Characters / Total War: Warhammer - The Lizardmen

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"Enact the Great Plan!"

"Before Elves, before Dwarfs, before Men, the Old Ones arrived upon this world. Then came Chaos and the Great Plan of the Old Ones was unmade. We are the last of their servants, and only by our hand shall the Great Plan be restored, with the total defeat of the usurping younger races."

To the south of the world, in the warm, lush jungles of Lustria and the Southlands, dwell the Lizardmen. These cold-blooded, reptilian beings are the world's most ancient civilization, crafted by the hand of the Old Ones, an almost forgotten race of godlike beings that, in ages past, arrived from beyond the stars and began terraforming the world. The Lizardmen were their first creation, trusted servants to aid them in enacting their mysterious Great Plan.

Rather than a single race, the Lizardmen are a conglomerate of four different species, each created with specific purpose by the Old Ones, and birthed, fully formed, from ancient spawning pools in the Lizardmen's temple cities. The toad-like Slanns, incredibly wise beings with vast magical prowess, lead their race. The ferocious yet disciplined Saurus, bred exclusively for warfare, act as soldiers and guardians. The lithe, skittish and clever Skinks work as artisans and administrators, while the hulking, dull-witted Kroxigors are extremely strong labourers and builders.

Wherever the sanctity of the Great Plan is threatened, the Lizardmen's mighty hosts assemble. Stalwart cohorts of savage Saurus infantry are supported by nimble Skink skirmishers that whittle down the foe with a rain of poisoned darts, while the Slann unleash formidable magic far beyond mortal comprehension. Alongside them march gargantuan prehistoric reptiles, summoned from the deepest depths of the jungle to tear apart the Lizardmen's foes.

Though they once flourished, a great catastrophe soon came for the Lizardmen. Whether by sabotage or failure, the great polar gates collapsed, unleashing Chaos upon the world for the first time, and the Old Ones vanished without trace; a desperate war of survival ensued, until the Demons were banished by the Elves' Great Vortex, secretly powered by the geomantic web of natural energy created by the Slann. The Lizardmen retreated back into their jungles, locked in isolation for centuries as the Slann ruminated upon the sacred plaques left behind by the Old Ones, desperately attempting to decipher the will of their lost masters and how to continue their Great Plan.

But as the influence of Chaos grew, Lord Mazdamundi, oldest and wisest of the Slann, came to a simple epiphany: the Great Plan could not proceed further as long as its corrupting elements remained. The followers of Chaos and other foul creatures not part of the Old Ones' design had to be exterminated, and the upstart younger races returned to their original purpose under the Great Plan. And thus, he decreed, the time of inaction was over. The Lizardmen would once again march to war, for they are the world's true inheritors, and it is their sacred duty to restore order.

Introduced in Total War: Warhammer II, the Lizardmen are playable in the Eye of the Vortex campaign, as well as the Mortal Empires combined campaign for owners of both I and II. 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

