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Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Fyreslayers

2022-05-02T05:42:35Z

2603:7080:9346:2600:492D:98D4:EB5E:A55A: Added 'Axe' to the motto, between 'Half-naked' and 'Dorfs'.

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction= Fyreslayers |Logo=Red Slayers.png|Alliance=Order|Motto=Half-Naked Axe Dorfs.}}

Want an army that is visibly different from your standard issue Dorfs and still much closer to their Old Norse origins? Well, these might be the army for you, mixing the best elements of forge-crazy, greedy and insane berserker-rage.

==Why play Fyreslayers?==

'''Pros'''
*Half-naked dwarfs.
*New battletome mean a new piece of terrain and 3 <s>endless spells</s> magmic invocations.
*Many charismatic heroes to use.
*Even being half-naked dwarfs, this is one of the tankiest armies in the game.
*Have many abilities to improve save.
*Your Bravery Scores is pretty decent for a non death/chaos army.
*Prayers, so no denying from your opponent.
*Hearthguard Berzerkers.
*Half-naked red dwarfs.
*Half-naked dwarfs whose leaders ride dragons.

'''Cons'''
*Expensive army.
*Half-naked red dwarfs are cool, but you might be tired of it after painting the same colors for 60-80 models.
*We have a lot of heroes, but only 3 units, which mean it can be complicated to use different strategies.
*No magic (but we have tools to defend ourselves against it).
*Heroes dependent army, be careful with heavy shooting/magic list that will try to snipe them.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Fyreslayers (2019)|points=[https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/e136e392.pdf Fyreslayers Errata]}}

Bael-Grimnir and Vostarg Warband Battalion’s are in the White Dwarf June 2019 Issue under Celestial Tome.

==Allegiance Abilities==

===Ur-Gold Runes===
At the beginning of your hero phase, you choose one of these bonuses and roll a D6. On a 1-5, you get the ''Basic'' version, on a 6 you also get the ''Enhanced'' version. Each can only be used once per battle and lasts until the start of your next hero phase.

However, the new Battletome teases that your heroes can also gain a new Heroic Action called '''Blaze of Glory''' which they can use to automatically enhance their runes for the round.

#'''Rune of Fury:''' ''Basic'': Add 1 to hit rolls for melee weapons. ''Enhanced'': Add 1 to the Attack characteristics of your Fyreslayers melee weapons. Pretty useful when locked in combat, although the Rune of Awakened Steel is probably better. However, if you have already used it, or if you are locked in combat against armies that ignore rend, this rune is the way to go.
#'''Rune of Searing Heat:''' ''Basic'': If you roll an unmodified 6 to wound, your weapons deal a mortal wound. ''Enhanced'': Roll a dice for each unit within 3" of a friendly Fyreslayers unit, on a 2+ that unit suffers 1 mortal wound. Not as good as neither the Rune of Fury nor the Rune of Awakened Steel. However, if you have already spent those two runes, this one can do the trick if you are still locked in combat. The enhanced effect it useful if you have a lot of units, but do not capitalize on its effect, as it is not that likely to happen.
#'''Rune of Awakened Steel:''' ''Basic'': Increase the Rend of your Fyreslayers units '''Melee''' weapons by -1. ''Enhanced'': Increase it by another -1. The best rune, use it the turn where you have the most units in combat.
#'''Rune of Fiery Determination:''' ''Basic'': Your units all gain 6++ Wards. ''Enhanced'': All your Fyreslayers Heroes gain a 5++ Ward, a pretty sizeable buff to their protection compared to their old version.
#'''Rune of Relentless Zeal:''' ''Basic'': Add 2 to the Movement of your Fyreslayer units. ''Enhanced'': Add 2 to their charge rolls too. AkA your first turn rune. Weaker than before, but still useful enough to give your Fyreslayers an oh-so-needed burst of movement.
#'''Rune of Farsight:''' ''Basic'': Add 1 to hit rolls for Throwing Axes. ''Enhanced'': Add 1 to wound rolls for Throwing Axes too. Taking into account how painfully terrible Throwing Axes are, this rune will not do much to solve it. Easily the worst rune out of the 6. If you get the enhanced version you may be able to deal some damage, but do not rely on it.

===Fierce Counter-Attack===
Fyreslayer command ability. At the start of the enemy hero phase pick one unit of Auric Hearthguard, Hearthguard Berzerkers or Vulkite Berzerkers within 3" of an enemy unit that made a charge move that turn and not within 3" of a unit that have not made a charge move that turn. The Strike-First effect applies to that unit. A unit cannot recieve this command more than once per battle. Basically the old Hermdar rule but now is usable regardless of Lodge chosen. Shame its only useable once per unit, but can be the bane of enemy chargers.

===Grimwrath Oaths===
The old Grimwrath oaths, moved from a unit ability to a battle trait apparantly.

For each Grimwrath Berzerker in your army you pick one oath that applies to that unit until the end of the battle. You cannot have duplicate oaths. The oaths are as follows:
*If the Grimwrath Berzerker targets a Priest that does not have the Fyreslayer keyword, add 1 to hit rolls and wounds rolls made by this unit, additionally add 1 to the damage characterist of attacks that target that unit as well.
*Instead of picking 1 friendly Auric Hearthguard or Hearth Berzerkers unit on the battlefield to be the rentinue of a Auric Runefather or Auric Runeson, you can pick this Grimwrath Berzerker instead.
*Run and still charge later in the turn. Also reroll run rolls and charge rolls.
*Add 1 to hit and wound rolls for attacks made by this unit if it is within 12" of any friendly allied units.
*Grimwrath Berzerker has a ward of 6+. If within 3" of enemy unit its ward improves to 5+.
*Unmodified hit rolls of 6 for this unit cause 1 mortal wound in addition to any other damage.

===Blaze of Fury===
Heroic Action. At the start of your hero phase you can carry out this heroic action with a friendly Fyreslayer Hero instead of the usual ones. Pick one Fyreslayer Hero, until the end of your turn, the enhanced effect of ur-gold rune that is activated this hero phase applies to this Hero regardless of the activation roll. You cannot carry out this heroic action with the same hero more than once per battle. Must choose a different hero each turn.

==Command Traits==

2 tables, one for Father and Son, one for Master and Smiter. You can't pick any of these if you choose a Lodge since they already include a command trait for your general.

*'''Inheritance of Grimnir:''' RUNEFATHERS and RUNESONS only.

#'''Fury of the Fyreslayers:''' Friendly Fyreslayer units wholly within 18 add 1 to charge rolls. Useful for making your army get into combat more easily.
#'''Spirit of Grimnir:''' If the general is on the battlefield, the enhanced effect occurs on a roll of 5+ instead of a 6. Most likely the best one, you have a much better chance of getting the bonus effect and it is more likely to occur more than once per game.
#'''Blood of the Berserker:''' Once per battle, in the combat phase, the general can pile in and attack a second time immediately after attacking. Good on a buffed up Auric Runefather on Magmadroth, but the "once per battle" part limits it slightly.
#'''Leader of the Duardrazhal:''' While your general is on the battlefield Duardin allied units are treated as if they have the Fyreslayers keyword when applying Ur-gold Runes effects. Essentially what you take if your going heavy allies.

*'''Magmic Empowerments:''' FYRESLAYERS PRIEST only.
#'''Ash-Beard:''' The General knows 2 prayers from the table instead of 1. Useful for giving your Priests more options, and even better since the FAQ as Priests can cast multiple prayers per turn.
#'''Avatar of Vulcatrix:''' If your general is slain and you do not have a Molten Infernoth on the battlefield you can add a Molten Infernoth within 6" of where the general was slain and immediately apply its Burning Tide ability. If there is already a Molten Inferntoh on the table remove the general and apply the Burning Tide ability from the generals position after removing him. Can be interesting, but dependent of you having that incantation. Also dependent if you feel one is worth losing your general over.
#'''Master Priest:''' Once per battle, if the general is on the battlefield, you can activate an Ur Gold rune that has already been used. Difficult to evaluate: in certain situations, this Command Trait could singlehandedly win you the match (activating the Rune of Awakened Steel twice per game is extremely good, let alone getting the enhanced effect at least once), but other times, it might not be that relevant. Still, worth considering.

==Fyreslayer Artefacts:==

*'''Heirlooms of the Lodge'''. RUNEFATHER and RUNESON only.
#'''Magnetized Runes:''' Add 2 to charge rolls for the bearer. Good for ensuring that your Heroes get in the thick of combat, but there probably are more efficient ones.
#'''Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve:''' Once per battle the general counts as having a 3+ ward save for an entire phase. Shame it doesn't last until the end of the turn but can be a lifesaver in a large brawl if your general is outnumbered.
#'''The Fiery Ring:''' Once per battle in your shooting phase you can pick one enemy within 6" and on a 2+ that unit suffers d6 mortal wounds.
#'''Axe of Grimnir:''' One of the bearers melee weapons get to add one to their rend and damage characteristic. Effective and easy to remember, an all around good artefact.

*'''Artefacts of the Forge-Temple'''. PRIEST only.
#'''Salamander Cloak:''' Negate a wound or mortal wound on a 5+. Make your support heroes harder to kill, thus increasing the bonuses that they will provide throughout the match. Great on a Runesmiter on Magmadroth.
#'''Ash-cloud Rune:''' Once per battle at the start of enemy hero phase units wholly within 12" of the bearer are not visible to enemy units attempting to cast a spell.
#'''Volatile Braizer:''' You can reroll attempts to summon an invocation. Also the range of the prayer is doubled.
#'''Droth-helm:''' Add 1 to hit rolls for the claws and horns attack for friendly Magmadroths wholly within 12 inches of the bearer. Good for an Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth in a Magmadroth-centered list.

*'''Relics of the Fyrd'''. Fyreslayers Hero only.
#'''Draught of Magmalt Ale:''' Once per battle the bearer can double the attacks characteristics of their melee weapons.
#'''Nulsidian Icon:''' Battlesmith Only. Each time a friendly Fyreslayer unit wholly with 12" of your Battlesmith is affected by a spell or endless spell on a 4+ ignore the effect of that spell or endless spell.
#'''The Daemon Slayer:''' Pick one of the Bearers melee weapons. Ward rolls cannot be made for wounds or mortal wounds caused by attacks from that weapon.

===Mount Traits===
MAGMADROTHS only. Only one of your magmadroths can take one of these. Plus additional ones can be taken with appropriate battalion.
#'''Flame-scale Youngblood:''' If you carry out the Stomp monstrous Rampage with this unit, add 3 additional mortal wounds to the roll result. max d3+3 mortal wounds is not bad at all really.
#'''Lava-tongue Adult:''' When determining the attacks characteristic of this units Roaring Fyresteam, an attacks characteristic of less than 5 is treated as 5.
#'''Coal-heart Ancient:''' Worsen the damage characteristic of melee weapons that target this unit (to a minimum of 1).

==Prayers==
Each PRIEST in a Fyreslayer list can pick one of those. Each prayer can only be chanted once per turn.
#'''Wrath of Vulcatrix:''' 3+ to be answered, pick a friendly Magmadroth unit with range, until the start of you r next hero phase use the top row on that units damage table. Can work wonders on a beefed up Runelord on Magmadroth to help blend up whatevers within range.
#'''Prayer of Ash:''' 4+ to be answered, a friendly unit wholly within 18" of the priest gets -1 to wounds for rolls for attacks that target that unit.
#'''Ember Storm:''' 3+ to be answered, a friendly unit of Vulkite Berzerkers or Hearthguard Berzerkers wholly within 18" of this priest can run and charge. More mobility is always good, but once again, there are better options. If you have multiple Priests and an infantry-centered list, pick it. If not, picking Prayer of Ash first would probably be a good idea.
#'''Prayer of Grimnir's Fury:''' 3+ to be answered, a friendly hero not mounted on a magmadroth within 12" of this priest and 3" of an enemy unit can pile in and attack with all its melee weapons. Weirdly this does not specify Fyreslayer hero despite the magmadroth stipulation. Have fun with allies (Gotrek, a Celestant-Prime, etc) or your Grimwrath Berzerker.

===Magmic Invocations===
Just like Khorne's legions, these take the place of faction-specific Endless Spells, cast by Fyreslayer Priests instead of wizards. Also like the Endless Judgments of Khorne, these have a random chance of vanishing <s>each turn</s> at the end of each Round.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Magmic_Invocation_Zharrgron_Flame_Spitter_EN.pdf Zharrgon Flame-Spitter] (3+):''' You summon a setpiece that acts as anti-horde artillery. During the Shooting Phase, one Priest within 6" can fire at a unit 24" away and roll 12d6, dealing Mortal Wounds on 6's. The reason this is anti-horde? If the unit carries over 10 models, the rolls all get +1, while a unit with over 20 models adds +2 to the rolls. If the controlling player rolls 4 or more unmodified 6's with the 12 dice after the mortal wounds have been allocated this invocation is removed from play. Since it says unmodified, it seems to encourage you to attack larger hordes. As you can spike more 4+ rolls before it gets removed. And as bad as 4 or more sounds statisically ou will probably only roll 2-3 6's on 12 dice, so its actually safer than it sounds.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Magmic_Invocation_Runic_Fyrewall_EN.pdf Runic Fyrewall] (3+):''' You get a small piece of cover that models cannot move across or through unless they have the Magmadroth keyword or can fly. In additon at the start of each phase the commanding player can pick 1 Fyreslayer unit wholly within 12" of this invocation to draw on its power. You roll a dice, on a 1-5 this unit gains a 6+ ward until the end of the phase. On a roll of 6 that unit gets 4+ ward until end of phase and this invocation is removed from play.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Magmic_Invocation_Molten_Infernoth_EN.pdf Molten Infernoth] (4+):''' You can bring another monster to your side. It has a rather meh movement of 2d6", but it rolls 12d6 for ''every'' unit within 3" after it moves, scoring mortal wounds on a 6. If the movement roll for this invocation is a double, it will cause d3 mortal wounds for each 6 that is rolled instead of 1. However at the end of the phase this invocation is removed from play. This unit has no effect on Fyreslayers units.

