Homebrew Skaven Species Details

No one knows where the Skaven came from. Ancient Dwarves, tell horrifying tales of hungry red eyes, scouring through a human settlement in the mountains. Dwarven scholars speculate, that it was the great bell in the recently constructed cathedral, which rung specifically thirteen times, before going silent. The following chaos was one never seen before, man turning on man, children eating the faces of their own mothers, large green meteors of pure chaos fell from the sky; almost none of those exposed to the bell's tolls were spared from the madness. The few souls that were still sane, knocked the doors of the cathedral open, with the intent of finding the culprits to this dark sorcery. Inside, corpses of Dwarves lay scattered throughout its great halls, every single piece of flesh torn from their bones. From the darkness, lay thousands of red eyes on the disturbers of the feast. Since then, that city has been renamed to Skavenblight, the wretched capital of all Skaven.

The Skaven live in large underground cities, where all rats, sooner or later, go. Life here is harsh, with few Skaven reaching the age of a human teenager, before being crushed under a rock, stabbed in the back by a colleague, or falling from a high point to his death. Four clans dominate most of Skaven society, and all who wish to make it far in Skaven society will eventually join one. Or get eaten by a rat ogre; whichever one comes first. The four clans are: Skyre, Moulder, Eshin, and Pestilens. Clan Skyre focuses on developing new and interesting toys to blow soldiers up with, and occasionally something useful for nonmilitary purposes. Such as, massive drills that can do what would take thousands of slaves a month to do, in a week's time. These drills have been limited to drilling out new tunnels, far away from cities, as one of them almost got Skavenblight crushed under tons of stone. Clan Moulder are the breeders of the clans, using magical rocks known as Warpstone, filled with pure mutating chaos inside it. By far the most popular mutants are the Rat Ogres, a horrible fusion of an Ogre and a Skaven the result more brutal than it is cunning. Clan Eshin is a clan of assassins, trained by ninjas of Nippon to the East. Eshin is almost permanently bought out by the Council of Thirteen, for their services in dealing with troublesome Skaven or those of other empires. The fourth clan is Clan Pestilens, an entire clan of decease-ridden monks who screech the teachings of Horned Rat from their tomes. They love inventing new plagues and would want nothing but to watch the entire world rot. At the center of all is the Pillar of Commandments, a large stone of pure Warpstone containing thirteen sides with thirteen commandments. If you survive the horrible mutations, you have a chance at getting a seat in the Council of Thirteen. That is if you kill one of the current members in a fight to the death. Though some have tried members haven't changed for four hundred years.

Skaven Traits

Plagued Upbringing, Conniving, Superior Darkvision

Superior Darkvision.

 You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Claws and Teeth

If you hit with your claws, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike. If you hit with your bite, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike.

Plagued Upbringing.

Growing up and spawning in filth has its advantages. You are resistant to poison, have advantage against poisons, and are immune to the effects of diseases. However, you can still spread them.