Welcome back to the roster reveals for Total War: Warhammer III. The Blood God thirsts, the Skull Throne hungers, and the forces of Khorne venture to the battlefield for harvest. They are single-minded, bloody, and potent, defined by a distinct hatred of and resistance to magic. The cowardice of ranged combat has little appeal, beyond the exception of cannons which broadside enemies with the skulls of those Khorne has consumed. The mortal races cannot hope to match his army’s ferocity, and the other Chaos Gods cannot survive in a toe-to-toe fight. Should they run rampant, Khorne’s forces will cleave the heads from all they find in the never-ending quest to please their god.

Below you’ll find all the details on each unit you can recruit as a servant of Khorne. As our first roster reveal for one of the Daemon factions, you will see some things you recognise from other Chaos factions, but also plenty of completely new Lords, Heroes, and Units. Total War: WARHAMMER III is still in development so what you’re seeing may be subject to change, and that’s exactly why we haven’t given precise details for each stat.

Don’t forget you can pre-order Total War: WARHAMMER III today. Also check out the Kislev roster reveal from earlier this week for more lord, hero, and unit goodness.

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The Bloodthirster Skarbrand was once the greatest of all Khorne’s Daemons. No other had piled so many skulls before the Skull Throne. One dark day, Skarbrand’s fierce pride grew hot and, blinded by rage, he smote the Blood God a mighty blow. Incandescent with wrath, Khorne cursed Skarbrand’s name and choked all personality from him, leaving only the bottomless rage that had caused him to attack. Since that fateful day, Skarbrand has wandered the mortal and immortal realms, drowning his sins in the blood of the slain – though he no longer has the wit to fully understand why.

Skarbrand is a ludicrous force on the battlefield, a titan of blood and rage. Even in his disgraced state, his incredible commitment to Khorne makes Skarbrand ferocious in his pursuit of enemies, near-impervious to magic, and a legendary commander of the demonic hordes of Khorne. He is constantly on the warpath, seeking only that which is detailed in the battlecry: Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne.

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Exalted Bloodthirsters are not only the deadliest of Khorne’s Daemons, but the mightiest of all Daemonkind. A single such beast is a harbinger of bellowing death, destructive beyond telling, and lives only to slaughter, maim, and destroy all that it encounters. It is the fury of war given form, the unfettered primal rage of the world made manifest. And such should be expected of a beast whose master is the Dark God of Bloodletting, Slaughter, and Murder.

Second only to Skarbrand in their power both on and off the battlefield, Exalted Bloodthirsters are monstrous, destructive, and incredible forces of nature. Terrifying, flying, blood-fuelled deathbringers, they lead only the mightiest of warhosts.

Most feared of all amongst the Bloodletters are the dread Heralds of Khorne. To hear their call is to know your skull will be collected in mere moments by the deliberate, merciless leaders of Khorne’s armies. As a Herald’s rage grows, all nearby Daemons of Khorne become gripped by an irresistible fury that lends further intensity to the carnage. They hack and cleave their foes until there is nothing left save a mound of corpses and another victory for the Blood God.

Occasionally, a particularly favoured Herald of Khorne is granted a Juggernaut, mighty beasts of groaning iron and brass, taller than a man and possessed of crushing mass, to better pursue his master’s goals. Such a pairing is far deadlier than the sum of its parts. Should a foe survive the frenzied biting and goring, they are likely to be crushed beneath its brass body or cut down by the rider.

Those who go above and beyond the call to slaughter may be granted a Blood Throne. A mighty Daemon Engine armoured in brass and driven into battle by iron-shod wheels which crush and mangle all who stand in its path. From atop his macabre throne, the Herald searches for foes whose skulls will make the most audacious offerings. Those plundered from cowards are fed into the Blood Throne’s baleful workings, consumed in fire to bring the Daemon Engine fresh vigour. Those taken from the valiant are claimed by the Herald and fused with the throne itself, to stand throughout eternity as grim monument to the futility of opposing Khorne.

Mounts: Juggernaut or Blood Throne

The Cults of Khorne can be found across the world. Less fond of the clandestine trappings that accompany the other Dark Powers, the blood cults quickly take hold in arenas and fighting pits, although secret martial lodges dedicated to the Lord of Skulls have been discovered in the higher echelons of society.

It is the Cultists of Khorne that establish and propagate such sects, roaming far and wide to serve their god, spreading corruption in their stead. Their methods are as often insidious as they are direct, from founding illicit fighting dens to causing all out riots. Strong cultists are constantly hunting out rivals to fight, with the victor claiming the slain’s warriors as their own. Some will aspire to rise and become true champions of Khorne, but there are plenty eager supplicants who simply wish to murder and slay in the Blood God’s name and so spread the cult’s influence far and wide.

Some ride a great warhorse – a sign of status for only the best warriors. The steeds ridden by these tribes are powerful beasts, foul-tempered and strong of limb. Once a rider has broken such a horse, it will remain loyal to him until death, but remain vicious and unruly should a stranger approach. Fed on a diet of human flesh and watered-down blood, these snorting, high-spirited steeds have a glint of intelligent menace in their eyes, and will trample, kick and bite as if berserk when engaged at close quarters.

