Scorpion

When we read Imperium fluff for Warhammer 40000, we are confronted with an inevitable fact: the eventual demise of the Emperor.

There are three ways Games Workshop could deal with this situation. They could simply postpone that fact to the far distant future, like any bad writer would do, or they could make it so like it would mean an "insta-win" for the Imperium, like an even worse writer would. But there is a third way.

I see allot of potential in the Fall of the Emperor as a tool to reshape and renew the Warhammer 40000 Universe. The Fall of the Emperor could generate a storyline not unliken the Fall of the Roman Empire: the empire is crumbling under the weight of the enemy forces, beset by all sides, while a society in panic tries to rebuild a crumbling society...

But here comes the twist!

There is one last hope...

THE EMPEROR REBORN!!!

Yes, all those years of feeding on psyker's souls weren't for nothing! As soon as the Emperor's mortal shell waned, the Starchild saw her last bindings to the materium severed, and she was free to roam the warp as a ship drifting in the ocean currents...

Being a human spirit, materialized by the hope of the whole of manking in The Emperor, The Savior, she sought a place in the Warp suitable for her rebirth.

She saw the huge fire-glow in the warp that represented the souls of the Imperium. They were filled with sorrow, rage, despair, grief. She fled with tears in her eyes, weeping for the pains they had to bear. And she roamed, looking for a place to live again. and at the edge of the blinding fire-glow of the Imperium, she saw a dim space. Lights were many, but weak. She was curious.

She saw a welcoming place. A place where sorrow and despair had no place. A place where the feeling of completeness and well-being was overflowing. It was a place she could call home.

But they were not her kind. Desilusioned, she prepared to sail away in the tides of the warp. But then she recognized something. She saw a fire-glow not unlike the ones she had seen before. But unlike the damned souls of the Imperium, sorrow and dispair did not scar them.

And then she saw another.

And another.

And another.

Soon, a thousand fire-glows rose amidst the dim lights!

They were her own kind!

With a smile on her face, she commited herself to the tides of the warp, waiting to be born again.

And in a Tau frontier world, a child was born.

OK, now that we're done with this, I'd like to present the scenario I envisioned:

We have the Imperium after the fall of the Emperor. After the fall, Chaos made it's final attempt to brake the backs of the Imperials. It suceeded in breaking apart the Imperium, only Segmentum Solar mantaining a solid control.

The Tau seized the moment to expand into Imperial territory. The young human that was born in the fields of a Tau world befriended an Ethereal who roamed the fields as a pastime. The ethereal saw the boy's potential, and took him in as his protegé. The boy excelled in his academical carrer, but his true vocation was to aid those in need. As a humble medic, following in the wake of Tau hunter-cadres, he saw the sad fate of those who fell into anarchy and disarray. He vowed to reunite the old Empire under the Greater Good, whatever it may cost him.

The Eldar still remain the same arrogant SOBs they allways were, but they are going desperate. Their "meat-shield" is gone, and Chaos seems like it will win they day. They don't care about the Maiden Worlds anymore, or the rise of the Eldar. They are just desperatelly trying to buy time so the God of the Dead will awake in the Infinity Matrix. Nothing else matters.

So, waddya think?

I personally like the "doomsday feeling" we get from a mainly "good guy" point of view. The Eldar are running against the clock, the Old Imperium is desperatelly trying (and failing) to put it's act together and the Tau are moving into former Imperial space (to flee from Hivefleet Kraken?). It seems the only dynamic forces are the "bad guys" (Chaos, Orks, Tyranids). They're the only ones seizing the iniciative.

SocialSecurity

It's been done. See the Illuminati or Sensei, the fluff used to be on Criticalhit. :P

Scorpion

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiike... I based myself on that same fluff to write this?

The fluff on the Starchild only mentions the existance of the Starchild and what the Illuminati intend to do with it, it's doesn't show what happens next. Fluff-wise, we haven't gotten to that point.

What I'm proposing is a turning point on WH40K, and what goes beyond it.

