Clan Skryre

"The fact that the Warlock Engineers sell to all sides in the constant Skaven struggle for dominance is well known; the fact that for a very high price they offer to withhold their services is widely guessed. None but the Grey Seers know the exorbinant extent of Clan Skyre's double-dealing and treachery."

- Underground Arms Dealers

Clan Skryre is one of the four great Skaven clans that specializes in the creation and research of demented diabolical combination of arcane magic and technological machinery. Its members, known as Warlock Engineers are both inventors and magicians whose expertise aids in the manufacturing of all kinds of War-machines and weaponry for the use of those willing to pay. Many of them are full-fledged wizards themselves, capable of manipulating the Winds of Magic to cast spells on their own, but their most potent of weapons lies in their use of their own deadly weaponry.

From their Warpforge workshops underneath the great swampland capital of Skavenblight, these tinker-rats has produced a vast arsenal of terrifying weapons in their long and glorious history, which includes the invention of the deadly Poisoned Wind, the Warpfire-Thrower and the Warp-lock Jezzail. Clan Skyre is thought by many as argulably the most influencial and powerful of the Great Clans, due to their clan having the largest arsenal of weapons in the entire Under-Empire, that can rival that of any other Human nation in the world. The Clan is also fairly wealthy from their exploits of "renting" out their powerful machines and special expertise to the highest bidder, being almost as rich as their brethren within Clan Moulder. Along with that, their leader, Lord-Warlock Morskittar, is the second most strongest member within the Council Chamber, occupying the 12th Seat of the table.

Overview
The Clan has for many years dominates the grand city of Skavenblight, a huge metropolis which is considered by many to be the one true capital of the Skaven race. Access to the many veins of Warpstone underneath the great city has allowed the clan to develop and finance the technologies for which they are well known for. The city reflects the nature of their Clan Skyre masters, being uncharacteristically modern compared to most of the other Skaven settlements or strongholds within the Skaven empire. The strength of the clan lies within their use of technology as a means of war and profit. Much of their technology is geared toward war, mixing magic and technological engineering that can equally exceed any weapons produced by the nations of the Old World.

Fortunately for the enemies of Skavendom, these weapons are notoriously unreliable, and has resulted in the near vast majority of Skavens dying a gruesome death by the magnificent if not imperfect device their leaders have provided them. As weapons are the main merchandise the Warlord clans seeks to care about, often the rest of their mechanical prowess are overlooked by their narrow-minded brethren. Clan Skryre has created many amazing devices not meant for the battlefield, which includes the creation of the Farsqueaker, a device that allows instant communication between Skavens through large distances. In fact, much of the Under-Empire excavations are made with bulldozers and drills created by the engineers of Clan Skyre.

The Warlock-Engineers of the clan are always researching new technologies to either improve on their previous work, or create an entirely new one. However, experiments have given much chance of success as being a failure, often resulting in catastrophe. Engineers believe these failures are expected, especially if it is to advance their technology to the limit. The number of workers, mechanics and engineers who die as a result of these investigations is irrelevant when compared to the value of an experiment going well in the process. By providing these infernal machines to their Ratlords within the Council of Thirteen, Clan Skryre has secured a position of power within the Under-Empire, only rivaled by the other three Great Clans. The clan makes constant demonstrations of their new inventions to the Lords of Decay, and if they find the invention promising, they will be promised some funding from several other Skaven clans to aid in their efforts. With their deadly machinery, many victories have been achieved thanks to the prowess of the wizards engineers and their lackeys, making them an essential part of the Skaven military might.

Military


Clan Skryre has forever strived to increases their already increasing access to high-tech inventions whenever possible. By delving into new areas of research and making greater discoveries, the clan is able to increases its prestige amongst its rivals, guaranteeing further profit and wealth. In addition, the equipment manufactured by the clan that has already been tested in combat, are often sold or given to other clans, creating a widespread confidence in Clan Skryres technical genious, ensuring that they will never run out of paying customers. Warlock-Engineers are not ashamed to adapt and improve their own technologies from other races. The Warp-lock Jezzail is an example of a mundane equipment stolen by the clan and perfected with liberal amounts of iron and steel mixed with Warpstone to create a more deadly, if not unreliable design of their own.

The much more heavier weapons such as Warpfire-Thrower and the Ratling gun, resembles designs originally created by the Dwarves of the Engineers Guild. Although the intellectual minds of Clan Skyre are more then capable of creating their own design of weapons, many within the Clan don't see any harm in "burrowing" others design and improving it "ten-fold".

Along with the common Clanrats and Stormvermin armies within their desposal, Clan Skyre makes use of specialized weapons teams, idealy suited for the maintaining and using one particular weapon entrusted to the team for use in combat. The majority of the groups will consist of a two-skaven weapons team -- one to hold the ammunition or gear, while the other aims the weapon at their enemy. Along with these teams, the Clan has also make use of powerful war-machines that are the dread of the battlefield.

Clan Skyre Infantry

 * Warlock-Engineers - the notorious Engineers of Clan Skyre are among the greatest minds in the entire Under-Empire. These tinker-rats are the artificers of Skaven society, blending arcane sorcerires with mad science techonology in the creation of one of the most deadiest machines ever invented in the world. When not manning War-machines or watching over a weapons team, the ordinary Warlock-Engineer would naturally have the power to channel and cast magic in the traditional way as other races. Thought not as potent or masterful as the Grey Seers, these ratmen rely heavily on their advanced weaponry to annilate their foes. They are armed with a variety of weapons, ranging from the traditional warplock musket or poisoned wind globes, to arcane blades empowered by crackling warpstone energies.
 * Poisoned Wind Globadiers - Similiar in appearance to Warlock-Engineers, and in some cases Engineers themselves, these Globadiers are one of the newest in Clan Skyre biological weaponry. Using the deadly Poisoned Wind globe, these ratmen are  trained to throws these vile glass orb at the thickest of fightings, using the poisoned fumes to its fullest effect. Although lasting for only a mere moment, the fumes released by the Globadiers are notoriously toxic to all that breath it, and those that do, die an agonising death within a few short seconds. As such, Globadiers are required to wear a variety of protection from the fumes, such as googles, metal-mask, and rebreathing apparatus.
 * Weapons Team - Clan Skyres make use of specialized groups of Skaven Engineers to handle and deploy weaponry in to the front. These Weapons Team will naturally be attached to other blocks of Infantry to provide Clanrats with much needed firepower.
 * Warpfire-Thrower - One of the deadliest hand-held weaponry in Clan Skyre's arsenal, this weapons team has within their possession an extremely potent and dangerous piece of machinery. The Warpfire-Thrower is a very crude hand-held flamethrower, that showers their foes within a whirlwind of greenish flame, fuelled and fed by warpstone substances. A regular weapons team requires two Skaven to operate, one would hold the container and gear, while the other holds the mussle of the gun and directs its fire. So dangerous is the Warpfire-Thrower in combat that it would eventual lead to the death of the weapons team, as the deadly but imperfect machinery will sometimes melt down and explode, causing death to the team and all those near them.
 * Ratling Gun - A multi-barrled whirling death-dealing machine known as the Ratling Gun is one of Clan Skyre's newest of inventions. So succesful and deadly this piece of machinery is to the other Warlord clans that Clan Skyre will always run out of Ratling Gun long before they run out of customers to sell them to. The mechanism starts with an external ammo pack held by one Skaven, from which the loader will crank the lever to allow the gun to spin while the gunner aims the shot.
 * Poisoned Wind Mortar - A form of mobile light-artillery, instead of hand-throwing the Poisoned Wind globe at the enemy, a projectile launcher strapped to the back of another Gobladier fires the globe while another Globadier loads the ammuntion in. The mortar will lob the globe at a longer distance than any Globadier could, giving the weapons team both range and mobility needed to support the troops.
 * Warp-Grinder - A smaller variant of a similiar machine, the larger machinery of this weapon was meant to carve large tunnels within the earth with relative ease, meant to allow passages for whole armies of troops to move with speed through the underground tunnels of the world. Although those machines were larger then the biggest Empire warships, the smaller version acts as a more portable and hand-held one, used for the same purpose, but also as a weapons platform to be used against infantry. Similiar also is the need for a two-skaven team to operate; one to hold the ammuntion and another to aim the shot.
 * Warplock Jezzails - When the need for a more precise shot is required by its Paw-leader, most clans would employ the use of the deadly jezzail team to pick off key individuals within an army. Jezzails are a two-skaven team of highly trained snipers employed for the use of assassinating important targets from an extremely long distance. Their rifles, called Jezzails, has the longest range then any other rifle in the Old World, due in most part cause of the dangerous use of warpstone bullets as the main source of ammuntions. The warpstone gives the Jezzails the range then needed, but it also means less shots fired then any normal gun, for a Warlord will always have to pay for the loss of ammuntions the Jezzails will have use during battle. The Jezzail requires a two-skaven team, one to hold the rifle up (the rifle is so long that it needs to be stationary) and another to fire the shot.

Clan Skyre War-machine

 * Warp-Lightning Cannon - The warp-lightning cannon is the very pinnacle of Skaven ingenuity, a marvel of  both magical and scientific engineering, this machine has the power to fire a very concentrate blast of pure warp-lightning at the very heart of an army, so powerful and so potent, that not even castle walls could hold against such an onslaught. When fired, the lightning would arc earthwards unto its victim, and erupt into a cloud of warp-lightning upon impact. The shot flashes to quickly to follow, so only its vapour trail could trace the tragectary of the shot. The machine, although potent, at closer expections reveals it to be still crude in design, the outer hull would barely look stable to hold the energies within it, and on parts of the machinery, there is evidences of the device crumbling down over its long use. Though imperfect, the machine has very few equals, as none could match the ingenous minds of these mad techno-magi and their machinery.
 * Doomwheel - At first sight, the Doomwheel may look less menacing and even comical compared to the other war-machines of the Skavens, but those that have faced one in battle knew full well of its prowness. The design of the machine is so simple and yet so complex, so utterly Skaven in its inception that its well beyond the understanding of even the top minds of the School of Engineers. The treadmill like design is meant to allow the machine to rumble at the enemy at full speed, made possible by the two skaven powering the treadmill inside. This in turn, creates electricity needed to activate the attached warpstone generator, which will fire bolts of lethal warp-lightning at their foe. If the shots didn't kill you, then the great iron-reinforced wheels with spikes will!

Source
Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition) pg 58 - 65, 66 - 68