luca scaccia65
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu4AyUWBr18
- Location
- italy
so what does everyone here think of the lamenters?
IC: they have a flag in the hall of started that used to be in the flag collection for the hall of destroyed started chapters that I had to dust as punishment when I was younger. Better than the metric shot ton of super menacing chapter names but no astartes standard measures up to the beauty of a Custodian Vexilla made and maintained by the Mercury Wall Artisan Communities.
Because creating orks is a stupid idea? Because they will omnidirectionally facepunch everyone including their creators with wild, lunatic abandon? Honestly, the most plausible thing about the orks, bioengineered mega-chavs that they are, is that whoever created them is either long dead, probably at the orks' own hands, or seriously regretting their life choices.What the *actual fuck*
How has the Imperium not fucking stomped everyone else?
I mean, it's not a huge surprise, but it's also not a huge stupid. In and of itself, it just merges two chunks of backstory into one.Tau thing is... meh, not the worst, but definitely could've been handled better, (Mostly by leaning more into 'Nobody really knows what the SoS are', and saying that one of *many* theories is they're mutated and corrupted Tau.) I also like that Big E is being treated as a true Eldritch Horror here, but the 'Thunder Warriors = Custodes' is just... stupid, like, actually just stupid.
I can sort of see it in a way.Also, the Emperor is somehow Just A Dude, but created Minor Gods in the Primarchs and Greater Demons in the Custodes? That just... doesn't make sense.
Nobody else does either! We're all just superficially faking it in different ways!OOC: I don't think I know what I'm doing here.
I really don't.
Well, somebody else said that the idea is that flak armor is basically there so you don't get immediately splattered just by shrapnel flying off of whatever was hit by a real weapon. This is actually not all that unrealistic; with science fictional weapons being thrown around, anything made out of unmodified human meat and not protected by some kind of armor or shenanigans might very well have such a low life expectancy in intense combat that even by Imperium of Man standards it's just a waste of time.The Flak Armor exchange is a good example, Deldar says that it simply doesn't make sense, because it doesn't actually protect from basically anything they actually face, only to have it later explained that it's by design.
IC: As someone who's Clan came from Jupiter don't get me started on those fucking waste of resources flak armour the Munitorum uses.Originally Flak armour was only meant for third rate PDF's, groups who were acting as occupation forces and skirmisher variety infantry.The mainly used combat Armour was of the Void Armour type seen below on a basic Solar Auxilla with a Kallibrax V-I pattern lasgun(think a hellgun in levels of damage),Solar Auxilla with a blastgun and a Auxilla Veletaris with a Volkite Charger(standard for a Veletaris Tercio but by the time of the Late Great Crusade Era Auxilla Heavy weapons teams were phasing them out in favour of easier to produce and less finnicky plasma weapons,bolters,meltas and flamers)Everyone else, including Imperial Guards, needs some armor to keep the lightest droplets of the steel rain off. Even if the armor is far too weak to stop such "ordinary" 40k weapons as a giant-ass anti-material doom laser or a fully automatic rocket-powered grenade launcher.
The idea that the mysterious null/blank/pariahs no one ever gets a good look at are actually anti-psychic supersoldiers made out of the one alien race known to be Not Psychic is... honestly not that bad. It's creative, it just seems weird when dropped in alongside a lot of other bombshells because the effects add up.
You did manage to telegraph that pretty hard in the posts right before that one.OOC: On the other hand, you don't get much more lesbian than the Sisters of Battle. Though, I guess technically they're bi, because of the crush on Big E, but you can't spell "les-bi-an" without "bi". Bisexuality is a small but essential part of the lesbian community, even if it doesn't represent all lesbians, and in this essay I will explain how Ynathe mostly wants Sister Vandire to fall so she can smooch Chaos Cultist Sister Vandire
I heard it once said that an Honorable Astertes is like a Wolf, working with the Group to bring down much greater Foes. Whereas each Custodes is like a Lion, Fiercely capable, but not intended to work together.Most of the time you think of a Shield host as a gathering of warriors when it's actually a informal convention of assasains,wetwork experts and operatives that meet once in a while to make sure no friendly fire happens.
Eh, you don't really see a lot of them around anymore, Emps and the Primarchs got most of them way back when.honestly forgot about them well i sounded quite silly did'nt i?