Hexoatl

Last Defenders

Tlaqua

Cult of Sotek

Itza

Spirit of the Jungle

Ghosts of Pahaux

• Achilles' Heel:
  • Their Rampage feature. It is true that they are incredible powerhouses once they get into a fight, but because they tend to go berserk and lose control, they can become subject to very damaging tactics by the foes that they could have otherwise easily avoided had they not been lost in their bloodlust, such as having a mighty spell dropped on them or getting attacked from the flanks or behind.
  • A lack of long-ranged infantry. While they have plenty of skirmishers, Skink Javelins have limited ammunition and Skink Skirmishers need direct line of sight, akin to gun-equipped units. Until artillery or flying units are acquired, Lizardmen armies often suffer at range, especially if they run into stronger ranged factions.
• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: The Lizardmen were originally created by the Old Ones to help them shape the world, a task they did dutifully. However, after the Great Catastrophe that collapsed their Warp Gates and brought Chaos into the world, the Old Ones ceased to exist on the planet and the Lizardmen were without their masters. Despite that, thanks to their Undying Loyalty they try to maintain The Old Ones' Great Plan, or at least as best as the Slann Mage-Priests can determine what it would be in the absence of direct commands.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed, but while the Slann were indeed portrayed as all-powerful spellcasters in II, due to a coding choice they could only access a few of the general Lores of Magic (Fire, Life, Heavens etc.) while on the tabletop game they could access all eight. Averted as of Patch 4.1 in III, which gave the Slann all the lores they were missing, so they are now at their canon level of magical flexibility.
• Adipose Rex: The Slann are all fat toad-like creatures which is not helped by their refusal to walk, constant meditation and sitting.
• The Ageless: The Old Ones built their creations to last. Lizardmen cannot die of old age, and the youngest and spryest Slann alive today clock in at a little over 8,000 years old.
• Almighty Janitor: While the Slann are the ones that are nominally in charge of the Lizardmen (behind the orders of the Old Ones, of course), the Slann are usually busy meditating and contemplating on the ancient plaques of the Old Ones to do any real work. When they aren't, they tell their orders to a portion of the small but dexterous and intelligent Skinks (going from Skink Priests to Skink Chiefs to other Skinks) that otherwise act as major workhorses for their people as farmers, scribes, artisans, and administrators. While Skinks are the equivalent of ignoble skirmishers in war (The Saurus almost always lead military operations), they care for the Lizardmen's massive dinosaur mounts and are the second-most intelligent Lizardmen, rendering them the true active leaders in Lizardmen society (even the lower Skinks might be necessarily ordering the less-intelligent species around, mostly the Kroxigors) — not that this power structure particularly matters to any of the Lizardmen, given they are all born and programmed to be servants of the Old Ones.
• Always Lawful Good: To a degree, though they're closer to Lawful Neutral than Good, as while they're not affected by the influence of Chaos, and are possibly its most powerful adversary, they're only interested in maintaining the Great Plan of the Old Ones. Other races are either part or not part of the Plan; those who are part of the Plan can be spared (provided they fall in line with it), and those who aren't must be annihilated with prejudice. The actual well-being of those races is a non-issue. Regardless, the things that make them lawful (Undying Loyalty, reverence for the Old Ones, discipline etc.) are baked into their DNA and no Lizardman would ever consider going rogue.
• Arch-Enemy: To the Skaven, who are considered one of the biggest insults to the Great Plan in existence since Chaos, and war against them is considered a religious duty. Clan Pestilens in particular is hated for their role in corrupting some of the very irreplaceable Spawning Pools. On a higher level, Sotek is this to the Horned Rat.
• The Archmage: The Slann Mage-Priests are repeatedly referred to in the lore as the most powerful magic users in the setting, period. Only Nagash comes close to them, and it took him millenia of practice and sacrifice. They're capable of creating tsunamis, earthquakes, and mountain ranges just by thinking about it. In-game the Slann have the unique 'generation' traits, automatically providing them a baseline bonus to Winds of Magic use and Miscast Chance, as well as a unique skill tree further buffing their casting ability.
• Artifact of Doom: The dreaded Engine of the Gods, a piece of forgotten Old One technology that is mounted on an Ancient Stegadon, and is carried into battle by a crew of Skinks. A timeless, golden idol of immense power, the Engine is used as a rally beacon of sorts, with it being able to call in a sun powered Death Ray, the Beam of Chotec, which can annihilate entire units of tightly packed infantry. It also doubles as a Support Party Member conveying a five percent ward save to all friendly units around it, as well giving a passive bonus to the players Winds of Magic reserve.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: Lustria is a land that is famous for its abundance of gold which is valued and worked by the Skink artisans of the Lizardmen Empire to create conduits for magical energy, decorative idols, and armor. Gold is a soft and dense metal: in our world, it's too weak, heavy, and valuable to be used for armor and would probably dent and break more easily than iron. However, there are some lore entries that state the Lizardmen are actually using heavy bronze for their weapons and armor which would mean that any metallic objects the Lizardmen have made that looks like gold is probably some other metal that's been plated or painted with gold.
• Badass Army: Despite having lost most of their temple cities over the long years the Lizardmen warmachine is still truly a sight to behold. The Saurus were literally bred to be warriors, and it shows, the entire race of them being badass soldiers that can fight off anything in opposition to the great plan. Saurus Warriors, are in fact so strong they can trade with enemy elites with little effort, and exterminate any of the other factions infantry. They are supported by small, but loyal and nimble, Skink Cohorts who make great use of throwing weapons, and monstrous, primeval beasts that can tear apart enemy formations.
• The Beastmaster: The skinks are expert animal trainers, and form almost telepathic bonds with their Beast of Battle. Likewise, Saurus who spawn alongside a brood of Cold Ones have an inborn ability to bond with and control their mounts in battle.
• Beast of Battle: A massive draw of the faction. The Lizardmen use various fictional species of dinosaurs and regular giant reptiles (whom are natural inhabits of Lustria) both to carry around war machines and to serve as direct combatants, in addition to the Saurus looking very saurian themselves.
• Berserk Button:
  • Whatever you do, don't even think about stealing one of their plaques containing the words of the Old Ones. Just don't. Lizardmen don't care about the golden treasure inside their temple cities and won't pursue if you just take that. Touch a plaque, on the other hand, and they will find you, no matter where you try to hide.
  • Hard-wired into the minds of Temple Guards, who will kill you if you even look at a Slann funny, even if you didn't actually have murderous intent. Some poor Skinks have learned this the hard way.
• The Berserker: Most of the powerful Lizardman units have a risk of going on a rampage in combat in circumstances where other beings would rout. This causes them to go out of control of the player and trying to kill whatever enemy is nearest, sometimes causing suicidal charges against enemies that massively outclass them. Rampage will only sometimes prevent routing from occurring and even rampaging units can become so worn down that they come to their senses and flee. For most units that suffer this, such as Saurus Spears or Horned Ones, the risk of rampaging only comes up after the unit drops below 50% hit points. For the various feral creatures, however, there is a chance the unit will start rampaging whenever it is damaged.^note The easy way to tell is to look at the abilities at the bottom of the unit's stat card. If there's an icon of a yellow exclamation mark, then the unit will not rampage while it has more than 50% health. If it's a red exclamation mark, then they're lacking that buffer.
• Big Good: Despite being the most rigid and unflinching opponents of Chaos, and completely immune to any form of corruption, even they don't play this straight, with their uncompromising devotion to the vague Great Plan, and their attitude to all the other races which is at best apathetic, and at worst genocidal.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Kroxigors (tall like an Ogre) and Skinks (as small as a Skaven) have this dynamic. Being Spawn-kin, Skinks and Kroxigors share a privileged relationship and their units can be mixed together and thus fight in unison, shown rather well with the two main Lizardmen characters in the story mode.
• Blood Knight: Saurus Warriors love their job, which is slaughtering anyone the Slann deem dangerous. That said, they're far more professional about their bloodlust than most examples of this trope.
• Blow Gun: One variant of skinks is armed with these (which contain poison darts), and the ancient stegadon, as well as the Dread Saurian, comes equipped with a giant machinegun variant.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: While the Lizardmen are among the greatest foes of Chaos and the various other malevolent forces threatening the world, their motives and methods are typically incomprehensible to anyone save themselves. In gameplay, this means that it is basically impossible to improve your standing with them in diplomacy through standard means (i.e. bribery), since their priorities are around their Great Plan.
• Bombardier Mook: Terradon Riders, in addition to a javelin attack, carry large rocks in their talons that they can deliver in a bombing run once per battle.
• Breath Weapon: The Salamanders of Lustria secrete a highly flammable oil in internal sacks, which they then can spit out to breathe fire and cook prey on the spot. The Lizardmen have taken to use Salamanders on the battlefield as moving flamethrowers, making natural Kill It with Fire weapon teams.
• Canon Immigrant: Pilodons, a docile and aquatic species of dinosaur that is tamed and used by the lizardmen to ferry troops across large bodies of water, are a recent lore addition that was invented to give the lizardmen a justification for having and using ports as they did not exist before this game.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": They refer to all other races as "Warm-Bloods", setting them apart from the cold-blooded Lizardmen.
• Cool Chair: Slann are slow and borderline immobile, so they sit on levitating stone palanquins.
• Cold-Blooded Whatever: While three of their castes — the Saurus, Skinks and Kroxigors — are clearly reptilian through and through, their caste of mages and priests, the Slann, resemble giant toads more than anything else. Despite their visibly amphibian nature, they're still considered to be Lizard Folk. To a lesser degree, the other castes are themselves a mishmash of creatures from several unrelated groups of reptiles — the Skinks are the only ones to be actual lizards, while the Kroxigors are clearly crocodiles and the Saurus resemble outdated reconstructions of theropod dinosaurs more than anything else.
• A Commander Is You: A Brute/Guerrilla/Specialist faction. Lizardmen tactics strongly encourage utilizing brute force with the powerful Saurus Warriors (who are often described as being high tier infantry with the cost of mid tier infantry), combined with the heavy Kroxigors, and their very powerful, but rare and expensive bestial units. The Skinks are numerous and cheap, but are physically weak, and serve mostly as ranged units, particularly in the anti-infantry Terradon riders. Unfortunately, for most Lizardmen units there is a rage mechanic that causes the player to lose control of them if the battle goes too long or if they get too injured, meaning Saurus and bestial units rely heavily on support units to cover for them while they're uncontrollable.
  • The Cult of Sotek is closer to a Gimmick/Spammer faction. Gameplay for them is heavily reliant on a game mechanic involving sacrifices made to Sotek, which make various buffs and Regiments of Renown available to the faction. In addition, in the beginning of either campaign they have a 200% upkeep on Saurus and Slann units, meaning the early armies will involve using large amounts of weak but numerous Skink units.
  • The Tlaqua sub-faction favors Guerilla/Specialist more than the others. Much of their strategy is centered around mobility and bonuses for their flying units, and all Skink heroes automatically start with Terradon mounts. The faction relies chiefly on the player's ability to move quickly across the map and battlefield and attack weak spots, unlike the tankier and more infantry-focused routes other Lizardmen factions go.
  • Likewise, the Ghosts of Pahaux put more emphasis on Guerilla/Specialist, with emphasis on the latter, and with a dose of Gimmick. The faction is centered around bonuses towards Chameleon Skinks, and their battle tactics strongly encourage the player to use flanking movements with said Chameleons. This is also reflected in the campaign map, and the Sanctum mechanic can conceivably allow Oxyotl to travel freely across the map to a determined spot, and combined with his ability to replenish behind enemy lines, he can launch entire campaigns in foreign land before retreating back to his capital when things get too hairy.
• Control Freak: The world must run according to the Old Ones' plans, and the Lizardmen will eradicate anyone or anything that deviates from that plan. This even includes the arrangement of the mountains. Things must be in perfect order, or else it must be restored to its original place.
• Creepy Good: While staunch opponents of Chaos, and very much concerned with the survival of the world, the Lizardmen are... quite savage, and different in their morality compared to the younger races.
• Death from Above:
  • Terradon Riders ride huge pterosaurs, and shoot with their javelins or fire leech bolas from the sky. In addition, the Terradons carry big rocks that they can drop on the enemy to deal massive damage.
  • Ripperdactyl Riders ride even bigger and more aggressive pterosaurs, and serve as a flying cavalry.
  • The Engine of the Gods essentially calls in a sun-powered orbital bombardment, the Beam of Chotec, which can absolutely butcher entire units clumped together.
• The Dreaded: While the Lizardmen are generally feared by most, what really takes the cake is the foul Carnosaur. Essentially the Warhammer equivalent of a T-Rex, these apex predators are feared by explorers to be one of the most dangerous things in the entire world. In-game, their bonus vs. large units and extraordinary speed in fact make them excellent at hunting down and killing other monstrous units.
  • It is said in-universe that the only thing in the world more feared than a Carnosaur is a Sylvanian vampire (who are a source of Primal Fear as they are an affront to life itself). Canonically the Carnosaurs are the reason why there are no dragons in Lustria.
  • Even worse than the Carnosaurs (and that's saying something) are the Dread Saurians. Resembling giant komodo dragons, they are the largest and most dangerous creatures in all of Lustria (and the largest units in any Total War game). They are notoriously difficult to control, and it generally takes a Slann mage priest actively and forcibly subduing their will to field them. It said that entire Temple Cities will tremble in fear if one of these things are running amok, and Carnosaurs will dare not go anywhere close to them.
• Decade Dissonance: As with many Warhammer factions, they seem to be in a completely different era technologically. They rely mostly on javelins and blowpipes and never seen using the wheel. The few pieces of technology are relics left behind by the Old Ones; arcane devices which the Lizardmen don't fully understand. Thankfully, what they have is enough, their weapons wielded by eight foot tall, heavily muscular Dinosaur men, can still still crush and flatten a heavily armoured knight.
• Determinator: Don't get between the Lizardmen and a goal. Their entire racial identity is dedicated to pursuing the last directives passed down by the Great Ones and the Lizardmen will follow them for the rest of time. They have generally similarly high leadership stats comparably to the Dawi.
• Domesticated Dinosaurs: They are all over the place, as the Lizardmen use magic and cunning to tame the lizard beasts of the jungle, which all evoke dinosaurs as giant scaled reptillian creatures. The most common ones, the slumbering Stegadons, act as beast of burden, vital to mantaining the Lizardmen's infrastructure, and massive charging Skink carriers. Most of the others, from the flying Terradons to the massive and savage Carnosaurs act as war mounts for their armies.
• Dumb Muscle: Downplayed, the Saurus are knowledgeable in the art of warfare, but lack much skill with anything else, to the point where their dialect is entirely war-related, and such require the Skinks for agriculture related tasks. They are not "stupid", just single-minded. The Kroxigor seem to play it more straight; while they're useful as both workers and shock troops, they're not known for intelligence (though they may understand more than they appear to). The Primal Dinosaurs, whilst lacking in some areas, are also fiendishly cunning as hunters, and seemingly can form bonds with their Lizardmen masters. The straightest example, strangely, are the raptor expies, the Cold Ones, which are described in lore as very stupid.
• Dying Race: Depending on the edition, anyway, but the Lizardmen have slowly but steadily lost much of their previous holdings, which include the irreplaceable Spawning Pools. Having less Spawning Pools, fewer and fewer Lizardmen are being born each cycle. Despite this, the Saurus and Skinks are still plentiful, but their Slann masters are getting less and less powerful (and numerous) each generation, making them a straighter example.
• Elite Mooks: The Lizardmen have the Temple Guard, which is composed of the oldest, most massive Saurus Warriors who wield halberds onehanded alongside shields (the only unit of its kind until the Tomb Kings faction was added), who wear heavy stone armor, and serve directly underneath the Slann, being fanatically loyal to them. Because of their immense discipline, they don't have to worry about the Rampage mechanic. They have singlehandedly hold off enemy charges, and slaughter monsters like nobodies business. And then there is the Regiment of Renown, The Star Chamber Guardians, Temple Guard who serve directly within the Slanns Star Chambers, thus infusing them with protective auras and magic attacks. Besides the Temple Guard, nearly every unit in the Lizardmen faction has a variety of Elite Mooks through the Blessed Spawnings, rare and extra powerful versions of the normal units with better stats and special abilities, which you can only access through special missions.
• The Evils of Free Will: Downplayed. It's not that most Lizardmen are incapable of acting autonomously, such as formulating plans, strategies, and ideas, it's just they have to do it within the bounds of fulfilling the Great Plan. It's also indicated that certain Lizardmen, particularly the Skinks, have also learned how to exploit loopholes in the Plan to further their ends.
• Fantastic Caste System: The various species which make up the Lizardman civilization are divided into various castes, each with its own role in society. The Slann are the rulers and high priests, interpreting (or at least trying to) the will of the Old Ones and directing the other castes. The Skinks serve as administrators and lower-ranking priests, carrying out the orders of the Slann and managing the day to day running of Lizardman society. The Saurus are the warrior caste, serving as the backbone of the Lizardman armies. Lastly, the gargantuan Kroxigors serve as heavy workers and beasts of burden, aiding in construction and other such tasks by helping to lift heavy loads, as well as being utilized as shock troops on the battlefield. It should be noted that nobody is looked down upon in the Lizardmen's hierarchy, as each sub-race fulfills a very different yet vital function to the overall society.
• Fantastic Racism: The Lizardmen don't have the highest opinion of other races, but above else they hate the Skaven. Best demonstrated in the speech their Legendary Lords give before the final battle of The Eye of the Vortex campaign where the Rousing Speech each of them gives has them boast they will wipe the Skaven from the face of the planet.
• Feathered Serpent: Coatls are massive, beaked feathered serpents associated with the Old One Tepok, who is portrayed as being one of these himself. In addition to be giant monsters, they are also very powerful casters who have the ability to hide units marching underneath its wings.
• Fiery Salamander: Salamanders are massive fire-breathing lizards that can melt armor with their burning spit, being very potent against large foes. Their main advantage, however, is their ability to move extremely quickly, being able to dart across the battlefield and reposition before spewing their deadly flames on anything unlucky enough to be in their line of fire; in other words, they are monstrous skirmishers. Ancient Salamanders grow even bigger and can scorch entire units singlehandedly due to being more focused on infantry killing than the younger Salamanders. Both variants are amphibious due to having the aquatic trait, and both units synchronize well with each other, as Ancient Salamanders convey a debuff to anything it attacks that makes the target weak against fire.
• Fiery Redhead: The Red Crested Skinks, a particularly rare spawning of Skinks. They are larger and smarter than the common Skink, as well as highly militarized, disciplined, and practically Warrior Monk in their devotion to their god, Sotek, Lord of Snakes. They come in quasi-elite infantry squads, carrying massive mauls, possessing armor piercing, poison, as well as the Fury special rule. They are led into battle by their Chiefs, a Lord option, as well as the most famous Red Crested Skink among them, Tehenhauin.
• Final Solution: Hinted to be their next agenda in the ending cinematic.
  Narrator: Commence the purge!
• Foil: To the Skaven.
  • Both sides do not value gold as a form of wealth, but while the Lizardmen find a use for gold they mine (storing magical energy), the Skaven horde gold for no reason beyond want to deny other races access to it.
  • The Lizardmen worship the Old Ones as a Pantheon of respected gods, alongside other deities such as Sotek, who while rather bloodthirsty is still venerated and treated with respect. The Skaven are monotheistic and worship the Great Horned Rat out of fear.
  • Both sides are lead by their most powerful mages, but the Slann spend most of their time meditating on how best to adhere to the Great Plan and word fairly well together. The Great Seers of the Skaven are mostly concerned with backstabbing one-another.
  • Skaven are noted for being extremely cowardly and fleeing from battle, but Lizardmen have fairly high Leadership and are actually liable to Rampage and attack their enemies in berserk fury before breaking.
  • While the Lizardmen do have Fantastic Racism toward the younger races and aren't above using a Final Solution against those who defy the great plan, they are also willing to aid them with no strings attached (an example being Lord Kroak teaching the Elves how to use magic). The Skaven want to genocide anyone who isn't them.
  • The Lizardmen are stuck in the stone age while the Skaven are one of the most technologically advanced factions on the planet.
  • While both sides have unique structures that boost income across an entire province, in the form of Geomantic Web structures for Lizardmen and Energy structures for Skaven, the Lizardmen gain bonuses from improved Geomantic Web structures in nearby provinces, while Skaven Energy structures only affect the provinces they reside in.
