Sayl the Faithless in Total War: Warhammer III is not a “raid, sack, move on” Norsca lord in the usual sense. Yes, you’re still pillaging your way across the map, but Sayl’s real edge is control. He weaponizes Chaos Undivided Altars to fuel a Dark Ritual win path, then uses Manipulations to sabotage factions, cripple armies, and rig the campaign map in his favor.
Play him like a normal Norscan brawler, and he’ll feel fine. Play him like a schemer with a spellbook, and he turns into one of the nastiest tempo lords in the pack.
To play Sayl, you’ll need his Tides of Torment DLC, then you can use him in Immortal Empires, Custom Battles, and Multiplayer. (He also comes with new units and characters tied to his faction roster.)
1. Sayl the Faithless Overview And Best Playstyle in Total War: Warhammer III
Sayl begins at Mountain’s End in the far north-east of Immortal Empires, staring toward Grand Cathay and the Great Bastion. His campaign identity is simple: expand wherever you want, but always with a purpose. Every conquest is either fueling your Dark Ritual, feeding your Spoils economy, or setting up a Manipulation that makes the next war easier.
1.1 What Sayl Is Actually Good At
- Spell-led battles with constant pressure, crowd control, and burst damage.
- Pre-war sabotage that softens targets before you ever swing.
- Flexible expansion where you decide when to hold ground, when to burn it, and when to plant an Altar.
- Power spikes through ritual stages, where progressing your Dark Ritual unlocks stronger Manipulations.
1.2 The Core Win Condition Loop
Build Chaos Altars to advance your Dark Ritual → beat the quest battles tied to each stage → unlock stronger Manipulations → use those Manipulations to keep winning fights and building more Altars.
Fighting a battle as Sayl’s army in Total War: Warhammer III.
2. How Sayl’s Dark Ritual Works
Dark Ritual is Sayl’s campaign backbone. You progress it by erecting Chaos Altars on the sites of conquered settlements. Unlike other Norscan factions, Sayl’s Altars represent Chaos Undivided, spreading undivided corruption and acting as limited “mini settlements” with fewer building slots.
Altars are optional, but if you ignore them, you are basically ignoring what makes Sayl special.
2.1 Dark Ritual Stages
Your Dark Ritual progress is tracked in the UI and moves through four stages:
- The Whispering
- The Binding
- The Unveiling
- The Ascension
As you cross thresholds, you draw the attention of the Forces of Order. To claim the benefits of each new stage, you’ll need to win the quest battle tied to that stage by defeating an Order faction force (the major enemies called out are the Empire, High Elves, and Lizardmen).
Building Chaos Altars is Sayl’s main mechanic in Total War: Warhammer III.
2.2 What Chaos Altars Do Besides Ritual Progress
Altars are not just a checkbox for victory. They also contribute to your wider campaign engine with benefits like:
- Income and other strategic modifiers (including support for research, control, and similar campaign levers)
- Access to stronger tools through higher-tier Manipulations
- Additional utility, including limited recruitment access to units like Chaos Warriors and Chaos Spawn in Sayl’s roster
The practical takeaway: build Altars in places you can realistically protect or revisit. Losing them slows your Ritual and can choke your momentum.
3. What Are Sayl’s Manipulations in Total War: Warhammer III?
Manipulations are Sayl’s defining feature. They let you bend factions, settlements, and armies to your will, and they scale upward as your Dark Ritual advances.
You can use Manipulations for quality-of-life stuff (vision, recruitment acceleration, resource gains), but their real value is how they let you dismantle enemies before the war even starts.
Sayl’s Manipulations allow him to exert control over some parts of the world.
3.1 What You Can Target With Manipulations
Sayl has four target types:
- Factions
- Settlements
- Armies
- Your own armies
3.2 What Manipulations Actually Do
The exact options expand by tier, but the core effects include:
- Faction control: gain visibility over their holdings, disrupt diplomacy, force conflicts, and extract value.
- Settlement control: harvest resources, inflict attrition-style pressure, and at higher tiers, raze settlements outright.
