The Scourge of Skavendom: the Antlered Rat By Imperator-Zor Watch

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In the halls of the Council of Thirteen matters are discussed by the leaders of the Skaven. The rise and fall of clans, the assassination of particular underling leaders, the digging of new tunnels and the collapse of old ones, the execution of their various plots and the affairs of the Man-Things, Green-Things, Elf-Things, Dwarf-Things, Lizard-Things and Chaos-Things. But there is one thing that they speak of in hushed tones whenever reports of it come up. Something that, as much as they would loathe to admit it, they fear. Something which is spreading through the Under Empire that they state (at least openly) needs to be burned out. They refer to this development as "The Mark" and "The Marked Ones", referring to the upward pointing triangle which is the symbol of this corruption and of the source of said Mark, which they refer to as "Her". The same is said by the handful of Warlock Engineers, Warlords, Plaque Priests, Grey Seers, Stormvermin, Packmasters, Assassins and disposable slaves which are employed by the council to deal with this corruption. If a Common Slave or Clanrat reports the symbol etched into a wall, he would likely be unceremoniously disposed of. If they report of "The Antlered Rat" or her image, that becomes a certainty.



Exactly how she began or arose is not clear and one that the Skaven do not want to answer. What is known in no uncertain terms is that she is an Anathema to the Horned Rat. She is the Goddess of Altruism, Compassion and Cooperation. Her followers live in small mobile clusters moving around the Underempire in search of opportunities. Their general strategy at first involves infiltration, some of their number slips into a skaven lair as a clanrat or as a slave. Once in they find some Skaven who's down on his luck and help him out. They'd provide scraps of food to their fellow slaves, assist in a task without prompting and make themselves an asset to those low level Skaven. To those down on their luck having one willing to provide aid out of the blue is an asset worth providing and out of self interest they'll continue to interact with them. Once that is achieved their presence gradually has an impact on them and eventually they become receptive to ideas spoon fed to them. First that betrayal can have negative outcomes just as easily positive and that allies are resources with enough value not to casually destroy. Then that unprompted cooperation is often a worthwhile investment in the long term and that others might have ideas worth considering. For slaves this usually comes with a promise of freedom and attempts made to break a large number of Skavenslaves out. At that point they are taken to meet other followers of the Antlered Rat to receive her blessing, this finalizes a process quickly which can happen on it's own more gradually, although it's success rate is not 100%. Once that happens their pelt becomes finer and fuller (most cult members mussy it up to offset this) and they are fully capable of feeling sympathy, pity, valving others as more than just tools and a desire to help even if left unrewarded and they are taught the ultimate truth: if Skavendom is to become a better place they'll have to fix it and be prepared to die to see said future achieved. They leave their mark as they go.



The leaders of the followers Antlered Rat are priestesses: little different from their male counterparts in terms of size or intelligence. These are either young female pups spirited away to be raised by the children of the Antlered Rat to be blessed by her or are the daughters there-of. Those female pups sired by those Reformed by the Antlered Rat from breeders will not become breeders and are usually either culled or sold into slavery. Not all Daughters of the Antlered Rat become priestesses, many of them pass as male and aide the cause alongside their brothers. Those that do become priestesses grow Antlers of their own and the larger the nest they lead the more likely they are to develop magical powers and the stronger said powers become. A few of Clan Skryre have been turned to the Antlered Rat and in secret workshops make machines to better aide their cause, sharing notes and refining their cause. Only Grey Seers are immune due to their link to Horned Rat and they some power to reverse Reformation, but in the presence of too many Reformed Skaven their powers wain.



The General response of the Council of Thirteen to the Antlered Rat and her followers is simple: they need to be fought tooth and claw and purified form the Horned Rat's domain. However many of them have a tendancy to cheat on this. For all their threat to the status of Skavendom many clan leaders or middle management can see that minions which don't casually kill each other over a lost warp token can be a boost to productivity and by extension a means to boost them up the heirarchy. They can profit from them, sell the lot to someone else for a pittance and have that stooge die while they sit on a new powerbase as the Horned Rat intended. This ploy often backfires on them in various ways, but unless those risks are truly suicidal most Skaven are willing to take them.



Made this just to annoy a certain branch of the Warhammer Fantasy fandom. You know the ones.



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