"Oh, but they are delightful, jolly lads. They come up with the most pleasant of diseases, why that lovely little plague they gifted to those stuffed shirts in Bretonnia was truly inspired. Of course, they get a bit carried away sometimes, but for a race of jumped up vermin I, for one, think they’ve come quite a long way"
- —Scabrous Pox, Seneschal of Onogal[2a]
A Plague Rat bio-engineered to be carriers of many virulent strain of diseases.
Plague Rats are a special breed of plague-stricken rats for use in biological warfare. Rats, for good reason, have always served at the front ranks of Skaven attacks. And though rats and Ratmen share many similarities, the Skaven have no reservations about bending these rodents to their will and sending wave after wave into the waiting swords of their enemies. And so it has always been that the smaller creatures have served their warped kin.[1a]
The Skaven of Clan Pestilens, as a result of their feverish imaginations, took the use of rats a step further. Knowing full well that rats are carriers of noxious disease, they bred a special type of rat, one that would spread one of the most virulent plagues the world has ever known: Neiglish Rot. By dipping Giant Rats into their burbling cauldrons, they infuse them with foul Warpstone-laced wickedness. The rats develop a ravenous appetite, reproduce at a horrific rate, and are vectors for a suitably nasty plague. Plague Rats are thankfully rare, and once a food source is exhausted, they turn on each other until none remain. Plague Rats look like large rats with patchy brown fur and diseased skin. Their snouts drip orange filth continuously, spilling contagion wherever they go. Worse, most of these creatures suffer from the ravages of the disease they carry, and so are missing legs, paws, half of their heads, and more. Too many can recall seeing one of these sad creatures pulling its rotten hindquarters forward to make a meal of itself.[1a]
Another Plague Rat.
During the End Times, in the Battle of Xlanhuapec, the Pestilent Brotherhood used three claws of Plague Rats that had been exposed too long to the loathsome and corrupting diseases worshipped by these allies of Clan Pestilens. These contagions, mixed with the warp-amplified growth-juices of Clan Moulder, created hump-backed, tumour-riddled mutant vermin. Each one of the vicious giant rats is a walking four-legged disease bomb, so riddled with contaminants that they are as dangerous dead as they are alive.[3a]