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What if the overlord and his son from overlord hell rising and 2 got stuck in warhammer fantasy with both of there basses on top of each other’s and with there hordes of minions and if they can’t share the same minions types then the son gets reds and greens and the father gets blues and browns just sense of what types of missions they go on son stealing important stuff and father conquering and/or killing whatever he can handle 👌❓ P.s. clan mors is the best just because numbers and queek
My favorite Skaven moment was one skaven accidentally being discovered by several human nobles, but due to it being a masquerade ball and all the nobles already being piss drunk, no one notices he's not wearing a costume. He uses this to his advantage to start eating rich people food. Then Thanquol kills him because he thinks he's human.
I read this bit recently and Thanqol does realise he's a skaven after the he talks - specifically the head assassin who just messed things up for Thanqol (always the incompetent underlings...) - so takes the opportunity to give him a quick blast in revenge
I think my favorite part of the Skaven is that both scenarios you described are possible to have going on at the same time. A great earthquake shakes the city, and an entire city-block falls into a foreboding chasm, and suddenly disappearances start across the entire city with people going missing en masse. Terrifying from the human perspective, but from the Skaven perspective 50% of their army was just blown up in an "accident" that each of the skaven commanders was in some way partially responsible for with each of them managing to lose a large number of their supporters who they intentionally left in the blast radius to divert suspicion. Then, in order to appease their higher-ups, they begin fighting over trying to capture as many humans as possible to use as sacrifices to bribe their superiors with. But they also keep trying to kill or steal the other commander's sacrifices, meaning the entire process ends up getting scaled up to absurd levels as their self-sabotage stretches the entire horrifying death of this town out from a months-long campaign to _years_ long. With them only finally delivering the killing blow when threatened by the superiors that they'll all be turned into "slave-meat-food-things" if they don't get results. But the humans never know that the agonizing and terrifying ordeal they went through wasn't because of any intentional psychological warfare on the Skavens part, but rather their own self destructive backstabbing.
4:43 "There's actually some pretty significant amount of findings that show rats are supportive and reasonably kind animals, only really turning into something resembling the Skaven under the most extremely cramped and horrid conditions." Me: _horrible Mouse Utopia flashbacks_
Honestly, if you got a free rat for every organ that stops doing its job, that would be kinda nice. I mean, sure your immune system tried to nuke your ability to make something you need to live, but least you'd have a new rat friend.
I know but I can't get a group and a GM to play it, would host one but I'm a terrible GM. But my buddy is a good GM and has had this home brew made since 2007 and is a mix of Fantasy and 40k with a whole lot of other fictions throw in to.
@@bazumafoo886Warhammer started out as a table top RPG combined with w war Game before it went full war game. You can still play it but it’s literally the oldest War Hammer media out there so it’s bearly recognizable at times.
If the 1d6 Chan article is correct, he seems to have achieved Stormcast-esque immortality / respawning in the same book. Holy shit he turned himself into a cyborg rat Lich.
@@kenny187ful The reply section for this comment is bugged so every time I close and reopen it your reply multiplies, I feel like I'm actively watching a Skaven nest grow
@@ereviscale3966 What gets to me is how they can be so arrogant despite being on par with everyone else,even though they tend to have a head start of countless millennia.
The more I learnt about the skaven the more I realized how complex and intriguing they were. Skaven have so much lore to their own that they could easily exist in their own fantasy series
I can certainly say the Skaven ARE Warhammer. They always ask the question "how can we make everything worse?". Which is certainly grim and certainly dark. Also just the best memes, like enough to transcend Warhammer to be recognized outside it.
There's a bit in Grey Seer by C L Werner where an important skaven calls a meeting and asks who cocked up their latest plan. Thanquol, who absolutely was responsible, passed the buck onto an underling. The big important skaven then thanked that underling, as Thanquol's plan failing let another operation succeed. Thanquol's thought process then goes, "That bastard stole credit for my achievement! I'll kill him!" This is the purest distillation of skaven, I love them so much.
Got to love how the Skaven are SO incompetent that it loops back around into them being more dangerous because of said incompetence rather than less so because the things they do to kill each other are so over-the-top absurd that everyone else ends up suffering the aftermath of it all despite not even being the targets half the time.
Also one of the reasons for skaven existing is to be essentially a dark counterpart of the joke of every adventurers first quest is a rat killing quest
They ate mickey. Shat him out, overdosed his shit remains with warpstone and now we got a monster for the face of disney. Instead of creating entertainment to bring people together they create things to piss everyone off and turn everything they make into shit.
Honestly with the way Disney is worshipped I have no doubt the closest 40k got to the great horned rat was with the rise of the House of Mouse. And the warp being the warp have no doubt Mickey was twisted in dark and unspeakable ways.
"Close your eyes and picture the typical Skaven. They have no concept of honour, no shred of empathy, no idea of courage. No ability for self-reflection, shame, or responsibility, and anything that goes wrong is always someone else's fault." -Cody Bonds on the average Skaven
@@georgethompson913 Let me see: -starting what seemed like an easy conquest that ended up dragging for way too long to the point it wouldn't even be a pyrrhic victory -command messing up due to incompetence and/or infighting -powerful war machines exploding taking their crew with them into space -rockets pulling a uno reverse card -artillery doing friendly fire -air defense also friendly firing (what they doing?) -sending wave after wave of bodies to drown the enemies in corpses -tide turning weapons (Moskva, kinzhal, T-90, etc) going down in quite silly ways -funny speech (they got drunk) And many more Yup, you're right
4:55 I have owned rats for the past 20 years (since I was six) and I can tell you they are incredible animals, once they understand your their friend they will basically never bite will do tricks on command and will follow you around the house if you let them out. That being said they all do have their own personalities some of them really can be rat basterds
I'm deathly allergic to rodents but I love watching rat videos. They're such smart little animals and they have such amazing social dynamics. The only similarity I see in behavior with skaven is they do like to have little dominance fights all the time, but all in good fun
The worst part of the Skaven is that they don't have Karl Franz Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Sigmar's Heir, Emperor of the South, Emperor Himself, Son of Emperors and of course the Emperor of the Empire of Man
well they do have Karl Franz Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Sigmar's Heir, Emperor of the South, Emperor Himself, and Son of Emperors and of course the Emperor of the Empire of Man, otherwise know as Krat Scratch!
