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Total War: Warhammer 3 – Thrones of Decay: starting positions for all lords

Find out where Tamurkhan, Elspeth, and Malakai start their campaign

Marco Wutz

Creative Assembly / Sega

The Total War: Warhammer 3 community is abuzz thanks to the first reveals around Thrones of Decay, a highly anticipated expansion for the strategy game – Creative Assembly seems to have picked the right units and characters to add to please fans. In addition, details about the in-depth faction rework for Nurgle in response to player feedback have been well received.

A large part of any DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 is its impact on the campaign map in both the Realms of Chaos and Immortal Empires scenarios. Newcomers can drastically change the game for existing factions simply by starting nearby or may even lead to other factions getting a different start position.

Here are all starting positions for the new Legendary Lords in Total War: Warhammer 3 – Thrones of Decay.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Tamurkhan starting positions

Tamurkhan was the first character to get his start positions confirmed:

  • Immortal Empires: Plains of Zanbaijin, K'datha
  • Realms of Chaos: Writhing Fortress, The Blood Marshes
Total War: Warhammer 3 Thrones of Decay Tamurkhan Immortal Empires start position.
Tamurkhan's Immortal Empires start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

In both campaigns, Tamurkhan has all the options in the world open to him: He can easily march West or East, depending on which of his chieftains he wants to cultivate. There are some Chaos rivals in the area as well, allowing for some proper subjugation in the name of Nurgle.

Total War: Warhammer 3 Thrones of Decay Tamurkhan Realms of Chaos start position.
Tamurkhan's Realms of Chaos start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Immortal Empires essentially has Tamurkhan starting where he first appeared in the lore, so fans can actually try and faithfully recreate the path he took towards the Empire in his book, which is a pretty cool detail. 

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Elspeth starting positions

  • Immortal Empires: Nuln, Wissenland
  • Realms of Chaos: Nuln, Wissenland
Total War: Warhammer 3 Elspeth von Draken Immortal Empires starting position.
Elspeth's Immortal Empires start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

It's not very surprising, but Elspeth von Draken is starting at Nuln, the capital of Wissenland, in both campaign scenarios. Naturally, this means that Balthasar Gelt finds himself displaced from the heart of the Empire. He's wandered across the globe to a new, very exciting starting location, and will begin the game in Grand Cathay now.

Total War: Warhammer 3 Elspeth von Draken Realms of Chaos starting position.
Elspeth's Realms of Chaos start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Naturally, Elspeth will make a fantastic early ally for Karl Franz to defend the Empire from dangers. She's going to come in especially handy in fighting off the Vampire Counts, since her main army is immune to the corruption spread by the undead.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Malakai starting positions

  • Immortal Empires: Kraka Drak, Gianthome Mountains
  • Realms of Chaos: Kraka Drak, Gianthome Mountains
Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires map showing Malakai Makaisson's starting position.
Malakai's Immortal Empires start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Malakai is usurping the Norse Dwarfs' starting location, which might cause problems for a popular mod that's developed these Dwarfs into a full-fledged faction. What's more, with characters like Epidemius and Tamurkhan not starting that far away, Malakai will be locking heads with Chaos right from the beginning.

Total War: Warhammer 3 Realms of Chaos map showing Malakai's start position.
Malakai's Realms of Chaos start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Malakai's start position should also help Kislev out, which is traditionally hard-pressed by all the Chaos forces and Norscans pushing towards the south.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Epidemius starting positions

  • Immortal Empires: The Noisome Tumour, The Forest of Decay, and The Bilious Cliffs
Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires map showing Epidemius' starting position.
Epidemius' Immortal Empires start. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Epidemius is only available in Immortal Empires and seems to have evicted poor Daniel from his home in the Northern Chaos Wastes, where we have a high concentration of Legendary Lords from Chaos and the Dark Elves now.

We’ll update this article with each new reveal.

To read more about the upcoming Total War: Warhammer 3 expansion, check out all new units in Thrones of Decay.

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Marco Wutz

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg