undead skaven

[D-Black Catto]

since skaven are most numerous why won't necromancers raise them instead of humans as undead servants?

[Zoie Shales]

There actually are undead Skaven

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skretch

[D-Black Catto]

Originally posted by Zoie Shales:

There actually are undead Skaven

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skretch

not exactly what I was asking about, but I don't expect the current generation of tiktok to be able to read more then just a headline

[Zoie Shales]

Originally posted by D-Black Catto:

Originally posted by Zoie Shales:

There actually are undead Skaven

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skretch

not exactly what I was asking about, but I don't expect the current generation of tiktok to be able to read more then just a headline

Quite rude to say to someone trying to have a nice conversation and join it, dont even use tiktok.

But you should read that, it is interesting.

[Aric The Mad Doktor]

in one of the gotrik and felix novels a vampire mentions that orks have weird bones that decay rapidly and that it makes them unsuitable for necromancy as a side affect, i think a similar thing may apply to the skaven since their so fragile, i know in warhammer lore bones can be reinforced by magic via necromancy to make stronger undead, but may be like a cost ratio thing as far as which is easiest to bring back for the most bang/usefullness per an undead.

[Supermarine]

Originally posted by Aric The Mad Doktor:

in one of the gotrik and felix novels a vampire mentions that orks have weird bones that decay rapidly and that it makes them unsuitable for necromancy as a side affect, i think a similar thing may apply to the skaven since their so fragile, i know in warhammer lore bones can be reinforced by magic via necromancy to make stronger undead, but may be like a cost ratio thing as far as which is easiest to bring back for the most bang/usefullness per an undead.

Sounds plausible, and also would explain why you see human bones lying around everywhere, and not bones from other races. Rats do look fragile. But what about dwarfs and elves?

[Ashardalon]

because all necromancers are using nagash his spells, repurposed by arkhan into something more usable by mere mortals while he was under nagash his influence to bring him back
those spells where originally made for using humans since in nekehare there are no skaven
nagash only met and used skaven lateron in his unlife after his first resurrection
that leaves skaven as a possible resource if you want to put in extra effort, but its not the baseline magic people learn
along with the spells being harder to raise them
they also contain a lot of warpstone, a magical source of instability that can backfire on the caster
it can enhance the spell, it can explode, it can actually bring the skaven back to life
warpstone is unstable, solidified warp (with a little bit of divine magic from the horned rat), something the original spells didnt account for
and adding the warp into stuff always makes things dangerous or complicated, or dangerous and complicated
and along with making the magic far less stable and controllable, the end result also isnt great
its each an individual puppet they have to control
while a single human skeleton is far easier for a human that knows how a human body works to control then a rat, and that rat skeleton is also very fragile and weak

its a resource they do sometimes use in desperation
but its a bad second option
and there are many many human corpses
so when your ideal resource is plentiful using a worse option that happens to be even more plentiful just isnt smart

[Ashardalon]

Originally posted by Supermarine:

But what about dwarfs and elves?

elves are usable
but they are frail and in low numbers
elves are strong in combat because they are fast and nimble with extremely practiced and precise movements
not really something you can do with their skeletons, they arnt being resurrected, they are puppeted
there are more advanced methods to raise them into something more consious
but then you have to not just deal with an arrogant and magically powerful elf soul
but also the elven gods, who are very real and really active, slightly less active then the orc gods
for dwarves
great sturdy bones, but the species is naturally magic resistant
you need to invest a lot of power to raise them
and the ancestor gods again, dont take kindly to that
also grudges
their tombs also tend to be warded and protected to an extreme degree since dwarves take their ancestors and burial rituals very seriously

[Conflagration]

Originally posted by Aric The Mad Doktor:

in one of the gotrik and felix novels a vampire mentions that orks have weird bones that decay rapidly and that it makes them unsuitable for necromancy as a side affect, i think a similar thing may apply to the skaven since their so fragile, i know in warhammer lore bones can be reinforced by magic via necromancy to make stronger undead, but may be like a cost ratio thing as far as which is easiest to bring back for the most bang/usefullness per an undead.