WH40K End Times: All factions decide to band together to face the incoming primary hive of the Tyrranids, grumbling about this but all knowing that it's their only chance for survival to kill each other later. And then...the Tyrranids just fly past them. Confused, everyone looks towards where the Tyrranids flew from only to see something so much worse than the Tyrranids that they collectively realized that the Chaos Gods were always just a bunch of angsty toddlers compared to the sheer, unmatched, imaginably evil force that they now look upon. Skaven...with technology hyper advanced to the point of putting even the Necrons to shame, albeit all of said tech is still just as jank and prone to self-destruction as per tradition/incurable mental insanity albeit now numbering in the hundreds of decitillions. Clan Moulder's futurized super abominations have become so abhorrent that even the Nurglites throw up in disgust at the sight of them and Ikit Claw with his cyborg lichdom has become a rat-juggernaught war machine god of literal insanity so over-the-top crazy that the Orks gain a mass intervention upon realizing that they're completely sane and even rational compared to these rat people.
They locked me in a round room and only fed me bagels. Bagels? I love Bagels! Bagels are round, the sun is round! The sun is yellow, bananas are yellow! Bananas have spots, old people have spots! Old people live looooooong lives. Life?! That's my favorite cereal! I once bought some for 10 dollars. 10 dollars?! That's crazy! I was crazy once, they locked me in a round room and only fed me Bagels. Bagels? I love Bagels...
@@sovietunion7643change? I changed once. They put me through a rift. A chaos rift. A chaos rift with tzeentch. And tzeentch made me change! Change? I changed once…
i like it, it's like this things in warhammer where i 200 years old space marines do not kill a pathetic gretchin because he thinks this is a job of guardsmen, only for the pathetic lil' shit to blow a hole the sise of an ogryn in it with what was left of a grot canon. Gun make the difference.
A small skaven army accidentally makes its way into 40K can’t get back and slowly spread and destroy a hive world and conquer out from there before the imperium can respond
yes-yes let these puny man-things and orc-things KNEEL before the strength-might of SKAVENDOM where before we fought-seeked a planet us-we rule-control hundereds of system-planets
As far as I understand Hruds were skaven of 40k before being changed in Lovecraftian mess for whatever reason. Also, tyranids already fulfill the role of endless horde of filth. I love skaven but there we will never see them in 40k probably
@@raufm.2135 Well we definitely need a faction that is basically the Skaven in 40k. I want to see giant meth crazed humanoid rats that speak funny making quick work of the Orks and Tyranids for shits and giggles
Skaven: the only race you can look at, ask "can i make them worse?" and get "no" for an answer. i'd call them good boys but that would be inaccurate and probably get me kill-stabbed in my sleep. god, the Skaven are pure fun.
Agreed. There isn't quite a faction that mirrors their absolute absurdity. Gretchin get the closest I think but they aren't nearly the same level of incompetent or more importantly comically selfish.
imagine explaining the idea of loyalty to a skaven slave and something in the warp finnally just clicks and it starts a cultural revolution in the skaven to maybe not instantly backstab their allies, allowing them to do crazy things like work as mercenaries for the above ground forces.
@@sovietunion7643 That already half-worked for Mors, only problem is that they're still listening to the freaking Horned Rat convincing them to takeover the world, which in no way benefits them.
@@elegantoddity8609 mostly because they know they are stuck with him. at least 3 Mors characters in the books have indicated they think hes a horrible god but they know their lives are doomed if they don't go with it. Better be with than against and all that.
I'm pretty sure my uncle Stephen invented the Skaven. He created a board game while employed by GW in the 80s about putting together orc warbands with cards called Chaos mauraders. In it, there are manlike rats called blightscab plaguelords, and look just like the Skaven as we know them now. Also in the game is the horned rat standard, the origin of their god too
Actually the Skaven have a third influence you didn't mention, the rats of Lankhmar. Fritz Leiber wrote a series of short sword and sorcery fantasy stories featuring the characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in this big city called Lankhmar, and one of the groups they end up encouraging are the rats of Lankhmar below, an undercity of violent duplicitous bipedal rats of various sizes, from rat sizes rats to around men sized rats. They also had a council of 13 leading their society, and culturally they liked the number 13
Normally I think the "race that is all inherently evil and thus always justified to kill" is boring and a cop out. But with the Skaven, I love it. They're like an entire race of cartoon villains but with gore turned on.
I have not played a single game of Warhammer in any setting, I don‘t own a single mini, rulebook, piece of art or ever will own any of the aforementioned. The only contact I used to have with 40k was random 2am deep dives through wikis, pulling together bits and pieces of what seemed to be a fascinating world-context with cool characters and wildly dystopian stuff. Been subscribed since like day one, still not playing Warhammer, but loving everything I learned about and laughed at. Keep it up!
200k sub goal: Do or Don’t Skaven remastered. At the very least, it lets you put off doing Chaos in both settings and the Marines in 40k for that much longer
Pancreas - The imperium of man is awesome -> the imperium are space skaven -> The Skaven are Warhammer's Best Faction. Now I wait for Kairos Fateweaver to pop out of the warp and shout The circle is complete.
I mean the Imperium of man sucks and is a shithole but its really not the Skaven. As a whole it operates like that but the actual people in the Imperium are mostly dedicated to a greater cause and not all power hungry and backstabby. They both suck but it just isn't the same feel at all to me beyond sheer numbers and being a whole infestation.
0:27 Hey Pancreas, I realize that it's likely become a self-sustaining meme at this point, but have you ever explained the particulars of why you hate Bretonnia? Is it just the fact that they're a feudal society trying to survive in a world that's passing them by? Is it the fact that they're simping after elven goddess bathwater, IE, Lady of the Lake and Grail Knights? Or is it something else entirely?
I've found a post recording all the fun rules of the first editions of Age of Sigmar, my favourites are "If you talk to Konnrad von Carstein during your hero phase, reroll all 1s to hit. If Konrad talks back to you, re-roll all hits". And "Roll two dice and add their results when using the Plea of Doom. You can't add any modifier. Result: 13 You win the battle, and are immediately branded a cheater, not that it should bother you if you're a true skaven general." Honestly, the plea of doom could totally make a return, it's not even a rule, it's just a fun line in the rules XD
A special jingle that goes something like this "For Skaven treachery is a way of life." "Nothing is more natural than death and strife." "If you see a chance to get yourself ahead" "You better take it now or tomorrow you'll be dead."
Agreed, as much as I love Balthasar Gelt, or Karl Franz, the Skaven are just awesome. In fantasy, the Skaven are the most serious threat, and toss out the geneva convention. You aren't Skaven, if your own losses don't exceed your enemies, but still win in the long-term. Yet, you could totally make them have that "Saturday morning cartoon villain" vibe, and it still WORKS (just look at Thanquil). My friend absolutely loves Queek Headtaker, and tbh I can't blame him one bit. I'd love to start a Skaven army myself, at some point. Skrolk and Ikit are my favs, tbh. & I'm glad that in Vermintide, you can play as them in the new versus mode that's coming out, soon. They are both silly and terrifying and they're just so fun, there's just so much you can do with them, and I think that's just great.
12:25 its also a VERY skaven way to do too skaven are LITERALLY just official fanfiction with all the good bits that comes from that, while still being actual canon its so good
" I smoke-puffing on that Great Horned Rat tail shavings pack. My rat-kin, this loud-grass will give rat ogre a mutation. Grey-seer smoke-toked and predicted fall of Karaz-a-Karak. Grass-boof so green wood elves mistake-confuse for a great forest. "
Skaven spaceships would be absolutely bonkers! Maybe even more insane than Ork ships, since the Skaven have to at least somewhat abide by the laws of astrophysics.
It makes me smile whenever someone acknowledges the existence of the Overlord games. Easily one of my favorite series growing up. I wish there were more games about being the Big Bay Evil Guy of the setting.
The rats somehow are able to be simultaneously the most hilarious and the most horrifying faction and that’s an incredible spread of characters and units at your disposal I love the Skaven so much
Would also note "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" and the movie "The Secret of NIMH" as another Skaven influence; particularly with the high-tech, green-lightning magical rats.
4:50 I can confirm this. I used to keep rats and they are some of the coolest pets I ever had. They were very social and friendly. It only sucks that they only live like 2 years
We had some rats as class pets back in grade school. A pair of them took a shine to me and any time the cage was opened on y days to clean and feed them they would jump up and move to my shoulders and not move till I had to put them away when class changed. Definitely want to get some sometime soon as pets again.
I thought of a really great way to bring the Skaven into 40k while preserving their status from fantasy; make them predators of warp entities. Their entire society is ran by daemons trapped in boxes so they encourage chaos, just so they can show up and hoover it all up into their engines. Make them something the daemons fear; an eternity stuck in the material plane inside a box, having your essence continually sucked from you. Have a story where the reader thinks they're a guardsman or something, escaping some evil xenos, having to hide in dark corners as they cower in fear; only to learn it's a blood thirster or something that just doesn't want to go back in the box.
I always figured skaven were "redwall but evil" as an inspiration. I may have misread the vibe but that series was super popular in the late 80s / early 90s and I kinda figured the skaven played on that in a dark twist.
19:25 funnily enough I remember reading somewhere that this person had a theory that the rats were originally made for 40K but then the creators were like “Wouldn’t it be funnier if we put them in fantasy lol” and now here we are.
I heard the quote “there more than one way to skin an infant” and immediately burst out laughing, not sure if that says something about me or how good Thranquol’s writer is that baby-skinning being an offhand metaphor/remark is so comically evil it just becomes funny rather than horrifying
One skaven sitting around a table with other skaven passing around a weed pen they’re all just absolutely ripping from:”What if…what if we made a bomb. That only kills elves?” One of the other skaven at the table absolutely genuinely:”That’s the smartest idea I think I’ve ever heard.”
My absolute favorite character I’ve ever made for DnD was essentially a Skaven Warplock Engineer. It’s so fun being a little chaos gremlin that is also terrifying at times. And the other players always turn dialogue to him so they can hear Skrit speak-squeak in his funny way. The DM also threw in some “warpstone” which ended up mutating him and turned one player into a Jekyll-Hide character who occasionally turns into a rat ogre- at both very convenient and incredibly inconvenient times.
Skaven was my very first mini army and pretty much my entry to Warhammer and later Warhammer 40k obsession. Absolutely love Skaven in the Felix and Gotrek books too.
Instead of a golden throne they have the warpstone throne, preserving the divine body of the Great Horned Rat (actually the corpse of the most recently assassinated Council of 13 member).
Due in no small part to your channel, I've started re-reading the Gotrek and Felix books, a series I haven't touched in almost 20 years. Having just finished Skavenslayer, I fully embrace these demented little rat men.
4:40 im glad you mentioned this cuz i had 2 pet rats (rest in peace Yuko and Loona), and they were absolutely wonderfull. they are verry social and form a bond with their owner much like a dog does.
Pete the Wargamer did a really cool conversion of a Genestealer Skaven, which i think with their resurrection rules they'd make a perfect skaven stand-in. Abberants as Rat Ogres (Use Ghoritch as that Abberant HQ unit i forget the name), Ratling Gunners as Heavy Stubbers for the Hybrid squads, and maybe those Broodhorrors as the Genestealer proper. OH DEATHMASTER SNIKTCH AS THE THREE-ARMED GUNSLINGER
If the Skaven were in 40K, I'd be like "Friendship with Necrons has ended, friendship with Skaven (re)started." Because my god could they fit easily, and they'd flip the table on the setting... Tyranid vs Skaven... the Buffet Battle. I love them in TW:WH series, and If I played AOS I'd be all over those fuzzy little buggers. They truly are Biggest Brained Rats.
I would love to see the great horned rat spread into 40K; the idea of them bringing the great bells into battles and the like seems great. stowing away on ships of other factions, stealing their tech and using it for their own ideas on how to "enhance" it all like the loot goblins they are... it feels right at home, and seeing them come to a head with the Orks would prove very interesting.
4:35 That is a lie. The 40k Orks are the most original GW faction by far. Sure, they share a name with stuff that was around before, and they are green and violent, but that's it. Their mentality, culture, their take on warfare and technology, their physiology and everthing else is just perfect, and so unique. If you give them point penalties because the basic ideas of orcs were around before, the Skaven get the same penalties because the idea of rats being evil little selfish liar bastards is way older. Also, what is more original: "Backstabbing mutated rat bastards" or "Angry green british mushroom people in space"?