Very true on the wolf part. As someone who's been to the Terran Mammal Preservation Eco Dome (Beautiful place and thanks to our ancestral service we get to see it for free while Terran nobility plots and causes the occasional Tourist War just to have a limited Tour of around a day) itwould be a great insult to compare them to Lions in behavior. I would compare them to Falcons who can hunt together but prefer to experience the thrill of the hunt without interference from their peers.Sisters of Silence I would compare to gun dogs like the poodle in that can be around the Transhuman Dread early Custodians had (the early one terrify me. My upbringing as desensitized me to much but the first companions haunt my nightmares they are not beasts,men or gods.They are what can be approximated to deamon in the sense they are inhuman things that hunt and kill without remorse or emotion, nothing remains from wat the were and they find the younger ones weak and useless for even attempting to ape humanity) while the Lucifer Blacks are like the "traditional" type of hunting hound that tracks and inures the prey the Custodians hunt.I heard it once said that an Honorable Astertes is like a Wolf, working with the Group to bring down much greater Foes. Whereas each Custodes is like a Lion, Fiercely capable, but not intended to work together.
Bright burns the light of the T'au Empire. Relentless is its advance. They come first with words of friendship, promising enlightenment and strength through unity. Denied, they come again in a sudden storm of fire. Selfless and swift are their warriors. Mighty are their weapons of war. Yet it is their unwavering dedication to the T'au'va, the Greater Good, that is their deadliest weapon of all.
Welcome, noble Shas'o. Within the pages of this primer you will find much to aid you in spreading the enlightenment of the T'au'va to a divided and barbaric galaxy: the history of the T'au Empire; its spheres of expansion and ever advancing technologies; its greatest heroes and most dire foes. Read on, for the Ethereals have much to teach you.
The T'au Empire is young and dynamic compared to the elder powers of the 41st Millennium. Relative newcomers to the galactic stage, this xenos race might appear perilously naive. They are idealists, certainly, believing it is their destiny to bring enlightenment and unity to all. They are strangely compassionate conquerers, achieving peace through diplomacy where possible and showing true sorrow when forced to violent action.
Those who refuse the Greater Good are shown the error of their ways through swift and punishing military conquest, while those deemed unable ever to grasp its wonders are sentenced to annihilation. The T'au do not revel in such butchery. Yet they never turn from it either, and their might is so great that their foes stand little help.
Where more barbarous races favour bludgeoning their enemies at close quarters, T'au Hunter Cadres emphasize overwhelming firepower coupled with the manoeuvrability to swiftly relocate should any given position become untenable. Even the most low-ranking T'au soldies wear advanced protective armor and wield guns that put the specialist wargear of other factions to shame.
By the time the hunter cadres of the T'au Empire surge into battle, their commanders already know the surest path to victory. Feral Kroot, cunning Pathfinders, and the eagle-eyed pilots of the Air Caste have mapped every inch of the engagement area. The Foe's every weakness is already exposed.
From the first shot fired, the T'au demonstrate strategic coordination and unity of purpose so powerful that they are weapons in their own right. TY7 Devilfish transports deliver heavily equipped and highly trained warriors precisely where they are needed. Devastating artillery walkers like the KV128 Stormsurge hammer the enemy lines. Nimble combat aircraft fill the skies while alien auxilaries unleash their own unique talents of battlecraft.
So have countless worlds fallen to the expansionist armies of the T'au Empire, who do not hesitate to secure ideological acquiescence beneath the muzzle of a gun. Now, in the wake of the Great Rift's opening, more worlds in their path than ever stand cut off and poorly defended. The T'au will gladly see them all brought - willing or otherwise - into their burgeoning empire.
The first contact the Imperium had with the Tau is believed to have occurred shortly before the Age of Apostasy. Records of such antiquity are, of course, subject to much degradation. Moreover, becasue this contact was made by the Adeptus Mechanicus, those datalogs that endure are guarded with acquisitive jealousy. For all this, there are those amongst the Ordo Xenos and the Deathwatch who have accessed the blessed records and pieced together disturbing revelations from them. It appears that the world of T'au was surveyed from the void by the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator ship Land's Vision, and its xenos denizens discovered. At this time, however, the T'au were little more than primitive savages. Their world was marked for purgation and Human resettlement. Before this sentence could be carried out, however, warp storm activity cut T'au off from the imperium. Millennia passed before Humanity and T'au met again, yet not nearly so long as to explain the burgeoning stellar empire into which the aliens had flourised in the intervening time. Such explosive technological and cultural advancement has disquieted Imperial observers deeply. While the T'au might register as little more than an irritant to the Imperium at the moment, if their expansion and development continues at such a rapid pace there is no telling what manner of galactic threat their empire will become.