No, Skaven can be resurrected no issue. There's a BL book with a Skaven Necromancer who has a ton of undead Skaven. There's really nothing that can't be resurrected.

[Zoie Shales]

Originally posted by Neurotoxin:

Originally posted by Aric The Mad Doktor:

in one of the gotrik and felix novels a vampire mentions that orks have weird bones that decay rapidly and that it makes them unsuitable for necromancy as a side affect, i think a similar thing may apply to the skaven since their so fragile, i know in warhammer lore bones can be reinforced by magic via necromancy to make stronger undead, but may be like a cost ratio thing as far as which is easiest to bring back for the most bang/usefullness per an undead.

No, Skaven can be resurrected no issue. There's a BL book with a Skaven Necromancer who has a ton of undead Skaven. There's really nothing that can't be resurrected.

Skaven necromancers would be quite rare, considering other Skaven see this as deviating too far from the Horned Rat and that the necromancer Skaven usually don’t live too long cause of it.

[Vermel Silk]

There are plenty of undead skaven, dwarves, elves (even trolls) etc in the novels. They are not in this game as since they don't exist in the tabletop range- which makes sense as that would be a ton of extra work for the designer for no real extra income. - Although it is a missed opportunity for CA, since adding some undead of other races really would bring the Undead factions more flavour.

[BigRockWall]

Originally posted by Vermel Silk:

There are plenty of undead skaven, dwarves, elves (even trolls) etc in the novels. They are not in this game as since they don't exist in the tabletop range- which makes sense as that would be a ton of extra work for the designer for no real extra income. - Although it is a missed opportunity for CA, since adding some undead of other races really would bring the Undead factions more flavour.

Would be cool to have zombies be of all the different races. Just shambling corpses. They can all share the same stats and have it just be aesthetics. I do see 2 problems though.

1 - line of sight for guns. Human sized gunners can shoot over dwarf sized infantry heads without having line of sight issues and shooting your own units in the back. So in the event that a VCount faction has some allied recruit gun units, there could be an actual gameplay imbalance even if all other stats remained identical among the different race zombies.

2 - If it really is just aesthetics, theres not a lot of incentive for the devs to spend man hours on it when they have perfectly functional zombies already.

[ϺEƳEƦ]

Skaven my be more numerous than man, but they are far less accessible. The human factions are in open war with each other and the non-human factions constantly. This results in an incredible abundance of human dead. Skaven on the other hand conduct warfare quite differently. they tend to only commit to conflicts they are sure to win; meaning that no one would have access to their dead in order to raise them. In addition, when Skaven are defeated, they will many times carry off their dead to be consumed as food. In short, there may be a lot more Skaven, but they are much harder to fined.

[Zoie Shales]

Originally posted by ϺEƳEƦ:

Skaven my be more numerous than man, but they are far less accessible. The human factions are in open war with each other and the non-human factions constantly. This results in an incredible abundance of human dead. Skaven on the other hand conduct warfare quite differently. they tend to only commit to conflicts they are sure to win; meaning that no one would have access to their dead in order to raise them. In addition, when Skaven are defeated, they will many times carry off their dead to be consumed as food. In short, there may be a lot more Skaven, but they are much harder to fined.

Also I forgot to mention Traceless Demise, The body of any creature that dies while under the effects of this spell melts away into a foul-smelling black slime. Traceless Demise is commonly cast upon the assassins of Clan Eshin before they embark on a hunt, ensuring that no Skaven corpses are left behind, makes raising them much harder.

[The Coal Man]

Arkhan in the lore just raises anything available, so does Manfred. Whatever they are currently fighting gets raised, skaven, ogres, elves, humans, dragons, whatever is there. Sylvania just has a near limitless numbers number of dead humans to raise that are already available so thats what the bulk of their armies are made of.

For the reasons OP listed, undead pretty much always stomp the skaven when they are in conflict in the lore.

CA just didn't bother to include nonhuman models in the zombie hordes, even though in lore they would be made up of practically everything.