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Edgy

2021-05-06T02:26:48Z

2600:1700:9756:490:F881:C34D:6DD1:D4CE:

{{Topquote|As far as I can make out "edgy" occurs when middlebrow, middle-aged profiteers are looking to suck the energy--not to mention the spending money--out of the "youth culture." So they come up with this fake concept of "seeming to be dangerous when every move they make is the result of market research and a corporate master plan".|[[Daria 40k|Daria]], Episode [3.05] The Lost Girls.}}

{{Topquote|My name is Not Important; what is important is what I'm going to do. I just fucking hate this world, and the human worms feasting on its carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred, and I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance, and no life is worth saving, and I will put in the grave as many as I can. It's time for me to kill and it's time for me to die; my genocide crusade begins... here!|The player character of ''Hatred''}}

{{Topquote|Make it [[World of Darkness|dark]], make it [[Grimdark|grim]], make it [[ANGRY MARINES|tough]] but then, for the love of God, [[Comedy Marines|tell a joke]].|Joss Whedon giving a nice example on how to avoid being edgy even while creating a dark world}}

[[File:Marvel Edge.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Unabashed Edginess from the 1990s]]
'''Edginess''' refers to people pushing violent and controversial subject matter in their stories, especially when they're doing it to to try and be popular with tragic, violent or controversial stories. This often takes the form of senselessly driving a vague argument, a plotline or a scenario to its darkest possible outcome, all the while openly expressing their disdain for whoever "the establishment" is, rationalizing villains or finding a middle ground in discourses. Like most internet terminology, it has been beaten to death, resurrected hastily, and then beaten some more. Has no relation to ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]''.

Another far less negative use of the term is to describe something on the 'edge' of what's acceptable, pushing established boundaries of convention. For example, by this definition ''Batman: The Animated Series'' was edgy for making an animated series which defied expectations of how true to its base concept and generally well-written a show designed to sell toys could be. Some more examples of this would be Ren and Stimpy (which was crude and vulgar) or Invader Zim (which could get dark in subject matter, and used a fair bit of black humor); in both cases, a decent bit of the comedy was of the "I can't believe that they did ''THAT'' on a kid's cartoon show!" variety. A milder version of this was Sonic the Hedgehog in contrast to Mario. In 1989 the Simpsons was the Edgy take on the classic family sitcom archetype and in 1999 Family Guy had slotted itself in as the Edgy version of The Simpsons. For the 1990s and early 2000s Edgy was a favored term of cynical marketing types which drew the attention of the world's sarcastic snarkers, many of which came to congregate on sites such as 4chan.

An "edgelord" is someone who essentially is guilty of serial attempts to be edgy, like [[that guy]] at your tabletop role playing group who always, without fail, makes a specific type of self insert or wish fulfillment character; brooding loners skilled at violence who hate anyone else having authority over them, are anti-conformist and have a troubled past - all without the nuance or skill to actually pull it off (with their opponents often being stand-ins for whoever the edgelord considers "The Man™" such as big business, law enforcement or organized religion). The end result is they makes themselves look silly. "Art" done by edgelords contain characters who are as dark, brooding and as painfully unhappy as possible, conflicts have zero compromise, institutions are the villains unless the edgelord made them and any conflict of interest will have the worst possible outcome. In writing, edgelords will go out of their way to make the story extra depressing, and subject multiple aspects of it to an increased shock factor when it's clearly '''illogical''' to do so. Needless to say, it can drive a perfect idea to make an entertaining story into the shitter, grating the nerves of even the most jaded audience. When commenting, the "edgelord" will simply push any predicament in the artwork to the darkest, deepest, worst outcome, while describing his fantasies. For example: In an adult and/or bondage predicament picture, edgelords can be found describing a paragraph of horrible fate the captive would suffer, *should* suffer because slaves are shit, and *deserve* abuse, even when the picture was of a predicament with nothing in context. Or he will simply fill the comment of any NSFW picture with his own sick fantasies, surely adding "women DESERVE it".

This is not to say that said dark elements like murder, slavery, rape and bodily harm are bad for literature, but rather that their sloppy execution with no regard to their depth is. As shown above, even the most "edgelord" of concepts can be salvaged and even made bearable with proper handling, especially going by the latter definition - but if you do it enough, the boundaries shift and what was edgy becomes the new norm, and there is always the risk of falling ''over'' the edge. This is why the old definition has fallen increasingly out of favor as time has gone on — people began seeing the dross sold under the title of "edgy", and the idea of what it meant thus moved away from the positive connotations marketing execs desired and closer to the qualities described above. Plus, this is the internet, and people would rather a word just be an insult or a compliment to reduce confusion.

==The Anatomy of Edginess==
Edginess is in some ways like a cargo cult. During WWII in the Pacific, the US military set up bases on remote, but inhabited islands, bringing with them a lot of stuff like planes and cars and so forth that was quite amazing to the stone age natives, to whom the world had been a few dozen square kilometers of land surrounded by ocean, with hazy stories of other such islands. When the military left, some of the natives took to making coconut and wooden radios and flight towers based off of some vague recollection of the military variants, unaware that making the shape alone does not get you the functional item.

[[File:Pizza-slicer.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The ultimate apotheosis of an edgelord: All edge, no point.]]
In that vein, most of what comes to mind when people envision "edgy" artworks tends to be the result of people who wanted to make ''morally grey'' characters and subject matter, but lack the maturity/experience/focus necessary to NOT end up with anything other than a multiple-personality-disordered mess or a power fantasy wrapped in propaganda. Someone with (at best) mediocre creative abilities sees some fiction that makes good use of melodrama, gritty settings, dark humor and such, made by people who know what the hell they're doing and figures "I can do that!", leading to said person haphazardly applying those elements incorrectly. The results of such efforts are either tiresome, unintentionally funny or just painful. The stereotypical teenager, especially one with gothic/emo tendencies or problems with authority, commonly embody this - all too eager for "adult" things (eg: violence, sex, etc.) in their limited perception of such, often born of denial. Individuals who pander to said demographic (or are otherwise just downright hacks) will favor this approach over any sense of complexity, subtlety, nuance and some actual understanding of the human condition.

===Edgy and [[Grimdark]]===
While edginess is frequently associated with invoking grimdark [[Derp|for the sake of it and nothing else]], it's important to remember that this alone does not edgy make. As an example, [[WH40K]]'s [[Imperium of Man]] has reasons to be fair and kind when capable: though it has plenty of genocide, xenocide (completely annihilating species even when they are gentle and kind), torture, forced labor (they draw the line at commercialized chattel slavery, but un-unionized indentured servitude is fair game), witch hunts and militarism that would give Hitler a chubby beyond the grave, said horrors have reasonable justifications. Aliens were buying and selling humans like pets and culling them by the billion, operating slaver outposts even in our solar system before the Emperor came into leading humanity into a roaring rampage of revenge. And regarding souls and the universe after the Heresy, any deviation from faith in the Emperor will ''literally'' send a human to hell upon death, with their soul becoming dæmon food (and/or sex toys).

Any mistreated machinery will attract foul entities and corruption that will fuck you up seven ways till Monday and chew you out; any ill-coaxed [[Machine Spirit]] will jam and blow up in your face; and any laxity will make [[Chaos]] cults pop up by the billion in a week. Then there's [[Necrons|the genocidal robots from another age]], [[Eldar|space elves that would murder a planet on the off chance that their]] [[Farseer]] would break a nail otherwise (and they're still the nice space elves despite that, as their [[Dark Eldar|webway dwelling cousins are even worse - murdering entire planets just because they like the sound of millions of people screaming]]), [[Orks|the ambulatory (AND belligerent) fungi that plague the entire galaxy in a series of wars]], and [[Tyranids|extragalactic horrors that intend to eat everyone's face.]] [[TL;DR]] The Imperium acts like an asshole Hitler/Hirohito bastard child because the alternative is much, MUCH worse.

At the level of narrative, the fact that things are very very bad is a core thematic element of this world. As pointed out there are reasons why things are so miserable in this world which flow logically and despite this there can be points of contrast. Imperials still have the same potential to love and be kind like modern real world humans do. The Tau are hopeful despite the evils of this world. Occasionally pragmatism can overcome the deep seeded prejudices to overcome greater evils, if only for a while. And even if it is preformed by Conscript Guardsmen, Commissars or Space Marines, each the product of horrendous military institutions, can fight to achieve acts of genuine (if still typically brutal) heroism.

Now if you want a senselessly edgy story in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, an example would be the now non-canon [[Khornate Knights]].

===Who's An Edgelord?===
Who's a cute little Edgelord? Yes, you, you adorable little mass-murderer, you!

"Edgelord" gets applied to two groups: '''Authors''' fixated on making edgy material, and the '''Edgy characters''' they write. While most of this article assumes the latter definition (as we at least try to avoid authorial mind-reading), it's quite possible for an Edgelord author to create an edgy work without an Edgelord character<ref>How? Well, just to start with, picture a modern retelling of The Little Match Girl (the one where the title character freezes to death on the street--looking back on it, Hans Christian Anderson was Edgelord as fuck).</ref>, and a non-Edgelord author to create an Edgelord character (either unintentionally, satirically, or de-constructively).

===Edgy Villains===

There's an important argument to be made about villains and edginess. Frequently, it's necessary to engage in authorial behavior that would be considered edgy in order to properly develop a bad guy. There are a few important questions to ask in this case, the largest ones being "is this a [[Mary Sue|Villain Sue]] situation, and if so, what kind of Villain Sue are we dealing with?"<ref>For an example of a non-Edgelord Villain Sue, there are plenty of Villain Sues who the author clearly hates, but can't bring themselves to kill off for reasons of marketability. It's usually only when the Doylist definition of Mary Sue comes into play, where the Author sees themselves as the villain and has more sympathy for them than the protagonist, that Edgelordery starts to set in.</ref> and "is the author's sympathies clearly with the villain's agenda?"<ref>Not with the villain himself; plenty of villains clearly have the author's sympathy (what [[TVTropes]] might call a "Villain Woobie" or "Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds"); what matters here is does the author believe what the villain believes. That may sound odd, but many cases of "The Bad Guy Was Right" involve characters created by another author, or are (usually bad) parody of such.</ref>

===Edgelords and [[Mary Sue]]s===

A lot of edgy characters also qualify as [[Mary Sue]]s. This is because many writers who aim for "edgy" in their works are terrible at writing, and writing a [[Mary Sue]] is a common result of terrible writing. Another reason is the "Power Fantasy" route, where the author uses their work and the character in question to attack something or someone from real-life that they oppose. There are a few important questions to ask in this case, the largest ones being "is this a Jerk Sue situation?", "do the villains represent a work the author hates?" and "do the villains represent a real-life person or group the author is against?"

Be on the look out for plot armor, protagonists who not only share their author's values, but are not challenged on these views in any way, and the other major Sue factors covered in our [[Mary Sue]] article.

===Sidenote: Chunni===

In some Weeb circles, an "Edgelord" is called "Chuuni", short for "Chuunibyou". This delightful Japanese word combines the concepts of "Sophomoric" ("Chuunibyou" literally translated means "Middle [School] 2[nd Year] Syndrome") and "Edgelord", with an optional side note of "I have supernatural powers". Importantly, the "Stupid and Lame" part is baked right into the word, while "Edgelord" is usually only ''implies'' stupidity.

===In closing===
There are many paths to success for a storyteller, some of which include going over dark territory in various ways or by innovating and pushing boundaries. However, all of them require care and attention to detail to pull off well. Being dark is not a magic bullet for achieving profoundness without trying, and using it as an outlet for personal grievances is the writing equivalent of walking through a minefield.

==How Can I Tell If My Character Is An Edgelord?==

Every edgelord has at least four qualities; skilled at violence, aggressive, has easy access to weapons and are some kind of non-conformist. These alone or even together do not make a character an edgelord. If the character has these four traits, each "Yes" answer from the list below gives your character a piece of edgelorddom;

* Are they a power fantasy against "The Man™"? Note, while it's possible to have an edgelord who's not targeting "The Man™" (since their targets can be enemies of what is usually called "The Man™", such as criminals or foreign enemies), a "yes" answer here automatically grants the character edgelord status (with one exception below).
** Bonus points if the writer's idea of "The Man™" is [[Capitalism|big business]], organized [[religion]], education or law enforcement. Double bonus points if it ''is'' a real-life group or industry, and triple bonus points if the real life group is already frequently targeted this way (like oil companies for industries or the Catholic Church for religious groups).
** The one exception are antagonistic characters who '''start out''' as merely mildly edgy (particularly antagonists of the "right target, wrong methods" variety), and only graduate to full edgelord status if other writers are allowed access to them or the current writer gets carried away.
* Do they openly mock altruistic traits like hope and love, compromise or faith or the Powers-That-Be (the latter ranging from openly mocking religious characters to an outright war on the gods)? Bonus points if they do so without suffering negative consequences for it.
* Do they have a backstory full of suffering?
* Are forgiveness and redemption things the character disregards if not actively despises?
** Partial credit is granted if they themselves are seeking redemption... by using the exact same methods they used to use, just against a different set of targets.
* Do they not care if they live or die? Or do they want to die?
* Do they have problems with authority? As in a negative attitude towards anyone besides themselves having authority over them.
* Are they heavily scarred individuals? (physical, emotional, whatever...)
* Do they regularly quote-mine philosophers or works of fiction and spout these quotes to validate their worldview? Bonus points if they alter the original quote.
* Do they share any of the same beliefs as the work's creator and openly express them? (for example, the protagonists of stories by [[Ayn Rand]] or [[Jack Chick]]). Bonus points if they're nihilistic. <ref>This item is more a [[Mary Sue]] trope, but there is significant overlap between edgelords and Mary Sues.</ref>
** Are these views never challenged or refuted in the story? Or, for partial credit, are the challengers clearly strawmen?
** The [[Star Trek]] Captain Exception: If said belief is cleanly confined to one speech towards the end of the story/episode, and the author seems to be legitimately trying to just sum up and state the message of the story, it usually doesn't count. (Normally not an issue for edgelords, but it has happened occasionally.)
* Do they always wear sinister-looking attire?
** Do they wear a cloak, a coat or an overcoat that looks like a cloak.
** Does their attire have [[Chaos|blades or spikes]] built in to it?
** Is it emblazoned with insults, profanities, curses or threats of violence?
** Does it come in dark colors?
* Do they wear warpaint?
* Do they have body modification, ranging from minor such as tattoos to extreme examples such as horns or wings? Bonus points if the modifications can be weaponized.
* Do they swear like a drunk pirate?
* Do they have a vice, such as smoking? Bonus points if they have an addiction (fantastical addictions count).
* Do they have plot armor? (such as the Punisher being able to go toe-to-toe against superpowered beings who’d mop the floor with him otherwise)
* Are they a protagonist or antagonist written by [[Gav Thorpe]], Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Warren Ellis, [[A Song of Ice and Fire|George RR Martin]], Pat Mills or Alan Moore? (Note, an edgelord can be written by someone who's none of these people. And Moore and Martin, at least, are capable of writing protagonists and antagonists who aren't Edgelords despite lots of their characters being unnecessarily edgy.)

==Notable Edgelords==

===Comics===
* The Punisher (pictured above), depending on the writer but especially when it's Garth Ennis. The ultimate is being Ennis' professionally published Hate Fic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher_Kills_the_Marvel_Universe "Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe"].
* Billy Butcher from "The Boys", a comic series using [[Original character, do not steal|knock-offs of Marvel and DC supers]] in an anti-superhero genre power fantasy, with Billy himself being a racist Punisher knock-off and author mouthpiece.
* The Joker, depending on the writer.
* Lord Edgelord, later Lord Edgegod from Slackwyrm Keep. He's aware, and <s>he's loving it</s>***CLANG!*** There's no love in edge, only chaos!
* Adversary from DC comics (pictured below), as a jab at edgelord characters and perhaps also their fans. In addition to meeting most of the criteria above, he works for a demon named Lord Satanus who gave him his powers and is actually a kid in a wheelchair.

===Film===
* Jared Leto's Joker in "Suicide Squad (2016)".
** Compare this to Heath Ledger's Joker in ''The Dark Knight'' and Joqauin Phoenix's Joker in ''Joker''. Ledger's and Phoenix's portrayals were "edge with a point"; the former was about exploring human evils regarding terrorism and the latter was about exploring the origins of evil (both avoiding ideological baggage).
* Tyler Durden from "Fight Club". While he started out as "edge with a point" trying to give men catharsis from, and criticizing, the growing cultural and familial vacuum of the 90's, later in the film he descended into being a full-blown edgelord.
* [[Star Wars|Kylo Ren]] AKA Krylo Ben AKA Ben Swolo. The writers were doing it on purpose, to play up the First Order's dogmatic North Korea in space schtick, and to that end made Kylo an incredibly unsubtle Darth Vader pastiche. While "Kylo" may be the worst Skywalker ever, there is no denying that the edge is strong in his family. His mom's side are a bunch of crybaby desert backworlders with an incestuous sex drive and his dad was a scruffy, nerf herding spice smuggler - and all were war criminals, some with body counts in the hundred thousands and some with children's blood on their hands... He probably fits the mold better than we'd like to admit. Also his edge is undermined by fact that he never won a fight against [[Mary_Sue|Mar-Rey Sue Palpatine]] which doesn’t help things either.

===Live Action TV===
* Stargate's Sohkar- It's hard to get more edgelord than literally masquerading/cosplaying as Satan.

===Video Games===
* [[/v/|Shadow the Hedgehog]] for the PS2/XBox/Gamecube. For the unfamiliar: An edgy game about a cartoon hedgehog shooting enemies, yet ESRB rated for Everyone 10 and up.
** The villain Infinite from ''Sonic Forces'', as a parody of edgy Villain Sue characters.
* Several characters from World of Warcraft, prime examples being Deathwing, Sylvanas, Sargeras and Illidan Stormrage (pictured below).
** Special mention goes to pre-retcon Sargeras. Originally, Sargeras was so traumatized by the evil of the demons he fought... [[Stupid Evil|he became convinced that good was futile and conscripted those same demons into an army to destroy the cosmos]]).
* Reaper from Overwatch.
* Caesar's Legion and Caesar himself in [[Fallout|Fallout: New Vegas]] (along with some of their fans and the writer who created them).
* Not Important aka The Antagonist aka The Crusader from Hatred. Imagine every trope related to nihilistic spree shooters, push them to their uncomfortable extremes and then plop the result in a monochromatic mess of a game. What you get is the story about a very unlikable man with dialogue written by less likeable people (including an edgy as fuck death metal band) going around and killing everyone because...fuck you, it's edgy.

===Literature===
* [[Elric]] of Melnibone, arguably the first one.
* Euron Greyjoy, Littlefinger, and Ramsay Bolton from [[A Song of Ice and Fire]].
* Hamlet (yes, THAT Hamlet), possibly an example predating Elric. After his father dies dies, he wears black, becomes foreboding, dramatic and revenge obsessed for at least 6 months, monologues with skulls and murders his friends including the harmless father of his girlfriend (though to be fair he thought he was stabbing the man who he suspected killed his father).

===Tabletop Games===
* [[Blackguard]]s
* Vlaakith, the Queen of the [[Githyanki]]. On top of being a callous, violent, paranoid tyrannical lich who hates systems of authority unless they benefit her, especially religion... but she wants to become the goddess of her people. She values strength... but kills people who ''might'' become powerful enough to challenge her; textbook edgelord.
* [[Lolth]] from Dungeons and Dragons. Started with trying to overthrow her divine husband because she didn't like her job and it all went downhill from there. For more information, look at the [[Drow]] and remember they're like that because her laws require it.
* Warhammer settings have too many to list them all;
** 40k is the worst offender in that regard, so let's just say the [[Black Templars]], the [[Marines Malevolent]] and most [[Chaos Space Marine|traitor marines]] for this one.
*** On that note [[Konrad Curze]]...
*** ...[[Fabius Bile]]...
*** ...and the [[Dark Eldar]], to such a degree they each deserve a separate bullet point all to themselves..
** For Warhammer Fantasy there's [[Valnir the Reaper]], [[Nagash]] and most [[Dark Elves]]. (None of whom are quite so ''needlessly'' edgy as to deserve their own separate bullet points, unlike the 40k Edgelords above.<ref>Nagash might come close, but is presented as more "he's just an asshole", compared to the "he might have a point" presentation of Bile or full Tragic Backstory of Curze. A similar point can be made about the Dark Elves (just assholes) compared to the Dark Eldar (who need to feed Slaanesh because if they don't s/he eats them).</ref>)
** On that note, [[Malal]] among the other [[Chaos Gods|Ruinous Powers]].

===Fan Works===
* [[Drizzt]] clones with extreme Alignment leanings, either towards good or evil.
* Various [[Original character, do not steal|fan-made]] and canon Sonic characters, particularly Shadow.
* The protagonist of "Ambience: A Fleet Symphony" and the story itself. A Fallout KanColle crossover fanfic that thinks it's a regular KanColle fanfic. It revolves around rape, killing, eugenics and an violent solipsistic protagonist with enough plot armor to make Ciaphas Cain look like a [[Star Trek|redshirt]] one day away from retirement. When the story was posted to a forum and scorned, the writer went ballistic against their critics.
* The whole "*teleports behind you* Nothing personal kid. *stabs you*" [[meme]] originated as a parody of edgelord characters.

===Anime===
* Half of the [[Animu]] protagonists in existence. Bonus points if the genre is [[Isekai]], triple points if there's a harem involved.
* Bakugo from My Hero Academia probably counts as a deconstruction/parody of one. What else do you say about somebody who chooses the codename "King of Explodo-Kills" and later "Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight" while training to be a super''hero''?

[[Category:Gamer Slang]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Lord_of_the_edge_by_takfloyd-d99sq48.png|The edgelord mindset in a nutshell.
File:1699592-elric_of_melnibone_by_isra2007.jpg|If any fictional edgelord could be called well-written, it'd be Elric.
File:Adversary_01.jpg|"Adversary" from DC Comics. Sinister clothes, aggressive name, smoking, swearing, trying to kill Superman for "rep"...
File:Tyler-durden-7.jpg|The face that launched a thousand edgelords (ironically doesn't wear dark clothes).
File:Darion Mograine.jpg|There's a small but distinct line between edgy...
File:531939-vertical-blizzard-wallpapers-2560x1440.jpg|... and edgelord.
</gallery>

Isekai

2021-05-06T02:23:36Z

2600:1700:9756:490:F881:C34D:6DD1:D4CE: /* Why do people hate it so much? */

{{cleanup}}
{{topquote|1=Hey guys, today I wanted to talk about the newest, hottest anime to come out this season. All right, get this: It's about a completely normal shut-in Otaku with a very specific skill set that makes him useless in the real world, who is suddenly transported to a fantasy world kinda similar to any JRPG you've ever seen where he suddenly becomes the hottest shit, and he has two jobs: Messing up any poor soul who looks at him the wrong way and getting some 2D bitches. Wait, doesn't this sound oddly familiar?|2=Gigguk, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFR2nvw19h4 "Isekai: The Genre that Took Over Anime"]}}

Proof that Japan has no publishing standards or quality control. '''Isekai''' is a Japanese word assimilated into the /tg/ lexicon from the [[weeaboo]] at /a/ and /jp/. Literally meaning "another world" or "parallel world", it refers to a genre in which the main characters are from "our" world and taken to a foreign world resembling [[RPG|some form of fantasy game]], where they proceed to become [[adventurers]]. Usually, plot reasons prevent them from heading home until something is taken care of—typically whatever big bad evil guy is threatening everything—but sometimes they're stuck there forever and have to adapt as best they can. Methods of transportation are vast and varied, including but not limited to: stumbling into a portal, activating a magical McGuffin, getting run over by [[Meme|Truck-kun]] and reincarnated (''Tensei'' in weeb, a genre isekai ate), being summoned by the denizens of the world, or the ever-popular getting your brain downloaded into your favorite [[MMORPG]].

The term (and to a lesser extent the genre) have been kicking around the weeaboosphere for a while, but around 2015 publishers started flooding the market with insufferably awful series (with insufferably long titles) that sell both in Japan and internationally like hotcakes, no matter how bland and generic they get. This once again proves that no matter which side of the planet you're on, otaku are autistic retards with no taste. As of 2018 this seems to be tapering off: Kadokawa has banned isekai stories from their light novel competitions, fewer and fewer isekai light novels get adapted into anime each season, and parodies are becoming more and more common, making it only a matter of time before the genre hits [[Zombie|"even the parodies are stale" levels of played out.]] There are also deconstructive stories being written about the genre-- ''Re:Zero'' is a particularly notable example where the main character actually has a big self-aware rant about what a loser he is.

Luckily, it seems some countries do have quality control, as based Russia has banned Isekai manga and anime.

== Isekai and /tg/ ==
Although most isekai stories get panned on /tg/ for [[TVTropes|annoying meta-humor]], [[Double Cross|generic shonen bullshit]], [[Maid RPG|generic fanservice bullshit]], or [[Extra Heresy|a combination thereof]] (if not the characters being blatantly Mary Sues, or presenting something even more absurd), a handful of series are decent enough to merit genuine approval. Or they're tolerated because they have [[monstergirls]]. Check our [[Approved anime|anime]] and [[manga]] pages for the current scoop.

While isekai is a distinctly Japanese form of [[Skub|cancer]], the basic idea of people from our world getting chucked into a fantastic world and forced to fend for themselves is practically universal and turns up moderately often in Western fantasy with the earliest example perhaps being ''"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"'' by Mark Twain which was published in 1889. Oddly, when this happens it tends to be rather less shit perhaps due to it being less common. L. Frank Baum's ''Oz'' series, ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' by Lewis Carroll, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' ''Barsoom'' (a.k.a., John Carter of Mars) novels are iconic examples of the core premise that predate cliche fantasy (with Barsoom being the closest of what can be described as "Western Isekai Wankfest" with Carter being ''very'' overpowered due to Earth's gravity he grew up with and his combat training), and C.S. Lewis ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' uses the plot for Christian allegory. ''The NeverEnding Story'' is the flagship modern German example, and right in the heart of the fantasy cliche storm, yet it is the purest anti-shit, either despite or because of this (if you don't count the 80s-tastic American movie). Or at least, it avoids being the self-indulgent wish-fulfillment for irredeemably unlikable losers that makes Isekai so widely hated<ref>The second half of the book, at least, reads like a full on deconstruction of Isekai, before Isekai was a thing.</ref>. One could make the case that ''The Matrix'' is an isekai story (it basically reverses a couple of the key tropes), though classifying it as "less shit" may not be accurate for some people. Tangential to these are stories about modern militaries (or, in one odd series of novels, part of the US East Coast) being sent back in time—although it's possible that a movie from '79 called G.I. Samurai, where a JSDF unit accidentally travels back in time and fights their own Samurai ancestors, is secretly the true forgotten granddaddy of the isekai genre, or at least dreck like GATE.

