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Yeah, I'm not saying it to be impossible(its 40k, nothing is off the table, and anybody who says different should have studied law instead of the BL), but I think, with no evidence to this either way, that the Etherals would come out pretty distorted. The only problem then is convincing other Tau to join up when you are a hideous disgusting Etheral possibly resembling thing.

The Etheral pheromone isn't Mind Control, its more a suggestive state of consciousness that allows for easier convincing towards a cause already recognized as worthy by the individual through the reduction in perception of self as an Individual.

No torture (x), surgery or magic pill turns an ethereal into an evil psyker, that's not how this universe works. Maybe you should get more familiar with tau before getting wild on ideas.


As said, the novel Firewarrior deals with exactly this scenario: A daemon doesn't even try to corrupt an ethereal (because he knows he can't), he tries to find the one in a million Fire Warrior who might be corruptable and he finally fails miserably. Even the questionable Xenology indicates that ethereals were created by Eldar to make Tau immune to Chaos.

(x)"Will you become a psyker?""No ... arrrrgh""And now?""Okay, but don't hurt me anymore"

Youre telling me that if an etheral had brain surgery to corrupt the very way he thinks hell still be the same old etheral?

Making them a psyker is less likely tbh, but doable - though it would be pure tau.

Something like an Ethereal / Tau genetic mash would likely be susceptable.

And torture, drugs etc could easily make tau and ethereals evil and/or mindless thugs (its been done). Making them a vaguely intelligent fighting force would be harder, but I don't see impossible.

Both Bile and the Haemonculi are like... think Mengele but with better technology and less morals.

After having read a TON of Tau fluff this week, I now realize that the "chaos corruption" aspect of what I wanted was completely naive. I thought the whole Eldar involvement with the creation of the Tau was pretty rad, and I would love to read more about that. That all being said, I still think you could justify chaos corruption via a mutated Ethereal, afterall all biological traits are genetic, so it could in theory happen (no matter how unlikely) based on what we know of evolution. I still would like to start a rogue Tau force of some kind, but I love Necrons so much (been my main for 10 years), so my Tau will have to wait until I collect my new Necrons

I think if you want to do dark tau, you want to do them without an eternal. The fire cast by themselves is rather aggressive. They respond to every problem with violence. You don't have to jump through hoops trying to make the whole tau evil just pull out the nice parts of the tau leaveing the evil. (though you might want to do that as like alternate universe tau)

Yes, the evil within Tau isn't tied to chaos or dark gods. So finding another reason for them to be evil (in the case of Farsight it seems to be aggressiveness and a large degree of racial supremacy that ar responsible for his 'evi") that mkes sense to those particular Tau.

The Tau are capable for good and evil. The Ehtereals guide them towards a version of good, but nothing is preventing Tau who are not under the influence of Ethereal from becoming evil other than that particular Tau's own conscience.

And that's where being immune to the Ethereals influence comes in

And the immunity to peaceful cooperation

Anyway, now I'm torn, I don't know whether to start my quirky Tau army or wait for the impending Necron release, as I've been waiting for Necrons for, oh, years :( Decisions decisions...

How about mixing both!... instead of copying other 'evil' versions of races with pirates or chaos, you make something more complex and do a dark army that let the lust for technological advancement get the better of them... Get the necron codex when it comes out, and model an evil looking tau army with AI piloted suits etc, using the necron codex! saves having to make your own army, and could fit in with the idea of power hungry tau!

Just a thought, take from it what you will!

EDIT: just thought i would expand on my idea, especially since fluff is fun to write! A new colony is established on a planet rich in all the resources needed to mass produce weapons, the colony is relatively small, but becomes more and more powerful as it creates ridiculous amounts of new wargear. soon, it stops manufacturing for the greater good, deciding to declare independence and give in to the natural aggression the ethereals normally hold back. As time goes on, they increasingly use AI to protect their small numbers while waging war on other races, until the people at the top realise that they have actually become so dependent on it, they no longer have any serious part in the decision making for their people. they have in effect, created a collective sentience that only exists for the purpose of war!

you get the idea lol

I thought kroot mercenaries were kind of like pirates? Make an all kroot or nearly all kroot force.

On the Kroot Mercenary note:
http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?p=119489

The words aren't so important, I just like the pretty pictures sprinkled throughout.

Edit: The Krootopter on page 6 is one of my favorite conversion ideas.

Kroothawk wrote:And the immunity to peaceful cooperation

You seem solidly of the opinion no ethereal instantly results in mindless rage?

Kazerkinelite wrote:The Tau are already "dark"...their god damn communists can't get much more evil. If you want to do a pirate army just do human pirates or something, or traitor guard

Communism is actually an extremely kind idea, it's everyone sharing everything, and everyone owning everything, therefore Communism is about everyone being equal, and no the USSR weren't communist it where a facist dictatorship claiming to be Communist.

In my eyes Capitalism is the true evil in this world.

Ovion wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:And the immunity to peaceful cooperation

You seem solidly of the opinion no ethereal instantly results in mindless rage?

