Total War: Warhammer II

The Old Ones, powerful godlike beings, created races in the Warhammer world to fight the forces of Chaos. The stellar gates which the Old Ones used to enter the world collapsed, leading to a flood of Chaos that was held at bay by the Lizardmen. Two High Elf heroes in Ulthuan responded to this threat. Aenarion "the Defender" mustered armies whilst Caledor Dragontamer planned to drain magical energy from the world, thus stopping the Chaos invasion. This manifested itself as the Great Vortex, accomplished with the help of the Lizardmen leaders, the Slann. It drained Chaos energy at the expense of locking Caledor and his mages in time, eternally casting spells to maintain the vortex.

Millennia later, in the time when the game is set, a Skaven rocket disguised as a twin-tailed comet disrupts the Great Vortex. The four main playable factions respond to this in different ways. The High Elves and Lizardmen seek to stabilize the Vortex, while the Skaven and Dark Elves seek to use its power for world conquest. The Skaven launched this rocket to provoke rituals from these four major factions. The Skaven could then harness this ritual energy to allow the Skaven god, the Great Horned Rat, to enter the world and thus conquer it. When the player completes the fifth ritual, their race fights a 'final battle' on the Isle of the Dead to determine the fate of the Vortex and thus the world. Winning the 'final battle' results in winning the race's objectives. The High Elves and Lizardmen stabilize the Vortex. The Dark Elves use the Vortex's power to transform their leader Malekith into a god. The Skaven summon the Horned Rat and conquer the world.

Five thousand years ago, the desert kingdom of Nehekhara was the first and greatest human civilization in the world. However, Nehekhara was destroyed by Nagash, the first necromancer. Through the power of his Black Pyramid, Nagash enacted a great spell that would kill all that lived in Nehekhara and raise them as his undead servants. Before the spell could be completed, Nagash was slain by Alcadizaar the Conqueror, the last king of Nehekhara, with the aid of the Skaven (who had initially allied with the Great Necromancer, but betrayed him after they realized how great a threat Nagash was). The Nehekharan dead returned as the Tomb Kings, but because Nagash's ritual was incomplete, many of the Tomb Kings retained their free will and intellect.

In the current day, the false twin-tailed comet has stirred the Black Pyramid from its slumber and courses with power. It is discovered that five of the nine books of Nagash are needed to control the Black Pyramid. Four Tomb King factions battle to control it: Khemri, led by Settra the Imperishable; the Exiles of Nehek, led by Grand Hierophant Khatep; the Court of Lybaras, led by High Queen Khalida; and the Followers of Nagash, led by Arkhan the Black. Settra, the first and greatest king of Nehekhara, seeks the pyramid's power to regain control over his domain and begin global conquest. Khatep, the oldest of the Liche Priests, seeks to end his exile by using the pyramid to fulfill the promise he made to Settra to transform him and the Nehekharan nobility into immortal golden beings. Khalida, the champion of the Asp Goddess, seeks the pyramid's power to take vengeance on her cousin Neferata, the first vampire, and to destroy all of vampire-kind. Arkhan, the Liche King and Nagash's second-in-command, seeks to use the power of the Black Pyramid to resurrect his master; as Nagash's servant, Arkhan already has one of the books, the Liber Mortis, and thus only needs to obtain four more to unlock the Black Pyramid.

Once all five of the books of Nagash are recovered, the final mission involves the player's chosen faction battling for the Black Pyramid. Should the player choose either Settra, Khalida, or Khatep, they will be on offense and join forces with the other two factions to fight against Arkhan as he guards the Black Pyramid. Should the player choose Arkhan, he will be on defense as he faces off against the combined forces of the former three.

Long ago, Captain Jacob Wulfhart, brother of the famous Imperial Huntsmarshall, Markus Wulfhart, hunted the Merwyrm known as Amanar. Amanar is the oldest and mightiest of the Merwyrms and the guardian beast of the High Elf city of Lothern. Jacob created a weapon known as the Star-Metal Harpoon that would be used to slay the creature. During the climactic battle, Amanar destroyed Jacob's ship, the Vengeance, killing the captain and his crew, save for one survivor. The survivor created a map that would lead to the Vengeance's resting place, and within its confines, the Star-Metal Harpoon.

In the present the disturbance of the Great Vortex has riled Amanar from its slumber, driving the ancient Merwyrm mad, causing it to rampage across the seas and destroying many ships and coastal settlements in its fury. Four factions of the Vampire Coast seek to slay Amanar and resurrect it as their mighty undead servant, thus becoming the dominant power of the seas: Luthor Harkon, ruler of the Vampire Coast and Arch-Grand Commodore of the Awakened; Count Noctilus, the master of the Dreadfleet; Aranessa Saltspite, the Pirate-Queen of Sartosa; Madame-Captain Cylostra Direfin, the spectral leader of the Drowned.

Once the Star-Metal Harpoon has been recovered, and its power restored through three sea-shanties, the player's faction is then confronted by Lokhir Fellheart, the Dark Elf Krakenlord of Karond Kar. Fellheart and his army battles the player's faction, intending to take the Harpoon to slay Amanar and gain glory. Once Fellheart is defeated, the campaign ends with the player's faction shooting the Star-Metal Harpoon at Amanar, killing it and is then resurrected as an undead minion.

The Empire of Man sends colonists to establish settlements along the coast of Lustria. Disturbed by the Imperials' plundering of their gold, the Lizardmen attack the settlements, led by Nakai the Wanderer. To respond to Nakai's attacks, the Empire sends Markus Wulfhart, one of the greatest hunters in the whole Empire, to defeat Nakai.

If Nakai wins, the Empire has to abandon its colonies as they were overrun by the Lizardmen. If Markus wins, more Lustrian cities will be plundered and their wealth will be sent back to the Old World.

Repanse de Lyonesse leads a crusade in the coast of Araby to purify the evils blighting its landscape. Her final mission involves facing off against three Tomb King legendary lords: Settra the Imperishable, High Queen Khalida and Grand Hierophant Khatep.

Driven by his painful hunger induced by his mutations, Throt the Unclean musters his armies to invade the Witchwood, a magical forest in northern Naggaroth. He is opposed by Naestra and Arahan, two sisters who defend the forest. The two sisters, known as the Sisters of Twilight, also fight more enemies to heal the Witchwood and other magical forests, and in the process awaken Queen Ariel, who conducts a magical ritual to seal the forest from Daemon infestation.

Once Ariel has been awakened, Throt the Unclean leads his invasion to attack the Witchwood. If he wins, he kills Ariel and eats her, and more Daemons are unleashed. If the Sisters of Twilight win, Ariel's ritual succeeds and the magical forests are saved from Daemonic invasion.

The mighty doombull Taurox, blessed by the Ruinous Powers with a body of near-impervious brass, is visited in visions by the Lords of Ruin, promising him an even greater reward if he can locate the Heart of the Dark, where a most ancient and foul Herdstone stands, and perform a dark ritual that will unleash Chaos into the world. Sensing the incoming catastrophe, the Lizardmen summon their deadliest assassin, Oxyotl, to hunt down Taurox.

Eventually, the Brass Bull and the Silent Slayer clash in the Heart of the Dark. If Oxyotl wins, the Herdstone is sundered and its vile energies are dispersed, saving the world from Chaos, at least for now. If Taurox wins, the ritual of Chaos is successfully completed, unleashing an age of nightmares and slaughter upon the world.