Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Warning! This is a thread of wild speculations. You have been warned:

I was thinking that the single most important event for the Imperium of man was the horus heresy and the tau are trying to become the successors of humanity doe anyone think they'll end up with a huge "Tau Heresy" in a similar fashion? The way I see it the Tau are currently in a golden age, similar to how humanity was around M5. Long before the Emperor revealed himslef humanity built titans, huge spaceships and colonised the stars. There's evidence of humans and aliens working togheter in that time and though supposedly this is before the fall of the eldar, which should have happened sometime M29 or so, it's all sort of like history repeating itself. With the Imperium taking the place of the Eldar and the tau taking the place of the Imperium.

The first thing that spring to mind would be the Farsight enclave but cool as it is I think it's gonna be more of a footnote in the tau history. Unless Farsights sword turns out to really make him immortal in which case he might either become a Tau Emperor or get corrupted by unnatural age.

The second thing I Think of is that Tau have a very small warp presence. Now bear in mind that this is relative to humans. Humans also have a very small warp presence in comparison to the Eldar who where the dominant species at the time of humanities golden age and it took a long time and probably the direct involvment of the Emperor before chaos even noticed them.

So if history will repeat itself the tau should have some sort of collapse in a few thousand years time. Most probably something akin to humanities dark age of technology is what one would think BUT (and here comes the kicker): the tau society is held togheter by propaganda and we've seen numerous rebellious intents so far. Many a tau are in conflict over their almost religious ideal of the "greater good". Also, so far the Tau has so far shown a surprisingly low level of competence in dealing with the Farsight situation that leads me to believe it's not going to be an isolated incident. So even though I don't think Farsight himself is such a big deal the divide very well might. Hence, if the fluff was ever expanded, we could se something akin to a "Tau Heresy" in the near future.

All this is assuming they'll survive the tyranid invasions.

Thoughts? Are theese just the ramblings of a madman or does people agree it's got potential. Of course it's all up to the gw writers as well as the ultimate question will-the-fluff-ever-move-forward.

There is already Farsight, who is opposing the Tau ideology.

Nerak wrote:


The first thing that spring to mind would be the Farsight enclave but cool as it is I think it's gonna be more of a footnote in the tau history. Unless Farsights sword turns out to really make him immortal in which case he might either become a Tau Emperor or get corrupted by unnatural age.

Engrenages wrote:
There is already Farsight, who is opposing the Tau ideology.

Yep, definitely Farsight. Although he's never shown a tendency toward aggression against The Greater Good (certainly not like Horus against the IOM) he has most assuredly gone his own way and thrown off parts of the parent doctrine and practices. Right more he's more a rival than a foe to the Empire.

That could all change if the Tau Empire decided to resort to force to bring the Farsight Enclaves back into the fold, of course.

My two cents.

If the Tau have a rebellion, it will either be through Farsight, or their rampant use of AI.

Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

I doubt Servitors/Battle Automata would even notice that they're being treated like crap, even combat servitors.


"Machine Spirits", on the other hand, wouldn't take too kindly to it. Which is why the Mechanicus (and others) bend over backwards to kiss their proverbial asses. It wouldn't pay to piss off a Warlord, Land Raider, or targeting system of a Deathstrike.

Someone should point out that the sword dose make farsight a form of immortal. So long as they keep killing people they won't get old.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

They do though. Drone networks attain sapience once they consist of five or more Drones. It was even reflected in the rules at one point.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

They do though. Drone networks attain sapience once they consist of five or more Drones. It was even reflected in the rules at one point.

What is sapience though? Sapience is an existential question that is hard to answer, but if a drone can only answer "Yes, no or unsure" and cannot ask "Why?" Its not truly self-aware is it?

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

They do though. Drone networks attain sapience once they consist of five or more Drones. It was even reflected in the rules at one point.

What is sapience though? Sapience is an existential question that is hard to answer, but if a drone can only answer "Yes, no or unsure" and cannot ask "Why?" Its not truly self-aware is it?

Not yet. Again, once Tau drones and AI become self-aware and maybe choose to rebel, the Tau will be in a lot of trouble.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
If the Tau have a rebellion, it will either be through Farsight, or their rampant use of AI.

I'd love to see this explored at some point

Robotic/ Automated labor caused the Eldar to fall into a decadence that lead to a hole in the universe and we all know how well the men of iron worked.