• Fragile Speedster: Skink units are way less durable than the Mighty Glacier Saurus, but make up for it by being nimble, highly maneuverable light infantry that can be used for light skirmishes, as well as ambushing. Likewise, Terradon's are lighting fast in the air, but will drop like flies when under a barrage of projectiles.
• Frog Men: Unlike the rest of the Lizardmen, which are decidedly saurian in appearance, the Slann resemble enormous, barely humanoid toads, who are so fat they usually require a floating stone dais to travel around.
• Future Imperfect: The oldest Lizardmen remember what it was like when the Old Ones were present, but after millenia of their absence and imperfect interpretations of their remaining orders have led to the Old Ones being misinterpreted as gods by the newly spawned Lizardmen.
• Good Is Not Nice: They're a generally well-meaning race, and everything they do has the end goal of ridding the world of Chaos and its evil, but they're absolutely merciless in pursuing their goals, and do not much care if they have to cut their way through nations to do this.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The Lizardmen are after gold plaques that the Old Ones left them as instruction tablets but most were lost for the most part during the first coming of Chaos. Even the mere rumor of one of those tablets in a location is enough to push the Slann to rouse an entire army to retrieve it.
• Healing Factor: The original effect of the Cold Blooded special rule, which had Lizardmen commanders being able to heal their damaged units... at the price of making them incredibly flimsy, so it was best to use it out of combat. The effect was replaced in the Aye Aye patch, changed too removing frenzy from the targeted friendly unit.
• Hero with an F in Good: The Lizardmen have been keeping Chaos at bay thousands of years before the other races appeared and continue to do so. But their seemingly alien logic and agendas are highly hostile to the other races.
• Hero of Another Story: Doubling as What You Are in the Dark the Lizardmen have, like the Elves and Dwarfs, battled the first invasion of Chaos and actually bore the full brunt of the onslaught. They have another perspective about the world's history as former servants of the Old Ones and they covertly contribute to quell Chaos' intrusions, such as secretly strengthening the Great Vortex's wards on Ulthuan. Being isolationists and secretive, no one knows of their contributions to the world. In fact, much of the world, as indicated by Hunter and the Beast, views them as little more than monsters to be exterminated!
• Horn Attack: When fighting other big monsters, Stegadons use an attack animations where they stab into their enemy with their horns to push it back or throw it to the side.
• Hungry Jungle: Lustria is an insanely deadly place where the wildlife is almost more dangerous than the Lizardmen themselves, just less deliberate in how vigorously they kill you. Pretty much everything is carnivorous to a degree, from huge, venomous insects to vipers big enough to tear your leg off to the primeval, dinosaur-like monstrosities that managed to drive dragons to extinction. It's from this menagerie of primordial beasts that the Lizardmen draw their mounts and animal companions.
• Human Sacrifice: Skaven sacrifice to be exact. The worshippers of Sotek hunt and sacrifice the Skaven to their god in bloody ceremonies, involving cutting out the heart or skinning them. Not that the Skaven will be mourned or the rats don't deserve it but their fate if captured by the Lizardmen is quite unpleasant.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: The Old Ones didn't design Lizardmen to procreate. New skinks, sauruses and kroxigor periodically emerge from 'spawning pools' inside the temple cities according to some pre-determined plan. The Slann spawnings were personally created by the Old Ones, and thus with no more Old Ones there cannot be any more Slann.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: A rather dark example. They are the only race completely unaffected by the influence of Chaos, and are its most stalwart opponent. They are also extremely ruthless in its destruction, and will destroy an entire population if they so much as suspect it to have the influence of Chaos.
• Ley Line: The Geomantic Web. The various celestial patterns dictate the streams that the Winds of Magic follow, and the Lizardmen build their temple-cities in accordance with these patterns, with each city at the nexus of multiple streams. By constructing pyramid-temples aligned with the Geometric Magic of the Web, the Slann are able to tap vast reserves of magic. Mechanically, this is reflected by giving bonuses to various Lizardmen cities depending on the upgrade level of certain building chains both in those cities and in neighboring cities.
• Lizard Folk: The Lizardmen are the oldest race in the Warhammer world, created as the servants and aides of the Old Ones who shaped it in ages past. The Old Ones themselves are long gone from the world, but the Lizardmen remain their devout followers, using all of their considerable might to enforce their old masters' Great Plan for the world. They're divided in a number of visually different sub-breeds: the small, wiry Skinks, which include a particularly stealthy chameleon-like subspecies; the Saurus, much bigger, much stronger and much more fearsome, and the Lizardmen's main warrior caste; the hulking Kroxigors, who are used as shock troops and beasts of burden and the froglike Slann, the mage-priests who lead their society and wield some of the strongest magic in the world.
• Lost Common Knowledge: Standing from a point of view after the First Great Chaos Invasion, it is mentioned that many routine rituals the Slann performed then were lost during the war against the daemons (especially those pertaining to the geomantic grid) as well as many great artifacts. And by rituals, they mean procedures to maintain a sophisticated system and technological tools. Nowadays, the Lizardmen are reduced to using beasts of burden and wield maces of stone to get things done, with the surviving pieces of Old One technology reserved for their champions and in very desperate situations. They can maintain things, but no longer build it.
• Magitek: Like the infernal devices of the Skaven, Lizardmen "technology" is dependent on the arcane energy to function, a specific example being their defence pylons being powered by blue Power Crystal.
• The Magocracy: Lizardman society is led by the powerful Slann Mage-Priests, although the Slann spend most of their time meditating on the plans of the Old Ones and leaving the day-to-day running of their domains to the Skinks, who incidentally, can also learn magic.
• Mayincatec: The Lizardmen have a strongly Mesoamerican lean, aesthetically. Their armor and jewelry are all based off of the Aztec kind, and their buildings consist chiefly of big, stepped pyramids in the Mayan vein. Despite this, they live in the local equivalent of South America, with splinter factions living in their version of Africa.
• Mighty Glacier: Lizardmen Armies are generally slow... slow like a tide of angry lizard people that will club you to death. Needless to say, their mainline infantry is suitably tough as well as their monsters.
• Mighty Roar: A very common soundbyte, with their various monsters having especially intimitdating growls that wouldn't sound out of place in Jurassic Park.
• Money Is Not Power: In diplomacy, Lizardmen have a passive called Cold-Blooded Logic. Gifting payments does nothing and will not improve the chances of a treaty. When engaging in diplomacy, Lizardmen consider treaties based on a faction's status, trustworthiness, intentions, and what all that means for themselves.
  "The immutable, alien logic of the Lizardmen means they will only consider strong, emotive states when engaging in diplomacy."
• Mummy: A rather unusual example of this trope. Relic Priests are first generation Slann who have been preserved using mummification, for even in death these powerful mages retain vestiges of great power within their cold cadavers. The most famous one is Lord Kroak (Mazdamundi's teacher, and a mage so powerful him unleashing his full fury is described as causing reality to collapse on itself), and while they weren't available to field in the vanilla game, a Lizardman player encounters one in the campaign, guiding the faction further down the race for the Vortex in a cutscene. The Doomsayers update added a playable Relic Priest, the venerable Lord Kroak himself.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile:
  • The Kroxigors, hulking crocodile-men the size of trolls that the Lizardmen use as shock troops and beasts of burden. They even have a unique animation where they do the infamous "roll of death" followed by them devouring their unlucky victim whole. They have, under the direction of CA, been giving an Adaptation Expansion of sorts in Total War.
    • Sacred Kroxigors, introduced in the Hunter and the Beast, are venerable Kroxigors who have been blessed by the Old Ones to do great things. They are covered in sacred war paint, equipped with a set of ancient, magic Power Fists that unleash balls of electric magic, and freely engage in wrestling moves on anything unlucky enough to get in their way.
    • A lord variant is also introduced in the form of the Ancient Kroxigors. Lizardmen grow Stronger with Age, and these crocodilians are no exception. They are Kroxigors who have survived centuries, and become stronger, and larger as a result. Furthermore, they are also albino, born with the white markings of the Old Ones. They style themselves after the mythical Nakai, going into battle with large hammers, and animal skulls mounted over their maws.
  • The Dread Saurians are immense crocodilians that made Lustria their home before even the Old Ones arrived. The Lizardmen treat them as Physical Gods and manifestations of Old Ones' power, housing them in ancient temples, covering them in riches, and feeding them hundreds of sacrifices daily when they are awake. They're goaded into battle by the will power of several Slaan priests working in unison, at which point they tear through enemy ranks like cats through mice, and even dedicated anti-large monsters fall before them.
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Above all else, fans love them for essentially being Aztec dinosaur-men that ride bigger dinosaurs.
• Omniglot: Slann are implied to be this. All the other Lizardmen are only heard speaking their language, rather than it being translated in English for the convenience of the audience. Slann, however, are heard speaking English in their diplomacy lines with non Lizardmen factions, implying they can speak any language.
• One-Gender Race: Strictly speaking the Lizardmen are genderless, being born fully formed from spawning pools in the temple cities. However, like orcs, they are referred to by exclusively male pronouns.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Many of the targets of Lizardmen genocides were/are exceptionally evil creatures — largely, their campaigns tend to focus on the Skaven, Chaos and the Dark Elves, who are collectively and gleefully responsible for the continuing horrible state of the world.
• The Power of the Sun: The Bastiladon equipped with a Solar Engine, which collects sunlight and projects it as a laser-like beam. Such a beast is a slow-moving, sunlight-powered, living artillery platform.
• Poisoned Weapons: Skink skirmishers are Goddamned Bats thanks to this and their blowpipes.
• Power Crystal: Lizardmen power their city defenses, as well as their infrastructure with these, as well as field a variety of these for use in warfare, by mounting them on some of their Beasts of Burden; some fire beam rays, others provide mass healing.
• Power Fist: Sacred Kroxigors carry giant variants of these that cover practically their entire forearm as well as their clawed hands, and are more like rams, powered by technology, infused with magic, and can deal terrifying damage.
• Punny Name: Many of the Skinks have names like these, such as your in-game advisor "Yukcannadoozat", or the famed Terradon rider Tiktaq'to. The names generic lords and heroes can be created with include such gems as Klo'aqa and Hydroxyanthrapur'in.
• Precursors: The Lizardmen worship, and were created by, the Old Ones, a mysterious and enigmatic race of godlike beings said to have shaped the Warhammer world into its current state, before Chaos came along and ruined everything.
• Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Their monster units are all based on generalized stock dinosaurs, albeit with unique twists that set them apart.
  • Carnosaurs are big, brutish meat eaters in the vein of Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus (visually they're a mix of various different theropod traits, bearing only superficial resemblance to any real genus). Considered the apex predator of the entire Lustrian jungle, they are some of the world's most fierce and powerful hunters. Uniquely, they often switch between walking bipedally and on all fours. Incredibly powerful hunters, Carnosaurs are some of the most, if not the most, powerful anti-large units in the entire series. They eggs are highly coveted by Skink Trackers, as the impossibility of taming adults means that they must be raised from birth. They are used as mounts by Saurus Scar-Veterans, whom they have been bonded with for life, and feral ones also come as independent units.
  • The only true rival to the Carnonsaur, Stegadons are essentially ceratopsians with stegosaurian thagomizers, a true Mix-and-Match Critter. Terribly aggressive, dimwitted, and highly territorial, Stegadons are quite similar to what they're based on, except for the single fact they're omnivores, and will devour flesh just as happily as vegetation. They travel in large herds, trampling everything beneath their feet. They're just as important to the Lizardmen's infrastructure as they are to their warfare, as Skinks use them to push building material around. They're strong monsters, and you can get an even better variant, an Ancient Stegadon that comes equipped with a massive blowgun mounted on its back.
  • Cold Ones are featherless raptors, powerful ambush predators that haunt the dark corners of the Lustrian jungle. Atypically for raptors in fiction, Cold Ones are notoriously stupid, and don't require much coaxing into being mounts for heavily armored Saurus Warriors. As a side effect, however, they tend to get angry very easily, and are difficult to control once battle is joined, making them very vulnerable to Enrage mechanic. Besides the mounted unit, there's also the Cold One pack, which is a horde of feral Cold Ones that act as skirmisher hunters and warmachine crew killers. There's a critically endangered subspecies, the aptly named Horned Ones, which as their name suggests have large nose horns, dwell in underground grottos, and are even more heavy-hitting than the Cold Ones.
  • Bastiladons are hulking, ankylosaur-type dinosaurs. They are often referred to by their Lizardman masters as "Living Bastions", as they are walking fortresses, a literal living bastion covered in a rock-hard bony skin, and then further protected by massive iron-like plates. The strong, heavily armored Bastildons have a myriad uses on the battlefield, being both a sturdy monster and a walking artillery piece through the various engines and devices the Lizardmen mount on their backs.
  • Troglodons are spinosaur-like cave dwelling predators that are almost impossible to control, and are considered the most savage creatures in Lustria.
  • Terradons are essentially unchanged pterodactyls — agile, if quite squishy, flying reptiles that act as mounts to veteran Skinks, making them excellent scouts and harassment units. They can swoop over enemy formations and drop large boulders over their heads.
  • Ripperdactyls are another, much more aggressive species of Piranha Problem pterosaurs soaring in the skies above Lustria. They have massive beaks and a really bad temper, which makes it only possible for the bravest and most experienced Skink Riders to tame them. They serve as a highly mobile flying cavalry, dealing powerful armour-piercing damage against enemy infantry.
  • While not dinosaurs, the Salamanders and the Razordons are inspired by other prehistoric reptiles, as well as modern lizards. The Dread Saurians are gigantic crocodiles, one of the most common modern reptiles to be associated with dinosaurs.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Saurus warriors only get stronger, tougher and smarter with age, and seeing as how they are physically incapable of dying from old age, they can become truly terrifying as the millennia roll by. Oldbloods, your martial lords in the campaign, are more than capable of flattening Warbosses in single combat despite generally pushing a thousand years of age at a minimum. Most exemplary is Kroq-Gar, legendary lord of the Last Defenders and the only living Saurus left who beheld the time of the Old Ones. Ten thousand years of near constant warfare have honed him into a supremely lethal fighting machine to whom any other of his kind will immediately defer authority. Even more impressively, Saurus are ordinarily biologically incapable of considerations beyond the martial, yet Kroq-Gar is old and experienced enough that he has developed some skill at civilian administration.
• Religion is Magic: All of their (very powerful) spellcasters are referred to as Priests. The Slann Mage-Priests are High Priests.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: While not quite abhorrent, they are all Well-Intentioned Extremist to the highest caliber, and conduct themselves in an utterly inhuman, and savage way. The primal lizards that make up their war beast selection are decidedly much more monstrous, and coldblooded.
• Shout-Out:
  • Geltblöm's Terror, a Regiment of Renown for the Carnosaur, is named after Jeff Goldblum and is a clear reference to Jurassic Park.
  • On a similar note, the Troglodon's roar sounds very similar to that of the T. rex in Jurassic Park.
• Smash Mook: The Kroxigors, who can grow nearly two stories tall, have scales tougher than armor and wade into battle wielding either enormous bronze axes and cudgels or their bare fists, serving as extremely heavy and unsubtle melee units. They also function as construction workers and heavy lifters out of battle.
• Spike Shooter: Razordons can shoot their tail-grown spikes at any would-be aggressor, dealing horrifying damage to anything heavily armored.
• Squishy Wizard: The Slanns are by themselves fat toads with scrawny limbs that couldn't support them if them walked. However, they are the stronger mages of the world, but still require a lot of protection to be fielded efficiently.
• Stealth Expert: The Chameleon Skinks are a highly endangered, rare spawning of the more common Skink, possessing a bunch of unqiue features. First, they physically resemble their namesake much more, and second, they can remain completely undetected on the battlefield until hostiles are very close to them, blending in with the environment effortlessly. They have they unique trait Chameleon, which makes them hidden in every kind of terrain, and cannot be accuratley targeted by missile units, as well as Vanguard deployment, and the ability to fire while moving.
• Stronger with Age: A general theme.
  • Saurus, who don't die of old age and spend their whole lives training and fighting.
  • Older Slann are more powerful than younger ones, but this is more due to each generation being spawned weaker as The Magic Goes Away, rather than each individual getting more powerful as they age.
  • Even their mounts are noted to be more powerful as they get older.
• Super-Intelligence: The Slann have a superior mind compared to their kin, allowing them to wield the Winds of Magic easily. For instance, they can process the many feeds of information they divine when meditating in order to see the bigger picture. They are also the ones most able to decipher the plan of the Old Ones though they are definitely a step below.
• Terraform: The Lizardmen are essentially created by The Old Ones as a geological engineering corp, and it was through their arcane efforts that the world was shifted into a marginally closer orbit to the sun, thereby warming it from its vast ice age and allowing life to flourish. They continue their task of re-shaping continents in accordance with the Great Plan, even if they are not quite sure what it is anymore.
• Temple of Doom: The Lizardmen mainly live in Temple-Cities, huge settlements built in the middle of the jungle at key points in the Geomantic Grid; essentially Mayan/Aztec themed fortresses. Here the Slanns can more easily tap in the power of the Grid, and these places are the most fiercely defended fortresses of Lustria, designed to withstand a Daemonic invasion...which many Estalian explorers seem to forget, as their a frequent target for Lustrian expeditions because of the insane amount of wealth that's stored in its depths.
• Terror-dactyl: Ripperdactyls are depicted as insanely aggressive predators with stubby, toothy mouths instead of beaks.
• Time Abyss: The Saurus and Slann, both of whom can live for centuries and only get more powerful as they get older. Many of the surviving Slann have been alive since the Lizardmen were first created.
• Unstoppable Rage: Enraged Lizardmen units rarely rout, and will destroy anything in their path with a singleminded determination to make whoever crossed them pay.
• Vestigial Empire: Most of their temple-cities are in ruins, flooded, sunken or otherwise uninhabitable, and they've long lost the magical network that once connected them to the Southlands and other parts of the world.
• We ARE Struggling Together: All Lizardmen serve the Old Ones' Great Plan and are incapable of doing anything else. However, with the Old Ones gone and many of the golden plaques meant to relay the plan to the Lizardmen lost, what the Great Plan actually is is subject to interpretation. This is the role of the Slann and they do not always agree on every particular. It's rare but not unheard of for Slann to disagree so strongly on what the Great Plan is that they lead their respective followings of Lizardmen into battle against each other, providing a convenient excuse as to why Lizardmen factions can declare war on one another.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: From their point of view, for the most part. The Lizardmen are dedicated to restoring order to the Warhammer world and no-one particularly objects to their methods for fighting against Chaos and Skaven but some of the plans they follow are a sticking point for the civilized races of the world. This is because the Slann are kinda lost after losing contact with the Old Ones, so they try to salvage whatever scraps of their plans that remain and follow them to the letter. Those plans involve such minor tasks as returning all the Elves to Ulthuan, all the humans to the Old World, and all the Dwarfs to the mountains, along with making sure those races stay within those tightly-defined borders. There's also completely exterminating everything else not mentioned in the plans.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: The Lizardmen do see some value in gold, considering etching in it a good way of storing information for a long time in the humid environment of Lustria, but they can't quite understand why the other races are so eager to get their hands on it. However, the Old Ones wrote their messages down on golden plaques. You do not want to steal one of these plaques ^note  There's a story from the lore that Norscan explorers once plundered a ruined temple city, and stole a number of treasures which included a plaque. The Lizardmen proceeded to raise an army, and marched on their settlement. The chieftain, in an effort to save it, had all the treasures they took cast over the palisade, after which the Lizardmen simply took the plaque, and left, taking no other treasures with them. . The in-game description for the highest tier of lizardmen gold mine building mentions gold being a useful substance for conducting magical energy.
• You Were Trying Too Hard: The Skink Priests, as the Skinks are the closest species to having free will among the Lizardmen (that will being, at most, a differing perspective on just how the Lizardmen will attempt to fulfill the One Ones' plans); some of them think up new religious practices and processes due to growing impatient from the Slann meditating to decide the next course of action to fulfilling the Old Ones' designs. The Slann inevitably put a stop to these practices the next time they impart their wisdom.

