Spoilers: Settra’s origins, the awakening of Nehekhara and Khatep’s exile; no campaign ending.
The king who wanted more time
Settra united the kingdoms of Nehekhara under Khemri’s rule. Conquest did not satisfy him while death could still end his reign. He charged the Mortuary Cult with overcoming it, and the priests prolonged his life without granting the living immortality he demanded.
When death approached, Settra prepared for a return. His remains were preserved in a great pyramid while the priests continued their work. The king expected to awaken into a restored life and resume his rule.
A kingdom raised from its tombs
Nagash’s great ritual transformed Nehekhara into a land of the dead. Its ancient rulers rose again, bringing rival claims to an empire that had long outlasted Settra’s mortal lifetime.
Khatep awakened Settra to restore order. Settra reclaimed his authority, but found the Mortuary Cult’s answer to death intolerable. He exiled Khatep until the priests could fulfil their promise and restore Nehekhara’s lost glory.
Settra, Khatep and Arkhan
Khatep’s service to Settra ended in exile; Arkhan’s allegiance belongs to Nagash. These relationships place the Tomb Kings’ leaders on different sides of Nehekhara’s past. Settra seeks dominion for himself, with no intention of becoming another ruler’s servant.
In Immortal Empires he leads Khemri. His conquests in a player’s campaign are new outcomes built from that identity: an undying monarch who regards the world beyond his tomb as territory to reclaim.
Khemri in the published histories
Warhammer Community’s history of the Tomb Kings of Khemri, 29 December 2023, gives the public wording. Settra of Khemri ended the civil war of the city-states and unified Nehekhara. The Mortuary Cult, at his command, promised to conquer death. Their magic extended his life and the lives of favoured servants. It did not keep death off. He ordered a pyramid for his remains until the priests made good on the oath. They honoured it, the article says, in a manner of speaking. When he woke he demanded the monarchs kneel as they had in life.
The February 2023 development diary is the same king from the studio that writes The Old World. In life the realm reached distant coasts and included lands now called the Empire and Bretonnia. Lesser monarchs let it shrink. He woke after the Great Necromancer’s ritual, furious that the Liche Priests had not restored an eternally youthful body and that the dynasty had crumbled. The reconquest follows from that wrath. The Rise of the Tomb Kings FAQ adds a game fact beside it: unlike other Tomb Kings, he never needs to return to his sarcophagus.
The Old World present, not the sandbox
Designers’ notes for Arcane Journal: The River of Bones, 19 October 2026, are The Old World’s current war, not Immortal Empires and not the End Times. Settra’s forces are in the Border Princes. At the end of the previous journal, The War of Settra’s Fury, he pursued enemies from the ruins of Matorea to Louen Keep in the foothills of the Vaults. He sent High Priest Ashurtak of the Mortuary Cult through the Vaults into south-eastern Bretonnia. The River of Bones notes pick up with Ashurtak entering the forest. Ashurtak is that journal’s priest. He is not a legendary lord here.
A Bretonnian almanack year used elsewhere on this guide is 2276, and a design note from that setting calls it the year of Settra’s assault. Louen’s crowned reign in Total War is the later kingdom. Khemri in Immortal Empires is the game’s Settra, with Tomb Guard, the Khemrian Warsphinx, and the Chariot of the Gods. Winning that campaign does not complete the journal, and the journal does not start the Khemri sandbox.
Settra the Imperishable: gameplay and availability · More character stories
Sources
- Old World Almanack — The Noble History of the Tomb Kings of Khemri — Warhammer Community — warhammer-community.com
- Old World Development Diary — Walk Like a Nehekharan — Warhammer Community — warhammer-community.com
- Designers’ notes: The River of Bones lore — Warhammer Community — warhammer-community.com
- Rise of the Tomb Kings FAQ — Total War — totalwar.com
- Tomb Kings: Legendary Lords — Total War Academy — academy.totalwar.com
- SEGA Immortal Empires DLC Ownership Guide — support.sega.com