Characters / Total War: Warhammer - The Beastmen

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"Hunt man-filth! Kill man!"

"In that time of darkness, man became beast, and beast became man."

Beastmen are known as the Children of Chaos, and this is true to a literal extent; for they are unnatural creatures, born from men and beasts when Chaos first brought its scourges upon the world in the cataclysmic Time of Chaos. Throughout the world, Beastmen thrive upon the edges of civilization, raiding isolated farmsteads, villages, and other settlements. They are most numerous towards the north, such as the dark forests that cover the Empire and the harsh wildernesses of Kislev. They are found in the greatest numbers throughout the Chaos Wastes of the northern and southern polar regions.

For thousands of years the Beastmen and their night-bred kin ruled the forests, preying upon the scattered bands of men as wolves upon sheep. Then a man came bearing a golden hammer that was the bane of all enemies, and united the human tribes, challenging the Beastmen for dominance of the lands. This warrior elevated Mankind from a collection of loosely organised tribesmen into the massive empire it is today.

Though the Beastmen have no formal method of recording the passage of years, they know that the cities of mankind are new and recent compared to the elder lands in which the Beastmen roam. Even the lowliest Ungor knows that mankind once cowered in terror of the forest and the creatures that dwelled within it, daring not to venture into the eaves of the woods. Yet stone fortresses and castles now blight the lands from end to end in defiance of the dominion of Chaos. So advanced is the industry of man and the organisation of his empire that keeps and watchtowers are built even in the midst of the Beastmen's territory. And yet the Beastmen know that such structures are temporary at best, and all that Man has built will one day come crashing down at the Beastmen's hands. Only then will the lands once more belong to the Cloven Ones, and only then will Mankind be returned to his proper place in the order of things — prey, and nothing more.

The Beastmen are playable in custom games, the Grand Campaign, and Mortal Empires (with the Call of the Beastmen DLC installed). With The Silence and the Fury DLC, the Beastmen became playable in the Total War: Warhammer II Eye of the Vortex map. In Total War: Warhammer III, they are playable in the Immortal Empires combined mega-campaign for owners of I, II and III.

