Battle Yak Sketchbook | Clans of the Skitterkin (Patreon)

Hey folks! The latest Battle Pack, Drakkisan Wyrmspawn II: Hoards of Horrors, has been released (now with pre-supported files available!) and work has begun on the upcoming August Battle Pack, the Zurvan Imperium. And with this latest sketchbook post, I'd like to share a few concepts related to a previous Battle Yak release, the Skitterkin.

The skitterkin of Clan Wyzerd were featured in the first skitterkin-related release, but they are only one clan of many, focusing on developing advanced technology. This post will show a few sketches and lore regarding other skitterkin clans, which will hopefully take shape as future Battle Pack releases! Enjoy:

__________________

Like many of the beast-kin races of the world of Jerra, the skitterkin's origins lie with ancient life-shaping magics once wielded by the eldarch civilization, before their species fell into decline and full mastery of the art was lost. Remnants of life-shaping sorcery became scattered throughout the world, in the form of magical artifacts and abandoned cities, left to stagnate until the magic became twisted and bled out into the environment. One such source of twisted magic transformed common vermin into the skitterkin, granting them humanoid form and greatly augmented intellect.

Born of magic gone wrong, the skitterkin were further tainted by the influence of a malign supernatural being whose attentions had been drawn by the warped magics of the fallen eldarch. This entity came to be worshiped as a god by the skitterkin, and praised by the name Shogg-Kathak, the Rat King. Already inclined to ruinous impulses due to their tainted origin, the  patronage of a malign extra-dimensional deity cemented the destiny of  the skitterkin race as one of wickedness, pain, and misery.

The Rat King is a deity of conflict and ruin, the embodiment of strife and its ultimate futility. A colossal shadowy horror with eight terrible heads, he is an entity forever at odds with himself, each head working at cross-purposes, forever doomed to blunt his own efforts at supremacy. The skitterkin praise the Rat King as a whole, but many clans also hold up one of the deity's eight heads as their particular patron, exalting it as the truest expression of their god's supremacy.

Clan Wyzerd

Themes - Advanced technology, magic-powered machinery, mechanical augmentation

Paying homage to Shogg-Wyze, the Master of Mechanisms, the embodiment of rodent cunning, the skitterkin of Clan Wyzerd are one of the most prominent clans, prizing the development of advanced technology in order to wage war and conquest. Their technology is crude, but fiendishly cunning, powered by crystallized magical deposits the skitterkin believe is the blood and bile of their deity. Poisonous to most races, the skitterkin thrive on this wychstone, and it provides an unstable but terribly potent energy source for the skitterkin's machinery. It can even wed machinery to flesh, and Clan Wyzerd often augments its troops with mechanical grafts and limbs.

The benefits of their technology have made Clan Wyzerd one of the most influential throughout the skitterkin civilization, and the great capitol settlement of Skitterholm is both illuminated with the electrical glow of their machines and shrouded in the belching smog of their factories. They often strike lucrative bargains with other clans to wed their technology with the specialties of their cousins, creative frightfully effective instruments of war.

Clan Rullok

Themes - Brute barbaric might, monstrous rat-men, thick armor and crude blades, vast in numbers

Follows of Shogg-Rul, the Conquering Head. Clan Rullok boasts the greatest number of soliders out of all clans, marking them as possessing considerable military power. As the aspect of vermin that represents their vast numbers, Rullok eschews the more subtle or niche tactics of their fellows, swamping the enemy with a verminous tide of warriors, relying on overwhelming numbers to carry any strategy to victory.

Despite their constant boasts of their uncomplicated strength, the leaders of Clan Rullok are not ignorant of the effectiveness of more specialist skills that the other clans can offer, and will often hire out legions of their soldiers as mercenary forces, bolstering the ranks of other clans in exchange for favors. Due to the vast numbers of Clan Rullok and the tendency for ambitious skitterkin leaders to fixate on their own ambitions to the exclusion of all else, it is not unheard of for entire wars to be fought between Rullok warriors exclusively, each side fighting as proxies for the patrons of their rival leaders.

Clan Pestyx

Theme - Plague rats, carriers of disease, plague alchemy and sorcery, bio-weapons

Honoring Shogg-Pest, the Plaguefather, the skitterkin of Clan Pestyx embody the worst element of vermin, carriers of deadly disease that can lay low entire nations. Addled with poxes and plagues, the Pestyx are some of the most demented of the skitterkin, enraptured with the worship of their deity, seeing it as the only path to salvation from the very plagues that the pestilent head of the Rat King inflicts upon them.

Clan Pestyx does not so much provide a particular service to skitterin society, as it agrees to a kind of protection. In exchange for favors and trade, Pestyx will simply refrain from any contact with other clans, curtailing the spread of disease. Due to the vast populations and cramped living conditions of most skitterkin strongholds, an outbreak of plague can be devastating, and it's often well worth giving the deranged Pestyx rats whatever it takes to make them go away. Despite relatively limited contact with other skitterkin, their interactions with Clan Wyzerd have led to the development of some truly vile bio-weaponry that harnesses the power of their diseases.

Clan Ninzil

Theme - Assassin and stealth warriors, elite ninja rats, shadowy magics and forbidden sorceries

Disciples of Shogg-Zil, the Haunter in the Dark, and embodiments of the quiet, creeping and unseen qualities of vermin, the skitterkin of Clan Ninzil are some of the most reclusive and mysterious of their breed. Tall and willowy compared to other skitterkin, they are also quiet and more reserved, having subdued the frenetic habits and twitiching energy of the race through focus and meditation. Lurking in the shadows of skitterkin society, they care little for the typical displays of status and advancement that consume the other clans. Instead they favor the more subtle power of the assassin to change the course of society and history with a singular kill, the laying low of a great leader or revolutionary that has more impact than millions killed in destructive wars. By choosing which leaders rise and which fall, they in truth wield more power than any of them.

Those ratfolk who rise high in the secret and convoluted hierarchy of Clan Ninzil often become privy to fantastic secrets, and develop sorcerous powers to move between shadows, walking unseen paths and corriders of darkness that worm their way across the world, and possibly even other worlds. Some among Clan Ninzil have even struck truces with other races such as the Runehorn tauroch, allowing them to attain greater understanding of the world's history and their own place in it.

The deepest shadows even serve to hide some from the eyes of their own deity, and show them paths their people may yet take that none could ever imagine...

Clan Groteshk

Theme - Monster-making, mutant beasts born of mad science and sorcery, necrotech reanimation and flesh-sculpting alchemy

The mad followers of Shogg-Gro, He Who Shapes, the skitterkin of Clan Groteshk are the makers of monsters, the incarnation of the fiendish adaptability of vermin. Combining alchemy, sorcery, and technology, the flesh-sculptors of Groteshk are able to breed all manner of hideous abominations, melding the attributes of different creatures, and even other races, with their own kind. Nearly all of their regular military forces have been subjugated to flesh-shaping augmentation experiments, making them the largest and strongest of their kind. Their physical might is enhanced further with bio-chemical enhancements and technology retro-engineered from Clan Wyzerd augmentations.

Clan Groteshk relies on trade and favors with other skitterkin clan quite heavily, requiring technological implements, alchemical solutions, and great quantities of slave flesh for their experiments, but the resulting creations that they loan out to other clans are considered to be well worth the cost. Feverish scholars when it comes to the study of fauna, Clan Groteshk possesses extensives archives and libraries, and commands considerable knowledge of the ancient flesh-shaping magics that birthed their entire race. The ambitious masters of the clan desire to fully unlock the secrets of creating life, to better remake the entire skitterkin race in their own twisted image.

Clan Grubbik (Exiled Clans)

Theme - Reformed, civic-minded skitterkin, integrated with multi-racial societies

While the majority of the skitterkin race is losely united in their ruinous worship of the Rat King, not all of them are so malign and hostile. Often times lesser clans will fall out of favor with greater skitterkin society, their membership threatened with enslavement, exile, or complete annihilation. Shunned by god and kin, these disenfranchised rat-folk will flee from the more populous skitterkin lands and seek a better life elsewhere.

Almost universally reviled by other races, either due to the actions of the bulk of their kind or the association with much-maligned verminous animals, exiled skitterkin rarely find acceptance and resign themselves to eking out a living in some inhospitable wasteland far from any other civilization. Occasionally however circumstances will provide them with an opportunity to live in peace alongside other races, and in such cases the skitterkin can thrive.

The most noteable example may be Clan Grubbik, a skitterkin clan that settled in the sprawling metropolis of Guildernstern, the largest city of the western continent. The twisting tunnels of the great undercity beneath the surface seemed like paradise to the skitterkin refugees, who were tolerated as long as they kept to themselves and didn't interfere with the mercentile operations of the city. In time the skitterkin further assimilated, being hired as labourers by some of the more open-minded employers of the city (who were quite happy paying them half what they would any other species). They fared well amongst the criminal element, developing into skilled thieves and spies. Though most abandoned worship of the Rat King, some Guildenstern skitterkin maintained faith in Shogg-Kek, the Laughing Head, the aspect of their deity that governed the unexpected changing of fortunes and the unpredictability of fate.

The skitterkin who would form Clan Grubbik avoided lives of crime by joining and then almost entirely monopolizing the Guild of Civic Sanitation, becoming single-handedly responsible for maintaining the city's extensive sewer systems. It is not an exaggeration to say that the skitterkin have made themselves a vital element to the smooth operation of Guildernstern. Having recently expanded their charter to include garbage removal and street sweeping, the skitterkin of Clan Grubbik have become a frequent sight on the streets of Guildenstern, industriously contributing to the never-ending battle to keeping the city clean(ish). Though still not highly regarded, the citizens of the city know to avoid harassing the ratfolk of Clan Grubbik, lest they find their homes mysteriously buried in trash in the night.

And if any should dare to bring violence against a clan member, well... there are many dark corners in Guildenstern that are well known to the skitterkin, where a person might disappear completely.

---

And there you have it, just a few more varieties of skitterkin that will be realized one day! Hope you enjoyed this peek at more of the world of Battle Yak Miniatures!

___________________

Drop by the Official Battle Yak Discord to see the latest news and sales and chat with the community about what  kinds of projects you'd like to see next! You can also follow Battle  Yak Miniatures on twitter, facebook, and instagram.

And check out the Battle Yak Miniatures online store for the latest sale! Get a discount on all featured miniatures while the sale lasts!