Isekai also has its influence on [[Old School Roleplaying]]; as stated above, there are plenty of pulp fantasy novels involving ordinary souls getting sucked into a strange, alien world and becoming heroic [[adventurer]]s as a result. A /tg/ example that (in hindsight anyway) fits the isekai mold well is [[GURPS]]' [[Banestorm|flagship fantasy setting]], which revolves around people from across the universe getting isekai'd to the planet of Yrth by an extradimensional "Banestorm" and proposes that players could [[Stat me|stat themselves]] and then play as themselves on Yrth after getting deposited there by the Banestorm. Hell, [[Greyhawk]] has several deities who actually originated on other worlds - [[Murlynd]], [[Saint Cuthbert]] and [[Mayaheine‎‎]] have all been implied to have come to Oerth from "real" Earth - whilst the [[Forgotten Realms]] was, once upon a time, hinted as being connected to Earth by various portals to different times and places; the not!Egyptian race was actually supposed to be peopled by real ancient Egyptians who had been summoned to the Realms en-masse by evil sorcerers as slave labor, only to break free of them. Then there's the [[D%26D_Cartoon|D&D Cartoon]], whose plot ''was'' D&D by way of Isekai. That being said, unless your DM was being really lazy, if you tried to talk in-universe about stats or levels or other meta game content like they do in Isekai stories, NPCs would and should treat you like a madman.

==Reverse Isekai==
[[File:Ork isekai.jpg|400px|thumb|left|A more /tg/-related example of reverse isekai]]
Occasionally, reverse isekai plots, where supernatural elements from other dimensions have invaded the "real" world, have appeared in /tg/. In [[Masque of the Red Death]], the Red Death's corruption of magic means planar travel only works one way and anything inbound is stuck. [[D20 Modern]]'s default for supernatural entities is that they a dropped onto Earth from another plane, "The Shadow", and can't go home (though their corpses vanish upon death, being "reclaimed" by The Shadow). The [[Adventure Path]] ''Reign of Winter'' has a trip to World War I era Russia where the party fights Mosin-Nagans and machine gun wielding Russian soldiers, tear gas elementals and actual Grigori Rasputin.

One odd feature in Japanese Reverse-Isekais is an emphasis on how Japanese food is so much more awesome than whatever bland, flavorless food the peasants of the fantasy world have to eat(to be fair, modern food in general, if made well, would indeed be better than most medieval fare, especially the stuff serfs ate). In fact, there actually is '''more than one''' anime about people from a fantasy world visiting a restaurant in modern Japan, just as an excuse to show off food porn with no real plot. Which in fairness: the modern world wide food distribution networks that can ship sun ripened lemons and meat to any point in the world within 24 hours is likely going to compare favorable to all but the highest fantasy fare. Even so, even the lowliest peasant would put ''some'' effort in using what they had to make food taste good; even if they couldn't afford spices, herbs were still easy enough to get a hold of, and rural cooks knew enough about how to prepare meats to make them taste good. Whereas fantasy peasants may as well be eating dry, stringy meat with a side of boiled, unseasoned vegetables and mud for dessert.

==Otome Isekai==
Proving women can also be otaku, this distinct type of isekai was born. '''Otome Isekai''' (a term used by the author of this section) is, for all intents and purposes, the female variant of regular isekai but <s>done in a rather misogynistic manner</s> written by women. Apparently, women are only interested in otome visual novels/dating sims with a lot of high nobility hot guys, Mary Sue commoner protagonists, petty villains and formulaic plots flatter than a [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor]]'s roadkill. The main character of this variation of isekai will typically reincarnate in the body of one of the characters of the VN in question and, from there, take part in a proverbial adventure in a [[Colleges of Magic|magic/nobility academy]] where the protagonist will win the hearts of a veritable harem of hot guys (usually the original romanceable characters), the original protagonist, the villains and any other unwitting NPCs by being an EVEN BIGGER Mary Sue than the original character.

A common variant that became the main type of otome isekai for a time and that freed itself from it, is the '''villainess genre'''. As the name implies, this sub-genre follows the scheme told above but in the protagonist becomes the villainess character of the plot, fated to meet a grisly end by whatever means. It's usually up to the protagonist to change their fate and survive. While the premise is more interesting at first, it falls to the same tropes and endings as the others: harem of hot guys, befriending anyone and generally being a Mary Sue, BUT IN THE BODY OF A VILLAIN! As mentioned, the villainess genre has become its own thing now and you can find villainess stories without a speck of isekai anywhere.

Otome isekai is no less awful than regular isekai, but due to it being based on different genres of videogames (visual novels vs. RPGs) the plot is more often focused on the relationships of the protagonist within the VN cast along with the VN's original plot that the protagonist invariably knows from start to end, even sub-routes and obscure events that makes her know beforehand everything that's going to happen. Or that's how it should be, according to the protagonist herself. Because the most infuriating part of otome isekai is the complete denial of the protagonist to admit that the characters they are now interacting with are people with their own wills and decisions and the most basic understanding of "cause and effect". They believe that the plot of the original VN ''will play like in the VN regardless of whatever she does''. The events will play the same, the characters will think and react the same, everything will be the same (unless they are the villainess, in which case they will survive). And no matter if proof of this not being the case is waved in her face with neon lights or people don't act in ways that they're "supposed to", she will continue to think that everything will play out the same.

==Why do people hate it so much?==
As noted above, stories of people entering other worlds are nothing new, and speaks to a common desire to experience strange and exotic lands. Yet Isekai stories still get a lot of flak for many reasons. Besides there being way too many anime/manga that are all basically the same story with slightly different premises, it boils down to a number of common gripes:

* The biggest one is that rather than trying to tell a compelling and interesting story, too many Isekai stories are just the basest wish fulfillment fantasies for the lonely basement-dwelling neckbeard. Most of the other complaints are derived from this one.

===Gripes about the worlds===
* While most isekai stories used to be about the protagonist wanting to escape the otherworld to get back to reality, it has become increasingly common for the protagonist to not be able to go back or them not even wanting to go back. As a result, most isekai stories could easily work as regular fantasy stories with few alterations, making the whole isekai aspect pointless.
* The worlds traveled to are generally bland and unoriginal, usually the JRPG version of the [[standard fantasy setting]] at that. Not only is this oversaturated but, coming from ''an oriental nation'', why in all the Yama hells bring your characters into Not Thirteenth Century Catholic Germany all the time? When Westerners do it to (say) Arabian Nights they get called "Orientalists" [[weeaboo|or worse]]. Suppose we spot each other this on condition we don't make our counterparty DAMN LAME.
**This is most likely because the ''Dragon Quest'' vidya gaems are some of the best-selling media of all time in Japan, so basically every Japanese kid is nostalgic for their fantasy land with slimes and magic swords; but are niche and usually flop everywhere else, so it just comes across as a bunch of bland RPG pastiches ripping each other off.
* And because they're JRPG the isekai will often go so far as to define the world in terms of ''RPG mechanics''. We shit you not. People in isekai worlds speak of levels, classes, and experience as real and tangible things as opposed to the mechanical abstractions fa/tg/uys normally recognize them as. Outside of Isekai stories that actually take place inside of RPGs or videogame RPGs, this is inexcusable. To make matters worse, this has started appearing in fantasy series that aren't isekai.
* In addition to the above points, a frequent gripe about Isekai is that the worlds frequently have a problem with what's known as a "Second Order Idiot Plot". An Idiot Plot is, of course, a plot that only happens because everyone involved is an idiot (and it can be done well; see, for example, ''Burn After Reading''); but a Second Order Idiot Plot is a plot that only happens because ''everybody in the world'' is an idiot--frequently, either some obvious solution is overlooked for dumb reasons, some obvious phenomena is ignored, or some baldly obvious lie is widely accepted. This is generally abused to create easy problems for the protagonists to solve.
* Since some Isekai protagonists are so powerful, no one in the new world is capable of opposing them; that includes the cliche "great demon king" who had terrorized the world for centuries only to get one-shotted by the MC in one chapter, thus erasing any conflict and tension and making the story even duller. Other type of villains like high-status types (king, nobles) or anyone in the world whom had grudge or a bone to pick with the protagonist may be introduced, but due to how the human civilization of the other world [[Medieval Stasis|are incapable of advancing their technology]] in most isekai, [[Always Chaotic Evil|these villains]] are arrogant, ignorant and often underestimate the MC and their otherworldly knowledge (see the Emperor from GATE). Therefore they get their asses handed to them by the MC and their modern Japanese knowledge + JRPG cheat stats when they tried to sabotage or kill the MC's party and fail again and again. In short, Isekai lacks proper and inspiring villains.
* Badly-done racism. This one is especially unforgivable considering that racism has been a way of life in Japan for hundreds of years and you'd think they would understand something about it by now. Having drama where the humans hate the elves or the beastfolk is fine. The part that so many series forget is setting up an actual reason that so much bad blood exists. They even fail to consider that maybe some of the characters might have different opinions on the other races, because God forbid there be any dimensions to the cast. Of course, setting up the world to be full of people who are spiteful for absolutely no reason means that your main character gets to show off how ''accepting'' and ''benevolent'' he is compared to the backwards fantasy peasants. Which brings us to...

===Gripes about the protagonists===
* Isekai protagonists tend to be [[Neckbeard|big fucking nerds]] who immediately recognize what's all about and exploit it, often aided by [[Plot armor|unreasonably high stats relative to their abilities in real life.]] The unstated implication is that the overweight slimeball watching/reading the isekai story would be just as successful as the protagonist because of his [[Trivial Pursuit|valuable and hard-earned RPG knowledge]].
* The protagonist frequently is overpowered in a way that puts him way ahead of his peers, despite lacking any useful combat, intellectual, or even social skills from his homeworld. Rarely does the protagonist have to put that much effort in overcoming his obstacles, and is often "The Chosen One" or "Special Blooded". Just like a unique snowflake.
* Even more offensive protagonists will be actively unlikable or even outright repulsive, despite not suffering any consequences for it.
* And on top of that, 99.9% of the time, the protaganist has an all-female <s>harem</s> party who hang on his every word. [[Mary Sue|Is this starting to sound familiar?]] (Note, in particular, that usually these female party members exist purely to provide fanservice and be [[waifu]]ed.) And this is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are countless examples of lazy writers going way to far with it and turning the characters into caricatures, or pulling the rug out from under the readers and going from harem to vanilla romance.
* Almost all the protagonists in isekai stories have either a tragic or "NEET" background. Not saying that this is a bad thing, but it is almost as if the author is trying to push the bill, forcing the reader to go through 1 or 2 chapters of flash backs. This gets worse when they are all generic manga cliches. But some tragic backgrounds are so specific it's almost as if the author self inserted their past there.
* As if the above wasn't enough, too many isekai MC are [[edgy|edgelords]]. For most of them, their reason for being edgy is how they were abused, betrayed, NTR'ed or disowned by either the MC's school classmate, other isekai'ed people, or the society as a whole. Some really awful isekai have their MC doing really edgy shit like mass murder, owning/buying slaves and rape.

===More General Gripes===
* While many stories are just copycats of one another, some will ''attempt'' to put an "original spin" on the genre, usually by adding a gimmick, such as the protagonist being a LITERAL VENDING MACHINE or a slime that can absorb powers. If done well, then the story still has some value in being interesting and exploring otherwise ignored facets of an overused genre. Done poorly, it comes across as just plain tiresome, especially if the gimmick is the only thing keeping the story afloat when the characters and plot fail to impress.
* [[weeaboo|O MY GLORIOUS NIPPON STEEL FOLDED OVER 9000 TIMES]]. Basically just to show how superior the Japanese and only the Japanese are compared to the other world. GATE is the worst example of this, where the Japanese military in a medieval fantasy world is wreaking havoc with their modern weaponry (which is not unreasonable to imagine, even for the decidedly modest Japanese Self Defense Force, but it’s taken to the point where it comes across like a cheesy recruitment ad targeting otaku: "Want to be a real hero? We kill more <s>orcs</s> fantasy Romans before 9AM than most <s>Paladins</s> barbarians do all day!" Which is expected with the author being a right-wing JSDF veteran). Generally, it involves the reincarnated protagonist lusting for their Japanese foods and introducing amazing new flavors to the fantasy world: jelly donuts, soy sauce, and miso paste being most common. Despite Japan and Asia in general being a huge market for Western fast food chains, the protagonists are always treated as big fucking deals for introducing soy sauce over rice. [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|Katanas are also introduced in the other world to prove their superiority]], though this is less common than the food thing.
*"Japanese" language or Japanese traits (black hair, white skin) being something sacred or ancient or special in the isekai world. Usually used to mean that some "undecipherable script of the Ancients" is just 21st-century Japanese carved on a plaque somewhere without any further development. If the author is going for cheap [[Edgy|edge]] boosts, anything related to the Japanese is a symptom of a curse or a demonic heritage.
* Some of the edgier Isekai have a tendency to deal with such serious issues as rape, [[slavery]], racism and genocide... which would be fine, if they didn't usually do so in such an immature or poorly handled way that you start to hate either the author's suspected age group, the whole nation of Japan (or whatever country produced it), or humanity in general just by association with this edgelord garbage.
* Always a "Fenryr"... If the protagonist befriends a small fluffy animal there is a 90% chance it's actually a giant wolf and called a variation of Fenrir... which makes as much sense as being friend with Ungoliant...



