The Cult of the Five

Lore & Background

The Skaven do not worship a single god but a pantheon of five, each embodying a different facet of ratish ambition: cunning, war, sorcery, industry, and the devouring of all that is not rat. The Cult of the Five is the collective name for the priestly and magical orders who serve these deities, and their influence permeates every level of Skaven society. A Ratling's first lesson is not how to swing a claw but how to invoke the names of the Five before it kills its first prey. In the warrens beneath the Empire, the Cult's influence is visible in the architecture itself: shrines carved into tunnel walls, ritual pits where stolen relics are melted down, and the ever-present smell of incense mixed with rat-musk and alchemical reagents. Their sorcerers channel the Five's power into the Blight, into war-mourners' howls, and into the maddening whispers that drive Skaven warbands to charge into impossible odds. Where other Skaven factions fight for territory or resources, the Cult fights for the eternal supremacy of the ratfolk over all other races. What makes the Cult genuinely terrifying in the Vermintide context is that they are not merely enemies to be killed. They are the reason the Skaven keep coming back, keep rebuilding, keep turning every defeat into fuel for the next siege. You can burn a warren, but you cannot burn a faith that has been whispered into every rat's skull since the first one crawled out of the dark — a faith that smells of old bone, crackling warpstone, and the wet, patient hunger of something that has already decided the world is its meal.

In Their Own Story

The tunnel reeked of sulfur and old blood. Brother Verminous-Kil pressed his claw to the shrine-stone and whispered the Five names in the old tongue, the one that made the walls shudder. Around him, a dozen Skaven sorcerers chanted in ragged unison, their eyes rolled back, their jaws working in silent prayer. Above, far above, the surface-dwellers were celebrating another victory. They had burned a gate. They had killed a war-mourner. They had called it a triumph. Brother Verminous-Kil smiled, all teeth. The Five had not been defeated. The Five had merely been fed. And what is fed, grows hungry again. He lifted his staff, and the tunnel lights flickered in answer, and somewhere deep in the dark, something vast and patient turned its many eyes toward the surface and smiled back — a smile that was not a comfort, but a promise.

Reader's Guide

In Vermintide, the Cult of the Five is not a standalone faction you fight in a single mission; it is the spiritual architecture behind every Skaven assault. Enemies tied to the Cult — like Grey Seers and Plague Monks — are the ones who turn a simple horde into a nightmare. Grey Seers warp the battlefield with crackling lightning and summon vermin from thin air, while Plague Monks charge screaming into your formation, their bodies fizzing with corrupted energy. The Cult's priests also empower nearby ratmen, making them faster, tougher, or more aggressive, so a Cult-heavy wave demands you prioritize the chanters before the chaff. Watch for the telltale green glow of warpstone-encrusted staves and the sickly sweet smell of pestilent incense — those are your cues to burn the heretic-rats first. And remember: the Cult's faith is their strength, but it is also their weakness. Their rituals require focus, and a well-placed bomb or a swift decapitation can shatter their concentration, turning their fanatical charge into a panicked rout.

Did You Know?

• The Skaven pantheon of five gods each governs a different aspect of ratish life — war, cunning, sorcery, industry, and consumption — making the Cult less a single church and more a theocratic state within a state.
• In Vermintide's combat design, enemies associated with the Cult's magical tradition tend to use area-of-effect dark magic and debuff abilities, distinguishing them from the more physical Warhost enemies.
• The Cult's influence is why Skaven warbands in the game display such extreme, almost suicidal aggression — their doctrine holds that death in battle is a form of worship, not a failure.
• The five-god structure creates natural internal conflict in Skaven lore, as different Clans tend to favor different deities, meaning the Cult is never truly unified — a schism that surface-dwellers can exploit.