The Warhammer universe has always run red with the blood of the fallen, and some redditors believe that a cryptic message posted to the Total WarFacebook and Twitter profiles means “the red stuff” will soon be available in Creative Assembly’s new Total War: Warhammer – a theory confirmed when the Russian version of the “Blood for the Blood God” trailer was leaked early Thursday.
Somewhat controversially, “blood and gore” packs have been released as paid DLC for Total War titles since at least Shogun II, and while players have sometimes groused about this, it’s allowed Creative Assembly to avoid M for Mature or PEGI 18+ ratings for the base games, potentially making them more marketable.
In any event, it looks like the Claret Creative Assembly’s Al Bickham mentioned in our interview really will be available soon for Total War: Warhammer players to spill, and some studious redditors over at r/totalwar managed to work it out based on the Chaos Runes that appeared on Total War’s official social media accounts.
The runes spell out “Aaz Akazsh Nasdhashurh.” Total War forum users worked this out to mean something along the lines of “the blood axe is coming to the battlefield,” but the exact translation remained controversial: some users thought it might indicate the Blood Knights, an elite shock cavalry unit coming (for free) to the Vampire Counts faction in the massive Update 1 scheduled to launch today. Others thought it might indicate the arrival of the Beast Men as a playable faction.
But with the leak of the Russian subtitled trailer, it seems clear that the runes mean one thing: battles in the Old World are about to get a lot bloodier. Just be prepared to shell out a few extra bucks when it drops.
Watch the trailer below: