Total War: Warhammer III


Total War: Warhammer III is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It is part of the Total War series, and the third to be set in Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe. The game was announced on 3 February 2021 and was released on 17 February 2022. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the British Academy Games Award for British Game at the 19th British Academy Games Awards.

Gameplay

Like its predecessors, Total War: Warhammer III features turn-based strategy and real-time tactics gameplay similar to other games in the Total War series.
In the campaign, players move armies and characters around the map and manage settlements in a turn-based manner. Players engage in diplomacy with, and fight against, AI-controlled factions. When armies meet, they battle in real time. The game has a custom battles mode where players can create customised real-time battles, as well as online multiplayer battles. Those who own races from the first two games have the same races unlocked for multiplayer in the third game; a combined world map, named "Immortal Empires", similar to the "Mortal Empires" campaign in Total War: Warhammer II for owners of the first two games. Immortal Empires released as a Beta on 23 August 2022 with patch 2.0.
The races in the game are the human civilizations of Grand Cathay and Kislev, and five Chaos factions - four devoted to each of the Chaos Gods, and the Daemons of Chaos, led by a Daemon Prince that can be customized by earning "Daemonic Glory" through the course of the campaign. Another race, the Ogre Kingdoms, was made available to "early adopters".
The main campaign takes place from the mysterious Lands of the East to the daemon-infested Realms of Chaos, said to be the source of all magic in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Game director Ian Roxburgh has said the campaign map is "twice the size" of the Eye of the Vortex campaign map that appeared in Total War: Warhammer II.

Plot

Prologue

During the end of winter in Kislev, Ursun, the Bear-God, would break winter with his roar and bring forth summer. For seven years, however, Ursun has stayed silent, and Kislev has suffered an unending winter. The Barkov brothers, Yuri and Gerik, are sent by Tzarina Katarin on an expedition north to search for the missing god. During prayer, Yuri hears Ursun's voice, claiming that he's been imprisoned in the Howling Citadel, in the Chaos Wastes.
Yuri marches his army north, into the Chaos Wastes, but is slowly corrupted by Chaos as his methods to reach Ursun's prison grow more ruthless, culminating in him murdering his brother Gerik and offering his skull to a Greater Daemon of Khorne to build a bridge of skulls to reach the Howling Citadel. After defeating a chaos-corrupted Boyar and his forces guarding the citadel's entrance, Yuri enters a portal to the Realm of Chaos.
After emerging from the portal, Yuri finds the imprisoned Ursun, and is greeted by Be'lakor, the first of the Daemon Princes. Be'lakor reveals that it was he who guided Yuri by mimicking Ursun's voice. Ursun begs Yuri to free him, but Be'lakor manipulates Yuri into thinking that Ursun is weak and unworthy of his worship, tempting him to kill the god and take his power for himself. Yuri renounces Ursun and shoots a Chaos-imbued bullet into the Bear-God's heart, and Ursun roars in pain. The resulting backlash hurls a gravely injured Yuri back to the material plane. Dying, Yuri offers his soul to the Chaos Gods and begs them to save him. The Chaos Gods answer his plea and ascend him into a Daemon Prince.