It is so cool what the skaven are in concept, they are an alternative to the way the emperor does it, the way emp wanted to do it was by having the galaxy not believe in chaos, whereas the slaan were made to kill everything so chaos dies, the skaven were made to kill the slaan theory of mine
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what are your thoughts on star wars or star trek or mass efftect. etc etc
Make a video about fixing bretonnia. I dare you. Coward.
Ahh Skavens the Imperium in Fantasy.
What if the overlord and his son from overlord hell rising and 2 got stuck in warhammer fantasy with both of there basses on top of each other’s and with there hordes of minions and if they can’t share the same minions types then the son gets reds and greens and the father gets blues and browns just sense of what types of missions they go on son stealing important stuff and father conquering and/or killing whatever he can handle 👌❓
P.s. clan mors is the best just because numbers and queek
So the WORST faction is also the BEST, precisely because they're the WORST.
My favorite Skaven moment was one skaven accidentally being discovered by several human nobles, but due to it being a masquerade ball and all the nobles already being piss drunk, no one notices he's not wearing a costume. He uses this to his advantage to start eating rich people food.
Then Thanquol kills him because he thinks he's human.
I read this bit recently and Thanqol does realise he's a skaven after the he talks - specifically the head assassin who just messed things up for Thanqol (always the incompetent underlings...) - so takes the opportunity to give him a quick blast in revenge
I also just finished reading Skavenslayer and thought that was funny AF.
One of the few stories i actually read because that novel was translated into hungarian as well.
Meanwhile, in the city:
Jesus Christ loves you
I think my favorite part of the Skaven is that both scenarios you described are possible to have going on at the same time. A great earthquake shakes the city, and an entire city-block falls into a foreboding chasm, and suddenly disappearances start across the entire city with people going missing en masse. Terrifying from the human perspective, but from the Skaven perspective 50% of their army was just blown up in an "accident" that each of the skaven commanders was in some way partially responsible for with each of them managing to lose a large number of their supporters who they intentionally left in the blast radius to divert suspicion. Then, in order to appease their higher-ups, they begin fighting over trying to capture as many humans as possible to use as sacrifices to bribe their superiors with. But they also keep trying to kill or steal the other commander's sacrifices, meaning the entire process ends up getting scaled up to absurd levels as their self-sabotage stretches the entire horrifying death of this town out from a months-long campaign to _years_ long. With them only finally delivering the killing blow when threatened by the superiors that they'll all be turned into "slave-meat-food-things" if they don't get results. But the humans never know that the agonizing and terrifying ordeal they went through wasn't because of any intentional psychological warfare on the Skavens part, but rather their own self destructive backstabbing.
everythings you said was gold.
This right here is the most Skaven that Skaven can ever Skaven!
"Finally, some good food"
Skaven when he eats an entire moon's worth of warp stone
Skaven when he sees a toddler*
Me when i see* @@Invizive
Free protein
@@oogabooga1228 touché
"Finally, some good-good food-yums."
4:43 "There's actually some pretty significant amount of findings that show rats are supportive and reasonably kind animals, only really turning into something resembling the Skaven under the most extremely cramped and horrid conditions."
Me: _horrible Mouse Utopia flashbacks_
"ikith claw is trying to build a bomb that only hurts elves, but instead it only hurts skaven". I love skaven
I dont see a problem-issue here.
Task failed successfully.
Jesus loves you
Rats are one of the few animals that will bring food to another rat without eating it himself.
Cool fact but I don’t think that applies to Skaven.
Dogs may be man's best friend, but he won't bring food to another rat without being explicitly taught so, so you may have a point
makes sense, idk why any other animals would bring food to rats
the irony XD
I love that people took the words so literally to make comedy here.
With the power of skaven tech he replaced his pancreas with a rat
This video was sponsored by Clan Moulder
it's just as good as what it replaced!
Except the rat also wants to betray and kill him.
... oh wait, so did his pancreas.
Never mind, proceed as normal.
Honestly, if you got a free rat for every organ that stops doing its job, that would be kinda nice. I mean, sure your immune system tried to nuke your ability to make something you need to live, but least you'd have a new rat friend.
Rat also has pancreas in it somewhere
Ikit: *blows up the moon and most of the unplayable factions*
Skaven: “That still only counts as one!”
It would've been funnier if a dwarf like Thorgrim said it and immideatly writing a new grudge into the book... 😂
Another grudge. And they just killed Queek.
@@Spartan135Just another adventure for Gotrek and Felix.
RATS RATS WE ARE THE RATS
We prey at night we stalk at night we’re the rats 🐀
IM THE GIANT RAT THAT MAKES ALL OF THE RULES
I'm da giant rat that makes all of da rules
RATS RATS WE ARE THE RATS!!!!!
RATS, RATS, WE’RE DA RATS
I have a friend who plays our homebrew DnD as a Skaven.... Every action he commits to makes my skin crawl.
Bro there’s literally a Warhammer Fantasy RPG.
I know but I can't get a group and a GM to play it, would host one but I'm a terrible GM.
But my buddy is a good GM and has had this home brew made since 2007 and is a mix of Fantasy and 40k with a whole lot of other fictions throw in to.
@@king_enigmax1358 GMing is a skill. Like any skill, practise is the best way to improve :)
@@Ellebeebythere is? I might have to get into that.
@@bazumafoo886Warhammer started out as a table top RPG combined with w war Game before it went full war game.
You can still play it but it’s literally the oldest War Hammer media out there so it’s bearly recognizable at times.
"I was there, the day Thanquol beaned The Emperor"
Hey its you good to see you here
If the Skaven were in WH40K, a skaven whacking the Emperor in the head with a folding chair would be very likely.
Skaven throw planets. Just sayin
Fun fact, Ikit Claw is actually canon in AoS, he’s the antagonist in Hamilcar’s book.
Hes not yet done nuking the world
Rat Ironman just won't fucking die
@@phantomwraith1984sounds right for both rats and Ironman
Ikit Claw has biggest brain of all rats!
If the 1d6 Chan article is correct, he seems to have achieved Stormcast-esque immortality / respawning in the same book.
