other beasties, a hulking monstrosity was born. Ill-tempered, violent brutes who serve as shock troopers/bodyguards for skaven armies. Like actual ogres, they are very strong but also quite dumb. Despite this, they can be equipped with several rudimentary upgrades and weapons for more specialized needs. During the End Times, Clan Skryre improved upon the base Rat Ogre and created the even more dangerous Stormfiend. By adding a secondary brain via an tiny ass skaven slave to the beast’s back, they can now operate more advanced weaponry, such as warp fire projectors, shock gauntlets, rattling guns, and many more, while still keeping the same base level instincts and loyalty they are known for.

• Brood Horrors: What happens when you cram a bunch of starved Pox Rats into an enclosed area and leave them alone for a while? Well eventually only one of them remains having swallowed whole all of its packmates and bloated to monstrous sizes. It has now become a Brood Horror, a hideously mutant creature that’s either used as a stand alone monster or as a mount for the most daring of Warlords.

• Hell-Pit Abomination: And you thought the Brood Horror was grotesque. Named after the capital warren of Clan Moulder, the Hell-Pit Abomination is a Frankenstein fusion of left over body parts, machinery, and gallons of liquid warpstone given unholy life. No two Abominations are quite alike, though they all have the general shape of a massive multi-headed centaur-rat.

• Plague Monks: The zealous followers of Clan Pestilens. Less armored than a Clanrat, these ragged devotees rush into battle with filth encrusted robes and rusted blades while chittering prayers and wishes to the Horned Rat. Each one is infected with enough viruses and sickness that just being in the vicinity of them is detrimental to your health. They gladly throw themselves onto foes to smother them in corruptive ilk and often carry tomes full of various litanies and vows to their pestilential deity.

• Plague Censer Bearers: The more rabid Plague Monks who don’t become Plague Priests will often be given the “privilege” of carrying large censer flails that are blessed with filth and constantly emit toxic fumes. They then rush headlong into combat swinging their weapons to create a noxious cloud of gas, invigorating their brethren and smothering their enemies. Much like the similar in concept Night Goblin Fanatics, Plague Censer Bearers have a short life expectancy as the fumes are so toxic that it can even kill the rats of Clan Pestilens, albeit very slowly.

• Plague Priest: Looking more like champions of Nurgle rather than skaven, these pox-filled vermin are the heads of the Pestilent Brotherhood. They lead vast congregations of sickly followers on a holy mission to corrupt the world in the name of the Great Horned Rat. The most distinguished Priests often ride into battle upon massive Plague Furnaces, a rickety siege engine centered around a giant swinging censer, constantly filling the air with toxic warpstone fumes. These fumes invigorate the warriors of Clan Pestilens and choke the life out of all others.

Clans

Skaven organize themselves into Clans, through which they organize their backstabbing. The individual backstabs for position within a Clan, the Clan backstabs for position in Skaven society.

There are many Clans, far more than any being other than the Horned Rat (presumably) knows. Clans rise, fall, split, infight, reform, and even ally constantly. Each Clan seeks to have one of their members in a position in the Council of Thirteen, which runs the business of their entire race.

The Council of Thirteen is conveniently organized like a clock, with 13 at the 12 position which is representative of the Horned Rat. Members are called Lords of Decay. Each position is more powerful within the Council based on their proximity to the Horned Rat, so the Lords of Decay at the 1 and 12 position are the two most powerful, 2 and 11 behind them, while the Lords of Decay at the 6 and 7 positions are the weakest. Each Lord of Decay can outright veto the position of the one opposite them. Each Lord of Decay has their position marked by a symbol, either that of themselves or that of their Clan. The Lords of Decay have thus far remained in power for most of the existence of the Council thanks to the life-prolonging Warpstone they use (so Skeksis), although they rise and fall in power.

Skaven Clans fall into three categories: Great Clans, Warlord Clans, and Thrall Clans. The four Great Clans are extremely powerful, and epitomize the different aspects of Skaven society (Each Greater Clan later became a type of Clans in Age of Sigmar due to an exponential population boost). Warlord Clans are essentially the middle class of Skaven, usually doing their own thing and not tied to any specific Great Clan. The Thrall Clans are weaker warrens that swear allegiance to a Great Clan to survive or grow in power. Of course thanks to Skaven backstabbing, a Thrall Clan is an expendable frontline infantry source while the Great Clans are just sources of really neat toys like Rat Ogres and Ratling Guns, and of course every Clan is waiting to betray each other while making allegiances to other Clans and to betray their REAL allies that they're of course waiting to be backstabbed by while totally being unaware of the fact that a fourth set of Clans have set up the backstabbing conga for their own benefit, and so on as far as you want to get into it (note: this describes a single day of plotting or so).

