From Table to Desktop – How Total War: Warhammer 100 Created 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, Omen of destructionjust 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 to our ever-expanding pantheon of playable characters from the Warhammer world, each with brand new gameplay features, combat units and objectives.

The Lords in Omen of destruction are Skulltaker, Gorbad Ironclaw and Golgfag Maneater – and we're offering another legendary lord, Arbaal the Undefeated, for free to all players. The introduction of these new Legendary Lords also brings the total number of playable characters to an incredible 100, meaning there is a wide variety of ways in which you can conquer our vast strategic fantasy world.

To celebrate this milestone, I wanted to talk about the process of choosing 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 the game, each drawn from one of Warhammer's uniquely weird, wild and wonderful races. These range from humans, elves and dwarves to demons, ratmen and even vampire pirates – so it's important that the people we include in the game are consistent with established lore. Given the lore library that Games Workshop has maintained since the 1980s, there is no shortage of potential characters and lords to incorporate into a DLC. However, we always try to ensure that everything we offer brings something new to the table and actively compliments the game.

Throughout our journey through the Total War: Warhammer series, which has spanned an astonishing eight years, Warhammer 8 has been the guiding light for what we add^Th Edition, as this is the world's most up-to-date compendium of rules, lore, and army composition for tabletop gaming. However, with each new game and DLC we get another step closer to fully bringing the army books to life, which means we've had to delve into all sorts of fascinating additional sources like the Monstrous Arcanum, the Tamurkhan Campaign Book and even excerpts from the eternal pages of White Dwarf magazine.

Having these sources of inspiration has been invaluable to us as game developers, and the characters we've included really highlight the rich diversity of storytelling in Warhammer.

My favorite creations

Choosing a single favorite legendary lord is like choosing a favorite child – impossible. Throughout the series, we've made great efforts to ensure that we not only provide Legendary Lords as part of the DLC, but also regularly design some of them to give away for free if you own the game.

As part of ours Prophet and the Warlock DLC, we introduced the mad scientist of Warhammer Creations, Ikit Claw, as the new legendary Skaven Lord. As a game developer, it's always invigorating when you're working on something that pushes the boundaries of your design direction, and he embodies that like no one else. 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 disappear boom!

As far as free content goes, Repanse de Lyonesse is one of those special characters. A huge history buff, she embodies the Jean d'Arc genre of a fearless warrior on horseback, crusading on behalf of her kingdom and amassing vast armies of knights and trebuchets to conquer the inhospitable deserts of the Southlands. It offers great roleplaying potential for those who want to blur the lines between a historical and a fantasy experience.

Fans of the series will also know that I'm a huge Lizardman fan, and that started when I was introduced to the tabletop game. That's why I have to include Tictaq'to in this royal bluster. He was our first lizardman to give away for free, and he rides into battle on a flying terradon-shaped mount, delivering death from the air to his enemies. He's practically a deadly dinosaur that rides another deadly dinosaurs into battle – what’s not to love?

Our most sophisticated creations

Over the years we have been fortunate to develop a fantastic relationship with Games Workshop, and nowhere is this more evident than when we collaborate with us to create a brand new character, Cylostra Direfin, taking on the role of a legendary lord. Creating an undead sea witch (who happens to be the captain of a ghost galleon that plunders the campaign map causing untold skullduggery) was an exciting opportunity, but also one that came with a wealth of pirate challenges that we were experiencing for the first time. One of the biggest challenges was making sure it felt right for all the established lore, because we knew our fans would be especially keen to make sure we got it right.

Beyond individual characters, entire races in the Warhammer world can present their own unique challenges. A perfect example of this are the legendary Wood Elves, an elite elven army committed to protecting nature and especially the great woodland of Athel Loren. The problem? They're isolationists, which on paper doesn't exactly fit well with a strategy game where we're encouraging you to conquer the world. The solution was to build a campaign that still revolved around their protectionist nature, but offered unique ways in which they could traverse the world to destroy those who threatened to disrupt their habitats.

Play Omens of Destruction now

If you are interested in engaging in campaigns with hero killings, mercenary conflicts and brutal combat tactics, Omen of destruction is now available in the Microsoft Store. Alternatively, if you just want to jump into the fray for free, Arbaal the Undefeated is also playable for all owners of Total War: Warhammer III. Happy Holidays!