Holy shit he turned himself into a cyborg rat Lich.
"Not just Grabbing France or Germany from that time period and making them all mice"
RATTEN REICH INTENSIFIED
Defend the Fatherland-nest ja-ja!!
@@kenny187ful The reply section for this comment is bugged so every time I close and reopen it your reply multiplies, I feel like I'm actively watching a Skaven nest grow
11:17
"He wants to see if he can build a bomb that only blows up elves"
I do not see a problem with this.
Plop him in Dragonlance at any time period and he'd probably be doing everyone a favor.
I actually hate elves they're always like 400 years old and still make terrible decisions
@@ereviscale3966 What gets to me is how they can be so arrogant despite being on par with everyone else,even though they tend to have a head start of countless millennia.
Found the dwarves.
@@magmos6346 during their countless millennia head start they invented twitter
now they've vowed never to go above the technology threshold ever again
Skaven, a race of backstabbing sociopaths. And we love them.
Jeez, that's a LOT of Starscreams...
Gonna need a lot of Toms to take care of these devious Jerrys.
@@battlion507Tom gets his fade ran by jerry on the daily we need those 3 cat goons Tom be calling up 😂
Many such cases! Sad!
They don't always backstab.. sometimes they bite out throats too.
There are suprisingly few factions in Warhammer fantasy that can't be described as "a bunch of backstabbing sociopaths"
The more I learnt about the skaven the more I realized how complex and intriguing they were. Skaven have so much lore to their own that they could easily exist in their own fantasy series
I can certainly say the Skaven ARE Warhammer. They always ask the question "how can we make everything worse?". Which is certainly grim and certainly dark. Also just the best memes, like enough to transcend Warhammer to be recognized outside it.
Aye, you will never not see someone using skaven-speak if a series has rat folk of any kind, regardless of their moral alignment.
@@hudsonk1raceryes yes
There's a bit in Grey Seer by C L Werner where an important skaven calls a meeting and asks who cocked up their latest plan. Thanquol, who absolutely was responsible, passed the buck onto an underling. The big important skaven then thanked that underling, as Thanquol's plan failing let another operation succeed. Thanquol's thought process then goes, "That bastard stole credit for my achievement! I'll kill him!"
This is the purest distillation of skaven, I love them so much.
My Skaven army is 2 clawlords and 360 clan rats. I am that guy
He called it unorthodox but I disagree. Rat tide is most pure rat form.
Who would win, an army of daemons from Magic Hell
Or
Almost 400 fucking rats?
My money is on the rats.
you truly are a Skaven
I see your rat tide and I raise my gnoblar swarm. 1 butcher, 3 ogre bulls, and 900 gnoblars!
@@bentwineham1986 You're such a gnobhead. ;D
It was truly a genius move to make the most heinously evil faction a bunch of silly little guys
They aren't any more evil than most chaotic aligned factions
@@KT-pv3kldebatable
@@twilightparanormalresearch186 any arguments against my position?
Got to love how the Skaven are SO incompetent that it loops back around into them being more dangerous because of said incompetence rather than less so because the things they do to kill each other are so over-the-top absurd that everyone else ends up suffering the aftermath of it all despite not even being the targets half the time.
Alright Pancreas, type something you wouldn't normally type if a ratman is holding you hostage to make this
Wait until he types "I don't want Morathy mommy to crush me"
Morathi is ugly.
No not man thing we don’t won’t hold man thing hostage
we don't don't!
We hold, keep no one stupid foolish man thing!
Also one of the reasons for skaven existing is to be essentially a dark counterpart of the joke of every adventurers first quest is a rat killing quest
Great Horned Mickey is definitely worshipped by the Skaven.
Nobody in warhammer is that evil.
They ate mickey. Shat him out, overdosed his shit remains with warpstone and now we got a monster for the face of disney. Instead of creating entertainment to bring people together they create things to piss everyone off and turn everything they make into shit.
@@andrewbyrne2173 true.. they got standards.
Don't do the Great Horned Rat dirty like that, homeboy. Come on now.
Honestly with the way Disney is worshipped I have no doubt the closest 40k got to the great horned rat was with the rise of the House of Mouse. And the warp being the warp have no doubt Mickey was twisted in dark and unspeakable ways.
" Killing two babies with one club"
-Thanquol
Best rat ever
"Ten babies"
Two is just not enough
"Close your eyes and picture the typical Skaven. They have no concept of honour, no shred of empathy, no idea of courage. No ability for self-reflection, shame, or responsibility, and anything that goes wrong is always someone else's fault."
-Cody Bonds on the average Skaven
That’s also every self-entitled millennial these days
So basically the Russian army?
@@akumaking1 You're really dunking on those minimum wage workers, bud.
@@georgethompson913 Let me see:
-starting what seemed like an easy conquest that ended up dragging for way too long to the point it wouldn't even be a pyrrhic victory
-command messing up due to incompetence and/or infighting
-powerful war machines exploding taking their crew with them into space
-rockets pulling a uno reverse card
-artillery doing friendly fire
-air defense also friendly firing (what they doing?)
-sending wave after wave of bodies to drown the enemies in corpses
-tide turning weapons (Moskva, kinzhal, T-90, etc) going down in quite silly ways
-funny speech (they got drunk)
And many more
Yup, you're right
@@elbolainas4174 Endlessly corrupt, abuses the hell out of inferiors.
4:55 I have owned rats for the past 20 years (since I was six) and I can tell you they are incredible animals, once they understand your their friend they will basically never bite will do tricks on command and will follow you around the house if you let them out.
That being said they all do have their own personalities some of them really can be rat basterds
You were basically Horned Rat for them.
@@tigertankerer I am to my rats what the skaven wished the horned rat was
They are also constantly cleaning themselves.
I'm deathly allergic to rodents but I love watching rat videos. They're such smart little animals and they have such amazing social dynamics.
The only similarity I see in behavior with skaven is they do like to have little dominance fights all the time, but all in good fun
The worst part of the Skaven is that they don't have Karl Franz Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Sigmar's Heir, Emperor of the South, Emperor Himself, Son of Emperors and of course the Emperor of the Empire of Man
well they do have Karl Franz Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Sigmar's Heir, Emperor of the South, Emperor Himself, and Son of Emperors and of course the Emperor of the Empire of Man, otherwise know as Krat Scratch!