Legendary Lords

Mazdamundi

Mazdamundi, Lord of the Solar City

"The Great Purpose does not allow for mercy."

"Prepare to defend the gate. It must not fall into the clutches of the enemy. Your lives are nothing compared to this objective. Enforce my will — but do not sell your essence short. I have spoken, that is my will — see that it is done."

Lord Mazdamundi is the oldest and most powerful of the living Slann Mage-Priests. With a matchless mind unfathomable to others, Mazdamundi is obstinate in his ways and will not be deterred from that upon which he has decided. Although it took many interruptions to his thoughtful contemplations, at last the great Mazdamundi has stirred himself, shaking off the lethargy that has afflicted so many of his kind.

When riled, the Lord of the Solar-City will levitate his palanquin-throne atop the largest Stegadon that can be found. The current beast, a colossal specimen named Zlaaq, has served Mazdamundi for almost five hundred years. Once aloft on his mount, Mazdamundi will march out at the head of the armies of Hexoatl. With a flick of his wrist, Mazdamundi has smashed cities and doomed armies. His Great Purpose does not allow for mercy...

Mazdamundi leads the Hexoatl sub-faction. In The Eye of the Vortex, he begins the game on the Isthmus of Lustria. In Mortal Empires, he instead begins in the Southern Jungle of Pahualaxa, also in Lustria.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Whilst he still functions on a We Have Reserves policy when it comes to his soldiers, during one of his quest battles, he tells his forces that their lives should still matter to them, and if they're overwhelmed in the fighting, to die with honor.
• The Archmage: The most powerful of the living Slann, an entire race of supreme archmages. How powerful? He foresaw a Dark Elf invasion of Lustria and decided to forestall it, by creating an entire mountain range north of Hexoatl to block its advance. He's, in fact, the sole remaining Second Spawning Slann and thus the greatest mage of the Lizardmen as well as one of the greatest mages in the entire history of the world. In-game, he has a unique bound spell, called "Ruination of Cities", which consists of him ripping apart the earth's tectonic plates, causing immense damage to anything unlucky enough to be caught in its blast radius.
• The Beastmaster: He controls his enormous Stegadon mount Zlaaq with naught but willpower, beaming orders directly into its brain.
• Beast of Battle: Rather than float amongst the ranks of his Temple Guard during battle, Mazamundi will mount his palanquin-throne upon the back of a massive Stegadon in place of a howdah and personally lead Hexoatl's forces. Mazamundi's current mount, Zlaaq, has served the Mage Priest for more than five hundred years, being one the largest and oldest of its kind.
• Big Good: For the Lizardmen, Mazdamundi is the Slann with the overall most authority over his race, and all Lizardmen defer to him in any matter. Not so much for the other races though.
• Blinded by the Light: His special banner (which he gets from a quest chain) the Sunburst Standard of Hexoatl blinds foes in the lore, but in-game it gives a hefty bonus to defense and missile defense to friendly units around him.
• Carry a Big Stick: He wields a highly ornate war club (styled like an Aztec Macuahuitl), the Cobra Mace. In the lore the mace has a sentience of its own, and strikes out with lightning speed to defy Lord Mazdamundi's foes, but since Slann never engage in personal melee combat, he just has it to his side. It gives his strikes the poison special rule.
• Determinator: If genocide on a planetary scale is what it takes to restore the Great Plan of the Old Ones, that's exactly what he'll do.
• Elite Mooks: He heavily buffs Temple Guard in his army and faction, encouraging their recruitment in his forces.
• Fantastic Racism: Mazdamundi is notably xenophobic, even by lizardmen standards. In game, his faction has a -10 penalty to most diplomacy from a factor called "ruler's disdain", simply because Mazdamundi dislikes the younger races. All of his lines for Diplomacy with other races are extremely rude and hostile. Notably, there is only one other existing character who gives his faction the same diplomacy penalty... Archaon the Everchosen.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes glow with golden light.
• Light 'em Up: Along with a couple of unique spells, he can cast abilities from both the Lore of Light and Heavens, and his regular attacks have him rending his foes with searing white beams of enegery.
• Magikarp Power: At the start of his campaign, Mazdamundi has no offensive spells and quickly falls apart in melee combat, only starting out with a healing spell. If you manage to level him up, he eventually becomes an incredibly durable and strong Lord with some of the most powerful offensive and support spells in the game.
• Magic Knight: His spellcasting is even more potent than Teclis', he wields a large poison-inducing warmace, and unlike Teclis Mazdamundi has a giant dinosaur and a ton of traits that makes him nigh impossible to kill. While on Zlaaq, Mazamundi can lead the charge of your front line while throwing around as much magic as any high-level mage. Before getting high enough level to unlock Zlaaq and his other survivability passives, however, he's about as squishy as you'd expect a giant bloated toad man to be.
• Mind over Matter: Mazdamundi possesses one of the few Sync Kills in the game against giant creatures, where he lifts them up into the air with the Power of his mind and slams them down to the ground.
• Noble Bigot: Despite his dislike for the other order races, he is still willing to deal with them in good faith, and his reservations towards them, instead of being about malice, are based on how he views their meddling to be harmful to the world as a whole. It's telling during the End Times he committed a purely selfless Heroic Sacrifice to save the younger races, at the cost of his own life and most of the Lizardmens.
• Power Floats: When not atop Zlaaq, he (like other Slann) floats about on an ornate throne powered by his vast magic reserves.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Xenophobic stickler though he may be, he went out of his way to allow Yukcannadoozat to talk to him in spite of the latter cutting some major corners to do so.
• Time Abyss: One of the very oldest beings in the Warhammer world, being a second generation Slann (meaning he was almost a millennia old during the first Chaos invasion), and student to the great Kroak (A first generation Slann, and the most powerful of his kind).
• Too Important to Walk: When not mounted on Zlaaq, he sits atop a slow-moving floating dais.
• The Unintelligible: In the same sense as Kholek; his voice is so deep and gravelly it can be hard to determine what he's saying at times. Fortunately, CA provided subtitles for his speech in the Lizardmen trailer. This was made even worse during his campaign intro, where he was even harder to understand.
• Weather Manipulation: Having mastery over the Lore of Heavens gives him this.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to bring the world back into its proper course... and is perfectly willing to commit genocide on multiple races to do so. Then again, most of those races are Always Chaotic Evil, so it feels deserved.

Kroq-Gar

Kroq-Gar, Last Defender of Xhotl

"Great Plan of The Old Ones must proceed. Death on those who oppose it!"

"The warm-bloods trespass... Fallen Gates not for them. Their magic-users dare to activate the stellar engine at the centre... ignorance! Attack now! Destroy and rend, so declares the Lord of the Solar City!"

An ancient Saurus warrior, the Last Defender of Xhotl spawned at the now-destroyed temple-city of Xhotl thousands of years ago, one of a small clutch of Saurus that emerged from their pool coinciding with the rearing of a brood of Carnosaurs. Claiming the mightiest of them all, Grymloq, as his own, Krok-Gar had been in service for centuries before the Great Catastrophe, and when the daemons overran Xhotl, it was Kroq-Gar who led the last survivors to fight their way free and then engage in a guerilla war against the forces of Chaos for centuries afterward. By the time the High Elves enacted their Great Ritual and drained the power of Chaos from the world, Kroq-Gar and Grymloq were the only survivors of Xhotl left alive. Presented with the Hand of Gods by Lord Mazdamundi, Kroq-Gar has ever since been an integral part in Mazdamundi's crusades to exterminate the corrupting elements.

Over his long existence, Kroq-Gar has fought many wars — leading the armies of Hexoatl, or joining other hosts to aid them in battle. There is no continent upon which Kroq-Gar and Grymloq have not fought, but for the last defenders of Xhotl, the battle is not yet over.

Kroq-Gar leads the Last Defenders sub-faction. In both The Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires, he begins the game in the Kingdom of Beasts province in the Southlands, in Immortal Empires the Golden Pass.

