Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==Voyage of Por'O M'arc==

Por'O M'arc was the first Tau to set foot on Old Earth (along with his small travelling party) as part of a diplomatic mission to better establish ties between the Tau Empire and the Imperium. M'arc wrote an extensive travelogue of his voyage, which the rest of the Tau Empire considered to be a very elaborate fiction. It would to the Tau read something like the Voyage of Saint Brendan the Navigator.

It contains a whole bunch of shit the Tau do not actually believe and assume to be either exaggeration or outright fabrication. They assume that Por’O M’arc has either had an elaborate and extended theatre played for him or that they Imperial Authorities have told him what to say. On the basis that he has been told what to say they don't push the issue so that Por’O M’arc can save face but just annotate the official report.

Old Earth has 64 orbital tethers and a railway encircling the globe at the geosynchronous height of the tether-top stations? Bullshit. Maybe it has one or two stations and tethers with adjacent facilities attached remotely. That’s more likely.

There is an irradiated world devoid of joy where the people use conventional war as a training exercise and the people have bar-codes and numbers but no name? Possibly some truth but obviously and exaggeration.

A world on the doorstep of Hell where the people all have purple eyes and have lived in nothing but a state of war for 10,000 years? Again probably an exaggeration. An extended period of war that extends beyond living memory (that’s like 70 -80 for humans, right?) and they live next to an anomaly.

Emperor is the same entity that founded the Imperium himself a relic of another era that can bend reality to his will. And is married to a literal goddess of the eldar people. Calling bullshit. Emperor politically married an eldar High Priestess (who are known to live for stupid long time), inherited name and rank form a predecessor and just happens to be an above average “psyker”. Everything else is clearly just media manipulation. Next you’ll be trying to claim Old Man Va is the First Disciple and other such tinfoil hattery.

Fleets that outnumber the stars, Craftworlds the size of large moons, the teeming numbers of the Hive Worlds, the vastness of the Imperium, the age of the Imperium, the number of member species of the Imperium, the lethality of it’s warrior elite and all the rest of it? All exaggerations at best. Oh don’t get me wrong; Por’O M’arc is a well-respected member of the government whose character is beyond question but he is one man and he had Imperial guides who would want him to see only what they wanted him to see.

Then they finally see the Traveling Court and they realize that there may, only may mind you, be some more truth to what Por’O M’arc reported. It’s not until they join the Imperium proper that they get to send their missionaries and observers deeper into Imperial Space. They keep expecting to reach the other end of the Imeprium at some point, they had until fairly recently assumed that Vast and Ancient Ultramar was the core of the Imperium and all this talk of an ancient homeworld out there somewhere was just Atlantis myths to make themselves feel better. But the Imperium just keeps on going and going and going.

By the time they have started to get Tau in the Inquisition in capacities more than just hired help (950M41ish?) they are truly aware of the scale of the pond in which they are very, very small fish and they go over the original copy of the reports written by Por’O M’arc and start comparing it to the things being reported by multiple other sources and they come to a new conclusion; Por’O M’arc didn’t see even a fraction of the fucked up shit out there. Especially when they learned there were some places that  the Imperium, who consider [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notes#Felinids|catgirls]], [[Titan|giant robots]], [[Isha|space elf goddesses]], year-long journeys through the Warp, and [[Rape|invasions]] by [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#The_Crone_World_Eldar|daemon-worshipping fair folk]] perfectly normal, steered Por'O M'arc's voyage away from because even they find it weird. Like [[Nobledark_Imperium_Member_States#Savlar|Savlar]].

===Itinerary of Por'O M'arc's Voyage===

Emissary (later ambassador) Bahira tells of the wonders of The Imperium out west, which prompts the Ethereal Council to actually send one of their own representatives in search of the capital.
 
Por'O M'arc assembles a small cadre of his fellow and most trusted Water Caste. It consists of a very small group of very junior advisors and assistants (small enough that they couldn't do much to corroborate his claims) and his promising apprentice Por'Vre Vist're who did most of the actual note taking.
 
They stay at the border world of Rrontieră Estic where Ultramar meets the Tau Empire for three days and nights and are met by their guides and guards. They had forgone their own guards on the principle that it would be an opportunity for the Imperim to prove themselves in both competence and character. One token Fire Caste bodyguard was present, and was the second most senior individual from the Tau Empire on the voyage. He started drinking after everything he saw in the Imperium, which didn't help M'arc's credibility any.
 
3 latecomers join the group from a far off place called Fenris. One of the group calls the planet a "world of dogs and devils" but they seem nice enough to the Por'O if a little boisterous.
 
