Two new ghastly beasts have been revealed for Total War: Warhammer. Vargheists and Terrorghiest are both monstrous, bat-like creatures that will bolster the ranks of the Vampire Counts and give them the power to rule the skies when the real-time strategy game launches for PC on May 24.
First up are Vargheists (above video). These winged beasts, according to developer Creative Assembly are fledgling vampires that, rather than die in battle, have been imprisoned deep below the Von Carstein castles, locked-up and left to rot. The passage of time combined with warpstone-tainted water has heavily modified their bodies into the mutants you see before you.
It is said that Vargheists are the darkness in a Vampire’s ragged soul made manifest.
Vampire siblings not slain outright, are imprisoned in the catacombs far below the von Carstein castles, sealed in stone sarcophagi and forgotten… As warpstone tainted water leaks into the baroque cocoon, a dread change takes place.
The Terrorghiest looks similarly grotesque; a mere mortal just catching a glimpse of them is enough to send them into retreat, and that’s before the beasts have even emitted the shrill scream that they’re known and feared for.
In death, a Terrorgheist becomes a nightmare made real. Guided by its master’s will, the monstrosity creaks through the clouds above the battlefield on blotch-skinned pinions, its rotten flesh and withered organs open to the night air. Clotted hanks of fur cling in patches to its skeletal neck, and its skull swings from side to side as it tracks its prey on the plains below.
It is the deathly shriek of an unliving Terrorgheist that is perhaps its most fearsome aspect – and it slaughters survivors with tooth and claw…
Here’s your first look at the Terrorghiest. Try not to soil yourself at the sight of it.
Total War: Warhammer hits PC on May 24. Creative Assembly originally planned to release the game in April, but pushed the date back a month to afford reviewers more time to exhaust its many features.