Build your Own Daemon Prince to Bring a Personal Touch to the End Times in Total War: Warhammer III

It’s whoever you want it to be! You’ve got to expect the unexpected when it comes to Chaos – and that means you get to build the Daemon Prince of your nightmares. You can choose any of the four gods, or become a servant of Chaos Undivided, adding your own special blend of magic, mutations, and malfeasance. 

Only recently ascended from their mortal existence, this Daemon Prince has a full storyline to follow and acts in all respects like other named Legendary Lords. The only difference? You get to control how your character progresses and grows (and mutates) by earning a resource called Daemonic Glory. You can spend this to curry favour with the Dark Gods, who will, in turn, bestow upon you gifts ranging from eldritch powers to accursed equipment. With billions of potential combinations of artefacts, abilities, and appendages, no Daemon Prince will be the same.

To find out more about our newest villain, we sat down with Andy Hall, the lead writer for the Total War: Warhammer series.

Warhammer Community: How did the idea of this Daemon Prince Legendary Lord come about?

Andy Hall: We wanted to do something very different for the climax of this trilogy. With the game’s focus on the Chaos Gods, we had an opportunity to use a cool and obscure part of the lore. Unlike, say, Karl Franz, Tyrion, or even the usual daemons, which we interpret as closely as we can to the miniatures, the Daemon Princes’ description in the army books states that ‘the variations between these masters of misrule are uncountable’. 

This gave us the chance to create a brand-new system allowing players to customise a character that is truly unique – our system has billions of different combinations from pools of various appendages, heads, armour, weapons, wings, and tails!

WarCom: Billions? How do you create that much visual variety? 

Andy: Credit needs to go to our art team and the tech teams, but I also need to thank the Warhammer Licensing team for being so open-minded – we had some fun meetings, creating extreme Daemon Princes to see what would get an eyebrow raise from Warhammer’s guardians! Of course, it’s now up to the players to push the bounds of the system and produce even more outrageous load-outs. But then that is the nature of Chaos!

WarCom: Daemon Princes are some of the most formidable figures in Warhammer. How did you capture that in the game?

Andy: He is a powerful entity in a campaign and on the battlefield, but this Daemon Prince is in a unique position. He has only recently ascended; his mortal origins are for the player to discover, but there is no questioning his need for vengeance on those that have wronged him. You join him at the start of this dark quest, where the Ruinous Powers are still vying for his soul. It’ll be up to the player if they dedicate to one of the Four Powers or remain Undivided, which happens only rarely for Daemon Princes. 

WarCom: What does the Daemon Prince bring to the battlefield?

Andy: It’s not just the aesthetics that change when you equip body parts and weapons, but the stats too. Each body part will bring a bundle of differing abilities. For example, an Armoured Corpulent Tail opens up the passive ability Slime Trail and awards +10 Armour and +3% hit points, whereas the Masquerading Helm gives bonuses to armour and melee attack, and the ability to cast the Slaaneshi spell Phantasmagoria. 

WarCom: What can you tell us about the Legions of Chaos faction that the Daemon Prince leads?

Andy: The Legions of Chaos faction is our interpretation of the 8th edition Daemons army book. Unlike the other daemonic factions in the game, this roster can have units from all four rosters, and even gain mechanics used by those god-specific factions. 

You do this by gaining Daemonic Glory and dedicating the settlements you capture and raze to the various gods. You can either spread these dedications evenly to maintain maximum variety or go all-in on one god to unlock the higher-level abilities and body parts quicker. 

So, if you want to lead an army containing Daemonettes, Beasts of Nurgle, and Tzeentchian Flamers then this is the Legendary Lord for you. Oh, and you can also name him as well – a small but important aspect of the system, so brush up on your Daemon names as ‘Andy the Daemon’ won’t cut it!

WarCom: Lastly, which of the Ruinous Powers will you be dedicating your own Daemon Prince to?

Andy: I am a wanton child of the Dark Prince, join me in blissful rapture…

Thanks, Andy! What kind of Daemon Prince will you build? You don’t have long to wait – Total War: Warhammer III is out on the 17th of February. It’s available on PC, from platforms including Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store. And if you pre-order the game, you’ll get a bonus eighth playable race – the ever-hungry Ogre Kingdoms.

* It’s a heady mixture of blood, rot, musk, and experimental jazz.