(upbeat music) ♪ Mega Bear the Boys ♪ ♪ Fox and Shane ♪ ♪ Such a nice, free, no laughs and chains ♪ ♪ Do what you love ♪ ♪ Roll it nice ♪ ♪ Take the safety, we're called as ice ♪ ♪ Don't think cold ♪ ♪ But the kids are real ♪ ♪ Crayola, action ♪ ♪ Throw it in my hair ♪ ♪ Walk, get me ♪ (upbeat music) (laughing) - Thanks, Trigy. Hey guys, welcome to Hobby Homies. I'm Shane. This is Vox. - Hey, what's up? - Trigy's behind the computer, doing... - Yeah. - ...everything he does best. (laughing) - And we are your weekly tabletop podcast. I nearly did it again, dude. - Yeah, but you did that. - We have one week off and my brain just reverts three years. - Yeah. Isn't that funny? We do that with rules as well. - Yep. - Whenever we play a game, I feel like... - Yep. - If we haven't played that game in a while, for some reason, it doesn't matter what we're playing. - It's like... - We revert to seventh edition. - Yeah. (laughing) - Does it matter if it's water? Actually, that's probably the best. - So what's your side armor? It's like we're playing Shadow Point. (laughing) - We're playing a card game. This is Evadale, what do you mean? What's your toughness? I think we can solve the chart. - The chart. - Hey, what are we doing today? - Dude, I am doing sweet FA and you're doing all the work. I'm talking about Skaven Lore. - I am so excited. - So am I. - I know nothing about Skaven, except for what me and Church have played in Vermintide. - Oh, you guys might know more than me. (laughing) So Skaven are my favorite faction from, I wanna say any universe. - Sure, it's a big call. - It's a big call, but I couldn't think, I spent all week trying to think of if that's a bold claim, but I'm like, no, it's pretty on the par. Maybe like the, if they're one A, then one B is crude. - Okay. - And 40K. - Yeah. - But I feel like if I could also have played Skaven in 40K. - You would? - Then crude wouldn't have even been on my radar. - I guess crude are quite Skaveny. - Yeah, they're humanoid anthropomorphic. I mean, they're avian, and pigeons are avian, and pigeons are rats of the sky. - Winged rats. - And rats are my favorite. So, I love Skaven. However, that actually made it really difficult to prepare. So this is a deep dive, by the way. - Yeah, good old fashioned deep dive. - Good old fashioned deep dive into Skaven lore, and we're actually gonna do this in two parts, which I'll talk about in a second. It was difficult to prepare because I love Skaven so much, and we've been playing this game in the tabletop wargaming scene for a decade. It made it very difficult to do this because so much of the information and lore and timelines and shit that I had in my head is out of order, and at odds with what Games Workshop is saying is canon, and whatnot. So, I had to forget everything, and relearn. And so, I went to the ancient libraries and the tombs. - Oh, yes. - The ancient scrolls and looked over all the texts, and now I bring to you. - You mean Wah-hah-pedia? - Wah-hah-pedia. Now, I bring to you what Wah-hah-pedia has told me. I should have included references. I would say my references for the following information are everything I could have found. It's old codexes of old, what do you call them? - Battle tomes? - Of scale, they're cool. - A lot of it is from the Warhammer fantasy role-playing game - Yeah. - Second edition supplement. - You were just saying about that. - Yep. - Called Children of the Horned Wrap. - Nice. - And other things. So, let's get into it, but we're gonna break it into two parts. I apologize for those who are watching on YouTube. You're gonna see me staring at my tome, my iPad. - The digital tome. - Of where I've taken all my notes. So we'll attack it in two parts. Part one, we're gonna build the foundations. - Yep. - Of your understanding of Skaven. Because a lot of you have probably just jumped like, there's a new edition of Warhammer that dropped today. - Featuring Skaven. - Yeah, Skaven Tired. - Yes. - Is the box set and they have a new, I guess a bit of a new take on their lore, which we'll get into in a few weeks when we hit part two. - Sure. - But you might be sitting there, being painting your Skaven. - Yep. - That you've gotten Skaven Tired. And you wanna know about Skaven lore? We're bringing it to you. - Hot and fresh. - Hot and fresh. - Lay it on, dude. - I don't know why. - Where are we starting? - All right, so. - Where are we starting? - On the universe. - Build the foundations. We're gonna talk about what are the Skaven like. - Yep. - We're gonna talk quite broadly. - Yeah, okay. - Why do they care about Warpstone? Who is the Great Horned Rat and the Origins of the Skaven? Part two, we're gonna learn more about who the Skaven were in the Old World. - Yep. - And then who they are now in the current day. - 'Cause they are one of the few races that transferred over. - Correct. - Right? - Yeah, they were introduced quite early on. 1986, they were introduced into a Warhammer fantasy battle second edition. - Yep. - And they've been around ever since. - Wow. - So what is that? 40 years of Skaven lore that we're gonna try and condense down into two apps. - Good luck. - Thanks. - So, what are the Skaven like? - I don't know, that's what I'm here