Skavenblight

"All decent folk find the common rat repulsive. Harbinger of disease, it scavenges on our waste-heaps and frightens our children. How immeasurably worse then would be the foul Skavenblight - a city of rats, standing on hindlegs, tall as man, and blessed with the most vile intellect and cunning."

- Baylin Aball on the rumours of Skavenblight



At a Glance
Located somewhere in The Deeps of The Underdark, Skavenblight was the racial homeland of the Skaven, a sinister brood of rat-hengeyokai who numbered in the millions. A single collosal gate lined by Thirteen Bells marks the entry to the subterranean catacomb of Skavenblight, a passageway that is always teeming with thousands of Skaven warriors (making penetration into the city impossible).

Within the boundaries of Skavenblight hang thousands of brood-keeps, connected by bridges that swing and rattle from the rumbling of sub-continental earthquakes. As Skavenblight is nestled deep in The Echoes, a temporal plane within the extra-dimensional Underdark itself, the kingdom is subject to many supernatural phenomenon extending to blankets of hellish grey fog, auditory echoes that continue for decades, and ruinous hallucinations that reflect a creature's psyche or multiple creature's psyches at a given time, twisting the environment around them into their own personal madness. As such, the structures and details in Skavenblight can appear anywhere from decayed to manifest insanity.

Also referred to as "The Under-Empire" the kingdom of Skavenblight was ruled by  The Rat King, an agent of the God known as  The Horned Rat  who sought to eliminate or enslave all life in The Underdark and surface-world. Under The Rat King's rule, slavery in Skavenblight was commonplace and raiding parties would return from abroad to deliver new "commodities" into the slave trade.

Religion
The inhabitants of Skavenblight worship a deity known to them as The Horned Rat (Torog), believing that He will protect them from the God on Undeath Vecna, should he return. Trading one dark deity for another, the Skaven have been lead to believe that The Horned Rat sought to create a paradise for the Skaven, but ran out of power during the process. As such, it has fallen to the Skaven, who believe they are the true rulers of the world with their numbers surpassing the entire population of all other combined races, to help complete "The Golden Path". By enslaving all opposition, the Skaven believe that The Horned Rat will have the power to complete his paradise and crush the surface-dwellers who oppose him."The Bell Tolled and God said, Offer the Blood of the Nine Sinners and the White Oil. Be then released from the bonds of the decrepid flesh, and gain the Power to Cage. From the Darkness and Void, bring forth Gloom, and gird thyself with Despair, the Thirteen Bells shall redeem."

- Sacrament of The Rat King