Skaven Lore: The Great Horned Rat, the Council of Thirteen, the Great Clans and Skaventide (Plus How to Start)

The Skaven are giant, scheming ratmen who live in tunnels beneath every corner of the Mortal Realms, worship a monstrous rat god and betray each other at every opportunity. They are cowardly, brilliant, numberless, and at the start of Age of Sigmar's 4th edition, they nearly drowned the realms in a tide of rats.

Army guide, last updated November 4, 2026. Lore summarised in our own words from Black Library novels, codexes and community wikis. For game rules, use the official battletome or the official app.

The Skaven in 30 seconds

First, the Mortal Realms

Age of Sigmar takes place in the Mortal Realms, eight magical worlds born from the ruins of the old Warhammer world: the realms of Fire (Aqshy), Metal (Chamon), Life (Ghyran), Death (Shyish), Beasts (Ghur), Heavens (Azyr), Light (Hysh) and Shadow (Ulgu). Each has its own wild landscapes and magic, and Chaos, Death and Destruction fight Order for control of them all.

The Great Horned Rat

The Skaven worship the Great Horned Rat, a god of ruin and decay who is counted as a Chaos god in his own right. In Age of Sigmar, the Horned Rat has grown ever more powerful, his realm, Blight City, sprawling through the spaces between the realms. From there, the Skaven can tunnel anywhere through Gnawholes.

The Council of Thirteen

Skaven society is ruled by the Council of Thirteen, the lords of the most powerful clans. The thirteenth seat is reserved for the Horned Rat himself. Every member schemes to undermine the others, and alliances shift constantly. The god's prophets, the horned Grey Seers, claim to speak his will, and use it to push their own plans.

The Great Clans

• Clan Verminus: the warlords and their endless hordes of clanrats and stormvermin.
• Clan Skryre: mad engineers of warp-lightning cannons, doom-rockets and ratling guns.
• Clan Pestilens: plague monks who spread disease for their god.
• Clan Moulder: breeders of monsters like the huge, terrifying Hell Pit Abomination.
• Clan Eshin: assassins and spies who strike from the shadows.

Warpstone

The Skaven power almost everything with warpstone, glowing green rock made of solid Chaos. It fuels their weapons, their machines and their sorcery, and it slowly mutates and poisons everything it touches, including the Skaven themselves. They can't get enough of it.

Skaventide

At the start of Age of Sigmar's 4th edition, the Skaven launched Skaventide, their greatest invasion ever. Gnawholes opened across the realms and countless ratmen poured out, led by the Council's greatest champions, while Grey Seers rang great Screaming Bells as the hordes swept through the cities. Sigmar's forces held, barely, but the Skaven are now stronger than ever.

Famous Skaven

• Thanquol and Boneripper: the most infamous Grey Seer, always plotting, with his rat-ogre bodyguard.
• Morrskeet: star of the new novel Herald of the Horned Rat.
• The Warlock Engineers: brilliant, unstable inventors of Clan Skryre.

Black Library books to read

• Herald of the Horned Rat (Robbie MacNiven): a Grey Seer's race to become the god's herald (new)
• Gotrek and Felix: Grey Seer (C. L. Werner): the classic tale of Thanquol

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Find them as Black Library paperbacks and audiobooks.

Collecting Skaven: a quick guide

Skaven swarm the table with cheap rats and unpredictable war machines. Start with: a Skaven Spearhead box.

Painting tip

Brown or grey fur, pink tails, rusty metal and glowing green warpstone; one brown wash over everything does half the work.

New to the hobby? Start with our Warhammer beginner's hub, and see the other army guides.