The founding of Clan Skyre can be traced back to the origins of the Hruds when they first achieved sentience as a race. It all started when a Prospector Fleet of the Demiurg discovered the presence of an as yet unknown ore within the underground cavern of a moon of a planet at the centre of the galaxy. A Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel was sent down to investigate the occurrence of the ore. The Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel drilled a hole through the rocky surface of the moon, just big enough for it to descend into its confines. Starlight descended through the hole, onto the centre of that immensely large cavern. The Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel discovered huge deposits of Warpstones beneath the ground of the cavern. The Demiurg had encountered Warpstones prior, through their endless travels through space, and have found purposes for them as fuel for their gigantic Commerce Vessels, among other things. As such, the finding of these huge deposits of Warpstones was an unmissable prospect to be seized upon by the Prospector Fleet. Mining crafts were sent down in due course to gather the Warpstones for the purposes of the Brotherhood. The mining crafts drilled through the surface of the underground cavern where the deposits were largest and most abundant. In this way, the Warpstones were exposed to the surface. As they were raw Warpstones in their most unrefined and purest form, these deposits were highly radioactive and would have produced mutations among the Demiurg were they not within the protective confines of their crafts.

The Demiurg were not the only lifeforms within the underground cavern however; the Hrud in their presentient forms were highly similar to the rodents of Holy Terra. They populated the cavern in their millions, living off all manner of things, including their own carcasses. The reason their population continued to grow was due to the fact their females produced about twenty pups in a single litter. These presentient Hruds lived pretty much like beasts, and were largely ignorant of the huge amounts of Warpstones that lay beneath their paws. However, the actions of the Demiurg in extracting the Warpstones left them exposed on the surface of the cavern. The rodent-like lifeforms in their constant roaming came into contact with the Warpstones on the surface, drawn by the bright light emitted in its raw form. Some even brought back pieces of Warpstones to their dens. Thus, in this way, the raw mutagenic essence within the Warpstones came to be exposed to the population of the rodent-like lifeforms at large. All sorts of physical deformities erupted within the lifeforms; however, some were fortunate enough to experience the mutations at the genetic level that would give rise to sentience within them. Slowly, the lifeforms grew to become aware of their immediate surroundings, and the conditions of their existence. Their growth of awareness led them to experiment with the objects around them, imitating the use of tools as it was with prehistoric man. The use of tools prompted the evolution of bipedal movement among the lifeforms, to free the use of their upper limbs to wield all manner of tools. By reaching a bipedal form, these lifeforms were that much closer to achieving full-blown sentience. Soon, they became aware of the presence of other lifeforms besides their kind. They marvelled at the shiny surfaces of the mining crafts, at the deliberate, mechanical movements of the craft as they excavated the Warpstone deposits. What caught their attention most however, was that big hole right at the centre of the roof of the cavern, from which the only source of light poured in. Through that single patch of sky, they watched entranced, by the multitude of stars that dot the spaces between and the infinite worlds that lay beyond. To them, it presented the existence of a larger world, beyond the confines of the cavern they were born in.

The arising of sentience within the population of the lifeforms reached a critical mass. Most were now capable of bipedal movement, standing upright on their hindlimbs. The ends of their forelimbs developed into nimble digits, capable of much dexterity, able to wield simple tools with what can be called "hands". The Demiurg were largely ignorant of these developments in the native lifeforms of the cavern, concerned only with the speedy gathering of the Warpstone ore deposits. Only one thought resonated within the entire chittering mass of rodent-like lifeforms, and that was that their only recourse and escape from the dungeon that was the cavern was through force of arms, overwhelming the Demiurg occupants of those shiny vessels and seizing them for their own. So it came to be that the lifeforms, through force of numbers, wielding all manner of crude weaponry in the form of sticks and stones they could scavenge, rose against the Demiurg, and overthrew them, killing them in an event that was to be known as the Great Uprising. Although caught off-guard and vastly outnumbered, the Demiurg provided a stout resistance. When every single last one of them had succumbed, the lifeforms became divided; where once they shared unity of goal, now having achieved that goal, all that were left were the spoils of war, and the lifeforms selfishly took whatever they could for their own. The lifeforms banded together into tribes that was based on familial ties, sharing origins within the same brood. These tribes degenerated into warfare and conflict, in a bid to seize the most of the spoils. In an era of warfare, where only the strongest are recognised, the leaders of the individual tribes were more often than not Blackfurs, that referred to themselves almost exclusively as Warlords. This gave birth to a new era, the Age of Warlords, where the rules of war were established by the actions of the most successful Warlords. These Warlords came to dictate the hierarchy within all the Tribes, with the Warlords at the top. The Warlords chose the strongest, most outstanding Blackfurs among the lot to be their Blackguard, the elite bodyguard regiment of the Warlords. The rest of the Blackfurs were delegated as Blackfangs, and were divided among the Greyfur packs to lead them in war. Thus, the social order within the Tribes was determined by divisions in physical strength, and as Blackfurs are generally physically stronger than their Greyfur kin, the Blackfurs held superior status to the Greyfurs. This state of affairs was known by all as the Great Tradition, and it is the standard of hierarchy by which all tribes abide and follow. Soon however the conditions among the Tribes calmed down to some degree, and the grounds within the cavern were divided into territories demarcated through some landmark or other, for instance, the presence of a Warpstone mine deposit.