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General Tropes

Warherd Of The One-Eye

Warherd of the Shadowgave

Slaughterhorn Tribe

Harbinger of Disaster

• Achilles' Heel:
  • Open fields, fields without much room for hiding, or sieges. Because they are so incredibly reliant on ambush tactics, they suffer greatly if they do not get a good opportunity to sneak around undetected in the early parts of the battles and get flanking charges off. A siege takes away a lot of their options for ambushes, forces them to come from (at most) two directions, and typically puts them in a fight that heavily favors their opponent's fighting style, i.e. entering a grinding melee on the walls with Dwarfs.
  • Good morale and Defense stats. The Beastmen's strategy consists of doing as much damage on the first charge as possible to disrupt enemy formations, pulling out, and then doing it again to another unprepared unit. So units that can withstand the initial onslaught (and not run away) and give as good as they get will drag the Beastmen into a prolonged fight they fare much worse in.
• Always Chaotic Evil: As a Chaos-born race, this is a given. Beastmen travel the forests of the world in destructive herds, and freely Rape, Pillage, and Burn. Rather tragically deconstructed as well, in that many Beastmen choose to become so vile after being discarded at birth for their mutations, and see no other option than to become the monsters that humans claim they are. It doesn't help that they belong to the Dark Gods entirely from the moment they're born and even before that in most cases.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Incarnate Elemental of Beasts, added in Shadows of Change, is an Anthropomorphic Personification of the Amber Wind that resembles a giant-sized bestial humanoid with a fleshless bear-deer Skull for a Head.
• Arch-Enemy: The Beastmen have a particular hatred of mankind for their civilization directly neighbouring the Old World's forests, and they feel they have the right to the land mankind owns. Though in a sense this also counts as Unknown Rival, as barring Middenland, most of humanity thinks them to be nothing more than a nuisance, and secondary to the other problems mankind faces. They also have an heated eternal conflict with the Wood Elves as they frequently fight for control of the forests.
• The Artifact: Beastmen can still get random events that affect their unit upkeep, recruitment costs, and other stats they no longer have following their overhaul. This can be a very bad thing - One event involves giants, which reduces your Horde growth, slowing your ability to build up your armies, in exchange for a recruitment cost reduction for Giants, which are already free.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Beastmen leadership is almost always decided by who is the strongest and most powerful. Any sign of weakness is usually met with a dagger to the back, or an axe to the skull. The only reason that most Minotaurs don't dominate these contests is that they're literally too stupid to bother, but the Doombulls accordingly reign supreme when they show up.
• Attack Animal: What they use their warhounds for.
• Ax-Crazy: You thought the Norscans were bad? Think again. Because of their tainting by Chaos, each and every Beastman is a boiling volcano of psychotic, feral rage filled with a desire to see any trace of civilization they come across burned to the ground. The Minotaurs go into unstoppable rampages soon as they smell blood, referred to as the Bloodgreed.
  • The Ghorgon is a psychotic bull-daemon in the flesh, that lives only to rend and tear everything they come across.
• Bad Boss: Beastmen Warchiefs really don't care about their underlings, and see death in their ranks as just a sign of weakness being removed from their warherd.
• Bad Moon Rising: The Beastmen are heavily tied to the waxing and waning of Morrslieb, the Weird Moon associated with Chaos and the Winds of Magic. This is reflected in their gameplay by offering them bonuses and quest opportunities tied to the nights when Morrslieb is full, giving a rhythm and timing to the Beastmen's attacks. When the chaos moon is full they engage in bacchanal orgies, feasting, drinking, and conceiving new Beastmen. Some heretics from the lands of men are even said to seek them out to join the revelry, though only the most twisted would do so as anyone less would be as likely as not to end up one of the dishes served.
• Barbarian Tribe: Played to the hilt. In addition to being creatures of Chaos, the Beastmen are a highly "primal" species, and the idea of settling and taming the land is so vulgar to their sensibilities as to be maddening into enraged disgust. They travel in large herds, setting up primitive camps, never staying for long. Tribes keep dozens of secret outposts, however, scattered in the dark parts of the forest called herdstones, where they store their loot and equipment.
• Basilisk and Cockatrice: Shadows of Change adds the Cockatrice, a Chaos-warped avian Giant Flier whose "petrifying gaze" ability passively reduces the melee attack and speed of nearby enemies by 10%. When it dies, the cockatrice's powers turn against itself, as it falls to earth and shrivels into an inert stone statue.
• Beastman: Well, d'uh. They're supposed to be the descendants of horribly mutated animals and humans from back when Chaos ran rampant over the world. In general, they resemble humans with the heads and hooves of ungulates like goats and cattle but with more fangs and spikes, although the more chaotic ones have additional, unique mutations, and specific types such as centigors, minotaurs and harpies exist as their own sub-races separate from the main Beastman population. They're also all horrible, evil monsters and fully devoted to Chaos, and hate anything related to humanity and organized civilization with a fervent passion.
• Being Evil Sucks: The moment they are born, the Beastmen belong, body and soul, to the Four Dark Gods, and are doomed to live a brutal, scorned, and likely brief existence. To compound matters, because the choice has been automatically taken out of their hands, their worship isn't considered very meaningful by the Dark Gods themselves, which leads the Beastmen to be typically overlooked in favour of the Gods' human worshippers. The smarter Beastmen seem to understand this, but also understand that they can't do anything about it.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Some sources in the tabletop hint that they sometimes procreate with animals. Though they're pretty bestial themselves. The implication is still here, but with the addition of Beastmen does, which are pure Beastmen breeding partners, something any Gor highly covets.
• Beast of Battle: Beastmen tribes utilize Chaos Warhounds, Harpies, and Razorgors, giant boar monsters, in battle.
• Berserk Button: Civilization itself. The more advanced it is, the more it infuriates them. It's part of why many fans of the lore found it rather jarring that Beastmen can use and build siege towers like the rest of the factions, since it involves building something.
• The Berserker: The Beastmen as a whole fight with little regard to their own safety, and act like a whirlwind of death on the battlefield. Specific examples include the large Minotaurs, who fall under a haze of bloodlust known as bloodgreed which turns them into little more than frothing animals during battles.
• Black Speech: Unlike most of the other races, Beastmen only ever speak the Beast Tongue — which is itself an offshoot of another form of Black Speech known as the Dark Tongue, the language of Chaos.
• Blood Knight: Minotaurs are easily maddened by the fury of the battlefield and the smell of blood and gore, going on murderous rampages in a frenzy of killing and bloodlust, reduced to little more than feral beasts by their thirst for slaughter.
• Body Horror: They have their own variant of Chaos Spawn, who are just as, if not more horrible-looking than regular ones, due to being covered in writhing cow limbs and tails in addition to the regular Spawn's malformed limbs, writhing tongues and blistered skin. Razorgors, when seen up close, are also rather disturbing — their mutations have left them hideously malformed, with massive bony spikes jutting past their flesh, enormous tusks far too large to fit into their mouths and torn, tattered hides covered in blisters and lesions and often missing altogether to expose the flesh beneath.
• Butt-Monkey: Beastmen in general are often this when compared to their human and Daemon counterparts among Chaos, but within Beastmen society Ungors are especially considered weak and deserving of scorn and cruelty. In-game they have the Expendable trait that will cause most other Beastmen not to care if they run away.
• Cannon Fodder: Ungors are Beastmen born with simple nubs for horns, and are the lowest of the low within the Beastmen's social hierarchy, often bullied and tormented within the tribe. Gathered together in large warbands, the only use Ungors have are to be padding for the Herd, or scouts with bows. They are also responsible for maintaining the tribe's weapons and equipment, since it's demeaning work by Beastmen standards (making or repairing things is civilized, you know).
• The Champion:
  • Doombulls are the greatest chieftains amongst Minotaurs, but more impressively, most are marked by the Chaos Gods, making them, and Minotaurs as a whole, the only Beastmen who regularly enjoy favor from the Dark Gods.
  • Wargors are the bannered representatives of Gor Chieftans, their greatest warriors and lieutenants, and go into battle-leading the front lines of the Clan. In-game they act as a Hero Unit armed with a mace and shield; very good at fighting, but their true worth is how they buff units around them with a variety of bonuses.
• Chest Monster: Since Beastmen don't have a normal economy per se, what they have instead of gold is called "Divine Favour" and the usual treasure chest of gold now looks like a blood-covered Mimic.
• Circle of Standing Stones: Herdstones, the only permanent structures that beastmen ever erect. Located deep in The Lost Woods, they act as gathering spots and places of worship for warherds. In the second game, herdstones are outposts that the Beastmen can erect to mark every area within two regions as a "bloodground", where the beastmen rampage and hunt to earn the favor of their gods.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The Beastmen are really fond of this (almost as much as the Dark Elves), and they take out their hatred and jealousy towards the human race on the unlucky sods captured in raids, with unspeakable torture that lasts for days before they subject them to the final fate of being a meal.
• A Commander Is You: A Spammer/Guerrilla/Brute faction. They rely heavily on ambush tactics in the grand campaign, their hordes being invisible when encamped and capable of traveling through hidden "Beast-paths", with a chance of automatically ambushing any army they attack head-on. In combat they hit hard but have really poor morale, relying heavily on their units' superior mobility and numbers to pound the enemy into the ground quickly and keep moving, and will fall apart in prolonged combat. Though they are a horde faction, they do raise Herdstones in order to create Blood Grounds, vast patches of land where the Beastmen will destroy any surrounding settlement in order to empower a Ritual of Ruination that allows them to have more powerful units, buffs and items, all while scarring the lands until the Herd Stone is destroyed. Until the Herdstone settlement is destroyed, no faction can colonize the ruined cities in the Blood Ground. They also have no upkeep, having to rely on gaining Dread through combat in order to gain more units for their armies.
• Cyclops: Cygors, giant cyclopean minotaurs that throw boulders. Their one eye lets them perceive the magic of Chaos itself, making them extremely dangerous around mages, whom a Cygor will always covet for their souls.
• Deflector Shields: Tzaangors added by Shadows of Change have the "barrier" mechanic from the Daemons of Tzeentch, providing them with a secondary health bar that replenishes when the unit isn't taking damage.
• Dirty Coward: When it comes down to it, as soon as the battle begins to turn against the Beastmen, most of them will cowardly run off to the forest very fast, especially the Ungors. This is reflected by their faction's poor leadership. The ideal fight for Beastmen in-game is one that ends swiftly and decisively without a chance for the enemy to fight back.
