Each faction is represented by a faction crest. This one is for the Knights of Caledor faction of the High Elves race.
Factions are tribes, peoples, nations or other forces that act together. The player will be controlling a faction in all of the various game modes in the Total War: Warhammer series.
Races are groups of similar factions. Races tend to share unique gameplay mechanics and units, that set them apart from other races. For instance Reikland are a faction which belong to The Empire race.
For complete lists of all the factions in the various campaigns, please see the navboxes at the bottom of the page.
Overview
The faction summary screen for Itza faction of the Lizardmen race.
Most factions may be seen in the campaign, though which factions appear will differ depending on the campaign. A few factions (such as Warherd of the Shadowgave) only appear in multiplayer.
On the campaign map, players can click the button in the top right corner of to view the faction summary screen which displays information about their faction.
Here on Total War: Warhammer Wiki, each faction's page has an infobox on the right hand side, showing key information.
In the campaign, factions raise armies of units, which move around the campaign map and battle other armies, or take settlements. Faction may engage in diplomacy with one another, and can even confederate with other factions of the same race if conditions are right. A faction is destroyed when it controls no more armies or settlements.
A faction is served by characters such as 
Lords (who lead armies) and 
Heroes (who have a variety of uses both in battle and out of it).
Types of factions
Playable factions
Major factions or playable factions are those which the player can potentially play as. Even when the player is not playing as them, they still appear on the map. Each major faction is led by one or more legendary lords.
Which factions you can play differs depending on which game you are playing, which campaign, the free DLC you have downloaded, and which paid DLCs you own. For full lists of playable faction, please see the navboxes section below. If a faction requires a manual free download, or requires paid DLC, it will be listed on that faction's page.
Minor factions
Minor factions are less important factions, which are not led by legendary lords. They are often less aggressive and expansionist than major factions. Players can interact with minor factions using diplomacy and warfare.
Many minor factions will appear on the map at the start of the game. In most campaigns, a majority of the map will be controlled by minor factions.
Hordes
Horde factions do not control settlements, instead each horde army can enter encamped stance to construct buildings. Hordes may be major or minor factions.
Rebels
Rebel factions form when public order in a settlement reaches -100. Please see the public order page for more details. Rebel factions are not playable.
Rogue armies
Rogue Armies are semi-horde factions introduced in Total War: Warhammer II which can have units from several different races. Rogue armies are not playable.
Other
Many other minor factions in the campaign only appear under special circumstances, and this can be different for each campaign. For instance intervention factions or separatist factions.
Races
The Skaven are a race introduced in Total War: Warhammer II
A Race or category is a group of similar factions which generally use the same units and game mechanics.
Each race featured in the game, such as the High Elves, carries certain racial traits and mechanics which grant factions of that race unique abilities, advantages and disadvantages; which set it apart from all the other races. Factions of a particular race usually receive a bonus to diplomatic relations between each other, and therefore tend to stick together.
A faction's race/category will be listed below its name when conducting diplomacy.
See below for a list of racial categories in the game.
Race/faction and diplomacy
- Main article: Diplomacy
Race and faction affects diplomacy. Factions of the same race or group have a diplomatic bonus towards each other. See the diplomacy page for a table detailing all the diplomatic racial biases. In the Eye of the Vortex campaign, completing rituals causes the other competing factions to dislike your faction. In some campaigns there is a Chaos Invasion which strongly affects diplomacy via the Shield of Civilization trait given to certain factions.
Also, in Total War: Warhammer II, the Naggarond and Cult of Pleasure factions have a large diplomatic attitude bonus towards each other, representing that Malekith and Morathi are family. Meanwhile, the Followers of Nagash faction is unable to engage in any diplomacy with other Tomb Kings factions.
A majority of factions may confederate other factions of the same race if conditions between them are right. Most (though not all) factions can trade with each other.
Race/faction and settlements
- Each non-horde faction has a faction capital settlement, indicated by a golden border around the crest.
- Some races have a special racial capital, with unique buildings.
- In Total War: Warhammer, the regional occupation affects which races can occupy which areas on the campaign map. In the second game this was replaced by the climate system: different races and factions have different climate preferences.
- Certain races like Norsca and Wood Elves settlements also have special restrictions on where and how they can colonize.
- Skaven and Vampire Coast are able to build secret settlements inside the settlements of other races (Under-Cities and Pirate Coves).
- As mentioned above, horde factions don't directly control settlements.
List of races
Bretonnia are a race introduced in Total War: Warhammer. In this image, King Louen Leoncoeur, The Green Knight and a host of Bretonnian Knights, charge towards skeletal warriors of the Vampire Counts race.
Introduced in Total War: Warhammer
- The Empire
- Kislev (minor faction) — uses Empire units
- Southern Realms — uses Empire units
- Greenskins
- Savage Orc Tribes — uses a subset of Greenskin units
- Dwarfs
- Vampire Counts
- Warriors of Chaos
- Beastmen
- Bretonnia
- Wood Elves
- Norsca
Introduced in Total War: Warhammer II
- High Elves
- Lizardmen
- Dark Elves
- Skaven
- Tomb Kings
- Vampire Coast
- Rogue Armies — uses a mix of units from all other races
Introduced in Total War: Warhammer III
Removal of factions
- Main article: removed factions
Sometimes factions are removed from a campaign, in which case they no longer appear in that campaign. An example is Schwartzhafen, a minor Vampire Counts faction which was replaced by the Von Carstein playable faction when it was released.
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