Skavenblight

"All Tunnels leads to Skavenblight"

- a common Skaven phrase alluding to the nexus of the Under-Empire. The phrase is also used as a by-word for treachery or betrayal, as Skavens see Skavenblight as the inevitable, just as how they see betrayal as inevitable.



Skavenblight is the foul heart of the Skaven Under-Empire and the birthplace of the Skaven race. Through magics more powerful than the unsuspecting world can imagine, the largest and most densely populated city in the world is kept secret, its locations only guessed at by the very wisest of mortal-kind. Deep in the rotting heart of the Blighted Marsh festers the vile capital of the ratmen, the decay-ridden nexus of all Skavendom. This shell of a once-glorious city of mankind lies more than half sunken in the morass, a testimony to the corruption and ruin spread by the Children of the Horned Rat. This is Skavenblight, a sprawling metropolis of endless caverns; a multi-layered under-city of twisting corridors, and nightmarish squalor on an unimaginable scale. This evil capital of a nefarious race is the veiled lair from which rule the mighty Lords of Decay, the ruthless leaders of the Skaven race. It is here, amidst labyrinthine darkness, that the Skaven scheme for supremacy, gnawing over plots for the final apocalypse of the Human race.

As the Skavens capital city, Skavenblight is benefited with being the largest trade hub in the Under-Empire, where hundreds upon hundreds of merchants, peddlers, and trade barges go inside the city annually to sell their wares and goods, all of which coming from a diverse and multi-cultural background of Clans from all over the Under-Empire. But such wealth and prosperity only attracts the worst of the Skaven race, giving way to having the greatest population of cut-throats, thieves, outlaws, bandits, renegades, corrupt officials, and assassins then all the other Skaven strongholds combined. Such lawlessness and civil unrest has resulted in the City being at a constant power-struggle between untold number of fractions vying for control over much of the cities mineral and political wealth.

Though all the Clans have atleast a certain amount of foothold or influence in the city, there is no denying that out of all the Clans that make up the Under-Empire, those who dominate a grander part of the city are each held by one of the Four Great Clans. Clan Skyre and Clan Moulder have the most dominant influence in the city, with their personal Clan district usually have a hive of activity as they sell their various goods and services to eager Warlords who have the Warp-Token to buy their services. The third largest influence within the city belongs to the Plague Monks of Clan Pestilen. Though their district is small and isolated, the area from which they inhabit is considered more of a religious quarter then one of commerce like their brothers of Clan Moulder or Clan Skyre. Clan Eshin on the other hand has the smallest district out of the Four, but theirs is a highly secretive and disclosed location, with extremely few knowing of its exact whereabouts.

Skavenblight is also where the great Council of Thirteen is located, where members of the cabinet gather to discuss matters of importance and vote on the issue at hand. The Council is located within the great Shattered Tower, a massive and imposing tower that is connected to the great Temple of the Horned Rat, the most magnificent of Temples dedicated to their vile god. Since the city houses the great Temple itself, this is also the headquarters of the legendary Order of the Greys, where here they will learn, study, and operate on the behalf of their Order and the Council for matters of buisness or importance.

Overview
"Can't you hear them? The scratching? The Skittering? The Squeaking? They are under our very feet!"

- Bort the Mad

Skavenblight is located just north-west of the fractions city-states of Tilea, at the very heart of the mysterious Blighted Marsh -- an endless sea of weeds and swampland's that spreads for miles upon miles around. The land is a cursed place, and often the Tilean people of the south have often told the tale of "The Doom of Kazvar" also called the "Curse of Thirteen" to explain the mysterious and forgotten land. In a way, there is far more truth within the tale then some people might want to admit, and only the people of Tilea holds the tale in some form as nothing but the truth. Indeed, the land before the curse was considered once a paradise, where rolling fields of corn and wheat can stretch as far as the "I can see", with mankind and their sons working till the days turn dusk, and the bounties of life brought back home. Such happiness was never felt in the world of today, and so happy where the people here that they felt the need to thank the gods for their beautiful and loving life. But this single act of pious and generosity proved to be their downfall as the construction of the great temple and the finishing of the Bell Tower signals the beggining of a long and dark nightmare.

Around the former city of Kazvar, now called Skavenblight, the plains around the city turn to mush and mud as the endless rainfall during the "Curse of Thirteen" event has brought the once verdant plains into nothing but swamplands. Well past the borders of these swampy region are found deep-water channels where rotting slave-hulks, great barges the size of Empire villages, ply along the murky flow. These ships moved through the swamps by using massive rowing-oars or ingenious water-turbines that propels the ship through the murky waters of the swamp. It is within these massive barges that slaves beyond counting resides, where they are forced by their masters to gather the meager food-stuff still available within the land. Vast flotillas of Skavenslaves would be launched out of the main fleet, where scores of slaves would scour the vast reeds beds for any small amount of foul and decaying crop still growing there. Such demand for the crop has ensured Overseers to continuously lash at their slaves to meet up with quota before they move on.

