The best of the Warhammer books unfortunately doesn't feature any hordes of Skaven, but that doesn't mean it's not relevant to Vermintide. Genevieve Dieudonné (immortal vampire) and Constant Drachenfels (immortal bastard) If you just want to read a real good book
Like Saltzpyre he's basically Vincent Price when he's angry, and he foils the plots of cultists and sorcerers with help from a filthy mercenary sidekick called Streng. On the fiction side C L Werner is our guy again, with a whole trilogy about a witch hunter named Matthias Thulmann.
With the Sigmar's Blessing free DLC you can get a trinket version of the Witch Hunter's Handbook in the first Vermintide, and carry it into battle on your belt.
The Witch Hunter's Handbook covers the finer details of what it's like being a Templar of the Order of Sigmar including sections on swordplay, how to tell the many varieties of witch apart, and how to put the question to them with tools like the Whirligig, the Scold's Bridle, and the Heretic's Fork. Written by Darius Hinks, it's a Warhammer version of medieval witchcraft treatise the Malleus Maleficarum. The Witch Hunter's Handbook is another book written in-character like The Loathsome Ratmen and All Their Vile Kin, and likewise it's now out-of-print and overpriced, but still worth checking libraries for. It's also quite funny, off-setting the grimness with black comedy like the best Warhammer fiction does.ĭetail from The Witch Hunter's Handbook (The Black Library) If you like Saltzpyre and his rants about heretics Over the course of four issues it escalates nicely, turning into a three-way conflict between Skaven, an Imperial army, and the undead.
It's written by former PC Gamer editor Kieron Gillen and has art by Dwayne Harris, who draws everyone so they look appropriately like miniatures on a tabletop in the mid-shots, though I'm not so sure about the effect in close-ups. The best of the Warhammer comics is Crown of Destruction, which also deals with Skaven. Written under his pseudonym Bruno Lee, it's another example of the way Warhammer contrasts grounded fantasy with the over-the-top variety-it begins with court politics and an investigation into a museum theft and climaxes with a gyrocopter battle in the sky. A standalone one to start with is Vermintide, which the games borrow their name from although they're not actually connected beyond both being about hordes of Skaven doing very bad things. If it's novels you want the author to look for is C L Werner, who has written more books about Skaven than is healthy. Good luck finding it at a decent price though, maybe check the library for that one. Written in-character as a scholarly text by an Imperial academic, it explains things like Skaven physiology and the differences between their various clans with plenty of fusty digressions and flavorsome art. The best place to start with Skaven is The Loathsome Ratmen and All Their Vile Kin by Mitchel Scanlon. And you absolutely won't feel fine… A bleak and tragic – and thoroughly epic and enjoyable – look at the final days of the Warhammer World and the heroes and villains who fought to save or damn it.Art from Warhammer: Crown of Destruction (Boom! Studios) If you like the Skaven, because who doesn't like cannibal rats? Read it because It's the end of the world as you know it. This final instalment delivers all the apocalyptic action and casualties of war you would want to see in the finale of the End Times. This is the ultimate showdown between the remaining heroes of light and the Ruinous Powers led by the dread Lord of Chaos.
The oncoming apocalypse finally arrives to the Warhammer world. If they cannot, Archaon's plan will come to fruition and the world will be consumed by Chaos. Against all reason, the last hope for the world may be the Undying King, Nagash himself - if he and the mortal races can find common cause and work together. The last heroes of men, elves and dwarfs gather to stop him, but to stand against the hordes of the Ruinous Powers, they must turn to darker allies. Archaon Everchosen marches on the city of Middenheim, and if he captures it, the key to the Chaos gods' ultimate victory will be his.