The Realm of Chaos

After the events of the prologue, Be'lakor has imprisoned the wounded Ursun in the Forge of Souls within the Realm of Chaos. Despising the Chaos Gods for taking away his power and physical form, Be'lakor plans to use Ursun's power to take his revenge. Ursun's pained roars have torn the fabric of reality, opening rifts between the material world and the Realm of Chaos and creating a maelstrom that has stranded Daemons in the mortal plane.
A character known as the Advisor has been enslaved by a corrupted book known as the Tome of Fates, bearing a curse of the Chaos God Tzeentch. He is able to use the book to offer counsel to others, but never for his own gain; however, he has learned that he can free himself from the book with a single drop of Ursun's blood. He goes to several factions seeking allies to achieve his goals, offering to guide them into the Realm of Chaos to find Ursun:
The rulers of the Tzardom of Kislev wish to free their god and put an end to the eternal winter that scours their land, though tensions are fraught between the Ice Court, led by Tzarina Katarin Bokha and her secret society of Ice Witches, and the Great Orthodoxy, led by Supreme Patriarch Kostaltyn, who believes Katarin to be an unworthy ruler, too focused on magic and politics instead of devotion. During the campaign, controlling the three main Kislevite cities allows either faction to rescue and awaken Katarin's father Boris Ursus, the Red Tzar and High Priest of Ursun, from his icy slumber in the Frozen Falls, unlocking Boris and his faction, the Ursun Revivalists, as a playable faction for future campaigns.
The dragon siblings of Grand Cathay, Miao Ying the Storm Dragon and Zhao Ming the Iron Dragon, are unconcerned about Ursun's fate, believing themselves older and wiser than any god, though they are still convinced to free him, as the Bear-God is the only one who knows the whereabouts of their missing sister Shen-Zoo, who disappeared in Norsca long before.
The greedy, gluttonous Ogres of the Ogre Kingdoms in the Mountains of Mourn, led by the Overtyrant Greasus Goldtooth and the Prophet of the Great Maw, Skrag the Slaughterer, care little for the politics and conflict between Order and Chaos, but still desire to reach Ursun to feast on his divine flesh, and feed the remainders to their own god, the ravenous, eldritch entity known as the Great Maw.
The Daemons of Chaos each have their desires for Ursun. Skarbrand the Exiled One, greatest of all Bloodthirsters, wants Ursun's skull so he can gift it to Khorne, the Chaos God of Blood and War, in order to earn forgiveness for his betrayal in the past. Kairos Fateweaver, the two-headed Lord of Change and Oracle of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Sorcery and Deception, plans to take Ursun's eyes to be able to see the present, as he can only perceive the past and future. Ku'Gath Plaguefather, greatest of the Great Unclean Ones of Nurgle, the Chaos God of Disease and Decay, wants to use Ursun's corpse to brew a great plague known as a God-Pox. N'kari the Arch-Tempter, most favoured of the Keepers of Secrets of Slaanesh, the Chaos God of Excess and Desire, wishes to delight in Ursun's eternal sorrow. Yuri Barkov, now a Daemon Prince known as the God-Slayer and leading the Daemons of Chaos Undivided, seeks to finish what he started by truly slaying Ursun and taking revenge on Be'lakor for his manipulations.
In order to reach the Forge of Souls where Ursun is imprisoned, each faction must travel to the Realm of Chaos, invade each of the four Chaos Gods' domains and capture the soul of a Daemon Prince bound to them. As the factions battle for the Daemon Princes' souls, it is revealed that Be'lakor intends to absorb Ursun's divine power once he dies to transform himself into the Chaos God of Shadows. With an army of Soul Grinders created in the Forge of Souls, he will destroy the four Chaos Gods and rule unchallenged.
Once all four souls of the Daemon Princes have been captured, Ursun finally dies. As Be'lakor undergoes his ascension to godhood, the Advisor uses the souls of the Daemon Princes to create a bridge leading to the Forge of Souls. The player's faction battles Be'lakor's army before finally slaying the Dark Master and preventing his ascension. After the final battle, the fate of Ursun and the player's faction is revealed:
  • The leaders of Kislev mourn the loss of Ursun, believing that with their god dead, Kislev will fall. However, Ursun is revived by their devotion, and with his roar, he puts an end to Kislev's endless winter. Tzarina Katarin's final victory is considered the canonical ending.
  • The dragon siblings of Cathay use spirit magic to speak to Ursun, and before fading from existence, he clues them to the location of their missing sister.
  • The Ogres butcher and feast on Ursun's carcass, and feed its remains to their deity, the Great Maw, briefly quelling its eternal, gnawing hunger.
  • Skarbrand delivers the Bear-God's skull to Khorne. Whilst the Blood God revels in such a worthy offering, he does not forgive Skarbrand for his betrayal, rendering Skarbrand's efforts in vain.
  • Kairos takes Ursun's eyes, and with the sight of a god he is finally capable of viewing the past, present and future.
  • Ku'Gath uses Ursun's corpse as the final ingredient to brew the ultimate plague, a God-Pox capable of infecting the gods themselves.
  • N'kari captures the last remains of Ursun's spirit, basking in the god's anguish at Kislev's demise.
  • The God-Slayer takes what power remains from Ursun's corpse, allowing him to ascend to godhood and becoming Kislev's new tyrannical ruler.
The epilogue has the Advisor freed of his slavery from the Tome of Fates, and he is joined by a white crow. However, when he attempts to read the book, his sight is stolen, and the white crow is revealed to be a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, known as Sarthorael the Everwatcher, with the Daemon binding the Advisor to his service. The epilogue also reveals that the game takes place before the events of the first game. A postscript after the completion of the story, should the player elect to continue playing on the campaign map, reveals that Be'lakor was resurrected by Tzeentch and given physical form again, but placed into the service of those who killed him; the player is given the option to use Be'lakor in their own army.