Yepp. Farsight started massacring when by accident all accompanying ethereals were killed. Brightsword, his follower, also started massacring and was sacked immediately. And then there is Mont'au.

Farsight and Brightsword massacred with Ethereas still in the mix. Brightsword was punished for it because he was considered particularly remorseless (noncombatants as well as defense forces were his victims). Farsight just pulped a bunch of Greenskins.

Aun'va's flavour text indicates he has orchestrated a massacre too, again of orcs.

So the Tau are not afraid of getting their hands dirty in war, even with an Ethereal present. They do seem to draw a line against unnecessary civilian casualties. though.

Farsight remained loyal until all his Etherial advisers were wiped out on Arthras Moloch. After that he came to some realizations regarding the way of the universe and that efforts at peace, comeraderie and the greater good were ultimately meaningless as the rest of the univers just didn't work that way.

Also from what I've gathered the result of their death has a negative effect (something like a withdrawl symptom maybe?) but 3 things remain:
1 - Pre-Ethereal Tau were warlike but not mindless murderers. I see it probably closer to something like the Mongol hordes etc than anything else currently.

2 - If they were raised within tau society, yet immune to the influence of the ethereals, they would likely still pick up morality and culture etc, they are certainly going to be wiser than their ancient kin. (nature vs nurture).

3 - Again, even if it is folly and they do end up killing themselves (though they'd be more likely to be destroyed in the fiery retribution of having broken from the path of the 'greater good' long before that) it's possible if only as a 'screenshot' of a period lasting only a few dozen years. It's still doable :3

I'm not going to do it as mindless killy, and I'm going to do my damndest to ensure balance. I don't care for poorly made fan content and I'll do my best to make sure mine isn't by justifying everything best I can within the fluff.

I love this idea! Who's to say they have to go against their "Greater Good" mentality to be evil? Maybe they're a sect that believes in the Gaia Theory: All lesser races must systematically be eradicated for the good of the other, stronger species. This could even extend to the other tau, castes that they view as "lesser"

angry-jezuz wrote:I love this idea! Who's to say they have to go against their "Greater Good" mentality to be evil? Maybe they're a sect that believes in the Gaia Theory: All lesser races must systematically be eradicated for the good of the other, stronger species. This could even extend to the other tau, castes that they view as "lesser"

It's erm been awhile since the last post.

So...do you just want this for the paint scheme? Because you can paint them however you'd like...

Are you doing it for renegade fluff? The Farsight affair has that down pat.

Are you looking for a more brutal tau? R'alai's fluff fits that, as does his (and all XV9s') playstyle, unleashing massive firepower then assault to avoid being shot at, then leaving the combat and firing again.

You mean something like this?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/313827.page

Long life to Farsight!!!!

Well, the Ethereals are already kinda sinister, but the Fire Caste without the Ethereal mind control are barbaric and violent. Could easily make a Tau Corsair army and it would make sense if you don't use Ethereals.

Threadcromancy.... grumble...

Get the torches and pitchforks, boys, there's a necromancer among us.

Hey it's my thread! Back from the dead! Inb4lock

peebzguy wrote:Hey it's my thread! Back from the dead! Inb4lock

Yes, we must rejoice before this thread is locked!

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Well, the Ethereals are already kinda sinister, but the Fire Caste without the Ethereal mind control are barbaric and violent. Could easily make a Tau Corsair army and it would make sense if you don't use Ethereals.

No they aren't.

The ethereals are actually quite innocent, rather less than I'd like them to be, but whatever. They were proven not to use pheromones, they aren't psykers because their souls barely register in the warp...Loyalty is not so hard to understand.

And the fire caste is not barbaric, they are simply more aggressive then the other castes (though it varies by sept; each one largely has it's own personality)

I always have pictured the Ethereal caste as being like brahmin or lama of the Tau race. An enlighted spiritial guide for the tau rather than a politburo so to speak. Each caste and race member of the Tau Empire have members in the governing body or as advisers to it from what I've gathered in the fluff. (really makes me wonder why its the Tau Empire, it not like they have an emperor or a monarch. )

I think if Tau could be dark, it would be in such a way that the dark tau still follow the greater good but in a more athoritarian way, believing only they know whats best and everyone else are fools.
Farsight comes to mind though I havnt given up on him comming back to the fold.

Tun_Tau wrote:I always have pictured the Ethereal caste as being like brahmin or lama of the Tau race. An enlighted spiritial guide for the tau rather than a politburo so to speak. Each caste and race member of the Tau Empire have members in the governing body or as advisers to it from what I've gathered in the fluff. (really makes me wonder why its the Tau Empire, it not like they have an emperor or a monarch. )

I think if Tau could be dark, it would be in such a way that the dark tau still follow the greater good but in a more athoritarian way, believing only they know whats best and everyone else are fools.
Farsight comes to mind though I havnt given up on him comming back to the fold.

I like your views, they are not dissimilar to my own.

And I REALLY like your idea that the renegades, instead of abandoning the greater good, simply have different beliefs as to what serves the GG. Sort of like all those quarrels way back when between the catholic church and the young protestant religion.

They do have Aun'Va, who is the head honcho.