A faction leader of the downtrodden, the Rat King serves as a powerful moral compass for your campaign and a tool to build complex, gray narratives and questions.
Art Credit: Jimbo Artso (Rat King), CzePeku (Sewers)
If you were to ask Havier Espallar, Gregory Fang, or Kaelen Vermis—the figures behind the title of the Rat King across my campaigns—they would readily concur with this article’s title.
You, on the other hand, are free to weigh the truth against the arrogance in these words, much as the populace has always judged a Rat King.
Whether they grew up in the slums or fell out of nobility’s grace, fought their way up after deserting a needless war, or found a mystical power in the catacombs of the capital, the Rat King must obey only one rule above all: they are a monarch of the common people.
The Sovereign of Sewers serves the poor and working class. He protects. He fights and dies if needed but will never jeopardize the overall safety of the commoners.
This golden thread allows you to spin multiple narratives, tying it around your party’s neck to present them with a challenge: find the way out or be hanged by their own decisions. Let’s unravel the yarn.
The Underdog Appeal
What first draws us to this enigmatic figure is simple: the Rat King is the biggest dog in the underground.
Regardless of his origin, gender, appearance, or powers, the Rat King represents a taste of raw, unadulterated justice—the kind we could only wish to deliver ourselves. We watch in awe as he disregards every law, storms the high castle, and leaves a corrupt ruler to be consumed by his swarm. Death by thousands bites.
He is allowed to be rude, blunt, and unapologetic. He says the things we can’t—at least, not without suffering political consequences. He is the living embodiment of the people’s collective rage, forever swimming against the tide. Even when his methods cross the line, we can’t help but root for him, carrying the same magnetic, dangerous anti-hero energy as Thomas Shelby: arrogant, obnoxious, and occasionally infuriating.
The underdog angle makes it effortless to connect him to the party. After all, he’s one of them: someone who came from nothing—or fell from something—a courageous soul daring to challenge the status quo. He is first among the equals, the cool uncle with a story behind every scar, an authority figure whose crown was earned through blood, valor, and sheer grit rather than regal birth.
As his goals naturally align with a typical adventuring party, Rat King makes a perfect patron or a quest-giver. No riddles or hiding behind courtly etiquette; he tells it like it is—a desperate breath of fresh air after dealing with snobby scholars and lordlings. The king will show off his domain and power and serve as living proof you can spit in the face of the established order and still live to tell the tale. Your heroes will be encouraged to do the same, stand up, fight back, and take what’s theirs…
…only to slowly, subtly entangle them in the very same noose that’s already wrapped around Rat King’s own neck.
Moral Ambiguity
Where do we draw the line between slaying monsters and becoming one?
Does the Rat King enjoy grace simply because the people he defends have suffered for ages? How much of his cruelty will the party forgive? Is he justified in purging the nobility—guilty and innocent alike—just for good measure?
What happens when defeating an evil overlord requires a series of morally gray bargains? What will the party do when the future of a hundred thousand commoners hinges on bringing down an airship carrying an evil magistrate—and a hundred innocent souls? Will the hundred collateral lives stand between the party and the orphanages, schools, and freedom that could rise once the magistrate is gone?
The neatness of moral ambiguity—beyond its mystery and potential for self-discovery—lies in its flexibility. Every table, setting, and campaign thrives on a different degree of it. Some push to the extreme, asking, “Would you kill a human werewolf baby knowing it will become a monstrosity?” Others keep gray morality strictly behind the scenes.
Once you find the right depth for your table, there is one rule you must obey above all else: honesty.
Pushing right to the edge of your table’s comfort zone, the Rat King introduces heavy questions to the party—not out of malice, but because they stepped into his world where these thoughts have weighed on his head for decades. If the heroes want to deal with the king, they will share his burden. They will roll up their sleeves and scoop the muck of society just as he has—no questions asked. For the world doesn’t run on the splendor of decorated halls; it survives because someone descends into the dark to shovel out the filth before everyone drowns in it.
Present these choices honestly, and never pull punches on the aftermath. Only then will every decision carry true weight. Only then can you find out what the limit is and discover answers to philosophical and moral questions.
Furthermore, the Rat King himself is a deeply ambiguous figure who must ultimately answer to his own moral compass: if the greater good can only be achieved by colluding with the very forces he opposes, will he cross that line? How will he justify it to himself, and how will the party react when the truth comes to light?