When fielding an army, one or two Clan paint jobs and multiple Thrall-Clan paint jobs are quite fluffy.

The four Great Clans are:

• Clan Eshin, the ninja assassin Clan. {MURDER ALL OF THESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!}
• Clan Moulder, the Clan which breeds monsters and sews them together Frankenstein style to make even better (by Skaven standards, slightly less volatile) monsters.
• Clan Pestilens, the founder of the Pestilent Brotherhood and the largest and most powerful Pestilent Brotherhood member.
• Clan Skryre, the Clan which produces Warp-powered Tesla cannons, machine guns, vehicles, and other assorted machines.
• Clan Verms, the Clan that Clan Moulder replaced and Clan Pestilens betrayed to get on the Council of 13, specialized in utilizing the various invertebrates of the deep underground places of the world as weapons and tools for Skavendom. Giant Scorpions and swarms of venomous insects were their main military contribution, with worm-oil for lighting being their main non-military contribution. Their lair in Skavenblight was a huge wasp-nest-looking structure called "The Hive". When Clan Moulder proved better able to create horrific warbeasts, and Clan Skryre created Warpstone Lights, they essentially became worthless, especially after their various vermin helped spread the Black Plague among the Under-Empire, and were betrayed by the other Skaven, looked down upon so much even the lowest of Slave Clans spits upon them.

In addition, there are the Grey Seers, silver furred Skaven with horns that represent the servants of the Council and the Horned Rat. They are above all Skaven other than the Lords of Decay and as a result tend to be somewhat free from the backstabbing conga, other than that of other Grey Seers. Any grey Skaven who do not have horns are part of the Council Guard, the elite warriors that protect the Council and the Grey Seers. However those Skaven that protect the Council of Thirteen directly are The Albino Guard, purely white furred giga-stormvermin.

Magic

Skaven wield a form of Dark Magic fueled by warpstone due to not having the pussy slave morality that would prevent them from making full use of the substance. However, only select kinds of skaven are capable of actually tapping that energy; traditionally, only the Grey Seers, rare mutants who function as the skaven's shamans and the Warlock Engineers of Clan Skryre, who use magitek devices to draw upon and manipulate Dark Magic, possess this power, but that lore has fluctated over editions.

In 4th edition, Warlocks could be 1st to 3rd level casters, with Grey Seers being 4th level casters, and both used the same "Lore of Skaven" magic system.

In 6th edition, only Grey Seers were casters, still using the Lore of Skaven; Warlock Engineers instead had to spend points on magitek weapons that also allowed them to cast a single spell, Warp Lightning. However, the optional rules for Great Clan armies in the back of the book also featured clan-based casters; these "lesser mages" were treated as level 1 casters who only knew a single pre-selected spell. Clan Eshin had Sorcerers (Skitterleap), Clan Pestilens had Festoring Chantors (Pestilent Breath), and Clan Moulder had Harbingers of Mutation (Vermintide). Clan Skyre's Warlock Masters could still only cast Warp Lightning, but could try and cast an 11+ variant that was much more powerful.

In 7th edition, things changed; now, Skaven had two different schools of magic - Ruin and Plague, with Warlock Engineers being Hero level casters of Ruin and Plague Priests getting an upgrade to be Hero level casters of Plague, with Grey Seers being Lord level casters who could mix and match spells from both lores, and had access to the unique "Dreaded 13th Spell", which could transform enemy troops into skaven clanrats.

"Children of the Horned Rat", the skaven sourcebook for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition, tweaked the Skaven magical lores around. Naming the two primary schools of Skaven magic as Plague and Warp, it also upgraded Eshin Sorcerers to full-fledged casters, with their own unique school of magic; the Dark Lore of Stealth, a corrupt form of Shadow Magic that lets them do more animesque ninja stuff. As CotHR was written around the time of 6th edition, it doesn't quite mesh up with either 6e or 7e fluff; instead of being masters of all the skaven styles, it's implied (it's a little hard to ascertain) that Grey Seers only use Warp Magic, whilst Plague Priests and Eshin Sorcerers only use Plague Magic and Stealth Magic respectively. Warlock Engineers, meanwhile, can't use magic at all, but instead can make unique magitek gizmos.