==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:Isekei WHF.png|<center>Not all worlds are ones where you would want to end up.
image:WHF isekai alt.jpg|<center>Or not.
</gallery>

[[Category:Gamer Slang]][[Category:Weeaboo]]

Tau

2021-05-05T20:30:22Z

2600:1700:9756:490:F881:C34D:6DD1:D4CE: /* Military Doctrine */

{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
{{skubby}}
{{flamewar}}

[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?|Luke 6:41}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens of small colonies such as terraformed asteroids packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism-Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society and the Castes best accomplish the goals to fulfill those mandates.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shedloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in the 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good.

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you get holed] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population is routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

Much amusement if you realize that because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully willing) Hive Worlds, the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. Especially since the Tau foolishly give their tech and knowledge to those who join the Greater Good. This depends on how much brainwashing is involved. Because each city on a Hive World has a larger population than the entire Tau species and probably industrial strength as well. Games Workshop has not realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as young and powerful because of their technology but also as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]] (most Eldar philosophers admit their own race has failed, the humans are failing, and add that the Tau are in for a rude awakening). Said Sharks see them as somewhere between sex toy and dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) [which the Tau themselves have laughed about and said isn't true] and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity. Humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. Whether this is canon or not now is uncertain. It all probably is, seeing as it hasn’t been retconned/overwritten. Or GW forgot about it.

Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by ''existing''; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their highly advanced technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine, though officially derived from two distinct Tau hunting method, is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''"), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]], and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result (even when people can use the same logic to point to the Imperium's xenophobia, the fanatical worship of the God-Emperor, extensive use of Mecha and suicide attacks, use of suicide attacks as punishment for dishonour, and fondness for over-the-top dialogue in general and conclude that the Imperium of Man is Imperial Japan in Space). As a dark twist on this inherent Asian-ness, a thread concerning lack of grimdark fan fluff on Tau led to the creation of [[Sept V'iet]], the Viet Cong Tau.
[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"if you want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them [[Tau#Tau_Member_Races|non-Tau comrades]] as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch; you are given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth and this is decided by an alien society.

Pretty goddamned grimdark in a really personal way... almost like GW is saying all you do is provide money and roll dice.

If you step outside of those walls; you're given a couple chances, then you're sent to reeducation, then you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death penalty? Nah, what would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in terms of practise what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that, and even China; despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau is fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the greater good shall overcome all and they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance.

What is for sure though is that, whatever part of the terribly suited to analysing politics outside of the modern era one-dimensional spectrum of political agenda they are on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society seemingly devoid of merchants, meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, until people stop dragging him out of his self-imposed exile to fight Tyranids, Orks, and other Tau, he's a dictator the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is one most certainly [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though.

Of course, the Enclaves are a fan favorite (America'jin loves a rebel) but until GW retcons it, the Tau "Don't Kill Eachother" as that would be single most direct step backwards as a people to the time of the Mont'au (when they just loooved killing each other before the Ethereals). Farsight doesn't have designs to replace the Ethereals and so long as you ignore the counter-intuitive books he's featured in; he's more a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed their naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

It should be noted that the Tau have experienced three major Ork attacks but never a true Waagh! This is largely because the fortress worlds Farsight has created out in the Gulf, keeping them back at the cost of his forces. The Tau likely have no idea that this is happening since no one has ever gotten to the Enclaves and come back.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Commorites, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. It took some nuked Exodite world and Craftworld intervention for tau to realize that not all space-elves are insane rapists and scratch them off the list. Probably more encouraged by the Eldar effortlessly curbstomping them than actually caring that they shot the wrong Spelves. The Tau also ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World likely make a perma-hate neighbors of Saim Hann, but they did have some positive dealings with the Lugganath Craftworld to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon.

Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] seem to be entering the list as of the second Damocles war. The reason is not because it's impossible to reason with them, but because after some intense Water caste psychoanalysis and Nagi "mind-[[rape|ripping]]" they pretty much declared that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely a ''weapon'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va. Since this means they ignore the [[Blood Angels|artistic]], [[Thousand Sons|scholarly]], [[Word Bearers|philosophical]], and [[Ultramarines|administrative]] aspects of being Astartes intended to give them purpose after the Great Crusade ended the Tau are probably just scared shitless of Space Marines and the sheer inspiration their presence brings even off the battlefield.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts like the Demiurge who traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium but there doesn't seem to bee any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

They don’t care if you’re some primitive feral species or a peaceful member of a species they have decided to be a lost cause, they will try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour. In addition, the Tau's body is adapted for flying — prehistoric Tau had gliding flaps like flying squirrels — thus compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength (heck, less body mass in general), have lower reaction speed, and are hyperopic/farsighted. In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

They do practice their own forms of martial arts, and they aren't ''so'' much weaker as to be crippled (they're Strength 3 just like Imperial Guardsmen, who are the special forces of their respective PDFs but obviously something to be desired for when you're dealing with rolling death machines that worship proactive daemons), but it's very obviously not their strong suit and they would rather fall back on guns than blades.

Even the last reason alone is enough to avoid close combat, seeing as [[Necrons]] use similar logic, despite their [[Necron Warrior|Warriors]] and [[Necron Immortal|Immortals]] being much stronger and tougher, and actually highly trained in close combat, but equally as slow, though if the Necrons do want to get into melee, they're certainly not lacking in specialists. That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives, while Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fencing style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good).

Some people think Tau military doctrine has been hit hard with the same [[grimdark|stupidity]] nerf bat as every other fieldable army; every other faction has some reason for their material to be as limited as they would be in a fantasy setting, but the Tau have widespread education, unlike Men and Orks; reasonable access to production facilities relative to their population, unlike Necrons and Eldar; and are capable of coherent research and development, unlike Tyranids, Daemons and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

For fluff reasons which have never been explained (the crunch reason is obvious), they have the same motif as every other army of equipment often being more valuable than the person wielding it, leading to most personnel being fielded with "inferior" equipment. The most obvious example of this is that they always, under whatever circumstance, field infantry in simple combat armour rather than some sort of battlesuit - its only advantage is having less bulk, as the Tau have a reason not to build larger transports to cope with the shitloads of battlesuits they could deploy instead.

This argument is analogous to saying that real-world militaries should only use armored vehicles and not have infantry, and says more about fa/tg/uy ignorance than Tau doctrine. The Tau likely practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. If one only has a unit of XV8 Battlesuits and no infantry, but a swarm of grots in a nearby pass needs to be taken out, they have no choice but to commit a very valuable unit to a task far beneath its worth. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

One could easily field a number of fire warriors for far less than the cost of a single battlesuit, and considering many foes will fall beneath "mere" infantry, any cost-aware faction would prefer the infantry's use over an expensive battlesuit. Similarly, when it comes to occupying or garrisoning territory, numbers of soldiers is significantly more important than quality of soldiers as they need to cover ground and establish a presence. In other words, they are the army who most resemble modern forces in terms of strategy, and mixed armies of infantry, armor and support elements are a good combination. And who the fuck can with a straight face call a pulse rifle and carapace grade armour "inferior equipment"? The view their equipment or doctrine is nerfed also ignores that armies have to replace lost and damaged equipment as well as actually get that equipment to the troops or they're absolutely fucked. An expensive army of battlesuits is lovely right until combat losses alongside wear and tear reach a point where the empires production can't keep up with losses or supply problems mean they don't reach the front (armies in 40k have been shown running low on ammo something far easier to produce and transport in large numbers than battlesuits). An army based around soldiers armed with "cheap" rifles and armour is a lot easier to produce and keep in the field even in the face of casualties or supply problems.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is different, more like the Space Marines who use pinpoint strategy in lieu of numbers and that they tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns), with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, and the initiative of individual squads of units, much like how modern warfare is waged (apparently if the Imperial Guard learned from Tau tacticians and fought with modern tactics instead of zergrushing everything then they would have been the most powerful army in the galaxy, but no, that ain't GRIMDARK and AWESOME enough [unless you're [[Lord Solar Macharius|Macharius]]]). Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition and/or throwing out quality tactics in favour of absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks in bloody epic clusterfucks like the Imperials, Orks and early World War II-era Soviet Russia. (Unless you count the later war "deep warfare", which is actually the combat doctrine the Tau ripped off. 40k really seems to like the Russians...)

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's, if largely because of differences in number and tonnage. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior 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 [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they usually deploy swarms upon swarms of flyers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons able to rival them in numbers when things come to dogfights—kind of the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft were supposed to work if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by an unreasonable amounts of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops, which allows them to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets are dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies), and in case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A rare advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" for their STL (That's right, it's SLOWER than the speed of light, how the fuck do you run an interstellar empire with STL?!?!?). From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building proper interstellar logistics lines, ones the Administratum can only dream of, but their strategic mobility is . . .lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction (though the non-Warp drive using FTL factions are different; the Necrons microteleport and use wormholes, the Eldar use the Webway extradimensional network, and the Tyranids bring their production power with them as they tugboat in by gravity channeling) the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the skip drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies the drive was more of a stopgap dead-end then a fully developed piece of technology. There may not even be a guarantee of safety from daemons, as, when the drive pushes against the barrier of reality, all it would take is for a daemon to be in the right place at the right time to stick a gnarled claw into the corresponding area in the Warp and cut through to say "hi" to the engineering crew [heavy speculation].

Additionally, Slingshot drives are rather big, heavy and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which takes up 1/3rd of a smaller imperial ships). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact and too fast, powerful or durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). The Tau also have to concentrate their forces on an interplanetary scale; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, precisely because it's regarded as a non-military fleet, so Tau diplomats could tell their imperial colleagues "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions".
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling Imperium's fleet in straight up battle, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, the Imperial equivalents are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those things are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your feelings towards a species' right to not be mercilessly exterminated for no reason whatsoever) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra (can you blame them?)

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! or two per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau empire is not even close to being spotted by the High Lords, not to mention recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire universe would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation and outright conquering the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is...well, mostly correct, really.

There's no lost love between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the Second Damocles Crusade and the exterminatus of one of their Septs... Or it's 40k and lot'sa people go'na die.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> Yep, they got done buttfucked by the Death Guard! And new faith-based Warp fuckery (a glowing flying priest dueling a battlesuit, ''yes'') from the Imperium that even caused some of their human levies to seek redemption by attacking the Tau. But it's not all bad as they've cured 1st Generation Genestealer infections (something to do with drinking bleach) and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova will put the kabosh on the Greater Good... Can't argue with fire.

If things keep going this way, the Tau will eventually see a clash between the shiny new faith fuckreality of the Imperium and the demonic fuckreality of Chaos. Their reaction to such a blatant display of angelic versus demonic would be precious.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}}]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like, huh-duh, advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys is a mystery to many, but clearly not all. [[PROMOTIONS|Not nearly enough]], in fact. It's obviously a deep desire for Draenei to be added to the setting to [[PROMOTIONS|reward]] our brave Imperial Guardsmen.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when Tau encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized), although for Humans and Eldar, whose history knows numerous [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups, mention of the "Aggressively Hotheaded" Tau would end up with them collectively pointing fingers and laughing at them. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance the Ethereal's bring to the Tau.

They are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes and are slightly shorter than the average 40k human (which is over 5 feet). They pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a [[pulse rifle]], which is sort of like an automatic sniper-[[plasma]] gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Oh yeah, and [[Railgun]]s. Company-sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Tau work teams able to defend themselves in a pinch. Being in a suit makes them ''even worse'' in close combat than Tau already are, but they make up for it with technical training and tweaks to the suits' software and mechanics, re-rolling missed shots and equipment failures.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the intermediaries between Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries to non-Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, civil servants as well a project leads. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a less known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste, as their subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined, and they even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (Va'deem) to their side (maybe with the help of the Nagi).

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks and fought for their liberation after 12 years (with no mention of the Ethereals mind you).

