"I will use your power, apprentice-pupil, your power joined with my own... Used to fuel horror... Used to feed carnage... Used to call hunger into the bellies and brains of the traitors and the heretics... Power to summon-call the Black Hunger!"
- —Grey Seer Thanquol, and his fight against all of Under-Altdorf.[1a]
The Black Hunger leads the Skaven to turn on and cannibalise their own.
The Black Hunger is a horrific condition driven by intense, insatiable hunger that many Skaven experience throughout their lives. It stems from the Skaven's own high metabolism and ravenous nature. When in such a state, a Skaven becomes almost mindlessly feral, attacking and eating anything in its need to feed.[1a]
The Black Hunger has infamously been inflicted as a spell that can be cast by Grey Seers, a horrifically powerful spell which consumes the minds of all Skaven around the caster, drowning their intellect with an all-consuming need to feed.[1a]
However, the Black Hunger has also been inflicted through non-magical means. Often, it is experienced after a great and near-fatal physical exertion by a Skaven, and in such a state, Skaven have been known to enter a condition that can best be described as the Black Hunger. This is often the case after the end of a battle, as the bodies of both friends and enemies become food for the ratmen who are the victors. Such are the ways of the Skaven.[1a]