[The T'au] developed language, tools, and of course, weapons. What singles their tale out is the speed with which these advances came. The T'au are a short-lived species by Human standadrds, but strive with a dynamism that sees each generation achieve remarkable progress. During their early days, ancestors of the T'au rapidly outpaced their moral growth with their practical and martial development. Inevitable disaster followed...Tribal alliances formed. Wars erupted. So began the Mont'au, a dark time of conflict that looked destined to drive the Tau to extinction.
It is a shadow the modern T'au fear even now, for it speaks of a darkness within their collective psyche whose resurgence they will always dread.
According to T'au myth, the end of the Mont'au was marked by strange lights in the skies. These were first believed to portend the end of days, yet instead they seem to have announced the coming of the Ethereals. With them came destiny. The first documented sighting of this strange new breed of T'au was at Fio't'aun, a place where a mighty fortress lay beseiged. Ethereals walked calmly out of the night and compelled the leaders of both sides to sit down and agree a peace where none had been possible. Legend tells how the Ethereals spoke long with the assembled T'au who, until so recently, had sought one another's deaths. The Ethereals told of a shared destiny. They projected a sense of undeniable authority, and in the light of a new dawn they secured alliance and cooperation between the warring factions....the Ethereals ended the Mont'au and united their species in a single goal...the Tau'va, or Greater Good.
From that time onward the breakneck pace ofT'au advancement became one of their race's greatest strengths. Guided by the council of Ethereals, the T'au adopted a rigid caste system that saw the different tribes arranged and valued by their strengths. The Earth Caste were builders and craftsmen and, as ilieir technology base advanced, became engineers and scientists. The Air Caste continued to act as scouts and messengers, serving eventually as their race's pilots and spacefarers. Those tribes who had specialised in mercantile trade or diplomacy became the Water Caste, whose administrative influence flowed through their society and kept the wheels of progress turning. Stubborn and aggressive, the war-like plains dwellers took the longest to embrace the teachings of the Ethereals, yet even they eventually acceded and became the Fire Caste. In time they would graduate from being their race's huntsmen to being their standing military, and it was during these early centuries that they adopted the teachings of the Code of Fire that still regulate their conduct to this day.
This unified drive towards progress saw the T'au establish orbital void-cities, and then push outwards to claim new worlds and systems for their own. Such swift advancement also subjected theT'au race to unbelievable stresses and challenges: encountering alien species, many of which proved hostile and had to be fought for survival; the constant push towards progress and territorial expansion that required selfless dedication from every member of T'au society; the burning need for fresh resources to power the endless toil; the burden of believing in their peoples' destiny to save the galaxy from itself. Such stresses have proven too much for many burgeoning empires, even when spread out over far greater periods of time. Yet the T'au almost seem to relish each fresh hurdle. Though they may suffer and bleed, and pay dearly for every forwards step, still in the service of the Greater Good the T'au move ever forward, and they do so gladly.
The T'au'va can be summed up simply: it is the belief that the individual life of any given member of the T'au Empire is of less importance than the needs of the empire itself. Its adherents gladly expend incredible efforts, endure shocking hardships and lay down their lives without a second thought for the furtherance of this Greater Good.
Ever since the coming ofthe Ethereals, T'au societyhas been focused upon fulfillinga singular destiny. With very few exceptions, every T'au believes wholeheartedly in giving all that they have to the furtherance of the Greater Good. Moreover, they believe that it is their duty and privilege to carry this creed out into the stars and unify every sentient species beneath their secular faith. The T'au put great store in every achievement and personal sacrifice that advances this goal. Those who excel in the service of the Greater Good are lauded, while those rare few who allow personal hubris, vanity or selfishness to come first are vilified.
The T'au'va has many apparent benefits. Thanks to the instinting efforts of Earth Caste miners, engineers and architects the cities of the T'au septs are clean and orderly. They are technologically advanced places, well protected from hostile environments and enemies alike. Energy shields and vast habitation domes hold indigenous lifeforms and perilous weather systems at bay. Railguns, ion cannons, Fire Caste garrisons and hive-like droneports watch over the habitation zones, science complexes, cultural centres, military academies, Water Caste diplomatic embassies and trade hubs, Air caste spaceports and other bustling centres that fill the cities...Within their bounds, alien races of many sorts rub shoulders in peace, with the T'au moving through them as first amongst equals.
