Louen Leoncoeur
"A Knight is sworn to valor. His heart knows only virtue. His blade defends the helpless. His might upholds the weak. His word speaks only truth. His wrath undoes the wicked."
- – The Knight's Code, Dragonheart
"Now is the age of chivalry and greatness; now is the age of blood and battle!"
- – Total War: Warhammer Bretonnia faction intro
Louen Leoncoeur (the Lionhearted) is the king of the Bretonnia faction in Warhammer. Mounted on his loyal hippogriff, Beaquis, and armed with the Sword of Couronne, a bunch of other fancy relics and a french accent, he went against orcs, norscans, and more orcs during the main course of his regency.
He was rumored to have kissed the Lady of the Lake, that sly one, and was quite a nice lad that was aiming to raise the bar of the human nations, even if he was not really helped by its nobility. Might explain why he seemed to bond quite well with Karl Franz, that and the fact that ol’ Franzy probably wouldn’t have became Emperor if it wasn’t for Louen receiving a vision from some watery tart.
Louen was also a Grail Knight, and therefore a superhuman badass who could solo the greatest monsters and bad guys. In fact, the guy had apparently killed dragons and taken on beastmen tribes when he was still just a “regular” Questing Knight. Now that’s hardcore. The power of the Lady’s Bathwater means that he ages slowly (he’s supposed to be over 90 years old) and gives him troll-like levels of regeneration. Seriously, stabbing him with anything is a really bad idea.
While Grail Knights are supposed to be the goodest of the good and the purest of the pure, that didn’t stop Louen from being a randy old man. Aside from having to balls to snog a goddess, this also resulted in him having a bastard son called Mallobaude (aka. “Not Mordred”) who went on to become one of Bretonnia’s greatest enemies.
In the now non-canon Storm of Chaos, Louen was notable for saving the Grand Theogonist while taking on Be’lakor in single combat at the same time. Other than that, he just rode around on his hippogryph leading cavalry charges during the Siege of Middenheim.
Then came the End Times, and like every non-chaos character, the guy was heavily shit on. He was first handed his own ass during the war against Mousillon (apparently he was injured during a cavalry charge and his bastard son took advantage of this). He then went MIA and was replaced by the Green Knight as king of Bretonnia, becoming the new High Paladin of Couronne instead. He later undertook a solo career that got him killed during the Altdorf siege. He still managed to (singlehandly) beat a swathe of monsters, including a bile troll, a cygor, Nurgle’s baddest daemon (Ku'Gath) and a horde of plaguebearers before finally getting cut down by Festus the Leechlord. All in all, a better fate than Karl Franz, who tried to fight Otto Glott only to get his arms cut off...
Suddenly, Total War![edit]
Louen made the transition to the vidyah screens in Total War: Warhammer where he is a Legendary Lord and, noblesse oblige, the leader of the main Bretonnia faction, Couronne. Helped with the refreshed Bretonnian lineup and gameplay that does not hate mounted units, he can go on a quest tour that ends in either kicking chaos or orcs butts, knightly style.
It’s pretty much become a meme in the TW community that Louen is a one man army. Seriously, he starts off with a shitload of buffs, all the knightly vows unlocked, and by the end of the game he can solo almost anything thanks to his regeneration, equipment and unlimited vigour.
Trivia[edit]
It’s pretty obvious that Louen is based off King Richard the Lionheart, a real-life badass who also featured in the legend of Robin Hood.
