The Rat Kingdom
The Ratfolk of the Vache Kingdom are a secretive and enigmatic people, whose existence remains the subject of tavern whispers and the occasional unsettling sighting in the dead of night. Dwelling in vast and ancient tunnel networks hidden beneath the cities, forests, and mountains of the Vache Kingdom, the Ratfolk have endured for centuries—unseen, yet never idle. To the commonfolk, they are myths or pests. To the nobles and spies of the realm, they are a hidden dagger poised beneath the table.
Ratfolk society is clan-based—fractured, feuding, but bound by necessity. Each clan operates like a miniature kingdom of its own, led by a brutal and cunning Chieftain or Chieftess, who rises to power through assassination, warfare, or sheer influence. Clan allegiances shift like shadows; truces are as fleeting as sunrise in a sewer.
While they may appear consumed by internal strife, these verminous lords are keenly aware of the surface world. Deals are struck in forgotten cellars. Mercenaries are sold to barons in need of expendable soldiers. Alchemical poisons brewed in darkness find their way into the goblets of kings.
Prominent Clans of the Rat Kingdom
Clan Draskhir — The Abyss Delvers
Among the oldest and most feared, Clan Draskhir is known for their unmatched skill in deep mining. Their tunnel networks plunge deeper than any other, scraping the edges of the Abyssal Spheres, a place where ancient horrors stir and reality bends. It is said that the Draskhir feed the dark to keep it appeased.
Despite constant risk, the minerals, abyssal crystals, and strange energies they extract fuel the Ratfolk’s arcane advancements. Many of their miners and engineers are mutated by the abyss—some revered as holy avatars, others bound in iron to prevent their madness from spreading.
- Symbol: A cracked geode with a glowing red eye in the center.
- Specialty: Deep-earth mining, abyssal rituals, arcane engineering.
- Reputation: Mad geniuses and abyssal cultists.
Clan Verrek — The Flesh Peddlers
Clan Verrek is despised even among their own kind, considered an abomination of Ratfolk honor (what little exists). Known as the Flesh Peddlers, Verrek specializes in the breeding and sale of their own malformed or "undesirable" brood to the surface as slaves, laborers, or disposable soldiers. While the practice earns them disdain, it has also made them invaluable to surface slavers and certain unscrupulous nobles within the Vache Kingdom.
They selectively breed their kin—emphasizing strength, loyalty, or malleable minds—and deliver them in iron-bound caravans beneath the city streets. Their warrens are gilded with gold bought from suffering, and guarded by grotesque giants bred for obedience.
- Symbol: A broken cage with a rat’s hand reaching out.
- Specialty: Slave trade, genetic manipulation, economic infiltration.
- Reputation: Reviled but powerful; the hidden partner of corrupt Vache lords.
Clan Kranzok — The Warbrood
If war has a face among the Ratfolk, it is that of Clan Kranzok. Breeding for strength and martial prowess, Kranzok maintains vast barracks and warforges deep in the earth. They train elite ratfolk soldiers, raised from birth to fight in skirmishes both above and below. Alongside them march rat monstrosities—flesh-bound horrors stitched from corpses, beasts, and alchemical constructs.
Their soldiers are often leased to surface powers as mercenary legions. Others are sold to warring Ratfolk clans to tip the balance in underground conflicts. Kranzok warlords wear armor riveted to their bodies, and wield weapons humming with crude magic or abyssal heat.
- Symbol: A bloodied rat skull impaled on a spear.
- Specialty: Martial breeding, warbeast creation, mercenary trade.
- Reputation: Honored in war, feared in peace.
Clan Nyssyl — The Shroudbinders
The Shroudbinders of Clan Nyssyl act as the spiritual and arcane elite of the Rat Kingdom. Their tunnels are laced with glyphs, mushrooms that glow with soullight, and haunted wind that carries whispers from the Veil. They serve as oracles, warlocks, and emissaries. It is believed they can commune with ancient rat spirits, or even make pacts with eldritch beings that dwell deep within the Abyss.
Their knowledge of alchemy is unrivaled, and their poisons and elixirs are highly sought after by assassins and nobles alike. Some say their chieftess, Grisxari the Hollow-Eyed, has lived for over two hundred years by consuming the souls of her rivals.
- Symbol: A rat's tail coiled around a crescent moon.
- Specialty: Spirit communing, potioncraft, dark pacts.
- Reputation: Mysterious, feared for their whisper-born hexes.
The Ratfolk in the Vache Kingdom
Despite their secretive nature, Ratfolk are not unknown to the surface world. Some operate as thieves, informants, or potion-sellers under assumed identities. Others, especially those bred by Verrek or trained by Kranzok, walk among humans openly as bodyguards or mercenaries—although rarely trusted. The nobility of the Vache Kingdom tolerates them so long as they are useful… and weak. But whispers grow louder in the courts. Some believe the Ratfolk are uniting. That a new High Burrow-King has emerged—one who seeks to stop the endless clan wars and bring a tide of sharpened steel and poison to the surface.
Whether truth or tale, the Ratfolk remain an ever-present force of hidden blades, broken oaths, and whispered nightmares beneath the Vache Kingdom.
The Ratfolk of the Iron Isles
Though the Ratfolk have occasionally attempted to expand beyond the Vache Kingdom—through war, infestation, or trade—they often find themselves crushed by local resistance. The most infamous example is their fate in the Iron Isles, where the ruling Vampires reign with cold, immortal precision.
In the Iron Isles, Ratfolk dwell in the lowest catacombs and salt-choked mines, forming a servile caste under vampire domination. While they retain some form of clan identity, all autonomy is stripped from them by the bloodlords. The vampires encourage infighting and betrayal among Ratfolk groups, using fear and selective rewards to keep them disunited.
Any signs of ambition—whether an uprising or a spiritual awakening—are swiftly crushed. The vampires fear that a unified Ratfolk uprising in the depths could collapse their empire from below.
Despite this, clans like Verrek and Kranzok profit from their dealings with the vampires. Verrek’s slave-breeds are highly sought after in the Isles, where they are used for daylight labor and alchemical experiments. Kranzok, under blood-oaths, provides the vampires with rat monstrosities, stitched fleshbeasts that guard vampire crypts and patrol sunless corridors.
The Ratfolk of the Isles are a broken mirror of those in Vache—hardened by cruelty, stripped of hope, yet still whispering of revolt in the dust-choked dark.