Of course, all who dwell in these cities have their places within T'au society predetermined by caste and by the orders of the Ethereals.
They toil for the Greater Good while surrounded by carefully nuanced propaganda that extolls the glories and victories of their eminently superior empire. The T'au and their allies have very little say in their own personal destinies for, by the command of the Ethereals, these are subsumed into the single great destiny that all must serve...The word of the Ethereals is law, and no true T'au or ally of their empire would seek to contradict it.
The Greater Good demands the tireless expansion of the T'au Empire. It is not enough to wait for the peoples of the galaxy to come in search of enlightenment. The T'au feel genuine compassion for those races unfortunate enough to still toil in darkness and ignorance. They believe the message of the Greater Good must be brought to all, and everycivilisation ushered into the wonder of its light.
The warriors of the Fire Caste are many but even still their numbers are stretched thin about the borders of the empire. Moreover, the T'au know their own strengths and weaknesses well, accepting without ego that many aliens possess physical or mental abilities that allow them to serve the Greater Good in ways the T'au themselves cannot.
It is for these reasons, among others, that the T'au make widespread use of alien species to supplement their armies, as well as many other arms of their civilisation. Most ubiquitous amongst all these alien auxiliaries are the mercenary Kroot and to a lesser extent the insectile Vespid, each of which bring their own talents to support the Fire Caste. Yet these are but the tip of a considerable iceberg: there are the Nicassar, possessed of potent psychic abilities that T'au little understand, and a mastery of voidfaring;the Anthrazods, who are put to work mining asteroids for the Greater Good; the Nagi, small, wormlike beings whose talent for mental compulsion has greatly aided more than one difficult Water Caste negotiation; the Vorgh, peaceful until roused and yet so massive and resilient that they can wrestle a super-heavy combat walker and previal; the Phosiab, whose ability to view reality in nine dimensions and slip through the void unharmed is a boon to T'au extra-orbital construction. Even humans have been integrated into the T'au empire, abandoning their oppressive Imperial masters in favour of a new life in the light of the Greater Good.
Drones lead the way out into the void, tinylights streaking through the immensity of space as they broadcast messages of hope and unity. Whenever a drone detects signals from a sentient species it alerts the T'au and beckons their colonisation fleets hence. From this point the T'au observe a specific series of protocols. First contact is always made by ambassadors of the Water Caste, who entreat peaceful negotiations with the newly discovered aliens. Silver tongued and fervently committed to spreading the message ofthe Greater Good, the ambassadors do all they can to convince their hosts of the benefits of becoming part of the T'au Empire. Should the world's inhabitants accept this invitation - even should such acceptance take generations to arrive at - then all is well; T'au colonisation begins at once and often the indigenous peoples are peacefully relocated deeper into the T'au Empire, where they can be educated in the glory of the T'au'va.
Regrettably, - from the T'au standpoint, anyway - many races reject these diplomatic advances. Such beings cannot be left to threaten the empire in their ignorance...When the T'au attack, they come suddenly from the firmament with overwhelming speed and firepower...Yet even in victory the T'au are not cruel. They seek to preserve what they can of both the enemy's world and the enemy themselves, for both will be valuable assets to the empire once conquered. As the Ethereals say, it is not the fault of those who are blind that they cannot yet see.
As each new Sphere of Expansion has pressed outwards into the darkness, so the boundaries of the T'au Empire have stretched wider and that which was once veiled in shadow has been illuminated by the radiance of the T'au'va. Yet always the unknown and the unenlightened call out to the T'au, drawing them ever further into the shadows beyond.
So completely have the T'au absorbed the concept of the Greater Good that it has come to shape their entire society, and even their physical and mental makeup. Long now have they been divided into castes, each with its own strictly delineated responsibilities to the empire and the other castes. The T'au caste system transform their society from countless individuals to a coherent whole, comprising four hard-working component elements directed in all things by a fifth. T'au are born into their castes, live their lives by the tenets of that caste, and all hope to eventually pass away having furthered its contribution to the Greater Good. The Ethereals permit no interbreeding between T'au of different castes. They further monitor the development of each as a careful gardener tends to their plants, pairing away weak or recessive shoots while ensuring the healthy limbs are given all they need to thrive.