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• Artificial Limbs: The Hand of the Gods, a gold-plated Magitek device which replaces most of Kroq-Gar's left arm.
• Artistic License: In the original tabletop lore, it was not explicitly stated that Kroq-Gar had lost his left arm in the desperate battles of the Great Catastrophe, leaving it to the reader's interpretation to decide if the Hand of the Gods was a highly advanced gauntlet or prosthetic limb. Even looking at the 6th edition model makes it hard to determine if Kroq-Gar had even lost his left hand during that time. In Warhammer II, the concept artist had decided on the latter interpretation which may or may not have caused a canon conflict.
• Bash Brothers: Despite initially seeming a master and his mount, Kroq-Gar and Grymloq are actually this, being very close, and having fought side by side for thousands of years.
• The Beastmaster: Aside from his mount Grymloq, Kroq-Gar additionally gives bonus armour and leadership to all Stegadons, Bastiladons, Carnosaurs and Terradons in his army.
• Bling of War: Even compared to other Scar Veterans, Kroq-Gar wears a highly ornate, golden set of plate.
• Big Damn Heroes: Pulls off such a moment in the Lizardmen cinematic trailer, rescuing a skink from being killed by a High Elven prince. Though it's unknown whether this was deliberate or incidental.
• Facepalm of Doom: One of his sync kills involves him picking someone up by the face, charging up The Hand of The Gods and blasting their head clean off.
• Fantastic Racism: His hatred of the younger races is so intense, he has a number of skills that let him and his army fight better against them.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Kroq-gar's lightly armored right arm contrasts his left arm covered with the Hand of the Gods.
• Four-Star Badass: Is the equivalent of a General in the Lizardmen army, having gotten his position from Mazdamundi thousands of years before. Nevertheless, he is both a highly skilled warrior, and a cunning strategist. In any case, he's the highest ranked Saurus currently, and entire Temple-Cities will mobilize if he makes a call to arms.
• Elite Army: He gives a rather massive reduction to Saurus Warriors under his command, allowing the player to recruit an entire army of these elite lizard soldiers far more easily than any other Lizardman lord.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Both Kroq-Gar and his mount are covered in large, jagged scars that they have accumulated over the centuries of endless war.
• Hero Killer: Whilst Kroq-Gar is exceptional at fighting hordes, his true talent is his uncanny ability to slaughter other lords, being one of, if not the, most powerful lord in melee, particularly when mounted on Grymloq. Few other characters can go toe to toe with him in a straight fight. Because of his massive anti-large bonus while mounted on Grymloq, he's one of the few lords who can be reliably counted on to kill Kholek Suneater.
• Horse of a Different Color: Kroq-Gar rides Grymloq, an exceptionally ancient and powerful carnosaur, whose just as dangerous and battle-hardened as Kroq-Gar.
• Last of His Kind: He and Grymloq are the last surviving inhabitants of the lost temple-city of Xhotl, which was overrun by daemons millennia ago.
• The Lancer: Is this for Lord Mazdamundi. If you're playing against the Lizardmen, then he becomes The Dragon.
• Light 'em Up: The Hand of the Gods allows him to cast the spell Shem's Burning Gaze from the Lore of Light.
• Mounted Combat: Pretty much his whole schtick, since he's usually leading legions of Carnosaur Cavalry along with regular troops, and he hardly ever fights except off the back of Grymloq.
• Non-Indicative Difficulty: Kroq-Gar is listed as having a "normal" starting difficulty in both campaigns, but is widely considered to be the easiest Legendary Lord to win the Eye of the Vortex campaign with and has an amazing start position in Mortal Empires. Kroq-Gar himself is brutal right out of the gate, being able to hold his own against any other unit, and his discount on the already-underpriced Saurus units bumps the Lizardman army list from good to amazing. His starting territory is tucked into a corner of the map, with only one front that needs to be fought. Additionally, his closest enemies are Skaven, whose main tactics fall apart against units that can weather the storm of rats, and will have their main ambushing advantage neutered by Astromancy. His only strategic speedbumps are being neighbours with the Skaven ritual faction in the Vortex, and having to go through Tomb King territory to reach the rest of the map — both of which are more than manageable once he gets a foothold. In addition to this, he also has a surprising amount of natural allies. Kroq-Gar shares the southlands with Tlaqua and Zlatan, the Bowmen of Oreon are surprisingly hospitable and the two High Elf factions will at the least leave you alone. In earlier versions (before Tiktaq'to was added) Tlaqua won't even hold it against you attacking them for their relic-generating settlement.
  • A later patch expanded the area and changed Kroq-Gar's position, but most of this still holds true. He no longer has his back quite so snugly to the wall and has to deal with an established Skaven minor faction to consolidate his starting province, but on the plus side he no longer has to play whack-a-mole with a random Beastmen army, there's more agreeable climates to settle before hitting the desert, and there's more breathing room between him and Clan Mors^*Although this is actually a stealth buff to the Skaven - previously, it was fairly easy for an army of Saurus to wipe out Queek Headtaker's faction early on an eliminate a vortex rival altogether
• One-Man Army: Kroq-Gar is a standout example in a franchise filled with one man armies. His defining moment was in the Invasion of Xhotl, during the first Chaos incursion, in which he cut through an entire Daemon army single handed to escape into the jungle. In-game, he is an utter monster in melee and can be reliably thrown against almost anything.
• Pet the Dog: Almost literally! During the Legendary Lord selection screen, he briefly caresses Grymloq, and rubs his head affectionately.
• Slasher Smile: Given the way that a reptilian face is structured and appears more differently compared to a humanoid face, the areas where there would be cheeks are instead gaps between the lower and upper jaws due to the evolutionary design choice of having a thick, inflexible layer of protective scales instead of a thin, flexible layer of soft skin. And in the case of Kroq-Gar's design, the gaps form a very distinct shape that makes it look like he's smiling.
• Sole Survivor: He and his Carnosaur steed Grymloq are the only two creatures to have escaped the Temple-City of Xhotl, destroyed by a Chaos invasion thousands of years before the events of the game.
• Swallowed Whole: One of Grymloq's kill animations has him mauling, biting and finally swallowing enemy troops whole.
• Time Abyss: While not to the same extent as Mazdamundi and other Slann, Kroq-Gar was already centuries old when the first Chaos incursions began.
• Unstoppable Rage: Both Kroq-Gar and his comrade Grymloq seem to manifest this as Tranquil Fury, but his rage towards his inability to fully enact the Old Ones' Great Plan has caused Kroq-Gar to develop a never-ending rage against the younger races, which is reflected in his unique skill tree, which focuses on him getting powerful bonuses while fighting different races.
• World's Best Warrior: A strong contender, alongside Tyrion and Wulfrik. Kroq-Gar combines his immense strength, and innate skill in warfare to be a formidable soldier, but what truly makes him stand out is the thousands of years of experience he's accumulated while fighting for the Old Ones, making him tempered by wisdom, but no less deadly in combat.

Tehenhauin

Tehenhauin, the Prophet of Sotek

"Mighty Sotek, we invoke you through our sacrifices, rise up in the blood of our enemies!"

"The time is upon us, apostles! It has been foretold! The Rodent-God's pestilence blights our kind, but today the Red-Crested Skinks shall strike a vengeful blow. We shall send these plague beasts to the bottom of the pit, where the Great Serpent's wrath awaits them! With this glorious sacrifice, Skaven-kind will know that the Prophecy of Sotek has come to pass!"

Tehenhauin is the name of the first and greatest Prophet of the Serpent God, Sotek. It began when Tehenhauin rallied the population of disease-ridden Chaqua, leading them out of that defiled city. Before he left, he claimed two treasures — a gleaming sacrificial blade and the hidden plaques of Chaqua, which proclaimed the coming of the Serpent God. Turning the plaques into a totem, Tehenhauin bore them at the forefront of the massive Skink migration. In this way, a ground swell of momentum built behind Tehenhauin, and placed him at the apex of the new Cult of Sotek. Idolised by his fellow Skinks in a manner previously reserved for Slann Mage-Priests, Tehenhauin prophesied the Serpent God’s coming.

Things may have gone ill for Tehenhauin, yet the Skink Priest backed his chittering oratory with bold acts — leading armies of followers to victory after victory over the Skaven that were then rampaging across Lustria. Many thousands of captured ratmen were cruelly sacrificed to Sotek; acts that Tehenhauin promised would bring forth their vengeful god. The appearance of a twin-tailed comet in the skies was taken as proof of his imminent arrival. Upon the field of battle, Tehenhauin attacked in the manner of his twin-tailed deity — forked assaults. A serpent strikes quickly and so too did Tehenhauin, focussing his army’s venomous energy on the enemy’s weak points. As if in answer to his many sacrifices, serpents of all varieties formed a writhing carpet at his feet.

After leading his troops to victory at the Mal’liente Swamp, Tehenhauin had grown so popular that the Slann had to consider his wishes. None know Tehenhauin’s ultimate fate, but some say he is still using his powers to hunt the hated vermin. It would seem impossible for a short-lived Skink to attain this length of years, but it is whispered that as a snake sheds its skin and is renewed, so too is Sotek’s Chosen. Since those days, at times of great importance a single red-crested Skink Priest has emerged from the deep jungle, claiming the title of Tehenhauin, the once and future Prophet of Sotek.

Tehenhauin is a Legendary Lord available to those who purchase the DLC pack The Prophet and the Warlock. Tehenhauin leads his own sub-faction, Cult of Sotek, in the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns.

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• Animal Motifs: He's very heavily associated with snakes. He worships Sotek, the god of snakes, he wields a massive sacrificial dagger that is shaped like a snake and is dripping with snake venom, is very viper like in appearance compared to other Skinks, and has a split tail that highly resembles the forked tongue of a snake.
• Arch-Enemy: Serves as this for Clan Pestilens as a whole, having thrown them out of Lustria once before in the backstory, after a nightmarish war. He has personally pledged to rid the world of the Skaven menace.
• Artifact of Doom: Tehehauin has access to a Engine of the Gods as his final, and most powerful mount. The Red Crested Skink, was in fact, the one who originally rediscovered the technology, and fielded it to great effect during his defeat of Clan Pestilens.
• Ax-Crazy: He certainly gives off this appearance, with his horrifying Slasher Smile, and his genocidal attitude towards the Skaven menace.
• Badass Preacher: Tehenhauin founded the Cult of Sotek by word and by sword — using the word on his fellow Skinks to rouse them to action and the sword on Clan Pestilens. His blood coated sermons were instrumental in rallying the entire Lizardmen race (including the Saurus and eventually even the Slann) during the crisis in which Clan Pestilens mounted a full scale invasion of Lustria, and he essentially expanded his cult to encompass a massive amount of previously atheist Skinks by his word and blade alone.
• The Beastmaster: Tehenhauin is a Lore of Beasts mage, and can use a variety of jungle creatures as mounts.
• Church Militant: His faction, the Cult of Sotek acts as this. Tehenhauin is also the most famous prophet of Sotek and leads his cult's war against the Skaven.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Sotek is implied to not actually have been an Old One, but rather a deity created by Tehenhuain's faith and the mass sacrifices done in his name. The Prophecies of Sotek that inspired Tehenhauin are implied to genuinely be made by the Old Ones, however, meaning that Sotek's arrival was in The Great Plan to begin with. This was the interpretation the Slann took when deciding whether or not Sotek was a genuine deity the Lizardmen were allowed to worship.
• Creepy Good: Even by Lizardman standards. Tehehauin's one and only solution to the threat of the Under-Empire is feed every single living Skaven to the sacrificial altar of Sotek. He took glee in offering up their hearts by the thousands to his snake god. No other named Lizardmen character comes even close to his level of bloodthirstiness as long as Skaven are involved.
• Fantastic Racism: Tehenhauin absolutely despises Skaven, having attempted genocide on their race on several occasions, so much so that he makes the other Lizardmen's disdain towards the younger race as seeming moderate in comparison. His hatred is so strong, he grants his army leadership and weapon damage bonuses when fighting the Skaven.
• Fiery Red Head: Tehenhauin is known for two things, his bloodthirstiness towards Skaven and his massive red crest.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: One of Tehenhauin's unique faction mechanics is the Prophecy of Sotek, which is divided into three levels each with their own effects. Upon reaching stage two, all Lizardmen factions and all Skaven factions in the game are now at war with each other, and diplomacy between the two races is permanently locked from there on out. The only way to end this is if one of the two races is wiped out.
• High Priest: He is both Sotek's primary spreader of his word, as well as his personal champion when words are no longer enough. Tehenhauin is the undisputed leader of the Cult of Sotek, and one of the most powerful Lizardmen on the Lustrian continent itself.
• Human Sacrifice: His unique faction mechanic is based on sacrificing prisoners to Sotek for boosts. As in his backstory, Skaven are his favoured sacrifice, but in-game he's not particularly picky about who goes onto the altar.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: If defeated in battle, Tehenhauin grants the enemy general a trait that gives him a bonus to captives taken after battle as well as giving him the passive ability Untainted, meaning he counter-acts corruption. Hilariously, this is still the case even for the factions that want to spread corruption, like the various vampire or chaos factions, which can severely hinder their expansion efforts.
• Large and in Charge: By Skink standards. Red-crested Skinks are notably larger and more muscled than their regular brethren, and Tehenhauin is big even by their standards, being closer in bulk to a small Saurus than a Skink.
• Legacy Character: It's noted that the time since the Prophet first appeared to the present is far longer than any Skink has ever lived, and yet Tehenhauin continues to reappear, which suggests that either a new red-crested Skink appears every time the old Tehenhauin dies to take his place, or he is blessed by Sotek with an incredibly long lifespan.
• Magic Knight: He's both a fierce melee combatant as well as a caster of the Lore of Beasts, especially if mounted.
• Mythology Gag: All of the regular Skinks in the Cult of Sotek have green scales instead of blue which is how the Lizardmen (Saurus and Kroxigors included) were originally colored in their initial debut for the Tabletop's 5th Edition.
• The Paragon: Tehenhauin is held in almost Slann-like reverence by the Skinks, and to a lesser degree by many Saurus as well (who respect Tehenhauin unlike any other Skink for his skill in war). In-game he's allowed full access to the Lizardmen roster despite not being officially led by any Slann, though Saurus and Temple Guard units require double upkeep until he succeeds at completing a part of The Prophecies of Sotek.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Skinks are generally known for being the small, swift-moving, and intellectual caste of the Lizardmen species that doesn't hold up well in melee. Tehenhuain is the exception whose proficiency and ferocity is significantly above that found in the average Saurus warriors.
• Poisonous Person: Not only does Sotek's blessing grant him the poison special rule, the venom flowing from him and his sacrificial knife is strong enough to grant all units around him the same horrid venom.
• Throw the Book at Them: While not a book per say, (instead a fifty pound stone tablet), this is the general gist of how he uses his Plaque of Sotek, which has the Prophecy of Sotek carved onto it. He occasionally uses it as a bludgeon in an animation, and it provides a myriad of stat boosts.

