Archaon

Archaon, also known as Archaon the Everchosen, is a fictional character in the Warhammer franchise, leader of the forces of Chaos, and one of the primary antagonists in multiple settings and media owned by Games Workshop. He is considered one of the most powerful characters in the Warhammer multiverse, having brought about the fabled End Times, and is a major antagonist in Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Total War: Warhammer, and Total War: Warhammer II.

Appearances

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Archaon was responsible for bringing about the End Times,[1][2] a cataclysmic event which led to the destruction of the Old World and essentially led to the shutting down of Games Workshop's original Warhammer Fantasy setting and the ushering in of the new Age of Sigmar setting in 2015.[3][4][5] In order to usher in this world-ending event, Archaon had to gather magical artifacts in the name of the Chaos gods, earning the title 'Everchosen' while doing so.[6][7] Archaon's actions also led to the rise of the High Elf leader Teclis.[8]

Age of Sigmar

In the Age of Sigmar, Archaon is one of the primary antagonists of the entire game, on the same level as the Chaos gods themselves.[9] He is allied with - and outranked by - four out of the five gods,[10] outranking everyone else in the Grand Alliance of Chaos.[11] Though Archaon once led armies of Skaven alongside his human warriors,[12] he no longer does so due to his dislike of them, despite their membership in the Grand Alliance.[11] His control of the forces of Chaos was later challenged by the archdaemon Be'lakor.[7] Having overseen the ceremony to crown Archaon in the first place,[7][12] Be'lakor found the mortal's promotion to be humiliating.[7]

In the standard Age of Sigmar miniature wargame, Archaon is a very powerful unit whose army-level abilities, when supported by his followers known as the Slaves to Darkness, focus mostly on further empowering him.[10][13] In the skirmish edition of the game Warcry, both the Untamed Beasts and Corvus Cabal war parties fight for the sake of gaining his favor.[14][15]

Total War: Warhammer

In Warhammer's first installment of the Total War series, Archaon is both a major antagonist in the overall narrative as well as a playable character. Within the Chaos faction, he's one of three available leaders, functioning as a melee fighter with access to fire-based spells.[16][17] The Chaos army, when led by Archaon, starts the game with standard Chaos Warriors, Chaos Warriors wielding halberds, and special Chosen infantry wielding two-handed weapons.[16] Unless the player chooses Archaon as their army leader, then the primary objective of the game regardless of faction is to defeat him.[18][19] Increasing invasions of all provinces by Chaos armies eventually results in a grand appearance by Archaon.[20]

Initially, Creative Assembly wouldn't confirm or deny whether Chaos would be a playable faction at all.[21] Eventually, Chaos was revealed as playable and with Archaon as a playable leader of the faction but for a price as paid downloadable content.[22] In another paid DLC, players of the Norsca faction have the option to either join Archaon's Chaos warband or to challenge him for supremacy.[23] An update late in the game's patch history reduced Archaon's diplomatic relations with all factions, an act which video game journalist Andrew Newton described as "fitting."[24]

Total War: Warhammer 2

Like the first installment in the series, the primary objective for players of the second is to defeat Archaon unless playing as him.[18] Non-Chaos players are given the chance to defeat Archaon in a large final battle during the Mortal Empires DLC campaign.[25] When equipped with a magic weapon called the Sword of Khaine, Archaon becomes particularly difficult to defeat even by another player's massed army units.[26] In addition, a separate army general, Ghoritch, was transformed from a leader in the Chaos faction to one in the Skaven faction after being banished to hell by Archaon.[27][28]

Design

The character's fictional biography is violent and thematically marked by a fall from grace. Archaon was the product of pregnancy from rape, his mother suffered maternal death thereafter, his father rejected and abandoned him on the steps of a church, and he attempted suicide in order to prevent the prophecy that he'd become a world-ending villain.[6][29] In the Warhammer franchise's narrative, Archaon is described as a former templar of the civilized Empire of Sigmar before his turn to evil.[6][12][22] Writer-actor Clint Lienau noted Archaon's possible inspiration springing from J. R. R. Tolkien's Sauron.[30]