Through this development, an idea occurred to the Warlord of one tribe, which happened to be one of the more successful tribes during the Age of Warlords, by the name of Skyre. He noticed the Demiurg had expressly arrived within this cavern to exploit its vast amounts of Warpstones. He deduced that the Warpstones by their nature, possessed incalculable power, which he vowed to tap into. While the rest of the tribes were engaged in petty territorial disputes, he seized the moment by gathering the cleverest, most talented of his Chieftains, charging them with manipulating the essence of the Warpstones, and through whatever experimental means, develop weapons of war based on the Warpstones, from which the Tribe could then rise to prominence and pacify the rest of their kind with their superior firepower. These Chieftains came to be known as Warplords, after the art of Warp-engineering. Before he could put into action his Great Plan however, Skyre had to present his idea before the Council of Warlords of his Tribe and gain their collective support and approval. His fellow Warlords were deeply impressed by his plan, and Skyre was hence given command of the entire Tribe's resources and placed Lord-Warlord of the Tribe in order to realise his Great Plan. Under the astute leadership of Skyre, the Tribe became the most organised and efficient among the chittering mass that characterised the lesser tribes. Through determined invasions, Warlord Skyre managed to secure and expand the existing Warpstone mines under their possession. The Warplords were thus free to experiment at will, using up their Warpstone stores with abandon, as they sought a means to tap into the power of the Warpstones. The Warplords made much progress in their search when certain Warplords decided to use the technology present within the mining crafts to "empower" their research. Through their experimentation, they came to establish the Warpstones into a variety of forms: Warpstone in its pure solidified state; Warpplasma when the Warpstone is superheated into a molten, volatile state; Warpwind when the Warpstone is decomposed leaving only its core essence and the fumes produced as a result; and Warpfire, when the volatile fumes of Warpwind is ignited through some external source. All of these various forms were harnessed into weapons of war, fuelled partially by the technology of the Demiurg that was put to good use by the Warplords. The main infantry of the Warlord Skyre's forces was comprised of units of Warplock Fusiliers, supported by devastating Warpflame Throwers and the noxious Warpwind Grenadiers. Units of Warpstone Shooters, troops that shot raw Warpstones directly into the blood stream of their targets, acted in the role of snipers, taking out the leaders of the various tribes that challenged the advances of Warlord Skyre's forces. The lesser tribes had nothing to counter the Warp-based technology of Warlord Skyre's forces, rather they did not have any idea of handling and using the technology of the Demiurg crafts within their possessions. As such, slowly but surely, each tribe succumbed to the advances of the Warlord's forces, until every single tribe was forced to acknowledge Skyre and his Tribe as the foremost Tribe among their kind, during an event that was known as the First Great War.

There was one tribe however, that provided some form of resistance against the might of Warlord Skyre's forces. The Warlords of this particular tribe had gained a keen interest in the workings of Demiurg technology and fastidiously studied the mining crafts and the objects within. So it came to be that when the Warlord Skyre's forces advanced within the domains of that tribe, the warriors of the tribe were armed with the firearms they could scavenge from within the mining crafts, a whole assortment of Demiurg wargear from Ion Rifles to Photon Blasters. Thus, that tribe provided the fiercest resistance Warlord Skyre faced throughout the Great War. In fact, their act of resistance was so successful that it drew the backing of many lesser tribes, who saw them as their only hope of challenging the might of Warlord Skyre's forces. During their greatest moment of defiance, the Tribe grew to such proportions that it vastly outnumbered the forces of Warlord Skyre. However, ultimately their efforts proved useless as the firearms found within the mining crafts were insufficient to equip all the warriors of the tribe, and they had to surrender soon enough or face total obliteration. Their act of resistance was not entirely fruitless however, as by the end of the Great War, the tribe had grown to become the largest tribe within the cavern, as the hundreds of lesser tribes eventually merged into one. Even with the Great War over and Warlord Skyre victorious, the lesser tribes continued to remain as one instead of going their separate ways, drawn together by the charismatic aspirations of the original tribe. This tribe came to be known as Tribe Rictus, or the Tribe of the Heavens, so called for their greatest dream was to leave the cavern that is their birthplace in a grand starship and sail the places between the stars, a dream that happened to be the driving motivation of their interest in the technology of the Demiurg.