Zabatik

Just a question. Why the tau and why would the star child be female?

omega the end

The Tau have the right mind set to rule the universe and are essentualy a very good race. Why not a female!?! And anyways it seems to be he siad it was a boy.

Good job, I personally like it since I hate the old couch potato and can't wait till he finally dies.

eventhorizon

you would think the human race would ever acknowledge their new emperor as a child raised by tau hands?! taught by tau minds! heresy!

darkoutcast

this sounds cool to me....I would rather have like an uber cool starchild special character for the tau (but, would ti be broken) then have this guy that seems to be living forever and he really doesn't do too much....but maybe the eldar find someway to awaken the God of the Dead so that way we have more of each race rushing (the imperium is rushing to find some solution, the bad guys, like orcs and chaos, are rushing to take over terrotory, same with the tau rush, and eldar are rushing to awaken God of the Dead).

chaudman

the part about the etheral and the boy smells like the emporers smelly toe cheese. its so cheesey that the etheral finds the boys pontential how about the boy is born on a world forced into the taus service he leads the rebelion and instead of fighting him the tau ask him to join them ect.

Yo-jim-bo

Damn right. Would never ever happen. Also, no need to say "she" because of some psuedo-PC nonsense. The Emperor is male, and would be reborn as such. A male body is a more effective 'tool' and would make him far more likely to be accepted. He's the Imortal Emperor of Mankind! He wouldn't "excell" in his studies, he'd bloody well surpass every scholar, engineer and genuis the tau had ever had in every single field. And as for that "humble medic" stuff....seriously, we're talking about a veritable god here.

Anyway, The Emperor would not become part of the tau empire, his purpose is to steer humanity away form the chaos gods as it evoloves into a psychic race, why would he shack up with beings with almost no psychic presence?

craNk

I don't like the Emperor goes Tau cause they are the good guys...

I would more like... Emperor goes to Humanity cause he don't likes what he see's and wants to bring Humanity back on a better path (this could even be the reason for him to be reborn).

Emperor = Cruel Humanity not damn Hippy-Tau

FabianX

Just like the Primarchs made in His image surpass all those that taught them on whatever planet they happened to end up on.

Akranadas

I like it, apart from the female part,

Im kinda sick of the "walls" other w40k fans have put in place around the fluff (Space marine chapter for one). It nice to see a change in the whole w40k mind set.

Scorpion

First and foremost, the Reborn Emperor is not a girl, I said that the BOY befriended an Ethereal, not that a girl had befriended an Ethereal! It is just that the Starchild is a soul (which I assume to be genderless), not a human, and as both "soul" and "Starchild" are a female word (in my native language), I decided it would be much pretier to write "she wept" than "it wept".



EXACTLY!!! That's why the Old Empire will fight the New Man. It will declare him an heretic and a servant of Chaos, and it will spare no expense to see his skull driven into the ground for defiling His Most Holy Name!

However, like the Emperor of old, his miraculous feats and his most righteous word will convince those pure of heart that he is, indeed, the True Emperor, The New Man Reborn!



That's where you're wrong! The Emperor was created by the shamans of old to be immortal, for they knew that in short time reencarnation would be impossible. The Emperor was never meant to be reborn!

It was faith in the Emperor, plus a healthy diet of fibre-rich psykers, that allowed the Starchild to grow into a quite sizeable warp entity, as you said, not unlike a god! But since the Imperial Creed believed in the Emperor, The Protector, The Savior, I believe that is the facet of the Emperor that tends to stand out in the Starchild: The Emperor, The Healer, The Emperor, The Conforter, The Emperor, The God Of Hope. That's why I made him a humble medic. Even if he reaches the top, he has to start somewhere!

And remember, while the Starchild is the Emperor's soul reborn, it is not the emperor! Check the Starchild fluff if you don't believe me. It will be born on another world and have other friends and experiences, which will shape his personality quite differently from that of the one born almost 50000 years before.

Don't forget that the Emperor, before being the Warrior-King of the Age of the Imperium, was also Buddha and good ol' JC, and that's the side of him that I want to stand out in my fluff.

