"At the time of the three-hundredth cycle of this world, the two moons shall unite and summon forth the rodent god and his evil spawn to deliver plague and pestilence upon the land named Lustria...."
- —Extract from the "Prophecy of Sotek"[1b]
The Rise of Sotek was a cataclysmic event that shook the jungle-continent of Lustria around the year -1339 IC, a conflict that resulted in one of the longest wars ever fought between the Lizardmen empire of Lustria and the plague-ridden Skaven hordes of Clan Pestilens. This massive continental invasion ravaged Lustria for nearly 1,500 years, until the day when Sotek, the Lizardmen's god of war and serpents, unleashed his holy wrath upon the ratmen, finally forcing the Skaven host off the continent in a mass exodus towards the Southlands.[1b]
This catastrophic event was triggered when the ancestors of Clan Pestilens unexpectedly found a massive tunnel that burrowed its way deep below the Great Ocean and to the other side of the very mortal world, right to the heart of the Lizardmen empire. From below the city of Chaqua, the Skaven poured forth and instigated a war that became the stuff of legend.[1a]
Since the Skaven have little to no use for recorded history, only the Slann have any documented accounts of that catastrophic war, for the resulting legacy brought about by the conflict still echoes to the foundation of their empire to this day. The plagues the Skaven unleashed still cling to the stones of the temple-cities that it contaminated, and the corruption was so strong that neither mage-priests nor Sotek had a way to eradicate it. Only Tehenhauin, the Prophet of Sotek, managed to, at the most, quarantine the corruption from leaking out of the contaminated cities, provided that they appease their snake-god with an abundance of Skaven sacrifices.1e
History[]
Origins[]
When the Old Ones perished or fled, so too did the Slann of the First Spawning. The last of the first-spawned Slann inscribed the Great Plan of the Old Ones onto sacred plaques of gold before they themselves perished. These plaques were copied by the remaining Slann and were kept within the remaining temple-cities of Lustria. The Slann that remained continued on with their work given to them by their masters, never stopping their tasks that were far too hopeless to be achieved.[1c]
It is uncertain whether all the copies were faithful in every detail to the master copy, since half of the plaques have now vanished through the predation of plundering invaders. For this reason, every sacred plaque is precious to the mage-priests, for they may reveal unknown details of the divine plan of the Old Ones. The mage-priests will go to any lengths to retrieve the sacred plaques that were stolen by invaders, sacrificing the lives of hundreds of their people for the chance to return the artefacts to their rightful place.[1c]
For countless centuries the Prophecy of Sotek was an obscure detail known only from a single plaque, which was kept in the great temple-city of Chaqua. Only the Slann mage-priests of this city knew about it but never pondered its true meaning for fear that their brothers would demand the knowledge themselves, or worse, purge it from the archives as corrupt and misinformed. The mage-priests of Chaqua believed that this prophecy was not corrupt, but true words handed to them by the Old Ones to fulfill a purpose in the imminent future. But, sadly, the concerns of the future were far ahead of them, and the mage-priests ignored the warnings and the omens until the appointed time, by which time it was far too late.[1c]
The Prophecy of Sotek not only predicted the collapse of the Warp Gates but also the cataclysmic invasion of Lustria by an Enemy that would bring plague and pestilence in their wake. The Prophecy stated that this enemy and this cataclysm had to be endured. It would come, it would rage for centuries, and in due course it would pass. It would herald the ruination of many Lizardmen, and the spread of great and terrible plagues.[1c]
The time of the rodent spawn would eventually be brought to an end only when the mighty serpent Sotek would appear and bring destruction upon the ratmen. Sotek was destined to prevail over the rodent spawn and would be heralded by the appearance of the forked tongue of the Serpent in the Sky. The mage-priests of Chaqua considered Sotek to be one of the Old Ones, who would return to save his faithful servants from the dire perils that beset them.[1c]
Coming of Pestilence[]
The last of the Saurus warriors making a final stand.
