The Council of Thirteen is the supreme ruling body of the Skaven, the great secret that governs the ratmen's sprawling under-empire from the hidden city of Skavenblight. It is composed of twelve of the most powerful and treacherous Lords of Decay — the greylords, warlord-chieftains, and clan-masters who have clawed their way to the summit of skaven society — presiding over the endless scheming of their race.
The number thirteen is holy to the skaven, and so the council numbers twelve seats plus one: the thirteenth throne is left empty, reserved for their god, the Great Horned Rat, whose will the council claims to enact. The twelve Lords of Decay each represent the great power-blocs of skavendom — Clan Skryre with its warp-lightning engines, Clan Pestilens with its plagues, Clan Moulder with its flesh-moulded monsters, Clan Eshin with its assassins, and the warlord clans — and each schemes ceaselessly against the others even as they rule together.
Unity among the skaven is always a fiction, and the council is no exception: its history is a chronicle of poison, betrayal, and murder, as Lords of Decay rise, plot, and are dragged down by their rivals. Yet for all its backstabbing, the council does what nothing else could — it points the boiling, fractious millions of the skaven in a single direction, if only briefly, and when it does, whole nations of men and dwarfs have been gnawed to ruin from below before they ever knew the ratmen were real.