Skaven Gutter Runner from Clan Eshin.
Early in the history of the Skaven, Clan Eshin stole away to the Far East. Eshin was thought to have been lost for hundreds of years, but the Clan mysteriously returned to Skavenblight to offer its allegiance to the Lords of Decay. The time spent exploring the lands of Nippon, Ind, and Cathay had served Eshin well, for the clan had gained significant training in the arts of stealth and assassination.
The assassins of Clan Eshin are rightly feared by all Skaven. They come silently, dispense death with uncanny accuracy, and return to their warrens with their foes none the wiser. Their methods are seemingly supernatural, and the shadows appear to cling to them like spider webs. Rarely are their faces shown, for they hide them behind cowls and masks.
Clan Eshin is not merely a den of assassins. Because of their stealth, their fighters are also prized as spies and scouts. Eshin sells its services to the Warlords, offering skirmishers and light troops that can infiltrate the rear of an enemy’s line to scout enemy formations or to dispatch leaders, wizards, and other valuable assets. Eshin also maintains a powerful cadre of informants from which they draw a great deal of useful information.
Eshin is shrouded in mystery, much more so than the other Great Clans. Little is known about the clan’s inner workings, and this information is well-hidden from prying eyes and ears. Skaven who learn too much about the assassins have been known to wind up dead, or worse, which ensures that the clan will sustain its secrecy in the centuries to come.
Clan Motives
Information is a prized commodity amongst Clan Eshin’s population, and secrets are not given away for free. It would seem that Clan Eshin strives to increase its own wealth and power in the Under-Empire by lending its services to anyone willing to pay their exorbitant prices. They have yet to use the secrets they have learned for their own power bids, or to provide false information to their clients for their own benefit.
The clan has simply worked its way into the good graces of the Lords of Decay and continues to serve the Council unquestioningly. Whether this obedience will continue is a question that future generations must answer, but for the time being, Clan Eshin is virtually untouchable.
Tactics
Clan Eshin is famed for canny stealth, for employing a variety of unusual and exotic weapons, and for its ability to kill swiftly and efficiently. Even the lowliest Clan Eshin warriors, the Night Runners, have some rudimentary skill at subterfuge, being able to move quickly and quietly to strike at the hearts of their enemies. Those who survive and learn the greater techniques of the Art of Silent Death are promoted to Gutter Runners, who can sneak behind enemy lines and slaughter entire units of enemies, unseen and unheard.
Of all of Clan Eshin’s warriors, though, the Adept Assassin is the most feared and reviled. These Skaven are masters in all of the techniques learned in distant Cathay and bring to bear an incredible array of fighting techniques that allow them to eclipse the greatest Human killers. Using a host of weapons from the throwing star and blowgun to the repeating crossbow and an arsenal of poisons, these dealers of death are blamed for the majority of suspicious murders in both Skaven and Dwarf societies, not to mention those untimely deaths in the Human lands by those who do not deny the Skaven menace.
Eshin—In Service to the Council
Over the centuries since their return, Eshin has achieved a special place within the Council of Thirteen, using their talents to cow and coral the lesser Clans and maintain the authority and influence of the Great Clans. In effect, they act as the secret police force to the Lords of Decay, the metaphorical poisoned dagger in the hand of the Council. Their political reach has grown long, for they hold the power to call any Skaven forward as a heretic or a traitor. Evidence of such crimes is easily manufactured, and in many cases, it need not be fabricated at all. It is for precisely this reason that the other clans avoid angering Clan Eshin, and indeed facilitate its investigations without objection.
Clan Eshin also uses more direct methods to quiet opposition to the Council’s authority. Political murder is common amongst the Skaven, and Eshin excels at such activities as no other clan can. Countless deaths have been engineered by Eshin’s assassins in the name of the Lords of Decay, and entire clans have been destroyed by their brothers after having been struck leaderless by a well-placed blade or poisoned dart. Though Clan Eshin offers its services to other customers who have little or no affiliation to the Council, it has never been proven that the clan has participated in treasonous activity.
Source
- Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd ED -- Children of the Horned Rat (pg. 45-46).