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The Penumbral Rattlers - High Rock Fables

Their lore can be read in the unit description in the Lizardmen or Dark Elves "unit & spell browser" menu in-game, I couldn’t fit it on the Steam Workshop page. One of these days I’ll make the lore for the units I create more verbose and presented in the same style as the Legendary Lore mod..bare with me until I get that figured out.


The Penumbral Rattlers are a Regiment of Renown of a creature I made up called Ueyosekoatls, half-jaguar half-snake, the name itself a merging of the Nahuatl words for Jaguar and Snake. A war beast unit available to a faction known for not really having any war beast units! That's not to say it's unfitting for the Lizardmen ranks, for a great and mighty Cold One Rider dons the mantle as shepherd to this herd of Snakeuars. Typically war beast units route like they were a flock of puppies being kicked like footballs in rapid succession, typically because war beasts are exactly that, but not these snakey boys, thanks to their charismatic leader with his huge lizard-y muscles and chiselled lizard-y six-pack, these kittensnakes flock to his side with loyal commitment, giving the unit a large morale pool. They are they swift, stealthy critters that don’t scared of nothin’, and when they get the drop on you, you’ll feel that drop - you’ll think Kislev had just uncovered how to militarise Drop Bears. But despite that, their damage, while armour-piercing, isn’t something that’ll be winning awards, what will be winning awards are the effects of their poisonous bites.

The venom from a Ueyosekoatl is a trippy concoction of psychosis and hallucinogens that will flood your mind with paranoia and nightmare, making all the wrong decisions you've ever made in life and all manner of unfortunate realities rush to your head, like the only reason you were laughing at that "anime fan on prom night" bit on the Mighty No. 9 trailer was because you understood the feeling, or like how you won't live long enough to see us reach Mars, or see someone mod Morathi or N'Kari into Dead or Alive Extreme. Known additional side effects include a non-stop aroma of mold you can't find the source of, sudden bouts of Saint Vitus' Dance, believing in the Easter Bunny, losing a loved one to a car accident, finding God, losing God to a car accident, abandoning your fans to go work on moba games, spontaneously growing massive juicy child-bearing hips that may attract Minotaurs or nearby trees, or seeing

weird images of Australian clown people. That last one's pretty uncommon though, and tends to only happen when a Minotaur or the deciduous outside your window has just imprinted to your newly sexy, impregnable hips, so you should be okay there.

Did that come off too weird? I'm sorry, I'm a bit delirious right now, I'm being eaten by poisonous snake jaguars. How's your day been?

Point is, Ueyosekoatl venom is no joke, it's got a different kick to it than that of other poisonous monsters: It will greatly lower leadership, along with a small reduction to speed, melee attack and melee defence, but will also raise your victim's base damage. The venom's hallucinogenic effects will cause your victim to see the most horrific of horrors that their minds could fathom, and in an effort to curb the evil they're witnessing will start swinging or lashing with all their might to vanquish the non-existent terrors before them. For that reason, it's probably not a good idea to sick the Rattlers on someone who's still eager to fight or doesn't give a toss who or what they fight. Steer them clear of targets with high morale or high weapon damage, or units that don't succumb to Fear or Psychology, or are Unbreakable. This is of course assuming these units are capable fighters, if they’re just twiggy archers then chomp-chomp away like Grom at the bacon buffet.

The Rattlers are at their height when used to flank and fear spike a faltering unit occupied with another of your units in order to get the enemy to quickly retreat, and then pursue the fleeing unit to wear them down effortlessly and escort them off the map. Dangerous ranged units like Irondrakes, Jezzail teams or Crane Gunners are also prized targets for them. Use their stealth and vanguard deployment to give them unexpected vectors of approach. They're no Chrace War Lions but with their poison they can hold their own against thoughtless mediocre units such as Trolls, Rat Ogres, Gors or Iranian Morality Police. They’re a fantastic addition for armies dedicated to Anti-Skaven, Beastmen or Undead work, and a fine compliment for armies focused on Calvary work with Cold Ones and Horned One Riders. They can also make for great mage-hunters, and in a pinch they’re good for warding off assassins trying to football tackle your generals or lieutenants. Lastly, they can be exceptional in those late stages of a battle where everyone’s tired and running on fumes; their stealth capabilities could prove useful in keeping them hidden to hedge your bets for expected long battles.

As a little bonus, Rakarth of The Thousand Maws can also get his pointy, Sansa-Stark-soakened hands on a catch of some of these beasts, because what drippy edge elf wouldn’t want to get their hands on some exotic invisi-jaguars from the heavy metal version of Yoshi’s Island? Just keep in mind these don’t come with the guidance of an egregiously handsome Saurus Cold One rider, and thus don’t sport the same high leadership. They can, however, receive all the same monster bonuses that Rakarthy-Karth and the Beasty Bunch can dole out.

For both Lizardmen and Dark Elves, they will receive the same lord/hero buffs and bonuses that Feral Cold Ones or Cold One Riders would receive, such as the red line skills “Swift Rider” & “Soul Bound”, or the character skill “Beast Tamer”. If you’ve somehow managed to confederate Hag Graef into The Thousand Maws, Malus Darkblade will have a field day with these things.

I hope you enjoy, leave me your thoughts on balance or lore.



-All major and minor Lizardmen factions can recruit them in the Regiment of Renown menu at level 14

-The Thousand Maws can recruit them from Rakarth’s beast pens. They’re obtained uncommonly from raiding jungle or savannah regions, or by occupying, sacking or razing Lizardmen settlements.


-When taking a Lizardmen settlement as Rakarth, you’ll be told you have a chance to get only Feral Stegadon’s and Carnosaur’s. This is incorrect, you will also have a chance to obtain some Ueyosekoatl’s from the action. The text for this message is hard-coded into the game’s database, and can’t be changed by my hands. Just remember: raiding jungles or Savannah's, or capturing or razing Lizardmen settlements will get you a chance to obtaining them!


-Ozeuth – Snake Cat model & textures (model obtained from cgtrader)
-Anatoly 'zilbeerman' Valovoy – Bone Sword and Shield model & textures (models obtained from cgtrader)


-Lt. Rocky – Textures; Materials; Character rigging; Animation; Database coding; Scripting; UI images; Rendering

-Screenshots were made using kam2150’s Better Camera Mod
-Rendered images were done in Blender Cycles & Blender Eevee (v3.2)