The Skaven

The Skaven are a race of mutant ratmen. They are true beings of Chaos, their every thought turned towards selfish advancement and destructive conquest. The enemy's first warning is the scrabbling of a million claws and the skin-crawling susurrus of thousands of furry bodies squirming over and around one another. The sound carries up from the dark and noisome depths, mingling with a verminous reek that grows thicker and more cloying by the moment.

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Military report: Review reconnaissance mission (Location: Classified) section 13.b: Testimony 1: Albert Stahl - Paranormal Division - SS-Oberschütze Condition of respondent: Post-traumatic stress disorder

"Countless red and staring eyes flash in the gloom, and torchlights glints upon chisel fangs and rusted blades. Terrible witch-lights flare to life as the swarm bearsdown upon our squad. Dark sorcery and malign technologies spitting their fury in the instant before the tidal wave of flesh and fur hits home. Then the Skaven crash headlong into their enemies and sweep us away in a frenzy of horror and blood."

Recommended treatment: 'neutralization'
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These humanoid vermin stand perhaps a little shorter than a grown man, their build wiry, their limbs coded with whip-thin muscle and ending in vicious hand- and foot-claws. Their jaws are dominated by wicked incisors, their red eyes glint with with vicious cunning and their every movement is jerky and swift, filled with a nervous energy. Skaven are cowardly and selfish creatures, as likely to squirt the musk of fear and flee if faced with a fair fight. However, in large numbers they gain a kind of rabid courage, and when enough ratmen mass into an onrushing skaventide they prove unstoppable.

The Skaven are devious and inventive creatures whose weapons and wargear, though unstable, are nevertheless ruinously powerful. Their technologies and magic are powered by the foul substance known as warpstone: the most dread substance known to all races in Namiria. The true Skaven shock troops wield all manner of devastating weaponry, from heavy halberds and long-barrelled rifles to steam-driven rotary cannons, warpstone-fuelled fire throwers and weighty glass globes that release the dreaded poisoned wind when they shatter amongst the foe.