Tau
The Tau are a playable race in Warhammer 40k. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Then their planet was trapped in a Warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the mysterious Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "Greater Good". The Tau were originally developed because Games Workshop felt their setting needed an optimistic race, making the Tau the least grimdark faction in the game. Recent fluff (or at least Dawn of War fluff, which is of dubious canonicity) has them gleefully arbitrarily sterilizing humans that come under the rule of the Tau Empire, while their Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of mind control. It says something about 40k that despite this they're still the friendliest race in the setting.
Some people feel that this makes them Mary Sues. These people are welcome to go back to fobbing the genetically enhanced cocks of their oh so perfectly perfect killing machines until the damn things fall off.
And the people in question are promptly purged for Heresy.
They are a technologically advanced race, and have some of the most powerful ranged weaponry in the game. Tau units in general are rather weak in close combat, so they rely on alien auxiliaries such as the Kroot and Vespids who have joined the Tau Empire to bolster their strengths in this area. Fire Warrior veterans and commanders go to war wearing advanced battlesuits, allowing them to field even more firepower. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior to or equal to Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own Titan-equivalent (which is a small starship).
Tau unit designs were somewhat inspired by Asian culture and Japanese mecha. As a result, /tg/ declares the Tau are weeaboo. (Contrast with the Imperium of Man, a nation ruled by a Divine Emperor with legions of fanatical warriors who believe that glory awaits those who die in battle in his name with officers carrying swords, infantry engaging in fanatical charges screaming "BANZAI!" "FOR THE EMPEROR!", suicide missions considered a proper way to end one's military career, high ranking officers wearing dress uniforms comparable to those from 18th/19th century Europe, whose most powerful weapons are gigantic humanoid mecha)
Their devotion to the philosophy of the Greater Good often leads to them being labeled as communists, too. Well that, and their non-belief in money, or ambitious personal self-advancement, coupled with a rigidly directed obsessively planned autocratic civilization, as opposed to the Imperium, which just has a harshly directed cumbersomely bureaucratic autocratic civilization.
The Real Reason Why People Hate Tau
Weeaboo space communists - not grimdark enough.
The Real Reason Why People Play Tau
Have the most powerful guns in the game. Made twin-linked. And then given to infantry units. If a competent Tau general manages to get first turn in a match, he's already won.
Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade.Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an old one's standards without knowing it.
Notable Tau
See Also
External Link
Typical Tau-Human conversation.
Gallery
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