Join The Club
Brian Blessed is a national treasure. From attempting to climb Mount Everest multiple times without oxygen, to being the oldest man to trek to the Magnetic North Pole on foot, to that episode of Have I Got News For You where he eroded Ian Hislop's will to live, the man is a veritable force of nature. He also happened to voice Gotrek Gurnisson, the most famous dwarf slayer in Warhammer Fantasy.
It's a role he played in two separate audio productions, Gotrek the Realmslayer and Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World, both of which recount the undying dwarf's adventures in Age of Sigmar after The End Times. He also reprised the role in Total War: Warhammer, where he was added as a free character alongside his erstwhile companion and "rememberer", Felix Jaeger.
Brian Blessed's association with Creative Assembly actually started much earlier, in an extremely fun video for Total War: Rome 2 (which you can watch below) in which he gets very excited about firing a catapulta. Jumping into Total War: Warhammer 2 as Gotrek, though, came a lot later. He wasn't the only celebrity cameo either, as we also got Iwan Rheon as sadistic Druchii beastmaster, Rakarth (presumably a reference to Ramsey Bolton and his dogs), and Dylan Sprouse as Alith Anar.
Now, I've read all of the Gotrek and Felix novels and they amount to some of the best in Warhammer Fantasy, but last weekend I finally took the leap into his Age of Sigmar stories (Black Library actually gave Realmslayer away for free last month) and I wasn't disappointed.
I don't usually enjoy full cast audio productions versus standard audiobook narration, but Realmslayer's production values are really high, it has a great script, and Brian Blessed is perfect for the role of Gotrek. Turns out that it was pretty demanding, though, as he explains in the post-Realmslayer audio interview:
"I played King Lear a year and a half ago and I would say that this is six and a half times harder," says Blessed. "He is an enormous, powerful personality that dominates everything. He virtually takes on the universe. He's like a strange, giant dwarf knight errant."
If you're in any doubt as to the power Blessed puts into Gotrek, you can see a short snippet below of when he was cast in Total War: Warhammer—now imagine him doing that for five and a half hours.
"I'd say it's the most demanding part I've ever come across, he's like ten King Lears and it requires immense voice, and immense control of your diaphragm, and power, and infinite variety. You don't just shout all the time. There is immense subtlety in his primitive character. He's adorable, but you underestimate him at your peril."
I'm not sure I've ever heard Gotrek described as adorable—he literally bites someone's nose off in Realmslayer—but I guess there is a certain hulking… cuddliness to him? As Black Library narrator extraordinaire, Jonathan Keeble (who also happens to voice Maliketh in Elden Ring) puts it:
"When a character is described as being larger than life and a force of nature, you need someone to fill those boots, and Brian's straight from central casting for that."
If you've never had a chance to listen, Gotrek the Realmslayer is a fantastic audio production and one I definitely recommend, especially if you managed to grab it free last month, and you enjoy Blessed's performance in Total War: Warhammer. It could also work as a stepping stone into the novels, though obviously starting at the very beginning with Trollslayer is best.
Of the other free books Black Library gave away last month, I also really enjoyed Darkoath, which provides a pretty unique story from the perspective of a Chaos-worshipping marauder tribe, and was actually written by Chris Thursten, who used to write for PC Gamer many years back.