for. - So, the Skaven humanoid ratmen characterized by their wiry emaciated frames, sharp claws and fur covered bodies, typically modeled with dark browns, grays and blacks, though albinos, Skaven. My favorite. Often a more powerful and/or of higher status. So, I actually found this part of the lore super cool. So when I made my spike claws swarm, I made one of them an albino skate. - Oh, yeah, with red eyes. - Yeah, exactly. So I thought that was cool. So obviously they're very rat-like, they've got BDI's that gleam with malicious intelligence. - Of course they do. - Prominent, gnawing teeth. They exhibit hunch postures and rapid skittish movement, reflecting their nervous and paranoid behavior. Personality-wise, the Skaven are almost entirely self-serving. Their society and individual behaviors are driven by extreme self-interest and a survival of the fittest mentality. Every skaven is primarily focused on its own gain and advancement, often at the expense of others. Kind of like me. - Kind of like society in general. - Yeah, I know, they're a brilliant reflection of society. The self-serving nature manifests in constant treachery betrayal and infighting within their clans. Even the leaders in warlords are constantly looking over their shoulders, knowing that their underlings are plotting to overthrow them. - That's so funny. 'Cause it's like that underworld's war band. Is it Scriches? - Cyclo's warm. - And like the two I.C. is like, so-and-so, they're almost trusted. - Yeah, yeah, it's like, yeah. - That's like the highest honor of a rat is to be almost. - Almost trusted. - Yeah, yeah. - I'm funny, I plan to kill you. - This relentless pursuit of personal parents, survival means the Skaven alliances are typically fragile and short-lived. Held together only by mutual benefit or immediate necessity. They're quick to abandon or betray allies if it means saving their own skins to gain an advantage. Their obsession with warpstone further fuels this self-serving behavior, as they'll stop at nothing to acquire this precious resource, even if it means sacrificing their own kind. Not themselves of this. - Oh, no. - But their brothers around them. - Indeed. - So, a lot of when I go through this Skaven law, I assume maybe you've loosely heard of Age of Sigma, Warhammer. Maybe you've smacked a purchase on the old Skaven-tied box. - Possibly. - Or a split, perhaps? - Or a split. Or maybe you're just like, "Oh, I'm loosely familiar with Skaven, but don't really know." So I'm assuming you know very little. - You would assume correct about me. - And I was basically like, how do I write this episode for Shane? - Yeah, thank you. - So, I mentioned warpstone there. - I've heard of warpstone. - Yes? - I've heard much about warpstone. - What would you say? You know about warpstone. - It's a magic glowing rock. - Oh, well, okay. I wrote a lot, but thanks for watching. That's basically it. I will see you next week. So, understanding Skaven requires understanding warpstone and their insatiable desire for it, because they have a thirst that cannot be quenched. - Oh, so it's crack. - I'm not gonna say it's crack. - I'm not gonna say that Skaven's desire for warpstone is a representation of our desire for plastic bottles. - Oh, okay. - Crack. But it's not far off. So warpstone is a substance that is often considered to be cure, cure. - Cure, pure, pure. - Thank you. - Look, you're welcome. - Pure magic, solidified. It appears as a dark crystalline substance that can glow with an eerie, sickly green light. Its appearance is often described as unsettling and malevolent, reflecting its danger and corruptive nature. - Yeah, right. - Kinda like our backlog of plastic crack. So why do they desire warpstone? So deeply, Shane. - I don't know. - I'm glad you are. - I'm glad you are. - I want a timeline. - I'm here to learn. (laughing) - A, it's a power source. So warpstone is incredibly potent and versatile source of magical energy. This gave and use it to fuel their dark sorceries, power their twisted technologies and enhance their physical and magical abilities. - Yep. - It is the cornerstone of their scientific, scientific-- - It's a word. - And magical. I made it up. Advancements, enabling them to create devastating weapons and terrifying creatures. B, DOS. It has religious significance. Warpstone is seen as a holy substance blessed by their deity, the Great Horned Rat, which I'll explain about later. - Sure. The acquisition and use are intertwined, intertwined, with their religious practices and beliefs. Consuming or utilizing warpsone is often seen as a way to gain favor with the Great Horned Rat, which is a powerful motivator for the Skaven. It also has mutagenic properties. - Ah, yes. - So warpsone can cause rapid and often beneficial mutations. - Are there any unofficial mutations? - I'm glad you asked. Skaven are always seeking to enhance their strength and abilities, and these mutations can be seen as gifts that make them more powerful or resilient. - Of course. - However, these mutations are unpredictable and can also lead to horrific deformities. Adding to the inherent chaos of Skaven society. I don't know. I feel like every ad-horrent deformity is just a blessing. - Yeah, of course. - I mean-- - That's right. - Like if you're a rat, what's down from there? - There's not much, like maybe a cockroach. - Imagine you become a cockroach. - Are you gonna be fun for a little while? - Yeah. - Until like you found, or until a bird found you. - Yeah, facts. - Or a cat or something. - Do you remember animals? - How could I ever forget animals? (laughing) - Do you actually remember animals? - Yes. (laughing) - Yeah. - That's the pinnacle of '90s, dude. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But even might've even started like earlier, right? Like maybe like late '80s? - It was probably '90s. - It was probably early '90s, maybe. But yes, I remember. - So I remember. - So I remember. - Imagine, like there was Anamorph didn't like cool stuff. - Oh yeah, like a lion or something. - Or an eagle. I think one of them was trapped as a hawk or something Tobias. - Sure. - That was his name, yeah. Fun fact. Anyway. (laughing) That's not a deep dive into Anamorphs, that's in six weeks. - If you got trapped as an eagle, I'd put you in a cage. - I would-- - I wouldn't-- - Yeah. - Yeah, nah, I feel like I'm in a cage already. So might as well have wings. It has economic and social status. Possession of warpstone is a significant status symbol within Scaven Society. Those who control large quantities of warpstone hold immense power and influence, allowing them to rise in the hierarchy. - Right, so like-- - Which is the goal of warpstone. - So warpstone is like money and power combined. - Yeah, it's like that episode of The Simpsons where it's like first you get the honey. Is it first you get the bees, then you get the honey, then you get the women. - Yeah. - It's like that, but with warpstone. - Sure. - And no bees. - And just women rats. - It's also fun fact, as I was diving into the tombs, I was like, there is a breakdown of their breeding in intricate detail. I was deep in the tombs. - Of course, there is. (laughing) - I was deep in the tombs. - Yep, there's a crude breeding for goodness sake. - Give him a back rub. (laughing) - So, because you asked. (laughing) The women are rare. - Oh. - And so there's probably about one woman in every 10 rats. And they don't-- - That poor, poor lady. - Oh yeah. And they don't, well, they don't ever have to like go above ground. - Sure. - They're protected, they're worshipped, they're appreciated like women today, am I right? (laughing) - Jesus. (laughing) - And so they breathe, they nurse, they bring forth the future generations, they're almost demigods below ground, which is cool. Anyway, addictive nature. Warpstone is highly addictive, both physically and psychologically. Skaven, it's like crap. Skaven who are exposed to or consume warpstone, often develop an insatiable craving for it. This addiction drives them to create. - So they just eat it? - I'm sorry, I'm interrupting, but-- - Yeah, well yeah, if they want to gain some of the mutagenic properties of it, they may consume it. - Cool. - This addiction drives them to extreme lengths to acquire more perpetuating, perpetuating. - That's a word. - That's a shame. (laughing) - Yeah, it is. - You're welcome. - I'm representing it. - This is one of the day drives anymore. (laughing) - Perpetuating, yeah, perpetuating a cycle of dependence and obsession. - Intertweet. - It's a toy. (laughing) Yeah, it's a lot impact, I'm gonna read quick and I'm dumb. (laughing) - And we didn't have a camera on us. - Yeah, true, true, you're lucky. - I could literally sit there with my face and read it. - Yeah, but I mean, you're also blind. - Yeah, that's true. - That's not your fault. - All right, so I've talked a little bit about, all right, so now you understand Scaven, kind of what they are. - Warpstone. - Warpstone. - Why they desire it. - Let's look at the great-- - Pretty percussive. - Horned rat. - Demigods. - Exactly. So in Warhammer, there have always been four main chaos gods that represent different aspects of chaos and corruption. - Sure. - We got corn, what's corn, Shane? - Cereal. - Yeah, correct, that's corn flakes. (laughing) So that's close enough. - Yeah. - Seats, no, corn is the blood god. - Is the god of war, violence, and bloodshed. - Skull is for the skull throne. - That's right, cinch. - The god of change? - Hell yeah, brother, preach it. Nurgle. - The god of pestilency disease. - Flinesh. - No, that's good. - The god of lust and abundance. - Yeah, the god of excess. - Excess. - Pleasianism. - Sure. - And all of these gods are sort of a reflection of different parts of, I wouldn't say human society 'cause obviously in the, I was gonna say mortar ramps, no more ramps, I don't know. (laughing) - The old world. - There are many different races. But yeah, so there's the four main chaos gods. - Sure. - That we just mentioned. And although not traditionally one of the original four chaos gods, the great horned rat is the deity of the scaven and is ascended to the status of a chaos god. - Wow. - He represents deceit, cunning and the essential will hunger for power. His followers, the scaven worship him as their supreme god, believing that he grants them strength and success in exchange for their loyalty and constant scheming. - Do you feel like the great horned