Not so long ago we heard that the “real villain” of Total Warhammer 3 isn’t the Chaos Gods as such, but that naturally left us questioning who would be the chief architect behind the daemonic threat and, well, chaos. Now, Creative Assembly has revealed all – during a Total Warhammer 3 preview event, we learned that the main antagonist is none other than the greatest of the Daemon Princes, the Dark Master, Be’lakor.
The game’s prologue explains that Ursun, the bear god of Kislev, has been imprisoned in the Forge of Souls in the Realm of Chaos by Be’lakor himself, who’s introduced as the game’s chief baddie. As per Warhammer lore, the Daemon Prince was once mortal but betrayed his kind at the dawn of the daemonic incursions, which saw the gods then grant him his princely status.
He then, however, demanded too much power, so was cast down, prompting him to swear revenge against his former band. It seems Be’lakor has a specific plan or purpose for imprisoning Ursun, which will have a bearing on the game’s plot – but that’s something we’ll have to wait and see to discover.
How this all ties into gameplay, however, is through Ursun’s mighty voice. The Great Bear does what he does best and roars so ferociously that his voice forges rifts across the game’s campaign map, which not only become Chaos corruption hotspots, but also act as portals into the realms of Chaos.
The journey to beat Be’lakor sees you head to these realms and face down the Daemon champion of each in a survival battle to claim their souls, taking on challenges and other adventures along the way.
Once you’ve claimed all four souls, you battle the big, bad beast himself in the game’s final, climactic showdown to decide Ursun’s fate. We don’t know what this battle will bring or what Be’lakor will throw at you just yet, though.
Excitingly, it turns out that Be’lakor has some serious acting chops bringing his character to life, too, with the esteemed actor Richard Armitage voicing the Dark Master.
Armitage is known for playing Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the dwarven party in The Hobbit trilogy, as well as Adam Price in Netflix’s The Stranger; Ray Levine in that platform’s Stay Close; John Thornton in the BBC’s adaptation of North and South; and Claude Becker in Ocean’s Eight.
The Total Warhammer 3 release date is set for February 17.
Header image: Creative Commons/Gage Skidmore