In 2015, Archaon's model for the Warhammer miniatures series was given an updated visual aesthetic for the Age of Sigmar, including a new mount, a mutated dragon named Dorghar, with three heads representing three of the four Chaos gods.[31][32] The model is noticeably large, contains a high number of separate parts for assembly, and functions as a centerpiece model for an army.[9][13]

Reception

Archaon's portrayal has attracted considerable praise within the gaming community. James Whitbrook of Gizmodo referred to Archaon as the third "most ridiculous badass" of the original Warhammer Fantasy tabletop miniature game, noting that he became the most powerful and evil character not once, but twice.[33] Matthew Pedersen of Gamers Decide ranked Archaon as the top legendary lord playable in Total War: Wahammer and noted him as the clear antagonist of the game's narrative,[34] and Sid Natividad of The Gamer ranked Archaon in the number one spot for playable lords in the second iteration of the game, Total War: Warhammer II, noting him as "too angry to die."[26] Tyler M. of Mengel Miniatures regarded Archaon's backstory, as portrayed in the Black Library novelizations, as tragic due to the circumstances which led the character to become evil.[29]

The character has been compared to historical figures signifying warlike behavior. Archaon's grand appearance in Total War: Warhammer was compared by Richard Scott-Jones of PCGamesN to the grand arrival of Attila the Hun in Total War: Attila.[20][35] University of Jena staff member Franz Klug compared Archaon to the second of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, as well as the Antichrist as described in the First Epistle of John.[36]

Criticisms of both Archaon's portrayal in the novels as well as the creative direction of Black Library's handling of it have also been made. Alex Lucard, writing for Diehard GameFAN, referred to Archaon as a "roided-up Marty Stu" in his review of the Archaon entry in Games Workshop's End Times series of novels.[37] Lucard later referred to Archaon as the "lamest character" in Warhammer and lamented what he viewed as poor creative direction in Archaon killing Nagash, the lord of the undead in the original Warhammer Fantasy, in order to promote Archaon as the new big bad in the franchise.[38]