==Lodges==

Four lodges and greatly reduced in what they bring from previous addtions. Like similiar battletomes it grants you an ability and some open up battleline options. Have to pick one before game begins so here are your options.

'''Vostarg'''
*'''Fearsome Surge''': Add 1 to hit rolls and wound rolls for attacks made with melee weapons by friendly Vostarg Vulkite Berzerkers that made a charge move.
*''Additional Battleline'': none

'''Greyfyrd'''
*'''Spoils of Victory''': Add 1 to the wounds characterist of Greyfyrd Heroes that do not have a mount. In addition 2 additional artifacts can be given to 2 Greyfyrd Heroes that do not have a mount. So essentially you get free extra artafacts and your unmounted heroes are tankier.
*''Additional Battleline'': none

'''Hermdar'''
*'''Seize by Force''': If a friendly Hermdar unit wholly in enemy territory or wholly within 12" of an objective than half the number of models that flee in battleshock.
*''Additional Battleline'': Auric Hearthguard are unlocked as battleline

'''Lofnir'''
*'''Venerators of Vulcatrix''': Add 2 to the wounds characteristic of friendly Lofnir Magmadroth units. Also, up to 3 Lofnir Magmadroth units can be given mount traits (must be different traits from eachother) instead of just one.
*''Additional Battleline'': Auric Runeson on Magmadroth are unlocked as battleline

==Warscrolls==

===Leaders===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runefather_on_Magmadroth_EN.pdf Auric Runefather on Magmadroth]:''' (270 pts) This count also as '''Behemoth'''.The big lizard with the big boss on top. The Runefather himself is already a beast in combat with his damage 3-axe that can break enemy weapons in order to '''permanently''' lower their Hit rolls and on top of that you get the Magmadroth. After the new Battletome, the fiery lizards have had a HUGE improvement: 14 Wounds (2 more than before) at a 4+ save, high movement, a strong melee profile (even stronger than before, thanks to an all-new Blazing Maw attack and an improved Latchkey Grandaxe attack), and an outrageous amount of Mortal Wounds. It can breathe fire which causes mortal wounds, swipe with its tail which causes mortal wounds and it can bleed fire on enemies (the Volcanic Blood ability has also seen a huge improvement) which, you guessed it, causes mortal wounds. Bear in mind that your enemy will try to take it down, fast. His Command Ability is don't take Battleshock tests wholly within 18". Overall, a strong general that can do a little bit of everything, and that is a beast of combat against both hordes and heroes.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runesmiter_Magmadroth_EN.pdf Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth]:''' '''Priest'''. (250 pts) This count also as '''Behemoth'''. The Runesmiter on foot is a support hero, and his counterpart in Magmadroth is one as well. If you use them together, the Magmadroth becomes a sort of walking altar from which the Runesmiter can cast his blessings. His default one (take into account that, thanks to the new Battletome, you have a brand new list of prayers to choose from) lets a friendly Fyreslayer unit wholly within 12'' of this model (18'' if you chose the Forge Key instead of his other weapon) re-roll To Wound rolls at a 3+, and once per game, he can give friendly Fyreslayers units wholly within 12'' of himself +1 to their save rolls until the start of your next hero phase.
**Putting an Auric Runesmiter in a Magmadroth used to be a waste of points, as they lost their Magmic Tunneling ability and they were not good enough to put solely into melee (remember, support hero); However, thanks to the tremendous improvements that Magmadroths have had, combined with a new set of prayers to choose from, the Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth is now a perfectly viable option for most armies, specially at high-points matches: it is more durable than before, it hits harder, and it can give both offensive and defensive bonuses to your troops. Losing the Magmic Tunnelling ability might be a tough blow, but you also gain a LOT of things in return.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runeson_Magmadroth_EN.pdf Auric Runeson on Magmadroth]:''' (230 pts) This count also as '''Behemoth'''. An alternative stat-line for a Magmadroth rider. His Ancestral War-axe pales in comparison to the Runefather's weapon. However, his Wyrmslayer Javelin offers a stronger matchup against monsters, both in range and in melee, in contrast with his mount which is better geared towards hordes. His Command Ability allows a charging Magmadroth to do 1d6 mortal on a 2+ wounds to one unit after the charge has been completed. Also, their old ability to focus their rage on an enemy unit has been replaced by a new one which allows them to re-roll failed hit rolls if there are any other Auric Runesons without 6” of this model.
** There are several ways of evaluating this unit: on the one hand, one of his abilities requires you to include more Auric Runesons in your army, as well as having them pretty close from one another (which forces you to either have them both on foot, or on a Magmadroth). This might mess with your army composition, and you may miss on other units or battalions. It is also slightly weaker than the Auric Runefather at melee (albeit stronger at range), which makes you wonder why would you want to send a ranged, high-priority unit charging towards enemy forces.
** On the other had, it is a 240 points, 14 wounds, 4+ save, 12” movement unit that damages enemies in melee when they are hurt and can deal an insane amount of mortal Wounds. Their profile (or should we say, the Magmadroth's profile) is comparable to a Bloodthirster's, if not outright superior. In high-point matches, pick the Lofnir lodge, 3 Auric Runesons on Magmadroth, put them all nice and close, and send them charging against the enemy. Enjoy the bloodbath.

*'''Auric Flamekeeper:''' The new Fyreslayers hero for Fury of the Deep is a more support-minded hero, though he carries a hefty axe with 3+/3+/-1/2. His special ability is a counter that grows for each slain Fyreslayer within 12", and once your counter reaches 6 you can grant a temporary buff for a unit of Auric Hearthguard, Hearthguard Berzerkers, or Vulkite Berzerkers: a 6++, the ability for a model to fight before dying, an instant charge, or a +1 boost to the damage of all weapons.
** While making use of the fallen is something to consider, especially for an army as limited in movement and defense as yours, but the issue with this is the very limited pool of units you can throw those buffs on for the combat phase.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runefather_EN.pdf Auric Runefather]:''' (100 pts) Aside from not having a Magmadroth, the Auric Runefather exchanges his utility-minded Command Ability for a more offensive one that allows friendly Fyreslayer units wholly within 12” to add 1 to their charge rolls until the end of the charge phase. He is far from good at ranged combat, as Fyresteel Throwing Axes are way worse than before the new Battletome, but his melee profile is tremendous (3”, 3 attacks, 3+, 3+, -1 rend, 3 damage. Wow) and he can break enemy Heroes' weapons '''permanently''' at the end of the combat phase. Overall the Auric Runefather is a pretty good melee unit, and specially proficient at dealing with enemy heroes, but his lack of any kind of proper ranged attack, combined with his limited mobility might make it difficult to get the best of him. Still, a good Hero for 100 points.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runesmiter_EN.pdf Auric Runesmiter]:''' '''Priest'''. (120 pts) This guy is probably better on foot, as he has a really mean special rule that basically allows him and another Fyreslayer unit to deep strike at least 9" away from the enemy, which is unfortunately slightly too far to use your Fyresteel Throwing Axes that turn. All he sacrifices for this awesome trick is the whole "once per game he can give friendly Fyreslayer units wholly within 12” +1 to their save rolls" thing (as well as the FREAKING Magmadroth). Other than that, it is the same model: you still have access to Prayers, and you have to choose between a Runic Iron (another melee profile) or a Forge Key (his Runic Empowerment ability now activates at 18”). The Auric Runesmiter is not a strong melee combatant, but it does not matter: you want him behind your troops, either teleporting them, buffing them, or summoning Magmic Invocations.
**If you think Fyreslayers are too weak and limited because they don't have any Wizards, artillery, long-range shooters and whatnot, just take a Auric Runesmiter and twenty Auric Hearthguard. The first turn, emerge from a tunnel 18" to that unit you think is unfair, then shoot 40 blasts of lava at it, and watch how it melts. Now, which is the unfair army? Remember to position well both the Guard and the Runesmiter: if your opponent can't kill all of the Guard in his turn, then in yours you can give them re-roll to Wound with the Runesmiter (or any other prayer of your choosing), and watch them maim something again! Vulkite Berzerkers also work well with the Auric Runesmiter, because with their musician they add 1 to charge rolls, which is still good. Riskier than just using Auric Hearthguard, yes, but they are cheaper and much less squishy in great numbers.
** invocations now also lets your Auric Runemaster drop a lava dragon on the enemy likey when they are the most bunched up.
** Another bit of fun: the Magmic tunnelling ability just says Fyreslayers, so if you want, you can deepstrike a Magmadroth. while it might not be the best option, it can certainly be fun and act as a distraction carnifex. plus, the look on your opponent's face when a magmadroth shows up on their side of the board is hilarious.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runeson_EN.pdf Auric Runeson]:''' (100 pts) As it says on the tin, it's a Runeson without the Magmadroth. This also means that you really should not give this version the Javelin, because he doesn't have the Magmadroth's melee to fall back to. May be worth taking a pair and bubblewrapping them with Hearthguard Berserkers - the Runesons will get to re-roll To Hits rolls from being within 6" of each other, the Hearthguard will get a 4+ ignore wounds which you opponent will need to remove both of your runesons to get rid of, and the Hearthguard are excellent targets for the Runeson's command ability, which has been updated to give a friendly Fyreslayers unit wholly within 12" +1 to wound. So more general choppiness for everyone in both shooting and combat.
**it is difficult to find a place for Auric Runesons on foot, as they require certain point investment in order to function properly. If you have 100 points to spare and you would like to include a Fyreslayer Hero, it probably is a better idea to include a Grimwrath Berzerker or an Auric Runefather; However, it high-point lists, a pair of Auric Runesons could function as a melee/support unit, charging into combat alongside a hard-hitting and/or durable friendly unit and buffing their attacks, just like the previous example showed.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Grimwrath_Berzerker_EN.pdf Grimwrath Berzerker]:''' (100 pts) This guy wants to be right in the middle of your opponent's army. With 6 wounds, a 4+ save, and a 6+ to ignore wounds and mortal wounds (improved to a 5+ if there are enemy units within 3” of this model), the Berzerker won't yield easily. He hits like a truck, and he can potentially pile in and attack a second time in each combat phase on a 2+. Finally, to top it all off, when he's killed, he can immediately pile in and attack again. For 100 points, you can let loose one of these maniacs across enemy lines, and watch the Berzerker cut through infantry as if they were made of butter. However, he is rather slow, so you might have to spend several turns trying to get him into combat.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Runemaster_EN.pdf Auric Runemaster]:''' '''Priest'''. (120 pts) Talk about a glow up. The Auric Runemaster went from being the laughing stock of the Fyreslayer army, to a viable option worth considering in a myriad of lists. First of all, his ability that gave a benefit yo your opponent has been reworked. Now, during your hero phase, the Runemaster has a chance to find Ur-Gold on any nearby enemy unit, granting a re-roll of 1s to Wound rolls against the unit for the rest of the battle, and also a re-roll of 1s to Hit rolls if you are lucky. It is quite feasible to get at least one re-roll per match (and this ability no longer benefits your opponent). Secondly, he can learn one prayer from the brand new list of blessings, and he still conserves his old terrain-related ability, which hurts people hugging it, and turns it into Deadly scenery for a turn (although the range has been reduced from 20” to 18”, and it only happens on a 3+). it is quite useful given GW is encouraging people to stand around their pieces. Finally, he also has one brand new melee weapon profile which, even though it is not something to brag about, it certainly is way better that before (2 melee weapon profiles are better than 1), making it more viable at melee combat, should the need arise.
** Due to the fact that the Auric Runemaster is tougher (more wound and better save) than an Auric Runesmiter, he could be considered as the backline Priest of the army: the Runemaster is meant to be relatively close to both your units and the enemy troops in order to make use of his Ur-Gold ability, as well as to jump to combat if required (his melee profile is slightly better than the Auric Runesmiter's).
** If the Runemaster is your general, you get Battleline Auric Hearthguard, which combined with the Auric Runesmiter, can bring nasty ranged surprise to your opponents.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Battlesmith_EN.pdf Battlesmith]:''' '''Totem'''. (140 pts) Must have in any list. In terms of killyness, the Battlesmith is not your best unit (although he can still pack some punch in melee combat), but that's okay because he's a support Hero and support he does. Now he gives to all units wholly within 12" +1 save, which is awesome. With the inherent save-after-the-save that some of your units get, you'll actually be one of the best-protected armies of the game! Other Standard Bearers have to be immobile for their ability to work, but the Battlesmith only makes you unable to retreat, a very minor drawback. When he dies, all Fyreslayers wholly within 12" can decide not to move away and protect his banner, meaning they have to stand still but get to reroll all To Hit and To Wound rolls for melee attacks.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Doomseeker_EN.pdf Doomseeker]:''' (100 pts) Basically, he's an alternative to Grimwrath Berzerkers, and at a glance, it seems that the Doomseeker is the inferior of the two: they have the same saves, but the Doomseeker has one less wound, one less bravery, Rend -1 instead of Rend -2, and lack of any form of FNP... Ouch. His gimmick is that he gets stronger the more he gets damaged, and he has two more total attacks, which makes him quite effective at killing weak foes. His Battle Fury, Oathbound, never fails, but only works on one enemy. Overall, way less tankier that the Berzerker, but when wounded, his damage potential is higher. With the new Grand Fyrd, pick up him and a Grimwrath Berzerker, and just go to town. If he's not in melee killing things and getting wounded, he's worthless. So, what's the verdict? if you only have space for one of them in your army, pick the Berzerker. If you can take two, toss him in.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Fjul-Grimnir_EN.pdf Fjul-Grimnir]:''' (200 pts) The leader of the Chosen Axes from Shadespire. Required to be taken together and thus should be considered together. On his own, he's basically a Runefather with no throwing axes (same weapon, same abilities). Unlike the Runefather, if he's within 3 of his Chosen Axes, he has 5+ FNP save. Unfortunately, his Chosen Axes are ludicrously easy to delete and will thus almost never be worth the points to take them and Fjul over just a normal Runefather and some more Vulkite's. Pass.

