Spoilers: Game presentation of the Patriarch and his Immortal Empires opening. No college intrigue and no campaign ending.
Who he is in Total War
Gelt leads The Golden Order for the Empire. Total War: Warhammer, the first game, unlocks him in Immortal Empires. Warhammer III by itself does not. His campaign opening is the Temple of Elemental Winds in Grand Cathay, with dilemmas about the Iron Dragon, a stay abroad, or a return to the Empire. That map is a different neighbourhood from Karl Franz in Reikland.
On the field he is a Lore of Metal caster. The army still needs a line and guns: Swordsmen hold a fight while a Helstorm Rocket Battery threatens infantry at range, and extra wizards spend the same pool of magic. The Colleges of Magic campaign spends Arcane Essays, earned in battles that involve wizards, on further wizards and on benefits tied to a college.
Supreme Patriarch, mask, and pegasus
The Foundation Update of August 2017 calls Gelt the Supreme Patriarch and gives his Imperial Pegasus the name Quicksilver. The same notes add a skill called Golden Face Mask. Those are names on his skill tree. They are not a measurement of armour, and they are not a story of how the mask was made.
Elspeth von Draken's later introduction keeps the colleges beside Nuln's gunnery work. Gelt is the lord whose campaign is the colleges. Elspeth is the lord whose campaign is the Imperial Gunnery School and the Gardens of Morr. Franz spends Prestige on the Electors. The three share Empire troops and keep separate offices.
Fantasy Battles and the sandbox
Gelt's page here stays with the game's presentation of the Patriarch. An Immortal Empires journey from Cathay back to the Empire is a campaign the player chooses. It is not a chapter of Old World history, and it is not the Anarchy described for the earlier Old World tabletop era, when the Empire had no settled emperor.
The End Times novel The Fall of Altdorf follows Karl Franz and Kurt Helborg. Volkmar's pilgrimage, Wulfhart's expedition, and Boris Todbringer's Ulrican war are other Empire campaigns with their own lords.
Balthasar Gelt: gameplay and availability · More character stories
Sources
- Immortal Empires DLC Ownership Guide — SEGA — support.sega.com
- The Foundation Update — Total War — totalwar.com
- Thrones of Decay: Introducing Elspeth von Draken — Total War — totalwar.com
- Thrones of Decay: Introducing Elspeth von Draken — Creative Assembly — community.creative-assembly.com