I have a bit of a thing for listening to Podcasts, Audiobooks and Music whilst I am painting.
I also have a bit of a thing for making thematic playlists based on what I'm painting.
This habit I got into after I picked up a copy of "Sounds from the succubus club" which was a "dancing ferret discs" compilation that served two purposes.
First of all, it stood as a showcase for the record label of the artists that they had to offer, second, it served as an officially licenced product for Vampire the Masquerade (those were the days).
But anyway, I digress massively here. the TL;DR here is I like to make playlists with a theme. So I've made a few here and there. Here is my Skaven one.
This particular playlist is a 9 Track collection inspired by The Doom of Kavzar.
which has been printed and retold in so many fluff books and army books that I'm not going to re tell it in full. but I will give a quick summary and explain the choices by how they are tied to the story.
Preface: - The Tower.
In a Time of Myth, as many of these stories start, Man and Dwarves lived in peace and mutual cooperation man occupying the above ground city of Tylos, the Dwarves below.
and everything was generally good and nice and all those other things that are generally untrue that make the age of myth what it is. But at some point it was decided that what the gods of this city would really appreciate is a tower to honour them, so they started work.
After many generations of men at least, the tower was still no closer to being complete, and Humans, lacking the patience and tenacity of Dwarves, began to despair.
Track 1: Thirteen - The Stranger
This next bit is a little unclear, A stranger arrived, he was robed and cowled, clad all in grey.
He promised them that he could complete the Tower for them in a single night, and would ask for no payment beyond a single boon.
The words "what have we got to lose" are generally a prefix to disaster, especially when you are being offered something by a stranger in a legendary tale. but they agreed and the stranger bid them to return to the tower at midnight before shutting the door to the tower sealing themself in.
Track 2: For Whom the Bell Tolls - The Spire
When the inhabitants of the city returned to the tower, they saw the stranger had honoured his promise, they were overjoyed, the tower was the tallest structure that had ever been built, so high it touched the celestial sphere of the heavens themselves, etc... etc... and other such things that are generally said about Tower of Babel type stories.
As they moved to enter this Tower-Temple they learned two things. Firstly, that the door was locked, and Secondly, the additional feature that the stranger had placed within the spire was a bell, which began to toll.
Track 3: Black Rain - The Storm
The bell rang out, in an earsplitting dirge. After the first few tolls black clouds gathered, by the time of the Thirteenth chime the sky split with thunder and lightning. The people fled to their homes and their beds, hoping that the rain would cease soon, but by morning the rain had not stopped, black like oil, cloying like ash.
Each night the bell Tolled a further 13 times, and the rains continued, the Dwarves retreated into the bosom of the earth. where it was warm, dry and most importantly safe.
Track 4: Weak and Powerless - The Suffering
The rain grew heavier, men were sent out to seek assistance, but none returned, towards the end of the second week great black hailstones were falling, the rain had blighted the crop. People grew sick without apparent cause and babies were born twisted. The hail fell, chunks of black matter the size of fists and larger rained down. What little food they had left had been devoured by rats the size of small dogs and they knew fear...
Track 5: Rats - The Vermin Plague
The Elders of the city went to the entrances of the Dwarf strongholds to ask for their help.
They wanted to bring their folk below ground to safety, they wanted food. The longbeards of the Dwarves grew angry, and told the people that the lower workings were flooded and their food had also been devoured by vermin. There remained barely enough food and shelter for them and their kinsmen. They cast them from their halls and closed their doors once more.
Track 6: Down with the sickness - The Intervention
Every day grew more terrifying and deadly for the inhabitants of that now damned city.
Every day the survivors became more desperate, some began to pray to dark gods, and whisper the name of long forgotten demon princes looking for some kind of answer to their problems. No such answer came, the only reply that came was a tide of vermin, bigger and bolder than ever. Their slinking, furred shapes infested the broken city, feasting on the fallen and pulling down the weak. Each midnight the bell tolled thirteen times. The manlings lived as hunted creatures in their own city as great rat packs roamed the streets in search of them.
Track 7: Fear of the dark - The City Below.
In one last ditch desperate attempt, the survivors took up arms, if pitchforks and torches can be classed as such, and they approached the entrances to the dwarven hold again to demand help. Demanding that if no help was forthcoming, that they would drag them into the streets by their beards, the Dwarven doors were sturdy and silent. So the manlings did what any other mob would, they broke down the door.
They were greeted by silence and the stench of filth and rotten meat, within what once was the great hall now held nothing but the remains, the leftovers of the Dwarves, now nothing more than gnawed bones and some scraps of armour and cloth.
Track 8: Countdown to Extinction - The Consuming Darkness
As their torches passed around the hall, they became aware of the shadows moving in the darkness, the glittering eyes watching them as the final fuel of their meager lightsource began to sputter and die. the eyes glittered like liquid midnight as they closed in for the kill.
Track 9: Rats - The Swarm
Even back to back these remaining inhabitants of a once proud city could not stand against the sheer numbers or the ferocity of this horde. The monstrous rats dragging each one down in turn, the screaming was drowned out by the sound of chittering and the gnashing of teeth, the last vestige of the human inhabitants of the city once known as Tylos were consumed by the swarm.
Epilogue: Paradise City - Skavenblight
The tower has long since sunk into the area that has come to be called the blighted mire,
but the Remains of Kavzar still exist, after a fashion, the tunnels have been extended out into the old world and beyond.
In fact, this city survived the end of the very world where it was built, being secreted away in some sub realm by the horned rat, to ensure the survival of their offspring. The skaven are tenacious, they survive, and if the promise that their god is true, They Will Inherit.
