Not to be confused with the Skaven Warlord Skreet Verminkin
"There is business afoot, yes. Business we must watch, oh so carefully, my lords. In the mortal lands, great Lords of Decay meet, great Lords of Decay plot-scheme. They meet, so we the Shadow Council, great Verminlords of Decay, the true Council, must meet too-also."
- —Skreech Verminking.[2a]
Skreech Verminking, known also as the "Rat King" and "Skitzlegion[2b]," is an Exalted Verminlord Daemon of the Horned Rat, the greatest of his kind, and the legendary head of the Shadow Council of Thirteen that truly governs the affairs of Skavendom from the Realm of Ruin, the Horned Rat's domain in the Realm of Chaos.[1a]
Among the Skaven there was a legend that one day, the "thirteen-headed one" would rise. It was said that this so-called "Rat King" would usher in a new era, bringing closer the day of the Great Ascendancy when the Horned One would come forth and the entire Known World would be made into a Skaven nest-lair of ruination.[1a]
History
Origins
Verminking's tale began long ago, in a different age of the world. The nascent race of the Skaven had only recently discovered a huge Warpstone meteor interred in the sundered mountain called Cripple Peak. It was then and remains to this day the largest deposit of that coveted substance yet found by the ratmen.[!a]
The Skaven, however, were not the first to lay claim to it. Cripple Peak was the domain of the father of Necromancers -- the great and terrible Nagash. He had turned the mountain into an Undead stronghold, and his shambling minions mined deep underground, extracting the Warpstone for some fell purpose of the Great Necromancer.[!a]
So it was that the Skaven made war, bursting into the lower mines of Nagashizzar, or the "Cursed Pit" as the ratmen came to know it. An endless battle of attrition began, with the Skaven pitting their vast numbers against a foe that could never be slain.[1a]
The war stretched into years, then into decades. The Skaven's ruling Council of Thirteen craved the limitless power offered by the Warpstone, but no matter how many ratmen warriors they ordered into the conflict, they could not break the stalemate. For his part, the Great Necromancer could find no way to drive off the Skaven that infested the tunnels under the mountain, and so was unable to bring his own dark plans to fruition.[1a]
A Fell Bargain
In the end, Nagash offered an unholy pact to the Council of Thirteen. In return for peace between the Undead and the ratmen, the Great Necromancer would supply the Skaven with Warpstone mined below Cripple Peak. After much deliberation, the council agreed and claw-marked the pact. In truth, the council desired all of the Warpstone, yet even their reserves were finite. This compromise at least offered some return.[1a]
Nagash soon sent rotting emissaries to the Council of Thirteen. He offered more Warpstone if the Skaven would lure Greenskin tribes into the Cursed Pit. The council agreed, but also redoubled their number of spies, as they were intrigued about what their foe was plotting. At first, there was little to report. However, it soon became obvious that powerful magic was at work. Storm clouds of energy revealed a spell being undertaken by the Great Necromancer that was intended to reshape the world itself. The Council of Thirteen hastily convened, for Nagash's Great Ritual was underway.[1a]
Through their scrying orb, the Skaven saw what they feared. Far to the south, an innumerable legion of Undead was flowing north, like a river of bone. Millions of restless dead strode relentlessly towards Nagashizzar in perhaps the mightiest army the world had ever seen. Before that host, the living would be snuffed out like a candle's flame in a black whirlwind.[1a]
For the first time, the Council of Thirteen voted unanimously on a proposition before them -- they had to stop Nagash. Unsure if their weapons could harm a being of such stature, one of the Lords of Decay suggested a blade of purest Warpstone be forged, and he oversaw that work. And so it went, with each member contributing to the task at hand. Finally, a last council member sent spies via secret tunnels to deliver the newly-forged Warpstone Fellblade into the hands of an unwitting pawn.[1a]
The Skaven plan worked -- but only barely. Nagash was cut into a thousand pieces. Yet, even in defeat, the Great Necromancer had lashed out at his foe. Far away in Skavenblight the Council of Thirteen was struck with the arcane feedback of that spell.[1a]