• Dumb Muscle: Minotaurs are rather dimwitted, and require the physically weaker Beastmen to forge weapons and fetch food for them, on threat of becoming a Minotaur's meal instead.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The Beastmen were the very first race to be added to the series as DLC, and it showed in how their playable Legendary Lords were presented — rather than multiple distinct sub-factions each led by a different character, as would later become the standard, the Legendary Lords of the Beastmen were all part of a single faction whose starting location simply changes based on which of them is selected. It wasn't until The Silence and The Fury DLC (released towards the end of the second game's lifespan) when this was fixed by giving every Beastman character their own faction and starting location.
• Eats Babies: Literally. Beastmen are... not very picky when it comes to food, and human babies are considered a delicacy for their tender flesh.
• Eldritch Abomination: The utterly nightmarish Jabberslythe, some of the most ancient, foul horrors in the Old World. They are truly repugnant to look upon, having such grotesque and twisted features that even the clearest pools of water will not offer up their reflection. A sickening fusion of toad, sludge-drake, and many-limbed insect, the Jabberslythe encompasses all that is unwholesome and vile about nature and magnifies it a hundredfold. They carry themselves into battle with clumsy wings that barely hold up their frames. They are so nightmarish they drive everything that sees them into a maniacal state, even the Beastmen that goad them into war with foul-sounding drums. They have hideously barbed tongues that they use to rend things with poison. In-game they are a flying, infantry-mulching monster, being able to rend apart entire formations of both chaff and heavy-infantry with ease, especially with their area of effect attacks. They also debuff units around them with their madness-inducing appearance and horrible stench.
• Eldritch Location: The Beast Paths are set inside one — a forest of skyscraper-sized trees covered in fleshy growths, which almost certainly exists partially outside of conventional reality.
• Elite Mooks: Bestigors, the biggest and meanest of the cloven ones apart from Minotaurs. While they are not quite as heavily armored as similar units from other factions, they make up for it in greater speed and mobility, able to outrun many other equivalents from their foes. They also double as Heavily Armored Mook, as they're the only unit in the Beastman roster besides Minotaurs that carry heavy plate, and have high-ish armor ratings.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For all that they're civilization-destroying children of the Chaos Gods, Beastmen have a semblance of culture. Amongst other things, fighting during a revel or during a herdstone meeting is forbidden, and Bray Shamans are sacrosanct and may not be harmed.
• Evil Minions: Towards the Chaos Gods, even moreso than the Warriors, whom are the favored minions.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Sorta. Beastmen don't have the proximity-equals-infighting mechanic the Warriors of Chaos suffer from, but in lore they do have tribal rivalries to sort through. Also, they start out diplomatically neutral to the Warriors of Chaos despite having the same ultimate end-goals, meaning they can join forces with them or fight them off as the player likes.
  • In the second game, the mechanics surrounding herdstones synergize with the other Chaos races, as they are immune to all the negative effects that herdstone buildings produce. The Ritual of Ruination in particular greatly benefits the Warriors of Chaos and Norscan Tribes, as it prevents razed settlements in the vicinity from being rebuilt (and any settlements destroyed by them contribute to the beastmen's ritual in turn).
• Evil Tainted the Place: The end result of the Ritual of Ruination performed at a herdstone curses every razed settlement in its area of influence, making them impossible to resettle and spreading a hefty 20 points of Chaos Corruption to each — the only way to even begin reclaiming the area is to destroy the herdstone.
• Fantastic Caste System: Though by and large they function under Asskicking Leads to Leadership, there is an internal hierarchy that they don’t break: Bestigors are at the top, followed by Gors, and then Ungors at the bottom. Even within those given castes, the size of one’s horns are a marking of authority, with famed and powerful Beastlords having massive, curling horns, while most Ungors having a couple of nubs at best. That being said, even if an Ungor were to have good sized horns, no Gor would consent to serving them, as they are simply not strong enough; at best, they'd just rank highly amongst the other Ungors.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Of the various "barbarian" tribes, or at least how "civilized" nations saw them, particularly when they sacked Rome. References to them using wicker men for sacrifices, they're gathering around stone monoliths, and constant conflicts against a larger, more organized society, specifically bring to mind the darker accounts of the Celtic and Germanic peoples.
• Fauns and Satyrs: Many Beastmen are mixes of human with sheep or goat, giving them a distinctly faun-like appearance, if with more fangs than usual. The Gors are more satyr-like with caprine heads whilst the Ungors are more faun-like with more human features.
• Fetus Terrible: Some Beastmen, such as Morghur, end up killing their mothers by ripping out of their wombs as they are being born. Disgustingly, Beastmen consider this an omen of greatness.
• Fragile Speedster: Many Beastmen units are much less armored than comparable units from other armies (widely divergent body shapes and mostly looted or very crude equipment means armor is sparsely used) but those units are also as fast, and deadly on the charge, on their hooves as charging animals. Their high speed and charge bonus means they excel in short fights, but suffer heavily when it comes to battles of attrition. Furthermore, many Beastman units possess the "Vanguard Deployment" ability, which means a Beastmen army can often completely surround the foe before the battle even starts.
• Full-Boar Action:
  • Razorgors: giant, mutated boars covered in spikes and with spiked clubs at the end of their tails. Some pull Beastman chariots and wreck apart infantry formations.
  • Tuskgors are immense, but less mutated boars that carry smaller chariots that can be used for more ambush tactics due to having vanguard deployment.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the game, they're as capable of building siege equipment as any other faction, whereas in the lore, their love for Chaos and hatred for civilization and technology are so strong that they consider purposefully building anything an obscenity and a sin. While they'd be fine with tearing down trees to use as battering rams and maybe a charismatic Beastlord or shaman might get them to lash together crude ladders, they most certainly don't have the capacity to build anything as complex as siege towers; even if they did, they'd revolt near-instantly at the idea.
• Geo Effects: Chaos-aligned armies and heroes, whether they belong to the Warriors of Chaos, the Norscan Tribes or the Beastmen, spread "Chaos Corruption" in provinces they occupy. This corruption is represented by the landscape slowly warping into a Lethal Lava Land the higher the corruption gets. While they suffer no penalties for a region having low corruption, Chaos armies receive bonuses to army leadership and unit replenishment when corruption is high. Non-Chaos factions, however, suffer mounting public order problems and attrition, and rebel armies formed in high-corruption provinces become themed after the Warriors of Chaos rather than the local empire.
• Glass Cannon: All Beastmen units qualify as this to a degree; they have very powerful charge and attack stats, but low armour or defensive stats, making them very vulnerable in extended combat, meaning they player has to use clever tactics to keep them on the move. The Ghorgon is especially this, being a nightmarish monster-hunter that can run at blistering speeds (able to catch most cav) and deal sickening damage... but will go down quick to heavy fire.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Ultimately, underneath their veneer of smug superiority, Beastmen are jealous monsters that are envious of humans for the lives they're able to live.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Which includes Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and even themselves. No matter what kind of civilisation it is, the Beastmen will always want to make it come crashing down.
• Harping on About Harpies: Harpies were added to the Beastmen roster during the release of the Realm of the Wood Elves DLC. Resembling monstrous elf women with bat wings, harpies are used by the beastmen as scouts and airborne flanking troops.
• The Horde: Like the Warriors of Chaos, the Beastmen travel in hordes that contain their infrastructure and rely primarily upon raiding foreign territory and sacking settlements for income. However, they do maintain outposts in the form of herdstones, which mark the surrounding countryside as a "bloodground" for beastmen herds to pillage as they please.
• Horns of Villainy: Every single Beastman has horns of some sort to accompany their brutish, warmongering nature, and many Beastmen use their horns to their advantage in battle. On the other hand, beastmen with small (or even no) horns are discriminated against, forming the ranks of the lowly and expendable ungors.
• Hulk Speak: The Beastmen subvert Eloquent in My Native Tongue by speaking in terse sentences of Black Speech.
  Beastlord Khazrak: Gather warherds! Hunt man-filth! Kill man!
• Improvised Armor: What little armor Beastmen ever wear is almost always this. Mining, smelting, and smithing is far too close to what hated civilization does for the Beastmen's tastes, but they'll happily rip whatever trappings of civilization they can away during raids and re-purpose them afterward. As a result, the only armor you're likely to see is some ill-fitting scraps of chainmail or plates and rods meant for something else crudely held together.
• Large and in Charge: Gorebulls, the minotaur tribal chieftains that serve as the Beastmen's melee Hero Unit, are much larger than the rest of their kind, towering over other Beastman units, which comes with the unfortunate side effect of making them easy targets for enemy artillery. And then there are the Doombulls, even bigger minotaurs who are favored by the Chaos Gods and allowed to lead entire beastmen armies. As a whole, Beastmen society operates like this; the bigger and stronger the Gor is, the higher he can climb in the social tree.
• The Lost Woods: This is where the Beastmen come from, their hordes pouring from the thickest, darkest forests of the Old World, occasionally striking against small villages and disappearing from whence they came. This is represented in-game by the Beast paths, the Beastman equivalent of the Dwarfen Underway, depicted as the Beastmen taking hidden paths through the wilderness known only to them. When battles take place there, they appear as gloomy, layered Lost Woods: the ground level where the battle actually takes place is thickly covered in regular trees, while the borders and roof of the map are bounded by absolutely titanic trees covered in giant mushrooms and organic growths, whose stumps appear in the battle map itself as terrain obstacles.
• Mars Needs Women: In earlier editions anyway, Beastmen have been known to abduct live humans while they Rape, Pillage, and Burn, either for food... or for breeding more Beastmen. The game itself is rather coy on the subject, but it does imply the Beastmen replenish their numbers through rape, as well as mating with the extremely rare Beastmen does.
• Monogender Monsters: Narrowly averted — Beastmen females, referred to as 'does', are said to be extremely rare and are the subject of intense competition among the Beastlords. Does are included in-game as followers that boost horde growth.
