Shas'O Kais

He's one hell of a badass.

Shas'o Kais is the hero unit of the Tau campaign in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and later a central character in the tabletop's 8th edition T'au lore. He is the textbook noblebright in a galaxy gone grimdark. One of the only commanders in the entire campaign willing to negotiate and talk common sense, Kais is nonetheless an exceptional badass for a Tau, and proves he can get shit done.

The fact that he's the most merciful commander in the setting does not stop him from getting a body count in the thousands. Though he's unique in that he's willing to use diplomacy first, he's just as hard-edged if that fails, and is more than willing to rely on Ambassador Plasma Rifle to come to a resolution afterwards. He's a hell of a lot less of a dick than Commander Or'es'Ka, though.

According to the Dark Crusade developer commentary, he is a deliberate reference to Kais the lowly Shas'la protagonist of Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior, all grown up to Shas'o status. This caused a canon conflict when the Black Library writers wanted Shas'O Kais to be a vaunted protege of Puretide, while Shas'la Kais is just some random lucky schlub with daddy issues and the voice of Khorne trying to talk to him (with not much success). Even this isn't really an insurmountable canon-issue though. It's mentioned in the Damocles Anthology that Shadowsun had a career as a Shas'la prior to becoming Puretide's protege so it's entirely possible that Shas'O Kais is both a kick-ass fighter and a man burdened by daddy issues, if he indeed had a career prior to Puretide noticing him. Hell, who's to say the events of Fire Warrior aren't what made Puretide even notice Kais in the first place?

Service in the Dark Crusade

A Fire Caste commander who is an inspiration to his men, Shas'o Kais rose from the rank of Shas'la to his current command position, probably due to his individual heroism during the events of Fire Warrior. Along with Commanders Farsight and Shadowsun, he was one of the three top students of Commander Puretide, who led the T'au forces that took Kronus from the Imperium in the first place. In their training under Puretide, Farsight specialized in Mont'ka ("The killing blow") and Shadowsun in Kauyon ("The patient hunter"), while Kais took the rare specialty of the Monat ("the lone hero") combat philosophy; in both Dawn of War and Fire Warrior, his character represents this through his kinda ridiculous one-T'au-army status.

Farsight - Crisis of Faith revealed that while he, Farsight, and Shadownsun are bonded, Kais committed a deed that forever drove a wedge between the three. He was so ashamed with himself that he was actively avoiding his bond mates, going so far as to ask to be the first to be frozen as a plan to preserve Puretide's students.

Kais was sent to the war-torn world of Kronus in the hopes that he could mimic his teacher's great feats, now that the planet was being ravaged by six other goddamned fucking power groups. With a secondary duty of keeping the Ethereal Aun'el Shi'Ores safe, Kais' forces occupied the planetary capital of Or'es Tash'n and made ready to slowly take the planet back for the Tau Empire.

Kais did some major damage during the Dark Crusade, and was rather infamous for the damage his forces did to the Orks and Eldar during the war, and they engaged in some truly bitter fighting with Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander's men. Unfortunately, Kais' forces did not count on the aggressiveness of the Blood Ravens Space Marines under Davian Thule, and Aun'el Shi'Ores was assassinated. With the T'au spiritual leader dead, their war machine broke ranks when morale plummeted; Kais gathered together the survivors and got them out of the system, making him one of the four three commanders to survive the Dark Crusade (Eliphas still died, he just came back thanks to Chaos shenanigans).

He would at some point fuck some Ork shit up, and founded the Sept of Fi'Rios, though it's unknown if he did this before or after the Dark Crusade.

According to the Tau 8th Edition Codex, he had a role in the Plague Wars, defending the planet Kellik from the forces of the Death Guard. Knowing Kais he probably held the fucking line himself before curb stomping three or four Great Unclean Ones to death.