21:00
The Tyranids are running from the Skaven. Calling it now.
OMG!!! It'll be SO funny (and so scary, too, now that I think about it) if that were the case! xD
That or Settra. Not sure what’s worse though?
Skaven-Ratkin are fearsome-terrifying,man-things!
Skaven = 40k humans. Numerous, attrition tactics, worship ruin god it’s all there.
WH40K End Times: All factions decide to band together to face the incoming primary hive of the Tyrranids, grumbling about this but all knowing that it's their only chance for survival to kill each other later. And then...the Tyrranids just fly past them. Confused, everyone looks towards where the Tyrranids flew from only to see something so much worse than the Tyrranids that they collectively realized that the Chaos Gods were always just a bunch of angsty toddlers compared to the sheer, unmatched, imaginably evil force that they now look upon.
Skaven...with technology hyper advanced to the point of putting even the Necrons to shame, albeit all of said tech is still just as jank and prone to self-destruction as per tradition/incurable mental insanity albeit now numbering in the hundreds of decitillions. Clan Moulder's futurized super abominations have become so abhorrent that even the Nurglites throw up in disgust at the sight of them and Ikit Claw with his cyborg lichdom has become a rat-juggernaught war machine god of literal insanity so over-the-top crazy that the Orks gain a mass intervention upon realizing that they're completely sane and even rational compared to these rat people.
Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A underground room. With rats. Giant rats. And rats drive me crazy! Crazy? I was crazy once…
They put me in a room-apartment, a rubber-soft room-box, a container, yes-yes, with skinks and skinks make me wacky-crazy...
the insane tzeetch sorcerer trying to explain to archeon why the skaven have betrayed them
They locked me in a round room and only fed me bagels. Bagels? I love Bagels! Bagels are round, the sun is round! The sun is yellow, bananas are yellow! Bananas have spots, old people have spots! Old people live looooooong lives. Life?! That's my favorite cereal! I once bought some for 10 dollars. 10 dollars?! That's crazy! I was crazy once, they locked me in a round room and only fed me Bagels. Bagels? I love Bagels...
@@sovietunion7643change? I changed once. They put me through a rift. A chaos rift. A chaos rift with tzeentch. And tzeentch made me change! Change? I changed once…
I'm telling Smii7y you guys are stealing his thing. 😋
Elves: why should we improve our technology? We are already the best
Skaven: my thermonuclear bomb doesn't care who is the best and who is the worst
i like it, it's like this things in warhammer where i 200 years old space marines do not kill a pathetic gretchin because he thinks this is a job of guardsmen, only for the pathetic lil' shit to blow a hole the sise of an ogryn in it with what was left of a grot canon.
Gun make the difference.
A small skaven army accidentally makes its way into 40K can’t get back and slowly spread and destroy a hive world and conquer out from there before the imperium can respond
rats replacing rats, nothing changes
yes-yes
let these puny man-things and orc-things KNEEL before the strength-might of SKAVENDOM
where before we fought-seeked a planet us-we rule-control hundereds of system-planets
As far as I understand Hruds were skaven of 40k before being changed in Lovecraftian mess for whatever reason. Also, tyranids already fulfill the role of endless horde of filth. I love skaven but there we will never see them in 40k probably
@@raufm.2135 Well we definitely need a faction that is basically the Skaven in 40k. I want to see giant meth crazed humanoid rats that speak funny making quick work of the Orks and Tyranids for shits and giggles
@@ZackarySchejbalCODBO2RGM2look in the undercity of hives. Youll probably find some
Skaven: the only race you can look at, ask "can i make them worse?" and get "no" for an answer. i'd call them good boys but that would be inaccurate and probably get me kill-stabbed in my sleep. god, the Skaven are pure fun.
40K needs Skaven.
40k already has Skaven. They call themselves 'The Imperium.'
@@failedexperiment9073 They fight-kill for the God-Emperor
@@paulenan9636 Glory to the Omnissiah-thing, yes-yes
@@failedexperiment9073 *tyranids*
Agreed. There isn't quite a faction that mirrors their absolute absurdity. Gretchin get the closest I think but they aren't nearly the same level of incompetent or more importantly comically selfish.
Not using a picture of the holy roman empire to represent the empire but instead it's predecessor made me system reboot my brain for a sec
I couldn't tell if he was talking about the frankish-like bretonnia or the empire
Why not both? Both is good
Skaven: “Loyalty? What’s that? Is it a new type of Warp Stone?”
imagine explaining the idea of loyalty to a skaven slave and something in the warp finnally just clicks and it starts a cultural revolution in the skaven to maybe not instantly backstab their allies, allowing them to do crazy things like work as mercenaries for the above ground forces.
@@sovietunion7643nah one rat would just explain this to another rat then promptly be eaten
@@sovietunion7643 That already half-worked for Mors, only problem is that they're still listening to the freaking Horned Rat convincing them to takeover the world, which in no way benefits them.
@@sovietunion7643it's also why queek headtaker works so well
A loyal skaven turns out to be the most dangerous weapon
@@elegantoddity8609 mostly because they know they are stuck with him. at least 3 Mors characters in the books have indicated they think hes a horrible god but they know their lives are doomed if they don't go with it. Better be with than against and all that.
I'm pretty sure my uncle Stephen invented the Skaven. He created a board game while employed by GW in the 80s about putting together orc warbands with cards called Chaos mauraders. In it, there are manlike rats called blightscab plaguelords, and look just like the Skaven as we know them now. Also in the game is the horned rat standard, the origin of their god too
cool
Awesome
My 3d Printer: "Has many-lots rats to print! Much Cheap-thrifty resin to buy! "
Bonus points if the printer blows up in your sleep
Actually the Skaven have a third influence you didn't mention, the rats of Lankhmar. Fritz Leiber wrote a series of short sword and sorcery fantasy stories featuring the characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in this big city called Lankhmar, and one of the groups they end up encouraging are the rats of Lankhmar below, an undercity of violent duplicitous bipedal rats of various sizes, from rat sizes rats to around men sized rats. They also had a council of 13 leading their society, and culturally they liked the number 13
I would like your comment, but it rests at 13.
If I learned anything from Vermintide its that I like ratmen. Also the Ubersreik 5 are beasts and deserve a book.