• Mooks: While they have their own low-tier soldiery in the Ungors, the Beastmen as a whole have a reputation for being this in most Chaos Warbands. When Archaon invades the Old World, he travels with a few hordes of Beastmen which act as a disposable first wave.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The massive and twisted Ghorgons have four arms with two of these arms typically ending in bony blades that they use to chop their enemies into gory pieces so that the hands on the end of their other arms can shovel the bloody remains into its mouths.
• Noble Demon: Some though not many, Beastmen are described as having a sort of bestial honor, making them slightly better than most of their kin. Minotaurs especially fall under this.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Centigors, Beastmen with an equine lower body and a humanoid upper body, although with horns and clawed feet instead of hooves. They're also raging alcoholics, and are perpetually drunk most of the time.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Beastmen can recruit Chaos Giants, although they look much more goat-like than the ones used by the Warriors of Chaos.
• Our Mages Are Different: Beastmen wizards are called Bray-Shamans. They are very rare, and enjoy a position of privilege and protection within Beastman society because being born with the gift is considered a sign of favour with the Dark Gods, something very difficult to achieve for a Beastman. One of the very few rules within Beastmen society is that one never lays hands on a Bray-Shaman for any reason, ever.^note Gorthor the Cruel infamously violated this rule by slaying Bray-Shamans who spoke against him and having their skins turned into a cloak, such was his confidence that he enjoyed more favour with the Dark Gods than them. In-game, Bray-Shamans are a Hero Unit who can choose from one of four magical lores: Beasts, Death, Shadows and the Wild, which is a corrupt offshoot of the conventional Beasts lore. And then there are the Great Bray-Shamans who lord over entire armies.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The centerpiece monsters are themed after the beast from Greek Mythology, the Minotaur. They come in several variants.
  • Minotaur are foul-tempered even compared to other Beastmen, being forever consumed by a rage-inducing frenzy known as Bloodgreed, which is triggered as soon as they smell blood (in-game, this is a unique rule that gives Minotaurs bonuses when they're in combat, and debuffs when they aren't). Twelve feet tall and clad in thick iron plate, Minotaurs are very powerful Monstrous Infantry, being able to practically flatten any kind of infantry they're thrown against, whether it be simple Empire State Troopers or Elite Chosen, because of their ridiculous charge bonus and weapon strength. They come in three variants: Minotaurs who dual-wield axes, fight with axe and board (which happen to be absolutely massive wooden shields), and finally those who wield giant greataxes.
    • Bands of Minotaurs are led by Gorebulls, the meanest and strongest of their kind, a bloodthirsty Hero Killer Hero Unit who can flatten anyone on the charge and wreck anything unlucky enough to get in their way. They wear even heavier plate, alongside massive great axes. While their killing power is impressive, they also provide buffs to units around them in combat. Doombulls on the other hand, are even more renowned and powerful, regularly becoming powerful mortal champions of the Chaos Gods. They act as Monstrous Lords and are some of the most powerful in the game to wit.
    • The Brass Bull is the greatest of his kind, and leads an entire tribe of Minotaurs, hyped from the endless slaughterfest that follows in its wake.
  • The Cygor is a distant relative of the Minotaur. Cygors are giant — literally so; they're in the same size range as true Giants — one-eyed abominations "blessed" by the power of Chaos. Even more mutated than the rest of their kin, Cygors are functionally blind. However, they see ghastly spectres through their single eye, and can actually glimpse the Winds of Magic. As such, they are horrifying to mages, as Cygors will single them out on the battlefield before messily devouring them and their souls. In combat they wade into battle carrying massive boulders, which they heave towards the enemy with surprising accuracy, as well as being quite capable in melee, using their boulders as large bludgeons. Since Mages are so frightened by their mere presence, they suffer a large miscast penalty if an enemy brings a Cygor along.
  • A close cousin of the Cygor is the Ghorgon, a nightmarish horror born from the dark forest. It takes the form of a mutated, giant bull-daemon, with multiple arms ending in giant blades they use to rip apart anything unlucky enough get near them and then shove their corpses whole into their mouths before devouring them. Even more insane than the most bloodthirsty Minotaur, a Ghorgon is driven to such lengths of bloodlust it will regularly de-populate an entire forest in its blood-rage. In-game, they act as powerful monster and cavalry hunters, lightning quick and damaging to the extreme, armor does nothing against them. They also regenerate as they kill units, and have the Bloodgreed special rule.
• A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: Every time Morrslieb appears fully, the Beastmen take it as a time to revel, feasting on meat (often of prisoners), downing as many looted barrels of alcohol as they can manage, and vigorously conceiving new Beastmen. It is said that non-Beastmen can come and join their celebrations, but only the most depraved in both taste and morals would wish to, and doing so without being capable of defending oneself just means they're going on the party's menu.
• Pet the Dog: Some Beastmen are born to human parents, who in their horror abandon their mutant children to the world. Beastmen tribes often adopt these children... and kill the parents, partly out of revenge for the abandonment.
• The Pig-Pen: Beastmen find hygiene to be one of those trappings of civilization they cannot abide. Neither do they practice any sort of latrine discipline in their encampments. As a result, Beastmen often smell as foul as they look.
• Predecessor Villain: Gorthor the Cruel, a Beastman warlord who ignored what few rules even Beastmen have and raised a warherd so big he was able to depopulate the Drakwald itself, destroying all human settlements within its boundaries and personally slaying two Elector Counts. At the start of the game he's been dead for a millennia but he's still remembered by both man and beast.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Like the Warriors of Chaos and the Norscan tribes, they will sack and loot civilized cities for resources, slaves, and to honor the Ruinous Powers. Added to that, though, is a genuine sense of hate for the very concept of civilization itself. On the rape part, it is mentioned in the lore (in some editions) that the Beastmen capture and rape human women in order to breed and replenish their ranks.
• The Savage South: While the Beastmen as a whole are not strictly native to the lands south of the Empire, Khazrak starts the Grand Campaign in Estalia, while Malagor starts in the greenskin-infested Badlands.
• Screaming Warrior: Often cruel bleats and primal growls, with the occasional twisted word in Black Speech.
• Savage Wolves: Like the Warriors of Chaos, they have access to monstrous, mutated Chaos Warhounds, both the regular and poisonous variations.
• To Serve Man: The slaves that the Beastmen take are not used for labor as they have little they need to build. They are used to sate other needs the Beastmen have...
• Sibling Team: The Sons of Ghorros, who are the children of their regiments namesake, Ghorros Warhoof — an ancient, infamous Centigor who is a known serial shagger and even boasts to have fathered the entire Centigor race.
• Stealth Expert: The Beastmen are master ambushers, and very skilled guerrilla fighters, which is reflected by their mechanics. They can launch ambushes in their default stance, can remain hidden on the campaign map, and many of their units have vanguard and/or stalk. They rely heavily on forests for their ambush ability, though, and have difficulties laying ambushes in flat or open terrain due to their lack of bonuses to ambush success chance.
• Smarter Than You Look: There is obviously no question that the Beastmen are savage and barbaric, and their animalistic appearance and behavior doesn't help. But they are far more intelligent than others give them credit for, and are capable of a deeper cunning than their actions may demonstrate. Indeed, most groups who underestimate them, inevitably end up regretting it.
• Tragic Monster: Beastmen belong to Chaos body and soul before they are even born; they have no choice but to serve the Ruinous Powers. And to add insult to injury, they are the lowest ranking army on the Chaos totem pole — they have no choice by nature, but all Warriors of Chaos have the option to choose, and they serve willingly.
• The Unfavorite: Beastmen are considered the lowest rung on the Chaos totem pole, as while human worshippers may choose to worship the Chaos Gods, Beastmen do not; they were born into the role given to them by the Chaos Gods, who scorn and laugh at them for their (forced by them) inability to choose their own fate. As such, while there have been Beastmen champions of Chaos, they are much more rare. This even extends to how the Empire views them: while Norscan war parties are considered a dire threat, Imperials tend to view the Beastmen as nothing more than a nuisance.
• The Usual Adversaries: Despite being ubiquitous, Beastmen are only rarely a threat on the scale of other major evil races, due to being wholly disorganized and having no settlements or industry, which even the Greenskins can boast. However, Beastmen have proven all but impossible to clear out of their forests, and their relative low threat means most empires simply don't waste the resources on a dedicated purge. In-game, AI-controlled beastmen factions that have been destroyed are able to respawn as part of a random campaign event, ensuring their raids will always be a mild annoyance throughout the entire campaign, and between Hidden Encampment, Beast-Paths, and Forced March, Beastman armies can be infamously hard to get rid of due to how well they can run away.
• Unskilled, but Strong: The Beastmen as a whole are very tough and strong, but their big hands don't allow them to do anything but grab stuff. As a result their hatred of civilization has shades of Green-Eyed Monster too. In game, they have very strong charge and attack stats, but their leadership and ability to take damage is very low.
• Villainous Crossdresser: Yes, they actually have this in the form of The Butchers of Kalkengard, a Regiment of Renown for the minotaurs who not only possess a cow-patterned fur, but also udder armor despite not having udders.
• Villain Team-Up: In the finale of the Wood Elves campaign Khazrak and Malagor join forces with Morghur to go after the Oak of Ages and corrupt it. The player also has the option of joining forces with the Norscan tribes and Archaon's Chaos legion when they invade, since they serve the same masters.
• Walking Wasteland: Beastmen lords and heroes spread Chaos corruption on the campaign map, and their armies enjoy increased replenishment and leadership in areas where corruption is high. Like the Warriors of Chaos and Norsca, cities they raze are replaced by special ruins that temporarily spread corruption throughout neighboring provinces. They can also forgo gaining currency when sacking cities and instead generate a large lump-sum of corruption in the local province.
• Weak, but Skilled: Ungors are the weakest of their kind, translated as their models having nothing above 30 in stats except leadership and movement. On the other hand, they are crucial to the Beastmen because they can actually do stuff with their hands, like tending to the weapons or building structures. It translates as their ability to use bows, and Ungor Raiders are one of the rare shooting units in the faction.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Jabberslythes can't quite fly with their deformed wings, but they can gain enough lift to drop The People's Elbow on their foes.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The minotaur-like Cygors are infamous for hunting down magic-users on the battlefield to devour their souls, which are incidentally the only thing their otherwise blind, Cyclopean eyes can see.

