Stormvermin

Stormvermin are the black-furred elite of the warlord clans, larger and stronger than the common Clanrat and considerably more dangerous. Bred from the hardiest stock and rewarded with proper armour and heavy halberds, they form the disciplined core around which a Skaven battle-line is built: as close to a professional soldier as the treacherous ratkin ever produce. Warlords keep them as bodyguards and shock troops, and their presence steadies the skittish masses nearby, if only because fleeing past a Stormvermin is a swift way to be cut down for cowardice.

For all their relative discipline, they remain Skaven to the bone: proud, vicious, and forever scheming for advancement, for every Stormvermin dreams of the day he might supplant the warlord he guards. In battle they hold the centre and deliver the killing push, their halberds rising and falling in something almost resembling order, black fur bristling as they screech their clan's war-cries.