Darkoutcast, that was exactly the feeling I intended to capture: helplessness, despair, decay, and at the distance, a fleeting candle of hope!

Dudes, the ideas are all bubling up inside my head! Expect "New Age Of The Empire" fluff in the long run!

Olgerth Istaarn

1. Stop referring to the Emperor as a "she".

2. Your idea is not that original.

3. Tipping the current balance in any direction will be decided by the potential sales figures for GW and nothing else, and it won't happen for a long, long time.

4. STOP REFERRING TO THE EMPEROR AS A "SHE"!!

Zatrais

I don't like it, i like the universe just as it is. Introducing hope and the inclusion of the soul of the god emperor of mankind into the ranks of the Tau is just so wrong to me hehe.

Robert Frazer

The main problem that I have with this, Scorpion, is that you have misapprehended the nature of the Emperor. Star Child or not, miracle-worker or otherwise, if this character began espousing the Greater Good he simply wouldn't be The Emperor, and as the Star Child is the Emperor's consciousness that cannot happen.

The Emperor, throughout history, has cared for one thing and one thing alone - the undisputed supremacy and dominion of Man. The whole purpose of his reign is to devastate humanity's rivals, opponents, oppressors and competitors and establish homo sapient sapiens as free from any interference whatsoever. He wouldn't want humanity to submit itself to an alien doctrine such as the "Greater Good", regardless of how benevolent or, indeed, beneficial it might be - he'd want to Man to forge his own ideas and destiny, free from the sullying influence of foreign powers. Even if what Man devised was not a system exemplifying paragons of virtue, it would still be Human, and thus infintely preferable to anything Alien.

As such, if the Second Emperor was to be reborn in Tau space, he wouldn't be influenced into being a good tau'va-bothering Gue'vasa, he would adopt the disposition - "alright, thanks for not subjecting me to infanticide - as a show of my appreciation, I'll make sure that your deaths are painless!" He certainly wouldn't be taking policy from an aun'o, as seems to be the crux of your position.

Lestaki

As ever, Robert has said what I wanted to say better: the Emperor fights for mankind and mankind alone, no matter how stupid they may be. he would never see the Tau more than tools at best.

I don't mind she. Wierd, but I don't see what the fuss is about.

It's an intresting scenario, but the Emperor would deviate to any humans as soon as possible. Or he wouldn't be the Emperor any more. Not even descended by soul.

Scorpion

Sorry for the long delay...



Sorry, Zatrais, my fault, I didn't develop on that concept as I should.

I didn't mean to have the Emperor Reborn as a foot soldier of Tau. My idea was that, during the 4th Phase Tau Expansion (into the crumbling Gue'La Imperium), the Emperor Reborn realizes his fate to bring unity to his race. He manages to rally the many Gue'Vesa of the Tau Empire and the Gue'La of the Imperium around him for the Great Reconquest. The Tau, seeing that they could not stop him without great bloodshed, decide to let them go, with the promise that they wouldn't turn on the Tau Empire. The Tau that had befriended the Emperor Reborn decides to go with him, for it is for the Greater Good that the Gue'La are reunited, and the young Emperor will need his experience and guidance.



I beg to differ, Mr. Frazer. If you had read the Starchild fluff, it never openly stated that the Starchild was the Emperor’s soul as is, but rather something developed from it, or above it. I interpreted the Starchild as something that the Emperor’s soul was a part of and something that had grown from it. Plus, the Emperor was never meant to be reborn, so it might not be as linear as that…

I’d like to point out that, in the mythos, when you are reincarnated, only your soul is “recycled”, all memories and the personality you had are forever gone. So, I assumed that, if the Emperor was reborn, he had none of his memories or old personality, so it’d be for him to find out what he’s here for or for someone to tell him (perhaps a wandering Sensei, one of the Emperor’s children?).



Once again, I beg to differ, Mr. Frazer. The Emperor’s final objective has always been to defeat Chaos (by guiding Humanity to it’s psychic awakening), and to steer Humanity away from harm. It’s not his purpose to give wings to a dream of racial domination of the Galaxy and extraterrestrial genocide! The Great Crusade was made to reunite Mankind, as the destruction of the “foul xenos” was a necessity, rather than a matter of principle (so it would seem from the tales of the destruction of the Laer, when the absorption of their race into the Imperium was considered).

Later, after the entombment of the Emperor in the Golden Throne, such practical considerations were taken as dogma, such as the adoration of the Emperor as a living god (please recall the altercations with the Word Bearers as the Emperor did not want to be worshipped as a god).

Yes, the Emperor’s sole purpose is to make Humanity thrive, but I do not believe that necessarily implies the extermination of all alien life forms.



No, no, my apologies if I made you think that. The Aun’O would be merely the Emperor’s advisor/friend/counselor, not his boss, nor would the Tau command him. He would “splinter” from the Tau Empire. The Tau are wise enough to see how foolish it would be to try to stop him.

Andkat

The chaos gods would detect this almost immediatley (the Tau are warp-barren, and the massive currents in the warp catalysed by the rebirth of a what is is essentially a diety upon the mortal realm would most assuredly attract attention) and suddenly Daemons, Chaos marines, and a plethora of other warp entities would spew out of the Eye of Terror, and thoroughly obliterate the Tau (seeing as how the IoM remnants wouldn't give a shit about the Tau by that stage). But I really do find thsi relativley pointless. The Emperor would probably end up possessing a sensei or SM or reincarnating on earth rather than ending up on a Tau Colony.

ExplodingGeckos

This is where i see fault: the Emperor's purpose is to make HUMANITY thrive. To have truly human society, alien forms, whether benificial or perfidious, could not interfere without irrevocably altering the formation of the society and the mindset of mankind. To have humanity thrive on its own, it musn't rely on the xeno.

I don't know if i'm being very clear, but I hope you see what i mean.

Yo-jim-bo

Furthermore, even a race with a small warp presence such as as the tau could still 'fuel' the choas gods, providing them with the soldiers and worship they need. Not to mention daemonhosts. A utopian human society under The Emperor + death to every xenos=no more chaos threat.

theshadowduke

Yet one more Tau fanboy trying to make them the "good guys". Only problem with this is that is a bastardization of all of the fluff created up to this point.

Also, telling Rober Frazer to "read the fluff" is like telling the pope to read the bible...

Zatrais

In the old WD article describing the star child it is explicity stated to be the core of emperors soul adrift on the warp, waiting for the cries of humanity to reach such levels as to rekindle the emperors soul and have him reborn.



The tau are not blanks, they have a presence in the warp like any other sentient being in the galaxy.

Cmdr Fox Davion

Well the possibility for the new age storyline is all good and such, but I want a story based on the goings on in the Age of Strife, now that would be cool, BTW not the Dark Age of Technology... seriously everyone knows that during that time Humanity was a bunch of corporations seeking to strip the universe for resources for profit, come on its obvious...

I even wrote my own little story and it was simular to this, however the Star Child was not reborn among the Tau, but on a back water planet and was by pure luck discovered by the Eldar Harlequins passing though.

I never showed it to anyone as I did it out of curiosity and my friends would think I was on mad crack, being a fluff nut they say “It never happened unless GW said so.”

The whole George Lucas approach to sci-fi.

Koki

One word: boobs.

omega the end

@ THESHADOWDUKE: The Tau are the good guys as far as fluff go. They have no evil counter-parts like the other races of the 40K universe. They don't go around attacking other races for no reason and they havn't killed off entire races like the other major players of the universe have. They are the only ones that have the right mind set to controll the universe and keep it from imploding on its self and going into total choas.

Distephano

they dont have the power to kill off any of the main players lol. seriously if any of the main players really wanted the tau gone and really wanted to, it would be done.

Coey

I like the story, but, I can only see the Tau being used as a tool to reclaim the Imperium and after that either being erradicated by the die-hard Xenophobes who would probably still hold quite abit of sway, or being absorbed by the Imperium.

eventhorizon

sweet merciful crap! you argue against frazer?!

this story is so hideous and warped- i have a similar one.

the eldar return to one of their crone worlds to find it has been ravaged by tyranids. the tyranids apparently were beaten back before devouring was complete. on the surface, a seer finds a wounded termagaunt. of course, he planned to return it to his vessel for live autopsy to develop a bio weapon, but in close proximity, the eldar sensed the presence of the eldar deity isha! in this very termagaunt, the seer had found the spirit of the goddess of the eldar! "sweet merciful eldanesh!" shouted the seer, and then the kingdom was his forever, the end...

point is: ain't ever gonna happen

Waterbizkit

I would not go so far as to call the Tau good and in fact the idea of the "Greater Good" stainks to high heaven so far as I am concerned. No reason for me to go on and elaborate, but it's a stretch to call any race in 40k "good".

Only other thing I'll add to this for now: Any person who has, or anyone who yet will, bitch about Scorpion using the term "she" in reference to the Star Child and the more generic term of soul need to learn how to be a bit more attentive when reading. Some examples:





Never was the actual emperor, new or old, refered to as a female by Scorpion, who even yent so far as to be more clear on the subject:



It just takes some reading. Not meaning to be insulting to any who have done so, especially those I have quoted, but all it takes is a little more attention to detail.

~Bizkit

omega the end

@Bizkit- How and why does the "Greater Good" stink to the high heavens?

shovah O'Shovah

Probably, and I say this as a proud Shas'El, because of its incredibly fascist undertones.

SubAznDaemon

I think this is really stupid. Many WH40k fans would like to see the Tau dead, and like most of the others said, the Emperor is a boy and only fights for Mankind. What I would like to see (please don't flame me for this) is Chaos taking over a huge chunk of the galaxy, and the Eldar and the Space Marines (Grey Knights, IG, Inquisition included) teaming up for once to fight very long war with Chaos. Also, I think the main concern of the Tau should be to destroy the Nids invading their empire. Orks will be getting stronger as usual (some turning to Khorne), and the DE will just be sitting in Commoragh, other than a few raids here and there. Necrons will be feeding the C'Tan, including the newly awakened Void Dragon and Outsider (maybe a few others who escaped the Outsider). Overall, I think they should just make a FREAKING long war. This is based on other peoples' fluffs too, so I take no ownership of the ideas.

Oh, and the Necrons may succeed in destroying the last Talismans of Vaul in Abbadon's Planet Killer.

Kurenai_Shi

There better be book coming out of this, explaining this dilemma...

SubAznDaemon

I can try...

Scorpion

So? That only means more fun for the Tau players! Besides, the Chaos Marines would have to go through the Old Imperium first... (Remember that Demons' and Chaos Marines' power diminishes as they get farther away from warp anomalies!)

No one said the Tau's ride through the Universe would be an easy one, or even that they would suceed...

ExplodingGeckos: Point understood. I only think it's an overly racist point of view. After all, what's the harm in learning with others?



And humans can't be daemon hosts? What about craftworld Eldar? I've yet to heard of deamon possesion of a craftworld Eldar!

I doubt a daemon could take sustenance from such a small warp presence as the Tau. From the fluff in GW's site, it seems chaos has a relativelly minor influence in the Tau Remember the fluff about a chaos attack in a Tau colony, when the leader of an army of Slaanesh Marines (Chaos Lord?) manages only to distract the Shas'O momentarilly? I was under the impression that it's effect on humans was much more profound (complete seduction, etc...).



Excuse me, I'm a Tau FAN, not a Tau FANBOY!!!
A Fan is someone of enjoys, apreciates, likes something.
A Fanboy is someone who fanatically defends the supremacy/superiority of the object/subject of his liking compared to everything and everyone, against all logic, reason and good sense.

And, let's face it, in a pragmatical point of view, the Tau ARE the good guys. I know if I was suddenly dropped in the WH40K Universe and I had a warp-capable ship, I would head straight to the Tau Empire!



Hey, even the most devoted priest reads his bible from time to time.

Not trying to disrespect anyone, but I doubt anyone (even the GW staff) has a mind so vast that can encompass by heart all WH40K fluff.



By all means, post it! I would really like to know people's opinions on how the WH40K Universe is going to develop!



It's funny how easilly people tend to forget that the Tau managed to grind to a halt an Imperial crusade... (And don't come telling that it was Behemoth's fault, 'cause news of Behemoth only reached the Imperial crusade after the assault had ended in a stalemate!)

For me, the Tau are like the newborn babies: for newborns, the first months of living are the most dangerous ones, but if a baby manages to survive the first months, the mortality rate diminishes drastically.

So, the Tau only have to hold on for a few more millenia. After that, they'll be nearly undefeatable.

Zatrais

The damocles crusade is a crusade in name only really, hell i don't even know why it's even labeled as a crusade. Small number of troops, unreinforced and small base of support.

mogs

So? That only means more fun for the Tau players! Besides, the Chaos Marines would have to go through the Old Imperium first... (Remember that Demons' and Chaos Marines' power diminishes as they get farther away from warp anomalies!)

I have never read anything that indicates chaos Marines diminish in power the further they are from ‘warp anomalies’. ‘Warp anomalies’ themselves can be created any where using worshiping rituals or chaos artefacts to create overlaps between the dimensions of the warp and real space, although tiny in comparison to the Eye of Terror such 'warp rifts' can still sustain hordes of Daemons.

As mentioned the Damocles’ crusade force was pitiful in size and strength, compare it too other crusade forces and it is tiny. Also Hive Fleet Behemoths appearance prevented Imperial reinforcements form arriving so it did in effect alter the balance of the crusade as these reinforcements would have most likely have broken the deadlock.

omega the end

The hell they would! More enemy reinforcements would have brought more freindly reinforcements and it would stay the same. And if I recall corectly there WERE space marines there. Now if your space marines are so great why didn't they stomp all over the Tau? Also there were titans there that were takin out fairly easily and the ones that survived turned tail and ran!


And the Choas foces wouldn't be able to posses a Tau since there is little to no warp precence. And the Kroot were only possesed because they ate the dead choas pawns.

EDIT: Also by the time the emp. dies there will be tons of humans that have joined the Greater Good and they will be milling about the Tau sector so it would be nearly impossible to find Ms.Starchild. Also he/she will be able to surpress its self like before so no one will be able to dectect his/her presence before he/she wants them to.

Stealthlazer

God I hate all these 'Tau are weak and could be wiped out easy' people! Most firepower, highly advanced tech, biggest potential, most attraction for other races and no civil war, they have all the ingredients for a major race.

Just because they're the good guys you all decide that they're soft. They will still wipe out any force that tries to stop them and fight as hard as any other race. Yes the entire Imperium could destroy the Tau. after all they've only had 40, 000 years compared to the Tau's 5, 000.

Shut up about Tau being weak they are a decent force and can fight any race that they want.

To keep this on topic I'l post about the little story. I quite like it though there are some obvious problems. As much as I like the Tau I doubt the Emperor would come among them, more a crusade of fire and steel for him I think. And I think the Eldar are a more definite bet if any race is to help him. I can't see the Emperor giving aliens equal status. Doesnt' mean they can't stop him though. Let's see him go against all 4 chaos gods, the C'Tan, and the Eldar gods.

Norsehound

As a new player and one who generally likes to stand upwind of evil, I find the Tau attractive for their marked differences from the rest of the WH40K empires. Granted, I haven't played the Tau outside of one demonstration game, but their design asthetic and general phillosophy appeal to me more than becoming a mindless servant of what some call a Psycher vampire.

I think that's why a lot of people want to stamp out the Tau; because they're the most optimistic of the WH40K races. It goes against the game's premise of a dark, grim universe with no hope for a positive outcome other than killing your endless enemy.

mogs

Wow well there’s a nice non bias post - so you are suggesting that if it the crusade developed into a war of attrition....it would have resulted in a Tau victory? I was just making the point that the crusade forces were not that significant (There were only a dozen capital ships involved in the Damocles crusade and I think that only one of these was a battleship. The ground forces consisted of only 19 regiments of Imperial Guard and 5 provincial companies of Adeptus Astrates with a number of Titans from the Legio Thanataris).