Even within their caste, most T'au have their place marked out for them as need dictates. That said, the T'au Empire is - broadly speaking - a meritocracy in which excellence is recognised with progress.
...A skilled Earth Caste T'au might be plucked from a more menial role and propelled into a lifetime of scientific or technological experimentation, or the architectural design of grand structures. One might be forgiven for thinking that T'au society would frown upon individuals taking pride in their achievements, but it is not so. Rather, each individual is encouraged to derive the greatest satisfaction from their works, military conquest, new discoveries, or the like, with two crucial caveats. The first is that all such labours are equally as important to the empire and that a humble labourer who finishes raising a wall should be praised just as highly by her fellows as should an ace pilot who shoots down many enemy fighter craft, or a Fire Caste shas'o who conquers a world for the empire. The second is that all such personal glories are won for the empire, not for the individual. This subtle but crucial emphasis ensures that the vast majority of T'au strive their whole lives with willing enthusiasm to achieve all they can for the T'au'va, and goes some way to preventing factionalism or damaging rivalries between the castes.
The T'au have a tendency towards short lives when compared to the average Human. Coupled with their lightning fast evolutionary advances and the rigidity of the caste system, this has led them - over countless brief but bright-burning generations - to diverge into something closer to four interdependent subspecies. All are still recognizably T'au; they are humanoid in form, with hoof-like feet and blue skin whose shade depends on their world's proximity to its nearest star. However, no T'au could ever mistake a member of another caste for their own and indeed even their physiology differs quite markedly. Those who have fought the T'au Empire and become used to the comparatively burly and aggressive Fire Caste would be surprised at the sight of a squat, broad Earth Caste T'au, an elegant and swift-witted trader of the Water Caste or - strangest of all - one of the willowy Air Caste with their etiolated build and gangling limbs.
One of the few apparent racial constants that unites all the castes is an absolute lack of sensitivity to the empyrean. There are, seemingly, no psykers amongst the T'au, nor any tendency towards the uncontrolled mutation that the warp's touch brings. It is unclear to what degree the Ethereals know of or comprehend the hellish dimension that roils beneath the skin of realspace, but it is readily apparent that the race they rule understand nothing of it. In many ways, of course, this is a blessing, for the touch of the warp is wholly corrupting. Yet, in others, for a people pushing even further into a dark and violent galaxy where the power of Chaos is on the rise, it is a perilous blind spot.
Through the years, the Fire Caste's desirable traits of strength and physical size have continued to increase, and any weak strains are quickly weeded out.
The Ethereal Caste stand apart from their people. They rule the T'au as a wise and patient adult might guide spirited, if occasionally wayward youths to realise their truest potential. Sometimes serene and benevolent, other times hard and stern as stone, it is the Ethereals who divine the needs of the Greater Good, and who decree the ways in which the T'au Empire may bring it about.
To their own people, the Ethereals are infinitely wise rulers, ruthless when they must be but ultimately altruistic.To outside species they cultivate a more aloof appearance. They do nothing to dissuade more primitive alien races from deifying them, or more recalcitrant peoples from fearing them as all-knowing and perilous to anger.
Lack of experimental subjects has not stopped Imperial biologians from speculating upon the mechanisms of Ethereal rule, of course. Discarding as facile the suggestion that theT'au simply believe unswervingly in their xenos creed, such magi have suggested everything from veiled psychic domination or pheromonal control to even more outlandish theories, like mass racial hypnosis or the deployment of invisible organic nanites.
[The highest Ethereal] Aun'Va has lived countless lifespans, even for an Ethereal. Yet his people accept this as simply yet another facet of his legend. He is to them an icon of longevity, stability and purpose whose mortality could never be countenanced. This is unfortunate, as the true Aun'Va is already dead, slain by an Imperial Assassin during the apocalyptic conclusion of the war beyond the Damocles Gulf. Knowing the cataclysmic impact his death would have upon T'au society, the Ethereals have since employed solid-light technology coupled with AI personality matrices to give the Ethereal Supreme a simulacra of life beyond death that has, thus far, fooled the worshipful masses. Of course, his Honour Guard may now never leave Aun'Va's side, and none may ever be permitted to touch him, for the labrynthine deception must never be revealed.
