So, funny thing. One of the few things I remember from briefly reading the beginning/prologue parts of one of the End Times books, was a little scene for the Skaven. (I don't know if this idea
originated in the End Times books, or if this was an established idea for Skaven already and the writer just made use of it in the book and this just happened to be the first time I personally stumbled acros it.) It was the Council of 13 gathering, and... one part of it that stuck with me and which I thought was kind of cool and very Skaven, was this:
The scene talks about how the Skaven head for the meeting, and it says that Skaven would gather
in 1s and 3s, because any other number results in Skaven backstabbing!
'With 1 Skaven, you obviously can't backstab yourself.'
'With 2 Skaven, they're going to scheme against each other and its hopeless.'
'But with 3? No 2 Skaven would be able to trust each other not to backstab each other long enough to backstab the third.'
I thought it was cool because it worked with Skaven numerology; making 13 and 1 and 3 be important numbers to their culture. (I don't remember if it said anything about Skaven grouping together in 4s or 5s -- it's possible that, this being a gathering of 13, they also placed greater importance upon 1 and 3. Or because other Skaven would be too distrustful of anybody that arrived in such a big group as 4 or 5 or 6 people; it would be a threat to them. And so, to satisfy their own distrust and paranoia, and to make it
possible to gather without spooking every other member, they had to do it in lesser numbers than going in with like 7 and 6 Skaven.)
It's possible that they also might have distrusted groups of 2 Skaven coming to the council, not because they'd stab each other before they got there... but because it
was possible for 2 Skaven to not mess with each other -- and that such a détente or peace treaty would not be liked by any of the other gathered members. Also, if you came with your buddy, it's a blatant tipoff isn't it? Everybody now knows you've got somebody you trust enough to travel with, and knows who it is. 1 and 3 provide plausible deniability, security, and a balance of treachery.
It's amazing. You'd think 3 would be the number at which 2 Skaven would scheme against the 3rd, and dead they go. But no. 3 is the point at which, because they are expecting everybody to cross and double-cross and triple-cross, they arrive at a
Mexican Standoff of treachery.
3 is the number at which Skaven Chronic Backstabbing Disorder would Three Stooges Syndrome itself!
And I remembered it because, heck, that was really cool right? And for how amusing it was. And because it presented a story for why the Skaven would value 1s and 3s.
So your post where you analyzed why Skryre and Eshin suddenly backed off a lot, and concluded that it might be because 3 could 'trust' each other enough to be able to prioritize Mors, but with 2 the balance of quantum-treachery breaks down?
Yeah. Yeah, totally valid. Not just valid in fact, but pretty damn good convergent evolution of ideas -- you've just stumbled upon and described some Skaven cultural numerology/psychology.