Well, since the Tau now have psychic species within their empire (the nicassar and, of course, humans,), it's only a matter of time before they themselves have to start confronting the very real dangers of witchcraft and heresy. When their septs start getting engulfed by Warp storms, possessed by demons and sucked into Hell (or just terrorized by human alpha-plus psykers), either the Ethereals will learn quickly and start Exterminatus-ing them for the Greater Good, or the Imperial Navy will show up for the next crusade and find nothing but a giant rift in space where the Tau used to be.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

It seems new Tau fluff seems to imply that nobody of any note in the Tau Empire thinks highly of the Greater Good.

The Ethereals of course don't, as they're mean baddies who just use the Tau'va as a tool to dominate the other castes (and disguise the fact that they apparently have no real function in Tau society after all). Farsight of course is long gone. Shadowsun doubts as well. And Darkstrider is too busy being a Maverick Who Doesn't Play By The Rules©. So that's all the named Fire Caste characters with a rank higher than private.

Speaking of the rest of the Empire, Vior'la sept, the new poster boys of the setting, are paying lip service to the principles of the Greater Good while shipping their military designs to the Enclaves faster than the Earth Caste can design them.

Basically the only named character that fully supports the Greater Good is Aun'va, and he got a pathetic and undignified death for his trouble. And was replaced by a hologram. Derp.

Ever get the feeling your faction's current fluff sucks? Because I do.

I love my factions current fluff because of this conflict. I would love to see a cool shake up to the lore and a civil war with Farsight conquering the Tau Empire and the Farsight Empire in its place.

I don't much care for Ethereals myself anymore. Which is funny since so long ago I liked all of this stuff but slowly plot advancement has shown the flaws of the Tau Empire. There are a lot of great things to like, but the weakest aspect to their empire is the current rendition of the Greater Good and the Ethereals.

I think it would be super cool for a shake up. Maybe cool Ethereals like Aun'shi can become priests and battle priests preaching the greater good under the new FS Empire. Aun'shi could reorganize and update the stagnate greater good and caste system.

Prior to the Ethereals manipulating Tau into one race (which I do like from a lore perspective) each of the castes was surviving on its own and warring with each other. So they all had to fend for themselves. Imagine the mighty new siege and heavy weapons that could be deployed to the field if the Earth Caste was allowed to go into battle. Look at the ECPA.

Direct Air Caste assignments and even airborne style infantry. Though mostly staying the same. Just greater integration into the sharing of war and high speed units.

Even the Water castes could use their great speaking ability to encourage soldiers to fight on harder in the battlefield and train as excellent supporting officers to the main Firecaste officers.

Then Ethereal battle preiests to the ones who do agree to reforming the Tau. Imagine them in power armor like stuff with melee and ranged weapons. After Aun'shi's doctrinal changes.

Sprinkle auxiliaries and battlesuits everywhere to assist the auxiliary races. Humans would easily adapt to piloting suits if they can be trusted. Maybe officers in auxiliary troops can be given power armor or more advanced technology. This would ingratiate them more to us that we trust them with greater technology.

It would revolutionize Tau combat and greatly increase the Tau's ability to fight and wage wars and spread.

I would also like to see more advance fighting drones enter combat. Slightly larger than gun drones and packing more heavy weapons. For coolness sake they can be walking style AI drones but if they want can easily be autonomous tank drones and heavy weapons platforms.

Imagine Kroot in Tau ships with fusion blades on their staves acting as boarding troops. Or Kroot who agree to use more advanced technology and basically are like Predator style assassins (from the movie) including cloaking tech and plasma shoulder guns.

Edit
Then Forgeworld releases the KX 238 Domination Class Fire Support Titan. A little smaller than a Reaver and armed with whatever armaments of death. And the internet cries tears and we laugh.

Personally I don't like the idea of tau Haveing an ai rebellion. It's such a. Clichéd and overused plot hook that it would fall flat. I would though like to see hacking wars if farsightedness and empire colide, an actual game mechanic to hijack the other sides drones sounds cool.

Also farsight killed a demon (prince maybe ) with the dawnblade.....doesn't that already give him imortality?

 Gamgee wrote:
I love my factions current fluff because of this conflict.

Well, remember that your faction is the FSE, not the Tau Empire. The Tau Empire's only role in that conflict is to be evil and stupid. Great fluff.

I would love to see a cool shake up to the lore and a civil war with Farsight conquering the Tau Empire and the Farsight Empire in its place.

Yay! Deleting factions you don't like from the game! Who's next?

I don't much care for Ethereals myself anymore.

I'll get GW on the line.

Which is funny since so long ago I liked all of this stuff but slowly plot advancement has shown the flaws of the Tau Empire.

The flaws being stupidity and incompetence.

There are a lot of great things to like, but the weakest aspect to their empire is the current rendition of the Greater Good and the Ethereals.

But what else can drive the ridiculous persecution fantasy at the heart of the FSE?

