Little is known about the earliest records concerning the origins of the Children of the Horned Rat after they overran the city that was to become
Skavenblight. Some speculate that they began to war amongst themselves for the dominance and resources of the city. Others think that they began to seek out deposits of
warpstone in the tunnels beneath them. Regardless, it wasn't until around sixteen hundred years before the coming of
Sigmar that the first true Skaven began to emerge from the pits beneath the ruined city. The Skaven population during those earlier times also began to rapidly grow at an alarming rate, despite the widespread starvation, infighting, and disease outbreaks that were still rampant in the city.
[2n]
Little is known about the earliest records concerning the origins of the Children of the Horned Rat after they overran the city that was to become
Skavenblight. Some speculate that they began to war amongst themselves for the dominance and resources of the city. Others think that they began to seek out deposits of
warpstone in the tunnels beneath them. Regardless, it wasn't until around sixteen hundred years before the coming of
Sigmar that the first true Skaven began to emerge from the pits beneath the ruined city. The Skaven population during those earlier times also began to rapidly grow at an alarming rate, despite the widespread starvation, infighting, and disease outbreaks that were still rampant in the city.
[2n]
Pressures began to mount as food and living space became scarce commodities for the burgeoning populace, forcing the Skaven leadership to find alternative ways to expand their domain. The thought of venturing onto the surface world was discarded due to the fact that the Old World was far too dangerous to travel, as it was inhabited by dangerous beasts and powerful tribes of both barbarian humans and marauding greenskins. In a grandiose scheme, the Skaven sorcerers of the city came up with a plan to open up tunnels beneath the surface and carve out an underground empire over which only they will reign supreme. All their considerable quantities of warpstone were gathered together to power a crude machine in the hope of amplifying the sorcerers' formidable power in their undertaking of a grand ritual. Deep beneath Skavenblight, this great incantation began. The diabolical device of spinning wheels, whirling gears, and makeshift power accumulators throbbed and smoked as it absorbed and magnified raw magic for the sorcerers' ritual.
[2n]
The ground shook and the groans of shifting rocks almost drowned out the shrill climax of the chanting seers. High above them, within the crumbling monuments of the city, the great Bell-Tower tolled as the structure swayed and creaked like the mast of a ship at sea. Power began to accumulate in such vast quantities that it had the potential to break mountains and shake the very world to its foundations. Then, for the first time, but far from the last, the great machine of the Skaven failed them, as an unknown part of the ingenious yet imperfect device broke down at the most critical moment. In that very instant, catastrophe struck.
[2n]
With a blinding white flash of pure malevolence, a tidal wave of raw magical energy swept through the underground chambers of the city and unleashed its power upon the foundations of the world. Tunnels collapsed, buildings fell, and the land began to heave and tremble. The entire undermined plain surrounding Skavenblight sank as geysers of flame erupted from the tortured ground. The damage was even more devastating as the energies swept outwards. Soon the whole of the Old World began to crumble as the titanic force erupted in all directions. The
Worlds Edge Mountains began to buckle under the relentless assault, as the surging energy crashed against the spine of the entire mountain range. Great tidal waves rose from the ocean and washed over all in their path. Long dormant volcanoes erupted to life from the
east and the lands there were forever scarred by geysers, lava, and earthquakes. To the Dwarfs of the Everlasting Realm, their very civilisation was being destroyed right in front of their eyes. The catastrophe was an ill-prepared event, and all those that knew about that horrible time remember it only as the "
Time of Woes".
[2n]
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