Editing Ethereal (section)

==History==
Confusingly, the Ethereals literally ''just showed up one day.'' Their arrival (according to T'au History/Legend) started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past, this would also explain the abnormally short lifespans of the other tau castes, who are very similar to the Q'orl warriors, short lived, devoted to their cause, and able to be inspired by the mere presence of their crystal organ having superiors, the ethereals in the case of the Tau, and the queens in the case of the Q'orl, both of whom live far longer than their subordinates.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are sometimes struck with grief (it really depends on [[FAIL|if the writer remembers or not]]) that causes them to lose battles and some times they start doing there best death korp impression and fight to Avenge the loss to the last Pulse Round which is not good actually since Tau doctrine is about NOT getting into pointless slugging matches and about fluid defense and offense, either way however after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if an enemy commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indoctrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods. Then again in Farsight: Crisis of Faith the Tau don't seem to be controlled by the Ethereals at all (their loyalty coming purely from idolizing them), with Farsight even arguing and yelling directly in the faces of three of them (something impossible to do in older lore) so who knows what the fuck's going on.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.