Interlude II: Name of the Rat

Recently, on the Oldhammer Facebook group, I encountered for the first time an unusual story regarding how the Skaven acquired their name. The earliest Skaven models were initially identified solely as "Chaos Ratmen", but by the time of their introduction in the Citadel Journal, the name Skaven was already in use. I'd always assumed that this had originated from the term "scavengers", but one Oldhammer poster gave a much different account.

This is Roland Rat. First appearing on Good Friday in April 1983 on the British breakfast television network TV-AM. Created and voiced by David Claridge, a former Henson studios employee, Roland was regularly accompanied by the over-enthusiastic self-appointed "number one ratfan" Kevin the Gerbil. Perhaps appropriate to the date of his origin, Roland is considered a saviour of the then ailing network, whose popularity brought viewership up from roughly 100,000 to 1.8 million in a matter of months. At the time he was described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship".

According to the aforementioned poster's room mate, an unidentified former GW employee, Roland's introduction of his co-star "It's Kevin", or "Here's Kevin", corrupted to "S'Kevin" was the true origin of the name "Skaven".

Needless to say, I was sceptical. In a short time, the story was debunked by Andy Chambers : "Just a story I'm afraid"..."I asked Jes about it once and he told me it was derived from 'Scavengers'." Anthony Ackland confirmed: "It was derived from scavengers. I remember that Jez first came up with them back when the studio was still at Eastwood. The Roland Rat thing sounds like a typical "Studio lets wind up Head Office" thing from the Low Pavement Studio days."

However, several other posters confirmed having heard the same story regarding Roland Rat, and a bit of googling turned up several other instances scattered across the web. Which perhaps means I'd just come across the very first Skaven urban legend.