I’m obsessed with Warhammer fantasy lore because of a single map

polygon.com:

I’ve tweaked my morning routine these past couple of weeks. Instead of playing sudoku, reading a short story, or sneaking in a bit of Apex Legends before work, I’ve been drinking my coffee while I stare at this:

It’s a map of the Warhammer fantasy world in Total War: Warhammer 3. Once a day since June 28, developer Creative Assembly has been adding more of those colorful icons to the map in the lead-up to its Immortal Empires DLC, which will combine all three campaign maps and every playable faction from the strategy trilogy into one massive brawl. Those icons represent the starting location for each Legendary Lord — the playable leaders within each of the series’ 19 factions. At the DLC’s launch, there will be 86 Lords to choose from.

Immortal Empires is an ambitious DLC.

And a Lord’s starting location is a big deal. It not only impacts the geographical features they’ll have to contend with, but also the factions they’ll encounter in the early turns of the campaign. Take, for instance, Helman Ghorst, a leader in the Dracula-inspired Vampire Counts faction. His starting location is represented by that white shield with the blue rose on the coast of the Sea of Dread. This location tells us that he’ll not only be battling the demonic hordes of Nurgle as they stream off of that island to the southwest, but also the ranks of the Ogre Kingdoms as they march out of the mountains to the north. Ghorst will also have to contend with the forces of the High Elves along the coast to the west, and the armies of Cathay to the northeast. Those are four factions with four extremely different mechanics, strengths, and weaknesses.

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Tomorrow will mark the final reveal in this starting-location news cycle, and honestly, I think