Legendary Lords

Khazrak One-Eye

Beastlord Khazrak One-Eye, Scourge of the Drakwald

"Gather warherds! Hunt man-filth! Kill man!"

"Graaah! Take them now! Bathe in their blood — feast on their guts — gnaw on their bones! Let their puny wolf god know that it is the One-Eye that slaughters his pack!"

Khazrak the One-Eye is one of the most legendary Beastmen Beastlords in recent history, a being of such horrific reputation and possessing of a ruthless cunning far above that of his bestial kin, Khazrak the One-Eye is an eternal threat upon the Human lands of the Drakwald Forest. He has plagued that cursed region for several years, descending without warning and then slipping away into the shadows once more. By the normal intellectual standards of Beastmen, Khazrak has a unique and adept ability to control and harness the unruly spirit of the herd and devise simple but effective battle plans in order to win his battles.

He is so unlike the vast majority of his kind, with a patient and cunning mind at odds with the normal headstrong nature of his foul race. Khazrak's warband roams the Drakwald terrorising the townships and roads. Never before has a Beastman leader proven so elusive to retribution that not even the Elector Count of Middenland could ever capture and subdue the rampaging beast. No one is spared in Khazrak's attacks, his superbly trained Warhounds chasing down the few who manage to escape the warherd, tearing them to bloody scraps of bone and flesh. It is said that so long as Khazrak lives, the Drakwald will forever be plagued by strife and conflict.

Now Khazrak is on the offensive once more. Warherd in tow, he stalks his nemesis through the twisted bowers of Drakland, intending to repay the courtesy in full. An eye for an eye!

Originally part of the singular "Beastmen" faction, the Hammers & Herdstones update gave him a separate subfaction, the Warherd of the One-Eye.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Boris Todbringer, the Elector Count of Middenland. The entire Beastmen-centric mini campaign — An Eye for an Eye — revolves around the bloody feud between them.
• Badass Normal: By beastmen standards at any rate. Khazrak is an exceptionally powerful and cunning, though still more or less normal, beastlord. Compare this to a winged shaman, a Chaos elemental and a minotaur with a hide of brass.
• Broken Faceplate: The skull that makes up the front of Khazrak's helmet is missing a large chunk below his missing eye.
• The Champion: Being very ambitious for a Beastman, he aims become a Champion of Chaos; a feat that hasn't been achived by a beastman since Gorthor the Cruel. While he isn't quite there yet, him gaining the attention of Sarthorael, a powerful Greater Daemon, shows he's well on his way.
• Creepy Souvenir: Khazrak keeps Boris' eye on his necklace (Though in Eye for an Eye it's possible to eat it), and the horn of his predecessor, Graktar, as a musical instrument. He also collects the helmets of every Imperial and Bretonnian knight that his Warherd has slain, incorporating them into an altar to the Dark Gods, which is shown in creepy detail in his trailer, though it expands it by showing it's not just the helmet he uses...
• Cruel Mercy: After defeating Boris and ripping out his eye, he spares his life partially because he wants to make him suffer, partially because he genuinely enjoys fighting him and doesn't want the fun to end quite yet.
• Dented Iron: His eye was gouged out by the Middenland Runefang; as such, the wound over it has not healed at all and even continues to bleed.
• The Dragon: A line from the Adviser at the beginning of the Grand Campaign heavily implies that Khazrak knows about Sarthorael, and willingly serves the Lord of Change.
  The Adviser: I know you feel a yearning to kill me, for I am but a man, but you have received the vision; you know who has sent me...
• Evil Laugh: Laughs cruelly as he gouges out Todbringer's eye at the climax of An Eye For An Eye.
• Eye Scream: Todbringer gouged Khazrak's left eye out; he would repay the favor later, leaving Boris with an Eyepatch of Power thereafter. The latter scene plays out (in full detail) during the An Eye For An Eye campaign if Khazrak defeats Todbringer in battle, and Khazrak can decide to either keep Boris' eye as a trophy or simply eat it in front of him.
• Full-Boar Action: Khazrak may ride a Razorgor chariot into battle.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being known as the lord of the Drakwald, Khazrak starts the main campaign in Estalia, a region that lorewise has almost no Beastmen in it at all due to distance from the Polar Gates. The Drakwald is instead the start location of Morghur. Averted for the third game's Immortal Empires, which finally puts Khazrak near Middenheim.
• Genius Bruiser: By Beastmen standards at least. Khazrak is noted as being very cunning and is one of the comparatively few Beastlords able to employ tactics beyond simply overwhelming the enemy with brute force, numbers and savagery. He has been waging a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful Imperial Provinces for years, after all. He's also a very competent warrior who's noted to be surprisingly skilled.
  • His tactical prowess is noted in his expanded skill tree; most of his skills are buffing leadership values, making ambushes easier for his soldiers, and just in general making his leadership skills more and more evident.
• Handicapped Badass: One eye has been hacked out by Todbringer's Runeblade, leaving a pus and blood-weeping hole. Despite this, he is still a deadly warrior — the fact he survives at all in the brutal culture of Beastmen is proof of that.
• Horns of Villainy: Like any beastlord worth his salt he sports a particularly large set.
• Poisonous Person: He deals poison damage, and one of his skills gives all Ungor units the same effects.
• Pragmatic Villainy: His relationship with the Adviser is built on this and Teeth-Clenched Teamwork (mostly on his side). As the Adviser notes, if he were anyone else Khazrak would have killed him and not thought twice about it (and he sure as hell wants to), but as in the Warriors of Chaos campaign, the Adviser is a servant of the Chaos Gods, and so he is tolerated as a middleman through whom the Gods can direct the brayherds to war. This is further proof of his intelligence; very few (if any) other Beastlords would have the pragmatism to put up with a human's presence even for a valid reason like that.
• The Quiet One: Whilst Khazrak can speak in the dark tongue, his sentences are usually coarse, simple commands, and he's very quiet otherwise, giving off an air of Tranquil Fury. Considering how Beastmen usually are this just makes him even more unnerving.
• Revenge Boris Todbringer cut away one of Khazrak's eyes in a past battle. An Eye For An Eye culminates in Khazrak returning the favor by slowly gouging out Boris' own eye with one of his horns.
• Stealth Expert: Khazrak is a master in guerilla warfare; he has the "Vanguard", and "Stalk" special rule, provides a large amount of bonuses to Ambush battles, and can even give his Bestigors the "Vanguard" rule.
• Tin Tyrant: Is a good deal more heavily armored than most other beastmen, the armor in question being the legendary Dark Mail, which protects him from both physical and magical damage.
• Villain Protagonist: Of the An Eye for an Eye campaign.
• Villain Respect: Pays it to Boris Todbringer, viewing him as a Worthy Opponent and genuine challenge.
• Whip of Dominance: He is one of the most ruthless Beastlords among the Beastman and has complete dominance of his tribe, and appropriately his personal weapon is a barbed lash named Scourge. It is said that the mere sight of his whip has stayed the hands of other Beastmen and prevented infighting amongst his horde.
• Worthy Opponent: He views Boris Todbringer as one, at least to a certain extent. It's suggested that the reason Khazrak let Boris live after capturing him is because he genuinely enjoys matching wits with the Count of Middenheim.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: It is said that the eye wound inflicted on him by Todbringer has never fully healed, and to this day still weeps pus and blood. However, instead of proving a potentially fatal handicap, the wound has only made Khazrak more fearsome and fuels his burning desire for revenge.