Further Developments from "War of Secrets" have Turned Shas'O Kais into a T'au Mary Sue, even when compared to his previous accomplishments. When he last got put into stasis something went wrong, yet his cognitive functions somehow didn't cease. He spent HUNDREDS of years stuck in a frozen body that didn't decay. He did 2 things in all that time, namely downloading every piece of information on the combat abilities of the T'au Empire and its enemies' technology, and coming up with ways to defeat every conceivable opponent the T'au might face; though this still doesn't explain the sheer amount of bullshit he pulls during the book. When he finally goes into action, he storms an Astartes fortress-monastery in a Ghostkeel, and his feats quickly become fucking ridiculous, like being able to solo eight Terminators and make Devastator Squads and Librarians shoot each other somehow, as well as no-scope-no-look headshot a Marine with his pistol through a hole in his suit made by that Marine's plasma gun, all while he was flying in the air, and even the Chapter Master and his guard were helpless to stop him. Unable to deal with the author's favourite, the Chapter Master called in an orbital strike on his own monastery and despite being directly hit and inside a breached battlesuit, Kais somehow survived and popped out of the wreckage like Wile E. Coyote

Criticism

Thanks to his characterization in Dark Crusade, Kais was one of the more well-liked and memorable non-Astartes characters of the series, and for a while embodied what the T'au represented at that point to the fandom in general -- well-meaning but generally naive newcomers to a galaxy worn down by near-constant conflict and cruelty.

While this kind of worked in the loose canon that 40k-based video games followed, especially given how he was a homage to a different video game entirely (Fire Warrior), transposing his brand of Noblebright to the really gritty grimdark lore of the print universe of the time... Simply didn't work, or rather the writers weren't good enough to shoe him into the lore in any way that would preserve said Noblebright.

Then there's the T'au Doomguy problem: how can one realistically show how a T'au slub can be a one-man army par excellance, without careening straight into parody?

In the FPS genre of video games that Fire Warrior is part of, silly over the top things like doing a jumping 360-no-scope to headshot an Astartes is not only possible, it comes with the territory (including teabagging said headshotted Astartes several times in celebration). Transposing the same set of movements into dynamic prose is HARD, and smothering the resulting suspension of disbelief even harder. More often than not it just results in Fail.

Of course, then there's the Phil Kelly problem. The author had a trend of taking T'au characters and outright ruining them by sheer awful writing. T'au fans in general agree that Phil Kelly is the Matt Ward of the T'au: a blight upon the faction that makes them even more hated than they already are.

Combat Ability

Kais is akin to a Magikarp: when he starts out, he'll only have his piddling little burst cannon to fight with and can't even jump because you need a wargear for that, but give him a few upgrades and he'll be kicking ass and taking names in no time. His anti-infantry burst cannon can be replaced with an anti-vehicle fusion blaster and later an anti-everything plasma rifle. Between his upgradeable main-hand weapon, his secondary flamer and his shoulder-mounted missile pods, he can have up to three ranged weapons at once, making him unrivaled among the Dark Crusade commanders for sheer dakka power. Among his other upgrades are a helm that lets him detect infiltrated units, iridium armour that increases his health and reduces the damage he takes and a cloaking field that infiltrates him, making him one of only two commanders able to become invisible.

Tabletop(7E)

HQ: Shas’O Kais - 160 points

"Better destruction than bondage" "So says the Slave to the free Man." A partial recording of a conversation between Captain Davian Thule & Shas'O Kais during the failed Kronus Reclamation as Kais attempted to negotiate Thule's surrender

Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Shas'O Kais	4	5	4	4	4	3	4	10	2+/5++
MV4 Battle Drone	2	3	4	4	2	4	1	7	4+

Unit Composition: Shas'O Kais

Unit Type: Jet-Pack Infantry (Kais is an Independent Character)

Wargear (Shas'O Kais): XV-2-04 Knight Stealth Suit, Multi-Tracker, Blacksun Filter, Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Twin-Linked Missile Pod

• Gravitic Shield Generator (5++ Inv Save, May re-roll 1 Save per turn)

Wargear (MV4 Battle Drone): Advanced Targeting Engram (+1 BS, already in profile), Twin-Linked Pulse Carbine, Wide-Area Communications Link (allows all Tau units in 12" to use Kais's Leadership)

Signature System - XV-2-5'4 "Knight" Stealth Suit: Shas’O Kais’s personal Battlesuit has been with him ever since he first started out in the Crisis suit teams as a Shas’Ui, and he has used it to protect both his commanders and his subordinates, due to his habit of putting himself between his commanders and the enemies of the Greater Good it was chosen to mount an experimental reinforcement of the Iridium suit known as the “Knight” suit to help him protect Aun’El Shi’Ores during the reclamation of planet Kronus. This suit Grants +1 Toughness, +1 Wound, a Gravitic Shield Generator, and a 2+ Armour Save.