OOC: Annnd the culture clash/blue-and-orange morality strikes again! This time from two sides!(Sister Vandire: The Tau are still best understood as individuals in a conformist society, rather than as some faceless horde.)
Hubris, vanity, and selfishness are the point of life, my dear! What's the point of anything if one isn't having fun? What dull, castrated lives the T'au must lead.
(Sister Vandire: It is, in some sense, admirable. Their faith is false, but it's strong.)
The more I read this, the more unsettlingly perfect it gets. Are the T'au really so...orderly?
(Sister Vandire: Yeah. That's about it.)
Where is the pain, the joy, the experimentation and the tragedy? Where is the beautiful horror? Where is the life?
(Sister Vandire: Probably dismissed as inefficient and a hindrance for the Greater Good by their government.)
What a profoundly artless society.
OOC: Isn't it life, really? Everyone experiences reality in a unique, subjective way and only by combining insight can we approach the truth, like in that parable about blind men and an elephant.Well, fantastic, I suppose none of us know anything about the Tau?
(Sister Vandire: I think if we read this Codex and put all of our perspectives together, we may get an accurate view of the Tau.)
...Alternatively, none of us will understand anything about them and we'll all be incorrect in different ways.
Bullshit.
(Sister Vandire: Horseshit.)
(Vior Or'es: Kev'atal manure.)
Please just find a T'au partner and stop bothering us with your insipid simpering!
(Sister Vandire: No comment.)
Oh, you would be aroused by a well-muscled T'au embracing you with talk of the "Greater Good".
IC: The kind who wants to survive. The Imperium left us to die on T'Ros. We would have spent the entirety of our lives destitute in horrendous conditions, with no choice or opportunity to do anything else. The Tau give us choice, and they do respect our traditions in some ways. There actually is art in the Tau Empire! It's almost exclusively made by non-T'au, but it's there and thriving. So long as we work for the greater good, the Tau recognize the importance of spiritual fulfillment for human beings - we genuinely contribute less to the Greater Good without our art to nourish us- and allow us to create our own art. The art scene on T'ros is actually incredibly vibrant, now that we're free of imperial repression and mandated worship to the Emperor. You should visit sometime- it doesn't celebrate pain like your society, but I'm sure there's something to catch your interest. All in all, yes I'm happy to be part of the Greater Good. It's kept my belly full and my family alive, which is more than the Imperium could goddamn say.
OOC: Thank you! As usual, mind if I ask what you enjoyed about the update?OOC: absolute genius, I love it.
IC: The kind who wants to survive. The Imperium left us to die on T'Ros. We would have spent the entirety of our lives destitute in horrendous conditions, with no choice or opportunity to do anything else. The Tau give us choice, and they do respect our traditions in some ways. There actually is art in the Tau Empire! It's almost exclusively made by non-T'au, but it's there and thriving. So long as we work for the greater good, the Tau recognize the importance of spiritual fulfillment for human beings - we genuinely contribute less to the Greater Good without our art to nourish us- and allow us to create our own art. The art scene on T'ros is actually incredibly vibrant, now that we're free of imperial repression and mandated worship to the Emperor. You should visit sometime- it doesn't celebrate pain like your society, but I'm sure there's something to catch your interest. All in all, yes I'm happy to be part of the Greater Good. It's kept my belly full and my family alive, which is more than the Imperium could goddamn say.
OOC: the comedy was great, I loved the conflicting narratives kind of emphasizing the chaos of 40k's galaxy (pun not intended).OOC: Thank you! As usual, mind if I ask what you enjoyed about the update?
IC: I suppose, but it seems like a lateral move, does it not? You're going from one (mostly) joyless conformist empire to another (mostly) joyless conformist empire.
Oh, and do the T'au not repress you as the Imperials do?
OOC: TYTY, I'm glad the comedy worked well! Oh, and yeah, the idea is that this galaxy is better than the Only War one, but that there are many varied perspectives.OOC: the comedy was great, I loved the conflicting narratives kind of emphasizing the chaos of 40k's galaxy (pun not intended).
IC: No, no they do not. Aside from providing for us materially far better than the Imperium, the Tau recognize humankind is at its most efficient, and most able to innovate and contribute to the Greater Good, when it's allowed to be more free. It's cold simple logic rather than anything ideologically motivated but it still lets us live much freer lives than we had in the Imperium.
