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Commander Farsight = Horus?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Even though Comamnder Farsight is seen as radical I dont think that the Tau will ever fall into Chaos. Aren't the Tau uncorruptable because of their lack of psychic ability or something? You might just end up with pirate Tau in the Farsight case.

Well, that sword IS alien.

Chaos Tau would be like Doom Rider jumping his Bike of DOOM over a Catachan Devil Shark Devil.

That being said, everything is corruptible.

Who's to say the Tau empire isn't already corrupt? What is the true objective of the Ethereals? How do they inspire such unthinking loyalty from the Tau? Where do they come from, since they haven't always been among the Tau?  What is the "Greater Good", and who benefits from this objective, ultimately?

Farsight could be one of the few truly free Tau in existence, having escaped the influence of the Ethereals.

Yay Alpha Tau!

Lord Sutekh: I miss the flaming avatar.

On the note of being uncorruptable if you have read or played Fire Warrior then I direct you to Govener Severus near the end where he is trying to corrupt the etheral but can't because of no psychic ability. I recall Severus saying "A race with no potential for corruption, how boring."

Malfred: It's long since lost...  I haven't found anything worthy to replace it, recently.

I think O'Shova's Blade is of C'Tan Orgin.
but Chaos Tau? I think Tau Pirates is the right Idea. uh-oh, conversion Ideas coming up.

I remember reading a theory that the dawn blade was actually one of the blades that Vaul forged for Khaine for the battle with Nightbringer.

I don't think they will go chaotic, but capitalistic maybe. Tau Pirates/Mercenaries would definately be the way to go.

Selling tech to the highest bidder is not that far fetched.

And the Tau Empire is dry isn't it? I can totally see Tau Pirates raiding Imperial shipping lanes for kegs of amasec.

In the fluff mankind wasn't always psychic. I think the Emperor's creation was in reaction to humanity becoming a psychic race, but the old old fluff is hazy in my brain. Anyway, my point is that if races evolve or ascend into psychic ability, then maybe the Tau will one day. And on that day Tzeetch will laugh. Actually, he's probably laughing now as he can anticipate all. He's probably orchistrating the great Tau racial enlightenment as we speak, or type. So the answer is yes. There will be chaos Tau, and they will be dust filled crisis suits with two wounds.

Something I learned from my own post is that creation and reaction are the same word but with the c in a different place. Does that have any significance whatsoever? Probably not. But it might...

Posted By malfred on 03/29/2006 12:04 AM
Yay Alpha Tau!

Is that a sorority?

>>And the Tau Empire is dry isn't it? ...

No, in the early Codex the story of the Tal'Issera rite clearly shows they neck a glass of hard liquor to seal the knot.

I don't really see it. The lure of Chaos is a uniquely human threat. There aren't really Chaos Orks, or Chaos [Dark] Eldar, or Chaos Tyranids, or Chaos Necrons. The threat of the daemon, while occaisionaly combined with the threat of the xenos, is distinct thematically from the dangers presented by space aliens.

Chaos Tau would also undermine the Tau Empire's position as a socio-political foil to the Imperium. To sum up, it would just dilute the differences between the two races. Codex: Chaos Tau is basically just LatD with better equipment from a gameplay perspective.

Finally there's a lot of reasons within the fluff to discourage it. The Tau would never willingly or knowingly serve Chaos (though by attacking the Imperium they do indirectly further the aims of the Chaotic Legions, sometimes).

If Shovah is the thing you're interested in, I still think 8 man Crisis teams of "Blood Brothers" is a coincidence. It's unlike GW to resolve such ambiguities clearly-- Farsight's motives and reasons will probably never be made clear. The Dawn Blade is the Eldar Anaris, anyway.

By disbelieving Tzeetch's plan you just play into it. The Tausand Sons are coming. They even have birdlike minions already. And just because there isn't Codex:Chaos Orks, and Codex: Chaos Eldar, doesn't mean that there aren't orks and eldar that worship chaos. There are plenty of Khorne orks, and the eldar were chaotic enough to birth one of the chaos gods.

"The lure of Chaos is a uniquely human threat. There aren't really Chaos Orks, or Chaos [Dark] Eldar, or Chaos Tyranids, or Chaos Necrons."

Considering the Eldar's fall brought about Slaanesh, I disagree that Chaos ia a "uniquely human threat".

Remember the Genestealer cult from way back? Before Tim Huckellnuts got necroed the list, it was a Chaos/Genestealer cult allowing you to use demons and beastmen as well as options to mark your hybrids and what not. Basically, the Patriarch and/or Magus made a pact with the Devil.

I think Chaos Tau would be a long stretch gamin-wise. Basically, you'd enable the, arguably, shootiest army to get CC monsters, effectively cancelling the Tau's biggest weakness.

Pirates, on the other hand, not only sound like a good idea, but a great theme for the future.

