Editing Skaven (section)

==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.

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