From Tabletop to Desktop – How Total War: Warhammer Created 100 Legendary Lords

Hello Xbox community! Today is a big day for Total War: Warhammer III as we release our latest – and very heavy metal-sounding – content pack, Omens of Destruction, right in time for the holiday season.

With a DLC name that strikes fear into the hearts of mere mortals, it welcomes four new infamous Legendary Lords into our ever-growing pantheon of playable characters from the Warhammer world, each with brand-new gameplay features, battle units and objectives.

The Lords in Omens of Destruction are Skulltaker, Gorbad Ironclaw and Golgfag Maneater – and we’reoffering another Legendary Lord, Arbaal the Undefeated for free, for all players. The introduction of these new Legendary Lords also brings our total number of playable characters up to an incredible 100, meaning there’s a huge variety of ways in which you can conquer our vast strategic fantasy world.

To celebrate this milestone, I wanted to talk through the process of picking a Legendary Lord to convert from the tabletop game, and some of my favorite stories from our time creating them.

How We Choose a Legendary Lord

Legendary Lords are the primary commanders of your armies in game, each of which hails from one of Warhammer’s uniquely weird, wild and wonderful array of races. These range from humans, elves and dwarves to daemons, ratmen and even vampire pirates – therefore, it’s essential that who we choose to include in game aligns with the established lore. There’s no shortage of potential characters and Lords to include in a DLC, given the library of lore that has been maintained by Games Workshop since the 1980s, but we always try to ensure that whatever we offer is bringing something fresh to the table and is actively complimenting the game.

Throughout our journey on the Total War: Warhammer series, which has lasted an astonishing eight years, the guiding tome of knowledge for what we include has generally been Warhammer 8^th Edition, as this is the most recent compendium for the world in terms of rules, lore, and army compositions for the tabletop game. However, with each new game and DLC, we get another step closer to bringing the army books fully to life, meaning we’ve had to delve into all sorts of intriguing supplementary sources such as the Monstrous Arcanum, Tamurkhan campaign book, and even excerpts from the eternal pages of White Dwarf magazine.

Having these sources of inspiration has been invaluable for us game developers, and the characters we’ve included really highlight the diverse tapestry of storytelling within Warhammer.

My Favorite Creations

Choosing a single favorite Legendary Lord is like choosing a favorite child – impossible. Throughout the series we’ve made a real conscious effort to ensure that we’re not only providing Legendary Lords as part of DLC, but frequently designing some to be given away for free if you own the game.

As part of our Prophet and the Warlock DLC we introduced the mad scientist of Warhammer creations, Ikit Claw as a new Skaven Legendary Lord. As a game developer it’s always invigorating when you get to work on something that pushes the boundaries of your design direction, and he embodies that like few others. The greatest of all Warlock engineers, his gameplay is all about building hellish weapons of war like a cartoon villain and watching the campaign map go boom!

In terms of free content, Repanse de Lyonesse is one of those special characters. As a big fan of history, she really encapsulates that Jean of Arc mold of a fearless female warrior on horseback who goes crusading on behalf of her kingdom, amassing huge armies of knights and trebuchets to conquer the inhospitable deserts of the Southlands. She offers great roleplaying potential for those looking to blur the lines between a historic and fantasy experience.

Fans of the series will also know that I’m a huge Lizardman fan, which began all the way back when I was introduced to the tabletop game. Therefore, I’ve got to include Tictaq’to in this royal rumble. He was our first Lizardman to be given away for free and he rides into battle atop a flying mount in the form of a Terradon, ruthlessly dropping death from above on his foes. He’s effectively a deadly dinosaur riding another deadly dinosaur into battle – what’s not to love?