I think it would be super cool for a shake up.

Immortal anime fan becomes Tau emps!

Maybe cool Ethereals like Aun'shi can become priests and battle priests preaching the greater good under the new FS Empire.

Yes. We can even call them Cool Ethereals.

Imagine the mighty new siege and heavy weapons that could be deployed to the field if the Earth Caste was allowed to go into battle.

The Earth Caste already designs all Tau warmachines.

Direct Air Caste assignments and even airborne style infantry. Though mostly staying the same. Just greater integration into the sharing of war and high speed units.

etc.

So.. These sweeping Farsight reforms are really just to make everything Really Cool? Considering the rest of your post is just a list of increasingly ridiculous units?

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

They do though. Drone networks attain sapience once they consist of five or more Drones. It was even reflected in the rules at one point.

What is sapience though? Sapience is an existential question that is hard to answer, but if a drone can only answer "Yes, no or unsure" and cannot ask "Why?" Its not truly self-aware is it?

Tau drones are roughly equivalent to true Machine Spirits used by the Imperium. They are both a form of "passive" artificial intelligence. The only differences are that the Imperium's is based in bio-technology, and generally have bad attitudes.

Commander_Avalanche wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
I love my factions current fluff because of this conflict.

Well, remember that your faction is the FSE, not the Tau Empire. The Tau Empire's only role in that conflict is to be evil and stupid. Great fluff.

I would love to see a cool shake up to the lore and a civil war with Farsight conquering the Tau Empire and the Farsight Empire in its place.

Yay! Deleting factions you don't like from the game! Who's next?

I don't much care for Ethereals myself anymore.

I'll get GW on the line.

Which is funny since so long ago I liked all of this stuff but slowly plot advancement has shown the flaws of the Tau Empire.

The flaws being stupidity and incompetence.

There are a lot of great things to like, but the weakest aspect to their empire is the current rendition of the Greater Good and the Ethereals.

But what else can drive the ridiculous persecution fantasy at the heart of the FSE?

I think it would be super cool for a shake up.

Immortal anime fan becomes Tau emps!

Maybe cool Ethereals like Aun'shi can become priests and battle priests preaching the greater good under the new FS Empire.

Yes. We can even call them Cool Ethereals.

Imagine the mighty new siege and heavy weapons that could be deployed to the field if the Earth Caste was allowed to go into battle.

The Earth Caste already designs all Tau warmachines.

Direct Air Caste assignments and even airborne style infantry. Though mostly staying the same. Just greater integration into the sharing of war and high speed units.

etc.

So.. These sweeping Farsight reforms are really just to make everything Really Cool? Considering the rest of your post is just a list of increasingly ridiculous units?

Passive aggressive are we? A lot of what he said was cool ideas (except the Tau Titan, needs a cooler name). The idea that the Tau Empire is the misled evildoers and the renegade is the hero who will actually fix the problems created by this commie/caste system of control by introducing a real equalitarian society where everyone contributes sounds like a hell of a good idea. And would actually shake up the Tau from this stagnant form of play, where its infantry and suits, in a few tactical formations, to actually encompass airborne infantry and other strategies, sounds hellava cool idea.

oldravenman3025 wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Shadowsun's starting to lean away as well, according to the recent campaign.

I don't think it will be the AI - unlike humans, Tau don't treat their AI like crap, and quite aside from that the way Tau AI works, their sapience is constantly being split up and mixed around as drones are de-grouped and reassigned to other tasks.

The thing with AI is that Tau don't really have AI. They have drones which are capable of assessing targets, calculating angles for shots and stuff like that but its not true self-awareness like the Men of Iron had, or the likes of Titans have where the Princeps can feel its emotional fluctuations in the Mind Impulse links.

They do though. Drone networks attain sapience once they consist of five or more Drones. It was even reflected in the rules at one point.

What is sapience though? Sapience is an existential question that is hard to answer, but if a drone can only answer "Yes, no or unsure" and cannot ask "Why?" Its not truly self-aware is it?

Tau drones are roughly equivalent to true Machine Spirits used by the Imperium. They are both a form of "passive" artificial intelligence. The only differences are that the Imperium's is based in bio-technology, and generally have bad attitudes.

Except the Machine Spirits of the Imperium are warp-based reflections in the warp having an impact on the Material universe's equivilents, and only the most powerful and revered machines are actually semi-sentient. A bolter or Rhino is barely even capable of being called intelligent, whereas a Land Raider is capable of remote piloting and Titans are semi-self aware. Regardless, the machines of the Imperium have a reflection in the warp because their creators have that reflection, and their corporeal belief in those Machine Spirits renders them real, as the nature of the warp is that of symbolism, belief and religion.