*'''Bael-Grimnir on Flamespitter:''' (300 Pts) This count also as '''Behemoth'''. New named character from the June 2019 issue of [[White Dwarf]], which uses the Auric Runefather on Magmadroth model. Must be '''VOSTARG''' Lodge. Statwise the only difference between this and the vanilla Runefather is an additional melee attack with the Grandaxe, but going on he can break enemy weapons on a 5+ rather than on a 6, can negate wounds (mortal or not) on a 6 roll and the Magmadroth's Fyrestream gets a +6" range if it didn't move that turn. His command ability takes a friendly '''VOSTARG HERO''' within 12" and makes it istantly pileup and attack on a 4+ roll (can't be used twice on the same Hero in the same turn)

===Troops===
All the troops, independently from their equipment can take throwing axes. Which you should always do since it gives you additional attacks at range without paying more for the unit!!!

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Vulkite_Berzerker_EN.pdf Vulkite Berzerkers]:''' (160 pts, Battleline, min 10) Your standard ''Battleline'' unit. After their update they now have got two wounds and now have an ability that allows them to, once per battle, pile in and attack after being slain in the combat phase. this is ''huge''. if you're gonna be charged by a really powerful enemy unit, crack this to still get the full attacks of your Berzerkers. In addition, you can charge a powerful unit, fight, and ''then the models your enemies kill can fight again.'' This has to be activated at the beginning of the combat phase so don't forget it. In addition they hit on 3's for all their weapons (except their Fyresteel Throwing Axes, lol). Would be especially nice when combined with Runeson on Magmadroth's command ability to roll 3 dice and pick the best two. They come with several different load outs for the whole unit:
**Bladed Slingshield and Handaxe or War-pick: the axes and picks are pretty similar, with the axes wounding better and the picks having Rend -1. The shields, on the other hand, grant you better saves and can cause mortal wounds on a charge, which is unreliable but has potential. Stats wise handaxes are better against 5+ and equal against 4+, but don't forget we have a prayer that give rerolls to wounds rolls, which makes the War-picks far superior, so good choice in a big buffed unit.
**Two Handaxes: Unlike most units with these options, Vulkite Berzerkers with two weapons get two melee attacks but also gain another attack on the charge, making them a very dangerous unit but also a very exposed one with only their 5+ saves protecting them.
**Overall, the Vulkite Berzerkers fulfill the role that they have to. While their losses suck, you can have a Flamekeeper on hand feeding off their deaths to boost your troops. Fury of the Deep largely streamlined their rules, but their price point got bumped back up to an uncomfortable 160/170 for the shields.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Auric_Hearthguard_EN.pdf Auric Hearthguard]:''' (Battleline if a Priest is General) These are probably the best unit in the Fyreslayer list. The normal Dorfs have Irondrakes, who are almost universally acknowledged as one of the most powerful ranged units in the game. Auric Hearthguard are about as killy with their great big Magmapikes, which make them halfway decent in melee and utter murder at range, with 2 shots each at 4+/3+/-1/1, with a nat 6 to hit robbing the target of 1" of movement. Keep in mind now that most ranged units lose efficacy if they move or enemies are too close. Auric Hearthguard don't. They can charge right in and finish the job if their shots only almost killed something.
**Fury of the Deep has done...things to these guys. Gone is their bodyguards rule and their special ammo now works on everything in exchange for now only triggering on a 6 to hit and losing the penalty to hit. The only real benefit these guys got is that they're just as expensive as before. Their role can now fully be dedicated to shooting.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Hearthguard_Berzerkers_EN.pdf Hearthguard Berzerkers]:''' (135 pts, Battleline if an Auric Runefather is general, min 5) Hearthguard have a nifty ability to gain a 4++ when they are within 12" of a Fyreslayer hero, making these the elite bodyguards. In addition, Hearthguard come with two wounds and two attacks base on all their weapons along with 2" reach. Their Berzerker Broadaxe has better Rend and damage than the Flamestrike Poleaxe, but the Poleaxe has the potential to deal 2 Mortal Wounds on top of normal damage on 6's to hit. Poleaxes are better against 2+/3+ saves and marginally worse against 4+, where Broadaxes start overtaking them. Overall, a very powerful unit that surpasses Vulktite Berzerkers, while maybe lacking some of the reliability of Vulkites thanks to their better armour save in combat and ability to attack after perishing. The Hearthguard Berzerkers are there to smash through any enemy lines and tank enemy attacks with their extra save after the save. Always remember to keep a hero nearby at all times as they lose a lot of their survivability without it.
** Don't forget we have easy way to give 3+ save (Battlesmith + prayer), and even 2+ with the Runesmiter. Now take a unit of 10; with a 3+ (or 2+ for 1 turn) save and a 4+ FnP, they will not die easily, and they will hit like a truck in return: 2 attacks each 3+/3+/-1/2, with a range of 2", they can fight on 2 ranks... this is borderline nasty (without even including our runes, you know like rerolls hit roles of 1 or add -1 to Rend...). And you can even give them rerolls all failed wounds rolls, and making them attack twice in the combat phase with a Battalion (if anything survives the first wave to begin with). Vulkite and Auric are good, but Hearthguard Berzerkers are really, really, good. And oh, we can make them battlelines with a Runefather as general.
**Fury of the Deep has largely kept these guys as-is aside from a price bump. Though the box will keep them locked as general units, they can become perfect hero bunkers in all circumstances, even if you bring in a Runefather.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_The_Chosen_Axes_EN.pdf Chosen Axes]:''' The Fyreslayer Shadespire Warband. Required to be taken with Fjul-Grimnir. For 40 points you get 3 Duardin, 1 with 2 4+, 3+ Rend-, 2 Damage Attack (rerolling to hits), 1 with 2 4+, 3+, Rend - 1 damage attack (also rerolling to hits) and 1 with 2, 4+, 3+, Rend -1, 1 Damage attacks. They also never take battleshock and get +1 to wound when within 3 of Fjul-Grimnir. Unfortunately, they only have a 5+ save and a 6+ FNP, and for only 3 wounds, that's not a lot. Given that they cost the same as 1/3rd of a unit of Vulkite Berzerkers, it's hard to justify taking them, and thus hard to justify Fjul-Grimnir.
**At the very least, they make good kitbashing material, and if you can get your hands on a second set, you got yourself a new unit of Hearthguard Berzerkers.

===Terrain===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Fyreslayers_WSCards_Magmic_Battleforge_EN.pdf Magmic Battleforge]:''' As is the case with AoS, each army must now have a free piece of terrain with benefits exclusive to their faction, so what do the naked berserker-dorfs get? For starters, a Priest within 6" of it can invoke its powers and either let any Fyreslayers Priest within 18" add +1 to their prayers or spend the forge's power to let all Fyreslayers on the field get a 6+ ward until the next hero phase once per battle. If you do this you can no longer use it to get +1 to their chanting rolls making this thing essentially useless for the rest of the game beyond battle tactics shenanigans, etc.

==Battalions==
Due to how Battalions are now universal, expect see the whole lot of this on the trash bin outside of narrative games. Bonus rules, traits and doodads are going to be likely added to the faction rules as default.

===Hajkarl's Sons of Fortune (Start Collecting)===
'''''An Auric Runefather on Magmadroth, an Auric Runesmiter, an Auric Runeson and a unit of Vulkite Berzerkers.'''''

Once per Battle, Move the units of the battalion 4" closer to a selected enemy during the hero phase. Only units starting more than 3" away from the target can move. All units must end their move closer to the target.

===Lords of the Lodge===
''Found in the Fyreslayers Battletome
Min cost: 620 pts (Battalion: 140 pts)
'''''An Auric Runefather or an Auric Runefather on Magmadroth, an Auric Runemaster, a Battlesmith and a unit of Hearthguard Berzerkers.'''''

The Hearthguard Berzerkers in the Battalion can pile in and attack twice in each combat phase as long as they're wholly within 12" of any Hero from the Battalion. Absolute murder, this is the best Warscroll battalion we have. Hearthguard berzerkers are our best unit as it is, and letting them fight twice is just ungodly, especially if you're taking a large unit. the bonus command point and artifact are just icing on the cake.
*Use this with the Hermdar Lodge, and you have a HGB unit that can fight first with the command ability (even during your opponent turn), and if it is your turn you can then fight again as it is your turn to choose a unit and your HGB can fight twice.
*Not as OP with the drop of the HGB max size unit from 30 to 20, but still really good.
*Alternative opinion: the max size reduction was actually a buff, letting you take more manageable units of raging naked men.

===Warrior Kinband===
''Found in the Fyreslayers Battletome.
Min cost: 660 pts (Battalion: 140 pts)
'''''An Auric Runeson or an Auric Runeson on Magmadroth and 3 units of Vulkite Berzerkers.'''''

The Vulkite Berzerkers in this Battalion use their Berserk Fury a second time if they are wholly within 12" of this Battalion's Auric Runeson when they do so.

===Forge Brethren===
''Found in the Fyreslayers Battletome.
Min cost: 640 pts (Battalion: 160 pts)
'''''An Auric Runesmiter or an Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth and 3 units of Auric Hearthguard.'''''

At the start of the enemy hero phase, you can pick 1 friendly unit wholly within 18" of any units of AURIC HEARTHGUARD from this battalion. If you do so, add 1 to save rolls for attacks that target that unit until the start of your next hero phase.

Much more powerful than you would think. Working in the ennemy hero phase mean that even if your opponent have the first turn, you already have this buff active. If your opponent have a double turn, you can active this TWICE, making a single unit extremely hard to kill or two units more resilient. There isn't a lot of abilities working like this, make it count !

===Grand Fyrd===
''Found in the Fyreslayers Battletome.
Min cost: 2640 pts (Battalion: 60 pts)
'''''A Lords of the Lodge battalion, 2 Warrior Kinband battalions, and a Forge Brethren battalion. Doomseeker and Grimwrath optional'''''

When you roll to activate an Ur-Gold rune, it has the enhanced effect on a 5+, not just a six.

===Arngard's Berzerker Fyrd===
'''''A Grimwrath Berzerker, a Battlesmith, and 3 units of Vulkite Berzerkers.''''' From ''The Realmgate Wars - Balance of Power'', narrative or open play only.

===Lords of Vostarg===
''Found in the June 2019 issue of White Dwarf.
Min cost:680
'''''Bael-Grimnir on Flamespitter, 1 VOSTARG Auric Runemaster, 1 VOSTARG Battlesmith and a unit of VOSTARG Hearthguard Berzerkers.'''''

Once per battle round, a '''HERO''' from this battalion can use a command ability for free.

===Vostarg Warrior Kinband===
''Found in the June 2019 issue of White Dwarf.
Min cost:580
'''''A VOSTARG Auric Runeson and 3 units of Vulkite Berzerkers.'''''

All the Vulkite Berzerkers from the battalion get an extra attack when WHOLLY within 12" from the Runeson.

===Vostarg Forge Brethren===
''Found in the June 2019 issue of White Dwarf.
Min cost:480
'''''An Auric Runesmiter (Dhurgan) and 3 units of Auric Hearthguard.'''''

If there is at least a unit of Auric Hearthguards within 12" from Dhurgan when he uses the Magmic Prayer of Runic Empowerment, the ability goes on a 2+.

===The Grand Fyrd of Furios Peak===
''Found in the June 2019 issue of White Dwarf.
Min cost: 2420 Max cost: 2520
'''''A Lords of Vostarg Battalion, 2 Vostarg Warrior Kinband Battalions, a Vostarg Forge Brethren Batallion, a Grimwrath Berzerker (Arngard) and 0-1 Doomseekers.'''''

Every unit gets +1 to hit rolls in melee, and can also reroll every 1 to hit in melee when against '''CHAOS''' units.

==Army Building==

===First things to buy===
One or two start collecting and at least four boxes of HGB to have the unit of 20 HGB, a runesmiter on foot and one on a magmadroth, and a runefather on a foot and one on a magmadroth.

Of course the forge is really important (obviously because it's free so no reason to not take it), and the magmic invocations are good but not a most have to begin with.

For heroes you need a battlesmith, the grimwrath berserker is also a good unit but again not a must have, same for the doomseeker.

The Runemaster is not really good by himself but you need it for the Lord of the Lodge batallion so good to have one.

==Tactics==

===General tips on using half-naked raging dorfs===
*Because they only wear a loincloth, some people think Fireslayers are kamikaze glass cannons, like the Slayers of old. That's not the case at all: in fact they wear armor, only it's in the shape of flesh-embedded runes of divine gold. The "core" units, Hearthguard Berzerkers <s>and Vulkite Berzerkers</s>, have innate saves-after-the-save, that also work against mortal wounds. With some Battlesmiths to improve your saves, most of your army should have a 4+ Save, and then the save-after-the-save. This means Fireslayers can be, in fact, arguably the best all-around protected army of the game: against things without Rend you have a combined protection equivalent to a 3+ or even 2+ Save, things with Rend are less effective against you than if you had a normal Save (a save-after-the-save actually becomes BETTER if your normal Save is diminished by Rend, minimizing its impact), and you also have protection against Mortal Wounds. All of this mitigates Fireslayer's works weaknesses (slowness, lack of magic and long-ranged units) and makes much more bearable those first turns of receiving shot after shot until you reach the enemy. Kill or maim your opponent's most dangerous ranged units/war machines with the Runesmiter + Auric Hearthguard combo in the first turn, and you're set!

*Always remember every one of your Dorfs has a ranged attack, the throwing axe gimmick. It's weak and short-ranged, so it seems bad at first, but because you can shoot into combat, it makes your melee units even more awesome: the opposing unit will receive both the melee attacks of the first rank of your units and the throwing axes from EACH member of the unit!
*With the new book, the army <s>can be</s> is a top-tier Army(Hearthguard Berzerkers), but we are really hero dependent and we do not have lots of tools to counter magic (1 artefact and 1 prayer), so a heavy shooting/magic army can snipe our heroes and then wipe out our weakened troops (Hearthguard Berzerkers without the 4+ FnP for example...), be aware of that.

