Skray

The **Skray**, also known as the **Vermin**, **Void-rats** and the **Ephédaen** by the Aeldari, are a highly numerous race of humanoid over-sized rat-folk that primarily dwell within the Webway. The Skray have been the bitter nemesis of the Eldar for millennia as they were both races created by the Old Ones to help fight the Necrons. The Skray are a treacherous, conceited, backstabbing and malevolent race that dwell in the Webway they once created millenia ago which they now call the Haunt.

The Skray are fervent and zealous believers in their pantheistic religion, a dark faith which is headed by a pantheon of cruel gods named the Black Mass. This Pantheon is lead by the Skray's creator deity, the Great Horned Rat and also encompasses several smaller gods with more specific roles. These gods include: the Blistered Rat, god of plagues, The Quiet-Footed Rat, god of deception and cowardice, The Rusted Rat, god of engineering and forging, and the Many-Armed Rat, god of fleshchanging.

## Religion

The Skray are zealous worshippers in their malevolent religion named the Black Mass. This Pantheon is lead by the Skray's creator deity, the Great Horned Rat and also includes several smaller gods with more specific roles.

* **Blistered Rat** - the Blistered Rat is responsible for the creation and distribution of all disease in the Skrayan Mythology including their own. Many infection-obsessed Kins or Swarms pray to the Blistered Rat that their poisons be effective and painful to their foes.
* **The Quiet-Footed Rat** - The Quiet-Footed Rat is the Skray God of secrecy, stealth and cowardice, embodying the reclusive and quiet nature of the Skray. While he is impeccable at the art of stealth and killing by surprise however he is a coward in open combat.
* **The Rusted Rat** - The Rusted Rat is the technologically minded, intelligent and resourceful god of technology of the Skray. An Industrial god, the Rusted Rat has devoted himself entirely to the art of construction.
* **Many-Armed Rat -** god of flesh changing and change. Kins such as the Klotborr worship the Many-Armed Rat in hopes for his blessings upon their grisly creations.

The presence of the Black mass in any Kin is known as a Brood. A brood comrpises all of the religiously inclined Skray, these serve a non-combative role as missionaries and a battlefield role as bringers and heralds of morale to help embolden the Skray in combat. The basic, low-level acolytes of the Black Mass are known as Apostles, these come in their tens of thousands in any given Brood and can function as an army in and of themselves. Meanwhile, leaders of Brods are known as Black Pontiffs and are the closest to their gods that any Skray can come; being minor psychics, they frequently recieve visions and messages from their gods that they bellow out to their leagues of captive followers.

## Technology

### Weapons & Warmachines

Skray technology is as brutal as it is cunning. The skray are notorious for stealing weapons and scrap throughout the galaxy, then remaking and combining them into new weapons and machines of war.

* **Skrap Rifles** - Cobbled together from carved warp matter and material debris; skrap rifle is the catch all term for skray weapons that fire the raw matter the skray used to build the webway. Whether these projectiles are in solid or energy form.
* **Skray Death Blade** -
* **Warrenships** - A masterpiece of skray engineering, these massive ships are often just hulks, guns, and engines. Appearances vary based on whatever species originally created them

### Faerie Slave Trade

To the Skray, Faeries, or as they call them, Geists, are a large and powerful resource when it comes to war machines, military technology and weapons. Entirely made out of psychic energy given sentience, the Skray have found a way to harness this psychic energy through arcane devices scavenged from the Old Ones. This act removes a Faerie's psychic energy and therefore its life-force, killing it in the process.

Originally, upon entering the Webway, Faeries numbered in the tens of trillions and were an as-of-yet untapped resource, however, over the millenia, they have either escaped from the Webway, joined with the Asuryani in their thousands or come under the protection and codependence of another civilisation or race. As a result, Faeries are a far rarer commodity and Skray ceaselessly search and covet all that they can find.