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". They are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau and every Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU....... But the Tau laugh at this an think it's 'typical' human.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromones…well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau even as it dispels it. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying [that's because phil kelly wrote it]. Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

... so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch [which is bullshit], who is banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?), Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

... Which begs to ask, "why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds if not thousands of years. They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewher-else ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is right in light with more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better and he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. It's in his first quotes (look them up, grimdank alright) he's guilty of believing he knows best over the community and he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts, they cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage - Tau souls are so dim they are indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients at best, and at times they even blend in the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more passionate subjects in the fluff had been slightly affected by warp shenanigans like faint whispers and slight feelings of "wrongness" in places where humans freak out and try to run away immediately, while more calm and collected tau hadn't noticed anything strange. If for example a telepath tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target, but if they did manage to find it, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and (allegedly) reinforced by a subtle mind control if one were to believe in Ethereal Pheromones. Tau'Va being the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos: the Water Caste member Water Spider who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the Deamon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abberant to the Water Caste and hugely difficult for the Tau as a whole; and one [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. (Though Kais is a contested point. The video game iteration of Kais was ultimately untainted and even allegedly grew up to be [[Shas'O Kais]]. The much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict, [[Grimdark|leaving him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have been known to go all-in with Chaos worship ''(eating your enemies to get better at killing them? Khorne and Tzeentch approve)'', although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just slightly difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them started shoving off the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered for [[Chaos God|something]] that was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp, so killing all non-Tau was the only way to ensure the survival of the Greater Good.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfails their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]]. The weirdest part though is that the Warp itself didn't really bother thing. Daemons are one thing but the Warp itself fucks up anything unprotected. That's just its nature, like if you get in water you'll get wet without protection. But this event does still prove that the Chaos Gods can still influence the Tau with enough warp exposure, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few of them started going bughouse-nuts and began carving 8-pointed stars on their persons in the future. Especially with virtually the entire [[Death Guard]] and a large force of the [[Thousand Sons]] heading straight for the wormhole that links the Fourth Sphere colonies to the center of the Empire...oh wait GW just retconned that force out of existence when they realised the Tau might actually ''lose'' for once. The horror.

...and funny thing about that - the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

On the subject, let's not forget that some soldiers are supposed to [[Lovecraft|be driven insane just by looking at the more horrific daemons]] like Great Unclean Ones. Their immunity to this is probably GW incompetency as usual, Matt Ward/Phil Kelly levels of plot armor, or a combination of both.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons,]] although, according to the Farsight Enclaves supplement, Farsight rebelled because the Ethereals understand the existence of Chaos on some level, but keep it suppressed from the general populace so they're not entirely screwed. [[Emperor|That sounds vaguely familiar]]... it is probably going to end [[Horus Heresy|about as well]] (although due to cultural differences likely in it's own distinct way); all of this is, of course, assuming that the 'nids don't NOM everything before the Tau get the opportunity to fuck their own shit up.

Their current level of naïveté leads to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar most likely had a hand in their synthetic evolution and the creation of the Ethereals, and the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the aul glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. Isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends. Especially when you can't back it up.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all! They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snaffu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets that have generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). [[Tzeentch|Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.]]
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sapient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and while a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Sort of. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. Any species that the Imperium has no actual reason to wipe out is made a protectorate species, an ally, or allowed to be neutral by the Imperium or just plain ignored (which is usually the case, as many Imperial worlds have alien populations that nobody cares about and may even be traded with under careful regulation and supervision). The Tau were probably going to be wiped out due to the Eldar's involvement with them. An extermination attempt proven to have been justified judging by the number of Imperial worlds the Tau have conquered and the humans they've murdered. Even so, there's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might join up with the Tau, and the damage might be done before they realize their mistake...Good thing they haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements describing Achillus Crusade) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire (this is a rumor) (keep in mind the humans were once at peace with the Tau and then became hostile) (to be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would be dead, [[Grimdark|most likely the slow and painful way, or even suffer such a terrible fate as to wish for death]]).

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with little to no inhabitants on them). Despite this, fanfiction writers who somehow got hired by GW and Tau fans alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. For instance, a galaxy ruling combined empire with the Imperum and Eldar usually includes the Tau because the writer doesn't realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, currently that is. The setting stretches millennia, so who knows how far they can go, hopefully they'll become more and grow experienced as time goes on assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more hateful aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly, for example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because ''the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species''? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds whose PDF is large enough to enforce Imperial rule, and so contribute massive numbers of Imperial Guard (on top of having their own substantial forces).

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry (lascannons, krak missiles, and heavy meltas are a threat to Baneblades and knights and heavier stuff can even threaten Titans, so we know this is bullshit). The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. This is but one example, another goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid, for example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale), [[wat|and even has an assassin forget to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura, as we have Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields were shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of raising their shields up to block the fucking shots.]]

There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

There are numerous other things too. Such as conquering multiple Hive Worlds in which one city outnumbers their entire species and everyone is hyperlethal, armed, fanatical and specialized in their claustrophobic combat environments where Tau are helpless. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead. They don't even have Warp fuckery to blame for it either, since the Tau have a tiny Warp presence. At least if they were human fanatics GW could claim their faith did it, which would be ''slightly'' more believable than some flavor of "They're just that good."

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex]] to know every move the Astartes adherent to it would make and pre-empt them. Even though not even Primarchs or Chaos or any other enemy has managed that in ten thousand years of constant war. There’s probably counters to counters in the Codex and it probably loops in on itself to ensure Astartes are always ahead.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists—not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Until the edition update, this would, most assuredly, be [[Fish of Fury]]. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit. That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Even though your T'au got nerfed into oblivion in the subsequent three editions and by 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Post-edition update, it was that certain [[Matt Ward|undesirables]] felt that they were trying to take the mantle of the 40K universe's "rightful" Imperial protagonists. And because they are not [[Choppa|choppy]] enough. And then 6th Edition codex came, and Tau became one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition ever, not to mention their ability to bitchslap cheesmongers, having straight counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. When the 7th edition came out they became overpowered AF and they took the title as the cheddar cheese of Warhammer.
More generally, the Tau battle philosophy is "deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting, even the Space Marines which should give you an idea of how ludicrous it is. To use some examples and keep it short, The Tau have comparatively slow non-warp travel that would '''LOGICALLY''' mean the Imperium and everyone else have a gigantic advantage in space combat and logistics, never mind hit and run tactics, yet after the first few retcons of the Damocles Crusade this stopped being an issue. Even in cases where the Tau are stuck in a planet engulfed in a burning nebula that it's established they cannot fly through, they just go back home by flying through it. Add in battlesuits that are immune to anti-titan weaponry, the capability to conquer (in one day no less) and deport a hive world, where one human hive city has more humans than the entire T'au race and you start to see some issues. Not to mention that despite now having billions/trillions of Humans in the Empire they seemingly have zero problems with untrained psykers being corrupted or chaos cults that force the Imperium to be the arseholes they are.

And of course none of this is even touching the fact that beyond some minor inconsequential skirmishes and battles that barely warrant wiki pages they have never lost a '''major''' war/battle, the worse fate they suffer being a stalemate, a stalemate which eventually transforms into a victory when the Imperium withdraws its forces to other theatres of war where they are desperately needed and the Tau just roll in and accomplish what they wanted anyway. This trend was almost mercifully reversed with Shadowsuns desperate stand against the Death Guard and the Tau Empire seemed to have actually faced its first defeat and setback with the battle lost and Shadowsun missing. But this was seemingly ignored/retconned when she turned up no worse for wear a few years later to, you guessed it, subjugate more Imperial worlds with little issue or opposition. And what happened to the Death Guard? They just mysteriously 'vanished'. i.e. GW wrote them out of existence.

One other reason they are hated can be that, by proving that none of the Imperium's more dickish policies are necessary, and for being a clear-cut "good guy" compared to the Imperium, it can make the Imperium's more hardcore fan angry at the idea that humans are the bad guys.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
The one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by Games Workshop, then the target of said trolling was any fatbeard that needs a constant supply of grimdark to stay alive. Of course, the mind-influencing pheromones they use to conquer new worlds and their psycho-indoctrination mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. But people have always been good at ignoring shit that doesn't fit into their perceived image of something. Though even considering those, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just an awful oppressive empire, rather than a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of omnicidal maniacs<s>, or Eldar</s>.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Unlike many other races in 40k, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other peaceful yet tyrannical Factions like the Federation. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism.
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but with dark inner mechanicals and bright armor panels, it's not difficult to make a battlesuit mini look good with novice painting skills.
;'''Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?'''
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have almost no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general (despite the fact that in 6E they can work with them...I just...I don't...WAAAARD!!!), 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 the [[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. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, ''anything'' could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly [[hat]].

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, Tau have no clear antecedent from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Some think the anime influences and rapid industrialization/militarization point towards Nippon; others feel the caste system might be related to the Kingdom of Ind. However, neither faction has ever been explored in great detail (or any detail at all), so it's impossible to say whether Tau are similar to those factions; instead, we must compare to the real-world equivalents of the Old World nations. Slightly more controversially, there are elements of Cathay (which is the Anglicized word for China back in the British Empire heyday, so yes) in the Tau. Cathay has been described as being technologically advanced (at least on par with the Empire), including terra-cotta automaton warriors (which the Chinese definitely used to make to pay homage to the First Chinese Emperor's over inflated ego, more than a millennia ago), although such comparison is stated by some to have [[Skub|already been implemented in the characterization of the Eldar and thus, is considered as ''seriously'' stretching up a notch.]]

More recently, some have connected the Tau and their subject races to other factions in Fantasy. The rapid evolution of the Kroot and their overall savagery is (somewhat) similar to the Gors of the Beastmen (although the Beastmen are in the 40k universe themselves). The Empire also shares the xenos-friendly viewpoint of the Tau, although they're not expansionistic, and decidedly less concerned with a unified government structure so long as everyone pays their taxes, for better or for worse. Others compare them to dwarves: dwarves don't use Chaos magic, are short, technologically advanced, kinda casty and blue (understood in many countries as "hopelessly drunk") basicly all the time. Tau don't use Chaos warp magic, are short, technologically advanced, very casty and blue all the time (in regards to skin colour). Both also get seriously grudgy and angry when you piss them off.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™. (except Marvel/Disney settled out of court rather than risk the wrath of the Ordo Legalitus)(Side note: With the new deal between GW and Marvel, the Tau might be canon again)

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tactics on how to play them.]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Tau

2021-05-05T20:23:12Z

2600:1700:9756:490:F881:C34D:6DD1:D4CE: /* "Naive Weeaboo Space Communists" */

{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
{{skubby}}
{{flamewar}}

[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?|Luke 6:41}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens of small colonies such as terraformed asteroids packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism-Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society and the Castes best accomplish the goals to fulfill those mandates.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shedloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in the 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good.

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you get holed] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population is routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

Much amusement if you realize that because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully willing) Hive Worlds, the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. Especially since the Tau foolishly give their tech and knowledge to those who join the Greater Good. This depends on how much brainwashing is involved. Because each city on a Hive World has a larger population than the entire Tau species and probably industrial strength as well. Games Workshop has not realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as young and powerful because of their technology but also as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]] (most Eldar philosophers admit their own race has failed, the humans are failing, and add that the Tau are in for a rude awakening). Said Sharks see them as somewhere between sex toy and dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) [which the Tau themselves have laughed about and said isn't true] and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity. Humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. Whether this is canon or not now is uncertain. It all probably is, seeing as it hasn’t been retconned/overwritten. Or GW forgot about it.

Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by ''existing''; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their highly advanced technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine, though officially derived from two distinct Tau hunting method, is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''"), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]], and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result (even when people can use the same logic to point to the Imperium's xenophobia, the fanatical worship of the God-Emperor, extensive use of Mecha and suicide attacks, use of suicide attacks as punishment for dishonour, and fondness for over-the-top dialogue in general and conclude that the Imperium of Man is Imperial Japan in Space). As a dark twist on this inherent Asian-ness, a thread concerning lack of grimdark fan fluff on Tau led to the creation of [[Sept V'iet]], the Viet Cong Tau.
[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"if you want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them [[Tau#Tau_Member_Races|non-Tau comrades]] as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch; you are given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth and this is decided by an alien society.

Pretty goddamned grimdark in a really personal way... almost like GW is saying all you do is provide money and roll dice.

If you step outside of those walls; you're given a couple chances, then you're sent to reeducation, then you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death penalty? Nah, what would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in terms of practise what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that, and even China; despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau is fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the greater good shall overcome all and they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance.

What is for sure though is that, whatever part of the terribly suited to analysing politics outside of the modern era one-dimensional spectrum of political agenda they are on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society seemingly devoid of merchants, meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, until people stop dragging him out of his self-imposed exile to fight Tyranids, Orks, and other Tau, he's a dictator the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is one most certainly [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though.

Of course, the Enclaves are a fan favorite (America'jin loves a rebel) but until GW retcons it, the Tau "Don't Kill Eachother" as that would be single most direct step backwards as a people to the time of the Mont'au (when they just loooved killing each other before the Ethereals). Farsight doesn't have designs to replace the Ethereals and so long as you ignore the counter-intuitive books he's featured in; he's more a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed their naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

It should be noted that the Tau have experienced three major Ork attacks but never a true Waagh! This is largely because the fortress worlds Farsight has created out in the Gulf, keeping them back at the cost of his forces. The Tau likely have no idea that this is happening since no one has ever gotten to the Enclaves and come back.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Commorites, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. It took some nuked Exodite world and Craftworld intervention for tau to realize that not all space-elves are insane rapists and scratch them off the list. Probably more encouraged by the Eldar effortlessly curbstomping them than actually caring that they shot the wrong Spelves. The Tau also ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World likely make a perma-hate neighbors of Saim Hann, but they did have some positive dealings with the Lugganath Craftworld to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon.

Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] seem to be entering the list as of the second Damocles war. The reason is not because it's impossible to reason with them, but because after some intense Water caste psychoanalysis and Nagi "mind-[[rape|ripping]]" they pretty much declared that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely a ''weapon'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va. Since this means they ignore the [[Blood Angels|artistic]], [[Thousand Sons|scholarly]], [[Word Bearers|philosophical]], and [[Ultramarines|administrative]] aspects of being Astartes intended to give them purpose after the Great Crusade ended the Tau are probably just scared shitless of Space Marines and the sheer inspiration their presence brings even off the battlefield.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts like the Demiurge who traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium but there doesn't seem to bee any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

They don’t care if you’re some primitive feral species or a peaceful member of a species they have decided to be a lost cause, they will try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour, and compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength and reaction speed.

However, they do practice their own forms of martial arts and their strength levels are on par with Imperial Guardsmen (who are the special forces of their respective PDFs but obviously something to be desired for when you're dealing with rolling death machines that worship proactive daemons).

In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

Even the last reason alone is enough to avoid close combat, seeing as [[Necrons]] use similar logic, despite their [[Necron Warrior|Warriors]] and [[Necron Immortal|Immortals]] being much stronger and tougher, and actually highly trained in close combat, but equally as slow, though if the Necrons do want to get into melee, they're certainly not lacking in specialists. That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives, while Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fencing style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good).

Some people think Tau military doctrine has been hit hard with the same [[grimdark|stupidity]] nerf bat as every other fieldable army; every other faction has some reason for their material to be as limited as they would be in a fantasy setting, but the Tau have widespread education, unlike Men and Orks; reasonable access to production facilities relative to their population, unlike Necrons and Eldar; and are capable of coherent research and development, unlike Tyranids, Daemons and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

For fluff reasons which have never been explained (the crunch reason is obvious), they have the same motif as every other army of equipment often being more valuable than the person wielding it, leading to most personnel being fielded with "inferior" equipment. The most obvious example of this is that they always, under whatever circumstance, field infantry in simple combat armour rather than some sort of battlesuit - its only advantage is having less bulk, as the Tau have a reason not to build larger transports to cope with the shitloads of battlesuits they could deploy instead.

This argument is analogous to saying that real-world militaries should only use armored vehicles and not have infantry, and says more about fa/tg/uy ignorance than Tau doctrine. The Tau likely practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. If one only has a unit of XV8 Battlesuits and no infantry, but a swarm of grots in a nearby pass needs to be taken out, they have no choice but to commit a very valuable unit to a task far beneath its worth. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

One could easily field a number of fire warriors for far less than the cost of a single battlesuit, and considering many foes will fall beneath "mere" infantry, any cost-aware faction would prefer the infantry's use over an expensive battlesuit. Similarly, when it comes to occupying or garrisoning territory, numbers of soldiers is significantly more important than quality of soldiers as they need to cover ground and establish a presence. In other words, they are the army who most resemble modern forces in terms of strategy, and mixed armies of infantry, armor and support elements are a good combination. And who the fuck can with a straight face call a pulse rifle and carapace grade armour "inferior equipment"? The view their equipment or doctrine is nerfed also ignores that armies have to replace lost and damaged equipment as well as actually get that equipment to the troops or they're absolutely fucked. An expensive army of battlesuits is lovely right until combat losses alongside wear and tear reach a point where the empires production can't keep up with losses or supply problems mean they don't reach the front (armies in 40k have been shown running low on ammo something far easier to produce and transport in large numbers than battlesuits). An army based around soldiers armed with "cheap" rifles and armour is a lot easier to produce and keep in the field even in the face of casualties or supply problems.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is different, more like the Space Marines who use pinpoint strategy in lieu of numbers and that they tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns), with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, and the initiative of individual squads of units, much like how modern warfare is waged (apparently if the Imperial Guard learned from Tau tacticians and fought with modern tactics instead of zergrushing everything then they would have been the most powerful army in the galaxy, but no, that ain't GRIMDARK and AWESOME enough [unless you're [[Lord Solar Macharius|Macharius]]]). Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition and/or throwing out quality tactics in favour of absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks in bloody epic clusterfucks like the Imperials, Orks and early World War II-era Soviet Russia. (Unless you count the later war "deep warfare", which is actually the combat doctrine the Tau ripped off. 40k really seems to like the Russians...)

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's, if largely because of differences in number and tonnage. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior 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 [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they usually deploy swarms upon swarms of flyers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons able to rival them in numbers when things come to dogfights—kind of the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft were supposed to work if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by an unreasonable amounts of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops, which allows them to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets are dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies), and in case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A rare advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" for their STL (That's right, it's SLOWER than the speed of light, how the fuck do you run an interstellar empire with STL?!?!?). From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building proper interstellar logistics lines, ones the Administratum can only dream of, but their strategic mobility is . . .lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction (though the non-Warp drive using FTL factions are different; the Necrons microteleport and use wormholes, the Eldar use the Webway extradimensional network, and the Tyranids bring their production power with them as they tugboat in by gravity channeling) the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the skip drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies the drive was more of a stopgap dead-end then a fully developed piece of technology. There may not even be a guarantee of safety from daemons, as, when the drive pushes against the barrier of reality, all it would take is for a daemon to be in the right place at the right time to stick a gnarled claw into the corresponding area in the Warp and cut through to say "hi" to the engineering crew [heavy speculation].

Additionally, Slingshot drives are rather big, heavy and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which takes up 1/3rd of a smaller imperial ships). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact and too fast, powerful or durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). The Tau also have to concentrate their forces on an interplanetary scale; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, precisely because it's regarded as a non-military fleet, so Tau diplomats could tell their imperial colleagues "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions".
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling Imperium's fleet in straight up battle, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, the Imperial equivalents are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those things are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your feelings towards a species' right to not be mercilessly exterminated for no reason whatsoever) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra (can you blame them?)

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! or two per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau empire is not even close to being spotted by the High Lords, not to mention recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire universe would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation and outright conquering the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is...well, mostly correct, really.

There's no lost love between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the Second Damocles Crusade and the exterminatus of one of their Septs... Or it's 40k and lot'sa people go'na die.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> Yep, they got done buttfucked by the Death Guard! And new faith-based Warp fuckery (a glowing flying priest dueling a battlesuit, ''yes'') from the Imperium that even caused some of their human levies to seek redemption by attacking the Tau. But it's not all bad as they've cured 1st Generation Genestealer infections (something to do with drinking bleach) and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova will put the kabosh on the Greater Good... Can't argue with fire.

If things keep going this way, the Tau will eventually see a clash between the shiny new faith fuckreality of the Imperium and the demonic fuckreality of Chaos. Their reaction to such a blatant display of angelic versus demonic would be precious.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}}]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like, huh-duh, advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys is a mystery to many, but clearly not all. [[PROMOTIONS|Not nearly enough]], in fact. It's obviously a deep desire for Draenei to be added to the setting to [[PROMOTIONS|reward]] our brave Imperial Guardsmen.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when Tau encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized), although for Humans and Eldar, whose history knows numerous [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups, mention of the "Aggressively Hotheaded" Tau would end up with them collectively pointing fingers and laughing at them. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance the Ethereal's bring to the Tau.

They are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes and are slightly shorter than the average 40k human (which is over 5 feet). They pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a [[pulse rifle]], which is sort of like an automatic sniper-[[plasma]] gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Oh yeah, and [[Railgun]]s. Company-sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Tau work teams able to defend themselves in a pinch. Being in a suit makes them ''even worse'' in close combat than Tau already are, but they make up for it with technical training and tweaks to the suits' software and mechanics, re-rolling missed shots and equipment failures.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the intermediaries between Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries to non-Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, civil servants as well a project leads. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a less known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste, as their subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined, and they even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (Va'deem) to their side (maybe with the help of the Nagi).

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks and fought for their liberation after 12 years (with no mention of the Ethereals mind you).

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". They are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau and every Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU....... But the Tau laugh at this an think it's 'typical' human.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromones…well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau even as it dispels it. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying [that's because phil kelly wrote it]. Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

... so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch [which is bullshit], who is banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?), Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

... Which begs to ask, "why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds if not thousands of years. They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewher-else ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is right in light with more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better and he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. It's in his first quotes (look them up, grimdank alright) he's guilty of believing he knows best over the community and he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts, they cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage - Tau souls are so dim they are indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients at best, and at times they even blend in the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more passionate subjects in the fluff had been slightly affected by warp shenanigans like faint whispers and slight feelings of "wrongness" in places where humans freak out and try to run away immediately, while more calm and collected tau hadn't noticed anything strange. If for example a telepath tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target, but if they did manage to find it, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and (allegedly) reinforced by a subtle mind control if one were to believe in Ethereal Pheromones. Tau'Va being the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos: the Water Caste member Water Spider who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the Deamon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abberant to the Water Caste and hugely difficult for the Tau as a whole; and one [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. (Though Kais is a contested point. The video game iteration of Kais was ultimately untainted and even allegedly grew up to be [[Shas'O Kais]]. The much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict, [[Grimdark|leaving him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have been known to go all-in with Chaos worship ''(eating your enemies to get better at killing them? Khorne and Tzeentch approve)'', although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just slightly difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them started shoving off the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered for [[Chaos God|something]] that was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp, so killing all non-Tau was the only way to ensure the survival of the Greater Good.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfails their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]]. The weirdest part though is that the Warp itself didn't really bother thing. Daemons are one thing but the Warp itself fucks up anything unprotected. That's just its nature, like if you get in water you'll get wet without protection. But this event does still prove that the Chaos Gods can still influence the Tau with enough warp exposure, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few of them started going bughouse-nuts and began carving 8-pointed stars on their persons in the future. Especially with virtually the entire [[Death Guard]] and a large force of the [[Thousand Sons]] heading straight for the wormhole that links the Fourth Sphere colonies to the center of the Empire...oh wait GW just retconned that force out of existence when they realised the Tau might actually ''lose'' for once. The horror.

...and funny thing about that - the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

On the subject, let's not forget that some soldiers are supposed to [[Lovecraft|be driven insane just by looking at the more horrific daemons]] like Great Unclean Ones. Their immunity to this is probably GW incompetency as usual, Matt Ward/Phil Kelly levels of plot armor, or a combination of both.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons,]] although, according to the Farsight Enclaves supplement, Farsight rebelled because the Ethereals understand the existence of Chaos on some level, but keep it suppressed from the general populace so they're not entirely screwed. [[Emperor|That sounds vaguely familiar]]... it is probably going to end [[Horus Heresy|about as well]] (although due to cultural differences likely in it's own distinct way); all of this is, of course, assuming that the 'nids don't NOM everything before the Tau get the opportunity to fuck their own shit up.

Their current level of naïveté leads to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar most likely had a hand in their synthetic evolution and the creation of the Ethereals, and the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the aul glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. Isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends. Especially when you can't back it up.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all! They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snaffu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets that have generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). [[Tzeentch|Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.]]
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sapient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and while a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Sort of. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. Any species that the Imperium has no actual reason to wipe out is made a protectorate species, an ally, or allowed to be neutral by the Imperium or just plain ignored (which is usually the case, as many Imperial worlds have alien populations that nobody cares about and may even be traded with under careful regulation and supervision). The Tau were probably going to be wiped out due to the Eldar's involvement with them. An extermination attempt proven to have been justified judging by the number of Imperial worlds the Tau have conquered and the humans they've murdered. Even so, there's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might join up with the Tau, and the damage might be done before they realize their mistake...Good thing they haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements describing Achillus Crusade) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire (this is a rumor) (keep in mind the humans were once at peace with the Tau and then became hostile) (to be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would be dead, [[Grimdark|most likely the slow and painful way, or even suffer such a terrible fate as to wish for death]]).

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with little to no inhabitants on them). Despite this, fanfiction writers who somehow got hired by GW and Tau fans alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. For instance, a galaxy ruling combined empire with the Imperum and Eldar usually includes the Tau because the writer doesn't realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, currently that is. The setting stretches millennia, so who knows how far they can go, hopefully they'll become more and grow experienced as time goes on assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more hateful aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly, for example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because ''the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species''? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds whose PDF is large enough to enforce Imperial rule, and so contribute massive numbers of Imperial Guard (on top of having their own substantial forces).

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry (lascannons, krak missiles, and heavy meltas are a threat to Baneblades and knights and heavier stuff can even threaten Titans, so we know this is bullshit). The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. This is but one example, another goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid, for example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale), [[wat|and even has an assassin forget to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura, as we have Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields were shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of raising their shields up to block the fucking shots.]]

There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

There are numerous other things too. Such as conquering multiple Hive Worlds in which one city outnumbers their entire species and everyone is hyperlethal, armed, fanatical and specialized in their claustrophobic combat environments where Tau are helpless. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead. They don't even have Warp fuckery to blame for it either, since the Tau have a tiny Warp presence. At least if they were human fanatics GW could claim their faith did it, which would be ''slightly'' more believable than some flavor of "They're just that good."