I remember something about reasons for demon hunters to fight orcs, that orcs found a statue of nurgle and worshipped it, because they thought it was Gork (or Mork).
and, in the same Codex, there is a really nice picture of mutated Orcs, now look at that and tell me there isn't something as Chaos Orcs.
and if you play with the rules for adverseries in exactly this Codex, every Army fighting Demonhunters can have lesser and Greater Demons with them.
mmh...Chaos Orcs...

I say there aren't really Chaos Eldar/Orks/Tyranids not because such instances can't be found in the fluff (they can) but they simply aren't something that's focused on.

Humans > Chaos Humans

Humans > Xenos

Xenos > Chaos Xenos

You have time to fit Chaos Xenos in there? Think about how much the Imperium dominates all the fluff, then you have a good bit of Chaos and Xenos when we get bored with humans. A sidebar in an Inquisition codex and a couple of conversions posted online (there are actually some on GW's website, of Chaos-possessed Crisis Suits and Ethereals) does not a significant portion of the background make.

The defining characteristic of the Tau is 40k's version of futurist, utopian unity. The United Federation of Planets, The Republic, etc; a la the Grim Darkness of the Far Future.

We have Chaos Tau....Aun'Va, the power hungry megalomaniac geriatric.

O'shovah was a hero, loved primarily by the military, who he could have easily led a coupe with. He reports his ethereal is killed against unknown enemy....They send no help. O'shovah gets annoyed and rejects the empire, Aun'Va is suddenly safe in his position again.

Aun'Shi is worshipped by firewarriors for his actions by thier side, Aun'Va feels threatened once more and has him go on a mission to track farsight down getting him out of the picture too.

Now he has his puppet Shadowsun acting as his Shas Representative, an iron grip around the Empire.

Dead to the space pope, servant of Tzeentch!

Hmm the idea of chaso tau doesn't work cause of what most people have pointed out the lack of pyschic potential, basically the entire tau race or psychic blanks which means they will never become a pyschic race or if they will not for a very great period of time.

the idea that O'shavah is curropted by  chaos is not entirely unfounded the weapon for one thing... as weapons have been noted in 40k fluff to channel pyschic energy or a channel.which could lead to psychic potential in the recipient..
Although the likely thing seems to be its of either C'tan or Necrontyr origin...

one thing for sure is that there definetly is chaos Kroot

If they were completely blank psionically, then shouldn't they all have the Soulless rule like Necron Pariahs and Culexus Assassins?

Also, why must there be a connection between psychics and chaos worship? Khorne worshippers aren't psychic. They're just psycho. You don't have to have psychic powers to worship something. I think it is a small fraction of Jesus worshiping Christians who have psychic powers.

They're not souless, or complete blanks, they just have a very limited warp presence. To use the popular flame image, as viewed from the warp, your average human would have a presence that resembled something like a torch. A psyker's mind would, depending on your PoV either look like a bonfire, or a big neon sign announcing, "Here's lunch!" Next to those, a Tau's presence appears as no more than an dully glowing match head. Not much potential for warp power there, nor anything to attract the attention of warp entitites where there are so many bigger, brighter lights out there to distract them.

If you want some more info, check out the Xenology thread in this forum.

Spoiler (it's white, so highlight it to read):

In the book Xenology, evidence is that the Eldar created the Tau, presumably to have a non-corruptible opponent to fight against Chaos.  You won't be seeing Chaos Tau; there's no "handle" for Chaos to grab a hold of, so to speak.

I think I'm going to have to get that book, it sounds too cool.

It's interesting though, that it seems like Chaos has to seek people out, rather than people choosing Chaos. If that's the case, then it would make sense that Tau are incorruptible by Chaos, in their current unpsychic state. But it does seem strange to me that people can't go looking for Chaos without being invited or tempted first. I would think that there are some people who would choose to worship Chaos on their own, without the gods picking out their warp presence. If it's possible for the worshipper to initiate the "relationship" then I still think it should be possible for Tau to turn to chaos.

Also, Chaos mutates. So isn't it possible that Chaos baddies (probably Tzeentch) could mutate some Tau into psychic beings, and then corrupt them? Granted, that's a stretch, but Tzeentch's plans are grand and far reaching.

After all of this debating I may have to convert some Tausand Sons. But I have too many projects already! This is why I never finish armies...

While this might be a tad off topic, with Aun'va and Commander Shadowsun lining up to take on O'Shovah, there is TREMENDOUS potential for an enormous civil war within the Tau empire. In that sense, O'Shovah will become his own race's "Horus" (Or "Emperor", if he breaks his hoof off the collective *donkey*of Aun'va and Shadowsun)

How awsome would Tau civil war be! Especially if they make it a campaign! The chance for people to decide whether they want the happy facade of the Ethereals, or another grim darkness clone in the warlike Tau of O'Shovah.

my Vote on Ol' Farsight.
problem with tau civil war is... which of the other races would be interested. okay, orcs. and Chaos. but no Empire.
I defintly like the Idea of such a campaign

I just wanted to post a picture of this official GW conversion-




If that's not a chaos Tau, I don't know what is.

Looks like some poor old battlesuit got an implating attack from some nid monster.

Yay for Tau civil war...maybe then they might stop advancing with everything.