- Army control: reduce leadership and vigor, lock armies in place on the campaign map, damage them, and even trigger mutinies that split forces into hostile rebels.
- Self-targeting: accelerate recruitment, summon support forces, or trade a disposable unit for a bigger battlefield swing (including a “sacrifice a Marauder to get a Greater Daemon” style option).
3.3 The Risk: Chaos Watches You Back
Using Manipulations is not consequence-free. As Sayl escalates his meddling, he risks drawing the attention of other Chaos worshippers who do not love his “I answer to nobody” approach. When you push too far, you can trigger major dilemmas that force hard choices.
In short: Manipulate often, but be deliberate. Don’t blow your biggest tricks on a problem you could solve with a normal fight.
Fear and Fatigue Manipulation.
4. Spoils, Sacking, And Why Sayl Loves Burning Cities
Sayl’s campaign leans hard into raiding value, and one of the big reasons is Spoils, a Norscan resource tied to aggressive play.
Spoils give you a second economy that rewards doing what Norsca already likes to do: smash things, take the loot, move on.
4.1 What Spoils Are Used For
Spoils can be spent on:
- Rush certain building progress.
- Buy into specific research options.
- Establish “new homes” outside traditional Norscan territory when you feel like holding ground in a non-Norscan region.
That last point matters. It’s what lets Sayl pivot from pure razing into selective occupation without losing the faction’s raider DNA.
4.2 The Spoils Risk You Need To Respect
Spoils come with a catch: specific sacking actions can create a “returning” force that needs to make it back to one of your provinces to secure the gains. If that force gets intercepted, you risk losing the Spoils. You’ll also burn through expendable bodies doing it, so treat Marauders like fuel, not like heirlooms.
5. Sayl’s Strengths, Magic, And Battlefield Identity
Total War: Warhammer III introduces Sayl as a caster lord first and a Norscan leader second. That alone changes how his armies play compared to other Norscan starts.
5.1 Lores Of Magic And Spell Pressure
Sayl wields the Lore of Shadows and Lore of Heavens, and his skill tree leans heavily into magical output and enhancements that let him cast more aggressively and more often.
Sayl the Faithless in Total War: Warhammer III.
5.2 Nightmaw Summon
Sayl’s signature ability is Nightmaw, a summoned Chaos Spawn born from the ritual betrayal that elevated him. It’s a brutal disruption tool that can smash through enemy lines and create openings for your real killers. Sayl’s skills can also unlock extra uses per battle, turning Nightmaw into a repeatable tempo swing instead of a one-off trick.
5.3 Army-Wide Empowerment
One of Sayl’s nastiest “passive” strengths is a lingering consequence of his botched ritual, which can empower his army with:
- Magical attacks
- Bonus weapon strength
- Spell resistance
This is the kind of kit that makes even basic infantry trades feel unfair once you scale into the midgame.
5.4 Mount Options And Monster Synergy
Sayl also gets strong mobility options through mounts like the Warhorse, Marauder Chariot, and Warshrine War-Mammoth. He can also buff Monstrous Arcanum monsters in his service, and Kurgan Horsemen in particular can receive premium boosts (including Poison Attacks and a sizeable damage increase) when they fight under him.
6. New Lords And Heroes In Sayl’s DLC Roster
6.1 Lord: Great Shaman-Sorcerer
A new lord type that can be recruited with the Lores of Fire, Death, or Metal. They share Sayl’s mount options and can scrap better than you’d expect for a caster, thanks to Offering to the Gods, a skill that sacrifices friendly entities to push the Shaman-Sorcerer into a melee frenzy with significant combat boosts.
Great-Shaman Sorcerer Lord for Sayl’s faction in Total War: Warhammer III.
6.2 Legendary Hero: Beorg Bearstruck
Beorg is a werebear legend who joins you after you’ve raided enough gold to impress him. He’s a frontline monster who:
- Scales into one of your best melee pieces through his unique skills
- Buffs Marauder Bearmen heavily when embedded
- Has Thrill of Battle, replenishing 15% action points after a win, which is perfect for chaining fights and maintaining momentum
6.3 Hero: Fimir Noble
A new monstrous hero who excels in infantry and also makes your other Fimir better. Their skill line supports multiple directions, including:
- Raiding and pillaging focus
- Pure damage focus
- Heavy Fimir-buff specialization
Sayl starts with one, so it’s usually correct to embed them immediately and build around that early power.
