Video Games

Total War: Warhammer 3 – Thrones of Decay: Epidemius is the free Legendary Lord

Another Daemon of Nurgle plagues the land

Marco Wutz

Creative Assembly / Sega / Colonel Damneders (YT)

The free Legendary Lord becoming available for all Total War: Warhammer 3 players when the Thrones of Decay DLC releases will be Epidemius, another Daemon of Nurgle. Tamurkhan, of course, will reinforce grandfather’s ranks as part of the expansion, which also reworks several faction mechanics for free.

Epidemius will benefit from these overhauls, but will bring his own mechanics to the table, too. Similar to Ku’gath Plaguefather, his playstyle mostly revolves around spreading plagues. Doing so, he can upgrade the Tally of Pestilence level and thereby unlock powerful buffs and abilities. The more settlements and armies are befallen by Epidemius’ plagues, the more powerful he’ll become. 

In addition to boosting his own faction, a higher Tally of Pestilence level will increase the potency of Epidemius’ plagues, making their negative effects on enemy armies stronger.

In battle, Epidemius can summon a unit of Exalted Plaguebearers and buff the toughness of his units in melee combat thanks to the Sands of Sickness ability. He can cast Epidemic Outburst, a powerful explosion spell, as well. His own melee attacks are not just magical, but also imbued with poison.

Total War: Warhammer 3 screenshot of Nurgle forces.
Epidemius follows in the steps of Ku'gath Plaguefather. / Creative Assembly / Sega

His unique skill tree contains buffs to plagues, boosts to the growth of his own settlements, and powerful benefits to units like Exalted Plaguebearers, Plague Drones, and Pox Riders.

Epidemius will only be available in the Immortal Empires campaign scenario, where he will start in the Northern Chaos Wastes – pretty close to new Dwarf Legendary Lord Malakai Makaisson and Kislev’s former Tsar, Boris Ursus.

It’s not just Nurgle who gets free treats, however: The Empire – aside from getting its own, quite immense faction rework – will be reinforced by a new hero character type that’ll be available to all players upon Thrones of Decay’s release: Gold Wizards.

Creative Assembly is firing from all cylinders for this DLC and players could not be happier with all the content and reworks they’re getting – it’s the biggest gaming redemption story of 2024 so far.

Published
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