They travel across Ultramar, they take in the sights and visit Macragge and Magna Macragge Civitas where once in error they had though the heart of the Imperium. They see the Temple of Correction and the Fortress of Hera and are welcomed to a modest feast in their honour. They are met by another traveler, an old man by the name of Ventris. He was an "astartes" like their companions but ancient beyond comprehension and he travels with them through Ultramar.
 
They come to Nuceria on the other border of Ultramar, it is a brief stopping point for them as the world is bleak and unpleasant. For Ventris it is a return to the place of his birth and he dies before they depart.
 
They visit an agri-world and marvel at the scale of the Imperium's hunger, the teeming billions that this world feeds. They sample some of the basic produce as enjoyed by the majority of it's customers. It is bland and slightly gritty. The wine they wash it down with was far nicer.
 
Their ship encounters a Void Whale called Jasconius by the Diasporex ships that travel in it's wake and follow it like a good luck charm. The Diasporex greet the tau and welcome them to their ship where they discus the tenants of The Greater Good and compare similarities to their own philosophies.
 
They make orbit around a world of the exodites on the eve of the midwinter celebrations. The Tau had seldom had contact with the exodites and took the opportunity to meet them. They were invited to observe (but not participate) in their strange rituals and were brought to tears by the harrowing beauty of their hymns to their dead gods.
 
They find a lesser outpost of the Prosparens, who have strange magic and maintain complete silence among themselves. They celebrate and dance together.
 
They find a rift in space and time where the very space is tortured. Their bodyguards show anxiety for the first time and are oft found muttering prayers to their gods. Once through the infected space the head of their retinue, a dark skinned astrtes dressed in green and silver, demands they they stop and give thanks as per custom and tradition.
 
Pirates attempt to seize the ship but misjudge it's armaments. Boarding parties do make it onto the ship and the Water Caste see first hand what an enraged Space Marine is capable of. They develop a new understanding of what they are traveling with, that these are not just ceremonial guards or people chosen only for their tact and patience. The stories of their ferocity are not Fire Caste exaggerations.
 
They come to a world known as Praetoria and wander the equator spanning glass under which endless rows of crops are grown for the vast and splendid cities. It was not all as civilized as it first appeared as they saw one nobleman cut another dead in a duel, their companions didn't react as if this was very unusual. They stay on Praetoria for 40 days and nights before changing ship. Their new ship does not have artificial gravity active across most of it's mass and the crew are strange and drawn out pale creatures with their own strange language. When questioned their companions tell them that their ancestors dwelt for too many thousands of years among the stars and now call it home. Por'O M'arc wonders if this will one day be the fate of the Air Caste.
 
They visit the fringes of the Hubworld League where the captain of the ship insists that they stop off to unload cargo and make repairs. First recorded contact between Tau and Hubworlder, Hubworlders wish to know as much of their strange Empire as possible.
 
One of the Tau find a Hrud in the lower decks. It steals her sandwiches. Captain suspected that they were on the ship but wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
 
They witness a Space Hulk become snared in a gravity net ready for boarding and salvage. Whatever prize was suspected to be in that old amalgamation must have been great as ships of a dozen makes and styles were present. The crew of the ship exchange pleasantries over the radio with some that they recognize.
 
The come to a mighty Forgeworld. The tech-adepts refuse to deal with the "mutant-spawn" and threaten to fire on their ship if they come close. The captain curses them and their name and departs.
 
They arrive at Sol and see the vast and near incomprehensible splendor and greatness of it all. They are forced to wait nearly three months before the Traveling Court returns from it's most recent tour. Time in which they scurry from one sight to another marveling at the magnitude and scale of it all.
 
The meet the Royal Couple in a great spire of crystal and chromed adamantium, vaster than cities of lesser worlds all by itself. The Emperor and Empress greet them as representatives of their new friends of the Eastern Fringe and they shake hands. M'arc presents a river lotus from T'au as a diplomatic gift from the Tau Empire to Isha.
 
On the return trip they catch the stable warp current between Sol and Armageddon and see the fading remains of a grinning skull that can be seen from orbit.
 
From there they travel to Nocturne and watch men herd dragons and farm volcanoes for gems.
 
They see the ruins of Prospero and the sorrowful emptiness of it all.
 
In the inky black they meet a ship blacker than the space it moves through that demanded to inspect them. The people that came onboard dressed in black and were oddly unsettling.
 
They encounter the Diasporex fleet again, still following the Void Whale.
 
They see many more strange and often unsettling things before their journey takes them back to the borders of Ultramar and they say goodby to the guards that had become their friends.
 
Por'O M'arc returns to The Empire a much wiser Tau though his account is met with skepticism.

Other details discussed in Threads 59-62.