Malagor

Malagor, the Dark Omen

"If you not follow the Crow Father, then the Crow Father will crush you too!"

"I have seen it, my herd-kin! The Dark Masters, show me the way, tear down their walls, burn their churches... defile this river with man-filth bodies! Please me — your Crowfather — and let the Dark Omen spread!"

Malagor the Dark Omen, known by many titles as Malagor the Crowfather, the Despoiler of the Sacred or the Harbinger of Disaster is a darkly winged figure of nightmares and destruction, revered by the Beastmen but feared above all by the superstitious of Mankind. To all of Humanity, Malagor is a harbinger of the downfall of all they hold dear. Vilified by the Cult of Sigmar as the epitome of sin due to his many blasphemies, a sighting of Malagor is the most terrifying portent of all. He is the winged fiend that will rise from the benighted forests and challenge the Gods of the Old World. He is the devil rendered in woodcut in ancient tomes kept under lock and key lest the terrible secrets within blast the sanity of any who read them.

When the Beastmen rise up and invade the lands of Men with Malagor at their head, the temples are torn down and put to flame. Malagor desires nothing less than to cast down the human gods and goddesses, to slaughter their priests and priestesses upon their own altars, to devour their flesh and drink their blood in vile mockery of their most holy sacraments. To the enemies of the Beastmen, the sight of Malagor swooping from the smoke-wreathed skies amongst countless thousands of carrion birds is a portent of terrible and immediate disaster. The presence of Malagor has caused stout defenders to abandon otherwise impregnable walls and the mightiest of warriors to fall to their knees in the mud in abject defeat.

Originally part of the singular "Beastmen" faction, the Hammers & Herdstones update gave him a separate faction, the Harbinger of Disaster, in Total War: Warhammer II.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Originally, he lacked the ability to fly that he had in the tabletop game. He would eventually regain this ability with the launch of The Silence and The Fury in Total War: Warhammer II.
• The Arch Mage: One of the most powerful Chaos warlocks in the Old World, and he commands a suitably nightmarish lore; a mix of Shadows, Wilds, and Beasts, combining all into a single unique spell list. He also gets "Greater Arcane Conduit", and a few special abilities that make his dark magic even stronger.
• Battle Aura: One of his most powerful rules is the ability to have Flock of Doom active while in combat.
• Beard of Evil: Malagor has a long, black beard, unlike Khazrak his isn't braided though.
• Black Magic: Wields a variety of this in his mixed lore.
• Bling of War: A very dark version of this trope, he wears so many ornamental charms of Chaos Iconography, his Icons of Vilification convey heavy armor-piercing bonuses to units around him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Inflicts this on any Sigmarite Priest whose unfortunate enough to fall into his claws alive. This horrible fate inspires Better to Die than Be Killed thinking.
• Creepy Crows: He's called "The Crow Father" for a reason as all sorts of vile corvids tends to be in his command. This is represented in game by allowing him to cast Flock of Doom at the start of the game. And in later levels, he gains the ability to constantly passively have the spell around himself as long as he is in melee, giving him a horrendous aura of damage to anything nearby.
• Dark Is Evil: He has dark black fur, alongside shadowy wings, which just reflect his pitch black heart. He wields a form of Black Magic as well.
• The Dreaded: Oh, yes. Most religions and organizations of the world consider Malagor one of the most terrifying mortal followers of the Chaos Gods due to his magical power combined with his devotion to the Ruinous Powers. His mere presence is enough to cause morale loss in nearby armies, it can be further upgraded to be twice as potent with the "Something wicked this way comes" skill, which also allows him to lower the leadership of enemies he's in melee with and remove the bonus Immune to Psychology if they have any, all for a total of minus 24 morale to enemies near him in battle before anything else is taken into account, an he can gain the "Terror" trait.
• Evil Sorcerer: The greatest and most evil of all the Great Bray-Shamans, Malagor is the most powerful practitioner of the Lore of the Wild in the setting, with visions of the End Times running through his mind.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Compared to Khazrak and Morghur, Malagor's use of Black Speech is more refined and verbose.
• Fallen Angel: Takes this appearance, albeit heavy on the monstrous side, being the spitting image of a classical Goetia demon from early Christian tradition. If anything he looks a lot like the medieval portrayal of Satan.
• Flight: He can fly freely and fast, being carried off the ground by his black wings. Other than Tiktaq'to, he's the only Lord that can inherently fly, and unlike Tiktaq'to can forgoe flying when necessary for things like ambushes or to avoid missile units.
• Fragile Speedster: While very fast with his rework, Malagor can also be ripped apart even quicker than before now that he's a flying target by archers.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Malagor has a pair of pitch black feathered angel wings, and is evil to the core.
• Red Baron: He's referred to as "the Crowfather" by those who'd rather not speak his name. His other titles include the Dark Omen, the Despoiler of the Sacred and the Harbinger of Disaster.
• Religious Bruiser: A decidedly darker version of this trope. He is utterly devoted to the Chaos Gods, which inspires severe Knight Templar tendencies. He profanes, defiles, perverts and ultimately destroys anything related to Sigmar, be it a church or the unfortunate priests within. Considering who he most resembles this is most likely quite intentional.
• Squishy Wizard: He used to share much of his statline with the generic Bray Shaman Hero Unit. Among other things, this leaves Malagor with only 10 armor by default, compared to the 100 armor seen on Khazrak and other Beastlords. While he was immensely buffed during The Silence and The Fury DLC, he is still not someone you wish to keep in close quarters for too long, even if a passive Flock of Doom upon the enemies when in melee is something he gets in later levels.
• Walking Wasteland: The magics surrounding Malagor are so foul that crops wither and living things die where he walks.
• Winged Humanoid: A Beastman with black-feathered wings, which he uses to swiftly fly across the battlefield.
• Wings Do Nothing: In the first game, Malagor's large wings were merely cosmetic, forcing him to hoof around on the ground (particularly disadvantageous as he lacked any options for a mount). This was rectified in the second game's "Hammers & Herdstones" update, which turned Malagor into a flying unit.