## Culture & Society

### Kins

The society of the Skray is divided into Kins, these are units of national and military significance as each has their own Lair in the Webway and their own military, the scope and scale of both of these differ dramatically. All Kin's have their Lairs or Greatlairs located deep within the webway's labyrinthine maze of tunnels which makes the Skray twice as difficult to destroy as it is highly difficult to even locate where they reproduce. Some larger Kins of the Skray may have access to dozens of Lairs, several Greatlairs as well as Rot Worlds in realspace.

Each Kin is lead by a Meister, these are the strongest, most conniving, intelligent and duplicitous of the Skray people. Meisters have access to the greatest weapons, lodgings, armour, vehicles and Breeders that Kin has to offer in exchange for their continued commanding and battle prowess.

### Foundling Kins

* **Klotborr** - The denizens and specialists of Klotborr are known for their mastery of flesh, life and the soul, being able to manipulate, change and erode it as easily as a hand is dragged through water. The Scientists of Klotborr have become renowned throughout the Haunt for their sickly abilities in mutation, plague-creation and other experimentations.
* **Tu'morask** - The individuals of Tu'morask believe whole-heartedly to be the direct descendents of the gods and that they are their living blessed representatives. Known for their highly zealous worshp and their freakishly large population of Apostles, the worshippers of Tu'morask have an unshakeable faith in the Black Mass. These zealots are of the opinion that they are blessed because, allegedly, the location that is now Tu'morask used to be the very first Skray settlement when the originally burrowed the Webway and also the birthplace of the Gods themselves.
* **Moxag** - The techno-loving people of Moxag are famous and perhaps, have the highest amount of wealth, for embodying the nature of the Rusted Rat and being masters of machinery. The folk of Moxag have grown an especial fascination with metal, machines and metallic objects, wanting desperately to get their grubby claws on them. As a result, they venerate shiny objects and metals as if they were divine and shape them with malevolent care and diabolical precision. The majority of the largest vehicles, titans and walkers come from Moxag's black forges.
* **Torgrime** - What represents the folk of Torgrime most is greed. The citizens of Torgrime have an insatiable hunger and need for money, currency and the power that it provides. As a result of this need, the aristocrats of Torgrime have the largest real-world presence of any of the Higher Kins and venture into real space frequently in order to make deals. The members of Torgrime venture so frequently into real-space in order to make deals and pay for mercenaries to do their bidding, functioning similarly to a mafia.
* **Orgur** - Masterful psychics and sorcerers, the denizens of Orgur wish to hone their powers and connection with the warp ever further, never being satisfied with their own knowledge and abilities. Originally the first Skray kin to discover Faeries many millennia ago, the voyants of Orgur have began to study, covet and distribute them, using them to power their vehicles and machinery. Similarly to the policies of Klotborr, Orgur keep their best, most resilient and strongest Faeries to themselves to perform cruel experiments upon at their leisure.

## Forces

### Infantry

* **Hench-slaves** - Hench-slaves is a collective term used for slaves from both the Skray and other races such as Humanity and, on rare occasions, Eldar. These slaves serve as warriors to help swarm a target as well as expendable ground troops. They are given minimal weaponry and armour and form the front-lines of any Skray assault.
* **Packrats** - Packrats are the most basic form of official Skray warrior, they are given basic armaments and a relatively sturdy set of protection.
* **Murids** - Murids are the elite warriors of any Skray force, equipped with stronger weapons, thicker plating, better training and are stronger and better warriors.

### Heavy Support

* **Skrake** - large muscular mutants
* **Skrag Crawler** - large powerful tank manufactured by the Skray
* **Colossus Gnawdrill** - the largest vehicle in the Skray arsenal. originally the drills used to dig out the webway, theyre now converted to giant battle tanks.

### Specialist

* **Apostle** - basic worshipper of the black mass
* **Voyant** - basic Skray psykers
* **Fleshler** - basic biologist/plague warfare specialist
* **Tinker** - basic engineer

### Commanders

* **Symbol** - Avatars of their gods, Daemons.
* **Brag Meister** - Kin leader
* **Meister** - Claw leader
* **Skipper** - Pack leaders
* **Black Pontiff** - the leader of a Brood in any given Kin
* **High-Grafter** - the chief enginner in any given Kin