Skyre changed several things immediately upon gaining complete dominance among the tribes. First of all, to distinguish his Tribe from the lesser, weaker tribes, he declared that his Tribe from then onwards be known as Clan Skyre, after his chosen name, and from that time onwards all Tribes that have reached a similar level of status refer to themselves as a Clan rather than a Tribe. The Council of Warlords of Clan Skyre acknowledged Warlord Skyre as having single-handedly engineered the rise to prominence of their Tribe, and thus deferred to him as the supreme leader of the Clan, with the title of Overlord. As Overlord Skyre, he declared the domains of the immense cavern that was their birthplace and all the tribes within, the Underempire of Clan Skyre. With that said, he created the rank of Supreme Overlord of the Underempire for the Lord-Warlord of the Ruling Clan, which was him, currently. In order to instill purpose within their kind, a purpose not felt since the Great Uprising, and to prevent them from succumbing to infighting once again, he organised the First Great Council, with the executive powers he possessed in the position of Supreme Overlord, a gathering of the representatives of each major Tribe, which totalled eleven, inclusive of Clan Skyre. He declared that there will be a thirteenth seat within this council, occupied by the Great Horned One, the archetype that represents the foremost of their kind. This invisible seat was the means in which the Great Council would maintain an odd number of seats, so that all the representatives would recognise themselves as being equal before their Great God. As their God, He would hold the most power, so the balance of powers would always be kept in check with the invisible seat, as none would be greater than the other, in theory at least. In practise, the Supreme Overlord would have the last say in the Council, as he had the backing of the Ruling Clan behind him, making him essentially the most influential individual in all of Hrudom. The formation of the first Great Council, and the many after it, came henceforth to be known as the Council of Thirteen.

The seats and the great table of the Great Council were established at the centre of the entire domain of the Underempire. It so happened the Starlight Cycle was in its mid-cycle, such that starlight fell into the middle of the cavern, shining directly upon the location of the Great Council. All the tribes were gathered around that one place, where the Great Council was being held at the heart of the Underempire. During the Great Council, Overlord Skyre declared that the true intention of the formation of the Council was to revive the purpose their kind once shared as one, which was to escape their existence trapped within the confines of this great cavern, through the use of the mining crafts of the Demiurg. This was the Great Dream, the First Desire, the First Impulse, that was shared universally by all of their race. He revealed that his chosen name, Skyre, was directly inspired from the patch of sky observable from the hole at the centre of the roof of the cavern, from which soft starlight descended into a spot at the centre of the cavern. His entire name was dedicated to the promise held within that patch of sky, of a greater world beyond the suffocating confines of the cavern they seemed condemned forever to dwell in. To this end, he revealed that the probings of his own Clan's best Warp-Engineers into the workings of the mining crafts had proven fruitless, and as to how to control them for their own ends, that remained a mystery to be discovered. He progressed from there, declaring that if the best of his Warplords could not discover the means of controlling the mining crafts, there was little the other tribes could possibly progress in that department. (Clan Rictus occupied one of the seats in the Great Council, having been acknowledged as the second militarily strongest tribe by the other tribes, as proven during the events of the Great War. They too, despite their efforts into studying the mechanics of the mining crafts, could not deduce how they worked.) He then suggested the building of the Tower of Heaven, a vast tower built right at the centre of the cavern, upon the very ground which they now stood, made from the rocks and gravel that formed the composition of the ground beneath them, that will reach the hole at the roof of the cavern at its height. None among the Council challenged him, and all deferred to the wisdom of his words. As such, effort was made towards this end, with each tribe contributing the manpower needed to lay the foundations of the Tower of Heaven. Within the timespan of a couple of starlight cycles, the foundations of the Tower of Heaven had been laid and progress had reach such a point that half of its proposed height had been reached.

