Skaven
Encyclopedia
Skaven are a race of man-sized anthropomorphic rat-creatures in Games Workshop
's Warhammer Fantasy
setting. They were officially introduced as a new Chaos race in 1986 by Jes Goodwin.
In the background of the setting the Skaven are described as a clan
-based society in which the number 13
holds important significance. All Skaven pay homage to the Horned Rat, their only deity, whom they worship primarily out of fear of retribution. Skaven are portrayed as sneaky, conniving, selfish, cowardly and backstabbing. They are also closely linked to plague and disease (particularly the Skaven clan Pestilens). The Skaven believe themselves to be superior to all other races, especially those that live above ground.
Despite its large population, the existence of an organised Skaven society is carefully and violently concealed from humans and other races of the Warhammer universe. Even when presented with irrefutable proof, the common man regards them as an urban legend or merely another form of Beastmen, although there is no direct link between the two species. It is a widely held belief that if the Skaven could put aside their in-fighting and distrust of each other, they could potentially take over the world: fortunately their innate paranoia and deceitful, treacherous natures make such an occurrence all but impossible.
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, and the range was expanded by Goodwin over the next few years. Today, they are one of the main fifteen armies of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
Skaven also formed the core opponents of Games Workshop's popular Advanced HeroQuest
adventure game, released in 1990.
Skaven comprise one of the two armies of the 2010 Island of Blood starter set released for Warhammer 8th edition.
.
shower which mutates the rats of the city, and new-born Humans, into Skaven. The rats proceed to exterminate or enslave the Human and Dwarf population of the city, remaking it into the Skaven capital of Skavenblight.
The introduction of the Skaven supplement to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
answers these questions with the dogma
of the Horned Rat, although Skaven philosophers have questioned the nature of the mysterious stranger, wondering whether this entity is indeed a deity or a merely a Daemonic entity.
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 Skaven centric Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
supplement "Children of the Horned Rat" gives the average Skaven an 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, of magic, or frequent use/exposure to the unstable magical substance, warpstone.
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 eunuch
s to feed and protect them. Female Skaven typically produce three to five litters a year, each containing about 20 young called ratlings.
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. This loyalty comes from both the vast wealth of the Council and the fear they inspire, this led to the question asked in Skavenblight "...do the Council guard dye their fur white or did it turn white when they enter the Councils employ"
The Current know Council members (and their seat numbers) mentioned in the background are
Kritislik occupies seat number 1 on the Council, Morskittar 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 unique 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.
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.
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 Ogre
s, 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.
s (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 censer
s, 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 Pestilence is Plaguemaster Nurglitch, which may refer to the pestilent chaos god Nurgle.
. 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 assassin
s 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)
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.
It should be noted that due to these views and their tendency for back-stabbing, no one (not even the minions of Chaos) ever wants to count the Skaven as their allies. Everyone who knows about the Skaven knows that there is only one rule for trusting a Skaven: don't.
While virtually all races of the Old World loathe Skaven, humans, for the most part, believe them to be a fairy tale or just another kind of Chaos Beastmen, and even cities they've attacked only hold memories of the plague for two or three generations. The only two races to hold Skaven in utter contempt are the Lizardmen, who feed them as choice offerings to their gods, and the Dwarfs who war with the Skaven constantly for control of their many tunnels and underground lairs
The only race the Skaven can generally trust is the Dark Elves, who honour their treaties because of their similar nature (except for the Skaven's enormous cowardice).
Most of the available choices reflect the four clans mentioned above, and some of the Special Characters are mentioned at length in the Army book as major powers in the Skaven world. These clan designations do not affect the playing of the army, though players are free to 'theme' an army around a particular clan, and alternate lists for each major clan exist, emphasizing 'their' troops.
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
's Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer Fantasy (setting)
Warhammer Fantasy is a fantasy setting, created by Games Workshop, which is used by many of the company's games. Some of the best-known games set in this world are: the table top wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay pen-and-paper role-playing game, and the MMORPG...
setting. They were officially introduced as a new Chaos race in 1986 by Jes Goodwin.
In the background of the setting the Skaven are described as a clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
-based society in which the number 13
13 (number)
13 is the natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English. It is also the first of the teens – the numbers 13 through 19 – the ages of teenagers....
holds important significance. All Skaven pay homage to the Horned Rat, their only deity, whom they worship primarily out of fear of retribution. Skaven are portrayed as sneaky, conniving, selfish, cowardly and backstabbing. They are also closely linked to plague and disease (particularly the Skaven clan Pestilens). The Skaven believe themselves to be superior to all other races, especially those that live above ground.
Despite its large population, the existence of an organised Skaven society is carefully and violently concealed from humans and other races of the Warhammer universe. Even when presented with irrefutable proof, the common man regards them as an urban legend or merely another form of Beastmen, although there is no direct link between the two species. It is a widely held belief that if the Skaven could put aside their in-fighting and distrust of each other, they could potentially take over the world: fortunately their innate paranoia and deceitful, treacherous natures make such an occurrence all but impossible.
Release
Skaven were officially introduced into the tabletop wargameWargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....
