A Short History of the Skaven Race
"We are Skaven, and We Shall Inherit!"
- Dogma of the Grey Seers
The Origins of the Skaven race are shrouded in mystery and legend. A very controversial subject, the birth of the Skaven race is considered by some to be the result of Genetic engineering gone wrong, they theorize that an ancient people tried to create an artificial slave race to do most of their manual labour only for it to rebel and exterminate them at a later date. The supporters of this theory usually make references to the very "Creation Myth" of the Skaven themselves, who describe how the Horned One (the main deity of the Skaven) cursed and destroyed an older civilization so that His children, the Skaven themselves, could take their place. Nevertheless, most scholars believe that this story is just meant to highlight the main tenets of Skaven society: that trickery and deceit are signs of cunning and strength, that the weak exist to be preyed upon and subjugated, and that the Skaven are destined to eventually "inherit" the possessions of the lesser races, who are either too weak or naive to survive the Skaven greater shrewdness or are destined to fall in the face of adversity while the Skaven can survive all tribulations (who is ultimately the general theme of the myth).
Moving outside of legends and wild theories it is generally believed that the Skaven evolved naturally several millennia ago, gaining prominence with their superior reproduction rate and overall versatility. Even then it is quite hard to verify the exact dates of Skaven Prehistory and pre-Modernity, as written history is largely shunned among the practical minded and Social Darwinist Skaven, very few records have survived through the ages and no stable dating system has ever been established. It is widely accepted by scholars that even in the far past there existed a Council of Thirteen and that it should have guided Skavendom through all of its pre-modern era, this fact is considered common knowledge among the Skaven and even before its reestablishment two centuries ago the idea of a ruling Council of all major Clans was widely known among the populace.
At some point in time though this original Council must have disbanded among increased infighting and open civil war. It is believed that when Skavendom first harnessed the power of the Atom, perhaps around 800 years ago, they used it far too liberally to utterly destroy their enemies and rival Clans. The catastrophic result of these unconsidered actions is known as "First Genocidal War", that almost wiped out Skavendom under Atomic fire and the rubble of collapsed metropolis. Modern scholars estimate that around 90% of the total population died during those catastrophic years, the high levels of devastation were most likely the cause of the very few information we have about the previous periods of Skaven history compared to more recent eras.
But the Skaven are a resistant and stubborn race, just as their myths say, and the survivors who inherited the devastated world quickly rebuilt a modicum of civilization. Their natural resistance to Radiation and high population growth allowed them prosper even in the hostile radioactive wastelands of the new Skavenblight and, in merely two hundred years of constant regrowth, the Skaven had recovered all of their lost knowledge and were ready to start their first space programs aimed at the colonization of their two moons. To this day a large part of the Galactic community is amazed at the quick recovery that the Skaven were capable of, where many other races would have just gone extinct and disappeared into the void the Skaven almost shrugged off and came back stronger.
During the phase of rebuilding the Council was not restored, the Clans mistrusted each others far too much and the following political events prevented all attempts at restoring the Council. It was Clan Skryre that built the first functioning spaceships in Skavendom around 600 years ago, thus rising to relevance as undisputed masters of all advanced technology among their people; the claims that the Clan was older than that and was also responsible for the invention of Atomic power, steam engines and the wheel are most likely just propaganda and fabrications. Very soon Clan Skryre came to dominate the other Clans, after the successful colonization of Skavenblight's two moons they could freely threaten their Home Word with orbital bombardment forcing many Clans into submission, but soon this dominance (who lasted nothing more than fifty years) was disrupted by the rising of Clan Moulder, the Geneticist branch of the Skryre Clan who was growing more and more disgruntled at the few resources allocated to their "experiments" by the Clan leaders.
The conflict between the "Skryre Hegemony" and the secessionist Moulder lasted for sixty bloody years and devastated the lunar colonies, the robotic armies of Clan Skryre clashed with the mutated creatures from the Moulder labs without that anyone could claim victory, in the meantime the Skavenblight's Clans had the chance to reclaim their independence and eventually gained the knowledge to build their own spaceships without Skryre's help. Under the constant threat of Overpopulation the lesser Clans autonomously started a new and sudden phase of Colonial expansion aimed at the other planets of their Solar system around 500 years ago, the Skryre warlords saw that their monopoly over spacecrafts was now lost for good and grudgingly accepted to end the conflict with Clan Moulder. Clan Moulder would eventually become one of the most powerful groups in the field of Genetic engineering of the modern Galaxy, even if their utter lack of professional (or Human) ethics led their products to be boycotted by almost everyone; the Moulder have also conserved a tendency to claim as their own creation any new species that surface in the Galaxy but so far they have yet to be taken seriously by the rest of the Galactic community.
