Not to be confused with the Elven Grey Lords
The Grey Lords, also called the Ratlords[6a] were those twelve Skaven that emerged from the Horned Rat's temple in Skavenblight to guide their race after the ratmen's use of Skaven sorcery in the form of the Great Machine had unintentionally caused a series of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the Old World that had nearly destroyed the subterranean warrens of the Skaven capital city.[2a] These grey-clad ratmen claimed to the inhabitants of Skavenblight that the Skaven deity known as the Horned Rat had whispered his intentions for the Skaven to them. He had further declared that these first "Lords of Decay," as they were to call themselves, were to lead the Skaven race and bring the Horned Rat's plan for his children to fruition.[1a] Other Grey Lords would follow, they warned, to ensure the Skaven did not stray from the commandments of the Horned Rat.[3a]
The Grey Lords established the Order of the Grey Seers, an order of Skaven mage-priests who were specially chosen by the Horned Rat to serve as his emissaries to the other Skaven and help them carry out his will. The Grey Lords also founded the Under-Empire's ruling Council of Thirteen some decades after the Great Migration of the Skaven clans across the Known World. [2a][1b]
There are scant few records among the clans of Skavendom at present detailing the names and deeds of the twelve Grey Lords that first emerged in Skavenblight, for nearly two millennia have passed since the event occurred, and the majority of Skaven lack the motivation, skill or desire to create a written history of their people. [1a]
History
Disaster at Skavenblight
When the High Elves withdrew from their colonies in the Old World back to Ulthuan after the disastrous outcome of the War of the Beard, the Dwarf empire in the Worlds Edge Mountains was devastated by a series of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes triggered by Skaven sorcery. Skavenblight's population was devastated by the collapse of many of the subterranean city's warrens. In the wake of this destruction, the 12 Grey Lords were chosen and brought forth by the Horned Rat to guide their race, forming the first Council of Thirteen and the Order of the Grey Seers to ensure that future Skaven proved more capable of achieving the Great Ascendancy desired by their god.
The Great Migration
For several days and nights after their emergence, the Grey Lords convened, discussing the fate and direction of their race. When their consultations were complete, they ordered the Skavenblight horde to spread far and wide into the dark places of the mortal world. The Skaven who survived the disaster were split into 12 hordes. Some remained at Skavenblight. Most seeped into the roots of the world opened up by the Great Machine that had unleashed the disaster. Others struck out far beyond the marshes of the sundered Skaven capital city. In this way, no single disaster could ever again threaten to wipe out the entire Skaven race.[1a][3a]
The Skaven refer to this time as the "Great Sniff" though it is more commonly called the "Great Migration."[2b]
The Grey Lord Malkrit led his portion of the twelve hordes to what would later be known as Troll Country, deep in the Northern Wastes. Burying themselves deep beneath those wastes, these ratmen would learn to mutate and mold flesh, eventually becoming Clan Moulder.[3a]
The Grey Lord Visktrin led his ratmen the furthest of any of his fellow Grey Lords, to the Dark Lands where he was wounded by a Dragon in the Mountains of Mourn. In a critical state, he instructed his successor as the leader of the horde to journey to Grand Cathay and establish themselves. These ratmen would disappear beyond the knowledge of the Lords of Decay, becoming Clan Eshin. They would not reappear for some centuries.[3a]
The horde that journeyed to the continent of Lustria in the New World was thought to be lost, scattered during the first migration. It was unclear which Grey Lord led this verminous host, but its members eventually re-emerged from the steaming jungles as Clan Pestilens.[3b]
There were many myths from the other races regarding these migrations. In Kislev they are presented as the actions of the bear god Ursun's evil brother, who became the "Father of Rats" and drove his servants northward to punish his brother's pride. In Norsca they mixed with the legends of the sea-demons and were said to have been driven back into the ocean through the singing of the old songs. In Araby the Skaven migration was called the "Scouring of Scholars," with the emergence of the rat-like creatures seen as a holy punishment upon those who trusted too much in science, and in Grand Cathay they were said to have been vomited out from the gigantic maw of the Great Black Dragon that lives coiled inside the earth.[2b]
A century passed following the migrations and the Council of Thirteen was formally established to rule over all the Skaven clans and settlements of the Under-Empire. Many of the Grey Lords still occupied seats upon it, being exceptionally old and wicked by the standards of the Skaven, but others had passed on. Those remaining seats would then be occupied by those few ratmen strong and ambitious enough to fight their way to the top of their clans and claim a place among the Lords of Decay, even by slaying one of the Grey Lords in a ritual duel and claiming their seat. One of the first orders of the Council of Thirteen was the prohibition on the use of magic by all except the Grey Seers and Clan Skryre.[3a]
This iteration of the Council of Thirteen was ultimately dissolved during the Second Skaven Civil War. Some of its surviving members passed the new and deadly test of the Black Pillar of Commandments and together with new members formed a reorganised Council of Thirteen.