The coming of the Skaven's Clan Pestilens to Lustria was heralded by a mighty plague infecting the spawning pools south of the temple-city of Chaqua. Eyewitnesses near the area saw the verdant pools begin to fester and rot, the waters growing black and sickly. Rather than birthing a new generation of Skinks, those that came out were twisted and malformed. Dragging themselves into the sun, they withered away and died within hours.[1d]
When word of this tragedy reached the Slann mage-priests of Chaqua, they dispatched a cohort of warriors to investigate. At the Sacred Pools, known by the Skinks as the Pools of Reflected Rain Clouds, the Lizardmen warriors encountered strange and horrible abominations creeping their way towards the pools. For the first time, but far from the last, the Lizardmen were faced with the sudden onslaught of the Skaven hordes of Clan Pestilens.[1d]
Wholly unprepared for this encounter, and having no knowledge of the new invaders, the Lizardmen were cut down, relinquishing the pools to the horde of humanoid vermin. The Plague Monks of Clan Pestilens had spied upon the Lizardmen for a long time, plotting a way to bring about their destruction. In the end, the brave Saurus warriors made a last stand on top of a temple, so that a single Skink could escape and bring warning back to Chaqua. But the Skink was foolish, instead of bringing salvation, it brought its doom, for within him, deep inside his veins laid the seeds of destruction. Within days, the city was in chaos, the virulent plague the Skink had brought back with him running wild in the streets and the rise of Clan Pestilence coming nearer by the day.[1d]
It wasn't until this pestilence made its way into the city of Chaqua that the Prophecy of Sotek was finally read in full by the mage-priests. This process took time, and in the streets of the city, the Skinks began to die by the hundreds as they were the most vulnerable to this horrible new plague. Finally, after many long days of collaboration the mage-priests proclaimed the prophecy to the populace and dispatched warbands of Skinks to find and attack the ratmen's stronghold and bring back captives for sacrifice. The mage-priests made up their minds to invoke the power of Sotek in a ritual that would drive the rat creatures back to the vile place of their horrible birth. They hoped to attract their god's attention with the smoking stench of the servants of the Horned Rat.[1d]
Few Skinks returned, but they were not empty-handed. Unfortunately, their captives brought the plague into the city with them. The Skaven chiefs were sacrificed upon the new Altar of Sotek and the god was invoked. However, within weeks the city was devastated by a new wave of plagues and pestilence. The mage-priests themselves now sickened and died. Their Saurus bodyguards took their remains to the crypts and sealed up the passages, determined to defend their masters to the bitter end.[1d]
While these catastrophic events were unfolding, a new sight appeared in the sky, a comet with two-tails. Shaped like the tongue of a serpent it was seen by the people of Chaqua on the eve of the burial ceremony. Weeping pus and tears at the entrance of the temple doors, the last mage-priest alive witnessed its coming, before being sealed forever within the tombs.[1d]
The Forgotten War[]
The forgotten war of Lustria between the Lizardmen and the Skaven of Clan Pestilence.
With the destruction of their temple-city now all but inevitable, the surviving Skinks were left lost and leaderless. This unique breed of red-crested Skinks were notable for being more war-like than others, more similar in tempeament to their cousins the Saurus. It was during this dire time that a leader arose to aid his brethren in their time of need. Tehenhauin, the self-proclaimed "Prophet of Sotek," rallied the other Skinks to his banner, and led a massive host of warriors to combat the pestilent threat of the ratmen.[1d]
He declared that the sign of Sotek had appeared in the sky as predicted by the sacred plaque of Chaqua and demanded that all Lizardmen unite and drive back their foe. With the plaque placed in a reliquary, the entire population of Red Crested Skinks deserted the dying city of Chaqua, and began to migrate ahead of the plague that was spreading quickly across the region. Wherever the Red Crests went, they proclaimed the Prophecy of Sotek and sacrificed all rat-spawn they encountered to summon their god into the mortal world.[1d]
The Skinks were the most vulnerable to the plague, and were its primary victims. Thus the majority of Skinks were swayed by the growing Cult of Sotek. Tehenhauin and his Red Crests proliferated and led their own armies to combat the Skaven wherever they found them. In this period of total war spanning the continent of Lustria, a countless number of temple-cities were relieved from siege and disease by the Red Host of Tehenhauin.[1d]
There was no remorse, no mercy, shown on either side. Lizardmen and Skaven alike used every tactic imaginable to ensure the utter destruction of their opponent. The war proved how cold and calculating the warriors on each side were willing to be. To fulfill the prophecy, the Lizardmen had to sacrifice an unimaginable number of Skaven captives for their god to manifest in the mortal world. But this effort proved difficult. The Slann mage-priests of other temple-cities forbade bringing captives into their ziggurats, resulting in the delay of Sotek's coming for several centuries.[1d]
The mage-priests of the other temple-cities viewed the Prophecy of Sotek with disdain. Despite the heavenly signs that indicated its truthfulness, they ignored the prophecy. However, by forbidding captive ratmen in the temple-cities they had instigated unrest in the local infected Skink populations. Those Lizardmen felt that the mage-priests cared little for their sufferings and the sacrifices they endured to bring the prisoners to the temple-cities. Before long the Skinks began to conduct their own sacrificial rituals to invoke their god and end the grueling war.[1d]
Emergence of Sotek[]
Tehenhauin, Prophet of Sotek and the great sacrifice after the Battle of Gwakmol Crater.
