"I saw the thing with my own eyes, a great orb of steel the size of a steamship and packed with raw wyrdstone. Ikit Claw constructed his wyrdstone bomb over the fault running beneath Karak Azul. If he’d been able to unleash the power of his weapon, he could have precipitated an earthquake the likes of which no Dwarf has seen since the Time of Woes."
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The Doomsphere,[1a] also known as the Great Machine,[2a] is the brainchild of Clan Skryre, a device capable of unimaginable destruction. This weapon is fueled by massive amounts of Warpstone, encased inside a titanic sphere which magnifies the warpstones' destructive power into an explosion that could literally result in great catastrophe. Just as experienced during the uncontrolled explosion of one of these instruments during the Time of Woes.[1a]
A weapon that could exterminate the enemies of the Under-Empire and bring the bickering clans to their knees. From fear of the Doomsphere, all Skavendom could be united, forced to set aside their petty intrigues and work towards the fulfilment of the Great Ascendancy.[1a]
History
The first Doomsphere had been built ages past by the sorcerer-engineers of Clan Skryre to crack open the roots of the mountains and annihilate the kingdoms of the Dwarfs in one fell swoop. It hadn’t worked out quite the way they had planned. While the Dwarf Kingdoms had suffered immense destruction, the rampant energies unleashed by the Doomsphere had rebounded against the Skaven. Skavenblight had been cast into ruins, the plain around it flooded by the sea to become the Blighted Marshes. In the wake of this destruction, the despots who had ruled Skavendom up until that point had been overthrown and replaced by the Grey Lords, predecessors of the current Lords of Decay.[1a]
It is rumored among the Skaven that Chief Warlock, Ikit Claw, is making another Doomsphere.[1a]