Spoilers: The Prologue's ending and Be'lakor's role in The Realm of Chaos; no final campaign outcome.
The first Daemon Prince
Be'lakor is an undivided Daemon Prince whose power draws on the Chaos Gods collectively. He is an established character with an identity of his own, separate from the player-named Prince who leads the Legion of Chaos.
The voice that led Yuri north
The Prologue follows Prince Yuri's expedition from Kislev in search of Ursun. At its end, Be'lakor reveals that the voice guiding Yuri was his own, impersonating the Bear-God. He has used the expedition to draw Yuri deeper into Chaos.
Confronted with the captive Ursun, Yuri renounces his god. Be'lakor then betrays him, and the broken prince calls on the Chaos Gods for transformation. Their relationship is one of manipulation and betrayal rather than a shared faction allegiance.
Antagonist and campaign leader
The Realm of Chaos places Be'lakor at the centre of the struggle over Ursun. Immortal Empires gives him a playable Warriors of Chaos faction, the Shadow Legion. The Legion of Chaos belongs to the other Prince; the two armies represent separate campaign choices.
The Shadow Legion after the prologue
The Immortal Empires faction article, from July 2022, takes Be'lakor out of the role of Realm of Chaos antagonist and gives him the Shadow Legion. It calls him the first Daemon Prince of Chaos. Liberation from the gods' shackles is the phrase it uses for why he can roam with the Warriors of Chaos. He kneels to no single god. Gifts from all four make him a versatile fighter, and he can assemble daemonic armies without relying on mortals.
Unholy Manifestations are four abilities, one for each god, opened by defeating an army of that god or by spending souls. The Tzeentch-marked example spawns a shadow rift his forces use to cross the map. Each manifestation also adds daemonic reinforcements. Be'lakor's Shadow is the corruption of a beaten human lord: a mark that works on the soul until that lord can return as a Daemon Prince in his army. The Chaos debate adds the roster rule the other Warriors lords do not share. Gifted daemonic units are capped per army, except for Be'lakor, who can take as many as he likes. He still has to unlock Marks for mortals in his skill tree. He starts with the daemons.
A rival in one novel, a lord in the game
In Rob Sanders's Archaon: Lord of Chaos, Be'lakor plots against the man who would be Everchosen. The jacket places him waiting for the chance to destroy Archaon and claim Lord of Chaos for himself, while Archaon hunts six treasures from the southern wastes to Bretonnia. That is book 2 of the Archaon duology. It is Old World fiction about a mantle not yet secured.
The game's Be'lakor has already been the voice in Yuri's prologue, the antagonist of the Realm of Chaos, and the playable Shadow Legion lord. Update 9.0 then lets the playable Archaon subjugate him after a defeat, because he is on the Warriors list. Those are three different frames. The novel does not script the prologue, the prologue does not script the novel, and subjugation is a campaign button. The custom Daemon Prince of the Legion of Chaos remains a fourth character: the player-named body, not the first prince.
Be'lakor: gameplay and availability · More character stories
Sources
- Immortal Empires dedicated factions — Total War — totalwar.com
- Addressing the Chaos Debate — Total War — totalwar.com
- Archaon: Lord of Chaos — Black Library — blacklibrary.com
- Update 9.0 release notes — Total War — totalwar.com
- Immortal Empires content ownership — SEGA — support.sega.com
- Patch 9.0.5 notes — store.steampowered.com