The past few days have seen quite a few rumblings with regards to Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise. Total War: Warhammer 2‘s The Hunter & The Beast DLC has just released, and Lustrian and Norscan lands have become a battleground for dinosaurs. Gotrek & Felix will also be arriving soon to bolster your forces. However, there may be a major disappointment for long-time fans. Creative Assembly has put the kibosh on plans to include Araby in Total War: Warhammer 2, at least for now. This comes after Creative Assembly’s latest development blog mentioning plans for numerous games in the franchise including Total War: Three Kingdoms‘ Nanman Campaign and the Saga series.

Total War: Warhammer 2 – No Araby for you

The image you see above depicts Araby’s territory in the Southlands. The desert kingdom is modeled after our own Arabian and North African empires and cultures. Given that we’re talking about Warhammer Fantasy Battles, their armies are known to bring desert elementals and even djinns.

The downside is that Araby is not part of Warhammer Fantasy Battles‘ 16 core factions that were originally introduced by Games Workshop. What Games Workshop did have was a spinoff tabletop game called Warmaster, and that had another division handling miniatures (Araby included).

As for additional lore and army books, these were provided by Mathias Eliasson as part of the Warhammer Army Project. Eliasson crafted supplementary materials for Warhammer Fantasy factions that did not have their own army books and rulesets (such as Kislev, Albion, Halflings, and Nippon). In short, these are fan-made projects.

That falls in line with Creative Assembly’s statement in their recent dev blog:

We do want everyone to bear in mind that there’s a lot of content out there that is unofficial and fan-created. We’re working with Games Workshop to realise as much of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world as we can, but of course there are limits to what is possible given the amount of content that has been officially created over the years. And this content is our source material for the game. The great news is that our collaboration together has already led to amazing things and, rest assured, there’s plenty more to come.

Players in Total War‘s official subreddit correctly surmised that this was about Araby (and, by extension, Nippon, Ind, and others). To put the speculation to rest, Creative Assembly’s community manager stepped in:

As it stands, there are currently no plans to introduce Araby to the Total War: WARHAMMER series.

Ouch!

Why exactly do fans want Araby?

There are a number of reasons why fans want to see Araby, and I’d even add my own personal input. From a lore-friendly and campaign objectives standpoint, Total War: Warhammer 2‘s Southlands area of the map is almost devoid of life. Yes, that’s a pun because of all the Tomb Kings and undead running around. There are human factions, sure, but these come from the Empire and Bretonnian rosters (signifying a push for colonization or the Crusades/Errantry wars). You’re only going to encounter a couple of legendary lords/named factions as you explore Araby’s nominal territory, and everyone else is an AI minor or a pushover. Adding Araby as a minor faction or, better yet, led by a playable lord, would offer a refreshing take on the area.

Another reason would be due to plain hopefulness and optimism. When Creative Assembly released Norsca and the Vampire Coast for Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II respectively, fans were surprised and jubilant. The two were, at best, supplementary inclusions in Warhammer Fantasy Battles and yet we suddenly saw them as part of the Total War games.

Who thought that the Fimir and shapeshifting Skin-wolves would make an appearance? What about Cylostra Direfin, a completely new and original character that joined Luthor Harkon, Count Noctilus, and Aranessa Saltspite? The last two were actually more well-known for being part of Games Workshop’s Dreadfleet spinoff game as opposed to Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

Fans have seen what Creative Assembly can do to fully flesh-out certain factions that most didn’t think possible before or creating new content from scratch. Those feelings of excitement may have led to expectations when it comes to future additions such as Araby (and there’s nothing wrong with that).

What’s also important to note is that although there are no plans to include Araby in the Total War: Warhammer games (for now), we’ll never truly know if the decision is set in stone. Perhaps Games Workshop and Creative Assembly can concoct a plan that’ll see the faction’s availability as the franchise continues to develop. Oh, and don’t forget, Creative Assembly’s representative only mentioned that there are no plans for Araby — nothing was said about Kislev.

Kislev.

Kislev.

Total War: Warhammer 2 may not have Araby in the near future, but it does have The Hunter & The Beast DLC. You can check our guides and features hub to help you out. Oh, and if you’ve been miffed due to the lower income from ports, you can check the beta update which aims to rectify that.