Our Most Challenging Creations

Over the years we’ve been lucky to have built up a fantastic relationship with Games Workshop and nowhere is that more evident than when they collaborated with us to create a brand-new character, Cylostra Direfin, to take the role of a Legendary Lord. Creating an undead sea-witch (who happens to captain a ghost galleon that marauds around the campaign map causing untold skullduggery) was an exciting opportunity, but also one that came with a pirate’s trove of challenges that we were experiencing for the first time. One of the biggest of these challenges was just making sure she felt like a natural fit alongside all of the established lore, as this was something we knew our fans would be particularly keen to ensure we got right.

Beyond individual characters, entire races within the Warhammer world can pose their own unique challenges too. A perfect example of this is the fabled Wood Elves, an elite Elven army that strives to protect nature, and in particular the great Woodland of Athel Loren. The problem? They’re isolationists, which on paper doesn’t exactly gel particularly well with a strategy game in which we encourage you to conquer the world. The solution was building a campaign that still revolved around their protectionist nature, but provided unique ways in which they could traverse the world to enact destruction upon all those who threaten to disturb their habitats.

Play Omens of Destruction Now

If you’re interested in embarking on campaigns of hero-slaying, mercenary conflict, and brutal battle tactics, Omens of Destruction is available now on the Microsoft Store. Alternatively, if you just want to jump into the fray for free, Arbaal the Undefeated is also available to play for all owners of Total War: Warhammer III. Happy Holidays!

Total War: Warhammer III

SEGA

☆☆☆☆☆
20

★★★★★

Total War: WARHAMMER III – Immortal Empires is now available to all owners of Total War: WARHAMMER III.

Any content purchased across the Total War: WARHAMMER franchise is now available to use in Immortal Empires without the required ownership of Total War: WARHAMMER & Total War: WARHAMMER II. For more information, please visit our FAQ on the Total War Blog.

IMMORTAL EMPIRES IS OUT NOW.

Immortal Empires is the culmination of the entire Total War: WARHAMMER series. Combining the campaign maps, races, and factions from all three games* into a single, epic sandbox campaign. It’s the most complete and definitive Warhammer strategy experience ever conceived!

*Owners of Total War WARHAMMER III must own Total War: WARHAMMER and Total War: WARHAMMER II to start their own Immortal Empires Campaign. However, players who only own WARHAMMER III may join Immortal Empires multiplayer campaigns launched by an owner of all three games.

THE WORLD TEETERS ON THE BRINK OF CHAOS

The last roar of a dying god ruptures the boundary between worlds, opening a portal to the Realm of Chaos. From this maelstrom, the four Ruinous Powers – Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh – emerge, spreading darkness and despair. The stern warriors of Kislev and the vast empire of Grand Cathay stand at the threshold, as a vengeful Daemon Prince vows to destroy those who corrupted him. The coming conflict will engulf all. Will you conquer your daemons? Or command them?

RAISE A MIGHTY ARMY
With seven unique races and hundreds of units under your command, raise an army and dominate in epic real-time battles across a world of breathtaking scale and spectacle.

BUILD AN EMPIRE
In the most ambitious and groundbreaking Total War title to date, dive into a captivating narrative that will take you to the mind-bending Realm of Chaos and back again. Forge your empire in a strategy sandbox that ensures no two campaigns are ever the same.

CHOOSE YOUR HERO
Play as 10 Legendary Lords! Will you side with the Chaos Gods and take one of their Daemonic Champions, play as an ancient transforming Dragon from Grand Cathay, defend the frozen nation of Kislev with the Ice Queen or play the ultimate villain as the Daemon Prince?

UNLEASH YOUR INNER DAEMON
Customise the Daemon Prince to your own unique design with a huge suite of body parts and powers, creating billions of potential combinations to suit your own playstyle.

MULTIPLAYER CHAOS
Multiplayer is now bigger than ever. With the vast 8-player Realm of Chaos multiplayer campaign, the intense 1 v 1 Domination mode, the story-driven multiplayer campaigns built around Kislev and Grand Cathay and ranked & custom battles, there’s no shortage of ways to cause chaos with friends.