Mount: Chaos Steed

Bloodletters who have proven their devotion and legitimised their existence, Bloodreapers are some of Khorne’s most deadly individual fighters. Each carries a Hellblade, a jagged iron sword whose blackened blade glows with heinous enchantment. A wound from one of these weapons can slay even the hardiest hero, draining their soul and sucking dry their shrivelled corpse. The Hellblade is formed from the Bloodreaper’s own essence and can never be discarded nor torn from its grasp. Each life taken by it strengthens the Bloodreaper, fuelling both its power and rage. As such, a Bloodreaper is even more terrifying at a battle’s close than its start, having gorged itself on the slaughter it has caused.

If that were not enough to crush and terrify the foe, a deadly combination of battle­frenzied Bloodreaper and the unstoppable crushing mass of a Juggernaut of Khorne can appear. There are also those that sit atop a mighty Blood Throne as a mark of status – a physical manifestation of the Blood God’s favour. The Bloodreaper that resides atop its pinnacle does not rest or repose as would another in its position, but prowls restlessly as the chariot advances, eyes and tongue twitching madly in anticipation of the next kill.

Favoured by their god, Bloodreapers are the locus of any fight they charge into. Bringing the energy of their god and his fury together, they can inspire those around them to ever-increasing ferocity, hardiness, and murder.

Mounts: Juggernaut or Blood Throne

A Chaos Warrior of Khorne has no need of food, drink or sleep, for he is nourished by the carnage that he wreaks. He has nothing but contempt for the weak or the cowardly and goes about the business of murder with a vengeance, for there is always a part of the man who was that rages against that which he has become. A Chaos Warrior’s only solace is in slaughter – the fulfilment of his new existence as an instrument of his blasphemous god’s will, and at battle’s end, his armour is spattered with the lifeblood of the slain.

Chaos Warriors of Khorne are fighters of unmatched prowess. Their strength is infernal and their bodies are as tough as the Iron Mountains. Imbued with the power of the Blood God and encased in suits of hell-forged armour, a Chaos Warrior is equal to several battle-hardened mortal men. They are no longer truly human, but living weapons, honed perfectly for the bloody tasks before them.

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The Daemon hordes of Khorne consist of ferocious Bloodletters, deadly warriors believed to have been foremost amongst the Blood God’s followers in mortal life and whose will is as implacable and blood-hungry as Khorne himself. When loosed to the fray, Bloodletters sprint from one enemy to the next, hacking the foe apart before springing away in search of new victims. With each fresh kill, the Bloodletters loose great shouts of victory that echo across the battlefield and chill the souls of all who hear.

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Khorne’s Chosen – the Naked Slayers, the Takers of Skulls, deadly warriors believed to have been foremost amongst the Blood God’s followers in mortal life and whose will is as implacable and blood-hungry as Khorne himself. Exalted Bloodletters gather in regiments, chanting their brutal praises to Khorne. In the fashion of the warriors they are believed to have once been, each unit marches beneath a gore-soaked banner upon which the names of their victims are inscribed.

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Gorebeast Chariots are even heavier and sturdier than other Chaos Chariots. No normal beast would have the strength to pull such a massive instrument of war, and they are therefore pulled into battle by a Gorebeast – a muscular creature renowned for its violent temperament. These grunting brutes strike their prey with such shocking force that those not impaled upon jutting armour spikes are torn apart by the impact. Even the lowliest of beasts recognise the bulky shape of a Gorebeast as synonymous with death. Each iron-clad chariot drawn by one of these formidable mutants is thus followed, at some distance, by circling carrion crows and slinking scavenger hounds waiting to feast on the bloody remnants of a Gorebeast’s grim harvest.

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The most favoured of all Bloodletters are granted the honour of becoming Bloodcrushers. Bloodcrushers are Khorne’s shock cavalry, a deadly combination of battle­ frenzied Bloodletter and the unstoppable crushing mass of a Juggernaut of Khorne. When the Daemonic legions go to war, bellowing hordes of Bloodcrushers stampede across the battlefield, trampling Khorne’s foes into unrecognisable pulp. When battle begins, Bloodcrushers relentlessly hurl themselves at the strongest point of an enemy’s lines. Here they hack, maim and gore their way through the strongest troops the foe can muster, exulting Khorne’s name with savage joy for each enemy slain.

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Exalted in the eyes of Khorne, these murderous Knights are gifted with Juggernauts to carry them to war. These massive Daemonic mounts are made of living metal and pure rage; they are dealers of untold destruction who grind their foes beneath steel sinews and brass hooves. As the blood-crazed Knights bellow their battle cries, their fearsome mounts snort steam and paw out divots the size of shallow graves before stampeding towards the ranks of their prey and flattening anything in their way.