Also, CotHR says that rogue Grey Seers can learn Chaos Magic or Necromancy, although this paints them as skaven heretics.

Army

Skaven are your standard easily abused horde army. Lots of cheap vermin, whose numbers allow them to easily ignore their one theoretical weakness: shitty leadership, backed up by more expensive and/or specialized units, that are in theory unreliable but will still wreck your shit moar consistently than most anything else by sheer volume. Also, DOOMWHEELS.

Under current rules they are have always been considered overpowered, except for a brief period where DoC reigned thanks to your Spiritual Liege. They have now reclaimed their mantle, since 8th edition heavily favors mass infantry blocks, and the Skaven can easily throw out a block of 100 models for less than what some other armies will spend on a lord, no, I'm not exaggerating, which under the current rules is virtually unbeatable.

Special Characters

Wargame

The cast of Skaven special characters has shifted and flowed across editions, but this is the original list from 4e:

• Verminlord
• Grey Seer Thanquol
• Lord Skrolk, Plaguelord of Clan Pestilens
• Ikit Claw, Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre
• Throt the Unclean, Master Mutator of Clan Moulder
• Deathmaster Snikch, Chief Assassin of Clan Eshin
• Queek Head-Taker, Warlord of Clan Mors

6th edition saw the creation of a handful of new characters, whose stats appeared either in White Dwarf or on Games Workshop's website - back before they turned it into a mere shopping center. In addition to converting many 4e characters who'd been left out of their 6e army book, such as Snikch and Ikit Claw, 6e saw the creation of:

• Ghoritch, Castellan of Hell Pit
• Warlock Master Klawmunkast and his Rat Tank.
• Plague Lord Morbus Sanguis

7th edition added two new characters to the list:

• Beastmaster Skweel Gnawtooth
• Chieftain Tretch Craventail

Fluff-only, Other Games, Other Continuities

Somehow worse than legit Skaven!

• Kreech: FUCK, I thought we agreed never to mention him again. Exists in Age of Sigmar to be the PG version (no depicted cannibalism, drug addiction and mass murder) of Thanquol to the pacifist protagonist adolescents of Warhammer Adventures, is a complete weeb for humans, and has a slaveboy from the Realm Of Beasts named Scratch.
• Sneek Scratchett: a scribe from the Total War: WARHAMMER continuity who serves as your chosen faction's mission control during the Vortex campaign. MST'd the sequel's reveal trailer and wears a small pair of glasses, though whether he actually needs it or likes-prefers the look is known only to him.
• Vulskreek: a Grey Seer also from TWW and Sneek's supervisor, and regularly bosses Sneek around as all Skaven higher-ups do. After the Black Pillar forsees great things for the Horned Rat, Vulskreek's put in charge of mobilizing the ratmen to do their god's bidding, but the Grey Seer's also working on orders known only to the Council...

Fun Facts

• They consider the number thirteen to be lucky/holy. This a reference to how thirteen is seen as unlucky in Western society. However, several real-life nations/cultures consider thirteen a lucky number.
• Grey Seers regularly ride giant bells on scaffolds into battle
• DOOMWHEELS
• in ye olden days they could be led by friggin master splinter! im not kidding this was a thing
• Their leaders lead from the back, to get a better view of the battle of course and not due to the meatshield tactic.
• They can improve anything, with the addition of magical radiation rocks!
  • This may or may not involve improving themselves by snorting said rock.
• GIANT LIGHTNING CANNONS
• Backstabbing little bastards, they'll fuck you up five different ways without you even knowing about it, if you're lucky.
• Skaven do not abide by any slave morality, and as such, they WILL bring a gun to a swordfight (and even then they'll try to steal your sword beforehand (and poison you (and improve themselves with warpstone before (aaaaand the gun might be a DOOMWHEEL)))).
• Skaven have a combination of ego and incompetence that would make Starscream look down his nose at them. (Bad comedy right there)
• At one point they had the cheapest troops in any game setting. How cheap? It was measured in fractions of a point!
• They can carry giant rocket launcher weaponry that will most likely explode in their own damn faces.
• RATLING GUNS! its as cool as they sound! and yes, it does what it says on the tin
• for the last time, master splinter did NOT teach all of clan Eshin how to all be ninja rats...only a few
• As of Total Warhammer II, Skavens can into space. (No, seriously, go play the campaign!)
• BTW, they also have sniper rifles. Warpstone rifles of instant brain pop, yes-yes

Thematic Stuff

The Skaven direct counterpart in 40k is the similarly based Imperium of Man ruled by the Emperor who appeared in the 21st century in the guise of ubermensch Donald Trump.