rat tries to hang out with the other chaos gods? And they're just like, we gotta change our hangout night because he knows where we meet and when we meet. - It's a fun fact. Yes. The chaos gods have a discord server and one of them accidentally gave it to the horned rat. - Yep. - And so. - Of course. - The horned rat sneaks in there sometimes, but. - Jumps in their voice chat. - What I love about the great horned rat is that he doesn't like aspire to be one of the chaos gods. - Okay. - He considers himself to be the only chaos god. - Oh wow. - And that they should be subordinates to him. - So he's just going and they're just swinging it around. - He's some bro. If someone's swinging it around, he's just the great horny rat. I mean, sorry, horned rat. I read that wrong. We're bad. - Right. - Yeah. He's swinging it. - No doubt. - Because he sees himself as like he's the great horned rat who created a race. - Sure. - And created his followers where he sees the other deities as things that were created by the followers. - Okay. - He thinks they're head canon for people. Whereas he thinks he exists. - Yeah, right. I mean, he probably knows that he exists. I owed it soon. So anyway, what's cool about the great horn rat is, as you'll see soon, he ascended to the status of God through his scheming and cunning, unlike the other gods. He created his own race of followers, which I just touched on. - Yeah. - So that kind of lays the foundations of the three main things you need to understand about the scaven. - Yeah. - Now we're going to talk about the story of the scaven origin. - Sure. - This is the most iconic story that there is for the origin of scaven. And it's called The Doom of Kavazar. - Okay. - Sometimes referenced as the first written encounter of the scaven. It's a tillian poem with 13 stanzas that goes as follows. Before I read that, the number 13 is the number of the great horned rat, which you will see repeated throughout part one and part two. - Sure. - Many times over. Probably 13 times if you're keeping tabs at home. - If you're playing along at home. - Ooh, count. - So before I dive in to what is the rest of the episode and along encounter, what are your thoughts so far? Is that poor myself and another Bruce? - My thoughts so far. - Have you learned anything? - I learned several things. - Okay, cool. - Yep. - Sweet. (laughing) - No, that's good. That's the aim. - I think you're doing a good job, dude. - Thanks, man. - That's all right. Any time. - I'm actually excited to hear more about this tale. This tale is, it was one of the most exciting things I read as a youth. 'Cause this tale is as old as Warhammer, as old as Skaven. - Sure. - It was published in the very first, what do you call it? The Warhammer Second Edition. Not the rule book, but the very first, like, Skaven supplement. - Okay, yeah. - Anyway, so the Doom of Caves are, has 13 stanzas, which means 13 sections. And I'm just gonna read through them in succession. Maybe skip over useless bits for time's sake. Let's get into it. - Let's do it. - Once there was a great city, a city where man and dwarf lived in harmony. In keeping with the natures of its people, the city was built both above and below the earth, with man ruling those places above, and dwarves ruling those places below, was a time of plenty and all were content. What a great start. - Oh, it just, it sounds like heaven. - Then one day, it was decided amongst the men of the city, that they must give praise to their gods for all their good fortune. Accordingly, they made plans to build a great temple, a temple greater than the world had ever seen, topped by a single tower as tall as the sky. And so, having sought the advice and counsel of the dwarves and their halls below, the men of the city said about their work, knowing that when the temple was complete, the gods would send them even greater fortune as a reward for their endeavors. - Of course. - That's just how math works. - That's right. - I give you a. - Yeah. - You give me a. - Yeah. - And eventually, someone gets a D. Weeks became months. Months became years, and still the men of the city built growing old and gray, so long had their labors lasted, that they passed their task in time to their sons. And their sons grew old and passed their work to their sons, who likewise grew old and passed to theirs, until at last after many generations of ceaseless labor, the foundations and first structures of the temple lay complete. - Sounds like a road mix. - Yeah, big time. And they could begin the tower. - Wow, have they even started the tower yet? - Yeah, so I want, imagine there's a temple, I imagine it's 20 stories high. - Okay, that's true. - And on top of that, they need to build a tower that reaches the heavens, that's a goal. - Yeah. - So, further years passed as generation after generation of men lived and worked and died to raise the tower, with each generation, the work grew harder. For as the tower grew, so it became more and more difficult to bring the stone to the top. And finding their progress, becoming even slower and their work still incomplete, the people of the city began to despair. Imagine it's been hundreds of years and you're like, you know what, it's getting