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In Norsca, wolves and hounds prowl in the flickering shadows of the campfires made by the barbarian tribespeople of the frozen lands. The further north the tribe dwells, the more likely it is that the hounds that follow them will be mutants, their bodies swollen by the energies of Chaos. Brutish and bloodthirsty, the Warhounds of Chaos are natural killers built of muscle and fang that lurk in the wilderness in ravening packs. They will even charge a spearwall with total abandon, their only concern the moment when their slobbering jaws sink into juicy, yielding flesh.

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Furies are yowling shards of malevolent energy – Chaos in its purest form. With little in the way of intelligence, they are utterly subservient to the whims of the Dark Gods, and shift in aspect and power as the balance of the dark pantheon alters. They are easily subjugated by other Daemons, whom they regard with a mix of dread and awe. Furies swarm at the edges of the battle, avoiding the thickest fighting if they can. Only when they sight a vulnerable victim do they descend, a wailing mass from which there can be no escape.

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Flesh Hounds are Khorne’s foremost tool of vengeance. When a being – mortal or Daemon – rouses the Blood God’s ire, he rises from the Skull Throne and sounds a single sonorous note on a great brass horn. This blast echoes through the mortal and Daemonic realms alike as a peal of portentous thunder, rousing Flesh Hounds from their slumber and loosing them upon the hunt. Few can survive gory pursuit by these relentless carnivores, for Flesh Hounds are faultless and instinctive trackers, able to harry their quarry across fen, forest, and stone without once losing the scent.

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A grisly death is not the worst fate that one who has trod the path of Khorne can suffer, for the Blood God is inhuman and whimsical, and he makes no distinction between a beneficial or disadvantageous gift. Even the most vaunted Chaos Lord can find himself disfigured in an instant, his body wracked by a multitude of debilitating mutations. Should Khorne continue to pile on his dubious gifts, the recipient will devolve into a mindless, hideous creature known as a Chaos Spawn.

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To the Minotaurs of Khorne, a battlefield is a place of maddening excess. The scent of gore in their flaring nostrils drives them wild and they bellow their hunger for all to hear. They charge with a thundering impact, horns lowered to impale, then strike blow after blow against their hapless enemy. Once their victims have been hacked apart, the Khornataurs slake their thirst by tearing at raw flesh with their gore-encrusted nails and gulping down great hunks of steaming meat even whilst the battle rages on around them.

When called to war, these beasts reach into the piles of weapons and armour heaped in offering before the herdstones, equipping themselves with the largest and most formidable weapons they can find. These weapons were laid in celebration of victory, their erstwhile owners slain upon some forgotten battlefield. In amongst the rusted blades can sometimes be found those once carried by the warriors of long-lost empires, crafted using methods and metals no longer known to any of the peoples of the world, fragments of tarnished armour that might have been made for the guards of long-dead, forgotten kings.

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When a Daemon’s physical body is slain, he can surrender his true name to the Forge of Souls. The dark bargain sealed; his crippled essence is bound to a mighty Warp-metal hulk. Thus is he reborn as a Soul Grinder. A Soul Grinder’s clanking tread shakes the ground with every step, and it is devilishly fast for a creature its size, able to scuttle swift as a horse’s gallop, or even faster should the scent of battle touch its nostrils. Piston-driven legs thud home with sickening force, crushing to bloody paste those beneath.

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Those far enough away from Bloodthirsters to survive their onslaught commonly recall an overwhelming impression of vast size and unchecked barbarity, of roaring and snarling death riding upon stygian wings that eclipse the sun. A Bloodthirster’s ruddy skin is covered with coarse fur and brass armour, slick and gleaming with the blood of innumerable victims. This armour is forged upon the Daemon’s flesh by Khorne himself and thereafter becomes a living part of the Daemon, even whilst maintaining a brutal intelligence of its own. As such, even the Bloodthirster’s armour is wrathful and longs for slaughter.

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Mounted upon a carnage-fueled daemon engine, the Blood Shrine judders, spins and zooms across battlefields at great speeds, desperate to be smothered in gore and so draw the gaze of their mighty patron – the Blood God and his most powerful servants. The Blood Shrine is a mobile altar that will empower Kharneth’s daemons to greater heights of butchery and wanton slaughter.

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As the Skull Cannon grinds across the battlefield, its spiked wheels and rollers mangle everything in its path. Those who somehow survive the initial onset of the grinders are fed screaming into the Skull Cannon’s gaping maw, there to be roasted by Daemonic fire and ground to fragments. Only the skulls – so beloved of Khorne – are retained and fed into the mighty cannon atop the machinery from which the Daemon Engine takes its name. They slam into the enemy ranks, scattering foes like ninepins and leaving a trail of scorched and blazing dead behind.

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If you’re looking for an army to unleash your rage and fury upon an enemy, to make true total war with and burn all around it to the ground with little regard for allegiances, you may be able to stop reading our roster reveals here. Oh, but what delights and mysteries you may miss, eh?

The Khornate forces require precise planning and strategy to make up for their clear weaknesses, but once an enemy is caught, they are doomed. Keep to the battlecry: