Greater Good

You are here for the Greater Good.

That is good indeed.

Just as planned.....

For the Greater Good......

Space. The Final Frontier.

These are the voyages of the good ship Tau’s Future Glory. It’s mission, to seek out new life and new civilisations, for the Greater Good for all. To boldly go forth, into a grimdark galaxy like nothing before…..

And thus begins the adventures of the 40k Galaxy’s version of the Star Trek Federation, all bought by their belief in the Greater Good! Cake for all!

Serious Now

ok ok, so the background on it:

The Greater Good is the guiding doctrine of the Tau Empire and it's people. At it's most basic understanding, it involves always taking the course of action that is best for the majority of people and that everyone and everything has it's place in the system and the system will look after you and you after it. It goes a lot deeper then that for the Tau, who believes they can bring the enlightening message of the Greater Good to everyone in the galaxy to have them join in together in the Tau Empire, to work for a better future for all.

It was the Ethereals' who first bought forth the message of the Greater Good, to the other tau races on their homeworld during the age of civil war engulfing them all. The Ethereals preached a message about harnessing the skills of each of the races to their best advantage, so they could all work together for a bright future. In this way the Ethereals united the Tau as a people and over the next few millennium there was a massive growth in technology, science and knowledge, the Tau becoming a space faring race in a short amount of time compared to others and meeting other, smaller races who were won over by this noble goal, becoming the first member races of what would be the Tau Empire.

Since approaching the space controlled by the Imperium however the Tau have been somewhat disabused of the notion of everyone wanting to be friends by every other major race they have encountered either rejecting their overtures for unity with a bolt pistol or straight away trying to fight or nom them.

Cue galaxy wide lolz

The idea of a greater good is not really all that new. It has existed in modern society for a while although not in the form of a guiding doctrine, more of a general message to do your best by society as a whole. To make the Tau idea of the Greater Good you will need: the general notion of what the Greater Good is; Communism; Marxism; Liberal Trade Policies; Naivety; Enough Politics to make your head spin; Xenos-Loving; The Power of Friendship and Working Together; and Guns, lots and lots of guns if 'persuading' someone to adopt the Greater Good fails. The resulting mixture resembles now of the ingredients add (and would make Karl Marx chew his own beard off) but gives you a sense of the different bits and pieces GW added into it's big concept cauldron to make the Greater Good for the Tau.

In the first edition Tau Codex the idea of the Greater Good was pretty clean if vague, a noble goal to unite the galaxy. By the first Tau Empire book though some gritty realism with stories of people resisting the Greater Good until you reach the current situation where there are clear cases where the Greater Good won't work (Orks, Tyranids, etc.).

In the wider galaxy, if you don't like the Greater Good, you hate it. In this way it is kind of like marmite. The Imperium hates it because it is challenge to their authority and they are nervous weak willed (read: rational) humans will see it an alternative to what the Imperium offers and they can't have that. Chaos hates it because in essence it is directly opposite what each of the four ruinous powers stand for: Selflessness and discipline over indulgence (Slaanesh); Preferring peace over war (Khorne); Growth and progress over decay (Nurgle); and structured order over change and randomness (Tzeentch). In short the concept of the Greater Good is in direction opposition to the powers of Chaos and exactly why Chaos has not sent a Black Crusade against them so far is unclear..... Necrons and Eldar dislike the Greater Good simply because it is a younger species' idea and the Orks and 'Nids couldn't care less. They will fight (and eat) anyone.

So all in all pretty hard times being a missionary for the Greater Good in the GW galaxy.

Accusations of epic trolling on GW's part

When the Tau first came out it was believed all their innate goodness and power of friendship and kindness that the Tau showed was an epic example of trolling on GW part against their franchise and the fan base. Suddenly going from a completely grim galaxy to suddenly having a race that was (shock-horror) normal by most sci-fi standards confused some and enraged others. And a lot of this had to do with the idea of the Greater Good and it's bringing everyone together into one big super friendship hug. GW declared they wanted a new dynamic race for their setting. Fans thought they went a bit too far in this regard and created something quite different to the setting it was in.

As of the most recent codex and fluff updates efforts have been made to make the Tau and the Greater Good more 'realistic' in line with the Galaxy. The Ethereals have declared certain races 'lost causes' beyond the Greater Good (the Orks and the Tyranids). As of the most recent expansion phase the Tau had at times abandoned the slow but steady option of diplomacy in favour of just annexing worlds, forcing the Greater Good onto anyone there. Considering this is more in line with the Imperium's way of doing things we shall have to see how that goes. Other grim dark things done to and in the name of the Greater Good can be found in the next section.

Is it all really sunshine and lollipops?

from the start the codexes and fluffy hinted all was not what it seemed in the Tau Empire and what with the recent updates, especially the Farsight conclaves supplement, the Ethereals have been portrayed as subtle evil space tyrants ruling an empire through clever mind control tricks which is even more horrifying for the fact the Tau don't even guess something like that is going on in their mist.

Basically the books hint the Ethereals, being such a strange race that appeared of nowhere, use some form of mind control or pheromone control to influence other Tau to listen to what they say and to obey orders without question. It is further hinted this has had a diminished effect on even non-Tau. It is in this way they sell the Greater Good, because they are influencing others to think it is and to agree with them. It is the sort of thing the people in 1984 would will to be to do and would make their work load much easier.

There has been no solid confirmation on the powers of the Hypno-Tau and, like a lot of potentially cool things, it has been left unspoken of to drag out the plot. Thanks GW.

That said its also heavily implied that the Ethereals pheromones effect them too. They fully believe in everything they preach (as oppose to 1984's leaders who are just doing it for the lulz). In the novel "Fire Warrior" a Ethereal no sells a deamon possession not because of any pysker power or relic but because of the Greater Good means total balance and control of their minds meaning no emotional flaws for a deamon to get threw.

Reasons to accept the greater good

- They are open to diplomacy and talking. Even if they are focused on getting what they want (like every sensible person is), they will still listen to what you want as well. The imperium does diplomacy as well but merely as a pretence until they can get enough guns there, unless they have enough guns already and then diplomacy can go BLAM! - They will allow you to worship who you want, as long as it doesn't conflict with the greater good. Thinking about it, if they weren't Xenos, the Tau and the Emperor would have gotten along quite well. - They want what is best for everyone and that everyone can contribute to it in their own way. Which we must agree is a better sell then the Imperial Preacher saying you owe the Emperor your work so get cracking and no complaining! - They see machines as machines, not holy relics to fawn over and so a lot of things are automated and you don't have to do a tenth of the menial labour that occurs in the Imperium. This automatically makes the Tau a thousand times more practical and sensible.

Reasons not to accept the greater good

- You will be a walking target for life for HERESY to the Imperium for hooking up with xenos. - The Tau in general seem woefully naïve to a lot of things, so you are trusting your future with a bunch of people you are not sure you are on the same page of reality as. - You have to accept you won't be in charge of your own destiny. But then no one does really in the 40k galaxy.... - Although it may seem all nice and happy, be careful. Big Brother is always watching you.....

What is important to remember is this!

Despite all the mentions of naivety, subtle mind control and big brother watching you, the Tau Empire and it's philosophy of the Greater Good is still the nicest option to go with in the 40k universe. So what if your leaders control the population like a club of puppet masters? At least you can trust these not to throw you and your family into a meat grinding way or to crush all individuality and freedom out of you while saying it is for your own good. Some have said give it ten thousand more years and the Tau Empire will be just like the Imperium but really, will it? The Tau are quite different to humans so their response will be quite different as well. Up to whenever that point is, the Greater Good remains one of the few doctrines of the 40k universe that makes sense and despite all the grimdark made of it recently, it is still so noblebright it can blind Night Lords a planet away.