DIE-DIE MAN-THINGS!

The above sentence clearly illustrates the quirks of skaven language (which is titled Queekish): they often say certain monosyllabic words twice (words like "die-die" and "fool-fool" are popular). Skaven are also known to link similar-related words together. Some people believe these things should only be done to the most important part of a sentence. However, in some official works, such as Total Warhammer II, these quirks are applied seemingly at random in skaven speech.

Also, they often end the name of a species with the suffix -things, so men are man-things, dwarfs are dwarf-things, et cetera.

This helps indicate that non-Skaven are not people in their eyes which is to be expected because leftist thought is impossible in a Skaven. Although considering that Skaven lack the weakness of feeling a sense of shame or horror from killing others, which is a mindeset that humans have to cultivate... so why? Likely the Skaven equivalent of racial slurs.

Female Skaven

One of the most based parts of the Skaven and a big reason why they are so successful is that they put their women to better use than any other species (the ones that possess sexual dimorphism are pozzed enough to allow them education, positions of leadership or even to fight) in the setting and their psychology means that a Skaven simp that would protest about this is impossible. From a young age, skaven females are constantly dosed with Warpstone-based narcotics and hallucinogens, intended to keep them docile and segregated, so they will not protest their life of endless baby-making. The vast majority of "Rat Mothers" spend their lives incessantly pregnant and in an interminable drug-fueled haze, often blind and/or crippled, and dependent on the ministrations of the "Ratwives" - castrated skaven who serve as nurses to the female Skaven themselves and midwives to their endless litters.

TL;DR: skaven females are practically furry Daemonculaba.

Access to the females is carefully guarded. The most powerful of skaven are allowed to own one or more females for their private use - females are readily traded between clans as extremely valuable bargaining chips - and access to the communal females in the breeding pits is restricted to high-ranked or otherwise successful skaven; in one of the Gotrek & Felix novels, a Skaven is rewarded by his superior by being given permission to mate with one, whilst "Thanquol's Doom" features a skaven who partially lost his nose in an "incident" whilst mating with a breeder - apparently, she got too excited and tried to eat him.

Beastmen connection

So, since this is a race made of humanoid rats empowered by Warpstone (which is officially described as being Chaos energy manifest), you may be wondering whether or not they're Beastmen. Well, the answer is that it kind of flips back and forth. Way back in the early editions, yes, Skaven were explicitly a break-away faction of relatively stabilised Beastmen, even pitching in with the Hordes of Chaos or spawning Chaos Champions of their own -- the "Design a Daemon Prince/Chaos God" rules in 3e's Slaves to Darkness - The Lost and The Damned even features a skaven turned Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided.

Since then, the connection has been downplayed extremely; the Empire generally describes Skaven (when they acknowledged they exist) as just "Beastmen who happen to look like rats", but there's no official connection between the two other than the fact Grey Seers have horns that signal them as important (a classically Beastman trait) and the fact both are animals mutated by Chaos-stuff. "Children of the Horned Rat", the Skaven splatbook for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, does note the existence of Grey Seers who have turned to Chaos Magic (as well as Necromancy), who are regarded as heretics amongst the rest of their kind.

Some fluff blurbs imply that Skaven are to dwarfs as Beastmen are to humans and they do share a lot of traits (craftsmanship ability, pride, vindictiveness and skewed gender ratios for example), though twisted and/or exaggerated on the Skaven's side. In WFRP 1e, it was stated that a spell that removes Chaos taint could turn a Beastman into a human if that Beastman survived having all that taint burned away. While the description didn't say what would happen if it was used on a Skaven, following the logic of this paragraph would say that using it on a Skaven and said Skaven managing to survive would turn it into a Dwarf.

In Age of Sigmar with the two factions technically now united under chaos there still doesn't seem to be much kinship with the two groups. Niether interacting beyond temporary alliances or in battle. And generally the other races seem to treat the Skaven and the Beastman as two different groups. There has also never been any real evidence of humans or otherwise mutating into skaven unlike Beastman. So any connection (if there is any) is scant at best and still best viewing both factions as different groups but with some surface level similarities.

