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| - A new power arose from the jungles of Lustria. The clan was long forgotten and much changed since leaving Skavenblight. They had passed beyond the knowledge of the Council of Thirteen, but would one day return, eager for power.[1a] The name of the clan that was led to the dry deserts of what is now Araby (which they reached around -1420 IC[1c]) during the Great Migration is no longer remembered. How they found the tunnels beneath the Great Ocean to the jungle land of the cold-blooded Lizardmen is unrecorded. Yet the Skaven arose under a temple-city in deepest Lustria. Although the ratmen were accustomed to insect-filled swamps, the virulent tropical diseases began to take their toll. When the clan was reduced to only a few hundred surviving members, their fur soaked in cold sweat and their fevered brains wracked by insane visions, the clan was visited by an epiphany. If they dedicated their lives to the Great Horned Rat, they would be spared. If they scoured the jungle for victims to sacrifice, the Great Horned One's hunger would be appeased. If they grew to revere the very diseases that were killing them, they might be born anew. And so out of darkest desperation, a new breed of Skaven emerged - the zealous Plague Monks of Clan Pestilens.[1a] The Skaven that rose out of the crumbling temple-city of Quetza in -1399[1c] were hideous, covered in weeping buboes, their pox-ridden bodies toughened by the very diseases they carried. Methodically, Clan Pestilens grew, plundering arcane secrets from the ruins over the centuries. Many of the cold-blooded reptilian creatures that sought to protect the jungle were sacrificed in the name of the Great Horned Rat. And always Clan Pestilens sought new ways to devote themselves to corruption.[1a] The clan had grown strong and now Lord Nurglitch, the traditional name for the mightiest of the Plaguelords, deemed it was time for his brood to return. The pestilent host spent a decade fighting their way out of the jungle to the coast. From there, a hastily built fleet of ramshackle ships was constructed to carry the greater part of Clan Pestilens to the Southlands where several fortress lairs were established around 50 IC[1c]. A few decades later[1c] emissaries were sent to Skavenblight where the Lords of Decay convened. Clan Pestilens demanded breeding rights, tithes of warpstone, and positions on the Council. As expected, the emissaries were summarily butchered and the remains cast out of the city.[1a]
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