References

  1. ^ Nigel Edgar, The paints of mini war games. Borneo Post, 24 May 2020. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  2. ^ Tyler Mengel, END TIMES: Archaon: Tally of Destruction. Bell of Lost Souls, 30 March 2015. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  3. ^ Leigh Kade, Games Workshop Bringing Back Classic Setting. Bleeding Cool, 16 November 2019. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  4. ^ Joe Robinson, This Total Warhammer 2 mod adds Stellaris-style end game crises. PCGamesN, 15 February 2021. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  5. ^ Ian Boudreau, Total Warhammer 3’s DLC might reflect Warhammer: The Old World updates. PCGamesN, 13 May 2021. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Adam Harrison, Age of Sigmar Lore: The Origins of Archaon. Bell of Lost Souls, 7 February 2020. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d Lore: Be’lakor, the First Prince of Chaos. Warhammer Community, 31 January 2020. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  8. ^ Daniel Clarke, Las Vegas Open: Warhammer Reveals and First Impressions. Video Games Uncovered, 27 January 2020. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b Adam Harrison, Tabletop Spotlight: Archaon Everchosen. Bell of Lost Souls, 16 December 2015. Accessed 12 July 2021
  10. ^ a b Darren Watson, Wind Up Archaon Archived 2021-08-03 at the Wayback Machine. Honest Wargamer, 22 November 2018. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  11. ^ a b Barry Ashcroft, Warhammer Age of Sigmar 101 - Introduction to Grand Alliance Chaos. The Gamer, 3 June 2020. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  12. ^ a b c Jody Macgregor, Major events in the Warhammer timeline. PC Gamer, 23 September 2018. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  13. ^ a b Start Competing: Slaves to Darkness. Goonhammer, 8 May 2021. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  14. ^ Adam Potts, Warhammer Age of Sigmar WarCry Guide - Corvus Cabal. TechRaptor, 1 October 2019. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  15. ^ Adam Potts, Warhammer Age of Sigmar WarCry Guide - Untamed Beasts. TechRaptor, 7 September 2019. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  16. ^ a b Jonathan Leack, A Guide to Choosing Which Faction to Play in Total War: Warhammer. GameRevolution, 23 May 2016. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  17. ^ Sarmad Lillah, Total War Warhammer Factions Guide – Best Units, Leaders, Best Factions to Play. SegmentNext, 26 May 2016. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  18. ^ a b Robert Zak, Mortal Empires lets you live out your wildest Total War: Warhammer fantasies. PCGamesN, 23 October 2017. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  19. ^ Ash, Take A Trip Across The Old World In Total War: Warhammer's Latest Showcase. Gamesear, 15 April 2016. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  20. ^ a b Richard Scott-Jones, Does Total War: Warhammer 2’s story undermine its sandbox? On the contrary. PCGamesN, 28 September 2017. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  21. ^ Chris Mawson, EGX 2015: Previewing Total War: Warhammer with Creative Assembly’s Rich Aldridge. PowerUp Gaming, 28 September 2015. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  22. ^ a b Niall De'Ath, Chaos Faction and Release Date Announced for Total War: Warhammer. PowerUp Gaming, 23 October 2015. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  23. ^ Ted Hentschke, Total War: Warhammer – Norsca (Video Game). Dread Central, 8 August 2017. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  24. ^ Andrew Newton, Old World update comes to rebalance the power in Total War: Warhammer[permanent dead link‍]. Flickering Myth, 8 August 2017. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  25. ^ Jody Macgregor, What did you play last week?. PC Gamer, 9 December 2019. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  26. ^ a b Sid Natividad, Total War: Warhammer 2 - 15 Most Powerful Legendary Lords, Ranked. The Gamer, 3 July 2021. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  27. ^ Giuseppe Nelva, Total War: Warhammer II Reveals New DLC The Twisted & The Twilight Featuring Wood Elves & Skaven. Twinfinite, 19 November 2020. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  28. ^ Matt Morgans, All the New Skaven Coming in The Twisted and The Twilight DLC. VGR, 28 November 2020. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  29. ^ a b Tyler M., REVIEW: Archaon: Everchosen. Mengel Miniatures, 5 August 2015. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  30. ^ Clint Lienau, Warhammer’s Origins of Nagash: Tabletop Legendary Heroes. Bell of Lost Souls, 2 June 2021. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  31. ^ Larry Vela, BREAKING: ENORMOUS NEW Archaon Model!. Bell of Lost Souls, 6 November 2015. Accessed 3 August 2021.
  32. ^ Archaon the Everchosen Hits Age of Sigmar. Beasts of War, 30 November 2015. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  33. ^ James Whitbrook, The 9 Most Ridiculous Badasses of the Warhammer Fantasy Game. Gizmodo, 8 July 2015. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  34. ^ Matthew Pedersen, Top 7 Legendary Lords in Total War Warhammer. Gamers Decide, 14 June 2017. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  35. ^ Richard Scott-Jones, Thrones of Britannia takes inspiration from Warhammer to revamp the Total War template. PCGamesN, 1 February 2018. Accessed 2 August 2021.
  36. ^ Franz Klug, Horrifying Armies of Darkness and their Function as Embodiments of Evil and Catalysts of Change within Sub-created Worlds. Published in Hither Shore: Interdisciplinary Journal on Modern Fantasy Literature, journal of the German Tolkien Society, pp95-110; analysis of Archaon on p102. Eds. Julian T.M. Eilmann, Thomas Fornet-Ponse, and Thomas Honegger. Bonn: Scriptorium Oxoniae, October 2017.
  37. ^ Alex Lucard, Tabletop Review: Warhammer: The End Times V: Archaon. 24 March 2015. Accessed 12 July 2021.
  38. ^ Alex Lucard, Tabletop Review: White Dwarf, Issue #79 (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000). Diehard GameFAN, 1 August 2015. Accessed 2 August 2021.