Since the Blighted Marsh is near impossible to traverse, and as unbelievable as it sounds, the worst punishment any grain-slave can suffer is to be abandoned in that stinking quagmire, where many hidden nightmare of the swamp kill those left behind. Once having gathered a sufficient amount of crop, the fleet of barges would row closer towards the swamps interior, where ruined towers punctuate the murky waters to signal their destination. As the banks further in becomes more solid and stable, a teeming mass of ports and docks are built where endless trudging lines of bent-backed figures haul black corn or moon-seeds from the quaysides to the mills and factories. Massive mill wheels of worm-eaten wood and rusted iron relentlessly churn out grain to feed the starving hordes of Skavenblight. It is often common for patrolling groups of Skaven warriors to enforce more speed upon the tired and maimed workers and slaves, and would mercilessly gather those that died from over-exhaustion and be thrown in with the crop, literally more grist for the mill.



Beyond the mills and granaries, the outline of the vast city could be seen. Since its collapse, the city has always a deep and gloomy atmosphere to it, where green-tinted mist wrap around the ruins of vast arches and shattered buildings, whilst the ground trembles as fissures of flame leap out to further torture the already dead city. The majority of Skavenblight exist underground in unfathomable levels, caverns and shafts. No map could hope to account for the many districts or the ever-changing locations of lairs, breeding pits, or strongholds, which are all connected by an intertwining network of tunnels gnawed out between sections of the city. The deeper levels can only be reached by cages attached to massive chains and lowered into the depths. At the center of Skavenblight stands the twisted blighted monolithic tower to the Horned Rat known simply as the Shattered Tower. The original colors of the tower have been stained black by pollution, grime and unholy corruption. Its black surface is wet, clammy, and crumbling, a nightmarish building capped by the cloud enshrouded bell tower. The mist clinging to all of Skavenblight is thickest here by the Shattered Tower, pouring thickly through doorways and windows, and finally into the temple itself, covering several rooms in a stagnant pool of poisonous miasma.

This great bell-tower is the sight of the Horned Rats temple and the place of the Horned Rats incarnation. Once past the white albino Council Guards that watch over the temple, one would enter the decaying edifices. Rats scamper along the floor, hidden beneath the foul marshy fog. Inside are abandoned rotting chapels, obscene and dark altars to the Horned Rat, and great vaulted chambers that are the site of horrible services and devotion to their vile god. At the center of the ground floor of the temple is a blackened and baroque winding stairway that climbs up into the benighted cathedral ceiling, eventually reaching the bell-tower where the unholy artefact rings, tolling each victory won by Skavendom.

Beyond the stairways is a massive room, the Sanctum of the Horned Rat. It is here where their god shall appear to his subjects that seeks their guidance. The room has one main entrance, through a massive archway, with twelve smaller entrances. The twelve smaller entrances leads to silent corridors where the Grey Seers study their dark arts. The Sanctum itself is a massive room, the largest within the temple itself. The entire floor of the circular chamber is a massive symbol to the Horned Rat. At the end of the room, on a massive dais, is a giant altar and pulpit. On the pulpit is a massive book, bound in brass and iron, and spread across the altar is a cloth bearing the symbol of the Horned Rat. Sunk into its surface is a massive brass bowl, covered in runes obscured by the drinking flaking blood. Behind the dais, on a raised level, is a massive pillar of Warpstone, called the Pillar of Commandments. The pillar glows with unearthly inner light that seems to blur everything around it. This huge pillar has thirteen sides, each side intricately inscribed with spidery runes. This artifact was a personal gift by the Horned Rat himself, intended for those who seek to be a Lord of Decay, by touching it and being crowned worthy of his holy favor.

Climbing the winding staircase to the next floor, one arrives at an immense blackened iron bound double door gate. The stairs beyond the gate continues up into the cursed bell tower. It is beyond that massive portal that the Council sits. Guarding the doors are the albino Council Guards and a massive albino Rat Ogre. Once beyond the door, is the Chamber of the Thirteen. Dark and oppressive, the dimensions of the cold stone room are impossible to make out in the gloom. In the exact center of the room lies a giant circle embellished with another symbol of their vile god, where underneath it lies a trap door that hides a deep hole filled with mutant crocodiles. Circling about the room, on a raised dais, are thirteen thrones set out at exact distances. The most elaborate and largest of the thrones however, is the thirteenth, at the apex of the circle, opposite to the doorway and raised on yet another dais. This throne is a twisted jagged monstrosity sprouting even more twisted and jagged ornate spires and symbols of the most evilest kind. The remaining thrones are smaller and less ornate, and above them hangs their banners identifying the thrones occupants.

Districts
"Where there are rats, there are Skavens"

- Elector Count Mandred von Zelt, also known by most as Count Mandred Skavenslayer



Though the city have many layers that inter-lock with one another, the city itself still holds boundaries that could be distinguished by those who have the keen senses of a Skaven. Outside the Shattered Tower that looms over at the very heart of the city, there is a multitude of crumbled monuments and decaying stone buildings that mankind has built and now have forgotten after so many generations. Oddly however, what was left of the streets in the surface of the city is relatively quiet, empty, and fog enshrouded. Unseen things scamper down alleyways, red eyes watching from shadowed doorways or shattered windows, as figures pass in the nearby streets. Much of the surface city has sunken deep into the morass, swallowing whole buildings into the deep undergrounds beneath the dead city, and it is here that the true darkness lie, scampering and crawling like a cancer eating at the world.

Underneath Skavenblight and the burrows and warrens below are pack thick with a horde of biting, scratching, screeching, squalling and hissing Skaven from a diverse variety of background. From here, a number of districts are divided amongst many different Clans, each district providing certain goods or services to anyone within the city. Each district can usually be identified by one of several ways. The most common is smell. Each Clan has a certain odour that is common amongst their brethrens, and each district would have a highly concentrated scent that individual Skavens can use to navigate their way through the maze-like streets. It is also common for Skavens to identify each District by sound as well.

A good example would be the Districts of Clan Skyre or Clan Moulder. Clan Skyre's district would often have the sound and noise of a large and thunderous factory, bulging out a cacophony of sounds from the Clans numerous white-hot forges or large assembly lines. Thanks to the dominance of Clan Skyre, Skavenblight is choked with mechanical wonders of all kinds. Public transportation, while dangerous and unreliable, is one of the city's most impressive feature. Clan Moulder on the other hand would have the sounds of numerous and unidentifiable animals that would sing a horrific melody of roars and screeches that could be heard for a mile around.

Other Warlord Clans and Clan Cheiftians control the remaining upper districts. These are fairly strong and formidable Clans, who are closely united or allied with one of the Four Great Clans in return for protection. In this union, the lesser Clans would provide exclusive service and aid towards the greater Clans in exchange for a small amount of independence within their own district.

Just below the Clan Districts of the upper levels, the vast majority of all the Skaven populace lives within the hazardous slums of the lower workings. This back-water area of Skavenblight is packed thick with poverty and squalor, and with no legitimate law or authority, civil unrest and criminal activity becomes a common sight. With the constant drainage from the districts above, and the wet and mud from the Blighted Marsh itself makes this area highly hazardous to all those living here, leading to constant famine and plague to run wild in the streets of the city. In the more lower levels of this area, the waters and effluence rises towards the waist, and Skavens have to dig holes and nest-lairs near the ceiling for shelter. Due to the instability of the area, it is common for the walls and ceilings to undermined, often collapsing and burying the Skavens that didn't drop into the sewage below. Occasionally a flood will occur, and a murky torrent will rush down the dark tunnels, sweeping away the frantic hapless Skavens from the dark tunnels and into the deep underground streams or chasm below.

What lies below this lowest level of Skavenblight is unknown. Strange, hateful, and misshapen creatures crawl up from these levels to stalk and drag unfortunate Skavens below to feed. Sometimes these things will terrorize entire sections of the lower workings, or even emerge into the districts itself, forcing a whole battalion of Clanrats or Stormvermins to put a stop to their rampage. Usually these horrifying and monstrous beast would stay hidden in the blackness below, usually.....

Clan Skyre District
The Clan Skyre district is awash with the sounds of metalwork. It is here that Clan Skyre is centered, and their goods and services found. The boundaries of this district are dense with numerous barriers, fortification, and watch-points, all protected by a bewildering array of Clan Skyre weaponry. Behind these defenses, the district is a-buzz with the sounds of fiery furnaces, Blacksmith hammers, steam-hissing pipes, and a cacophony of other sounds that is usually heard from a massive factory. The district is lit with an eerie glow from the low crackling of warp-lightning globes generated with numerous pipes and wires feeding into nearby generators. Unlike the narrow and tightly-packed districts of  the other Skaven clans, the district of Clan Skyre are far more open, giving way to massive antechambers where an army of artificers and artisans labour over white-hot forges to make the fiendish multitude of Clan Skyre tech, whilst being watched closely by senior Engineers of their respective Clan. Within the inner workshops, Warpstone by the motherloads are hauled into great foundries and furnaces to be refined and then added to the various weapons, brews and items of power being demanded by the Warlord Clans. Around the districts, there are numerous warrens and chambers where would-be Engineers would go to study mathematics, engineering, and the magical arts in order for them to be accepted as a full-fledge engineer. Only the Guild of Engineers of the Dwarven hold of Zhufbar or the College of Engineers situated at the Nuln Artillery School could even hope to match the sheer scale of such Industry as this, that is beyond any possible imagination.