real tough. - Bro, I just like call it like halfway to the heavens, be like, this is a base camp. - Yeah. - Let's be happy with this and then we'll go for the summit tomorrow. - Yeah, well, yeah. It was then a stranger came among them. - Okay. - A hooded man in a cloak of gray, a man who claimed great power and told them, he would finish their tower in a single night. Of which they've told hundreds of years, a single night. If they would grant him but a single burn, when asked what the burn was, he told them he wished simply to add his own dedication to the gods, to the structure of the tower. - Sure. - And thinking this was a small price, the people of the city, made bargain with the stranger. - Okay. - Said you're on. - Said, all right, man, one night, I mean shit. What do we got to lose? - We've had some contractors in yours so far looking like the best one. - Yeah. And that's pretty cheap. - Yeah, I was just 40 mil. You want to put a, what, a token up there? - She's a little something in one brick. - Say, great dude was here, sure. Dust came and as the last redness of the descended sun fader from the sky, the stranger entered the unfinished temple. Pause, I want to mention I didn't write this. - No, we know. (laughing) - This isn't fanfic. (laughing) This is an actual piece of Warhammer lore. I'm reading the exact words. - Vibatum. - Vibatum. - Mm-hmm. - Darkness fell, the clouds covered the moons while they're homes of the people of the city. Waiters to see if the stranger could complete this task. - Like sure you'd hear him. - Ping, ping, (laughing) Until with midnight approaching, they went once more to the temple square, went and saw a great wander. Four up above them, the tower of the temple now stood complete. - Whoa, he didn't have a nightmare. - I know, bro. That's some, I mean, you pay for that. - Yeah, yeah. - Rising like a great land, stabbing towards the heavens, pure and white. And at the tower's very peak, a great rune inscribed bell hung gleaming in the moonlight. Rejoice in the work of so many generations of their fathers was done, the people of the city turned in search of the stranger, seeking to praise him. But of the stranger, there was no sign. - Oh. - Then, with the coming of midnight, the bell struck unbidden once. Twice, thrice, the great bell told. It's heavy and doom-laden tones carrying across the city. Four, five, six times, it beats slow. And even the pulse of a, even like the pulse of a bronze giant. - Oh, wow. - Seven, eight, nine. And with each ring, the bell grew even louder, sending the people of the city staggering back from the temple, clutching there is. - Good, damn. - Turn it down. - Yep. - 10, 11, 12 above in the sky. (clears throat) The sky seemed to grow dimmer while the glow of Morris Lab. I don't actually know what that is. I had to Google it, and I still don't really understand. Grew even more bright. It might be the name for their moon. - Sure. - 'Cause they couldn't call it moon. - Google, no. - Don't copyright that. - 13. And at the 13th stroke of the infernal bell lightning split the skies and thunder answered it, then all grew dark and silent. - It's broken. - Imagine that. Imagine, like, I'm not gonna pay him 'cause that bell is broken. The tower's complete, it pierces the sky. - Yep. - But the bell, too loud. - Too loud. - 30, my eerie. - And one extra tall. - Also, like, yeah, that's 12 hours in a day. Why tall 13 times? - Yeah. - Frightened by the rings they had seen, but believe the bell had at last stopped ringing. The people of the city retreated to their beds, thinking that come the dawn, they would try to enter the temple once more. The dawn never came. Next morning, they arose to find the sky, sorry, shrouded in brooding storm. Clouds that blotted out the sun, and with these clouds came rain. The rain was black like ash and fell in heavy downpours, puddling the streets with dark, iridescent colors. I imagine oil. - Sounds like oil. - Everything that it just, yeah. It's sticky, people are slipping over it, it's oil. - It sounds awful. - It sounds horrible. Day after day, the rain still continued in each night. The entrances of the temples, below it sealed shut against the best efforts of man. The bell told 13 times at midnight, and so, as days became weeks and weeks became months, and still, the rains were unceasing. - It's grown more aggressive, it's a moth. - It's a mosquito, isn't it? - Oh, it's massive, look at that. - Yeah, it's huge. - That's massive. - That's a warpstone-fueled mosquito I've ever seen one. Their crops long ago failed, and the people of the city huddled, dwelling with fear-noring in their hearts. Messages were sent to faraway places in search of AIDS, but as you can expect, never came back. Oh, right, the AIDS. I mean-- - Wouldn't it be in search of AIDS? - I mean, I copy pasted it, and it says AIDS, dude. - Oh, no, you're right, I read it wrong, in search of AIDS. It's like, how is that an upgrade? You've already got plague. Why do many AIDS when you do this trick? The elders of the city went to see the dwarves once more. Their time to demand their aid. They told the dwarves just one, just one D-No-S thing. Goodness. - Thank you. - They told the dwarves that they must share