Or four, whatever!
@@Ellebeeby It doesn't matter!
Normally I think the "race that is all inherently evil and thus always justified to kill" is boring and a cop out.
But with the Skaven, I love it. They're like an entire race of cartoon villains but with gore turned on.
I have not played a single game of Warhammer in any setting, I don‘t own a single mini, rulebook, piece of art or ever will own any of the aforementioned. The only contact I used to have with 40k was random 2am deep dives through wikis, pulling together bits and pieces of what seemed to be a fascinating world-context with cool characters and wildly dystopian stuff. Been subscribed since like day one, still not playing Warhammer, but loving everything I learned about and laughed at. Keep it up!
Imagine if the big-E woke up from the golden throne and then he goes "I am the Emperor of Mankind, yes-yes" 😅
Warhammer 50k but the reawakened "emperor" is three skaven in a trenchcoat
@@CantoniaCustomsyou need to write for GW
Excuse you, that would be
"I AM KING-EMPEROR OF MANTHINGS YES-YES"
Skaven speak exclusively in caps lock cruise control.
200k sub goal: Do or Don’t Skaven remastered. At the very least, it lets you put off doing Chaos in both settings and the Marines in 40k for that much longer
Pancreas - The imperium of man is awesome
-> the imperium are space skaven
-> The Skaven are Warhammer's Best Faction.
Now I wait for Kairos Fateweaver to pop out of the warp and shout The circle is complete.
I mean the Imperium of man sucks and is a shithole but its really not the Skaven. As a whole it operates like that but the actual people in the Imperium are mostly dedicated to a greater cause and not all power hungry and backstabby. They both suck but it just isn't the same feel at all to me beyond sheer numbers and being a whole infestation.
0:27 Hey Pancreas, I realize that it's likely become a self-sustaining meme at this point, but have you ever explained the particulars of why you hate Bretonnia? Is it just the fact that they're a feudal society trying to survive in a world that's passing them by? Is it the fact that they're simping after elven goddess bathwater, IE, Lady of the Lake and Grail Knights? Or is it something else entirely?
Theyre french
@@haka-katyt7439they’re Frenchies that pretend to be British!
@@haka-katyt7439 truly the gravest of all insults.
I've found a post recording all the fun rules of the first editions of Age of Sigmar, my favourites are "If you talk to Konnrad von Carstein during your hero phase, reroll all 1s to hit. If Konrad talks back to you, re-roll all hits".
And "Roll two dice and add their results when using the Plea of Doom. You can't add any modifier. Result: 13 You win the battle, and are immediately branded a cheater, not that it should bother you if you're a true skaven general."
Honestly, the plea of doom could totally make a return, it's not even a rule, it's just a fun line in the rules XD
Nobody said they had to be D6's🐀
A special jingle that goes something like this
"For Skaven treachery is a way of life."
"Nothing is more natural than death and strife."
"If you see a chance to get yourself ahead"
"You better take it now or tomorrow you'll be dead."
Approve
Agreed, as much as I love Balthasar Gelt, or Karl Franz, the Skaven are just awesome.
In fantasy, the Skaven are the most serious threat, and toss out the geneva convention. You aren't Skaven, if your own losses don't exceed your enemies, but still win in the long-term.
Yet, you could totally make them have that "Saturday morning cartoon villain" vibe, and it still WORKS (just look at Thanquil).
My friend absolutely loves Queek Headtaker, and tbh I can't blame him one bit. I'd love to start a Skaven army myself, at some point. Skrolk and Ikit are my favs, tbh.
& I'm glad that in Vermintide, you can play as them in the new versus mode that's coming out, soon.
They are both silly and terrifying and they're just so fun, there's just so much you can do with them, and I think that's just great.
12:25 its also a VERY skaven way to do too
skaven are LITERALLY just official fanfiction with all the good bits that comes from that, while still being actual canon its so good
" I smoke-puffing on that Great Horned Rat tail shavings pack. My rat-kin, this loud-grass will give rat ogre a mutation. Grey-seer smoke-toked and predicted fall of Karaz-a-Karak.
Grass-boof so green wood elves mistake-confuse for a great forest. "
So dank, so purple, so god damn sticky that you may not be the same again...
Skaven spaceships would be absolutely bonkers! Maybe even more insane than Ork ships, since the Skaven have to at least somewhat abide by the laws of astrophysics.
I'm imagining a steam train with jet engines with a bunch of ratmen wearing Big Daddy suits
It makes me smile whenever someone acknowledges the existence of the Overlord games. Easily one of my favorite series growing up. I wish there were more games about being the Big Bay Evil Guy of the setting.
Evil Genius and Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 were really cool in the same vein
The rats somehow are able to be simultaneously the most hilarious and the most horrifying faction and that’s an incredible spread of characters and units at your disposal
I love the Skaven so much
Skaven are really the definition of "Grim-Dark-Humour" we all love
21:00 AWWW BUDDY!!! THANK YOU!
What’s your next ninja video going to be?
@@akumaking1leave the man be, the video is done when it’s done. He’s here for Warhammer, not pesky viewers.
This video is a good follow up to the "Imperium is the Space Skaven" video. Especially the comment about the Skaven embodying failing upwards.
At first I didn't like Skaven. But after watching this video they've gained my interest, not as a Warhammer Faction, but as a Circus.
>humans thousands of years in the future: "WE INVENTED POWER ARMOR AND WARP TECHNOLOGY"
>Skaven: "..."
Would also note "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" and the movie "The Secret of NIMH" as another Skaven influence; particularly with the high-tech, green-lightning magical rats.
Legends say that the Imperium secretly takes notes from the Skaven in terms of their military functions.
4:50 I can confirm this. I used to keep rats and they are some of the coolest pets I ever had. They were very social and friendly. It only sucks that they only live like 2 years
We had some rats as class pets back in grade school. A pair of them took a shine to me and any time the cage was opened on y days to clean and feed them they would jump up and move to my shoulders and not move till I had to put them away when class changed.
Definitely want to get some sometime soon as pets again.
Shaven as 40k cultists always felt appropriate to me.
That's why I quit shavin' and decided to use the clipper.
Less pseudofolliculitis.
@@draxthemsklonst ?
