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This may well have been a topic already covered somewhere, i'm not sure, but anyhoo

It's obvious Farsight no longer is loyal to the so called 'Greater Good' but who does he really support in the long run, as I can't find a definate answer for this I thought I'd ask what other people thought

well he found a big sword which glows green that sounds necrony to me

maybe, but anyone can have a big green sword, if they put a glow stick in it

I wonder if they still have glow sticks in the 41st millenium? Maybe its what powers Imperial lasguns?

Chaos. It's a Daemon weapon from the fluff it sounds that way anywho?

Could be Necrons. The Dawn Blade looks vaguely necron-ish. I don't recall a specific green glow, just crackling energy,

Could be Chaos. Ars-Moloch(?) was an artifact world with a history of marines cleansing a cult. (although I think this was post-Tau Codex).

Could be Eldar. A decent case could be made that it is a lost weapon of Vaul. I don't know where "Dawn Blade" came from but it sounds Eldar-ish.

The size of the blade suggests it wasn't wielded by a man-sized creature. It may account for the longevity of Farsight, but then a more mundane explanation works just as well.

I doubt GW will ever say what it is. I like it that way as it avoids the Chaos Tau nonsense and I can theme my Farsight army to whatever I want without fanboys rolling their eyes.

I think it might be one of the Eldar swords of legend. Tears of Isha? Sword of vaul? One of the thousand that Vaul was supposed to make for Khaine, if I remember.

I know Xenology's not an official source of fluff but they strongly imply that the Eldar accelerated the Tau's development. Humans, too, which makes sense cause we look just like them, but that's a whole other thread.

could be eldar i still think its necrons though
i dont think its chaos im sire it says somewhere the tau dont register in the warp (or something like that) and chaos things that dont register the warp is just wrong

Farsight works for Farsight. He's not abandoned the Tau Race, he simply doesn't feel the need to report to the Ethereals.

Alternatively, he could be deeply in the pocket of the Ethereals, conducting missions and handling things that the Ethereals don't want the main line Fire Caste knowing about. One of the big deals for the Tau is that all Tau life is sacred, and they don't like suicide missions and glorious last stands. The problem is, there are times when you need that sort of action, and it might be good to have Farsight around to create a sort of unofficial periphery, that while the Empire can't support or protect, will serve to slow down an invading force. Farsight can also engage enemies that the Tau are not at war with, weakening them while the Empire stays officially neutral.

Nice idea Polonius, not something I would generally have thought of myself but it makes a lot of sense

I feel inclined to support dmkjesus though, the planet which he found it on had some form of pre-eldar type ruins on it, which are more often than not necron, unless it was Old ones ruins, which would put a whole new spin on things...

Oh, I'm sure if there is ever a big reveal GW will trot out the old nugget of "chaos artifact/eldar rune/C'tan phase knife." GW is nothing if not predictible with it's fluff.

Personally, I really like the idea of the Tau getting their little hooves dirty....

Theres only one problem I can find with the Dawnblade being a Ctan Phase sword, and thats the fact it doesn't ignore invulnerable saves, whilst those used by assasins do? Please correct me if I'm wrong-but why would all others do something it cant?

thats a good point but it could be the c'tans first attept at a phase sword so not as good as the ones they use now

the tau in general are the work of the dragon that the mechanicus worship which also happens to be a C'tan. now not all C'tan have necron followers, all those that did were eaten by the nightbringer after the deceiver tricked him to do so, meaning only those two have necrons following them. the others are the dragon (mechanicus god), and the outsider (nid hive mind).

how i got that the tau are followers of the dragon is because of how machine oriented their race is. also they are a highly ordered society which is a trait of the mechanicus (they get from the god they worship). the tau developed very rapidly and from the ethereal help which seem like priests of the dragon to me, and too rapidly to have been natural and without outside help

Wouldn't the Deceiver be a more likely Necron candidate? Closer to that area of space, still highly technologically advanced. Wouldn't the Dragon have already been asleep on Mars when the Tau woke up roughly 5K years ago?

the Void dragon may have been awake back then, the Necron Codex indicates it's awake in the 41st millenium, and also it would have been awake to give Mankind its tech in the dark age of Technology surely

Also the Outsider can't be the Nid hive mind, being anti warp, and the nids using the warp for synapse-correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Also theres a strong chance that Farsight never met any of the Ctan, just found the sword, prehaps after deciding he didn't like licking Ethereal boots and went renegade

I run Farsight as a mercenary myself. But I'm considering a Tau/Eldar combo modelling project with the Sword of Vaul excuse.