their food and allow the people of the city to come and live underground, but the dwarves met these demands with angers, telling them that the elders, telling them that their tunnels were flooded and their food stock had been devoured by rats. - Oh, it's begun. - In the ruins of the city above each day became worse, and driven to despair, the people began to rail against the gods that they had once cherished, saying that they had forsaken them. Some turned to worship dark powers, calling on all the princes of evil to aid them in their time of need, but no answer came. Instead, the rats grew bolder, worse. They had now grown both in size and number. Lords now of the broken city, they roamed at will, feeding on the dead and dragging those two weak to fight them. Men lived as hunted creatures in their own city, and with every midnight, the Great Baller topped the tower struck 13, the sound seemingly ever more brazen and triumphant. - We're almost at the end, this is where it takes a... Incredible time. - At last, in desperation, the remaining people of the city took what weapons they had and began to pound upon the door that led to the dwarves' halls beneath them, demanding entrance. Hearing no answer, they took up fallen beams and battered their way within to find the tunnels below were dark and empty. Descending they found the dwarves' ancient halls of kinship deserted, but with a few piles of gnawed bones and scraps of torn cloth to give testament to the fates of those who had once lived there. - Wow. - And then glittering in the darkness of the dying light by their torches, the people of the city saw they were surrounded by a thousand times, a thousand pairs of red, malevolent eyes. Like a vast swarm shaped of liquid midnight, the rats attacked, and standing back to back out numbered in the darkness, the shattered remnants of the once proud people of the city fought for their lives, but to no avail, their hour was passed. And so it was screaming and shrieking for mercy that the people of the city finally passed from this world, whilst above them, as though in mocking answer to their scream, the great bell struck, 13 once more. And that's it. - That's cool, man. - And that's the origin of the Scaven. So there's a different, like possibly more reliable version of these events written by the dwarves that was later found. - Oh yeah. - That account goes into detail about the events after the bell chimed 13 times. So there's a lot of the same stuff. The rain fell and with it pestilence and a rat came, sneaking into storehouses and food supplies. The local populace became mutated variants of their former selves due to the plague. Fur tufts and elongated features with vicious and hungry nature, both above and below ground, the city was eating itself alive. - Yeah. - And so in the original story where the dwarves denied people entrance, the dwarves say that was because they thought they were battling against the Scaven. - Like they thought they had it worse. - They thought they had it worse and they were trying to keep the Scaven from getting to the top world. And then eventually, they opened their doors out of necessity only to find that the humans were fighting the same thing. And then they finally fought back to back against their threats and the same demise for both of them, which I think is a cooler account and kind of probably more realistic for the Scaven. - Yeah. - Slowly turning people against each other and. - Yeah. - Yeah. So that was cool. There are some really old interesting stories from like that old tomb that I found. - Yeah. - A couple of them are highlight because they almost act as like pre-ludes the doom of Kavzaa. So there's a story about a city overrun by giant rats and they're like starters rats. They get bigger, slowly over on the city. And then they, that city, this is from like, they say year four. So like the dawn of man almost. - Yes. - Yep. - The dawn of being able to account for years. - Yep. - And so. - To one guy's like, we should start writing this shit down. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I figured out how to write. - Yep. - Let's write about the giant rats. And so, you know, it was like the, they were on the brink of destruction at that city and they figured out how to, they're like, all right, this is what we're gonna do. Everyone off the streets at like midnight. - Yep. - And what we'll do is we'll boil up a bunch of cheese. - Oh yeah. - Have it melt. - Like a fondue. - And that fondue. Make a big off fondue. - Nice. - And have the rats pour into the city and then we'll flood the city. - Wouldn't they be like that? - What's that? - Wouldn't the rats like that? - Well, apparently they've flooded the city and they killed all the rats. And so, they then, for like generations, had a festival on that day where they would make big old cheese things and celebrate the killing of all those rats. - Oh, cool. - And that felt like a bit of a prelude. Remember that, store that in your brain for when in a couple of weeks we talk about part two. - Yep. - 'Cause I feel like that has a really cool analogy with some stuff that happens later. There's also another story that happened before this where it talks about, they call