After all, if he is ever to rise above his underdog status and do something with power and responsibility he’s given, lines will blur and veils will fall. Even Tommy Shelby—the ultimate Rat King of Birmingham—rose to legendary status because he knew precisely which hands to grease, which souls to buy, and which lines never to cross. To some, he did precisely what a Rat King does—to others, he became just like those he vouched to depose.
A Study of Responsibility and Character
What characteristics and powers your Rat King possesses—along with the deals, honor, and betrayals he may reveal—will inform the deeper message of your world, both fictional and personal.
The Rat King serves as the ultimate answer to the “what ifs.” He is a test of morality and control—the realization of the visceral daydream of taking our oppressors and dragging them down into the dark. Or perhaps forgiving them? Together, the party and the Rat King might forge a fragile utopia, forcing the world to change through sheer pressure.
Both sides will test each other, each possessing what the other lacks, both asking, “How would I handle it?”
The party wonders what they would do if they had the Rat King’s influence and seemingly endless resources. The Rat King, in return, wonders if he would make the same mistakes had he remained as untainted as the heroes.
Perhaps your Rat King has a crack in his armor—a fatal flaw that could cost everyone everything. Perhaps he is driven purely by revenge, the one thing he places above his throne. Or perhaps he tests the party with a truly bitter task, waiting to see how far they will go. And if they cross his line, he closes the door.
Rarely do we feature quest givers who actually block the path—it counters their fundamental purpose of providing hooks and driving the story forward. However, true world authenticity comes from genuine boundaries and the lingering shadow of “what could have been.”
The Rat King is not just a step on the ladder; he is an entity that forces players to learn who their characters—and the people behind them—truly are under pressure. He offers a low-level party a taste of executive power—a sweet nectar of accomplishment, immediately contrasted by the heavy baggage that accompanies it: the grueling, day-to-day decisions of weighing who suffers so others can survive.
Much like the brutal choices in Frostpunk—where a leader must choose between child labor or letting the city starve—the Rat King gives the party a glimpse of what it means to rule. Through him, they step up to the board, move the pieces of the world, and discover what they are truly made of.
Your Rat King
Tell us in the comments about your Rat King.
Will he betray the party for reasons known to him?
Will he succumb to the alluring call of the power and prove to be no better than all the rest?
Or will he die for something great, have thousands attend his funeral in the most epic scenes of your campaign, and seal his place as the most memorable character?
If you need inspiration, you can grab a quick startup of your own Upside-Down King of the Underground from the table below by choosing or mixing by rolling the dice.
| Archetype | Origin | Power | Quest |
| 1. The Monstrous Beast | An orphan from the slums | Turns into a deadly wererat the size of a wolf | Intercept a luxury airship mid-flight to protect (or execute) a corrupt magistrate |
| 2. The Forgotten Royal | A discarded heir to the throne | Communicates with and controls all the rats | Infiltrate the royal vaults to retrieve stolen court documents |
| 3. The Guilded Patron | A wealthy philanthropic merchant | Transmutes gutter filth, garbage, and scrap into pure gold | Investigate the origin of a miraculous charity flood stabilizing the slums |
| 4. The Invisible Blade | A notorious assassin | Can step through shadows and dissolve into a swarm of rodents | Hunt down an elusive shadow-striker targeting high guildmasters |
| 5. The Scuttling Captain | A former leader of a pirate guild | Commands a spectral, rat-infested ghost ship that sails dry land | Steal back a sunken naval relic from a dry-docked ghost ship hidden deep within the city’s flooding sewer canals |
| 6. The Eldritch Outcast | An abandoned child of a forgotten entity | Spreads an arcane plague that distorts reality and mutates victims | Enter a sealed, mutating slum district to locate the source of an otherworldly blight before the city council purges the entire zone with fire. |
| 7. The Sewersmith | A disgraced master artificer | Controls clockwork vermin that harvest kinetic energy and sabotage engines | Race against time through the city’s underworks to disarm a network of kinetic sabotage devices before the upper district’s power grid collapses. |
| 8. The Gutter Prophet | A former high priest left for dead | Channels the collective suffering of the downtrodden into dark miracles | Infiltrate a fanatical underground cult gathering to diffuse a citywide insurrection |