As the conflict dragged on, and the number of Skaven sacrifices began to increase at a dramatic rate, the Serpent God Sotek heard their invocation, and began preparations for his manifestation. Although the coming of Sotek was foretold, and the moment of his coming was heralded by the comet, it was still neccessary for his followers to make him as strong as possible.[1e]
As stated by the Prophecy, Sotek would appear to the masses as an enormous and mighty serpent of incredible size and power, the swallower of all rodent kind. A serpent of such awesome size and appetite, he had the ability to swallow the Horned Rat himself and make him spend a thousand long years being digested. The prophecy claimed that Horned Rat would fall and be crushed within Sotek's mighty coils.[1e]
In time, Tehenhauin gathered a massive and mighty host of Lizardmen warriors composed predominately of Skinks, and set a cunning trap for the rat-spawn at the Battle of Gwakmol Crater. The battle raged on for several days, with the Lizardmen host eventually emerging victorious, and with them, came a massive wagon-train of ratmen slaves that numbered in the thousands.[1e]
They brought the vermin deep into the jungle canopy, where at an undisclosed location, upon the crumbling ruins of an altar to a long forgotten god, the Skaven were sacrificed by the hundreds every hour. The Prophet of Sotek took personal command of the ceremony, and it is said that the river Amaxon ran red with the blood of the Skaven sacrificed in that horrid place.[1e]
The Time of Sotek drew nigh, for it became clear that the god had drunk his fill of Skaven blood. Enough to drown the Old World in a crimson tide. Within the stronghold of Clan Pestilens, the Plague Monks had taken the arrival of the Twin Tailed Comet as an omen of another kind. A snake infestation appeared out of nowhere in the lower levels of the Skaven's stronghold. The serpents proved immune to every plague that the monks unleashed, forcing the Skaven up from their tunnels into the ruins of the former Lizardmen temple-city above.[1e]
Exodus of Clan Pestilens[]
The armies of Clan Pestilens gather for the coming exodus out of Lustria.
After many battles, the Skaven armies were pushed back to the ruined temple-city of Quetza, where they were encircled by the armies of all the temple-cities combined, gathered to finally rid the mortal world of the pestilent threat. Encircled and isolated, the ruling plaguelords of Clan Pestilens had but one recourse if they wished to live -- they must leave their home on Lustria behind.[1e]
Mustering the clan into a titanic horde, stretching from horizon to horizon, all of Pestilens gathered for the exodus from Lustria. All ready to give up their lives for the survival of their brotherhood. With the command issued, the plaguelords led the clan in a charge that smashed through the Lizardmen army, making a breach from which the entire horde of ratmen swept out and made due course to the open sea. This massive exodus proved to be a war in itself. Battles raged for hundreds of miles to the east. The Skaven fought to reach the coast, and their salvation.[1e]
The ratmen paid in blood for every step of the journey. The Lizardmen fought with an unsurpassed and savage zeal. For they knew that they would never get another chance to wipe the rat-spawn from the Known World once and for all. The final battle of the war was fought upon the shores of Fuming Serpent Island. Clan Pestilens began construction of a rotting fleet to bear them across the Great Ocean towards the Southlands and salvation. It is said that it was then that the mighty Serpent God Sotek finally appeared at the height of the fighting, accompanied by a slithering horde of snakes. The snakes and Lizardmen crushed the last of the Skaven forces defending the shores. But it was too late, as much of Clan Pestilens' fleet was able to flee the beaches, and ultimate triumph was lost to the Lizardmen host.[1e]
But Sotek was not disturbed. The Serpent God dove into the sea after the ratmen, and pursued them across the world. From the Southlands he slithered into the depths of the earth in his relentless pursuit of the Skaven, feeding endlessly on their kin to protect his people from the menace of the ratmen forever. Such is the myth of Sotek and his ascension to godhood.[1e]