===Basic strategies of Fyreslayers===
HGB is our best unit, bescause it's really tanky with a hero nearby, and can do a lot of damage to anything in the game.

Use your priest to give +1 save (prayer of ash) to the unit that are going to take a lot of attacks, and place your battlesmith in a position where is banner can give +1 save to as many units as possible.
Be careful with objectives, your dawi are strong but not fast so even if you have an unstopable unit of buffed HGB that control the center this is useless if your opponent can take the rest of the table and avoid your deathstar.

And by now I hope you have noticed an important detail that comes up often, HEROES. Without them your unstopable HGB unit just become a 5+/6++ unit that is not worth the points, your LotL battalion is useless and you don't have access to prayer and magmic invocation.

Heroes are the keys to a Fyreslayer army, and your opponent knows it!

So you have to protect them, especially from shooting and magic (beware of armies like skaven, ossiarch...). Use the terrain, runic firewall, auric hearthguard or place them on magmadroth whatever but do not let them die.

==Allied Armies==
* '''Dispossessed:''' Decent armor at a slightly lower price, but no benefit from the army rules, use only for fun play.
* '''Ironweld Arsenal:''' The big guns. Helstorm Rocket Batteries and the Steam Tank are excellent picks.
* '''Kharadron Overlords:''' Steampowered guns. Offers flying ironclad ships and Thunderers with thick armor.
* '''Stormcast Eternals:''' Offers a wide variety of powerful units alongside your already powerful units including wizards and cavalry. If you are facing heavy magic armies, a Knight-Incantor is really good.
*'''Bundo Whalebiter''': A Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant mercenary available to all Order factions. Taking him uses up your entire ally points allowance and he ignores any Behemoth or Hero limitations. A big terrifying centerpiece who can kick objectives around and instantly kill models by shoving them into his net. You can choose at the start of the Combat phase for him to fight at the end of the phase, in exchange for re-rolling failed hit rolls.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Chaos Dwarfs

2022-04-25T00:07:42Z

2603:7080:9346:2600:492D:98D4:EB5E:A55A: added news about forge world's entire line of chaos dwarfs being discontinued and my subsequent rage regarding it.

[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|NO [[Hat|HAT]] SHALL BE GREATER THAN MINE!]]
{{topquote|One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep.|Boromir}}
{{topquote|I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.|James Baldwin}}
{{topquote|You can leave your hat on.|Joe Cocker}}

The ''Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr'', as they refer to themselves, or Dawi-Zharr (Dwarfs of Fire) in Khazalid, are the [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|Dwarfs]]' dark kin, who have been corrupted by the influence of [[Chaos]]. They were a [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Warhammer]] faction up until 5th edition but were always treated as some kind of stepchild and did not have a proper standalone army book. Their background, rules and army list were released in a series of articles in [[White Dwarf]], eventually collected into a quasi-army book, ''White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs''. Despite how awesome these guys are, they were ditched by GW because they weren't selling as much as vanilla Chaos, Orcs & Goblins or Elves were to newbie players. For ages they existed only as a dim fond memory to the veterans of the hobby; GW did one new model set (the Hellcannon and its attending Chaos Dwarf crew) but little else. Lo and behold, Forge World has flown to the rescue! You can buy some brilliant new Chaos Dwarf models, and there are now official rules to use: [[Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos|Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos]].

Except, not anymore. Because Forge World discontinued them. ALL of them. Including Shar'tor the Executioner, who was tailored into Age of Sigmar as one of Forge World's first original forays into that setting. Because fuck you.

==History==

At the height of their empire, before the coming of Chaos, the Dwarfs spread far and wide across the Old World. Ever-diligent workers and miners, they followed the [[Worlds Edge Mountains]] north and dug their holds deep into the rock of the earth. Along the way, they reached a place they called [[Great Skull Land|Zorn-Uzkul]], the Great Skull Land, after all the ancient bones (and especially skulls) scattered throughout. While it was very rich in minerals, most decided that this place was best left alone. But a few were so stubborn - even compared to their fellow Dwarfs - that they decided to live there to prove that they could.

===An ancient schism===

These northernmost holds kept close contact with their kin in the World's Edge Mountains as the Dwarf Empire grew, and the Dwarfs enjoyed an age of prosperity not seen before or since. With the coming of Chaos, the dominion of the Dwarfs over the Old World was about to dwindle. As devastating earthquakes brought about by the careless machinations of the [[Lizardmen|Slann]] magepriests shattered the world, the Dwarfs closed themselves up in their mountain holds to weather out the storm, as has always been their way. There were those amongst the Dwarfs, lead by their fiercest warrior god Grimnir, who argued that Chaos needed to be fought, not endured. And when Chaos was eventually driven back by the actions of the Dwarfs and their [[High_Elves_(Warhammer_Fantasy)|High Elf]] allies, the Dwarfs looked at their wounded domain and thought their northern cousins lost. Surely nothing could have survived the raw Chaos energies unleashed upon the northern wastes. Tragically, they were wrong. The Dwarfs of Zorn-Uzkul suffered greatly, and in their anguish they cried out to their western kin for support and their ancestor gods for salvation, but they did not perish.

Though the Dwarfs that chose to live in the blasted wastes were hardy, even they were not immune to the corrupting influence of Chaos, and they slowly changed over time. For many long years they only barely survived as they abandoned or were abandoned by their own ancestor gods, but eventually they found favor with [[Hashut]], the bull-like Father of Darkness, learning the secrets of daemon-smithing in exchange for blood sacrifices. Soon their bodies showed signs of the growing corruption within their souls: their flesh turned grey, their eyes red and many sported horns from their temples while their teeth turned into vicious tusks. Dwarfs have a natural suspicion for unchecked magic and tame the raw energy by binding it to their mighty runes. The Dawi-Zharr were released from these traditionalist shackles and embraced the secrets about working terrible magic taught to them by their new patron god. Their Daemonsmiths soon learned to combine this arcane knowledge with their own mastery of binding magic and began working marvels of engineering into blasphemous amalgams of machine and daemon.

The Dawi-Zharr may have survived the coming of Chaos, but their numbers were greatly diminished. From the Zorn-Uzkul they marched eastwards across the [[Plain of Zharr|Zharrduk]], the Plain of Zharr, to the [[Mountains of Mourn]] and the [[Sea of Dread]] in the south. These are the [[Dark Lands]], the lands of fire, smoke and ash, and the Dawi-Zharr claim them as their domain. They were never a numerous people though, and the [[Blasted Wastes]] are home to many [[Orcs & Goblins|Greenskin]] and [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre]] tribes. At the heart of the Dawi-Zharr empire they built their great city, ''Mingol-Zharr-Naggrund'', the obsidian City of Fire and Desolation, in the Plain of Zharr. The Blasted Wastes are dotted with fortress-citadels, garrisons and watchtowers, from where the Dawi-Zharr venture forth to subjugate all living beings to work for them as an endless stream of slaves.

[[File:400px-ChaosDwarf.jpg|300px|thumb|left|100% Chaos, 100% Dwarf, 100% Hat, 300% trouble.]]

===A twisted parody of Hearth & Oath===

While few would describe Dwarfs as a particularly friendly people, their unshakeable code of honour, respect for their ancestors, undeniable craftmanship and ingenuity are admirable values and make them loyal to a fault. The present-day Dawi-Zharr are only a twisted mockery of these noble ideals: they are tyrannical and merciless, cold at heart and driven by a need to subjugate all the lesser races before them while retaining their mastery of craftsmanship and industry backed by their natural stubbornness. Where the human followers of Chaos are always driven by thoughtless slaughter and are inevitably doomed to fail in their rampant destruction, their forces spent, exhausted by infighting and stretched thin against too many foes at once, the Dawi-Zharr employ their ruthless determination and natural propensity for flawlessness for a slow but grinding dominion across the Dark Lands and beyond. Every Dwarf with a mind set on a goal is relentless in its pursuit, but a Dawi-Zharr will stop at nothing and will relinquish no cruelty to see it fulfilled.

Like regular Dwarfs, their armies are composed of small, elite units backed by powerful war machines, but Chaos Dwarfs employ Hashut's sorcery where their cousins instinctively distrust magic. Chaos Dwarf machines often have [[daemon]]s bound inside, and their ammunition may be charged with dark alchemy. To round out the army, Chaos Dwarfs employ legions of slaves, especially [[Orcs#Warhammer|Orc]]s and [[Goblin#Warhammer|Goblin]]s, both as meat-shields in battle and as an expendable workforce in the mines and forges. [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|And yet, a group of six Norscans and a sorcerer led by a Chaos Champion can easily slaughter their way through one of their cities]] (only because the writer of that story gave the Norscans EXBAWKSHUEG [[Plot Armor]]).

Unlike regular Dwarfs, they make use of terrible magical powers, gifts from their bull-god Hashut. However, because Dwarfs were never meant to use magic, its power slowly but inevitably turns their sorcerers to stone. At first, they regard these changes with pride, glorying in them as badges of honor celebrating their victory over the very forces of nature; as time goes by, though, they start to worry more and more about it. In-game, the rules mirror this; miscasting with a Chaos Dwarf requires a toughness check. At first, failure means ''gaining'' a permanent point of toughness for a wound lost, but as time goes by the side effects stop being cool.

The Chaos Dwarfs, while evil and all, are not really expansionist and have more than enough slaves as it is. They make their way economically by selling weapons and armour to the Norse and Warriors of Chaos in exchange for more slaves to top up their supply. From time to time, a Chaos Dwarf host will be assembled to leave the Dark Lands in search for a valuable treasure, specific sacrifices for their ever-hungry deity, or simply more slaves if the regular hunting grounds are exhausted. Alas, the Daemonsmiths like to test their newest creations against the defenses of the lesser races to optimise their catastrophic potential. They also got a Mesopotamian thing going for them.

===At World's End===

The cataclysmic events of the [[The_End_Times#Chaos_Dwarves|End Times]] obviously didn't exclude the Dawi-Zharr. Eventually [[Grimgor Ironhide]] led a mighty [[Waaagh|Waaagh!]] against the Chaos Dwarfs, toppling their cities and crushing their empire to dust, finishing what started when the Black Orcs revolted against their masters (according to the novels, Grimgor himself was a former Black Orc slave of the Chaos Dwarves making him Black-Orc-Spartacus).

===[[Age of Sigmar]]===

[[Image:Choas_Dorf_is_back.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Well how about that, thanks to [[Warcry]], some of the little bastards (right) are back in the Mortal Realms]]
Like most of the factions, Chaos Dwarfs are reborn in the Mortal Realms (although Forgeworld has recently squated the official models) under the trademark friendly name “Chaos Duardin”. The largest known contingent of these chorfs live in the realm of [[Aqshy]] in the Ashcloud Mountains, are back at worshipping a somehow-still-around-Hashut and use Realmstone in their armour. That's about all we know. 
Apart from these descendants of the Legion of Azgorh, apparently there are more duardin worshipping Chaos in the Mortal Realms, e.g. as a part of the Iron Golems and Spire Tyrants warbands. As revealed in ''Wrath of the Everchosen'', quite a number of these chaos duardin work for [[Archaon]] within the industrial district of the [[Varanspire]]. There is also a massive daemonic oil platform in the seas of [[Shyish]] called [[Zharr Vyxa]] causing grief for [[Nagash]] and the local tribe of [[Sons of Behemat|Kraken-eater Mega-Gargants]] who besieged the fortress in the past, only to be pushed back by the dawi-zharr and their black armored Chaos Gargants.

Also in Ulgu, a [[Fyreslayers]] lodge is in constant conflict with the Black Fortress of the Legion of Azghor, to [[Malekith|Malerion's]] joy, as he gets to watch two dwarven factions beat each other sensles.

If rumors are to be true then the Chaos Dwarves will return with full force as the "Oathbreakers" faction, with brand new models, this time not Forgeworld Exclusive (hopefully).

==The Domain of the Dawi-Zharr==

Between the World's Edge Mountains in the west, the Mountains of Mourn in the east and the Sea of Dread in the south lie the Dark Lands, a barren wasteland of ash and dust, devoid of plants or sunlight, the air thick with volcanic smoke, and the Dawi-Zharr claim dominion over it. Most Chaos Dwarfs dwell within this godforsaken realm, but some clans have established exclaves in further regions, like [[Norsca]] and the [[Chaos Wastes]]. In other words, rather than living in [[Empire|not-Germany]], [[Lustria|not-South America]] or [[Nehekhara|not-Egypt]], the Chaos Dwarves have made [[Mordor|not-Mordor]] their home. What they eat is a mystery as unlike Mordor there is no Nurn equivalent.

===The Dark Lands===

[[File:Darklands.png|300px|thumb|right|Home, sweet barren Home]]
The Dark Lands are a vast area of nothingness and not even a force as mighty as the Dawi-Zharr could ever hope to truly dominate it.

====Zorn-Uzkul, the Great Skull Land====

In the north, the High Pass from [[Kislev]] leads through the Worlds Edge Mountains into the Zorn-Uzkul, the Great Skull Land, where the ancestors of the Dawi-Zharr first settled. Here, the Road of Skulls to the Chaos Wastes leads through a great plateau littered with bones, many of them skulls of mighty beasts long perished, giving the forbidding area its name. The Dwarfs discovered rich deposits of ore in the ground, but most of them ultimately abandoned the obviously tainted region and returned west. Those who stayed and founded Uzkulak in the north or went on eastwards to the Mountains of Mourn were eventually corrupted by the increasing influence of Chaos and became the ancestors of the Dawi-Zharr. Today, Zorn-Uzkul is the northernmost part of the Chaos Dwarf empire, and to follow the Road of Skulls in the shadows of haunted Uzkulak is a very dangerous endeavor.
{{anchor|Plain of Zharr}}
====Zharrduk, the Plain of Zharr====

When the waters of the River Ruin roar down the Falls of Doom from Zorn-Uzkul, they first enter the Plain of Zharr, a vast meteoric crater in the north-east of the Dark Lands and the heartland of the Dawi-Zharr empire. The earth is rich in minerals and precious resources, and the Chaos Dwarfs have turned the whole of Zharrduk into one gigantic industrial complex. The ground is riddled with pools of boiling oil and molten metal, rivers of steaming lava crisscross its broken crust, the sun is hidden behind a thick layer of smoke and ash; no living thing is to be found as far as the eye can see. At its center the Dawi-Zharr have erected Zharr-Naggrund, their great capital, and the plain of Zharr is littered with smaller outposts, workshops, foundries and forges. Unabating is the sound of mighty steam-driven forgehammers and the anguished cries of the tortured slaves throughout Zharrduk as the Dawi-Zharr mold their atrocious empire day and night.