I've always considered the possibility that Farsight is still working for the Tau empire (as Polonius described) to make the most sense and be the most likely. Chaos doesn't make a lot of sense for Tau, and while it may be a Necron or Eldar or Old one artifact that wouldn't mean he's working for any of those factions, just that he carries around their stuff. At the worst, he's a mercenary, but what kind of mercenary reinforces a bunch of worlds that just happen to be right between the Imperium and the Tau Empire

As for the sword, I've always thought that the name "Dawn Blade" pointed directly towards it being one of the swords of Vaul. I'm under the impression the last sword, which Vaul fought Khaine with, was called "Anaris the Dawnlight". Dawnlight...Dawn Blade...close enough for me, especially with the way GW is.

i have to agree with lambadomy on the farsight assesment, he just seems like a guy who said "know what Ethereal's i want to do it my way" and they thought he was being a big dick

Could the fact that the Ethereals declared an area of space off limits to tau-damasculus crusade reference-to avoid another costly war with the Imperium have meant Farsight was really asigned to keep fighting in that area but under the alias of renegade so the imperium wouldn't retaliate against the whole empire.

Also with farsights use of combat why cant he use kroot, it just doesnt make sense

the tau codex says he he doesnt use the alien allies because he has completly removed himself from the tau empire so the kroot being part of the empire have no part in farsights forces

I thought the Kroot were esentially mercenaries though, not exactly a part of the empire, more like a protectorate

Kroot are part of the Tau Empire like Costa Rica is part of the U.S.

also it says that farsight doesn't have the funds and such to use much of the tau heavy and amazing technology due to loss in battle or breaking, etc. so it would make sense that he simply doesn't have enough money to hire the kroot in any large way

Dakkaladd wrote:Kroot are part of the Tau Empire like Costa Rica is part of the U.S.

I think you mean Puerto Rico, unless the US foreign agenda has gone Monroe Doctrine again.

M.

fair enough, being out of money seems a fair reason fo not hiring someone. My Question now is how long before the kroot think 'maybe we should rule this Empire, not those nampy pampy Ethereals' same applies to anyother of the 'allies' of the tau

naaa, the Vespid would never do that. All their leaders have to carry mind controll helmets.

The idea of Farsight still serving the empire is qhite interesting though. But wasn't Shadowsun sent out to catch him? And how does that work with the sacking of Aun Shi?

sacking of Aun Shi? I'm not familiar with that story, could you enlighten me a bit

Also Shadowsun isn't up to much-in every UK White Dwarf battle rep shes been in shes died-she isnt much cop on Farsight

I don't think that Farsight is still working for the Ethereals secretly or whatever as mentioned earlier. Shadowsun is one of the most respected Tau leaders and is the right hand man...er woman, to the Ethereals. She even destroyed a statue of Farsight during one of her speeches against him.

Bastirous666 mentioned that the Dawn Blade could be the work of their "God". That automatically couldn't be true as the Tau don't understand the concept of there being a God, therefore they do not worship one. They cannot grasp the concept of there being something that exists but is not tangible.

Storm Lord: Yes the Kroot are mercenaries to the Tau but they are exclusive mercenaries. They have been absorbed into the Empire. Although there have been rumours of Kroot working for other races.

Two things: the kroot aren't exclusive to the Tau, as they need to fight (and eat) many differnt species to evolve. The vast bulk of Kroot fight for the tau, of course, but there are "foriegn legions" that fight for other races. In the long run it benefits the tau, as it keeps their main auxilary in top fighting shape.

Second, part of working in secret means lying, and having shadowsun publicly disown the works of Farsight is a very public way to show that the Ethereals don't support what farsight does. It does not show what the actual relationship is between Farsight and the Ethereals.

For being a "rebel," Farsight is pretty boring. All he's basically done is fortify the frontier of the Tau Empire in a way that the ethereals can't do themselves. They can't because they value life, and won't establish garrisons that they can't support. The Tau empire can't afford to commit enough materail to that region, but a group of motivated partisans, willing to sell their lives, could hold off any invading force for long enough for the tau (who don't have full warp travel) to respond to the threat.

Either Farsight is working secretly for the ethereals, or he's working in such a way as to further the overall goals of the Tau. Shadowsun wasn't sent to bring him in, but she did lead the third sphere expansion, while Farsight has gone all Col Kurtz and is plowing through the orks near the damocles gulf.

Wouldnt it be ironic if it was some super Ork sword he was using...