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.

Several millennia ago, the desert kingdom of Nehekhara was once the greatest human civilization in the Old 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 the last Nehekharan King Alcadizaar 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: Settra the Imperishable, first and greatest king of Nehekhara, seeks the pyramid's power to regain control over all of Nehekhara and begin global conquest. The exiled Grand Hierophant Khatep seeks to use the pyramid to fulfill his promise to Settra to transform him and the Nehekharan nobility into immortal golden beings. Queen Khalida seeks the pyramid's power to destroy all vampires in the world and to take revenge on her cousin, Neferata (the first vampire). Arkhan the Black, the Liche King and Nagash's second-in-command, seeks to control the Black Pyramid and use its power to resurrect his master.

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 the offense, attacking Arkhan the Black as he guards the Black Pyramid. Should the player choose Arkhan, then he will be on the 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.