IC: The Gue'vesa are given a longer leash than the T'au yes, because we work better with one. There are instances of T'au who work better independently as well- I'll be curious to see what you make of the Farsight Enclaves once you get to them. The Tau are all about efficiency in serving the Greater Good, and they're willing to bend if you can prove you're more efficient doing things differently. Proving that efficiency was a challenge, but we have done so on T'ros and on many other worlds. The same has happened in cases I'm less comfortable with as well - I don't think the Kroot's ……culinary preferences will ever sit well with me, but the T'au allow it because it works better. It's the same thing with allowing human expression.OOC: TYTY, I'm glad the comedy worked well! Oh, and yeah, the idea is that this galaxy is better than the Only War one, but that there are many varied perspectives.
IC: ...Are you like Vior Or'es, then, willing to take regimentation, compassion, order, safety, and structure at the expense of individualism? Or are the Gue'vesa given a longer leash than the T'au?
What do you think of the Ethereals? As the humans say, are they all that their egg has cracked up being?IC: The Gue'vesa are given a longer leash than the T'au yes, because we work better with one. There are instances of T'au who work better independently as well- I'll be curious to see what you make of the Farsight Enclaves once you get to them. The Tau are all about efficiency in serving the Greater Good, and they're willing to bend if you can prove you're more efficient doing things differently. Proving that efficiency was a challenge, but we have done so on T'ros and on many other worlds. The same has happened in cases I'm less comfortable with as well - I don't think the Kroot's ……culinary preferences will ever sit well with me, but the T'au allow it because it works better. It's the same thing with allowing human expression.
I haven't met enough to really say, to be honest. My world is pretty far out on the frontier relatively speaking, and we do not get many ethereals visiting often. I have seen and met a few briefly when they come by the garrison to give speeches and the like, and they seem like competent leaders. A bit boring and humorless, but they know what they're doing. I do think any ideas of mind control or pheromones is complete and utter bullshit, however.What do you think of the Ethereals? As the humans say, are they all that their egg has cracked up being?
So, what, you think they just happen to be persuasive and good at leading, so people listen to them? Also, what do you think of the Secret Aur'Va Replacement Conspiracy nonsense?I haven't met enough to really say, to be honest. My world is pretty far out on the frontier relatively speaking, and we do not get many ethereals visiting often. I have seen and met a few briefly when they come by the garrison to give speeches and the like, and they seem like competent leaders. A bit boring and humorless, but they know what they're doing. I do think any ideas of mind control or pheromones is complete and utter bullshit, however.
I think yes. I think they're trained and raised to be persuasive and good at leading from birth, and that level of training can go a long way. Nurture over nature and all that. That replacement theory is also absolutely goddamn nonsense, designed to tell the imperium "the tau aren't any better than us, they worship a dead being on a throne but even worse because this supposedly dead Aun'va doesn't do anything!" It's absolutely made up.So, what, you think they just happen to be persuasive and good at leading, so people listen to them? Also, what do you think of the Secret Aur'Va Replacement Conspiracy nonsense?
It was very strange. A lot of the propaganda in this Codex was understated, even kind of complimentary. Did some editor force in the replacement theory just because it wasn't "sacred" enough?I think yes. I think they're trained and raised to be persuasive and good at leading from birth, and that level of training can go a long way. Nurture over nature and all that. That replacement theory is also absolutely goddamn nonsense, designed to tell the imperium "the tau aren't any better than us, they worship a dead being on a throne but even worse because this supposedly dead Aun'va doesn't do anything!" It's absolutely made up.
Honestly, that's about my guess too. It absolutely reads like editorial meddling.It was very strange. A lot of the propaganda in this Codex was understated, even kind of complimentary. Did some editor force in the replacement theory just because it wasn't "sacred" enough?
Do you ever wonder who writes these?Honestly, that's about my guess too. It absolutely reads like editorial meddling.
Sister Vandire:I think yes. I think they're trained and raised to be persuasive and good at leading from birth, and that level of training can go a long way. Nurture over nature and all that. That replacement theory is also absolutely goddamn nonsense, designed to tell the imperium "the tau aren't any better than us, they worship a dead being on a throne but even worse because this supposedly dead Aun'va doesn't do anything!" It's absolutely made up.
Nah, I've fought Tau enough times to know that something like that wouldn't work. Your average Tau's too... *consistent* in their Cultish-behavior, almost like the Guardsmen from Krieg.