Between 450 and 300 years ago the Skaven completed the colonization of their neighbouring planets and started their exploration of the rest of the Galaxy, coming into contact with several modern polities. Contact with the outside civilizations was seen as an opportunity for greater profits by most Clans, who started diplomatic relations with criminal lords and adventurous merchants, furthermore during this period Skavendom grew particularly divided and fragmented due to the increasing distances and the lack of a unified Government (the Skaven were one of the few civilizations to have started their space programs while still politically fragmented). It was in this period that Clan Eshin rose to prominence, but several assassination attempts against the Skryre leaders at the times of the Skryre Hegemony might indicate that this Clan already existed by several centuries, some even suggest that it was the Eshin Clan that fueled the entire Moulder rebellion. The Eshin in this period acted as hired assassins for many civilizations of the Galaxy and also as enforcers against those Clans whose behaviour was damaging Skavendom as a whole, their actions seem to suggest that they were simultaneously trying to stop any Clan from becoming too powerful and to keep the Clans loyal to the greater cause of the Skaven race. The Eshin of this period ruled from the shadows, allowing the Clans to do as they pleased as long as they didn't break few fundamental rules.
For a century this system allowed the Skaven to build a fledgling colonial empire, but eventually the uninhabited systems that could be easily colonized without opposition came to an end and the problem of Overpopulation soon became unsustainable. With the population growing to unsustainable levels so quickly not even the Eshin influence could keep the Clans together anymore, and between 300 and 250 years ago a general food crisis followed by ferocious resource wars and the age-old Clan rivalries led to a renewed period of crisis: nuclear weapons but also chemical and bacteriological warfare were used extensively in what was labelled by the scholars as the Second Genocidal Wars. Clan Pestilens profited greatly during this period by selling their viruses and plagues to the warring Clans while they themselves avoided Overpopulation by ruthlessly culling their own numbers, their influence further fueled the crisis allowing them to become the only bastion of political stability in the middle of endless massacres, an influence that survive to this day through their ascension to Greater Clan.
This new demographic disaster eventually created the necessary foundations for the great political upheaval that was the restoration of the old Council of Thirteen, this time strengthen by the restored influence and power of the religious order of the Grey Seers.
In picture: a Grey Seer being carried around in a ceremonial procession.
The rise of the Grey Seers utterly changed the political equilibrium of Skavendom, leading to an age of unprecedented political unity
Following the Second Genocidal War Skavendom was once again in ruin, and this time fragmented among several planets. The end of the period of crisis also brought an end to the dominance of Clan Pestilens who was promptly attacked by the other three great Clans who wished to cut it down to size. Even through the Skaven immediately started to rebuild their civilization the constant rivalry among Clans was slowing down the rebuilding phase considerably.
It was in this moment that the religious order of the Grey Seers, the traditional priestly caste of the Skaven people, took the matter into their own hands and used their great influence among the populace to challenge the greater Warlords themselves and put an end to the uncontrolled Clan warfare that was threatening Skavendom's very existence.
The Grey Seers are a very ancient order that always existed through Skaven history, being a privileged class who existed outside of Clan hierarchies and had the authority to force a Clan leader to obey to all their desires; the support of a Grey Seer has always been a powerful political weapon within Clan politics and making an enemy out of a Grey Seer was usually a death sentence for the blasphemous Chieftain. The power of this caste increased enormously around 230 years ago, when the Grey Seers stepped in with all of their influence into the power vacuum and forced the Greater Clans to restore the original Council of Thirteen, this time silently dominated by the Seers themselves. And so the modern "Skaven Federation" was born as a semi-totalitarian pseudo-religious dictatorship built around complete obedience to the Grey Seers' role as prophets of the Horned One and a strong emphasis on the Skaven "Manifest Destiny" to rise above the lesser races of the Galaxy and take their place when they would have become too weak to defend themselves.
The Cult of the Horned One was formally elevated as the Federation's only religion and the Grey Seers gained the power to condemn any other Skaven as Heretics if they failed to show proper respect to the Cult or the Grey Seers themselves, thus the Seers became a mixture of political leaders and inquisitor-figures that could easily (and legally) force the hands of the other Warlords to do their bidding. With the strong control that the centralized Cult exercised over Skaven society the devastation of the Second Genocidal Wars was quickly repaired and a new aggressive wave of Skaven expansionism begun: neighbouring polities were attacked and some even conquered by the ambitious Seers who wanted to build a mighty stellar empire and give Skavendom enough living territory to eliminate the threat of Overpopulation for good. Under the Grey Seers the Federation grew strong and relatively united and, over the course of almost two centuries of uncontested rule, the Skaven would become one of the main powers of the Galaxy in their own right.
Then, around 50 years ago, the Skaven expansion was eventually stopped due to contact with more powerful civilizations and empires. In the present day Overpopulation is again a grave threat to the Federation and it is said that the Grey Seers are feverishly trying to find new territories to dump the excess population. As their home Galaxy seems less and less hospitable some are suggesting to look at other Galaxies for a renewed colonization effort. Past history seems to suggest that in the coming years the Skaven Federation will have to face troubled times if it cannot find new worlds to colonize, and certainly the shrewd Grey Seers won't allow internal troubles to menace their newfound dominance over the ever-shifting politics of the Skaven Clans.
But the Skaven are overall unconcerned, for they know that they are born to survive any disaster and when the weaker peoples of the Galaxy will eventually fall they will be there to inherit what once belonged to their enemies.