War With Nagash
Thireteen hundred years before the birth of Sigmar, the Skaven discovered a Warpstone-rich meteor within the mountain of Cripple Peak. They desired it, but the meteor was already claimed by the Great Necromancer Nagash and his Undead followers, who had established their own fortress of Nagashizzar within the mountain. The Council of Thirteen ordered that it be captured at any cost, beginning a long and bloody war of attrition between Nagash and the Skaven. This war eventually ended in a stalemate as neither side could break the deadlock. Instead, Nagash made a deal with the Skaven, promising Warpstone in return for certain tasks and services. The Grey Lords accepted this deal, though they secretly considered the Warpstone meteor to be theirs by right and continued scheming to claim it.[3b]
However, Nagash in fact sought to unleash a ritual that would transform every living mortal of the Known World into one of his Undead. Upon feeling the sinister energies of Dark Magic gathering over Cripple Peak and stumbling upon the necromancer's massive army of Undead, the Grey Lords once again convened. It was decided that Nagash had to be slain, but there were questions as to how this was to be done. No lone Skaven could be trusted to go before the Great Necromancer and none of the Grey Lords were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the others.[3b]
Grey Lord Velsquee finally put forth a viable solution: in the dungeons of the Great Necromancer's fortress lay a Nehekharan king, Alcadizaar the Conqueror of Khemri. If released and armed appropriately , he could slay Nagash. Lord-Warlock Paskrit concurred, as he was willing to see the Skaven provide such armaments. For the first time in its history, the council voted unanimously in favour of a decision.[3b]
Providing Alcadizaar with the Fellblade, a weapon crafted from Warpstone, gromril and dire spells, the Lords of Decay watched from relative safety, controlling the king of Khemri through the Warpstone gem set into the blade's pommel and willing him towards Nagash's throne room. Raising the blade, the weapon was brought down to kill the necromancer, but Nagash blocked the attack and his own fell energies slew two of the Grey Lords through the connection they had with the sword. Despite these deaths, Alcadizzar still managed to slay Nagash with the powerful weapon. With their master dead and his animating magics dispersed, Nagash's great Undead armies soon crumbled into dust.[5]
The Grey Lords sent Clan Rikek to secure the Warpstone hoard of Cripple Peak. For centuries, huge amounts of Warpstone were carried off from the mountain's mines to Skavenblight, with both Clan Rikek and the Council of Thirteen growing in power as their supplies increased. However, as always, Nagash would eventually return to unlife, crushing Clan Rikek in a single night and re-claiming Nagashizzar as his domain. Since the bulk of the Warpstone had already been mined and the resurrected Nagash was far weaker than his previous incarnation, the council eventually withdrew its warriors, allowing the weakened Great Necromancer to sit in his unassailable fortress.[3b]
Black Plague
In the year 1111 IC, the last-known Grey Lords sat upon the Council of Thirteen. Clan Pestilens had devised a powerful new pathogen called the Black Death that they believed could reduce the mortal populations of the surface world to a fraction of their former size without the need for a single Skaven death.
Once weakened, the Warlord Clans of Skavendom could swarm the surface and easily sweep aside the lesser races, taking the surface world that was their birthright. However, while this was a sound plan, typical Skaven self-interest and double-dealing ultimately caused the plot to backfire. Many Humans of the surface realms died a harrowing death, but so did many of the Skaven of Skavenblight when a variant of the disease that could also affect the ratmen was unleashed on the Skaven capital. This was part of a scheme set in motion by the Seer Lord Queekual to reduce the growing influence of Clan Pestilens, which had challenged the Order of the Grey Seers' religious monopoly over the children of the Horned Rat.[5]
Notable Grey Lords
- Vecteek - Vecteek was one of the infamous Grey Lords of the Under-Empire whose hand after his death became an artefact of magical power. It is said that this Grey Lord has since become an ascended Verminlord, one of the Daemons of the Horned Rat.