Chaos could posses a Tau – the unfortunate Tau could be the victim of some form of Daemon Host binding ritual also chaos artefacts often have malignant entities trapped within them, although they are not overly powerful they still have the power to seduce and corrupt.

I personally don’t have a huge disliking of the Tau. I think their darker side dose need to be explored more but I quite like their naivety and sense of hope.

Andkat

Scorpion: you CAN posses a craftworld Eldar, but is insanely difficult becuase of: the lifelong training of all CW Eldar to resist temptations and emotions, in conjunction with all the souls crystals that are generally in rpoximity to CW Eldar.

Scorpion

I still don't buy the "Emperor was a xeno-Nazi" theory. I remember something about a proposal to include the alien Lear into the Imperium before Fulgrim decided to wipe them out. Nazis don't propose for jews to join them!

For me it's as simple as a pragmatical consideration (humanity is being harassed by xenos -> kill the xenos) that was forged into dogma (suffer not the alien to live). Even so, the only aliens that Humanity could socialise with would be the Eldar and the Tau, the others are just plain mean!

Norsehound

Seconded on that. I personally think that hope can only be found in the Tau because of thier innocence from the affairs of others outside their sphere of existance. As far as I can tell, the only races they've had contact with to a significant degree are Mankind, the ORks, and the Tyrranids. The Eldar nor the forces of Chaos have tresspassed Tau boundaries bent on dominating thier cluster. This means the Tau are removed from the metaphyscial challegnes to their beleif in the Greater Good, and are fighting a purely defensive battle against annialation and conquest. With the integration of a fragment of humanity into their protectorate, it seems to give promise that there is a bright side to be seen in WH 40K (something I find as a releif).

I think the Tau are better without a significant darker side like the Eldar's self-centerness (and the Dark Eldar). It paints a significant contrast to the innate destructive forces of Chaos- complete darkness in it's ultimate form. Humanity, Orks, and argueably the entirity of the Eldar are all balanced races that give off both a positive and negative feel (Humanity fighting for survival with a tyrranical emperor, The Ork's instinctive lusts for fighting, the Eldar's mirror reflection of the Light and Dark Eldar).

I'm not trying to paint the Tau as the heroes of WH40K- that's the role of humanity. I'm saying that, from my standpoint as a newbie- they are the counterbalance to the forces of Chaos and their powerful avatars on our plain. So their strength doesn't come from a specificly powerful unit on the board, but also their optimistic ideology in the mythos of WH40K.

SubAznDaemon

Who are we to decide who are the good guys? Chaos may be decietful and all that crap, but from their point of view, they're doing the right thing. Most stories are from Imperial point of view, which leads on that Chaos is evil. But in fact we can't prove that any race is evil or good, just like in the real world.

ExplodingGeckos

I think you're trying to apply the belief of modern society to those of teh Emperor. The Emperor delibertly went on a crusade(a component of it really) to extinguish alien life forms; I don't know if you can get any more racist than that. I mean, he attempted genocide of all percieved threats to mankind, and man followed him willingly.

omega the end

@SubaznDeamon: We can tell who are evil and who are not in the 40K universe. We can tell that the foces of Choas are evil since they go around killing people for the fun of it and they scream for more blood. We can tell the Tau arn't evil since they accept race to join them and don't go around killing off entire races.

Scorpion

The Emperor launched the Great Crusade to reunify all the worlds of mankind, not to wipe out the Xenos! Hell, he even proposed an alliance with a species of Xenos (the Laer)!



Well, in the fluff at GW UK, there's a personal account of an attack against Slaanesh Marines that had devastated a Tau colony. I've also heard of Eldar craftworlds passing through Tau space (with Tau consent), though I do not recall where I've heard this.

One interesting fact:

The Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, represented by a T, and it is considered to be a symbol of life. Coincidence? I think not!