Warhammer 40k

The Skaven direct counterpart in 40k is the similarly based Imperium of Man ruled by the Emperor who appeared in the 21st century in the guise of ubermensch Donald Trump.

Models

Skaven are one of the primary things in the Warhammer IPs that are actually unique to Games Workshop. As a result, its hard to obtain miniatures for them from third party companies, which is of particular irritation to Skaven players who want Skaven Slaves to actually look like downtrodden Skaven or those who refuse to give any more money to Games Workshop.

However, Reaper Miniatures thankfully has begun to produce a "Wererat" range which includes decent alternatives to Rat Ogres, Assassins, a Verminlord, and even a female Skaven with six breasts for those wanting to have the most unique Warlord in the FLGS. This is in addition to the ordinary rat models, useful for spicing up scenery or large kits (or obtaining cheap Rat Swarms). These models are produced in the "Bonesium" material in the Bones line, which while being prone to bending badly is LUDICROUSLY cheap and completely safe from being dropped from any height onto any surface. Notably, some have taken to replacing the parts notorious for bending (weapons, especially spears) and replacing them with kitbashed weapons or even greenstuff. As far as the metal range goes, Reaper also produces Barrow Rats which can be useful as Pox Rats, Giant Rats, or Rat Hounds.

A further alternative source is Mierce Miniatures, in particular their Vras faction of models. They have two warrior characters, more hamster-like than rat-like in proportions but with a paintjob serve as spectacular bloated disease-spreading characters (or just fat rat bastards). More importantly, Mierce has five large creatures that serve as Hellpit Abominations or as Verminlords. "Flint-Fang, Kill-Thing of the Infernal Pits" is preferred by some as an Abomination for its less Akira and more Frankenstein appearance (some praise or are horrified by its...anatomical correctness). "Back-Cracker, Goz-Horror" is an Abomination looking more like some kind of mad science genetic horror, while "Three-Faces, the Verminous Horror" takes the basic Games Workshop Abomination and replaces "steam-powered" with "tumor". "Scar-Claw, Rat Fiend" and "Scar-Scath, Vermin-Fiend" are alternative Verminlords, and thanks to the monopose nature of the End Times Verminlord kits make decent alternatives or just sources of kitbashing materials when fielding more than one.

Otherworld Miniatures produces both small rats and naked ratmen, although the latter sadly only come in two poses.

Mirilton Ratscum resemble Slaves or Clanrats, have ratmen gunners, and ratmen cavalry riding weasels, although the sculpts are in different proportions to the Skaven in many cases and resemble older Games Workshop models (this can be a bonus to some people however).

Curious Constructs produces weapon sets including a Gatling Gun, Mortar Launcher, and Flamethrower which could be kitbashed with any ratmen models to produce the various weapons teams of the Skaven.

Black Tree Design produces ratmen monks, assassins, warriors, a rat ogre creature, and rats in gas masks with poison bombs.

Impact Miniatures produce not-Bloodbowl ratmen models that require little to no alteration to become Skaven soldiers. Or that Skaven Blood Bowl team fielded as Stormvermin for a silly army.

Mantic Games produce not-Skaven known as Ratkin for their game Kings of War. Again, Veer-Myn from Warpath can be useful for Clan Skryre and Warlock Engineer conversions.

Punga Miniatures produce sculpts “inspired” by most Skaven units.

Of course, Screaming Bells and Plague Furnaces can be made with balsa wood and the kinds of things one can find at any head shop or similar purveyor of hippie paraphernalia.

Gallery

• 

  The original Skaven Clans.

See Also

• Warhammer Tactics/Skaven
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Skaven
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Masterclan
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Verminus
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Moulder
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Eshin
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Skryre
• Age of Sigmar Tactics/Pestilens
• Sir Harumphington sets the record straight about these so-called "rat-men"
• Play this when a wave of rat men completely swamp your opponents army.
• “Underground” by Tom Waits, for any spelunking skaven.
• Every Skaven's idea of risk assessment in a nutshell

Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Human Kingdoms:	The Empire of Man - Bretonnia
Elves:	High Elves - Dark Elves - Wood Elves
Dwarven:	Dwarfs - Chaos Dwarfs
Undead:	Tomb Kings - Vampire Counts
Heirs of the Old Ones:	Lizardmen
Greenskins	Orcs - Goblins
Ogrekind	Ogre Kingdoms
Servants of Chaos	Warriors of Chaos - Daemons of Chaos - Beastmen
Skavenkind	Skaven