Tiktaq'to

Tiktaq'to, Master of Skies of Hexoatl

"There are many paths, mine is rarely on the ground. What is yours?"

Tiktaq’to, Master of Skies for the Temple-City of Hexoatl, is the greatest of all the Terradon Riders. Atop his fierce terradon, Zwup, he patrols the firmament, leading his squadron through the narrowest ravines and steepest valleys, surprising the enemy by appearing from unexpected directions and bombarding them with a deadly hail of rocks.

Master of Skies is a most honoured position, outranked only by the Skink Priests and Slann Mage-Priests themselves. To this end, he has been gifted the lethal Blade of Ancient Skies, made from the jawbone of a long extinct giant predator, and the Mask of Heavens, allowing him to meld his consciousness with the Terradons as though they are one. By Mazdamundi’s command, Tiktaq’to will lead Tlaqua to restore the geomantic web in the Southlands!

Tiktaq'to is a Legendary Lord available as FLC, leading the Tlaqua sub-faction. He begins play in the Southlands, in the Great Jungle in the Vortex Campaign, the Great Desert of Araby in Mortal Empires, and a little further south in the Western Jungles in Immortal Empires.

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• Ace Pilot: Tiktaq'to did not earn the title "Master of Skies" for nothing, and all Lizardmen consider him to be the greatest Terradon rider they have ever fielded.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Was named "Master of the Skies" of Hexoatl for his countless acts of fearless flying and his savage attacks on the Lizardmen's numerous foes. He only answers to the Skink Priests and the Slann Mage-Priests themselves.
• Badass Normal: Compared to the other Legendary Lords of the Lizardmen (a ten thousand year old Magical toad, an equally old Giant lizard with an ultra Rex, and an ultra buff Red-Crested Skink with the blessing of the God of War) Tiktaq'to is just a normal Skink who gets by with his extreme skills and complete mastery of aerial warfare.
• Cool Mask: His Mask of Heavens, a golden faced warmask that gives him a terrifying visage.
• Death from Above: His entire playstyle and claim to fame; Tiktaq'to's mastery of aerial warfare is practically unmatched in the entire Warhammer world. He always starts with his flying mount, bestows (from both special skills and his campaign traits) a vast amount of statistic buffs to flying units, his skink leaders all start with a Terradon mount, he can be upgraded with the Drop Sphere of Tepok, an uniquely devastating boulder powered by magic, and to top it off, he gives all Terradon riders in his faction a lesser, but still powerful version of his sphere, essentially doubling their rock capacity.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Using the aforementioned Death from Above tactics effectively requires quite a lot of micromanagement, as the spheres drop directly below the unit and can't be aimed ahead of time. Not to mention that, even with Tiktaq'to's buffs, you only get two bombs per unit with no ways to get more mid-battle, meaning you have to be careful with where and when you use them as well. With proper positioning and timing, however, bombing runs lead by Tiktaq'to can rout or even wipe out entire armies in one fell swoop.
• Extra Turn: The Rite of Tzunki, which is unique to Tiktaq'to, immediately gives all his armies back all their movement.
• Foil: To Kroq-Gar. Both are mighty warriors of the Lizardmen that are known for the close bond they have with their mount and both serve as Second-in-commands for Mazdamundi. However, Kroq-gar is a millennia old Saurus Oldblood that leads from the back of his carnosaur Grymloq, while Tiktaq'to is merely an ordinary skink who takes to the skies on the back of his Terradon Zwup. Kroq-Gar is one of the single strongest melee lords in the game, being both hard to kill and dealing a lot of damage, while Tiktaq'to is a Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon. Kroq-gar gives bonuses to all the large dinosaurs of the Lizardmen, while Tiktaq'to's bonuses focus solely on the aerial Terradons and Ripperdactyls. Finally, both Tiktaq'to and Kroq-gar start in the Southlands as they were sent onto separate missions by Mazdamundi.
• Fluffy the Terrible: His name is pronounced "Tick-Tack-Toe", and he's one of the most powerful commanders the lizardman nation has at their disposal.
• Fragile Speedster: As far as Legendary Lords are concerned, Tiktaq'to is more on the squishy end as he has very little armour. However, aside from that, his combat stats are pretty high across the board and he has great maneuverability on his Terradon Zwup, giving him excellent capabilities as an assassin that quickly swoops in, snipes out a squishy high value target like an enemy caster, and gets out before the enemy can retaliate. Anyone trying to do the same to him has to either shoot him out of the skies or be flying themselves.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Unlike other legendary items, which have a quest battle to recover them regardless of if they're physically on the character's model, Tiktaq'to's Mask of Heavens actually has an explanation as to why he needs to fight a quest battle to "obtain" it even though he always wears it as part of his model; a group of Skaven have been disrupting the Geomantic Web to the point of interfering with the Mask's abilities. The quest battle for it involves wiping them out and fixing the disruption, which also fixes the Mask and allows Tiktaq'to to gain its benefits in the campaign.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Wields the Blade of the Ancient Skies, a massive jawbone of a forgotten, extinct predator, converted into a sword that provides the skink with Armour Piercing attacks.
• Hero Killer: Tiktaq'to is frighteningly good at being an assassin, as his aerial mastery grants him free reign to attack vulnerable heroes like mages, kill them quickly with his blade, before flying up to safety once more.
• Horse of a Different Color: Rides a Terradon, a giant predatory pteranadon-like creature, called Zwup.
• The Lancer: As the Master of Skies of Hexoatl, he is this to Mazdamundi. He even once took command of Hexoatl's army when Mazdamundi was absent to defend against an incoming Chaos force.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Tiktaq'to is permanently bonded to his mount, Zwup, with the two noted as being very close in the background lore. He starts the campaign mounted on Zwup and cannot trade him under any circumstances, he's one of the very few lords who isn't allowed to be dismounted.
• Mask Power: Wears the Mask of Heavens, which provides Tiktaq'to and nearby air units with massive missile resistance. Forged by master Skink artisans for his personal use, it's one of the reason he's so attuned with Zwup, it allows him to take direct control of his companion and pull off some truly insane air stunts.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Tiktaq'to's faction is based around some unique campaign bonuses: all his Skink heroes automatically gain a terradon mount, he buffs the flying units of the Lizardmen, and his campaign line of sight is greater than any other faction's.
• Punny Name: It's pronounced "Tic-Tac-Toe" and "Swoop".
• Vertical Kidnapping: One of his most notable feat of arms in the lore is to have lifted the Orc Warboss of the Blue Vipers tribe, only to drop him at a fatal altitude. Having to helplessly watch their strongest leader fall to his gruesome death broke the Orcs' spirit, routing them without any casualties for the Lizardmen.

Nakai

Nakai the Wanderer, Sacred Kroxigor of the First Spawning

"All trespassers will die. Jungle to reclaim. I protect Lustria for Old Ones!"

A towering Kroxigor of the First Spawning, Nakai is giant revered by the Lizardmen and Skink Priests as a guardian spirit of Lustria made flesh. Originally from the temple city of Tlanxla, Nakai never pledged any alliegance to anyone after the city was destroyed during the Great Catastrophe by tides of Chaos Daemons. Ever since then, he wanders the Jungle aiding the Lizardmen in dire situations.
Nakai is a Legendary Lord available in the first cross-game DLC, opposite Markus Wulfhart of the Empire, in The Hunter and The Beast. Uniquely, his sub-faction — the Spirit of the Jungle — is a centralized horde that controls territory through an NPC vassal, the Defenders of the Great Plan. His starting position in the Eye of the Vortex campaign is in Lustria near Itza, and his goal is to drive out the human settlers in the region, including Markus' expedition. In Mortal Empires, he moves all the way to Albion near Ulthuan, with the new goal of wiping out the Chaos-worshipping tribes of Norsca. In Immortal Empires he's gone even further, emerging on the southern borders of Cathay, seemingly emerging from the jungles of Ind.

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• Ascended Extra: Nakai was a non-playable background character in the tabletop game (though GW did host semi-official rules for him on their site and in White Dwarf for the Shadow Over Albion campaign practically two decades ago). Here he's been promoted to a full Legendary Lord.
• Big Damn Heroes: Much like the Green Knight and the White Dwarf, Nakai has a tendency to show up just when he is needed the most by beleaguered Lizardmen cities and temples, turning around seemingly hopeless battles on his own.
• Bling of War: After every victory he takes part in, Nakai is decorated by the local Skink Priests with trinkets that symbolise his victories. Over the thousands of years he's earned a lot of them. His special item, Golden Tribute, is meant to represent all the trinkets and baubles he's been given over his thousand years of service, and it completely reduces fatigue for all units caught in its radius.
• Blue Is Heroic: Unlike the tabletop, Nakai is covered in blue scales, with an underbelly of white war paint, rather than Albino.
• Circle of Standing Stones: Nakai is a veteran of countless wars, and one of his most famous conflicts in the background was during the exploration of the mist-shrouded Albion (a forlorn island with a primitive druid society, with countless Stonehedge-esque stone effigies), a mini campaign for the tabletop. To reference this, he starts on the island and one of his magic items is The Ogham Shard, a magically powered runestone and a miniature example of this trope.
• The Dreaded: Probably one of the most feared beings on the entire Lustrian continent, with his legend stretching back thousands of years. More specifically, he became this to the Chaos Daemons during the Great Catastrophe. While protecting the place known as the Bridge of the Stars, Nakai slew so many daemons the latter avoid the place to this day.
• Final Boss: Of Markus Wolfhart's Eye of the Vortex campaign. Wolfhart must defeat him and his allies in a major quest battle in order to permanently cement the Empire's foothold in Lustria.
• Genius Bruiser: As far as Kroxigors are concerned, anyway. Created as shock troopers and laborers by the Old Ones, they aren't known for their intelligence. In fact they require someone to coordinate them, and even outright desire to be commanded by others. Nakai is a notable exception to this rule, as are the elite Ancient Kroxigors in his command. He's also the only Kroxigor shown to be able to talk, and he's extremely independent and nomadic.
• Gut Feeling: It is stated several times in quest texts that Nakai doesn't even know why he goes where he goes, or even what his next destination is. He simply follows his instincts.
• Hulk Speak: Sure, he might be several millennia old. But he's still a Kroxigor, so don't expect his speaking patterns to be all that complex.
• Horned Humanoid: What really differentiates from the rest of his kin, he has a massive horn on his nose, as well as several smaller ones jutting out of his head.
• Large and in Charge: Kroxigors are already massive reptilian creatures, since their role in the Fantastic Caste System is to be heavy laborers and shock troopers. Nakai however is so big he towers over other kroxigors. Since Nakai has been around since the First Spawning, and Kroxigors never stop growing after they are spawned (albeit really, really slowly), then his size is attributed to this.
• Lightning Bruiser: Don't let his size fool you, Nakai is actually lightning fast like the rest of his Kroxigor kin, sprinting through the battlefield like a Cold One. He even has a special set of running animations that illustrate how fast he is; he swirls his bladed hammer in hypnotic slashes when approaching the enemy, otherwise he sprints across the terrain.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: The Spirit of the Jungle is a horde army, unlike other Lizardmen factions, but they function differently even in comparison to other hordes — For starters, Nakai's personal horde army is the only one capable of building recruitment infrastructure, with splinter hordes relying upon global recruitment. Secondly, Nakai is capable of indirectly holding territory by gifting captured cities to a dedicated NPC vassal faction, the Defenders of the Great Plan.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: He's a Kroxigor, a vaguely humanoid-esque Crocidillian, albeit much more primal, hulking and feral than most of his kin.
• Our Spirits Are Different: Instead of a physical being, the Skink priests consider him more of a primal manifestation of the jungle's wrath. Considering the fact they summon him with human sacrifices, and he bursts from the bloody mud of the earth itself, they may have a point.
• Portent of Doom: According to the lore, often the first sign a Lizardman settlement has of an incoming invasion is Nakai's wandering leading him to their doorstep. Far from a stigma, the deeply superstitious Lizardmen tend to appreciate this, since a) it's reliable advance warning, and b) Nakai is going to be fighting with them.
• Religious Bruiser: He's utterly dedicated to serving the Old Ones, and he considers himself a blunt instrument to be wielded by their will to protect the greater Lizardmen race. His entire campaign is about conquering settlements in their name, and building temples dedicated to each and every one of the Old Ones, to facilitate their worship.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: One of his idle animations has him point at an enemy and then draw his thumb across his throat, a gesture all the more intimidating when it's done by a three-meter-tall humanoid crocodile who can kill an adult human with a blow of his hand.
• Time Abyss: Nakai is part of the First Spawning, which means he's a veteran of the Great Cataclysm (circa. -5600 IC) and one of the oldest beings on the planet.
• Walking the Earth: Nakai's native city of Tlanxla was destroyed by daemons, and ever since the great kroxigor has wandered the world in service to the Great Plan, pledging allegiance to no single temple-city. His faction, the Spirit of the Jungle, is composed of horde armies that cannot control settlements directly, as he instead tasks an NPC vassal to occupy captured cities. Notably, while Eye of the Vortex places him in his native Lustria, his campaign in Mortal Empires sets him in far-flung Albion, just off the western coast of Norsca, home to one of the most remote lizardmen outposts in the entire world.
  • He travels even further afield in Immortal Empires, starting out on the other side of the world in Grand Cathay.

