Clan Gritak was a Warlord Clan of the Skaven, betrayed, enslaved and wiped out by Clan Mors during the War of Karak Eight Peaks against the Dwarfs. The vast majority of the clan were trapped when Clan Mors collapsed the mines, neglecting to tell them that they had done so.[1a]
History
The City of Pillars is the Skaven name for Karak Eight Peaks. The endless miles of collonaded halls and arched passages below the ground made more impression on them than the eight mountain peaks surrounding the site above. Clan Mors holds the City of Pillars and the Lord of Decay Warlord Gnawdwell rules over them. Clan Mors is undoubtedly the most numerous of all the Warlord clans and holds many abandoned Dwarf mines and settlements up and down the Worlds Edge Mountains.[1a]
The Skaven first discovered Karak Eight Peaks over seven hundred years before the birth of Sigmar. Such a great subterranean city was well beyond the ability of the Skaven to conquer by force so the Council of Thirteen drew up an intricate and lengthy plan to force the Dwarfs out altogether over the next ten generations. Clans Mors and Gritak were allocated the task of capturing the city and promised joint control over it if they succeeded. First, with the help of Clan Mors, warriors from Clan Gritak spent over a hundred years burrowing beneath the lower workings of the city and finding ways to its deep underground wells.[1a]
Then Warlock Engineers hired from Clan Skryre took shards of spent warpstone slag and placed them in the wells. The plan from then on was to wait for the Dwarfs to abandon the city of their own accord because of the lethal taint of warpstone in their only water supply. However the Council's plans were upset by growing pressure on the Dwarfs from Orc and Goblin tribes outside Karak Eight Peaks. Having built up their strength for many years the greenskins threatened to overwhelm the weakening Dwarfs and take the city themselves.[1a]
Rather than risk Orcs and Goblins infesting Karak Eight Peaks the Council ordered the clans poised around it to invade. They were to slay the remaining Dwarfs before collapsing the upper workings to seal out the greenskins once and for all. At their command thousands of Clanrat warriors poured into the lower workings and at first quickly overran the surprised Dwarfs. Battling up from the depths proved much harder as the Dwarfs fought back ferociously, building walls and ramparts in the tunnels and using boiling oil, gunpowder and intricate traps to fight off the frenzied Skaven assaults.[1a]
For decades the Skaven held only the lowest levels and were constantly frustrated in their attempts to tunnel or fight their way into the upper workings. Spies on the surface told the warlords that the Orcs and Goblins now held the city on the surface entirely and were driving the Dwarfs ever deeper below ground. Fortunately the Warlock Engineers of Clan Skryre broke the deadlock with their latest invention, the deadly poison wind.[1a]
Hundreds of Dwarf lives were lost to this new and terrible weapon in the tightly confined tunnels of the lower deeps as clouds of choking yellowish-green vapour destroyed every defence the Dwarfs could muster. The skaven finally burst through into the upper workings via the East Stair after a week of continuous fighting. Realising that their hold was lost to them the few hundred surviving Dwarfs hurriedly sealed the tombs of their ancestors and fought their way out to carry the news to Karaz-a-Karak.[1a]
In the abandoned Dwarf city the warriors of Clan Mors and Gritak soon clashed with Orcs and Goblins from the surface. A series of vicious battles quickly delineated what parts of the city would remain the province of the Skaven and what would belong to the greenskins. In the last big battle through the ceremonial halls of the west quarter Clan Mors, in accordance with the prior orders of the Council, collapsed the roof to seal out the Orcs. However they treacherously neglected to tell Clan Gritak of their intentions and nearly all the clan's warriors were killed in the cave-in. After enslaving the survivors Clan Mors laid claim to the entire lower city. The Lords of Decay approved their claim and to this day the City of Pillars remains Clan Mors' greatest holding and largest breeding pit.[1a]
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