Talk:Rat Mother/@comment-27997791-20170414175932/@comment-35205336-20180404175831

Yeah they would be able to tell via smell if there male or female, but given how many Skaven clans they are and how they like to fight each other there mostly likely are Skaven females in all sorts of functions. I imagine many Thrall Clans or really isolated Clans have a different social setup. Look up Clan Skrittlespike and Clan Crooktail they are so different they must have a different setup. Clan Skrittlespike have adapted to the deepest caves and are somewhat outsiders, perhaps still following old Skaven ways. Clan Crooktail are constantly having mutations, so the clan Rats sex could change or Rat mothers become sterile so that probably rules out an inflexible industrial kind of breeding.

I would bet that these drugged Skaven Females the article describes are the result of years and years of Skaven experiments, it might be the secret to the true strength of the largest Clans. Also I Imagine smuggling new-born females would be a thing that happens, perhaps a way for the castrated slaves to escape to a better life, or be killed for being found out.

We should also remember that most of Warhammer is written by Elves, Dwarfs and Humans who probably don’t care so much for studying their society, also Grey Sheer are also religious leaders so they probably have reasons to promote the idea that "There are no Skaven females, Just Skaven broodmothers." Which hilariously sounds a lot like the quote form the Turkish president on international women’s day “A woman is above all else a mother” lol so maybe Skreelin Thurntik was just being really preachy.