Skrittar, known as the "Voice of the Horned One" and the "Supreme Prophet of He Who Is Thirteen", was a Skaven Seer Lord of the Order of the Grey Seers and was one of the most powerful members of the ratmen's caste of mage-priests. Skrittar was also one of the last Skaven to explicitly bear the title of Grey Lord.[2a]
Skrittar was the Grey Seers' representative on Skavendom's ruling Council of Thirteen during the time of the Black Plague in 1111 IC.[2a]
History[]
Thirteen Constellations Ritual[]
"The Horned Rat displays his beneficence in strange ways...He overlooked the eccentricities of Clan Pestilens and through them bestowed upon us the weapon which shall bring about the long-prophesied ascendancy!"
- —Skrittar, seemingly endorsing Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch IV's new contagion, the Black Plague, at a meeting of the Council of Thirteen in 1111 IC
Desiring the Warpstone that composed the entirety of the green moon of Morrslieb, Skrittar summoned eleven of the most magically potent and gifted sorcerers of the Order of the Grey Seers for a ritual that would loose shards of Warpstone from the surface of Chaos moon. This ritual took place in the Shattered Tower, the great temple of the Horned Rat in Skavenblight, before an ancient window of encorcelled stained glass. The ritual was similar to the one The Shaper preformed when he had completed the Shattered Tower centuries before. The Chaos moon, positioned exactly in the centre of the Thirteen Constellations, had been in an ascendant state. This conjunction was rare and only during it could certain practices and spells, handed down from seer lord to seer lord, be attempted. Magic of such malicious magnificence that other Skaven weren't even allowed to suspect it existed.[1a]
The ritual was a response to the rumours of Clan Pestilen's newest pox, said to be strong enough to lay low all of Mankind. Outwardly, Skrittar dismissed such claims from lesser ratmen, but privately he fretted that Arch-Plaguelord Pontifex Nurglitch IV, his religious rival for the Horned Rat's favour, really did possess such a weapon. And if he did, the allegiance of the Lords of Decay who comprised the Under-Empire's ruling Council of Thirteen might stray from the Grey Seers to the heretical Plague Priests of the rival sect of the Pestilent Brotherhood. This possibility led Skrittar to create a cabal of the Under-Empire's most powerful sorcerers and using them to attempt the most awesome feat of magic ever undertaken in the history of the Under-Empire.[1a]
After he inscribed powerful runes into the ground with Warpstone-mixed Elf blood and Dragon bone powder, Skrittar invoked the thirteen secret names of the Horned Rat. He assaulted the Chaos moon with sorcerous energy, and summoned immense eldritch powers to the circle of Grey Seers undertaking the ritual. Four Grey Seers die as a result, rent by these fell powers, before the ritual succeeded. The surviving mage-priests celebrated, but the Grey Lord had no intention of sharing his newly gained Warpstone wealth with his companions. He had a Clan Eshin assassin, called Deathmaster Silke, kill all of the other surviving participants of the ritual, something he had arranged beforehand with the Eshin Nightlord Kreep.[1a]
Later, at the latest meeting of the Lords of Decay, Skrittar watched Nurglitch IV unveil the new contagion with barely contained rage. However, Skrittar surprised all assembled by endorsing the disease instead of denigrating it, as was expected. This was deeply suspicious to Vecteek, the supreme leader of Clan Rictus, but in the interest of not inciting a fratricidal holy war, the Warmonger decided against murdering the Grey Lord with his Verminguard. With Skrittar's approval of the plan, the rest of the vote proved a foregone conclusion. In the end, only Warpmaster Sythar Doom and Great Warlord Vrrmik opposed the scheme.
Gnawdawn Ritual[]
The Black Death ultimately unleashed by Clan Pestilens in 1111 IC across the entirety of the Old World killed wantonly and rapidly, bringing low the kingdoms of Men and providing a true prospect for unity and the attainment of the Great Ascendancy for the Skaven. However, that unity would be one brought under the banner of the Plague Priests of the Pestilent Brotherhood, not the Order of the Grey Seers, which Skrittar found intolerable.
To prevent this outcome, Skrittar repeated the magical ritual he had performed a year earlier at Gnawdawn, during the conjunction of certain celestial bodies, which heightened the affect of the blackest of his magics. Once more, twelve of the Grey Seers were used to conduct the ritual and then slain afterwards by a Clan Eshin agent named Killmaker Nartik, the apprentice of Deathmaster Silke. The purpose of this ritual, however, was to bring the shards of Warpstone stolen from Morrslieb raining down on the Known World in a particular place: one barren enough to be bereft of Skaven presence but close enough to Skavenblight that a trip there would not be noticed by the other clans -- particularly those of the Pestilent Brotherhood.[2a]
For this task, the Grey Lord employed Clan Fester, a Skaven clan small and pious enough to be threatened by the merest twitch of one of his whiskers.[2a] Skrittar also took on Vrask Bilebroth, the rival of the newest Council of Thirteen member Puskab Foulfur, as he sought to exploit that Plague Priest's fear of his rival.[2b]
Finally, Skrittar offered the grave-rats of Clan Mordkin one third of his Warpstone plunder when it became clear that they would be facing Undead creatures. Clan Fester feared these supernatural creatures, but the ratmen of Clan Mordkin had no such fear and associated the rotting creatures only with another source of food.[2b]
Death[]
The tower of Vanhaldenschlosse in Sylvania was to be the grave of the Grey Lord, his plans unravelling as Clan Fester fled the field and even Clan Mordkin struggled against the Undead Dragons summoned by a rival wizard named Frederick van Hal. Enraged that his scheme had failed and that rival clans might now claim the Warpstone he had summoned from the Chaos moon, Skrittar made use of an ensorcelled Screaming Bell to unleash arcs of magical energy upon his foes. He also reached into the minds of his minions, forcing them into a Death Frenzy. However, the sheer amounts of magical energy coursing through his body and the consumption of such a large amount of raw Warpstone proved too much, even for a Grey Lord.[2b]
After drawing on more magical energy than he could control, the Grey Lord was mutated into a rat-like Chaos Spawn and slain. Queekual succeeded Skrittar on the Council of Thirteen as the new leader of the Order of the Grey Seers after his death.[2b]
Appearance[]
Like most Grey Seers, Skrittar possessed grey fur, although his was notably piebald. He affixed bells to his long horns.[1b] He wore a fine silver robe, woven from the hair of Human women at great expense.[2b][2a]
Canon Conflict[]
In the 4th Edition Skaven armybook, Skrittar had three Apprentice Grey Seers accompany him on his mission to Sylvania, in particular Krasslik, the envious, Warpstone-hungry pupil of the seer lord. The novels of the Black Plague Trilogy by C.L. Werner do not explicitly or implicitly acknowledge them in any way.