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex]] to know every move the Astartes adherent to it would make and pre-empt them. Even though not even Primarchs or Chaos or any other enemy has managed that in ten thousand years of constant war. There’s probably counters to counters in the Codex and it probably loops in on itself to ensure Astartes are always ahead.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists—not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Until the edition update, this would, most assuredly, be [[Fish of Fury]]. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit. That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Even though your T'au got nerfed into oblivion in the subsequent three editions and by 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Post-edition update, it was that certain [[Matt Ward|undesirables]] felt that they were trying to take the mantle of the 40K universe's "rightful" Imperial protagonists. And because they are not [[Choppa|choppy]] enough. And then 6th Edition codex came, and Tau became one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition ever, not to mention their ability to bitchslap cheesmongers, having straight counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. When the 7th edition came out they became overpowered AF and they took the title as the cheddar cheese of Warhammer.
More generally, the Tau battle philosophy is "deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting, even the Space Marines which should give you an idea of how ludicrous it is. To use some examples and keep it short, The Tau have comparatively slow non-warp travel that would '''LOGICALLY''' mean the Imperium and everyone else have a gigantic advantage in space combat and logistics, never mind hit and run tactics, yet after the first few retcons of the Damocles Crusade this stopped being an issue. Even in cases where the Tau are stuck in a planet engulfed in a burning nebula that it's established they cannot fly through, they just go back home by flying through it. Add in battlesuits that are immune to anti-titan weaponry, the capability to conquer (in one day no less) and deport a hive world, where one human hive city has more humans than the entire T'au race and you start to see some issues. Not to mention that despite now having billions/trillions of Humans in the Empire they seemingly have zero problems with untrained psykers being corrupted or chaos cults that force the Imperium to be the arseholes they are.

And of course none of this is even touching the fact that beyond some minor inconsequential skirmishes and battles that barely warrant wiki pages they have never lost a '''major''' war/battle, the worse fate they suffer being a stalemate, a stalemate which eventually transforms into a victory when the Imperium withdraws its forces to other theatres of war where they are desperately needed and the Tau just roll in and accomplish what they wanted anyway. This trend was almost mercifully reversed with Shadowsuns desperate stand against the Death Guard and the Tau Empire seemed to have actually faced its first defeat and setback with the battle lost and Shadowsun missing. But this was seemingly ignored/retconned when she turned up no worse for wear a few years later to, you guessed it, subjugate more Imperial worlds with little issue or opposition. And what happened to the Death Guard? They just mysteriously 'vanished'. i.e. GW wrote them out of existence.

One other reason they are hated can be that, by proving that none of the Imperium's more dickish policies are necessary, and for being a clear-cut "good guy" compared to the Imperium, it can make the Imperium's more hardcore fan angry at the idea that humans are the bad guys.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
The one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by Games Workshop, then the target of said trolling was any fatbeard that needs a constant supply of grimdark to stay alive. Of course, the mind-influencing pheromones they use to conquer new worlds and their psycho-indoctrination mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. But people have always been good at ignoring shit that doesn't fit into their perceived image of something. Though even considering those, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just an awful oppressive empire, rather than a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of omnicidal maniacs<s>, or Eldar</s>.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Unlike many other races in 40k, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other peaceful yet tyrannical Factions like the Federation. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism.
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but with dark inner mechanicals and bright armor panels, it's not difficult to make a battlesuit mini look good with novice painting skills.
;'''Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?'''
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have almost no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general (despite the fact that in 6E they can work with them...I just...I don't...WAAAARD!!!), 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 the [[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. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, ''anything'' could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly [[hat]].

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, Tau have no clear antecedent from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Some think the anime influences and rapid industrialization/militarization point towards Nippon; others feel the caste system might be related to the Kingdom of Ind. However, neither faction has ever been explored in great detail (or any detail at all), so it's impossible to say whether Tau are similar to those factions; instead, we must compare to the real-world equivalents of the Old World nations. Slightly more controversially, there are elements of Cathay (which is the Anglicized word for China back in the British Empire heyday, so yes) in the Tau. Cathay has been described as being technologically advanced (at least on par with the Empire), including terra-cotta automaton warriors (which the Chinese definitely used to make to pay homage to the First Chinese Emperor's over inflated ego, more than a millennia ago), although such comparison is stated by some to have [[Skub|already been implemented in the characterization of the Eldar and thus, is considered as ''seriously'' stretching up a notch.]]

More recently, some have connected the Tau and their subject races to other factions in Fantasy. The rapid evolution of the Kroot and their overall savagery is (somewhat) similar to the Gors of the Beastmen (although the Beastmen are in the 40k universe themselves). The Empire also shares the xenos-friendly viewpoint of the Tau, although they're not expansionistic, and decidedly less concerned with a unified government structure so long as everyone pays their taxes, for better or for worse. Others compare them to dwarves: dwarves don't use Chaos magic, are short, technologically advanced, kinda casty and blue (understood in many countries as "hopelessly drunk") basicly all the time. Tau don't use Chaos warp magic, are short, technologically advanced, very casty and blue all the time (in regards to skin colour). Both also get seriously grudgy and angry when you piss them off.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™. (except Marvel/Disney settled out of court rather than risk the wrath of the Ordo Legalitus)(Side note: With the new deal between GW and Marvel, the Tau might be canon again)

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tactics on how to play them.]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Tau

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{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
{{skubby}}
{{flamewar}}

[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]

{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?|Luke 6:41}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens of small colonies such as terraformed asteroids packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism-Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society and the Castes best accomplish the goals to fulfill those mandates.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shedloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in the 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good.

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you get holed] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population is routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

Much amusement if you realize that because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully willing) Hive Worlds, the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. Especially since the Tau foolishly give their tech and knowledge to those who join the Greater Good. This depends on how much brainwashing is involved. Because each city on a Hive World has a larger population than the entire Tau species and probably industrial strength as well. Games Workshop has not realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as young and powerful because of their technology but also as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]], even stating that they have failed, the humans are failing and the Tau are in for a rude awakening. Said Sharks see them as somewhere between sex toy and dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) [which the Tau themselves have laughed about and said isn't true] and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity. Humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. Whether this is canon or not now is uncertain. It all probably is, seeing as it hasn’t been retconned/overwritten. Or GW forgot about it.

Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by ''existing''; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their highly advanced technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''" - but derived from two distinct Tau hunting methods), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]], and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result (even when people can use the same logic to point to the Imperium's xenophobia, the fanatical worship of the God-Emperor, extensive use of Mecha and suicide attacks, use of suicide attacks as punishment for dishonour, and fondness for over-the-top dialogue in general and conclude that the Imperium of Man is Imperial Japan in Space). As a dark twist on this inherent Asian-ness, a thread concerning lack of grimdark fan fluff on Tau led to the creation of [[Sept V'iet]], the Viet Cong Tau.
[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"if you want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them [[Tau#Tau_Member_Races|non-Tau comrades]] as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch; you are given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth and this is decided by an alien society.

Pretty goddamned grimdark in a really personal way... almost like GW is saying all you do is provide money and roll dice.

If you step outside of those walls; you're given a couple chances, then you're sent to reeducation, then you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death penalty? Nah, what would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in terms of practise what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that, and even China; despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau is fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the greater good shall overcome all and they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance.

What is for sure though is that, whatever part of the terribly suited to analysing politics outside of the modern era one-dimensional spectrum of political agenda they are on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society seemingly devoid of merchants, meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, until people stop dragging him out of his self-imposed exile to fight Tyranids, Orks, and other Tau, he's a dictator the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is one most certainly [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though.

Of course, the Enclaves are a fan favorite (America'jin loves a rebel) but until GW retcons it, the Tau "Don't Kill Eachother" as that would be single most direct step backwards as a people to the time of the Mont'au (when they just loooved killing each other before the Ethereals). Farsight doesn't have designs to replace the Ethereals and so long as you ignore the counter-intuitive books he's featured in; he's more a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed their naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

It should be noted that the Tau have experienced three major Ork attacks but never a true Waagh! This is largely because the fortress worlds Farsight has created out in the Gulf, keeping them back at the cost of his forces. The Tau likely have no idea that this is happening since no one has ever gotten to the Enclaves and come back.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Commorites, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. It took some nuked Exodite world and Craftworld intervention for tau to realize that not all space-elves are insane rapists and scratch them off the list. Probably more encouraged by the Eldar effortlessly curbstomping them than actually caring that they shot the wrong Spelves. The Tau also ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World likely make a perma-hate neighbors of Saim Hann, but they did have some positive dealings with the Lugganath Craftworld to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon.

Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] seem to be entering the list as of the second Damocles war. The reason is not because it's impossible to reason with them, but because after some intense Water caste psychoanalysis and Nagi "mind-[[rape|ripping]]" they pretty much declared that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely a ''weapon'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va. Since this means they ignore the [[Blood Angels|artistic]], [[Thousand Sons|scholarly]], [[Word Bearers|philosophical]], and [[Ultramarines|administrative]] aspects of being Astartes intended to give them purpose after the Great Crusade ended the Tau are probably just scared shitless of Space Marines and the sheer inspiration their presence brings even off the battlefield.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts like the Demiurge who traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium but there doesn't seem to bee any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

They don’t care if you’re some primitive feral species or a peaceful member of a species they have decided to be a lost cause, they will try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour, and compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength and reaction speed.

However, they do practice their own forms of martial arts and their strength levels are on par with Imperial Guardsmen (who are the special forces of their respective PDFs but obviously something to be desired for when you're dealing with rolling death machines that worship proactive daemons).

In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

Even the last reason alone is enough to avoid close combat, seeing as [[Necrons]] use similar logic, despite their [[Necron Warrior|Warriors]] and [[Necron Immortal|Immortals]] being much stronger and tougher, and actually highly trained in close combat, but equally as slow, though if the Necrons do want to get into melee, they're certainly not lacking in specialists. That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives, while Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fencing style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good).

Some people think Tau military doctrine has been hit hard with the same [[grimdark|stupidity]] nerf bat as every other fieldable army; every other faction has some reason for their material to be as limited as they would be in a fantasy setting, but the Tau have widespread education, unlike Men and Orks; reasonable access to production facilities relative to their population, unlike Necrons and Eldar; and are capable of coherent research and development, unlike Tyranids, Daemons and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

For fluff reasons which have never been explained (the crunch reason is obvious), they have the same motif as every other army of equipment often being more valuable than the person wielding it, leading to most personnel being fielded with "inferior" equipment. The most obvious example of this is that they always, under whatever circumstance, field infantry in simple combat armour rather than some sort of battlesuit - its only advantage is having less bulk, as the Tau have a reason not to build larger transports to cope with the shitloads of battlesuits they could deploy instead.

This argument is analogous to saying that real-world militaries should only use armored vehicles and not have infantry, and says more about fa/tg/uy ignorance than Tau doctrine. The Tau likely practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. If one only has a unit of XV8 Battlesuits and no infantry, but a swarm of grots in a nearby pass needs to be taken out, they have no choice but to commit a very valuable unit to a task far beneath its worth. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

One could easily field a number of fire warriors for far less than the cost of a single battlesuit, and considering many foes will fall beneath "mere" infantry, any cost-aware faction would prefer the infantry's use over an expensive battlesuit. Similarly, when it comes to occupying or garrisoning territory, numbers of soldiers is significantly more important than quality of soldiers as they need to cover ground and establish a presence. In other words, they are the army who most resemble modern forces in terms of strategy, and mixed armies of infantry, armor and support elements are a good combination. And who the fuck can with a straight face call a pulse rifle and carapace grade armour "inferior equipment"? The view their equipment or doctrine is nerfed also ignores that armies have to replace lost and damaged equipment as well as actually get that equipment to the troops or they're absolutely fucked. An expensive army of battlesuits is lovely right until combat losses alongside wear and tear reach a point where the empires production can't keep up with losses or supply problems mean they don't reach the front (armies in 40k have been shown running low on ammo something far easier to produce and transport in large numbers than battlesuits). An army based around soldiers armed with "cheap" rifles and armour is a lot easier to produce and keep in the field even in the face of casualties or supply problems.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is different, more like the Space Marines who use pinpoint strategy in lieu of numbers and that they tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns), with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, and the initiative of individual squads of units, much like how modern warfare is waged (apparently if the Imperial Guard learned from Tau tacticians and fought with modern tactics instead of zergrushing everything then they would have been the most powerful army in the galaxy, but no, that ain't GRIMDARK and AWESOME enough [unless you're [[Lord Solar Macharius|Macharius]]]). Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition and/or throwing out quality tactics in favour of absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks in bloody epic clusterfucks like the Imperials, Orks and early World War II-era Soviet Russia. (Unless you count the later war "deep warfare", which is actually the combat doctrine the Tau ripped off. 40k really seems to like the Russians...)

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's, if largely because of differences in number and tonnage. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior 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 [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they usually deploy swarms upon swarms of flyers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons able to rival them in numbers when things come to dogfights—kind of the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft were supposed to work if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by an unreasonable amounts of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops, which allows them to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets are dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies), and in case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A rare advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" for their STL (That's right, it's SLOWER than the speed of light, how the fuck do you run an interstellar empire with STL?!?!?). From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building proper interstellar logistics lines, ones the Administratum can only dream of, but their strategic mobility is . . .lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction (though the non-Warp drive using FTL factions are different; the Necrons microteleport and use wormholes, the Eldar use the Webway extradimensional network, and the Tyranids bring their production power with them as they tugboat in by gravity channeling) the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the skip drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies the drive was more of a stopgap dead-end then a fully developed piece of technology. There may not even be a guarantee of safety from daemons, as, when the drive pushes against the barrier of reality, all it would take is for a daemon to be in the right place at the right time to stick a gnarled claw into the corresponding area in the Warp and cut through to say "hi" to the engineering crew [heavy speculation].

Additionally, Slingshot drives are rather big, heavy and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which takes up 1/3rd of a smaller imperial ships). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact and too fast, powerful or durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). The Tau also have to concentrate their forces on an interplanetary scale; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, precisely because it's regarded as a non-military fleet, so Tau diplomats could tell their imperial colleagues "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions".
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling Imperium's fleet in straight up battle, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, the Imperial equivalents are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those things are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your feelings towards a species' right to not be mercilessly exterminated for no reason whatsoever) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra (can you blame them?)

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! or two per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau empire is not even close to being spotted by the High Lords, not to mention recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire universe would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation and outright conquering the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is...well, mostly correct, really.

There's no lost love between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the Second Damocles Crusade and the exterminatus of one of their Septs... Or it's 40k and lot'sa people go'na die.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> Yep, they got done buttfucked by the Death Guard! And new faith-based Warp fuckery (a glowing flying priest dueling a battlesuit, ''yes'') from the Imperium that even caused some of their human levies to seek redemption by attacking the Tau. But it's not all bad as they've cured 1st Generation Genestealer infections (something to do with drinking bleach) and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova will put the kabosh on the Greater Good... Can't argue with fire.

If things keep going this way, the Tau will eventually see a clash between the shiny new faith fuckreality of the Imperium and the demonic fuckreality of Chaos. Their reaction to such a blatant display of angelic versus demonic would be precious.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}}]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like, huh-duh, advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys is a mystery to many, but clearly not all. [[PROMOTIONS|Not nearly enough]], in fact. It's obviously a deep desire for Draenei to be added to the setting to [[PROMOTIONS|reward]] our brave Imperial Guardsmen.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when Tau encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized), although for Humans and Eldar, whose history knows numerous [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups, mention of the "Aggressively Hotheaded" Tau would end up with them collectively pointing fingers and laughing at them. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance the Ethereal's bring to the Tau.

They are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes and are slightly shorter than the average 40k human (which is over 5 feet). They pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a [[pulse rifle]], which is sort of like an automatic sniper-[[plasma]] gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Oh yeah, and [[Railgun]]s. Company-sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Tau work teams able to defend themselves in a pinch. Being in a suit makes them ''even worse'' in close combat than Tau already are, but they make up for it with technical training and tweaks to the suits' software and mechanics, re-rolling missed shots and equipment failures.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the intermediaries between Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries to non-Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, civil servants as well a project leads. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a less known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste, as their subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined, and they even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (Va'deem) to their side (maybe with the help of the Nagi).

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks and fought for their liberation after 12 years (with no mention of the Ethereals mind you).

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". They are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau and every Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU....... But the Tau laugh at this an think it's 'typical' human.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromones…well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau even as it dispels it. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying [that's because phil kelly wrote it]. Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

... so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch [which is bullshit], who is banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?), Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

... Which begs to ask, "why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds if not thousands of years. They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewher-else ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is right in light with more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better and he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. It's in his first quotes (look them up, grimdank alright) he's guilty of believing he knows best over the community and he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts, they cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage - Tau souls are so dim they are indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients at best, and at times they even blend in the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more passionate subjects in the fluff had been slightly affected by warp shenanigans like faint whispers and slight feelings of "wrongness" in places where humans freak out and try to run away immediately, while more calm and collected tau hadn't noticed anything strange. If for example a telepath tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target, but if they did manage to find it, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and (allegedly) reinforced by a subtle mind control if one were to believe in Ethereal Pheromones. Tau'Va being the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos: the Water Caste member Water Spider who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the Deamon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abberant to the Water Caste and hugely difficult for the Tau as a whole; and one [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. (Though Kais is a contested point. The video game iteration of Kais was ultimately untainted and even allegedly grew up to be [[Shas'O Kais]]. The much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict, [[Grimdark|leaving him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have been known to go all-in with Chaos worship ''(eating your enemies to get better at killing them? Khorne and Tzeentch approve)'', although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just slightly difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them started shoving off the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered for [[Chaos God|something]] that was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp, so killing all non-Tau was the only way to ensure the survival of the Greater Good.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfails their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]]. The weirdest part though is that the Warp itself didn't really bother thing. Daemons are one thing but the Warp itself fucks up anything unprotected. That's just its nature, like if you get in water you'll get wet without protection. But this event does still prove that the Chaos Gods can still influence the Tau with enough warp exposure, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few of them started going bughouse-nuts and began carving 8-pointed stars on their persons in the future. Especially with virtually the entire [[Death Guard]] and a large force of the [[Thousand Sons]] heading straight for the wormhole that links the Fourth Sphere colonies to the center of the Empire...oh wait GW just retconned that force out of existence when they realised the Tau might actually ''lose'' for once. The horror.

...and funny thing about that - the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

On the subject, let's not forget that some soldiers are supposed to [[Lovecraft|be driven insane just by looking at the more horrific daemons]] like Great Unclean Ones. Their immunity to this is probably GW incompetency as usual, Matt Ward/Phil Kelly levels of plot armor, or a combination of both.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons,]] although, according to the Farsight Enclaves supplement, Farsight rebelled because the Ethereals understand the existence of Chaos on some level, but keep it suppressed from the general populace so they're not entirely screwed. [[Emperor|That sounds vaguely familiar]]... it is probably going to end [[Horus Heresy|about as well]] (although due to cultural differences likely in it's own distinct way); all of this is, of course, assuming that the 'nids don't NOM everything before the Tau get the opportunity to fuck their own shit up.

Their current level of naïveté leads to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar most likely had a hand in their synthetic evolution and the creation of the Ethereals, and the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the aul glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. Isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends. Especially when you can't back it up.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all! They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snaffu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets that have generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). [[Tzeentch|Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.]]
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sapient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and while a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Sort of. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. Any species that the Imperium has no actual reason to wipe out is made a protectorate species, an ally, or allowed to be neutral by the Imperium or just plain ignored (which is usually the case, as many Imperial worlds have alien populations that nobody cares about and may even be traded with under careful regulation and supervision). The Tau were probably going to be wiped out due to the Eldar's involvement with them. An extermination attempt proven to have been justified judging by the number of Imperial worlds the Tau have conquered and the humans they've murdered. Even so, there's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might join up with the Tau, and the damage might be done before they realize their mistake...Good thing they haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements describing Achillus Crusade) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire (this is a rumor) (keep in mind the humans were once at peace with the Tau and then became hostile) (to be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would be dead, [[Grimdark|most likely the slow and painful way, or even suffer such a terrible fate as to wish for death]]).

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with little to no inhabitants on them). Despite this, fanfiction writers who somehow got hired by GW and Tau fans alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. For instance, a galaxy ruling combined empire with the Imperum and Eldar usually includes the Tau because the writer doesn't realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, currently that is. The setting stretches millennia, so who knows how far they can go, hopefully they'll become more and grow experienced as time goes on assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more hateful aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly, for example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because ''the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species''? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds whose PDF is large enough to enforce Imperial rule, and so contribute massive numbers of Imperial Guard (on top of having their own substantial forces).

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry (lascannons, krak missiles, and heavy meltas are a threat to Baneblades and knights and heavier stuff can even threaten Titans, so we know this is bullshit). The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. This is but one example, another goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid, for example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale), [[wat|and even has an assassin forget to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura, as we have Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields were shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of raising their shields up to block the fucking shots.]]

There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

There are numerous other things too. Such as conquering multiple Hive Worlds in which one city outnumbers their entire species and everyone is hyperlethal, armed, fanatical and specialized in their claustrophobic combat environments where Tau are helpless. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead. They don't even have Warp fuckery to blame for it either, since the Tau have a tiny Warp presence. At least if they were human fanatics GW could claim their faith did it, which would be ''slightly'' more believable than some flavor of "They're just that good."

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex]] to know every move the Astartes adherent to it would make and pre-empt them. Even though not even Primarchs or Chaos or any other enemy has managed that in ten thousand years of constant war. There’s probably counters to counters in the Codex and it probably loops in on itself to ensure Astartes are always ahead.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists—not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Until the edition update, this would, most assuredly, be [[Fish of Fury]]. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit. That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Even though your T'au got nerfed into oblivion in the subsequent three editions and by 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Post-edition update, it was that certain [[Matt Ward|undesirables]] felt that they were trying to take the mantle of the 40K universe's "rightful" Imperial protagonists. And because they are not [[Choppa|choppy]] enough. And then 6th Edition codex came, and Tau became one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition ever, not to mention their ability to bitchslap cheesmongers, having straight counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. When the 7th edition came out they became overpowered AF and they took the title as the cheddar cheese of Warhammer.
More generally, the Tau battle philosophy is "deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting, even the Space Marines which should give you an idea of how ludicrous it is. To use some examples and keep it short, The Tau have comparatively slow non-warp travel that would '''LOGICALLY''' mean the Imperium and everyone else have a gigantic advantage in space combat and logistics, never mind hit and run tactics, yet after the first few retcons of the Damocles Crusade this stopped being an issue. Even in cases where the Tau are stuck in a planet engulfed in a burning nebula that it's established they cannot fly through, they just go back home by flying through it. Add in battlesuits that are immune to anti-titan weaponry, the capability to conquer (in one day no less) and deport a hive world, where one human hive city has more humans than the entire T'au race and you start to see some issues. Not to mention that despite now having billions/trillions of Humans in the Empire they seemingly have zero problems with untrained psykers being corrupted or chaos cults that force the Imperium to be the arseholes they are.

And of course none of this is even touching the fact that beyond some minor inconsequential skirmishes and battles that barely warrant wiki pages they have never lost a '''major''' war/battle, the worse fate they suffer being a stalemate, a stalemate which eventually transforms into a victory when the Imperium withdraws its forces to other theatres of war where they are desperately needed and the Tau just roll in and accomplish what they wanted anyway. This trend was almost mercifully reversed with Shadowsuns desperate stand against the Death Guard and the Tau Empire seemed to have actually faced its first defeat and setback with the battle lost and Shadowsun missing. But this was seemingly ignored/retconned when she turned up no worse for wear a few years later to, you guessed it, subjugate more Imperial worlds with little issue or opposition. And what happened to the Death Guard? They just mysteriously 'vanished'. i.e. GW wrote them out of existence.

One other reason they are hated can be that, by proving that none of the Imperium's more dickish policies are necessary, and for being a clear-cut "good guy" compared to the Imperium, it can make the Imperium's more hardcore fan angry at the idea that humans are the bad guys.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
The one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by Games Workshop, then the target of said trolling was any fatbeard that needs a constant supply of grimdark to stay alive. Of course, the mind-influencing pheromones they use to conquer new worlds and their psycho-indoctrination mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. But people have always been good at ignoring shit that doesn't fit into their perceived image of something. Though even considering those, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just an awful oppressive empire, rather than a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of omnicidal maniacs<s>, or Eldar</s>.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Unlike many other races in 40k, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other peaceful yet tyrannical Factions like the Federation. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism.
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but with dark inner mechanicals and bright armor panels, it's not difficult to make a battlesuit mini look good with novice painting skills.
;'''Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?'''
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have almost no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general (despite the fact that in 6E they can work with them...I just...I don't...WAAAARD!!!), 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 the [[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. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, ''anything'' could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly [[hat]].

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, Tau have no clear antecedent from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Some think the anime influences and rapid industrialization/militarization point towards Nippon; others feel the caste system might be related to the Kingdom of Ind. However, neither faction has ever been explored in great detail (or any detail at all), so it's impossible to say whether Tau are similar to those factions; instead, we must compare to the real-world equivalents of the Old World nations. Slightly more controversially, there are elements of Cathay (which is the Anglicized word for China back in the British Empire heyday, so yes) in the Tau. Cathay has been described as being technologically advanced (at least on par with the Empire), including terra-cotta automaton warriors (which the Chinese definitely used to make to pay homage to the First Chinese Emperor's over inflated ego, more than a millennia ago), although such comparison is stated by some to have [[Skub|already been implemented in the characterization of the Eldar and thus, is considered as ''seriously'' stretching up a notch.]]

More recently, some have connected the Tau and their subject races to other factions in Fantasy. The rapid evolution of the Kroot and their overall savagery is (somewhat) similar to the Gors of the Beastmen (although the Beastmen are in the 40k universe themselves). The Empire also shares the xenos-friendly viewpoint of the Tau, although they're not expansionistic, and decidedly less concerned with a unified government structure so long as everyone pays their taxes, for better or for worse. Others compare them to dwarves: dwarves don't use Chaos magic, are short, technologically advanced, kinda casty and blue (understood in many countries as "hopelessly drunk") basicly all the time. Tau don't use Chaos warp magic, are short, technologically advanced, very casty and blue all the time (in regards to skin colour). Both also get seriously grudgy and angry when you piss them off.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™. (except Marvel/Disney settled out of court rather than risk the wrath of the Ordo Legalitus)(Side note: With the new deal between GW and Marvel, the Tau might be canon again)

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tactics on how to play them.]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
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[[Category: Xenos]]