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It was some time during this point, that another Tribe rose to the prominence of a Clan, rather than through strength of arms as Clan Skyre had done but through its grip of influence over the lesser tribes. This Tribe was to be known as Clan Skaven. Skaven was used with various connotations to mean "select" or "chosen" within their tongue. Such was this view that the Skavens had of themselves that they sought to undermine the power and influence that Clan Skyre enjoyed, and replace them as the foremost Clan amongst their kind. That was their ambition, and the social order of Clan Skaven proved to possess the most Machiavellian tendencies among the tribes. Theirs was an order based on ruthlessness and will to power, fuelled in large part by the actions of the Greyfurs within the Clan. It appears the Blackfurs of Clan Skaven were especially large and aggressive, so much so that the Greyfurs within the Clan had to resort to much backstabbing and manipulation to reach positions of equal standing among their darker kindred. Likewise, through much deceit and cunning had they spread their influence and established control over a large number of tribes. The Chieftains of Clan Skaven were known as Seers, for a large part of their rise to power was through the deception of their reputed ability to harness the Warpstones through mystic, secret means they had declared they possessed. In truth, there was much doubt regarding their mystical abilities, but as of yet, they had managed to convince a large part of the tribes that they had found a way of escaping the Underempire and the labour of creating Skyre's fatuitous Tower of Heaven. But first, they declared, much preparations had to be made if their method was to succeed. Their first act was to secure many Warpstone mines, from which their Grey Seers, what they called the elder Seers of their Clan, would congregate and work their magicks within. All this while, the Tower of Heaven progressed ever upwards, and was nearing the pinnacle of its height, reaching the hole at the roof of the cavern and jutting into the space beyond.

Actually, the crafty Seers of Clan Skaven had deduced the true nature of the Warpstones as the solidified substance of the Immaterium. From there, their own calculations had suggested that the Warpstones could be used to open a portal into the Immaterium, from which travel to other planets became possible. Even now, the Grey Seers were capable of making miniature Warpportals from which they could observe other realms while remaining safely detached within the Underempire, studying the nature of the Human population residing within these worlds. From these viewing portals, the Grey Seers bore witness to worlds where the harsh suns of their systems scorch the ground bare, suns whose glaring brightness proved anathema to the eyesight of the nocturnal Hruds. It was thus decided that when the Warpportals were opened, each would directly lead to the under sections of the cities of the new worlds the tribes were to inhabit, where they would be away from the harsh light of the suns of those worlds.

A large part of the supposed "mysticism" of the Seers of Clan Skaven stemmed from their own innate ingenuity and cunning, a result of the utterly ruthless nature of their social order, where only the strongest and smartest reached positions of power. Such a social order encouraged an extreme form of natural selection to take place, and as a result, the Seers of Clan Skaven in their attempts at obtaining status within their Clan, were forced to develop the cunning and willpower needed to manoeuvre themselves within the social politics of the Clan. Having reached the highest positions possible as the Grey Seers of the Clan, the Grey Seers abandon their old ways of backstabbing and manipulation, instead consolidating their positions from ambitious Seers vying to rise in status through joint alliances of mutual cooperation with other Grey Seers. From there, they convened amongst themselves, conducting all sorts of plans to further strengthen the influence of their Clan among the other tribes. One of these plans was dubbed "The Great Migration", manipulating the burning desires within every single individual among the collective Tribes to leave the confines of their birthplace and explode out into the great unknown in one massive migration. From there, the tendrils of their influence over the other tribes would solidify, forever making them indebted to Clan Skaven.

The Grey Seers' knowledge of the true nature of the Warpstones was leaked out however, and their attempts at transforming the Warpstone mines into dimensional portals inspired the Chieftains of Tribe Rictus into thinking that perhaps, the mining crafts were not navigated through physical means, but rather required a sort of psychic symbiosis with the navigational systems of the craft. The knowledge that the arising of sentience within them was a direct result of their exposure to raw Warpstones was ingrained in them at the primal level of the psyche; indeed many of them had unconsciously carried out the process of the arrival of sentience within them as a race, when they in the innate inquisitive nature of their rodent-like species, had brought back with them small pieces of Warpstones into their dens. As such, the Chieftains of Tribe Rictus experimented with having various subjects ingest varying amounts of raw Warpstones to induce psychic powers within the subjects. As raw Warpstones is poisonous to the bodies of living organisms, the Chieftains of Tribe Rictus only succeeded after numerous dead subjects, having managed to find the right amount that would induce psychic abilities while still being under the lethal dosage of Warpstones. These psychic navigators came to occupy a position of power within the Tribe, for the Tribe is entirely dependent on their ability to control the mining crafts. Tribe Rictus withheld the secrets within their possession from the other tribes of the Underempire, and especially from Clan Skyre, for it was their one means of achieving their dream and they would not allow it to be lost and jeopardised by the meddling of Clan Skyre or any of the lesser tribes. Towards the ends of accomplishing their dream, they salvaged as many of the mining crafts that had come to be abandoned by the other tribes, having come to be seen at large as no longer necessary with the erection of the Tower of Heaven. Having done all they could to secure their dream, all that was left was to await patiently till a wandering starship would so happened to pass by within the vicinity of the Underempire. Little did they know, such an occurrence was soon to take place...

