Nagash lore: how did Warhammer's death god end up here?

Nagash has been chopped into pieces by a king, smashed by Sigmar, caught up in the end of the entire world, and he is now a god of death. So how, after thousands of years, is the most powerful necromancer in Warhammer still losing to a bunch of rats? And why does so much of his story keep coming back to his hat? Under all that power, I think he's still the same bitter, jealous man he always was.

He's suddenly everywhere because of his new campaign in Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer III. Nagash started out as a jealous prince who invented necromancy and wiped out a civilization. This is the rest of his story: his comeback, his fight with Sigmar, the end of the Warhammer Fantasy world, and how he became a god.

Nagash came back after 1,111 years to get his crown from Sigmar

You'd think being chopped into pieces by a magical sword would be the end of him, but no. It took him 1,111 years to rebuild his body. Over a thousand years, just to come back and start causing problems straight away. And what he wanted when he returned wasn't revenge. It was a lot pettier than that. He wanted his crown.

Apparently being one of the most powerful necromancers in history means nothing if somebody has taken your favorite hat. Unfortunately for Nagash, his crown had ended up with Sigmar, the man who founded the Empire. So Nagash raised another huge undead army and marched north to get it back. At the Battle of the River Reik, Sigmar smashed him with his legendary warhammer, Ghal Maraz. Nagash was dead again.

But Nagash being Nagash, he came back eventually and spent centuries pulling strings behind the scenes, working through other necromancers and vampires. Meanwhile, his crown was passed around between different rulers until it ended up locked away in Altdorf.

Why Nagash is the most dangerous lost property complaint in Warhammer

This is the part I find funny. He's a terrifying ancient sorcerer who wants to control every living and dead thing in existence, but a ridiculous amount of his time goes on demanding that people give him his stuff back. Even Creative Assembly joke about it in their own Nagash blog.

He's the world's most dangerous lost property complaint. If you also find it amusing, him throwing a strop over a hat, you're my kind of person.

The End Times brought Nagash back with nine blood sacrifices and a mistake

In 2014, Games Workshop decided to end the entire Warhammer Fantasy world. They destroyed it. The first book of that storyline was called Nagash, so you can probably guess who was coming back.

Arkhan and his allies brought him back using nine blood sacrifices, although they got one of the bloodlines wrong. So even his resurrection didn't quite go to plan. He still became the living embodiment of death magic, and he picked nine lieutenants called the Mortarchs. They're essentially the same nine followers you can recruit in the new Total War DLC.

Here's something I love. When Chaos threatened to destroy the world, I think Nagash ended up fighting alongside the living. Not because he'd suddenly become a decent person, but because if Chaos killed everyone, there would be nobody left for him to rule. Unfortunately, the world ended anyway. But Nagash survived.

In Age of Sigmar, Nagash is a god of death fighting over souls

When Warhammer became Age of Sigmar, Nagash was now an actual god of death, ruling an entire realm called Shyish. And he is still unbelievably petty. He falls out with Sigmar because Sigmar has been taking the souls of dead heroes and turning them into Stormcast Eternals. I was going to call them a pet peeve, but they're the first miniatures I ever painted, and they were very boring.

Nagash sees this as theft. Those are his souls. So, naturally, he tries another enormous magical ritual to claim every soul for himself. And guess who ruins it? The Skaven, again. They sabotage his spell and cause something called the Necroquake, which floods the realms with death magic and kicks off the Soul Wars.

It gets worse for him. An elven god called Teclis traps him in chains of magical light so that a group of enormous mountain spirits can smash his body apart with hammers. Again.

Why Nagash is horrifying and completely ridiculous at the same time

That's probably my favorite thing about Nagash. He's gone from a jealous prince to a literal god of death. He has destroyed civilizations, survived the end of the world and commanded millions of undead. And somehow, after all of that, he still can't stop a bunch of rats ruining his plans. You'd think by now he'd have invested in some pest control.

Warhammer has plenty of powerful villains. But Nagash is different because I think under all that power, he's still the same bitter, jealous man he was thousands of years ago. He's not trying to destroy the world. He wants to own it: every kingdom, every person, even your soul when you die. That's why he's such a brilliant villain. He's genuinely horrifying, but also completely ridiculous.

Total War: Warhammer III's Lords of the End Times puts his history in the campaign

After what I think is nearly 10 years of people asking when Nagash was coming to Total War, he's here. Back in September, Creative Assembly released Lords of the End Times for Total War: Warhammer III. If you've never played Total War, you build an empire on a large strategy map, and when armies meet, you control thousands of soldiers fighting in real time.

This update was a big deal. You haven't only got Nagash; you've got several other characters too, plus a free update that added Neferata and reworks of some of the older factions. What I think is cool is that the original End Times storyline had five books, and three of those are the new DLC characters. They're leaning into the End Times.

What I love about Nagash's campaign is how much of his history they've put into it. You start at the Black Pyramid surrounded by enemies, including Settra, who hates him. His nine books are scattered around the map, and you have to get them back. The same goes for his Mortarchs: you track down his old followers, force them back into service, and can even take over their whole kingdoms.

You can build huge undead cities, collect magical energy and raise armies from nearly every undead faction in Warhammer. It sounds like they've got what makes Nagash interesting, and the stories people are telling about their campaigns are brilliant. The reviews are mixed, though.

Could Nagash turn up in Warhammer Survivors?

If all this has got you intrigued by Nagash, there's more beyond Total War. Warhammer Survivors launches on 10 November 2026. It's Vampire Survivors with Warhammer characters, made by the team behind Boltgun working with the people who made Vampire Survivors. There are over 40 playable characters, I believe, from 40K and Age of Sigmar.

I think it's a reasonable price, around six pounds, and there's a free demo on Steam that I'd recommend trying. I didn't think it was too bad. Nagash hasn't been confirmed for it, but Age of Sigmar is where he is the god of death, and personally, I think he'd make a really cool boss. Imagine surviving 20 minutes of Skaven, and then that enormous skeleton turns up.

Nagash on the tabletop and in the books

Then there's the tabletop. You can buy Nagash as a large Age of Sigmar miniature. Although I've been told that despite his very cool lore, he isn't very good on the tabletop. If you want more on how he started, read The Rise of Nagash. I've been reading Warhammer books since 2012, and Nagash the Sorcerer is why I've followed him for such a long time.

So that's Nagash: a jealous prince who invented necromancy, wiped out an entire civilization, got himself killed more times than I can count and spent thousands of years demanding people give him his hat back. Now he's an actual god of death. The Total War DLC explains why he's suddenly everywhere, but I don't think that's the reason people are into him. I think it's that despite all that power, he still keeps getting beaten by the same rats. As someone who got into Warhammer through the books, it's nice seeing a character I've known about for so many years getting this attention. There are some absolute nightmares in this universe, but I don't think any of them have quite as much trouble keeping hold of their own hat.