Gor-Rok

Gor-Rok, the Great White Lizard

"I, the Great White Lizard, shall protect! All invaders shall fall!"

When Gor-Rok first emerged from the spawning pool of Itza, his size, pure albino colourings and lone arrival immediately marked him as a future champion. And so it has been — for the Great White Lizard, as Gor-Rok is also known, has fought in countless battles, his heavily scarred body a testament to many thousands of hard-fought triumphs. Gor-Rok is the mightiest of warriors, the solid centre around which the saurus battle lines advance, and the rock on which Itza’s enemies are broken

Whether placed in charge of entire armies, delegated as a unit leader, or assigned the task of pulverising enemy commanders, Gor-Rok has never failed. At the Battle of Bloodpools, it was Gor-Rok who slew the savage orc warboss and his wyvern, putting flight to the greenskins. He has slain foes as far away as the Chaos Wastes and tested the strength of his shield against ogre charges and the might of greater daemons. He has fought in naval battles, and bears scars from the fangs of sea monsters that fought alongside the dark elves. In any battle, he can always be found where the fighting is thickest, and those that do not fall beneath the powerful sweeps of his mighty weapon are smashed aside by his massive shield and crushed beneath his tread.

Gor-Rok is a free DLC lord that debuted alongside The Hunter and the Beast, leading the sub-faction of Itza.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Gor-Rok's facial scars are much more severe on his tabletop model, which has half his face covered by a monstrous scar with a gaping right eye socket. Here, the scarring is still quite notable but comparatively toned down, and he still has both his eyes.
• Adaptational Badass: In tabletop, Venerable Lord Kroak was a lizardman lord choice, while Gor-Rok was a hero choice (meaning that if both were in the same army, Kroak would be the general). In-game, this situation is reversed with Gor-Rok as the lord and faction leader and Kroak as a hero of the faction.
• Albinos Are Freaks: Inverted. He's an albino Lizardman whose courage is the stuff of legend. In fact, Albino coloring is considered a mark of favour from the Old Ones and those Lizardmen who sport such colouring are thought to be destined for great things. Gor-Rok has more than proved worthy of such a blessing, protecting Itza from its enemies for centuries.
• The Big Guy: Gor-Rok is massive, even by Saurus standards. His great size was just another indicator of his destined greatness when he emerged from his spawning chamber.
• Big Little Brother: Despite the fact that Kroq-Gar is the oldest and wisest Saurus among the lizardmen, the younger Gor-Rok is slightly bigger and much stronger and resilient than him.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: One of his official duties as leader of the Temple-City Itza is to make sure Lord Kroak is safe and protected. The same Lord Kroak that can literally summon nuclear blasts of fire that tear apart entire armies and conjure up deflector shields that can guard entire columns of Lizardmen.
• Carry a Big Stick: The Mace of Ulumak. Gor-Rok's weapon of choice that is believed to carry the will of the Old Ones that guide the user's strikes to hit where it would hurt the most. Ingame, he can activate it to give him an absolutely massive boost to his offensive stats.
• Covered with Scars: Gor-Rok has been fighting in the name of the Great Plan for millennia, and his entire body is covered from head to toes in deep scars.
• Deflector Shields: In the third game, units in Gor-Rok's faction gain the Barrier trait, worth five-hundred hit points, during defensive settlement battles. The Rite of Resilience is also tweaked to provide Barrier points to saurus units, which can stack with the settlement defence bonus.
• Determinator: It matters not how grueling the battle is. It doesn't matter how terrifying the enemy is. It doesn't matter how dire the situation is, Gor-Rok will always fight with insane determination. Even by the already high standards of Sauruses he stands out as a personification of this trope. Within the game, this is represented by him having very high leadership as well as access to an unique rite that grants all his Saurus units unbreakable, meaning they will not flee or break, no matter the situation.
• Healing Factor: His unique skilltree grants him the ability Regeneration, making him even more durable.
• Large and in Charge: Compared to other Sauruses, even Kroq-Gar on foot, he's really towering.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Shield of Aeons. A magical artifact that makes the already hard to kill Gor-Rok even harder to kill. The shield is massive, but in its original form it was slab so massive it required twelve kroxigors to transport it to the depths of the Fire Island where it would be worked on by generations of Skink artisans until it got its current form. In-game, his shield has an active ability that grants him and all units in an area around a huge amount of armour as well as granting them Expert Charge Defense, meaning they will be able to shrug of any kind of cavalry or monster charging at them.
• Made of Iron: Gor-Rok's toughness is legendary among the Lizardmen. Even the most grievous of wounds and injuries didn't stop him from carrying his duty and achieving victory. Fittingly enough, he boasts the highest melee defense, missile block chance and physical resistance on the entire Lizardmen roster.
• Mighty Glacier: Gor-Rok is an absolute beast in melee combat, with very high defense and good offense stats. However, he is one of the few Legendary Lords in the game that has no access to a mount, meaning he is very slow and susceptible to kiting.
• Orcus on His Throne: When he's not fighting, he's contemplating in complete stillness on top of Itza's largest pyramids. He moves into action the moment battle calls.
• Shield Bash: He has a unique animation in which he uses his shield as a bludgeon, skillfully throwing anyone unlucky enough in the air around him with flourishing blows, before he finally plants it into the ground.
• Uniqueness Value: So many different aspects of him are considered this In-Universe. Gor-Rok spawned alone from his pool, marking him as one Saurus so exceptional the pool either couldn't replicate him or didn't need to, furthermore his sheer size marked him as different than his brothers from the other pools, and finally, his Albino coloration marked him as Marked by the Old Ones themselves. Needless to say, Gor-Rok was destined from birth to be a great hero.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Practically his entire gimmick, Gor Rok is a living shield that has weathered the assault of countless attacks from the enemies of the Old Ones, and has held strategic positions on his lonesome with his shielding nature. He is infamous for being an unmovable rock. A combination of high mass, high armor, his shield, and huge hit points make him immensely useful in battles requiring the player to hold against an enemy army. During the End Times he made a Last Stand against an entire army of Skaven, slaughtering them in untold number by himself to defend a pass until they became so desperate they sent thirty elite Stormfiends to bring down one warrior, before he starts slaughtering them and he's last seen covered in a mountain of bloody corpses, as he roars at the approaching Warp Shard comet.

Oxyotl

Oxyotl, He That Hunts Unseen

"Now they will go no further than the range of my poison darts."

Oxyotl, known as He That Hunts Unseen, is a legendary and much-feared Chameleon Skink who was at one time, the last and greatest Chameleon Hunter within the jungle-continent of Lustria, an ancient being who was alive when Chaos first came to this very world. Since his return from the Realm of Chaos, Oxyotl has waged a war of revenge against the fell powers. How the Chameleon Skink detects the presence of the Dark Gods’ minions is unknown, yet time after time, the Daemons arrive to find Oxyotl already ensconced nearby, a hidden nuisance that always finds a way to thwart their immortal plans.

Oxyotl was added to the games in Total War: Warhammer II, as part of The Silence and the Fury DLC, leading the Ghosts of Pahuax.

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• Adaptational Badass: Like Gor-Rok before him, Oxyotl was a Legendary Hero on the tabletop, and thus couldn't be in command of a full force. The game sees him promoted to a Legendary Lord capable of leading large armies by himself instead.
• Badass Normal: He is a Chameleon Skink who has performed one of the most badass feats in the entire Warhammer Fantasy world by surviving in Realm of Chaos, hiding from and killing daemons who pursued him and resisting all forms of temptation. He managed to escape with both his mind and body intact.
• Blow Gun: Like all Chameleon Skinks, Oxyotl wields a legendary blowpipe called The Golden Blowpipe of P'Toohee, a golden instrument of death that blasts forth a hail of murderous darts.
• Chameleon Camouflage: Comes with the territory of being a Chameleon Skink. Oxyotl however is so good at camouflage and hiding himself that he was able to survive by himself in the Realm of Chaos, hunting daemons all the while.
• Cold Sniper: His main method of picking off enemies is by sniping them as he remaines nearly undetectable. And he's so damn good at it that daemons nearly began to fear him in the same way that soldiers in World War 2 feared Simo Häyhä.
• Demon Slaying: He is particularly enthusiastic about fighting the Daemons of Chaos, as he was forced to live through the destruction of his native Pahuax by their hands.
• Foil: To Deathmaster Snikch. Both are masters of infiltration and assassination who can turn invisible and are extremely elusive. The differences are that Snikch specializes in close combat and is a scourge among mortals who will do contract work for both skaven and non-skaven clients while Oxyotl specializes in range combat and is a living anathema to daemonkind who is dedicated to fighting Chaos for the Lizardmen and the Old Ones.
• Foreshadowing: His faction's in-game description notes that his return is a sign of the Daemons of Chaos returning to the world and starting "war eternal". Oxyotl was the last DLC Lord added to Total War: Warhammer II, and sure enough the following game features the Daemons of Chaos breaching into the mortal plane.
• Glass Cannon: As a Legendary Lord, Oxyotl is bar none the single most fragile Lizardmen faction leader, with poor health, defenses, and melee attack. In exchange, he has natural stealth, and can enter a stance in combat that makes him even harder to locate by giving him the Stalk and Snipe traits, and, while he struggles with dealing with multiple enemies, his single target damage makes him among the deadliest ranged assassin Lords in the entire series.
• Master Poisoner: As the greatest of the chameleon skinks, it should come as no surprise that Oxyotl is this. Canonically, his poison darts are so deadly that he once killed a Great Unclean One with them.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: The Ghosts of Pahuax have an extremely unconventional playstyle for a Total War faction.
  • First of all, Oxyotl's army is completely immune to diplomatic penalties from trespassing, allowing any force lead by Oxyotl himself free reign of the whole map without having to worry about any penalties from non-hostile factions. The Ghosts of Pahuax are also one of the only factions to treat any biome as habitable, meaning they can settle anywhere without penalty.
  • Secondly, they can create Silent Sanctums at any visible city regardless of owner, which effectively act as all but undetectable Undercities/Pirate Coves, albeit without any of the economy siphoning. These Sanctums have their own building chains, allowing them to do everything from giving Oxyotl's armies bonuses while in their region to giving a chance for a small one-use army to ambush any enemy forces in their territory. The biggest and most notable upgrade however, allows Oxyotl to teleport to the location of said Sanctum at any time, which ties into their primary campaign mechanic below.
  • Finally, Oxyotl regularly receives Visions of the Old Ones, unique missions only he and his personal army can partake in that can range from assassinating certain characters, claiming or razing targeted cities, or defending Oxyotl's own territories from raiders or hidden ambushes. Rewards for completing these missions include public order benefits, army buffs, and new Blessed Spawning units being added to your pool, while failure to complete them in time cause debuffs to public order, buffs to enemy factions, or destruction of certain buildings. The Visions have a relatively small timespan in which they can be completed and can effectively spawn anywhere across the entire map, so Oxyotl can also instantly travel to the site of any of them for free with no movement penalty once per turn, and can also travel back to either his capital city or any Silent Sanctum with a certain unique building, giving Oxyotl unparalleled access to the entire map.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Weaponized via his Visions of the Old Ones map, which lets him teleport wherever one of the titular Visions requires him to be, with the only explanation being a small cutaway of a dense jungle every time its used. Somehow, Oxyotl is capable of using his knowledge of stealth to disappear and reappear entire continents away from his original position... and bring his entire army with him to boot.
• One-Man Army: He has survived being in the Realm of Chaos for seven thousand years, and he did not only hide from the daemons within it throughout that entire time. We don't know the toll he wreaked upon them, but we can probably be assured it's a high number.
• Pun: His blowpipe is named The Golden Blowpipe of P'Toohee, which is an "Aztecified" spelling of "ptooie", the phonetic sound made when spitting.
• Stealth Expert: Arguably the setting’s Trope Codifier among the mortal races - he managed to hide from daemons inside the Realm of Chaos for the equivalent of 7000 years. There is none else in the setting who has any achievements that remotely compare to his.
  • This manifests in-game as well. Oxyotl himself has Chameleon, giving him stealth regardless of terrain and makes it harder for missile fire to hit him in the event he does get spotted. His bonuses also buff Skinks, particularly Chameleon Skinks, allowing you to field a heavily stealth-themed army. To top it off, armies lead by Oxyotl have access to both Masterful Ambush stance and complete immunity to Diplomatic Penalties from trespassing, implying he's so good at stealth the Non-Player Character factions don't even notice him going through their lands.
• To Hell and Back: Oxyotl found himself transported to the Realm of Chaos during the First Great Chaos Invasion after the Slann Mage-Priest Pocaxalan tapped too deeply into the Winds of Magic and opened up holes into reality. Oxyotl managed to survive for the equivalent of 7000 years before finding his way back into Lustria. He never speaks about his experiences there, and the Slann do not dare read his mind, for fear of tainting themselves with Chaos.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: While a direct equivalence is not given (whether it's a single year or a couple depends on the edition you read), Oxyotl's stay in the Realm Of Chaos lasted a much, much lower time than the seven thousand years that passed in the mortal world.

