I've sometimes thought that xvarts could have been better presented as a race of small, blue, anthropomorphic rats, better tying together Raxivort's dominion over xvarts and rodents. They'd be more distinctive from goblins and kobolds.
The Slitheren from the Scarred Lands (White Wolf/Sword & Sorcery) could work too.
At least 6-8 different sub-breeds of rat-men filling different roles in their society, and they're already statted-out for an edition of D&D.
I always liked the Skaven from GW. My only experience with the Skaven were from early video games by GW. I have modeled groups of wererats after them. That's not to say that all wererats are like this. I played with the idea of their being an under city in Dyvers which are the true movers and shakers of that city.
I like it. I think Skaven would provide a dark and sinister aspect to Greyhawk that Xvarts, kobolds and Derro simply don't supply. At least, not to my thinking.
However, I don't think there's a place for them in Greyhawk; certainly not in my version anyway.
Over the last couple of years I've reached the conclusion that there are already enough monster "races" in GH, and probably in many other settings too. We stretch credibility by trying to shoehorn them all in when we've barely scratched the surface of those that we already have. Why not find interesting twists on the threat presented by the creatures we know have a place within the ecology of Oerth rather than import something new that players will instantly recognise as an opportunity to perplex them with different powers and tactics? In most cases these "new" creatures often come across as the the same creatures we already have that have been reassembled in the wrong order by a Star Trek transporter.
Keep these Skaven in their own world and they have a home and a reason to be, import them and they become disconnected. Look no further than Rasgon's post for something better than Skaven in GH.
I've reached the conclusion that there are already enough monster "races" in GH, and probably in many other settings too. We stretch credibility by trying to shoehorn them all in when we've barely scratched the surface of those that we already have.
Ragr, I am always lamenting the fact that most fans don't want story, i.e. novels. They just want more Monster Manuals and Source books.
Looks like we agree on something . . . just a little.
Although -- having read Mort's post -- I think Mort and I have in mind, not so much adding another monster to Greyhawk, but rather, using one "cooler" monster to replace three other "bland" monster species.
Such a move would lessen the number of monsters to Greyhawk, rather than "add to" the existing one.
Skavens of Oerth
Whether the skavens were once mundane rodents uplifted to sentience or whether they were born in their present form, crawling from some foul netherworld to plague the more wholesome races, can probably never be known for certain.
What is known is that these foul ratmen have infested the world for millennia. It was the skavens who brought about the literal collapse of the city of Ladon before the founding of the Suloise Imperium, turning a community of proud spires into a subterranean warren of rubble and bones. Their deviant magics transmogrified the people of the Choking City in the Cairn Hills into stonelike corpses that collapse at the touch of sunlight into dust that rots living flesh. The ancient dwarven kingdoms of Damgareth in the Yatils and Trimdaïr in the Hellfurnaces were both overwhelmed by skaven sieges and remain in their hands to this day. The drow city of Belmerith-Cinlu beneath the present-day Bone March is now ruled by skavens served by a pathetic, plague-crippled dark elf underclass. After the Invoked Devastation the skavens swarmed the surviving cities of the Baklunish, and only the timely intervention of Al'Akbar forced them back underground. Of the far-flung settlements of the derro only one, the Forgotten City beneath the Sea of Dust, remains, with the Honeycombed Halls of the Diirinken the latest to succumb to the ratkin onslaught.
And yet the skaven threat remains little-known to most people of the Flanaess. Though they dwell within the sewers of many major cities including Greyhawk and Dyvers and trade openly in the towns of Spinecastle, Highport, and Blue, they tend to be disregarded and underestimated by humans who have seen them attack only through their wererat and xvart proxies since the time of Al'Akbar. This is short-sighted of them, because the skaven warlock-engineers, fleshwarpers, and cancer mages have only gained in power since that time, developing new banes and new mutant forms of their own kind. Soon they may rise from the ruins of what was once a populous city or a forgotten chasm and swarm over the hopes and dreams of the surface-dwelling civilizations.
Religion
The most popular deity among the skavens is Raxivort, known to the ratfolk as the Horned Rat. Said to be the son of a powerful skaven witch-queen and the demon lord Graz'zt, Raxivort nearly conquered the Baklunish lands in his father's name after the Invoked Devastation before being banished to the Abyss by Al'Akbar. Centuries later, when Graz'zt was temporarily ensnared by the arts of Tuerny, Raxivort led a slave rebellion against Graz'zt and fought his father to a standstill before retreating to the tunnels of Pandemonium with the majority of the Abyssal prince's horde. Now a lesser god, Raxivort is worshiped not only by adoring skavens but by the pathetic xvarts who had once been Graz'zt's slaves, and by the wererats, once-humans (and some halflings, gnomes, derro, and dwarves) warped by skaven magic to be used as their agents.
Before the rise and apotheosis of Raxivort, however, Incabulos was the primary deity of the skavens, and the Evilsent still has an honored place in the skaven pantheon. Incabulos is believed by skavens to be their original creator, an ineffable force destined to warp and transform the whole world. The ratfolk know that as clever and mighty as the Horned Rat may be, he can never be more than a tool of Incabulos, a weapon the Black Rider uses in bringing about the destiny he foretold at the beginning of all things.
Individual skaven clans often adopt archdaemons like Anthraxus, Cholerix, Typhus, Xengahra, Taba, Helekanalaith, Diptherius, and Bubonix as their patrons. These clans are rivals of each other, their feuds often erupting into violence, but they tend to work in harmony with the priests of Incabulos and Raxivort. Skaven worshipers of Graz'zt still exist, but in secret, as the servants of the Horned Rat slay them on sight.
Last edited by rasgon on Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:09 pm; edited 6 times in total
I mentioned some canonical locations like Spinecastle, the Halls of the Diirinken, the Forgotten City, and the Choking City, and some canonical unique yugoloths. But there was very little canon in what I wrote.
The dwarven kingdoms of Damgareth and Trimdaïr are from "Runes of the Dwurs at Azak-Morad" by Les Fauconniers, a group of French Greyhawk fans, but no skavens were involved in their fall as the Fauconniers told the story.
That is a nice compilation! The Halls of Diirinken fits with my secret of the runes. I wonder were one might find the Runes of the Dwurs at Azak-Morad?
I'll have to google it.
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