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
Blood Bowl
Blood Bowl is a Fantasy Football game created by Jervis Johnson for the British games company Games Workshop as a parody of American Football. The game was first released in 1987 and has been re-released in new editions since...
team in an earlier 1986 issue of White Dwarf magazine
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
.
Jes Goodwin sculpted the original 1986 Skaven range of Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures Limited is a company which produces metal, resin and plastic miniature figures for tabletop wargames such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000....
.
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, and the range was expanded by Goodwin over the next few years. Today, they are one of the main fifteen armies of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
Skaven also formed the core opponents of Games Workshop's popular Advanced HeroQuest
Advanced HeroQuest
Advanced Heroquest was a 1989 sequel to HeroQuest, published by Games Workshop.Changes from HeroQuest included more complex and RPG-like rules, a modular board and the use of henchmen...
adventure game, released in 1990.
Skaven comprise one of the two armies of the 2010 Island of Blood starter set released for Warhammer 8th edition.
Skaven in Warhammer
The background and character of the Skaven race in the Warhammer setting has been developed by various authors since their introduction in 1986. The most significant additions were made by Andy Chambers in the army list for the fourth edition of Warhammer Fantasy BattleWarhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....
.
History
The origins of the Skaven are for the most part unknown. The only background information provided in Games Workshop literature is a poem called "The Doom of Kavzar" which loosely describes how the first Skaven came to be. It is presented in a myth-like fashion, detailing a building project by Dwarves and Men which is cursed by a mysterious stranger, resulting in a warpstoneWarpstone
Warpstone is a fictional mutagen found in the Warhammer world, and also in the Warhammer 40,000 universe during the first and second editions. Humans and most other races in Games Workshop’s campaign game Mordheim refer to it as Wyrdstone....
shower which mutates the rats of the city, and new-born Humans, into Skaven. The rats proceed to exterminate or enslave the Human and Dwarf population of the city, remaking it into the Skaven capital of Skavenblight.
The introduction of the Skaven supplement to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Over the years, it has been through a number of phases and different publishers, most of which were related in some way to Games Workshop...
answers these questions with the dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
of the Horned Rat, although Skaven philosophers have questioned the nature of the mysterious stranger, wondering whether this entity is indeed a deity or a merely a Daemonic entity.
Appearance and culture
Skaven are described as a cross between a rat and a man. They worship a deity known as "The Horned Rat," who is also often referred to as simply "The Horned One." Skaven have the appearance of large bipedal rats and possess a conniving and distrustful intelligence. They can make tools, converse in a developed languageLanguage
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
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 Skaven centric Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Over the years, it has been through a number of phases and different publishers, most of which were related in some way to Games Workshop...
supplement "Children of the Horned Rat" gives the average Skaven an 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, of magic, or frequent use/exposure to the unstable magical substance, warpstone.
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
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
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 eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
s to feed and protect them. Female Skaven typically produce three to five litters a year, each containing about 20 young called ratlings.
The Council of Thirteen
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 diases 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. This loyalty comes from both the vast wealth of the Council and the fear they inspire, this led to the question asked in Skavenblight "...do the Council guard dye their fur white or did it turn white when they enter the Councils employ"
The Current know Council members (and their seat numbers) mentioned in the background are
- Seat 13: The Horned Rat
- Seat 1: Lord Kritislik the Seerlord (only Grey Seer)
- Seat 12: Lord Morskittar Lord-Warlock of Clan Skryre
- Seat 11: Lord Verminkin Packlord of Clan Moulder
- Seat 10: Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch of Clan Pestilens
- Unknown seat: The Nightlord of Clan Eshin Lord Sneek
- Unknown seat: Kratch Doomclaw, warlord of Clan Rictus.
- Unknown seat: Vrisk Ironscratch of Clan Skurvy
- Unknown seat: Griznekt Mancarver of Clan Skab
- Unknown seat: General Paskrit Warlord-General of Skavendom
- Unknown seat: Warlord Gnawdwell leader of Clan Mors
Kritislik occupies seat number 1 on the Council, Morskittar 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
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
. 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 unique 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.
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
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
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.
Clan Moulder
Clan Moulder is based in the far north extremely close to Troll Country. Their stronghold is known as Hellpit and is where Master Moulders use warpstoneWarpstone
Warpstone is a fictional mutagen found in the Warhammer world, and also in the Warhammer 40,000 universe during the first and second editions. Humans and most other races in Games Workshop’s campaign game Mordheim refer to it as Wyrdstone....
in a mad combination of alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
and genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
to breed all sorts of monstrous beasts for war. They are a very wealthy clan, and rent
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
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 Ogre
Ogre
An ogre is a large, cruel, monstrous, and hideous humanoid monster, featured in mythology, folklore, and fiction. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings, and have appeared in many classic works of literature...
s, 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 warCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
s (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
Immunity (medical)
Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...
to most diseases and use the very plagues
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
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 censer
Censer
Censers are any type of vessels made for burning incense. These vessels vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction. They may consist of simple earthenware bowls or fire pots to intricately carved silver or gold vessels, small table top objects a few centimetres tall to as many as...
s, 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 Pestilence 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 CathayCathay (Warhammer)
Cathay is a fictional nation in Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy universe. Cathay is the Warhammer equivalent of China, based upon Chinese History with an added mixture of High Fantasy and Chinese folklore. Cathay was actually the name given to northern China in the 14th century by Marco Polo...