it, it's the story of rat boy. So basically, a kid was born with six toes, his father tried to lop it off. - Yeah, he's just like-- - His money sane father would die. - Yeah, it's like, well, you got six toes? Boom. I want you to be a weirdo and society. - You get picked on. - Yeah, exactly. And so, but the mother was like, "Oh, no, no, no, don't do it." And so he did. He got picked on for years. He was sort of an outcast. His family loved it. - Rat boy. - Rat boy. And finally, a wizard kind of like took him in and was like, "Oh, I think you're special." And he was like, "Oh, cool, I'm special." And groomed him, basically. And tied like a stone to his foot and got him to do chores, which was like put rats in all the storehouses and stuff. And he kind of was like, he kind of became scared of the wizard and didn't want to like not do it. - Yeah, yeah. - And eventually that leg became like a rat leg. - Sure. - And he became more rat-like. But when he saw his rat leg, he was like kind of overcome with madness and adored his leg and became rat boy. - Okay. - So he leaned into it. - He leaned into it. - Yeah. - He found his nation. He just leaned into it. Oh, I guess. - Cool. - So there's also, I think the most interesting story is a story of a character called Skavor, who was one of the younger dwarf ancestor gods and showed, but he showed no aptitude for like working stone or shaping metal. - Okay. - So he was outcast from the dwarven society. - Yep. - And exiled. And then he went away into the deep earth and learned how to shape his flesh instead of metal, turning himself into a hideous rat beast and swearing revenge on his blood kin. So Skavor has been called a cloaked wizard, which is interesting because it's like, and this is never, this is alluded to but never confirmed, but it's like, is Skavor, who swore revenge on the dwarves? - The one that built the tower. - The one that built the tower and thus eventually, the one that ascended to the being the great horned rat. - Can't be. - Oh, okay. - He didn't like working with stone. - So maybe he made millions of rats build it. - In half an eye, it could be done. - Yeah, with rats, anything impossible. And so that is the origin of the Skavon. - Wow. - So we've born out of that, the doom of Kabsar, which eventually became the main home of the Skavon. - Yep. - Which we'll talk about next, then part two. - I'm actually really excited to hear about that and hear how it, how again, how it sort of comes to with the mortal realms and all that. But wow, that's so awesome. I had no idea that it came down to something like that where just a wizard rocked up and it's like, yeah, I'll build your tower for you on one condition. - Yeah, whatever it is, you can have it. - Yep, and it's very cool to see like, you know, and again, we'll talk more about it, but you flush forward to where Skavon are now. And you kind of just like work back through the threads and you're like, did this all come out of an old dwarven exiled demi-god? - Rap boy. - Or rap boy. - My money's on rap boy. - My money's on rap boy, you know? Yeah, so it's kind of cool. Very cool. - That's good. - But we'll delve into it more. This is just the foundations. Now you understand how Skavon came to be? - Yep. - It was supposedly a primordial version of the Great Horned Rat who built the tower and henceforth turned that town into the home of the Skavon. - Yep. - And hopefully that's beneficial to you as you paint and build your new Skavon-tied models. - Yeah. - But if not, maybe this is just so cool. - Oh, that's cool. - Yeah, that's right, Matt. - Yeah. - Well, you're gonna go ahead and... - No, that was awesome, dude. That was so good, well done on putting that together. - Thanks, there's more. There's so much more. - Yeah. I could imagine it's so hard to boil it all down into 30 minutes, you know? - Yeah, and even going into a few weeks when we do part two, there's so much I had to leave out. I basically had to leave out every notable event. You know, like every battle and every money show. Even though all of them were important to shaping Skavon, there was just like, there's sort of like an overarching thing you need to know that's more important than those things. - Yeah, yeah. - I encourage you to go suss out. I think the best one was there's a section in that Children of the Great Horned Rat. - Yep. - Is that that supplement of the second edition? - Or the second edition. - Was it? - Second edition of the Warhammer fantasy role playing game. - Yep. - And that has 80 pages and it's just on Skavon. - Yeah, that's cool. - It's on their diet. It's on their behavior. They did dissections. - Imagine they literally everything. - Yeah, absolutely everything. - Clean garbage. - Oh, so much garbage, so much garbage. But it has actually a breakdown like over 4,000 years, there's some breakdowns that are like, this year happened and then five years later this year. It's a complete timeline. - Wow. - Any one of these things could be an episode. - Yep. - And there's 40 of them. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I was like, oh, I'll leave all those out. - Yeah, just hit the main thing. So, yeah, anyways, it was great fun. - Nice. - So hopefully you found some benefits in listening to us talk about Skavon for 40 minutes. - I'm sure that they have. - Good. - I enjoy listening to you talk about Skavon for 40 minutes. - Wow, and that's a hard sell because Shane hates listening. - It's the worst. - It's the worst. - Now it's worse than listening. - Reading. - Oh, facts. - Overrated. - Yeah, well, I had to do that. - Just listen. - Just listen. - Just an audio book for you guys. - Yeah, thank you so much, Fox, for doing that. - No worries. Thank you to our Patrons. - Patronys. - Who keep us alive. You are our warpstone and we are but mere Skavon. - We will consume you one day. Hey, we've got some new Patrons. - Oh, for real? - Yeah. - Can we consume them too? - Absolutely. Big shout out to Chuck, Dwayne and Analog Line. - Those are three different people. - Yeah. - Chuck, Dwayne is not one person. It's Chuck and Dwayne. - Chuck and Dwayne. - Chuck and Dwayne. - Chuck and Dwayne. - Yep. - Yep. - Amazing. Thank you all so much. That's crazy. Three new Patrons. - Yep. - You enlighten us with your presence. - If you want to join our Patreon, you can do so with a link in the description. We have a free membership as well that you can join and have a bit of a sticky beak poke around there. And then if you wish to give us a little bit of your hard-earned cash, it goes to upgrading the studio and yeah, doing what we can do to bring you better and more content. - Yeah, for the people that want to sign up for free, we've been trying to post questions and get to know our community and all of that stuff is free. If you want early access to videos and whatnot and all the other bonuses, that's all paid for stuff hidden behind our conniving, dollar-y, due, demanding roles as podcast hosts. And you can sussle that out on the Patreon. Thanks to OzWarGaming.com.au for giving us some dope terrain that we've yet to film a video on. - Yes. - I don't actually, we got a big box of it. - Huge. - And I don't know what's in there. - I know, I looked. - Yeah, he looked, Shane looked. He had a sticky, a sneaky beak. - Hey, I couldn't not do a sticky beak. - Sitting there on the shelf for more than a comment. - His beak is as sticky as they come. - They call me our sticky beak, Johnson. - Yeah, they do, I hate it. (laughing) So yeah, thank you OzWarGaming. If you wanna suss, if you need 3D printed terrain, miniatures, anything of the sorts, go check out OzWarGaming.com.au. - Yep, 10% off too, if you use the link in the description. - Yep, we got a bunch of affiliate links down there, sussle that out. Helps the show, it helps us. - It does. - And that's awesome, because we're planning to do this for a little minute. - Yeah, at least we'll have a couple of minutes. - Yeah, yeah, speaking of a couple of minutes, thank you to our Patreon. - Yes, massive shout out. (upbeat music) (laughing) - Oh, I didn't hear it. - Oh, I didn't hear it. - That's all right, it's fine. - I showed you, muted us. - Check quick, go back to start so I can read those. (laughing) Here we go, this is a legend, thanks. We got like a new studio computer, so we're just teething issues, but we're getting there. Massive shout out to these legends, MJ Moose, Fatboy, Axe, Annex. Real one, that's you, Numa. The goats, we have Burnsy, found on it, so Gridlock, Hockers? Hockers, Gridlock, Journeyman? I say Gridlock, two times. - We've got Black-A-Pawler, Elco, Chirci, Rad, Ollie, Pinny, Agro, Dunhwa, Dom, Pure Blinds, Jackson V, Nathan A, Mini War, Mutt, Oswald, Gaming. - Analog line. - Analog line. - Analog line, and big roach. And also, Pure Blinds would never forget Pure Blinds. I've never forgotten Pure Blinds, and it never will forget Pure Blinds. (laughing) - So thank you all so much. We'll see you next week, where we talk about how to get into wargaming, and then in a couple of weeks, hit all the buttons, so you get part two about Scaven. - Yeah, all right, now that everyone's going, we get real, do you guys for a second, okay? - All right, you're gonna get real. - This is good, Chirci, so we are changing things up when we record. - Yeah, sure. - So we're doing bulk recordings right now, so we can do more better reports for you guys. - Oh, you're talking to who you're talking to? - I'm talking to them the whole time, dude. - Oh, I thought you were talking to me. - I'm talking to everybody. Everyone listening still. - Okay, so this is a secret sauce. - If you're watching us right on this content. - Next episode, we're gonna be wearing the same clothes. We have more clothes. - No, I mean, he has more clothes, I don't have more clothes. This is all I've got. At best, I have a cap that I'll wear backwards, just to change up. - Dang, it's a whole different character. - Yeah, that's stupid Fox. (laughing) This is actually reasonable, Fox. Yeah, stay tuned next week for stupid Fox. - Yeah, stupid Fox coming next week, but actually in about five minutes for us. - Yeah, yeah, time is of a construct and we have created it and we bend it to our will. - We're just gods, really. - Yeah, great horn, rats. (laughing) - See you next week. - See you next week. - Hope you enjoy the new butter reports. See you next week. (upbeat music) - Woo! (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