The Tau on the other hand have no such reflection, so why then would their machines? Tjey themselves cannot create such a Machine Spirit in the warp through a universal belief in such a thing, and none of their tech has done things such as go on a rampage because it dispises the enemies it currently faces, or linked to the mind of its user to show glimpses of emotions. No, the technology of the Tau is not on the level of the Imperium. The Inperium relies on religion and ritual, the Tau on code and increasingly advanced hardware. The two may have similar effects. A Land Raider might "recognise" other Space Marines to not attack, but it can be enraged or sent insane by the daemonic scrapcode. A Tau Drone on the other hand does not feel, and just like any version of AI throughout sci-fi, it can only simulate and attempt to comprehend feeling. It may appear to be intelligent through having sophistocated language detectors, reading body language, being able to identify targets based on prior experience and matching images to its database. But its still only following its programming. It cannot do something it has not been taught how to do. A Gun Drone must be reprogrammed and retasked to burger flipping, and a burger-flipping drone must be programmed and calibrated as a sniper drone. But a Recon Drone cannot learn of its own free will how to become a Sniper or a Gardener or a Burger Flipper Drone. They cannot think or feel. They may become increasingly aware of the world and understand it better but they are atill nothing more than cold steel and copper wires.

 Deadshot wrote:


Except the Machine Spirits of the Imperium are warp-based reflections in the warp having an impact on the Material universe's equivilents, and only the most powerful and revered machines are actually semi-sentient. A bolter or Rhino is barely even capable of being called intelligent, whereas a Land Raider is capable of remote piloting and Titans are semi-self aware. Regardless, the machines of the Imperium have a reflection in the warp because their creators have that reflection, and their corporeal belief in those Machine Spirits renders them real, as the nature of the warp is that of symbolism, belief and religion.

The Tau on the other hand have no such reflection, so why then would their machines? Tjey themselves cannot create such a Machine Spirit in the warp through a universal belief in such a thing, and none of their tech has done things such as go on a rampage because it dispises the enemies it currently faces, or linked to the mind of its user to show glimpses of emotions. No, the technology of the Tau is not on the level of the Imperium. The Inperium relies on religion and ritual, the Tau on code and increasingly advanced hardware. The two may have similar effects. A Land Raider might "recognise" other Space Marines to not attack, but it can be enraged or sent insane by the daemonic scrapcode. A Tau Drone on the other hand does not feel, and just like any version of AI throughout sci-fi, it can only simulate and attempt to comprehend feeling. It may appear to be intelligent through having sophistocated language detectors, reading body language, being able to identify targets based on prior experience and matching images to its database. But its still only following its programming. It cannot do something it has not been taught how to do. A Gun Drone must be reprogrammed and retasked to burger flipping, and a burger-flipping drone must be programmed and calibrated as a sniper drone. But a Recon Drone cannot learn of its own free will how to become a Sniper or a Gardener or a Burger Flipper Drone. They cannot think or feel. They may become increasingly aware of the world and understand it better but they are atill nothing more than cold steel and copper wires.

Which is why I said TRUE "Machine Spirits". I know that rites and liturgy applied to "lesser" devices are just an extension of the cargo cultism influenced by the Mechanicus.


And while I agree that Man's A.I. creations are a reflection of their creators, the problem is that the belief that machines have some form of soul, and a religion surrounding that, is relatively recent in the 40k universe.


Humanity's federation during the Dark Age of Technology didn't have such beliefs (that we know of). And yet they developed thinking, sentient machines that were capable of learning, evolving, and growing like a biological entity. In fact, based on the limited information in lore, they made the most advanced Machine Spirits in the Imperium pale in comparison. And the very fact that they can be corrupted by Chaos (which is probably, in all likelyhood, why the Men of Iron turned against Humanity. The timing is just too suspicious) implies an emotional element (the very fuel that drives the Immaterium and it's denizens) in advanced thinking machines of the time. All without the cultism surrounding artificial creations.


My comparison was mostly based on usage and level of A.I. of the two categories. In that vein, they are comparable, since none of them are fully sentient and their use is restricted to a few important functions. But I do agree that the Tau have taken a different path, and their limited A.I. is largely unemotional. Hence, no way for Chaos to corrupt them.


However, the Tau DO have a small presence in the Warp (they have souls and emotions, after all). Just not on the level of psychic species. If they Tau ever do develop truly sentient A.I., then there is the possibility of a "back door" for Chaos to destroy them without having to do the dirty work themselves.

