Are Skaven inherently evil?

[Slippery Williams]

Was just curious whether it is nature or nurture with Skaven. If one of the human races took one or a few Skaven pups away and raised and treated them like any human child growing up with no pressure or fear of needing to fight their kin to survive, would they have a different nature when grown into adulthood? The foster parents would treat the pups like any other human child, feeding them, keeping them comfortable and needs attended to, and when they grow up they are given schooling. Skaven are sentient and have human level intelligence so they wouldn’t be treated like pets but as individuals.

I’d imagine some of the more rat like instincts like fighting with their kin, being aggressive to anyone else, etc would still be there but they’d be protected from each other and when older hopefully get some of those rat instincts toned down with positive re enforcement by the parents when they are old enough to learn right and wrong and such

I’m a bit rusty on my Warhammer lore, but if I recall they were originally created by the great horned one who is a chaos god, if so are they destined to always have a spark of chaos in them and they have no chance of being civil or changing their ways?

[Gresh]

This gets asked every so often. You can find a lot of similar threads online if you want to read some other answers from different times.

They're inherently evil. There aren't any examples of "good" skaven in the lore. By nature they are destructive, conniving, malevolent, corrupting, etc.

The intro paragraphs to the wiki[warhammerfantasy.fandom.com] do a pretty good job of summarizing their nature.

[HerrDave]

Yes.

[grognardgary]

I don't Believe that when your hallmarks are disease and assassination and cannibalism it's hard to find any good bones to hang anything.

[Slippery Williams]

Origineel geplaatst door grognardgary:

I don't Believe that when your hallmarks are disease and assassination and cannibalism it's hard to find any good bones to hang anything.

I read cannibalism as capitalism and still agreed

[Anvos]

In Fantasy Warhammer I'd say yes their evil as their effectively a variant of beastmen that internally procreates. Thus their pseudo marked by chaos from the get go.

Best you could hope for would be ending up like the Druchii, where their leaders go rouge from the Horned Rat to try and take the power of chaos for themselves.

[TheAlmightyProo]

That'd be Snitch Do'Urden, yes-yes?

Tbh the closest I've seen in any lore of 'less outwardly evil', comradely, pragmatic (at least) Skaven are the two commanders (I forget their names) left to keep an eye on Nagashizzar in the last of the Nagash book trilogy. But those two have fought together, with only each other to truly rely on, through decades of attritional war and often under the command or selfish mores of worse commanders. For them though it's as much the stupidity of their (somewhat lesser) 'superiors' and the years far from Skaven society that have changed them as against any 'good' influences... as much as their scenes, dialogue and character building were among the highlights of that story (compared to Nagash, who was arguably less pragmatic, smart and far more, 'bwahaha' stupidly evil just cos, by that point)

That story being over I imagine those two Skaven would've gone back to Skavendom and had to revert to form or die.

[Urza]

I think by skaven standards they're just skaven.

[Talilover]

Skaven society is based entirely on being the most greedy, self serving, and disloyal scum you can be. Paired with a desire too see all other races either go extinct or become slaves/food in service of their dark god I'd say that means they're pretty cut and dry evil

[grognardgary]

The problem is even if you have an individual skaven that turns his back on skaven society what are his chances of convincing any other race/culture in the game That he isn't a disease ridden murdering scum bag?

[Urza]

Origineel geplaatst door grognardgary:

The problem is even if you have an individual skaven that turns his back on skaven society what are his chances of convincing any other race/culture in the game That he isn't a disease ridden murdering scum bag?

by skaven standards that would -make- him a scum bag

[AmesNFire]

Skaven are meant to be a parody of fascist ideology, in that they are everything they fear the 'Other' to be. Selfish, Greedy, Violent, Incompatible with the very concept of Service or Cooperation, and willing to destroy everything because every individual skaven believes themselves to be the true ruler of the world.

There's also the 'Black Hunger' that affects every skaven as soon as they born; imagine if you will feeling like you haven't eaten for weeks, that your lips haven't tasted water in years, and you can never have enough. That is how a skaven exists every second of every day, regardless of how much they consume.

"What can be said then of the culture and society of the Ratman, given their psychology of total self-interest and constant hunger? In short, the Skaven life is one of constant warfare. Just as they constantly rise against men and Dwarfs to seek their basic needs for food and space, they also constantly fight amongst themselves to ensure the greatest access and control over these resources. In the Skaven world, not unlike our own, the strongest eats the best portion, and every other rat plots to take that place for himself."

—Ammelie Meyer, Priestess of Verena.

The endgoal of Skavendom is to have a lone skaven dying of thirst upon a barren wasteland in an empty world because everything that can be consumed has been consumed.

[Anvos]

Fairly sure their end goal is the Horned Rat becomes a major Chaos God and they become a breed of daemon.

[Slippery Williams]

So I’m not going to win my wager with my wine club I can take a lowly unrefined Skaven and turn him into a gentleman for next week’s society ball?

[AmesNFire]

Origineel geplaatst door Dragonkick:

So I’m not going to win my wager with my wine club I can take a lowly unrefined Skaven and turn him into a gentleman for next week’s society ball?

Just promise the skaven a bunch of warpstone and make sure to have multiple trusted guards watching you while you sleep.
They might do it then.

[Gresh]

Origineel geplaatst door Dragonkick:

So I’m not going to win my wager with my wine club I can take a lowly unrefined Skaven and turn him into a gentleman for next week’s society ball?

I have a feeling your version of My Fair Lady would end in poisoning or stabbing, but I'd be willing to watch it on youtube.