Legendary Heroes

Lord Kroak

Venerable Lord Kroak, Deliverer of Itza

"Amid the darkness and horror of a world splintering apart, the armies of the true creators, we who were ancient at the dawn of time, will march forth once more. We shall sweep away all that is Chaos and Disorder, for ours is the true path, and none shall defy us!"

Venerable Lord Kroak, Defender of Itza or the Deliverer of Itza is said to have been the first of the Slann Mage-Priests spawned upon the world, the eldest of the fabled First Generation. The mysterious Old One Тероk taught Kroak of the Winds of Magic, and it was the serene Potec who shared the secrets of unwinding the threads of time. It is written that Lord Kroak and his peers were the ones to teach the first ancestors of the Elves to wield magic. These things and more has Kroak seen and it is said he is fated to endure until the last moment of the universe itself. Lord Kroak made the most profound of sacrifices during the Great Catastrophe, but his indomitable spirit would not concede defeat and he became the first of the Relic Priests.

In the wake of the defence of Itza, Lord Kroak’s loyal Skink attendants lamented the death of their almighty master, whose body was scattered far and wide. Diligently, the Skinks collected every last scrap of that ravaged body and, with great reverence, the remains were swathed in resin-soaked wrappings. Thus was created the first Relic Priest, of which many more have been created. The Lizardmen have found the spirits of these departed Slann so powerful that they often linger near their former bodies. In times of need, a Relic Priest is brought forth from hidden crypts to enact once more the Great Plan of the Old Ones.

Lord Kroak is a Legendary Hero available to all Lizardmen factions, unlockable through an arduous quest chain in which the player must make to seek his help.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Kroak is a lord-tier character on the tabletop, here downgraded to a hero-tier character. In terms of actual capabilities, however, he is every bit as destructive as on tabletop if not moreso, and when put in an army with most lizardmen Legendary Lords Kroak is still probably the most dangerous of the two.
• The Archmage: Quite possibly the most powerful one by a large margin in a setting full of them. As befitting of a First Generation Slann Mage-Priest, Kroak is a powerhouse of magical power. In life, Kroak was already an insanely powerful spellcaster capable of annihilating everything with a thought. Although a shadow of his former glory, Kroak is still such a powerhouse of magical power that Mazdamundi is still second in terms of raw power, even if it's a single spell.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Another Anti-Magic item of Kroak is the Amulet of Itza that is a more straightforward example compared to his Ceremonial Mace of Malachite. While the above deactivates the magical part of magical weapons and making them act like common weapons, the Amulet of Itza dispels any and all spells cast by enemy wizards at Kroak.
• Barrier Warrior: He has access to another unique spell, the Greater Shield of the Old Ones, an upgraded version of the standard Shield of the Old Ones other Slaan have. It lets Kroak summon a massive, green barrier of power that flat out reduces fifty percent damage any Lizarmden under the shield takes, and covers a massive radius.
• Big Good: Not just to the Lizardmen too, he fought for everyone in the world when the Great Catastrophe happened and Chaos Daemons flooded the Warhammer world. In the Crapsack World of Warhammer Kroak is the greatest enemy of Chaos to have walked the earth, even in death.
• Carry a Big Stick: Kroak's cadaver always carries with it the Ceremonial Mace of Malachite. Although he cannot wield it as he did in life, it still grants him an Anti-Magic aura that negates all magic weapons and reducing them as if they were simple non-magical weapons.
• Cool Mask: Overlaps with Mask of Power. Kroak's Golden Death Mask is a beautifully made artifact with two massive, smooth yellow gemstones that represent Kroak's farsight and that he looks over his minions still. It serves to protect the Relic Priest and cause enemies to not attack him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Kroak is a terrifying Lizard Mummy that can sometimes manifest as a no less creepy ghost. He's also one of the most powerful opponents of Chaos in the setting.
• The Determinator: Ignoring that he can still manifest The Deliverance of Itza (in itself a very difficult to cast spell) even though he's dead, Kroak being torn apart by a dozen Bloodthirsters didn't stop his spirit from anchoring itself to the mortal realm and still cast The Deliverance of Itza until the temple-city was safe.
• Death Is Cheap: Getting ripped apart by a dozen Bloodthirsters hasn't stopped him from being one of the most powerful opponents of Chaos. His corpse still has enough power to use his ultimate spell, and his spirit can communicate to a limited extent.
• Difficult, but Awesome: His spellcasting is limited to three tiers of a Herd-Hitting Attack nuke spell. All three of them are really costly, with a long cast time and wind-up. And like all Slaan he's really a Support Party Member who can't do very much without his spellcasting and support abilities. And unless you pick the right faction, you have to win a tough quest battle in order to get him. But players who learn to use him well will have a powerful Legendary Hero who can devastate armies on the battlefield and enemy cities on the campaign map alike.
• Disc-One Nuke: If playing as the Itza sub-faction lead by Gor-Rok, then one doesn't need to complete the long and difficult quest-chain to unlock him. He is already available from the start for them.
• Fantastic Nuke: The Deliverance of Itza which is both a combination of Sphere of Destruction and Holy Burns Evil. Kroak's trademark spell that he used to save Itza from neverending tides of Chaos Daemons. Best described as a miniature sun, the Deliverance of Itza comes in no less than three variants, the subsequent versions costing more, but increasing the sun's killzone and sheer power it can unleash each time.
• Frog Men: Like all Slann, he resembles a roughly humanoid, man-sized toad.
• Good Counterpart: To Nagash himself. Both are dead and powerful spellcasters, but these are the only two things they have in common. While Kroak genuinely fought to save the world, the latter did horrible atrocities to gain more power and got even worse when he died for the first time and came back from the grave. Also unlike Nagash, Kroak can raise himself any time through sheer force of will as well as still being much more powerful than the Arch-Necromancer.
• Holy Hand Grenade:
  • What he's used by the Lizardmen on the battlefield when he's not used to help enact the plans of the Old Ones. He's literally a magical nuke launcher who can only cast Deliverance of Itza.
  • On a personal level, Kroak has the Glyph of Potec. A powerful inscription that protects Kroak's mummified corpse from the predations of the Undead and causing increased damage to them when they are in contact with the Relic Priest. This also damages Chaos Daemons. Essentially an automatic attack.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Died fighting the Forces of Chaos in a last stand at the city of Itza in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the world. Though even in death he still fought on.
• Long-Dead Badass: A special case in the Warhammer world, Lord Kroak is not a reanimated or resurrected being and has not come back from death; he is actually completely and utterly dead, and has been for thousands of years. There is absolutely no life in his mummified corpse, unlike the Tomb Kings who had their mummified bodies resurrected. That being said, his soul remains bound to his body, he can communicate to a certain extent with sensitive Lizardmen, and Lizardmen still take Kroak's corpse into battle because his remains are so magical that he can still level cities.
• Living Relic: Well, Un-Living Relic, but nevertheless. He's literally the first of the Relic Priests and the most powerful one, who still outshines Slann of the Second Spawning.
• The Mentor: Taught magic to the ancestors of the Elves along with his peers, and was Lord Mazdamundi's teacher.
• Our Spirits Are Different: When Kroak is preparing a spell, he has a unique animation were his ghostly spirit manifests onto the battlefield, as a green, ethereal, floating toad, over his corpse, to summon forth whatever Doomsday spell he's preparing, to deliver judgement on those who oppose the Great Plan.
• Mummy: The first, and most powerful of the Relic Priests, Kroak's physical body is a bandaged corpse, covered in relics, and forgotten incantations.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In his prime, Kroak could rend entire armies and kill thousands with a single though. Even when dead, he's still the single most powerful Slann, and one of the most powerful beings in existence.
• Punny Name: He's croaked.
• Really 700 Years Old: He has been dead for thousands of years and is one of the most ancient beings in the world. Not to mention being both the first of the first spawning that happened very long ago when the Warhammer world was still young.
• Ur-Example: For mages in the setting, as he's ultimately responsible for magic spreading to the forces of Order. Kroak was the first mage in the world, personally taught by the Old Ones. Kroak would then teach magic to the young race of Elves, who would in turn eventually have one of their number (the archmage Teclis) teach it to an even younger race of Men.
• The Voiceless: Kroak can't verbally communicate due to being dead. His spirit however can still interact with the mortal world.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Back in his living days, he knew nearly every spell that has ever existed and then some. But in his current state, he is only capable of casting The Deliverance of Itza. Then again, when you have the power to summon an exploding miniature sun against your foes, one that doesn't hurt your allies and even gives them tons of buffs in the process, you don't need much else.

Others

Yukcannadoozat

Yukcannadoozat

"The Slann have felt it. Now I see it, brighter, clearer."

A Skink priest in the service of Lord Mazdamundi and tasked with reading omens in the skies and aiding the Lizardmen in their efforts to stabilize the vortex.

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• All There in the Manual: His backstory is explained in the Forked Tongue e-book.
• Badass Bureaucrat: In The Forked Tongue, he's sentenced to death for having the temerity to ask for access to a telescope himself instead of going through his catatonic master. He accepts the sentence, but demands that it be carried out by... his catatonic master.
• Canon Foreigner: Like his various counterparts among the other factions he is original to the game.
• Cunning Linguist: Prior to entering Mazdamundi's service, he was a translator.
• Mission Control: His function in the campaign.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Despite his concerns being justified and his forecast of things to come being correct, the whole travail of being vehemently accused of overstepping his position as a mere translator goes to show how rigid and inflexible the Lizardmen are in observing and enforcing their hierarchy.
• Punny Name: His name is a play on the phrase "You cannot do that", in typical Lizardmen fashion.
• Seers: As a Skink astromancer it comes with the territory.
• Translation Convention: It goes without saying that Yuk's native language is Saurian but for the sake of the viewer, he talks in Reikspiel instead (with some hissing and clicking mannerisms to give an idea of how a Skink would sound when using that language).
• Vagueness Is Coming: In the Lizardman epilogue his Slann master awakens and tells him the worst is yet to come. The character N'kari is mentioned, implying there's going to be a Slaaneshi Chaos incursion in the third game.

Tar-Grax

"..."

A Kroxigor and Yukcannadoozat's faithful companion. Like most Kroxigor, his personality is mostly limited to "growl at stuff" and "move stuff physically".

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• Brains and Brawn: The brawn to Yukcannadoozat's brain.
• The Cavalry: Comes to Yuk's rescue twice, first from a group of Skink thugs, and later from a band of Chaos marauders before the game proper even begins.
• Hidden Depths: In spite of the Skinks' near-zealous reverence towards the Slann, none of them seem to realize that Yukcannadoozat's master is suffering chaos-related interference on the ethereal plain. Although he belongs to an ostensibly dumber sub-species and barely says a word, Tar-Grax is still the only one to realize this.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: In The Forked Tongue e-book, he carries a full-blown conversation with Yukcannadoozat with nothing more than hisses and growls on his end.
• The Quiet One: Like most Kroxigor, he's not much for conversation. Or words in general.

Sotek, the Deliverer

The god of serpents and war, and one of the Lizardmen's most revered and infamous deities. Ruthless and bloodthirsty, he has no mercy for the enemies of Lustria, and anything that stands in his path will be devoured. Tehenhuain is his first and greatest prophet, and Skinks chosen by Sotek are marked by bright red crests.

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• Arch-Enemy: To the Horned Rat, who is specifically referred to as the "nemesis of Sotek".
• Big Good: To the Lizardmen at least, not so much to the other races.
• Deity of Human Origin: Although the lore is somewhat inconsistent about his origins (a few sources describe him as one of the preeminent Old Ones), Sotek is at least implied to not be one of the Old Ones; rather it's suggested that he was created through the devotion and prayers of the Skinks, spurred on by Tehenhuain. The Slann initially balked at him, but eventually were forced to acknowledge him, justifying it by arguing that the Old Ones prophesied his coming.
• The Dreaded: While he's honored by the Lizardmen, he's greatly reviled and deeply feared by the Skaven.
• Feathered Serpent: Though not feathered himself, between his serpentine appearance and the Lizardmen's Mayincatec theme, he's most likely a direct reference to the original feathered serpent god, Quetzalcohuatl/Kukulkan/Q'uq'umatz.
• Good Is Not Nice: Although he's considered the divine savior of the Lizardmen (at least by the Skinks), which in many respects he is, Sotek also craves sacrifice and won't appear in full until fully sated.
• Human Sacrifice: Sotek demands constant blood sacrifices, and he's not at all picky of their nature; a human is as good as a Skaven.
• Physical God: The final ritual in the Cult of Sotek's sacrifice chain involves summoning an avatar of him that sweeps through enemy lines, devastating them.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Subverted. Though he's certainly violent and merciless to his enemies, he is also revered as the savior of Lustria, coming to its aide during the first Skaven invasion.

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