====The Blasted Wastes====

The Blasted Wastes in the west of the Dark Lands, between the World's Edge Mountains and the Gates of Zharr, are a vast desert and sustain very little life. They are mostly home to nomadic Goblin tribes and other ravaging hordes, but they also house a great number of Black Orc tribes, most notably Grimgor Ironhide and his elite clan, Da Immortulz. Needless to say that the Chaos Dwarfs view the area mostly as hunting grounds for their slave pits.

====The Howling Wastes====

East of the road from Zharr-Naggrund to the Tower of Gorgoth lie the Howling Wastes. Where the Blasted Wastes are a sparse desert, the Howling Wastes are covered by an eternal mist, carrying thin voices and a wailing clamour of an forgotten age. The ground is mostly marshes and swamplands, and traversing it is almost guaranteed to get the unwary swallowed by the land, if not accompanied by an experienced guide.

====The Desolation of Azgorh====

Before the age of Chaos Dwarfs, the mighty volcano of Azgorh erupted with such a mighty crescendo that it split the mountain and rent the ground around it asunder. The ash cloud could be seen in distant Khemri and the elves in their Old World colonies registered the resulting earthquakes. The great upheaval reformed the landscape into an almost impenetrable labyrinth of razor sharp rocks and vents of toxic fumes, but it also unearthed a most precious mineral wealth, which a near infinite number of slaves now dig out of the rock in the mines around the Tower of Gorgoth.

[[File:Warhammer Chaos Dwarf Symbol.png|center|200px]]

===Dawi-Zharr Strongholds===

Many are the fortress-citadels, garrisons and strongholds of the Dawi-Zharr empire. Most of them are found on the Plain of Zharr, some are more remote, but the greatest and most important one is Zharr-Naggrund, the gruesome capital of the Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr.

====Zharr-Naggrund, the City of Fire and Desolation====

At the heart of the Plain of Zharr lies Mingol-Zharr-Naggrund, the great capital of the Dawi-Zharr empire. It is a gigantic ziggurat of black obisidian, bristled with armed towers and the chimneys of thousands of furnaces and forges. Incessant are the clouds of black smoke and ash vomited from the workings deep in the bowels of Zharr-Naggrund, where untold numbers of slaves toil unremittingly for their cruel masters. The lowest ranks of the Chaos Dwarf society live at the bottom of the ziggurat, whereas the higher echelons are found closer to the top, where, at its pinnacle, lies the great Temple of Hashut. Huge gates are found at the four sides of each step of the great ziggurat, their battlements studded with great engines of destruction and guarded by a fearsome battalion of elite warriors. The northern gate allows in the River Ruin, re-routed through the city by the Dawi-Zharr to cool their forges and to siphon away the toxic industrial waste and the corpses of dead slaves through the southern gate. So heavy is the pollution from the city, that nothing can live in the River Ruin beyond it. Broad streets plated with gold and brass lead from the eastern and western gates throughout the Plain of Zharr to the Dark Lands and the Mountains of Mourn. Inside the citadel the Dawi-Zharr live and work in the perpetual twilight of their furnaces.

====Uzkulak, the Place of the Skull====

Uzkulak, the Place of the Skull, is the seat of the ancient Dwarf settlement in the Zorn-Uzkul, before the coming of Chaos. It is the northern most Dawi-Zharr stronghold and the most important slave port. Uzkulak sits at the southern branch of the Sea of Chaos, where the slave ships of the Dawi-Zharr sail forth to far away places to still Zharr-Naggrund's insatiable hunger for slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs have greatly expanded the vast underground tunnel connecting the Sea of Chaos with the River Ruin by the Falls of Doom and installed a sophisticated lock to allow ships to traverse it in both directions. Uzkulak is a strange and haunted place, even by Dawi-Zharr standards, and its shunned lower levels are forbidden grounds, except as punishment for oath-breakers and blasphemers.

====The Tower of Gorgoth====

The massive Tower of Gorgoth sits at the junction between the Blasted Wastes, the Howling Wastes and the Desolation of Azgorh. The tower itself stands on the plateau of a volcanic mountain range, harboring the greatest network of mines in the domain of the Dawi-Zharr. As the seams reach deep in the rock, over the centuries more and more slaves were needed to excavate the precious ore from the unyielding mountains. Over time, more and more slave trading clans have made base around the Tower of Gorgoth, which also serves to replenish the hordes of slave fighters in the Chaos Dwarf armies. Since the Tower of Gorgoth is quite remote from the Plain of Zharr and the might of Zharr-Naggrund, it is regularly attacked by Skaven, Greenskins or Ogres, who think it an easier target. However, the Tower of Gorgoth is manned by a sizeable garrison of Dawi-Zharr and the citadel has never fallen to the enemy. On the contrary, most assaults in the end only serve to swell the number of slaves in the endless mines beneath the Tower of Gorgoth.

====The Gates of Zharr====

Halfway between Zharr-Naggrund and the Tower of Gorgoth lie the Gates of Zharr, a massive archway of black stone and iron. Thousands of slaves in endless streams are forced through it every day, the shouts bellowed by their overseers harsher and the lashes of their whips even stronger in the shadows of the towers flanking the mighty testament of the Dawi-Zharrs' claim to the Dark Lands. Passing the Gates in neither direction would mean an end to the suffering for the poor souls, they are either herded towards the Tower of Gorgoth to spend the remainder of their lives, usually a short and painful one, in the mines beneath the volcano, or their destination is Zharr-Naggrund, where they will meet a much quicker end but under even greater agony. A warhost from Zharr-Naggrund to raid the lands beyong the Mad Dog Pass or Death Pass will also march below the Gates of Zharr, the rhythm of their beating drums and blaring horns mirrored by thousands of warriors beating their weapons on their armor, their standards held high, so the world shall know no respite from the wrath of the Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr.

====The Black Fortress====

The eastern entry into the Dark Lands, south of the Mountains of Mourn, is guarded by the Black Fortress. In a land already blessed with a surplus of bleak desolation, the Black Fortress still stands out as place of hopelessness and grim determination. Unlike the Tower of Gorgoth, the Black Fortress does not oversee huge mining activities or large groups of the ever valued slaves, its purpose is purely militaristic and the deployment to the Legion of Azgorh is often viewed as a punishment and exile. In fact, the Black Fortress is home to the Infernal Guard, a warrior-cult for dishonoured Dawi-Zharr who have to redeem themselves in the eyes of their harsh society or find solace in death. Their names and past deeds are shorn away, as are their faces sealed shut behind hot-iron and bronze helmets.

==Notable Characters==

===Lord Astragoth, High Priest of Hashut===
[[File:Chaos-Dwarf.png|300px|thumb|right| Some people are dog-people, some people are cat-people. Chaos Dwarfs are bull-people ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])]]

Astragoth is the oldest living Sorcerer-Prophet and once the greatest of their kind, but now his power begins to fade and his body bears the unmistakable marks of the long use of the terrible powers granted to him by Hashut. His legs, torso and arms have already petrified, and a decade ago he constructed [[Mecha|a mechanical device which allows him to still move and continue to perform his perverted rituals]]. It was Astragoth who assembled the conclave of Sorcerer-Prophets to hear of Hashut's vision, foretelling them their eventual [[The_End_Times#Chaos_Dwarves|downfall]] if they would not amass more power by the might of their armies and the potency of their dark rituals. Although there is no nominal leader of the Chaos Dwarfs and their fate is steered by the cabal of Sorcerer-Prophets, like their western kin the Dawi-Zharr respect age and experience above all else, which makes Astragoth the most influential voice in the Temple of Hashut.

===Drazhoath the Ashen, Lord of the Black Fortress===

As a young Hellsmith, Drazhoath fell from grace with the cabal of Sorcerer-Prophets in Zharr-Naggrund and was sent into exile to the Black Fortress by Astragoth himself. Driven by his innate cunning and ruthless ambition, he quickly rose through the ranks and is now a wizard of considerable strength and mighty warrior in his own right. Drazhoath rules with an iron grip over the Legion of Azgorh, but the Black Fortress is a remote place and being its commander ultimately an impasse, so his gaze is always directed back at Zharr-Naggrund, where he dreams to return to triumphantly and claim his rightful position as one of the most powerful Sorcerer-Prophets. The power of his old rival Astragoth is waning and Drazhoath feels his time has come, so he is determined to make a name for himself through brutal campaigns and acquiring large hordes of new slaves to be used to buy him favour with influential members of the ruling caste at the Temple of Hashut.

===Ghorth the Cruel and Zhatan the Black===

Ghorth the Cruel is the most potent of all Dawi-Zharr Sorcerer-Prophets and it is said that the cries of his tortured victims are only drowned out by the evil laughter of Zhatan the Black, his trusted commander. Zhatan serves as Commander of the Tower of Zharr at the behest of Ghorth and has led many slaving raids against the humans and greenskins in the west, and every Goblin tribe between Zharrduk and Mount Grimfang has been subjugated.

===Gorduz Backstabber===
{{Topquote|Yunno what they say, Tarka. Lucky at dice, unlucky at gettin' back to your own tent without 'aving a nasty accident.|Gorduz Backstabber, moments before a surprising turn of lucks}}
A legendary Hobgoblin chieftain, Gorduz has already lived longer than most Hobgoblin Khans. This is party because he is naturally distrustful of his fellows, as any righteous Hobgoblin should be, but also unusually lucky, as the many hardened scars criss-crossing his bony shoulder humps can testify. So far he has not shown enough ambition for leading any of his slaves to a revolt to arouse distrust in his Chaos Dwarf superiors, which just further shows his cunning: better to be a living slavemaster than a dead revolutionary.

==Forces of the Dawi-Zharr==

{{Topquote|Stick 'em wiv arrers', Stick 'em wiv knives, 'an swords, and spears. Stick 'em quick and stick 'em where it 'urts. But most of all, stick 'em when they's looking the other way.|Gorduz Backstabber, epitomizing what it means to be a Hobgoblin}}

===The might of Zharr-Naggrund===
[[File:Chaos_Dwarf.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Dawi-Zharr 101: Tall hat, braided beard, spiky armour, wicked weapon, evil mind.]]
Unlike the human and bestial followers of Chaos, the Dawi-Zharr rarely send full armies to the lands of the Old World and beyond. Consequently, most common folk think them a myth, for only few can imagine that any of the proud and unyielding Dwarfs should have succumbed to the calling of the dark gods. Those who know better have come to fear the armies of Zharr-Naggrund as they are a merciless foe on the battlefield. Survivors of battles against the Dawi-Zharr tell tales of clouds of ash and sheets of fire engulfing the screaming remains of fallen soldiers, of cloven-hoofed monsters rampaging through their helpless victims and the very ground opening under them through foul magic. Traumatized and driven insane by what they have witnessed, they claim that it is better to die in battle than fall alive into the hands of the Chaos Dwarfs and their cruel torturers.

Although the Dawi-Zharr have fallen far from the common ideals of their western kin, they are not so far apart in warfare. The Dawi-Zharr favour the same build of large infantry blocks, their warriors clad in heavy plate and wielding axes and hammers. Chaos Dwarf troops wear tall hats, denoting their social status, and usually braid their black beards. Their armament and weaponry is of superior quality and they share their western kin's martial prowess. For ranged warfare the Chaos Dwarfs favour black powder weapons and field warriors equipped with fireglaives and the infamous hailshot blunderbuss, a weapon that strikes fear in the hearts of the their opponents like none other. While all Chaos Dwarfs show physical manifestations of the corrupting influence of Hashut, some are blessed beyond developing horns and tusks and are utterly transformed into the hellish Bull Centaurs, a fate which is seen as a sign of high favour bestowed by Hashut. Bull Centaurs are charged with guarding the Temple of Hashut and act as brutal shock troops on the battlefield.

Chaos Dwarfs are a rare breed, even more so than the Dwarfs of the Karaz Ankor. To bolster their forces, the Dawi-Zharr employ large numbers of slave troops. The Dark Lands are an unforgiving place and spawn resilient fighters, all of which the Chaos Dwarfs are all too eager to subjugate into service. Most numerous among their slaves are [[Hobgoblin]]s, a notoriously fiendish kind of [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskin]], even considering that very low bar. Hobgoblins are distrusted and hated by all other greenskins and are totally reliant on the Chaos Dwarfs' protection, which makes them perfect fighters and overseers for the other slave troops. The Dawi-Zharr are also known to press other, larger greenskins into their service, or even the occasional [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre]] tribe. At some point their demand for able fighters for their armies and their frustration with the unreliability of the regular greenskin livestock led them to create the [[Black Orc]]s, an experiment that ultimately proved to be such a great success, it almost toppled the Dawi-Zharr empire. Only the treachery of the Hobgoblins saved the sons of Hashut from extinction, a deed which cemented the Hobgoblin's position at the highest slave tier for the Chaos Dwarfs and eternal outlaw among the greenskins.

The Dark Lands are roamed by greater dangers than greenskins and ogres, and many monsters and unnatural creatures are likewise caught and enslaved for the Dawi-Zharr armies. Among the most notable monsters bound to service by the Chaos Dwarfs are the Great Taurus and the Lammasu. Some believe the Great Taurus to be an incarnation of Hashut's divinity, while others claim they are actually Chaos Dwarfs particularly blessed with his gifts, similar to the Bull Centaurs. Whatever their nature, they are highly revered and sought after as mounts by the most powerful of Sorcerer-Prophets. Whilst the Great Taurus is a fuming beast of pure rage and destruction, the Lammasu is a more enigmatic being with a keen mind, and some of the less reckless Sorcerer-Prophets prefer them as a mount over the rampaging might of a Great Taurus.

The Dawi-Zharr society is ruthlessly dominated by the cabal of Sorcerer-Prophets, who steer the fate of the Chaos Dwarf empire as the vessels of Hashut's divine will. Most of the Sorcerer-Prophets are found in Zharr-Naggrund, but some rule over one of the small fortress-citadels and garrisons throughout the Dark Lands; however in most cases this is rather seen as banishment from the capital. Although the Sorcerer-Prophets and by extension the Daemonsmiths, their disciples and aspiring mages-engineers, rule supreme and often accompany Chaos Dwarf warhosts to battle, Overlords and Castellans are dedicated commanders and heralds for the armies and serve purely for the conduct of wars; also the eldest Bull Centaurs, Taur'ruks, hold authority in Chaos Dwarf armies. Out of necessity the Dawi-Zharr even allow exceptionally gifted slaves, like Hobgoblin Khans, to hold commanding positions in their armies, although only with authority over other slaves and only up until the point where such a commanding slave has amassed anything remotely resembling something like a reputation. At this point, he will usually be ... relieved of his duty and replaced with a fresh aspirant, whose fate will likely go in a very similar direction.

While the troops in Dawi-Zharr armies are admirable foes and can hold their own against any force on the battlefields of the old world and beyond, their truly terrifying power lies within their war machines, hellish abominations of daemonic sorcery melded with infernal engineering. The Chaos Dwarf arsenal is replete with a wide array of mortal artillery, from earth-shaking cannonades over fire-spewing flamethrowers to dreadful steam-powered tanks. Oftentimes these war machines are imbued with daemonic entities, as the Chaos Dwarfs still retain some form of the typical dwarven mistrust of unfettered magical energies and therefore learned how to bind them in their abominable creations. Where the Daemonsmiths work to further the coalescing of daemon and machine, some Sorcerer-Prophets sought to directly enslave even the malevolent beings from beyond the veil of reality; they summoned and bound them with powerful magic, creating the K'Daai, half daemon and half raging fire. Unleashed upon the world, these mindless forces of destruction will stop at nothing from destroying anything in their path until their eldritch fiery being is consumed by their own burning wrath.

===The Legion of Azgorh===

The most up-to-date ruleset for Chaos Dwarfs, sadly, is the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Legion of Azgorh]] found in Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos, but it's fairly extensive and has some nifty units, so it can stand up on its own. The book itself suggests they work best incorporated into a [[Warriors of Chaos]] army, as part of the [[Chaos Great Hosts]] ruleset provided in the book, or as allies.

The Legion of Azgorh is garrisoning the Black Fortress and represents a distinct sub-faction of Chaos Dwarfs. The mainstay and principal core troop of the army is the Infernal Guard; regular Chaos Dwarfs are only found in crewing the war machines. Infernal Guard are the Chaos Dwarf equivalent of Slayers: Chaos Dwarfs who have suffered dishonor and seek to atone for it. To do this, they forsake their names and identities, strap mask-helmets of bronze and iron heated red-hot over their faces, and fight for the glory of Hashut. Unlike Slayers, the Infernal Guard is not a death sentence - in theory, anyway. They aren't frenzied fighters like Slayers, and an Infernal Guard who wins great renown has his mask formally removed and is discharged, his old shame forgotten. They go into battle sporting Blackshard Armour, a unique Chaos Dwarf-devised armour that is proof against flame. Infernal Guard should be considered midway between core and elite troops and have both higher strength and better armour than regular Chaos. Their default armament are hand weapons and shield for a solid infantry role, but they also have access to all the options you would expect for Chaos Dwarfs, including the ingenious fireglaives and hailshot blunderbusses. Infernal Ironsworn are the elite version of Infernal Guard with an improved profile and ensorcelled hand weapons.

[[File:Dwarf_abomination.jpg|200px|thumb|right|With all the typical Chaos generosity, you'd not be surprised if you saw this while walking down to the grocery store one day.]]

Other famous elements of Chaos Dwarf armies can also be found in the Legion of Azgorh, namely the formidable Bull Centaurs, giving the army a degree of mobility unachievable for regular Dwarf armies. The dreaded Chaos Dwarf artillery is also represented in the Legion of Azgorh: The Magma Cannon, Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher (replacing the classic Death Rocket) and the unique Iron Daemon War Engine, as well as the Dreadquake Mortar (replacing the classic Earthshaker cannon) and Hellcannon, familiar from the Warriors of Chaos army list.

As it is only a sub-faction, the army list does not include Chaos Dwarf Overlords but only has Sorcerer-Prophets (Lords who use the Lores of Hashut, Fire, Death or Metal) as the highest commanders. They and Daemonsmiths (Heroes who use the Lores of Fire, Death or Metal) are both wizards and engineers, granting bonuses to your war machines and having a lot of special tricks and gear. Several twisted beasts are further added to the Chaos Dwarf armies: daemonic bull-things of living magma called the K'daai, burning winged daemon-bulls known as Taurus, magic-eating monsters called Lammasu, and armor-plated Giants modified for use as living seige weapons.

Befitting for a Dawi-Zharr army, all Chaos Dwarf units are fairly expensive, as they are considered rather rare. The Legion of Azgorh therefore has access to Hobgoblin slaves in the form of fleet-footed wolfriders, great mobs, and even conniving Khans as Hero-grade characters. They are very cheap in order to act as the cannon-fodder they are treated as by the Chaos Dwarfs, and naturally their destruction does not cause panic in Chaos Dwarf units.

==[[Total War: WARHAMMER]]==
[[Image:Dawi_Zharr_Artillery_Crew.jpg|thumb|right|Chaos Dwarfs in their (small) appearance as infernal artillery crews]]
So far the Chaos Dwarfs have not been added to the base game as a faction, though a group of Chaos Dwarfs serve as the artillery crew for the Hellcannon unit. No hats, but lots of sausage beards and some horns. They're also mentioned during the second quest battle for Grimgor Ironhide's Blood-Forged Armour -- some Northman traded with them for goods, his armour included, and he wants to take it from them.

With the release of a trailer for the third game, the main factions will be the Daemons of Chaos (divided up into separate races for each of the four Dark Gods and one for Chaos Undivided), Kislev and Cathay. The poor Dawi-Zharr have been overlooked yet again. The first DLC race is the [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre]]s, which means the Dark Dwarfs are still waiting, but bodes very well for their later inclusion. A Dawi-Zharr DLC down the road seems certain due to the presence of an army book and the third game's map centering on the eastern part of the Warhammer world.

A recent quote was found in a loading screen in the game, all but confirming the Chaos Dwarfs as one of if not the first major piece of DLC in the game...not to mention datamined voicelines of the Advisor confirm that Chaos Dwarfs are going to be in the game.

[[File:Chaos Dwarf Hint.png|thumb|right|''Happy short man noises'']]

==See also==
* [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Tactics/Legion of Azgorh]] 
* [[Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com Chaos Dwarfs Online], a repository for all things Chaos Dwarf.

==References==
* [https://www.abebooks.com/9781872372808/Chaos-Dwarfs-Rick-Priestley-Robin-1872372805/plp White Dwarf Presents: Chaos Dwarfs], by Rick Priestly & Robin Dews; Games Workshop, 1994; ISBN 978-1-87237-280-8
* [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20942304-tamurkhan Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos], by Alan Bligh; Games Workshop, 2011; ISBN 978-1-90796-465-7

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Dwarfs]]

Skaven

2022-04-23T04:36:40Z

2603:7080:9346:2600:492D:98D4:EB5E:A55A: added comma after paragraph's beginning ('In Warhammer') to make the sentence grammatically correct.

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Skaven|Logo=Capture131114532.png|Alliance=Chaos|Motto=DIE DIE SOLDIER MANTHINGS DIE!!!!}}

{{Topquote|It would be ugly to watch people poking sticks at a caged rat. It is uglier still to watch rats poking sticks at a caged person.|Jean Harris}}

{{Topquote|The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything.|E.B. White}}

{{Topquote|I WILL JOIN YOU, ELF! IF THERE IS ANYTHING I HATE WORSE THAN ELVES, IT'S FUCKING RAT FURRIES GOING FULL NORTH KOREA WITH NUCLEAR ROCKS!|Urist, Warhammer: Ravandils Quest}}

The '''Skaven''' are technologically advanced [[ratfolk]] in the [[Warhammer Fantasy]] and [[Age of Sigmar]] settings. Ugly, evil creatures that spread [[AIDS|plague]] wherever they go and topple kingdoms for fun and [[profit]], you will be hard pressed to find a more unlikeable race out there. Much like the [[Orks]], they're so excessively over-the-top that it's pretty funny.

Skaven are said to be '''''the''''' most evil race in the entire setting, and that's no idle claim. For all [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|the Empire]], [[Bretonnia]]ns, [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfs]], [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]], [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]] and [[Lizardmen]]'s many flaws (and make no mistake, they ''are'' numerous) each of them has at least some claims to genuine heroism that keep them out of being villains. Undead are either mindless automata executing their programming or - for the majority of intelligent undead - capable of genuine love and altruism. [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark elves]] are cruel and have a culture based on torture and slavery, but they are more driven by historical grievances and an inhospitable homeland, and can display family loyalty along with traits that some would call decent or even questionably heroic. Orcs and Goblins are violent brutes, but they'll develop what could be considered friendships and attachments to their fellows, and even the most brutal Black Orc will cry if his pet squig dies (Not in front of the other boyz though, because they'll all see him as nothing but a runty git). Or at the very least he will bash someone’s head into the ground, point is, he'll grieve. Ogres are well-known to be gluttonous and casually cruel almost to a man, but they usually still love their families and their Gnoblar pets, and any Maneater worth his salt is good for his word upon payment. Despite their propensities towards [[Khorne|killing]], [[Tzeentch|scheming]], [[Nurgle|festering]] and [[Slaanesh|raping]], the mortal followers of Chaos are capable of honor, friendship and a warped form of love. Even the [[Beastman|Beastmen]], who are also inherently evil like the Skaven, respect their chieftains and shamans, deal honorably with their few allies and give worthy foes a fair fight. Even daemons usually respect the chain of command without [[Drow|constantly trying to murder their leaders and take their place]].

Skaven have none of the above qualities, or any other that could be considered even vaguely noble or redeeming: they openly hate everyone and everything, are more cowardly and paranoid than any goblin, more cruel and xenophobic than Dark Elves, and more fractious than Chaos. Love, friendship and honor are completely alien to the Skaven's psyche. Due to their chronic backstabbing disorder, nobody trusts them, likes them, or wants to be 'allies' with them (except Dark Elves, who have a treaty with them that both sides betray at times). The only times they have done something that benefited non-Skaven or the world, such as helping beat the first incarnation of Nagash, are for purely selfish reasons - Nagash denied them warpstone and was a threat to them too. One of the only three reasons the Skaven have lasted this long and not killed themselves in an ''en masse'' fratricidal free-for-all is because their hatred of all other things outweighs their hatred of other Skaven by '''''just enough''''' for them to slightly function (that and their crazy-high birthrates or the direct intervention of their god, who's little better than them). However the 'just enough' cannot be stressed enough. Even with the all-out doom of their race present, as with Nagash or Chaos, they're still intent on fucking each other over. <strike>If</strike> when possible, Skaven <strike>would</strike> will kill each other in the womb.

And that's why we love to hate them so much.

It should be noted that there is one non-evil one in [[Warhammer Adventures]], the Warhammer children's book series (yeah, that exists). Named Kreech, he's still the villain of that series, but by the standards of Skaven he's damn near a fucking Grail Knight. Screech actually lives in human culture, preferring it to his own people's, and has a 12-year-old human slave as his sidekick. Even in children's media they're utter bastards.

==So who are they?==
In a lot of science fiction going back to [[Starship Troopers]] and likely far earlier, there are races of [[Tyranid|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, though this fact in no way makes them nice.

The Skaven are a race of walking humanoid rats with dubious (but not to be underestimated) intelligence and a hideous feral cunning out to conquer the world in the name of their God, the [[Horned Rat]], and also for their own personal gains. If there was one quality which defined their species, it would be raw unconstrained '''''Selfishness'''''. By instinct, culture and the will of their asshole god, each Skaven is self-obsessed, paranoid, greedy, power-hungry, murderous and doesn't give a rat's ass (hehe) for the well-being of anyone that isn't themselves. They find the concepts of love, honor, loyalty and friendship to be so alien they can't comprehend them. In the prisoner's dilemma, they always defect. By nature, each of them is fundamentally evil, and this is not racism speaking here. To give context for this, a [[Skarsnik|greenskin]] in the End Times event was traumatized by the loss of his beloved [[Skarsnik#The_End_Times|Squig]], while no Skaven individual has ever, at any point, been shown to have an attachment to any living thing other than themselves. The closest they can get is the exceedingly rare example where a Skaven can understand that certain other individuals are tools worth cultivating and protecting from outside threats, and are assets too valuable to allow their casual destruction or squandering (see Gnawdwell and [[Queek Head-Taker]]). The only thing a Skaven hates more than other Skaven is creatures who are non-Skaven, and this gives the ratmen the vaguest ability to work together when they have a common enemy; otherwise they would fall on each other like, well, a pack of rats.

Skaven have an odd relationship with fear. On the one hand, cowardice is the order of the day. They definitely don't want to be sliced, stabbed, shot, skewered, squished, scorched or Slaaneshed. They'll face the perils of battle for the prospects of rewards, killing rival Skaven or non-Skaven (which they collectively call "Things") and because their bosses WILL have them killed horribly if they don't at least ''try'' to fight, but most Skaven have a reticence to enter battle unless the odds are decidedly stacked in their favor, and they're more prone to breaking and running if things go pear shaped. On the other hand, Skaven have a weird fondness for quick routes to power. If you give a Skaven a potion which has a 99.9% chance of killing them horribly and a 0.1% chance of giving them the ability to breathe fire like a dragon, many will take it.

Remember the saying about a bunch of monkeys with typewriters eventually producing Shakespeare? Well, at a species level they are sort of like that: keep throwing rats at the problem to try every cockamamie dunderheaded idea that said collection of drugged up hyperactive megalomaniacs desperate to get ahead can dream up until eventually they stumble on one that works, which others will shamelessly copy while insisting that they had the idea for it first. Skaven are never content with just a cushy job, cozy 2-bathroom burrow in Skavenblights' suburbs and 2.5 pups to raise or eat if they don't get at least Bs in Skavenschool. Each one, be he a member on the Council of Thirteen or the lowliest of slaves who's used up and sent to the slaughterhouse, operates under the belief that they are the one true leader of the Skaven whose visionary insights would lead their species to domination of the universe in the name of the Horned Rat, if he can just gain the keys to power and overcome the short-sighted idiots which stand in his way. Introspection and self-reflection are not common Skaven traits, though some older Skaven like the aforementioned Gnawdwell and his former protege Sleek Sharpwit show that such qualities are possible, even if it’s ''exceedingly'' rare.

In terms of physiology, Skaven are shorter than humans, less bulky than them, slightly weaker (surprisingly not as much, considering the difference in size and mass), and generally "less" in every regard but one. Where they do pick up is speed: Skaven live their life in perpetual super speed with all its advantages and drawbacks - they move faster, think faster, breed faster and age faster, generally reaching adulthood at five months and growing old, gray and frail by the age of thirteen (though very few survive for that long). All that speed builds an almost insatiable appetite, and as they have no body fat reserves, they're '''always''' hungry, except maybe after the battle when they can eat the dead (of both sides). Skaven look unnervingly twitchy and energetic to other races (even Elves, who also have a kind of inherent superspeed), while Skaven see others as slow lumbering idiots. Like rats, the Skaven have a good sense of smell; it is stated by Teclis in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] 2's high elves vortex campaign that they could smell fear and "treachery" from others. According to Teclis, the Horned Rat's rat swarm smelled through the fake Galifreius' disguises and went for her while ignoring Talarian. This being said though, Stormvermin (who are consistently well-fed and trained) tend to grow to the height and weight of a healthy man which may imply Skaven actually may be generally capable of growing to the dimensions of normal men, but few of them get fed enough to achieve this.

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 [[God-Emperor of Mankind|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 (because it is such an indescribable shithole), up until it was teleported to another dimension post [[End Times]] (it's still a shithole though). No one trusts them quite rightly, and few other races resist killing them on sight, which is reciprocated in kind. They are more numerous than any other race in the world, and only one enemy keeps them truly in check: themselves.

On a very amusing note, the Skaven are one of the rare examples of a race of furries actually liked by most of /tg/, because by all intents and purposes they are everything your average mary-sue furry self-insert is not: hilariously villainous, dirtily non-sexualized, full of character flaws and their actions are actually relevant and well implemented into some of the most important plot twists in the setting.

=== History ===
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{{Topquote|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 was 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 [[human]]s and [[dwarf]]s, 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. [[Vermintide 2|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 [https://i.imgur.com/FWzQkHn.jpg other origin] stories.

It is said that after their creation, Skaven spread across the world, [[Ikit Claw|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 [[Clan Eshin|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 [[Warhammer Magic|Lore of Darkness magic]] that would eventually evolve into the necromancy all [[Vampire Counts|vampires]] love, and the [[Tomb King|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 [[Games Workshop|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 (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. 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 rat bodies 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 [[Cathay|the eastern side that]] [[Nippon| 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 [[Gabriel Angelos|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:_WARHAMMER#Skaven|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 [[Malekith|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 [[exterminatus|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 <strike>lives</strike> 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 [[Cities of Sigmar|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. Each of the four former great clans from the Old World is alive and kicking <strike>eachother</strike>, 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 increased scope of AoS lore has meant Skaven society is EVEN MORE chaotic and self-destructive than it was. And this lore makes a little more sense than their old world history: you can't expect such volatile societies to [[Warhammer 40000|maintain a millennia-long deadlock between the same four great powers.]] Still, 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, Pestilens profited greatly from their alliance with Nurgle. 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).

Skaven continue to be fuck-ups at a scale never before witnessed. 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.

The moral of the story is clear: you might be able to foil Skaven schemes but it's their fuck-ups you wanna watch out for.

=== Society ===
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If you do not know much about rat social behavior, you might be surprised to learn it is fairly well developed and includes among other things evidence of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa16P4nFgD8 rodent altruism]. As you might expect, GeeDubs ignored it entirely to make the Skaven more grimdark and work on people's stereotypes of what rats are like rather than how rats interact. Skaven society is literally cutthroat when it comes to promotions (but luckily not [[PROMOTIONS]]). In a world where you have chaos warriors who can honor the chaos gods by killing/raping/infecting/getting minions caught up and expended in complex plots, beastmen which are in a similar lot as chaos on top of animalistic aggression who still practice a survival-of-the-fittest pack-mindset based loyalty, orcs that are hardwired to love to scrap, goblins who are no strangers to backstabbing and dark elves who've literally made assassination and treachery an art, the Skaven have managed to collect the gold medal in (f)ratricide. After receiving said award they promptly began killing each other to see which Skaven individual got to keep it; the conflict continues to this day, with no resolution in sight. The '''only''' reason why their society has not murdered itself into extinction is because of a very high reproductive rate. Despite their teamkilling tendencies they obey the Grey Seers, the prophets of their god the [[Horned Rat]]. Although this obedience is done purely out of fear, it is done without question. Except for the other Grey Seers.

==== Hierarchy ====
The Skaven race is ruled over by the [[Council of Thirteen]], Skaven of such evil they have been chosen by their vile god and manage to survive the constant threat of assassination, most likely because everyone is too afraid of these uber-ratmen to go near them. Although they squeak big about their plans for world domination, they are too busy trying to outdo and kill each other. Despite the name there are only twelve Councillors; the 13th seat is symbolic and reserved for their god 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, even 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. Ironically enough the Skaven are more prone to throw around claims of [[HERESY]]! than the Sigmarite Empire. 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. Secular Rodentism is not something which is going to catch on in Skavenblight. 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. 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.

Beneath them, you have an upper crust of prominent individuals within the clans: Warlock Engineers, Master Molders, Plague Priests, Assassins, 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. 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 Slaves. 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 that of a native in the Belgian Congo and a 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 meager 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.

Two key facts of this hierarchy are ''Shit Flows Downhill'' and ''The Rodent Staircase''. To a high ranking Skaven everyone else is a rival, either an immediate threat or a potential one waiting for the means, so you gotta keep a lid on them. Subordinates are to be given the minimum they need to accomplish their tasks, some rewards if they exceed expectations, and nothing else. If they step out of line they can be beaten. If they cause too much trouble they can be replaced with some up and coming Rat eager to not be a skavenslave. If things are going badly for you, assert your dominance with a show of force. Even if things are going well, you should put the fear of the Horned Rat into your underlings just to remind them who's boss to be on the safe side. This comes before the fact that Skaven are vindictive little shits that have no qualms about taking out their frustrations on others. A sternly worded Letter to a Warlord from the Council of Thirteen will lead him snapping at his second in command and will eventually manifest itself in clanrats biting the tails off Skavenslaves because they'd been the subject of the ire of their overseers and need to re-assert dominance.

Likewise if you want to get up (and as mentioned ALL Skaven want to go up all the way), you need to not only excel or have some useful talent but also deal with the million other rats out there with the same ambitions. If you want to survive in the slave pits, shiv your neighbor and eat him to get enough calories so you'll have the strength to see another day. If the clawleader's favorite mug has gone missing, say the guy who's always admired it stole it to bring down the bosses wrath upon him so you have one less rival, the boss's wrath is directed elsewhere and if you happen to be right he just might throw you a bone for being (due to the lack of a better word) loyal. Apprentices could and should steal the ideas of their fellows to become Warlock Engineers. Attempting to police the Skaven to stop such backstabbing is usually an exercise in futility, especially since whatever Police Rats you can scrounge up will inevitably engage in said activities on their own. Not that it matters much in most cases, there is always a fresh stream of replacements and those eager for dead rat's shoes. At most murder provides an excuse for removing individuals that they don't like in a move that is slightly less likely to spark the paranoia of your rivals. A good Skaven leader knows how to use this competition to keep his minions in line and to get the most out of them. A bad skaven leader is going to end up on the barbecue sooner rather than later. This is the case from birth, even for those whose role was determined at birth like grey seers and stormvermin have to fend off both ruthless instructors and backstabbing fellow applicants. Nobody is unscathed.

==== Misc ====
Although unintentional on the side of writers, there are circumstances where real life rats can become Skaven-like. In a series of social experiments involving overpopulation designed to see what effects human overpopulation in cities like New York or Tokyo could be paralleled, rat populations with far too many beings in far too small an area begin to go, as individuals, insane while the group becomes far more violent despite having more than enough food and water to sustain the entire population. When a high-density population that shows these behaviors is given more area to roam in by having another set of open cages attached or being shifted to smaller population cages, the behavior remains the same meaning the rats have been permanently mentally damaged; only with successive generations do they regain sanity. So in a way, Skaven have inadvertently made themselves fucking insane by choosing to live in horrible conditions and to overpopulate. <s>Theoretically</s> [[Warhammer Adventures|Kreech from Warhammer Adventures]] shows that saner and more level-headed (if not necessarily less evil) generations of Skaven could emerge if the species got access to more room and better conditions, and was completely removed from its old environment and the previous rats who inhabited it.

In fact, if the root of the Skaven's evil nature could be traced to both their terrible environment and the terrible culture that both feeds and feeds off of that environment rather than anything genetic, theoretically, there ''could'' actually be ''good'' Skaven if they were somehow separated from Skavenblight immediately after birth and raised outside of it by someone willing to give them a chance. However, seeing as how the primary…“engines” of Skaven reproduction are heavily guarded in the very heart of Skavenblight, and literally every other race in Warhammer is hard-wired to kill the mangy rat-bastards on sight (and with FUCKING good reason), such a thing will almost certainly remain purely theoretical. Especially since all that trouble would ultimately amount to little more than proving a petty point, with little to no real pay-off beyond making the Horned Rat personally pissed off at you (then again there are [[Tzeentch|some]] that might find ''that'' outcome a goal in and of itself).

=== 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 manthings 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 [[Clan Mors|Mors]] and [[Clan Rictus|Rictus]] are known for their particularly nasty regiments of Stormvermin and regularly sell themselves to the other aspiring Warlords for a sizable sum.

*'''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 Kingdoms|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 [[Lizardmen|ALL]] [[Dwarfs|OF]] [[Undead|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 replaceand 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.

{{Skaven-Clans}}

===Deity===
The Skaven worship their creator the [[Horned Rat]], a god as sickening and vile as they are. God of disease and vermin, thankfully he gets the crap kicked out of him by Sigmar and Sotek on a regular basis and frankly anyone that feels like having a go. He got fed up with such bullshit at the [[End Times]], telling the Skaven to stop backstabbing eachother and get shit done, which they proceed to do by destroying many cities. He also made a deal with the [[Chaos Gods]] as he cannot defeat them.

As of [[Age of Sigmar]], [[Slaanesh]] [[bullshit|was kidnapped]] by three Elf gods that were formerly mortals ([[Tyrion]], [[Teclis]], [[Morelion]]) at the manipulations of [[Tzeentch]] and the newly-appointed HNIC of all Chaos [[Archaon]]. This resulted in [[Nurgle]] and [[Khorne]] immediately voting with them to boot him out of the pantheon and the [[Great Game]] and promoting Horned Rat to proper Chaos God in his place. Horned Rat immediately renamed himself Great Horned Rat, but found out that the big kids table was full of backstabbing assholes with absolutely no respect for each other, and somehow even less for him. When the Chaos Gods gave Archaon their blessings, Archaon rejected the Horned Rat's blessings and spat directly in his face for daring to presume GHR can bless the self-righteous ass that is Archaon (Though this could just be Archaon not having absolutely abysmal standards).

=== Magic ===
Skaven wield a form of Dark Magic fueled by [[warpstone]] and derived from their own inherently corrupt abilities. 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 <strike>standard</strike> 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.

<strike>Under current rules</strike> they <strike>are</strike> have always been considered overpowered, except for a brief period where DoC reigned thanks to your [[Matt Ward|Spiritual]] [[Spiritual Liege|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 [[Steam Tank|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====
[[Image:Reverse Furry And His Pet.png|thumb|200px|right|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 codes of honor or battle etiquette, 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 [[Transformers|Starscream]] look down his nose at them. (Bad comedy right there)
* Skaven do NOT think about the potential consequences of ''anything'' that they do. Taken to its logical conclusion in [[The End Times]] when '''they blow up the motherfucking Chaos Moon''' and nearly destroy the planet with moon-fragments.
* 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 ==
In Warhammer, seriousness and farce walk hand in hand. Some factions are in general more jokey like the Greenskins and others are more somber like the Druchii, but all of them are capable of both. This is especially true of the Skaven. On the one hand, they're a malignant horde of self centered sociopaths in which every twisted manifestation of this fact is explored, driven on by a malevolent deity, spreading underground like a cancer that surges forth to lay waste to the realms of men, leaving nothing behind but ruins and gnawed bones, and they are ultimately responsible for bringing about the End Times. On the other hand they're a species of Cartoonish Ratguys with Mad Science super-weapons, Ninjas and convoluted plots that often blow up in their filthy faces with odd verbal ticks which can, despite it all, sometimes be, well, cute.