. 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 assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s of Skaven society, skilled in the art of the silent kill. In the background literature, they provide a type of secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
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 magicMagic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
and blending it with insane science and engineering. Their engineers are used to explain Skaven warmachines: the Ratling Gun (a warpstone
Warpstone
Warpstone is a fictional mutagen found in the Warhammer world, and also in the Warhammer 40,000 universe during the first and second editions. Humans and most other races in Games Workshop’s campaign game Mordheim refer to it as Wyrdstone....
-based Gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
with an obvious pun on rat), the Warpfire thrower (a warpstone
Warpstone
Warpstone is a fictional mutagen found in the Warhammer world, and also in the Warhammer 40,000 universe during the first and second editions. Humans and most other races in Games Workshop’s campaign game Mordheim refer to it as Wyrdstone....
-based flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
), the Jezzail
Jezail
The jezail was a simple, cost-efficient and often hand-made muzzle-loading long arm commonly used in British India, Central Asia and parts of the Middle East in the past.-Features:...
(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.
Other Clans
- 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.
- Clan Gritus.
- Clan Gangrous, warriors from this clan are the most vicious tunnel fighters in the under-empire.
- Clan Gnaw
- Clan Ektrik, obsessed with harnessing and channeling warp lighting.
- Clan Rigens, a clan responsible for governing and controlling Skaven Bloodbowl teams (spin-off universe)
Skaven Tactics
In the tabletop war game Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Skaven players typically bring many more models to the table than their opponents. Multiple, large units of Clanrats, Skavenslaves, Giant Rats, and Stormvermin form the bulk of the Skaven horde. Units such as Rat Ogres, Plague Monks, the Warp Lightning Cannon, and the many and varied weapon teams support these vast numbers with more raw killing power-though these devices and creatures can often lead to as many Skaven casualties as their enemy's, if not more.Enemies and allies
The Skaven hold the same opinion of other races as do the Dark Elves: everyone is their inferior. However, the Skaven extend this belief to include each other, with each Skaven believing himself to be the epitome of Skaven superiority. As such, the Skaven usually see no need to ally with anyone, but believe that they are always intelligent enough to manipulate their inferiors into fighting their enemies for them. Those in higher rank view their lesser kin as completely worthless and have no problem sending thousands to their deaths - many as a result of friendly fire.It should be noted that due to these views and their tendency for back-stabbing, no one (not even the minions of Chaos) ever wants to count the Skaven as their allies. Everyone who knows about the Skaven knows that there is only one rule for trusting a Skaven: don't.
While virtually all races of the Old World loathe Skaven, humans, for the most part, believe them to be a fairy tale or just another kind of Chaos Beastmen, and even cities they've attacked only hold memories of the plague for two or three generations. The only two races to hold Skaven in utter contempt are the Lizardmen, who feed them as choice offerings to their gods, and the Dwarfs who war with the Skaven constantly for control of their many tunnels and underground lairs
The only race the Skaven can generally trust is the Dark Elves, who honour their treaties because of their similar nature (except for the Skaven's enormous cowardice).
Skaven army list
Skaven forces as of eighth edition, are currently composed of the following units (for the standard army list)- Lords and Heroes
- Grey Seer
- Warlord
- Chieftain
- Assassin (Clan Eshin)
- Warlock Engineer (Clan Skryre)
- Plague Priest (Clan Pestilens)
- Vermin Lord (Greater Daemon-esque Character)
- Core Units
- Clanrats
- Skavenslaves
- Giant Rats (Clan Moulder)
- Night Runners (Clan Eshin)
- Rat Swarms
- Stormvermin
- Special Units
- Gutter Runners (Clan Eshin)
- Plague Monks (Clan Pestilens)
- Plague Censer Bearers (Clan Pestilens)
- Rat Ogres (Clan Moulder)
- Warplock Jezzails (Clan Skryre)
- Poisoned Wind Globadiers (Clan Skryre)
- Rare Units
- Warp-Lightning Cannon (Clan Skryre)
- Doomwheel (Clan Skryre)
- Plagueclaw Catapult (Clan Pestilens)
- Hell Pit Abomination (Clan Moulder)
- Special Characters
- Grey Seer Thanquol & Boneripper
- Throt the Unclean
- Warlord Queek Head-Taker
- Deathmaster Snikch
- Ikit Claw
- Tretch Craventail
- Skweel Gnawtooth
- Lord Skrolk
Most of the available choices reflect the four clans mentioned above, and some of the Special Characters are mentioned at length in the Army book as major powers in the Skaven world. These clan designations do not affect the playing of the army, though players are free to 'theme' an army around a particular clan, and alternate lists for each major clan exist, emphasizing 'their' troops.