It was so potent that two of the Lords of Decay dropped dead, blood spraying from their eyes and ears. Yet it was over -- the most powerful necromancer the world had ever known was stopped. The Skaven scurried to collect the pieces of Nagash, taking them to the warpforges to destroy them. Without his great will, Nagash's Undead legions were worth no more than bones in the desert.[1a]
Birth of the Rat King
In the aftermath of Nagash's defeat, the Skaven grew strong and proliferated. Deep they tunnelled under the Worlds Edge Mountains, establishing many lair-nests. In Nagash's absence, the Skaven had been poised to claim whole swathes of the surface world, and the Horned Rat was pleased. Yet his pride soon turned to wrath, as petty rivalries and internal strife bled all momentum from the Skaven's progress.[1a]
In anger, the Skaven deity plucked up each of the Council of Thirteen's Lords of Decay, placing them in a dark hole within his realm. There they were joined with the members of their council who had been killed by Nagash's spell -- for the Horned Rat had debated how to reward these supplicants. How long the Lords of Decay remained in that pit is unknown, for time passes strangely in all the corners of that shadowy limbo.[1a]
In that hellish pit, there was nothing to sustain the fallen Lords of Decay except the scraps of failed plots thrown to them by the Horned Rat. So, day after day, year after year, the disgraced Lords of Decay could do nothing but gnaw upon missed opportunities, point claws at one another, and bicker.[1a]
In the end, the Horned Rat relented. Besides, he was fond of his children, flaws and all, and since then no single council had surpassed the deeds of that banished group. With an enormous claw, the Horned Rat drew forth his errant congregants. What emerged from out of that pit, however, was not twelve Skaven Lords of Decay, but a single entity -- a hideous amalgamation of the entire former Council of Thirteen.[1b]
Twisted and tail-locked, they were now one, squirming creature. The Horned Rat looked over the creature he had wrought and deemed it would not quite do. With a searing bolt of black lightning, the rat god formed the twisted shape into a form more pleasing to him -- that of a Verminlord, one of his Daemons -- and with a final, vomitous belch, he anointed it with a portion of his own godly power. Horns still sprouting and twisting, the Verminlord rose from this baptism of filth, and thus was Skreech Verminking born.[1b]
Verminking was a Verminlord like no other. He incorporated within his being the stealth of Clan Eshin, the arcane talent of the Grey Seers, the technological insight of Clan Skryre, the flesh-crafting skills of Clan Moulder, and the warrior ambition of the Warlord Clans. Although Clan Pestilens had not yet been formed at the time of Nagash's fall, the forebears of their founders were upon that Council of Thirteen, and they too now resided within Skreech's twisted body.[1b]
In this manner, Skreech Verminking bore great knowledge of disease, along with a burning zeal to spread that corruption in the name of the Horned Rat. At long last, after so much time in the black pit, Verminking was free. He glared into the mortal world, scratching at the ever-thinning walls that separated the shadowy Realm of Ruin from the realm of mortals, eager to unleash himself.[1b]
End Times
Skreech was one of the four Exalted Verminlords that stepped into the mortal world during the End Times, the others being Lurklox, Soothgnawer, and Vermalanx. While those Exalted Verminlords had their own pawns and machinations to pursue, Skreech approached the young Grey Seer Thanquol when the seer summoned a Verminlord, as he was the chosen instrument of the Horned Rat. Stepping from the shadows of the Realm of Ruin and hoisting his tiny charge upside down by his ankles, Skreech proceeded to stroke the seer's horns and declare its intentions to help.[2c]
The first thing Skreech did was give Thanquol another Rat Ogre, which the seer christened Boneripper. From there, the Verminlord proceeded to half-drag Thanquol to and from, Skitterleaping unimaginable distances across the world, from Nuln to Lustria and beyond.[2d]
Trivia
A "rat king" is an actual phenomenon that occurs among real rats, in which the tails of the rats are permanently twined together. The backstory of Skreech Verminking, being made up of all the Lords of Decay of the former Council of Thirteen, is likely based on this phenomenon.