Morghur

Morghur the Shadowgave

"They will regret! Morghur will change them; ruin them!"

"Puny Elf! Uncloven. Unknowing. Ignorant. They take from me what is mine - weapon. Power! They will know our power, MY power!"

Morghur, known in ancient times as the Shadowgave, the Master of Skulls, and to the Elves as simply the Corruptor, is an ancient and wholly unkillable Beastlord that has terrorized the forested woodlands of the Old World for centuries. Beastmen revere Morghur, believing that his spirit walked the world before the birth of their race; the incarnation of disorder and pure Chaos. They set out from thousands of miles away to stand in his presence, drawn to him by urges they do not question; a tainted pilgrimage that often destroys them. Only the strongest-willed survive such an encounter, though their minds are usually shattered and plagued by visions ever after.

Morghur leads over the subfaction known as the Warherd of the Shadowgave, though it was originally only playable in multiplayer battles; in campaign, he was relegated to a singular "Beastmen" faction with his fellow Legendary Lords. The Hammers & Herdstones update would finally add the Warherd of the Shadowgave as its own subfaction in the campaign map with Morghur as its leader.

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• Adaptational Badass: Morghur was given a heavy Nerf from 6th to 7th edition in the tabletop game, becoming a hero rather than a lord and losing most of his unique rules and all his items. The in-game version of Morghur is closer to his 6th edition version than his 7th, and has gained a Healing Factor he never had in the tabletop game (even though he had one in the lore) in place of some rules that would be incredibly difficult to translate to the game engine.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Morghur’s tabletop incarnation is a mindless wrecking-ball whose actions seem driven by simple animal instinct and the machinations of the Ruinous Powers. His Total War version has a little more agency, being capable of coherent speech and having more of a personal grudge against the Wood Elves.
• Almighty Idiot: For all his power and corrupting magic, Morghur is void of anything but the desire to destroy and corrupt. He can barely formulate full sentences, and it's debatable if he's even sentient.
• And I Must Scream: See all those skulls in his hair and beard? Those are still alive, infused with raving and insane spirits that he has broken, rambling madly through eternity.
• Annoying Arrows: Morghur starts the game with a massive 75% missile resistance and can easily boost it beyond that, becoming all but impervious to ranged attacks.
• Archenemy: To the Wood Elves, having spent most of his existence trying to corrupt Athel Loren. Specifically, Queen Ariel of Athel-Loren has dedicated her life to eradicating Morghur. And Morghur is just as determined to bring Ariel down, as every incarnation of his eventually makes a beeline for the magic forest to have another go at her. To reflect this, his armies are immune to Athel Loren's powerful forest attrition.
• Ax-Crazy: To put it very mildly, and even crazier than other beastmen. Sanity and Morghur have never had even a passing acquaintance — he normally gibbers rather than speaks, wanders aimlessly through the forests, and acts more as a force of mindless chaos than like anything with a brain, communicating only through explosive bursts of random magical violence. He doesn't lead his army so much as they follow wherever he roams.
• Beard of Evil: One that is far bigger than most other Beastmen's.
• Big Bad: Of the Seasons of Revelations mini-campaign in Total War Warhammer I.
• Body Horror: Spikes are growing out of his skin and his left arm has mutated into a crustacean-like pincer. In-game, he can inflict this on badly-damaged enemy units through the unique ability "Spirit-Essence of Chaos", which deals heavy damage and spawns a free unit of Chaos Spawn inside the targeted regiment, ostensibly created by rapidly mutating the poor soldiers of the group.
• Born-Again Immortality: Every time he is slain, his spirit merely reforms his physical body elsewhere. This is reflected in-game by having him only be out of action for one turn if he is ever taken out in battle.
• The Corrupter: The very ground itself becomes afflicted with Chaos by him merely walking upon it. This is reflected in-game by having his army spread corruption faster than normal Beastmen armies. In the background lore, not even other Beastmen are safe from his power, and they follow him while maintaining their distance as a result.
  • His special stance, "Despoiler", causes everyone in the region to take constant attrition! Meaning Morghur is so defiled and corrupted he causes the very land to turn foul and begin to attack people living there just from his unholy presence.
• Dark Is Evil: Probably the strongest example in a setting that thrives on Dark Is Not Evil.
• Deal with the Devil: "Profane Blessings" has him granting his horrible curses to his herds in the form of powerful Ancillaries; ones that offer strong buffs at the cost of debuffing the unit in another way.
• Deflector Shields: He is capable of casting a magical shield that protects himself and a few Beastmen units from all harm for a few seconds, but only during his quest battle.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: It is suspected by some, including Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, that Morghur is actually a Greater Daemon of Chaos Undivided, reborn again and again in the flesh. Others think he's just pure Chaos made manifest in the physical world.
  • His rework heavily implies he's the reborn spirit of a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, with his skills "Abstraction of Tzeentch" and "Force for Change".
• The Dreaded: Let's put it like this. Before the "The Silence and the Fury" DLC updated his mechanics, the guy made his minotaurs so scared of him that they need 40% extra upkeep to join him. Why, you ask? Well, his Chaos Spawn seems to have a 40% cheaper upkeep, implying that this is what he tends to do with his minotaurs.
• Dreadlock Warrior: His dreadlocked hair is bigger than his back and is packed with skeletons.
• Elemental Embodiment: Speculated to be pure Chaos in a single form.
• Enfant Terrible: His first recorded "spawning" was when he was in his human mother's womb, his corrupted nature caused her to mutate before he gorily ripped his way out of her womb. His father tried to kill him, but transformed into a chaos spawn when he came close to Morghur.
• Final Boss: Of the Wood Elf campaign.
• Grim Up North: His starting position will be in Nordland, the Empire's closest province to Norsca.
• Healing Factor: Possesses the "Regeneration" passive, which constantly heals him. He can also give his Spawn the special rule "Horrible Regeneration", which heals them as well as bringing them from the dead!
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • Whatever he is, he is not normal. While completely evil, Malagor and Khazark are (relatively) normal Beastmen, being mundane mutants. And even when compared to Taurox, a minotaur made of living brass, Morghur is not. He's a semi-immortal, sentient, daemonic forest spirit manifest in the flesh of a foul Beastman, hellbent on corrupting everything and destroying civilization in the name of Chaos. His rework makes this all the more nightmarish; he deals constant damage to everything around him, and he can apply Chaos attrition to the entire region he's currently in.
  • His army is also very centered around using Chaos Spawn units, mutated abominations that used to be either humans or beastmen in-game. He also gives heavy buffs to Jabberslythe.
• I Have Many Names: Morghur is his most common name. His other names include the Shadowgave, Cyanathair (the Corruptor) and Gor-Dum (roughly translated as "Wild Beast of Doom" in Khazalid).
• It Can Think: Despite being addled by his own madness to the point of being just barely sentient on the best of days, Morghur can still speak coherently, if barely, and not only consciously holds a grudge against the Wood Elves for defying him but makes his animosity crystal clear as well. This aspect of his character is made more prevalent here compared to the tabletop.
• Made of Evil: Morghur is comprised of the very stuff of Chaos, a roiling mass of pure Chaotic Evil.
• Magic Staff: The Stave of Ruinous Corruption, which allows Morhgur to summon a temporary unit of Chaos Spawn.
• The Minion Master: Has two abilities dedicated to summoning Chaos Spawn (which he already buffs on the campaign), being able to conjure several, and turn damaged units into them, a very powerful ability.
• Walking Wasteland: The ground beneath Morghur's hooves visibly crackles with sickly green slime and pestilence. Morghur's starting-lord traits also increase the amount of attrition non-Chaos armies suffer in whatever high-corruption region he's currently occupying. His rework gave him the ability to onset chaos attrition in any area of the map, alongside with a special rule, "Aura of Vile Transmutation" which causes his mutations to turn outward tearing at the flesh and sanity of any units near him.
• Was Once a Man: Well, he at least was a human fetus at one point. Until that fetus turned into what he is now and gorily tore his way through her mother's womb and mutated both her and his father into twisted beings.
• Weak to Fire: Due to possessing Regeneration, Morghur takes an additional 20% damage from fire attacks.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Morghur's body and mind are totally incapable of holding the tremendous Chaos power that he possesses, and in each of his incarnations he is born entirely mad.