- Velsquee - Velsquee was the Grey Lord sent to capture Nagashizzar, the mighty fortress home of the Great Necromancer Nagash, to secure its massive store of Warpstone for the Under-Empire. [4a]
- Skrittar - Skrittar was the Grey Lord who served on the Council of Thirteen as the leader, or seer lord, of the Order of the Grey Seers at the time of the Black Death in 1111 IC. He surprised his fellows on the council by agreeing to Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch IV's plan to unleash the Black Death upon the Old World. Skrittar was known for using a special ritual conducted at a time of celestial conjunction among a number of heavenly bodies to steal shards of Warpstone from the Chaos moon of Morrslieb. He met his end when he overindulged on his massive store of Warpstone to increase his magical abilities. Swollen with power, he drew on too much magical energy and was mutated into a mindless, rat-like Chaos Spawn and slain.[3a]
- Blight Tenscratch - Blight Tenscratch was a Grey Lord and the master of Clan Verms. He schemed to have Nurglitch IV assassinated, using his minion, the Plague Priest Puskab Foulfur, but found himself betrayed and later killed by Foulfur in a duel for control of his seat on the Council of Thirteen.
- Manglrr Baneburrow - The lord of Clan Fester, Manglrr would accompany his fellow Grey Lord Skrittar to Sylvania at the time of the Black Death to harvest the Warpstone the seer lord had caused to fall from the green moon Morrslieb during a magical ritual he had conducted a year prior. However, Manglrr and his clan proved unable to deal with the Undead creatures of that land and aid Skrittar's scheme. Manglrr stepped down from the Council of Thirteen and his clan became a Thrall Clan of the Pestilent Brotherhood.
- Sythar Doom - The Master of Clan Skryre, Sythar Doom was a wizened old Skaven who sat the Council of Thirteen during the Black Plague in 1111 IC. Like Vrrmik, he had despised Vecteek and had designs on the twelfth seat of the council, which would place him to the left of the Horned Rat. However, Clan Pestilens' rise to power was a matter than also needed to be addressed as well as the schemes of several underlings and rivals. However, before Doom could personally see to their deaths, he was murdered by Kurgaz Smallhammer. His heart was stopped and his body exploded, unfortunately killing his attacker as well.
Canon Conflict
It is not entirely clear from the existing lore whether Skaven who served on the Council of Thirteen and replaced the original Grey Lords who founded it were also allowed to bear the title of "Grey Lord," or whether that title only applied to the original twelve Grey Lords who emerged from the Shattered Tower in Skavenblight after the disaster which nearly destroyed the Skaven race. The 4th Edition Skaven army book is somewhat ambiguous and its wording seems to indicate that when a Grey Lord died or was challenged to a duel and removed from the council, the new member of the council was a Lord of Decay, but not necessarily a Grey Lord.
However, in the Black Plague trilogy of novels by C.L. Werner, the context seems to indicate that any Skaven who ascended to a seat on the council was entitled to the title of Grey Lord. This means that Lords of Decay such as Puskab Foulfur, Vrask Bilebroth, and Queekual would be among the Grey Lords, as they had stepped into the places on the council vacated by the named Grey Lords Blight Tenscratch, Manglrr Baneburrow, and Skrittar.
The Grey Lord Visktrin was the leader of the Skaven horde during the Great Migration that travelled into the Far East and would become Clan Eshin. However, Shadowmaster Kreep, leader of Clan Eshin in 1111 IC, was said to be a Grey Lord, which suggests the title of Grey Lord was heritable. Visktrin himself was said to have a successor, however it is not clear whether this Skaven took the title of Grey Lord.
However, after the time of the Black Death and the Skaven Wars from 1111-1124 IC, and starting in canon with the 7th Edition Skaven army book, the title of Grey Lord is no longer used by any sitting Council of Thirteen members. After the end of the Second Skaven Civil War, the Horned Rat reorganised the Council of Thirteen so that only members who defeated a sitting member in a duel and touched the Black Pillar of Commandments and survived could serve on the council. These members are also only called "Lords of Decay" and the Grey Lord title is no longer used. As such, it is unclear whether the title of Grey Lord was heritable from the original incarnation of the Council of Thirteen or only referred to the first twelve Grey Lords who founded the council, the Order of the Grey Seers and initiated the Great Migration.
Sources
- 1 Warhammer Armies: Skaven (7th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Children of the Horned Rat (RPG)
- 3: Warhammer Armies: Skaven (4th Edition)
- 4: Nagash Immortal (Novel) by Mike Lee
- 4a: Ch. 3
- 5: Skaven Wars: The Black Plague Trilogy (Omnibus Novel) by C. L. Werner
- 6: Blighted Empire (Novel) by C. L Werner
- 6a: Ch. 14