@@a_paperweightSHAVEN
I thought of a really great way to bring the Skaven into 40k while preserving their status from fantasy; make them predators of warp entities.
Their entire society is ran by daemons trapped in boxes so they encourage chaos, just so they can show up and hoover it all up into their engines. Make them something the daemons fear; an eternity stuck in the material plane inside a box, having your essence continually sucked from you. Have a story where the reader thinks they're a guardsman or something, escaping some evil xenos, having to hide in dark corners as they cower in fear; only to learn it's a blood thirster or something that just doesn't want to go back in the box.
I always figured skaven were "redwall but evil" as an inspiration. I may have misread the vibe but that series was super popular in the late 80s / early 90s and I kinda figured the skaven played on that in a dark twist.
19:25 funnily enough I remember reading somewhere that this person had a theory that the rats were originally made for 40K but then the creators were like “Wouldn’t it be funnier if we put them in fantasy lol” and now here we are.
As a Lizardmain, and Skaven hater, I can't deny Skaven are GWs best fantasy creation.
When the Slanns tells us not to kill Thanquol because he's more dangerous to his OWN kind ^^
"SCIENCE! MURDER! DEATH!"
-Ikkit Claw, the rat who intends to compete with Settra for titles.
having both simple and deep lore and gameplay is surprisingly effective. If only we had more skaven type stuff.
I actually have 2 pet rats and i call them my skaven babies. and youre absolutely right, they're intelligent and very sweet. i love them so much
You are right pancreas.
I heard the quote “there more than one way to skin an infant” and immediately burst out laughing, not sure if that says something about me or how good Thranquol’s writer is that baby-skinning being an offhand metaphor/remark is so comically evil it just becomes funny rather than horrifying
Praise-give to children of Horned Rat, yes-yes!
One skaven sitting around a table with other skaven passing around a weed pen they’re all just absolutely ripping from:”What if…what if we made a bomb. That only kills elves?”
One of the other skaven at the table absolutely genuinely:”That’s the smartest idea I think I’ve ever heard.”
Every man-thing this, get down-flat and do 13 push ups for great Horned Rat!
I really want the skaven in Warhammer 40K
They're basically the tyranids conceptually
@@lachlank.8270 except replace hunger with pure evil
The Redwall series was dope.
The skaven are probably my favorite fictional species. They’re just the worst guys possible, I love them all
The Great Horned Rat approves the video, yes yes.
My absolute favorite character I’ve ever made for DnD was essentially a Skaven Warplock Engineer. It’s so fun being a little chaos gremlin that is also terrifying at times. And the other players always turn dialogue to him so they can hear Skrit speak-squeak in his funny way. The DM also threw in some “warpstone” which ended up mutating him and turned one player into a Jekyll-Hide character who occasionally turns into a rat ogre- at both very convenient and incredibly inconvenient times.
YES-YES! THIS MAKE-CREATES ME VERY HAPPY. LONG LIVE-BREATH GREAT HORNED RAT.
Skaven was my very first mini army and pretty much my entry to Warhammer and later Warhammer 40k obsession. Absolutely love Skaven in the Felix and Gotrek books too.
If the Skaven existed in the world of 40K then they would definitely mock and imitate the imperium’s zealotry over the emperor.🐱
Instead of a golden throne they have the warpstone throne, preserving the divine body of the Great Horned Rat (actually the corpse of the most recently assassinated Council of 13 member).
Due in no small part to your channel, I've started re-reading the Gotrek and Felix books, a series I haven't touched in almost 20 years. Having just finished Skavenslayer, I fully embrace these demented little rat men.
2:02 why are France and Poland removed?
Because FUCK FRANCE AND FUCK POLAND.
4:40 im glad you mentioned this cuz i had 2 pet rats (rest in peace Yuko and Loona), and they were absolutely wonderfull. they are verry social and form a bond with their owner much like a dog does.
Pete the Wargamer did a really cool conversion of a Genestealer Skaven, which i think with their resurrection rules they'd make a perfect skaven stand-in. Abberants as Rat Ogres (Use Ghoritch as that Abberant HQ unit i forget the name), Ratling Gunners as Heavy Stubbers for the Hybrid squads, and maybe those Broodhorrors as the Genestealer proper. OH DEATHMASTER SNIKTCH AS THE THREE-ARMED GUNSLINGER
I want space skaven and the horned rat in 40k so bad
New rats coming soon, I’m very excited for them. I play Ossiarchs (your video on them was really great) but I want rats, because rats are fun
Warp stone exists…..
Skaven….
FOOD FOR MY WEAPONS AND TUMTUM
If the Skaven were in 40K, I'd be like "Friendship with Necrons has ended, friendship with Skaven (re)started." Because my god could they fit easily, and they'd flip the table on the setting... Tyranid vs Skaven... the Buffet Battle. I love them in TW:WH series, and If I played AOS I'd be all over those fuzzy little buggers. They truly are Biggest Brained Rats.
11:49 oh no a species full of starscreams😂😂😂😂
I'm a high school English teacher and one of my classes is reading Skavenslayer. I get to talk Skaven for an hour a day. It's great.
I would love to see the great horned rat spread into 40K; the idea of them bringing the great bells into battles and the like seems great. stowing away on ships of other factions, stealing their tech and using it for their own ideas on how to "enhance" it all like the loot goblins they are... it feels right at home, and seeing them come to a head with the Orks would prove very interesting.
4:35
That is a lie. The 40k Orks are the most original GW faction by far. Sure, they share a name with stuff that was around before, and they are green and violent, but that's it. Their mentality, culture, their take on warfare and technology, their physiology and everthing else is just perfect, and so unique. If you give them point penalties because the basic ideas of orcs were around before, the Skaven get the same penalties because the idea of rats being evil little selfish liar bastards is way older.
Also, what is more original: "Backstabbing mutated rat bastards" or "Angry green british mushroom people in space"?
16:39 I like that Rocky reference 👍🏼
It is so cool what the skaven are in concept, they are an alternative to the way the emperor does it, the way emp wanted to do it was by having the galaxy not believe in chaos, whereas the slaan were made to kill everything so chaos dies, the skaven were made to kill the slaan theory of mine
skaven best faction yes yes
I dont know whether being transformed by Nurgle while he prevents you from dying, or if tortured by the Skaven is worse
Based and Ratpilled