Whats more likely is the Tau have their own "Men of Iron" rebellion of their AI. Which most certainly spells certain extinction for them, as they have neither the numbers nor the ability to effectively fight without their technology when their robots turn against them. And even if that alone doesn't destroy them, the internal conflict will be enough of a problem that the many external threats they are keeping at bay will overwhelm them during this moment of weakness.

I think an even more Tau thing is the AI being welcomed in as its own with maybe a small subfaction being "kill all life". The Tau of both factions are more than willing to integrate other species into their system and I could see them making the AI equal to themselves.

Maybe. It's a possibility with them at least. It all depends on how the Ai reacts to its newfound sapience.

If the Tau Empire fractures along ideological lines far enough, that will be its doom. The Imperium fully understands the "divide and conquer" strategy.

 Gamgee wrote:
I think an even more Tau thing is the AI being welcomed in as its own with maybe a small subfaction being "kill all life". The Tau of both factions are more than willing to integrate other species into their system and I could see them making the AI equal to themselves.

Maybe. It's a possibility with them at least. It all depends on how the Ai reacts to its newfound sapience.

I'm sure that's what the Tau's initial reaction would be. But as the Terminator movies show, the AI never just accepts being an equal.

Except there are also tons of movies where it does like I Robot, Bicentenial Man, Bishop from Aliens, and in the very Terminator series we have the robots sent back to protect her and so much more.

In the third one being reprogrammed by the girl Terminator doesn't even stop him modifying himself back to protect her. So it is possible for us to get along even when most machines are depicted as evil.

I think this would only heighten the differences between the Tau and Imperium, and show yet again that there are many ways to surviving in the grim darkness of the future.

Gamgee - you know heavy gun drones are already a thing, right?

I favour the Tau/AI alliance personally. I much prefer my 'psychotic artificial intelligences' to be the result of logic loop errors, like VICKI in the Will Smith version of I, Robot - deciding to overthrow the status quo because humans are too damn stupid to look after themselves properly, rather than because "omfg lets kill the humans for no goddamn reason".

But then, I also favour human transcendence, so... heh.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
But then, I also favour human transcendence, so... heh.

Transcendence!
That movie sucked!

Yea but I was thinking something more along the line of the Shiv drones from X-Com but a little larger so they can tank medium weight firepower.

I also want to see good rules for flying drone air craft. Hover and flying like a Predator drone. I know FW makes something like that but the rules are unimpressive and I don't care for the model visually.

We also need an infantry support vehicle that is akin to a Helicopter gunship. So highly mobile and offers a lot of fire support but can drop off small squads. It would be a VTOL craft so it can fly like a jet or hover high above to rain down death.

Edit
Also I forgot to say thanks Deadshot for liking my ideas. If you got a cooler name for the Titan I'll hear a suggestion. I was kinda struggling thinking of a cool name for it. Not usually my best thing I can think of creatively.

Passive aggressive are we?

No, no. I'm not passive at all.

A lot of what he said was cool ideas (except the Tau Titan, needs a cooler name).

You're entitled to your opinion.

The idea that the Tau Empire is the misled evildoers

... nullifies the entire faction's reason for even existing. If the FSEs so desperately need a foil to make them look good they should a) write fluff that takes the actual idiosyncracies of the already established faction into account when establishing a conflict, with plausible motivations, outcomes and points of contention, or b) refrain from dragging established factions through the dirt with their gakky writing.

and the renegade is the hero who will actually fix the problems created by this commie/caste system of control

Sure, that could make for a decent narrative for FSE players that could coexist comfortably with existing Tau Empire lore if the problems created by the caste system were more complex than "ethereals are poo".

by introducing a real equalitarian

Egalitarian.

society where everyone contributes sounds

But everyone already contributes in Tau society. Or do you mean militarily? In which case, all the castes are already represented. The Fire Caste, naturally, are the ones firing the guns for the most part. They are often accompanied by Etherals, who rally troops and counsel commanders. The Air Caste pilot air- and spacecraft, as you know. The Earth Caste handles production, both industrial and agricultural, so they play a vital role in Tau warfare. They also serve as engineers, and are responsible for designing and building all Tau machinery. The Water caste handles diplomacy, which the Empire utilizes more than all the other factions, and is a vital part of war proceedings.

like a hell of a good idea.

Sure... if you don't like the Tau Empire.

And would actually shake up the Tau from this stagnant form of play, where its infantry and suits, in a few tactical formations, to actually encompass airborne infantry and other strategies, sounds hellava cool idea.

Airborne infantry? You mean like... jetpacks? You're gonna love to hear this... but we've had those since 2001. And we didn't have to bulldoze the fluff of a single other faction to get it!