Special Rules: Supporting Fire, Independent Character (Kais), Very Bulky (Kais), Stealth (Kais), Shrouded (Kais)

Warlord Trait: For Many, One Sacrifice Shas'O Kais may use the Look Out Sir Special Rule, and Automatically succeeds on all Look Out Sir attempts to protect Non-Battlesuit Infantry, in addition Shas'O Kais may re-roll any Armour, Cover, or Invulnerable saves made due to the "Look Out Sir" rule.

Options:

• Shas’O Kais may purchase up to 2 Drones for the following costs:

• - Gun Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Marker Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Shield Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - Missile Drones 12 Points/Drone
• - MV4 Battle Drones for 20 Points/Drone

• If Shas'O Kais is your Warlord you may purchase Aun'El Shi'Ores without taking up a HQ slot.

HQ: Aun'El Shi'Ores - 90 Points

Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Aun'el Shi'Ores	4	3	3	3	2	3	3	10	---

Unit Composition: Aun'el Shi'Ores

Unit Type: Infantry (Aun'el Shi'Ores is an Independent Character)

Wargear (Aun'El Shi'Ores): 2 Equalizers, Homing Beacon

Special Rules: Communication Network, Failure Is Not An Option, Independent Character, Invocation Of The Elements, Rally To Me!, Stubborn

• Communication Network: So long as both Aun'el Shi'Ores and Shas'O Kais are on the battlefield, Aun'el Shi'Ores may use any MV4 Battle Drone as the origin point for his Failure Is Not An Option and Invocation Of The Elements special rules.
• Rally To Me!: So long as Shi'Ores is not part of a unit, any Tau units within 12" that are falling back automatically regroup, but must use their 3" consolidation to move as close to Shi'Ores as possible.

Tabletop (8E)

Shas'O Kais

HQ: Shas'O Kais - 140 Points; 14 PL

Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
Shas'O Kais	8"	3+	2+	4	5	6	3	9	2+
MV4 Battle Drone	8"	5+	4+	3	4	1	1	6	4+

Unit Composition: Shas'O Kais is a single model equipped with a Plasma Rifle, a Fusion Blaster and 2 Missile Pods. He is accompanied by 2 MV4 Battle Drones, both of which are equipped with 2 pulse carbines and a Wide Range Comms Link

Weapons

Name	Range	Type	S	AP	D	Abilities
Fusion Blaster	18"	Assault 1	8	-4	D6	---
Missile Pod	36"	Assault 2	7	-1	D3	---
Plasma Rifle	24"	Rapid Fire 1	6	-3	1	---
Pulse Carbine	18"	Assault 2	5	0	1	---

Abilities

• For The Greater Good: Index - Xenos 2 (page 48)
• Monat: If there are no friendly <Sept> Infantry, or Battlesuit models within 6" of this model, he may re-roll all failed to hit rolls and saving throws.
• Gravitic Shield Generator: This Model has a 5+ Invulnerable save.
• Camouflage Field: Your opponent must subtract 1 from all hit rolls that target Shas'O Kais
• Manta Strike: During deployment, you may choose to set this unit in Deepstrike instead of place it on the battlefield. On turn 2, you can set it up anywhere on the battlefield that is 9" away from any enemy unit.
• Drone Support: Whenever you deploy this unit, its drones are deployed in coherency with this unit. After that, the drones are considered their own unit for the remainder of the game.
• Saviour Protocols: Index - Xenos 2 (page 53)
• Wide Range Comms Link: Any friendly <Sept> Infantry or <Battlesuit> units within 6" of a MV4 Battle Drone may re-roll 1D6 whenever they make a morale test.

Faction Keywords

• T'au Empire, Tau Sept

Keywords (Shas'O Kais)

• Battlesuit, Character, Commander, Jet-Pack, Fly, Shas'O Kais

Keywords (MV4 Battle Drones)

• Drones, Fly, MV4 Battle Drone

Making The Legend

Unfortunately, making this guy is kinda hard, seeing as the XV22 is only available for Shadowsun. One can rectify this by simply putting the helmet on her, and with a little kitbashing magic, swap one of the Fusion guns for a plasma rifle. As for missile pods, the SMS in any Fire Warrior kit will make a fairly accurate proxy. Just know that it won't look perfect. Close though.

Alternatively, you can google-fu a plethora of video tutorials on how to make him. There's also this pdf.

Gallery

• 

  Shas'o Kais in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.

Heroes of the Greater Good
Ethereals:	Aun'Shi - Aun'Va
Fire Caste:	Commander Farsight - Commander Puretide Commander Shadowsun - El'Myamoto Longstrike
Dawn of War:	Shas'O Or'es'Ka - Shas'O Kais