Taurox

Taurox, the Brass Bull

"Taurox was forged for war! Forged by Chaos!"

Voiced by: Greg Draven

Taurox the Brass Bull, known also as the Slaughterhorn, the Bloodbeast, or as the Brazen One, is an all-mighty Minotaur chieftain who was responsible for laying a trail of destruction all across the lands of the Great Forest of Talabecland. It is not just the warherds of the Gors and Ungors that are rising up in greater numbers than ever before. All across Talabecland there spread legends of this giant bullheaded fiend with a body of living brass.

Riders following this trail of devastation on the swiftest of horses have reported its passage through and over market towns, armoured barracks, Flagellant camps, sacred temples and riverside wharfs, leaving nothing but ruin and great smears of blood that extend out of the other side of each site for many leagues. Of the inhabitants of these unfortunate locales there is invariably no sign other than the odd scattered boot or broken sword. Most disturbing of all, the outriders swear that the Brass Bull's army is heading directly for Talabheim, and growing larger with each passing week. Taurox is an unstoppable force; a roaring, snorting engine of destruction virtually impervious to physical harm. Cast in the form of a grotesquely muscled Doombull, Taurox looms over his followers, a mountain of living brass with curving, bladed horns and a gnashing metal maw that constantly drools with gore.

Taurox was added to the games in Total War: Warhammer II, as part of The Silence and the Fury DLC, leading the Slaughterhorn Tribe.

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• Achilles' Heel: Taurox's body is made up entirely of brass which makes him all but invincible, with the exception of one spot around his throat that is his only weakness. While it doesn't factor into gameplay, Taurox's campaign revolves around seeking the Heart of Darkness, which he believes will eliminate this weakness.
• Ax-Crazy: Even by the standards of Beastmen, Khornates and Minotaurs, Taurox is an utterly vicious being who will try to murder you for something as minor as looking him in the eyes. Especially if you look him in the eyes. The trailer for The Silence and the Fury has Oxylotl following the Minotaur's absolutely massive trail of carnage intercut with scenes of Taurox slaughtering everything in his path. This guy is so angry that he managed to impress Khorne with his bloodthirst.
• The Berserker: He was this even before being blessed by Khorne, and then after, he became a living embodiment of the Dark God's endless wrath. He rushes into combat with erratic attacks, screams, and promises of bloody murder.
• Berserk Button: Meeting his eyes immediately causes him to attack and devour you. He gets the regular "Bloodgreed" rule from other Minotaurs (that gives him a large buff to stats as long as he's in combat) and he can give the same bloodlust to units around him with the "Call to Slaughter" rule.
• Bloodlust: His "Gorefeast" ability gives him regeneration, and a few bonuses to his stats while he's engaged in melee, the flavor-text mentioning Taurox is literally drinking blood and eating flesh during the frenzy of battle.
• Brutish Bulls: You can't get more brutish than Taurox, who is such a vicious and aggressive specimen that he managed to earn the favor of an evil War God.
• The Champion: He is Khorne's most favored mortal follower, and bears his mark in the form of his living skin of brass, a very rare and impressive feat normally, but even moreso when you consider the Chaos Gods normally have insurmountable disdain for Beastmen. He carves up gore-lakes of butchered foes in His name.
• Chrome Champion: A literal example, as he's made of living, daemonically hardened brass, which makes him Nigh-Invulnerable on the battlefield against any attack that doesn't just ignore armor. However, his throat is still flesh, giving him a fatal weakness.
• Cursed with Awesome: Khorne "punished" Taurox for killing his daemonic messenger by giving the minotaur an endless state of rage and a body covered in nigh impenetrable metal, save for a weak spot on his neck. Taurox's perfectly fine with this since it makes his purpose that much easier. Most Beastmen would kill to be "cursed" like that.
• Dual Wielding: He bears a pair of heavy, enchanted weapons called the Rune-Tortured Axes. They give him boni to his attack and damage, as well as a passive boosting them even further once he's spent 90 seconds in melee.
• Extra Turn: Taurox's army can spend two points of momentum (a resource gained from winning battles) to reset its action points, enabling the player to chain together successful battles and cross huge distances within the space of a single turn. With enough patience and successful battles, the player can literally burn down an entire continent before finally ending their turn.
• Final Boss: A match against Taurox and his army is the final scripted event in Oxyotl's campaign.
• The Juggernaut: Taurox is a terrifying example of this; in terms of pure stats he's impossibly strong, fast, and hard to kill. On the campaign map, he is able to gain momentum points from winning battles, can be spent to give him an Extra Turn, as well as rampage points which grant a selection of more and more powerful benefits. Combined with his special "Juggernaught Raiding Stance" (a combination of raiding and forced march), Taurox is able to cross vast distances within a single turn and devastate entire continents.
• Lightning Bruiser: Taurox is super tanky, brutally powerful in melee, and very fast.
• Made of Iron: Literally... or brass in Taurox's case. As a gift from the Dark Gods for going on an unstoppable rampage for a year and a day until he finally collapsed, he was rewarded with a body entirely made of brass, save for one spot around his throat. He has massive defensive stats, and can further enhance it with his special rule, "Brass Body" which him extra melee defense and a flat forty percent ward-save that ignores magic.
• Mage Killer: One of his skills "Favored of the Skull Throne" grants him the usual Khornate resistance to magic to his entire army, alongside an inherent debuff to enemy mages' winds pools.
• One-Man Army: Taurox has a special trait rewarding him for managing to be this, "Army of One", which is granted if he successfully defeats an enemy army above a certain size if he's the only surviving unit for his faction.
  Even as his warherd lay dead around him, Taurox raged on across the battlefield, killing everything he could find.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: Taurox is possibly the greatest and most dreaded Minotaur in the setting, but uniquely avoids being Dumb Muscle like the rest of his kind and was the leader of his Warherd before being turned into the metallic monster he is now. His army/faction effects and learnable skills also incentivize packing his personal army full of minotaurs.
• Shoot the Messenger: His famous tranfromation started after he bit the head off of a daemon sent to offer him praise from one of the Gods of Chaos. It ended up working in his favor however, when said Chaos God ended up being Khorne, who was impressed by the bull's defiance.
• Walking Wasteland: His special post-battle option, Rivers of Blood, indicates his hordes turn every battle-site they come across into a variant of this.

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