The Skaven have no direct counterpart in Warhammer 40,000. In of itself this is not unprecidented. After all the neither do the Lizardmen or Vampire Counts and on the same note you don't have any Tau or Tyranids having raves in Athel Loren keeping the wood elves up. Even so, they do seem to be a natural fit. After all, they are one of the most technological factions and it's not a huge leap to imagine their space fleets and similar. They're also GW original content, so why are they not a thing? One possible answer is that while they could fit into 40k, they would be kind of redundant. Simply put the role of Theocratic Empire with cutthroat internal politics ruled through fear, driven by hatred of The Other on which a small priviledged elite rules over a vast ocean of individuals living cheek to jowl in huge labyrinthine warrens either as disposable factory workers or soldiers expended like ammunition [[Imperium of Man|is already filled in 40k]]. In fact the parallel may be more direct then accidental given that there are explicitly 13 high lords of Terra, same as the 13 Lords of Decay.

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

== 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.
[https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/199375/on-skaven-jitter-speak-in-game-2 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. Although considering their backstabby natures it isn't as if they're trying to avert sense of shame or horror from killing others, which is why humans dehumanize during war... so why? Likely the Skaven equivalent of racial slurs.

==Female Skaven==
[[Image:Female skaven.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Canon image of a female Skaven.]]
[[Image:Skaven female cheerleaders.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The closest thing to a female Skaven model to come out of Games Workshop.]]
The skaven as a whole fit the idea of "ratmen" - with particular emphasis on the ''men'' part. All named skaven characters are male, and new fans invariably wonder; what about females? Where do skaven come from?

There was never any great emphasis placed on them. Indeed, they were left so ambiguous that the first ever description of skaven females actually came about as a result of one fan's fanfiction, during those hoary days when [[Gnome#Gnomes_in_Warhammer|Gnome]]s and [[Half-Orc]]s were still canon. In "[https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Warhammer/Fantasy/Roleplay/1st%20edition/Skaven%20-%20Book%20of%20the%20Rat.pdf The Book of the Rat]", a fan-made netbook of skaven lore for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 1st edition, female skaven were stated to exist but were hugely oppressed; they were kept as sexual slaves in segregated chambers of the warren, to which only the clan's elites were allowed access. Kept in miserable conditions, their life consisted of nothing but rough sex, pregnancy and looking after their mewling ratlings. Female skaven were described as rarer than male skaven, partially due to biology, primarily because their mothers and the bitter, infertile/elderly midwives tended to be particularly callous towards the female offspring and so female skaven have a much, ''much'' higher mortality rate than the males.

When we got official lore, however, it turned out to be far worse... when the first ever Warhammer Armies: Skaven sourcebook was released, way back in Warhammer 4th edition, fans were presented with what is the earliest known mention of skaven females: a single line describing them as being "indolent" and "semi-intelligent" in the general Skaven entry in the bestiary section (page 50). Modern lore, established in the Skaven's 6e army book and preserved since then, built upon this singular line and is considerably more [[grimdark]] than the fanon presented in "The Book of the Rat": female skaven are horrific monsters, implied to be basically female [[Giant Rat]]s of enormous stature, who build upon their description in 4e by being described as feral, effectively non-sapient creatures. They are basically giant wombs, locked away separately from the males and existing only to feed and produce offspring, so monstrously pregnant and indolent that their limbs have atrophied, rendering them incapable of doing anything but wallow in the breeding pits.

Further female skaven lore, such as it is, was fleshed out by Black Library fiction and most prominently by ''Children of the Horned Rat'', a skaven sourcebook for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 2nd edition. In CotHR, it's theorized that only one in ten skaven are female, reaching sexual maturity at the age of 2 and spending the rest of their 2 decades of life doing nothing but breed, averaging 12-24 pups a litter and 4-5 litters per year.

What's ''truly'' grimdark however, as explicitly stated in that same book is, that skaven females are actually NOT NATURALLY LIKE THIS; rather, their condition is the result of the skaven's malevolence and their need to [[fleshcrafting|"improve" upon nature]]; 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. There is a single line hinting that this may not be as effective as the male skaven think: "So cloistered away from the rest of their race are they that they do not learn their race’s chittering speech, nor are they proficient in even the simplest social skills…or so the Skaven believe." But still 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.

The female Skaven's status as "bloated, indolent baby-makers" was referenced in the End Times. In "End Times: Thanquol", a Dwarf Slayer separated from the other during the battle of Karak Eight Peaks found his way into a Skaven breeding pit filled with hundreds of females in such a state, their litters and a handful of Ratwives. He killed the Ratwifes, the breeders and their litters, there being so many Skaven the Slayer's arms got sore from all the killing. Then the Slayer stumbled upon another breeding pit just as big, but by then Skaven soldiers had discovered what he did in the previous breeding pit so they swarmed him and slaughtered him. The End Times is the most recent lore on this, so it looks like the baby-factory fate is canon for most, if not all, female Skaven.

It bears mentioning that the status of the "breeders" does have some real-world basis to it. The rodent contains the only known eusocial mammals; the mole-rats, who live in colonies consisting of a single reproducing female with one (or up to three, for naked mole rats) reproducing males reigning over a large brood of sterile offspring that work as a collective to survive. In these cases, however, there are equal numbers of males and females, and it's the presence of a breeding queen and her pheromones that causes sterility into the younger mole-rats; if removed from her presence, they become fertile in turn.

It also bears mentioning that, in [[Blood Bowl]], the Skaven team comes with cheerleaders who are non-"Breeder" females, which you can tell because they have [[/d/|four big breasts each]]. But then, Blood Bowl also has [[Orcs & Goblins|fem-Orcs]], so its connection to canon of any edition after 3e is kind of dubious.

==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 [[Necromancer|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.

==Warhammer 40k==
While no direct space Skaven exist, there are ratlike mutants described in the fluff, rat-worshiping cultists in [[Necromunda]], a [[mutant]] race called [[Ratlings]] which despite being more [[halfling]] than rat could be argued as a successor, <strike>the Imperial Guard itself which serves as uneducated and amoral xenophobes who are mass-bred and treated as currency by the Imperium with access to some nice and fancy toys which are more likely to cause teamkilling than damage to foes</strike> [[Blam|'''*BLAM*''' HERESY!]], and lastly there are the Tyranids who are 40k's version of ungodly numbers faction crossed with the [[Ogre Kingdoms]] motivation to eat everything in sight (though for different reasons). The [[Hrud]] used to be the Space Skaven, as in giant dieselpunk rat people, but that was pretty much retconned. They look different now (on the rare occasion they are mentioned in the fluff), so the only actual space Skaven are the Veer-Myn from [[Warpath]] by [[Mantic Games]]. Their models aren't the greatest things ever, but offer great potential for conversions into stuff for Clan Skryre and Warlock Engineer stuff for Fantasy. It looks like the recent Skitarii model releases may have taken inspiration from the Skaven aesthetic (though not gameplay) with their many steampunk-styled weapons, most notably the Transuranic Arquebus and Radium Jezzail. Alternatively, the Genestealer Cults are a particularly close match gameplay-wise, with lots of ambushing troops and monsters backed up by armor and artillery.

==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.

[https://pungaminiatures.com/ 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==
<gallery>
Image:Skaven.jpg|The original Skaven Clans.
Image:SkavenNutshell.png|Pretty much any Skaven, pretty much all of the time.
</gallery>

==See Also==
* [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Skaven|Warhammer Tactics/Skaven]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Skaven]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Masterclan|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Masterclan]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Clans_Verminus|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Verminus]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Clan_Moulder| Age of Sigmar Tactics/Moulder]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Clan_Eshin|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Eshin]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Clans_Skryre|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Skryre]]
* [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven/Clans_Pestilens|Age of Sigmar Tactics/Pestilens]]
* [https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/57408867/ Sir Harumphington sets the record straight about these so-called "rat-men"]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV3CxvcF0/ Play this when a wave of rat men completely swamp your opponents army.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od06TLDO1CU/ “Underground” by Tom Waits, for any spelunking skaven.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaFIzPdxuF8 Every Skaven's idea of risk assessment in a nutshell]

==In Other Media==
While not ripped off as much as some of the other concepts Warhammer <strike>created</strike> expanded upon from existing sources, like Mesoamerican lizard people or Orcs/Goblins with green skin, Skaven have helped popularize rat people as a more standard fantasy race in a few places. Its theorized by some that the inclusion of [[Nezumi]] in the Asiatic settings of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and [[Magic: The Gathering]] were inspired by the popularity of Skaven. Still, Skaven as a whole remain one of the most iconic things that are wholly unique to Warhammer. The League Of Legends character Twitch is clearly inspired by Skaven and has a line referencing them, although he lacks the insane flamboyancy compared to the setting he's in that Skaven have. They even had enough mainstream awareness to be referenced by British journalist Stewart Lee in the Guardian (comparing Brexit negotiations to Plague Monks, naturally).

The most direct and unexpected place for them to appear is being referenced to exist in both the Japanese and English versions of the Japanese anime [[Goblin Slayer]], listed off as a type of monster to specialize in studying. Just the idea of a Skaven Slayer could also be nod to [[Gotrek & Felix]].

==Non-Canon Female Skaven==
{{Promotions}}
{{Heresy}}

So it's universally agreed upon both in and out of universe that the only appropriate response to meeting a skaven is to kill them on sight, right? Well in an astounding display of hypocrisy, some [[furries]] went "yeah but I kinda also want to cuddle one?" and further demonstrated just how mentally broken certain subtypes of that culture are. So, there is an undercurrent in the darker hidden recesses of /tg/ where furfags like to talk about non-Rat Mother female skaven. Many have tried arguing that, given the reverence for the Grey Seers, combined with the Chaotic tinge of the skaven, then surely there are rare female Grey Seers who are thus spared the fate of their sisters. Others have pointed that since Breeders are heavily dosed up with chemicals, then if that fate was spared for some reason, then surely female skaven would turn out to be at least as competent as their brothers. Still others note that skaven can't resist tinkering, so it's not impossible a Grey Seer or Master Moulder might make use of a "thinking Breeder".

And, in fact, this last argument one even has a dash of canon to it: in C.L. Werner's "Grey Seer" novel, [[Thanquol]] encounters a [[Grey Seer]] (Thratquee of Under-Altdorf) who owns two personal breeders he has [[fleshcrafting|"improved"]], granting them an unusual clarity of thought, freedom of motion and muscle hidden under their chub; built like a cross between a breeder and a [[Rat Ogre]], they're essentially the skaven equivalent of [[amazon]] bodyguards, and Thanquol is simultaneously horrified and a little impressed at the realization that these "harmless females" will actually kill any skaven who dare to threaten their mate. This makes them the ultimate bodyguards in the eternal backstab-fest that is skaven society.

All of these arguments are reaching, understandably (I mean, why not just work with the idea of some developing an immunity or something?). But that hasn't stopped fans from dabbling in fem-skaven [[Your dudes|homebrew characters]] or [[Rule 34|more cheesecake-level artwork]]. One infamous skaven-loving furry even created his own homebrew clan of renegade female skaven, Clan Sniek, an offshoot clan of Clan Eshin who scavenge on the outskirts of skaven society and raid weaker warlord clans to steal away their females to bolster their own numbers. Clan Sniek is also known to "dabble" with human men, for pleasure and/or procreative purposes; there's even a named Gutter Runner female in a relationship with an Imperial human. His artwork tends to pop up whenever a [[ratfolk]] thread does or the topic of non-Breeder female skaven arises.

Thus, the argument about whether or not Rat Mothers are interesting will probably rage forever. You'd think that with the talks of non-breeder females and Clan Sniek that there would be more Sniek, fem-rats, or even Skaven related stories in general at the Smut archive, but hey what are you gonna do? You can't fap it to femskaven stories if there are no femskaven stories.

<center>
<gallery>
Image:Femskaven 1.jpg|Fanart of femSkaven.
Image:Femskaven 2.jpg|More fanart depicting femSkaven experiments.
Image:Reaper Wererat Matriarch.png|The Reaper "Wererat Matriarch" for those wanting to field a non-giant female Skaven model.
Image:Wererat Female.jpg|What an unmodified female Skaven would probably look like.
Image:FemSkaven Chieftain Uberous.jpg|Breeder or no, female skaven would admittedly probably spend more time pregnant than not.
Image:Female Gutter Runner.jpg|Sneaking around in the human's storehouses clearly has its advantages.
Image:Female Poison Wind Globadier.jpg|
Image:Female Stormvermin.jpg|Being high in the clan's totem pole has its perks.
Image:Futa Master Molder.jpg|Some Master Moulders go [[dickgirl|a lot further]] than others when it comes to [[fleshcrafting]].
Image:Female Stormvermin Fangleader.jpg
File:Longhaired skaven assassin.jpg
</gallery>
</center>

;Clan Sniek
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Gutter Runner of Clan Sniek.jpg|A Gutter Runner of Clan Sniek; the clan relies on stealth for survival.
Image:Assassin of Clan Sniek.jpg|An Assassin of Clan Sniek; they tend to focus more on other skaven than on humans.
Image:Packmaster of Clan Sniek.jpg|Clan Sniek's packmasters specialize in capturing human men - sometimes as slaves, sometimes as breeding partners.
Image:Master Assassin of Clan Sniek.jpg|Almost Prophet, a mutant female skaven born with pale fur but no horns, Master Assassin and founder of Clan Sniek.
Image:Grey Seer of Clan Sniek.jpg|Clan Sniek's Grey Seer yearns to dethrone Almost Prophet and rule the clan herself.
Image:Master Molder of Clan Sniek.jpg|Tichiz, Clan Sniek's Master Moulder, is perhaps the most feared skaven in the clan.
Image:Sorceress of Clan Sniek.jpg|Vaquit Silverspit, a female skaven sorcerer, wields great power in Clan Sniek for both her mastery of the Dark Lore of Stealth and her expertise with her rifle.
Image:Verminqueen.jpg|The mysterious Verminqueen is the dark patron of Clan Sniek.
Image:Audience with the Verminqueen.jpg|Sometimes, the Verminqueen deigns to tryst with mortals.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}
{{Skaven-Clans}}
{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category:Skaven]]
[[Category:Furry]]