7. All New Units For Sayl in Total War: Warhammer III
7.1 Marauder Bearmen
A sturdier, more fighty step above regular Marauders, available in axe-and-shield and great weapon variants. They’re cost-effective on their own, but they spike hard when Beorg is supporting them.
Marauder Bearmen unit.
7.2 Curs’d Ettin
A two-headed brute with a personality split:
- Above 50% HP (Betrayer): faster charges, bonus speed, and strong engagement tools
- Below 50% HP (Savage): higher base and armour-piercing damage, with a small hit to melee defense
7.3 Curs’d Ettin Runecaller
A spell-enabled variant with bound spells and its own personality swing:
- Above 50% HP: can nullify enemy magical weapons in a local radius
- Below 50% HP: gains regeneration and stays in the fight longer to keep casting
Curs’d Ettin Runecaller.
7.4 Chimera
A flying, triple-headed combat powerhouse whose attacks blend fiery, poisonous, and magical damage. It’s hard to outplay with positioning thanks to its resistance to flanking tricks. Drop it where infantry density is highest and let it do its job.
7.5 Dread Maw
A disgusting, brilliant disruption monster that burrows:
- Underground: untargetable and free to reposition
- Surfacing: bursts into a chosen area, including behind lines or under walls
- Above ground: can spit potent poison at fleeing targets
One major warning: if it routs, it can immediately break and escape due to Survival Instinct, so don’t leave it unsupported if a fight turns bad.
7.6 Kurgan Horsemen
Fast shock cavalry that excels at hitting infantry, especially when using terrain and surprise angles. Dual weapons are great against standard foot troops, while great weapons help crack armoured infantry. Their Frenzy and Rage tools reward sustained fighting, and Sayl can push them even further with faction buffs.
8. Best Early-Game Strategy For Sayl in Total War: Warhammer III
Sayl’s early turns are about securing breathing room, then turning that safety into leverage against bigger targets like Cathay.
8.1 Early Priorities
- Consolidate Mountain’s End so you can start choosing your wars instead of reacting to them.
- Place Chaos Altars with intent. You want Ritual progress, but you also want to avoid overextending into places you cannot revisit.
- Use Manipulations to shape your next war. Vision, sabotage, and army disruption are worth more than one extra sack if it sets up a clean invasion.
- Farm Spoils when it’s safe. Spoils are incredible, but don’t feed them into a route you cannot protect.
8.2 Army Direction That Fits Sayl
Two common paths work well:
- Spellcore plus disposable line: cheap infantry to hold, monsters and summons to disrupt, Sayl to decide fights with magic.
- Raider pressure stack: Kurgan Horsemen and fast hitters to exploit the chaos you create with Manipulations and Nightmaw.
The best version of Sayl is the one that wins fights quickly, then keeps moving before retaliation stacks up.
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- False Intentions Building.
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- Shadow Paths Building.
9. Sayl the Faithless FAQs
9.1 How Do You Unlock Higher-Tier Manipulations?
Progress the Dark Ritual by constructing Chaos Altars, then win the quest battles tied to each stage. Each stage raises your Manipulation ceiling.
9.2 Should You Always Build Chaos Altars?
Not always. You still need to sack, raze, and pillage for value and tempo. But if you want Sayl’s whole power curve, Altars are non-negotiable long term.
9.3 What Makes Sayl Different From Other Norsca Lords?
He is a true caster-led faction head with a campaign kit built around sabotage and control. Manipulations let him “win” parts of a war before the first battle begins, and the Dark Ritual gives him a clear power escalator.
That’s everything you need to start a Sayl campaign the right way in Total War: Warhammer III. Play him like a schemer, not a barbarian, and the map starts breaking in your favor.
Sayl’s Ambitions.