It was at about this time that the Demiurg Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel that had continued through space in prospect of other ore deposits after deploying the mining crafts, had returned, to check on the conditions of the mining crafts and to collect the harvested Warpstone ore. It returned to find the hole it had created at the centre of the roof of the cavern blocked by a huge, tower-like construct, hindering it from descending within its depths. In order to remove the obstruction, it sent a death beam blast that tore off about a quarter of the top portion of the Tower of Heaven, and sent it toppling down into the bottom of the cavern, killing hundreds of Hruds in the process. As they descended back into the cavern in an attempt to recall the mining crafts, its sensors indicated that the cavern was teeming with activity. Millions of diminutive lifeforms scurried about the grounds of the cavern, and among them the remains of the mining crafts can be seen jutting up from the seething mass as shiny objects amidst a sea of darkness, due to their reflective surfaces. As the mining crafts were not responding to the signals of recall sent by the bridge of the Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel, the Demiurg deduced that the worst had happened, that the occupants of the mining crafts had succumbed to the as yet unknown lifeforms that populated the subterranean cavern of this moon.

Meanwhile, the intrusion of the Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel and the toppling of the Tower of Heaven had led to other developments below, within the domains of the Underempire. Tribe Rictus knew the arrival of the Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel presented the only chance of accomplishing their dream of obtaining a starship of their own. They boarded the mining crafts within their possessions in their hundreds of thousands, squirming and wriggling into every possible space as they made room for the rest of their kin. As if meant to be by their Great God Himself, the skeletal structure of the Hruds is filled with numerous joints and appendages, a flexibility that allowed them to easily squeeze a thousand of themselves into the confines of a single mining craft. In this way, the million strong Tribe Rictus managed to board the hundreds or so of mining crafts. The psychic navigators of the Tribe powered up the mining crafts and directed them ever upwards, towards the great starship that covered the sky. The bridge of the Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel, although stunned by the sudden arrival of the mining crafts, had decided that indeed, some Demiurg had survived, and in the commotion of the moment, had failed to respond to the recall signal sent by the bridge. The mining crafts were thus allowed to dock within the Stronghold Class Commerce Vessel, and they came in their hundreds, an unexpectedly large number by the estimations of the command bridge. Unbeknownst to them, the mining crafts were infested with the rodent-like lifeforms, and they poured forth in their hundreds of thousands, overrunning the defences at the docking bay of the Commerce Vessel. Soon, Tribe Rictus had gained entry into the lower levels of the Vessel and were still advancing at a quick, progressive rate like a seemingly unstoppable tide. In what came to be known as the Great Invasion, the second war between the Demiurg and the Hruds was fought. The Demiurgs referred to the rodent-like lifeforms that infested their Vessel as “Hruds”, which in their tongue meant vermin or pest. The word came to be used self-referentially by the population of Clan Rictus, as a definitive noun that meant the individual or one. From there, the usage of the word “Hruds” spread from Clan Rictus to the rest of the tribes of the Underempire, and came to be used formally as the term of reference for themselves as a race.

Meanwhile, the Grey Seers, through their cunning and intellect, had succeeded in opening the first of the Warpportals, by freeing the essence of Chaos solidified within each and every Warpstone. The tribes began the Great Migration, selecting a Warpportal specifically for the use of their tribe only, so that they would not be forced into territorial disputes with another tribe within the new world they arrived in. Overlord Skyre was rendered helpless against the events of the Great Migration, being unable to stop the actions of hundreds of tribes as they left en masse. He contented himself with the knowledge that although the power of Clan Skyre had been much diminished, they still remained the foremost power amongst their kind, and at the very least the dream of exodus from their birthplace on the moon at the centre of the galaxy was achieved by the majority of their race. Acknowledging that the events of the Great Migration were beyond his power to stop, the Overlord proceeded to solidify his hold over the lesser tribes that had remained, securing each and every Warpstone mine within the Underempire for the use of the Clan in producing their weapons of war. Thus, Clan Skyre remained the foremost power within all Hrudom, until they were ousted from that lofty seat by the actions of Clan Eshin during the Great Skirmishes. The remains of the Tower of Heaven, at once representative of Clan Skyre at the height of their power and the greatest accomplishment achieved by their race as a whole, became the Sky Warren, an intricate network of tunnels and dens that formed the home of Clan Skyre. At the base of the Tower of Heaven are the burrow holes from which the forces of Clan Skyre could pour forth at will, to face all who would challenge the supreme authority of Clan Skyre within the domains of the Underempire.