Just below these foundries and workshops, lies a section of huge rooms filled with massive, complex, and ornated Warp-lightning generators that feul the machinery needed for the District to function properly. Another host of Engineers and technicians would scamper about the machinery, repairing, fixing, and adjusting the Generators to ensure their full potential. Such hive of activity is often natural, for it is common to see guards and Clan Skyre Engineers directing all the workmen, artisans, and laborers to the workplaces, and with teams of sweating slaves hauling in great carts filled with ore and other materials, all under the flickering sparks of warplightning lamp-post. As such, Clan Skyre is known by most to have the largest district and influence within the city then any other Skaven Clan, even their rivals of the other 3 Great Clans.

Clan Moulder District
The Clan Moulder district is smaller then their brothers of Clan Skyre and far more narrow and close-in. The most common distinction about this District is the common smell of fur and waste, and the screeching and roaring of innumerable and horrifying war-beast caged inside massive pits. Unlike their brothers of Clan Skyre, whose defences and fortification are meant to keep invaders from coming in, the fortifications of Clan Moulder are meant to keep something from coming out. Indeed, between the outer and inner defenses is a ring of corridors and barracks that houses a host of Stormvermin regiments, whose role is to defend and man the defenses of this district if a threat arises. Each of these corridor has a strong portcullis that can be dropped to block the passage, and often a room above with murder holes to drop poisonous gas or boiling-hot oil down upon unsuspecting invaders. The inner fortifications however are filled with sections consisting of large rooms, with numerous holes dug into the ground, with caged doors across the top of the pit, securely locked and bolted to prevent any escape. It is here that Clan Moulder keeps many of its monstrosities, like a freak circus that shows off their numerous animals to sell to those with enough money. Should a creature escape its holdings, the corridors can be sealed to keep it in, with those unfortunate enough to still be inside. The corridors would then be filled with noxious gases to subdue the beast, but not kill it. Once the beast is limp, a host of Moulders would drag the creature back to its holdings to be kept and sold to another unsuspecting customer.

Likewise, if the district is attacked, certain corridors can be sealed off, while others are opened, allowing their numerous creations to rampage amonst the enemies forces, and then sealed off once more before the creature could escape. Above the large chambers are the rooms for the Moulder diplomats and envoys, as well as the Quarters for Packlords and Master-Moulders when they stay for Council matters. The Clan Moulder district is considered the second largest within Skavenblight, with their brothers of Clan Skyre having the single largest.

Clan Pestilen District
The Clan Pestilen district is the third largest district, and is commonly the most isolated of the districts within the city. The most distinct feature about this district is the lack of activity and commerce that is expected by a Clan district, where few would venture down this direction, where as none would even dare to live here. This section is a series of chambers for the Priesthood of Pestilence, with barracks for numerous Monks and Priest. Each series of chambers also contains devotional rooms, small temples and shrines for religious purposes rather then once of trade or commerce. As such, this area is mostly associated as a giant religious quarters for the more fanatical and zealous followers of the Horned Rat. The largest temple is in the Plaguelords section, where he and his regime stay to discuss matters of religious importance.

Clan Eshin District
Though the Clan Eshin destrict is by-far the smallest out of all the Four Great Clans, the location of their district is by far the most concealed out of the four. Only a few shadowy and thin tunnels leads into the district, and only members of the Clan knows the true whereabouts of this mysterious section of Skavenblight. As one would enter and go down this tunnel, they would notice a lack of rooms or quarters, with all the doors virtually concealed and barred from within. As soon as someone enters this section, sentries will notice and alert others of his presence. If they are unwanted, a Clan Eshin assasin will drop silently from a concealed hole and strangle him. Alternatively, a small poisonous dart will be shot from a concealed entrance and hits the neck of the ratmen, leaving his corpse to be dragged away later by others of his Clan. Those dealing with Clan Eshin must come announced, and will be blindfolded and escorted to the section, led through the maze, and eventually towards a secret door.

More often though, Clan Eshin operatives and diplomats would meet in a "secret" or "neutral" location thick with Clan Eshin spies and assassins, where deals and alliance can be made. Presumably the Nightlord himself sometimes stays in this section of Skavenblight, but none can really confirm this theory at all.

Source

 * Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition) pg 10 - 12
 * Thanqoul and Boneripper: Grey Seer (Novel)
 * Thanqoul and Boneripper: Temple of the Serpent (Novel)
 * Thanqoul and Boneripper: Thanqouls Doom (Novel)
 * Vermintide (Novel)
 * Children of the Horned Rat (WFRP) pg 28, 48, 55