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Right, cutting to the chase im a tau player (1500 pts) and im of the opinion that tau are not "evil" or "baddies", as they are often depicted, but i think are "good".
Any opinoins on this?

Elliotminorkid

I think tau are pretty much neutral but lean more towards good than evil. yeah they wanna sterilize humanity, (hey can you watch disney channel for 5 hours and not want to do the same?) but humanity wants to kill em off, so thats not really evil, but i wouldnt call that good. My official vote is semi-good. because they seem to be the only race that gets along with others, (kroot, vespids etc.)

They're evil mecha space commies, and I heart them.

Point, i should have added a "neutral" option to the poll lol, ahwell. but yeah i think they are good as they are exploring the universe and trying to more forward, not merciesly chargeing throughout the universe killing all in their path. Yes, they will defend themselves if attacked and call war on that race e.g orks but wont any race?

The Dreadnote wrote:They're evil mecha space commies, and I heart them.

Lmao QFT

the tau remind me of gundam

Neither. They're in it for themselves. Like every other race in the universe.

Egads, another good/evil debate.

Framed from the basic human perspective I would submit that most of the acts of the Tau Empire are reasonable to call 'good.' Certainly there are some inklings about how they tend to enforce their concept of The Greater Good on other races that suggests a darker side, but in the overarching grimdark of 40k they do appear to count on the side of the forces of light.

That said, nobody who develops a Str 5 basic firearm for their troops could possibly be good! Those jerks are just too darn effecient at blasting my Raiders and Ravagers from the sky - thank gawd they're pansies so my Wytches can cleave through whole armies of them without much Dark Lance support.

So we have "forces of light" now?

If so, then its quite funny to put Tau into the Good category.
Because, in GW charts, they have to go in this case with the Eldar and the Imperium alongside.
Eldar+Tau may fit, but humans + Tau is just wrong.

I think the neutral category is really needed in such threads.

IIRC 'official' allies plan of GW:
'forces of darkness' :

- chaos demons
- chaos 'spase mariens'
- (traitor IG)
- dark eldar
- necrons
- tyranids
- Orks

'forces of light' :

- adeptus astartes ( SM, BA, BT, DA, SW )
- Imperial Guard
- Inquisition ( DH, WH, GK, SoB )
- Eldar
- Tau

See the problem?
Suggested Change:

FoD ( forced to darkness ):

- chaos demons
- chaos marines
- dark eldar
- ( traitor guard )

FoN ( force of neutrality ):

- Orks
- Tyranids
- Tau
- Inquisition
- necrons

FoL ( forced into the light ):

- space marines
- imperial guard
- GK
- SoB
- Eldar

Reasoning:


#chaos demons are the minions of their masters but also a natural choice for 'evil'.
#chaos marines have turned against their own race and will be also the usual 'evil' choice with that past.
#dark eldar, the old style pre fall eldar of selfishness. Could be a part of neutral too but i think they are better put into 'evil'.
# the other IG. Like csm, best bet on 'evil'.

#orks want to partake in every fight, and theyre created for that, so cant put them into any good or evil slot.
#nids. Hungry and a serious threat to all life. But 'evil' ?
#Tau. The needed youngsters of 40k and they will learn what grimdark means... but i believe theyre not grown up yet so still chance
to go either way ( good / evil ).
#Inquisition. Shady organization that should work on the positive side but will commit anything they claim as 'necessary' for their 'job'.
Neutral may cover the vast difference in their members and ordos best.
#necrons. Could be 'evil', but as "robots/undead" they fill the role as angry grave-guard and i would wait until we know more before
putting them into 'evil'.

#the astartes. Obviously the saviours of the galaxy.
#the imperial guard. If you still fight with a mag-light in your hands against that super-awesome monster of megadeath, how should i
not place them into 'good' ?
#GK. anti demon = mirrioring an 'evil' choice.
#SoB. so cute. must be 'good'. Seriously, those sisters do more than fight and who calls the Doc's 'evil'?
#Eldar. They may not deserve this slot. Could be 'neutral', since they cant be bothered to fulfill their role.


Go find your Tau....

As far as 40k goes, Tau are "Good". Which is funny, because they could make perfectly acceptable villains in other settings.

1hadhq wrote:So we have "forces of light" now?

A no less unreasonable classification then referring to anything as good, evil, or neutral. It's all subjective.

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:As far as 40k goes, Tau are "Good". Which is funny, because they could make perfectly acceptable villains in other settings.

Thats cuz 40k is so damn grimdark!

i kinda thinks orks are evil, maybe borderline evil. True they might be too simple minded to be able to choose. But since they're blood thirsty, sadistic, they keep slaves (grots), and they're nihilistic, (which i consider evil) im gonna say orks are evil. Same with necrons, killing all life = evil. Then again as thor pointed out its all subjective. It could be argued that Necrons are good, maybe life doesnt deserve to live hmm? Living things blew it, and Necrons are just divine wrath.

There is no good or evil, especially not in the 40k universe. Its You and your people, versus "them" and "their.... people."

Spoken like a true eldar, amirite?

I love that comment! In just about every show/movie/whatever, the imperium is WAY worse than the main villians, and are considered the paragons of virtue and a last holdout of light in the dark, grim universe.

Sums up just how grimdark 40K is.

sniperjolly wrote:I love that comment! In just about every show/movie/whatever, the imperium is WAY worse than the main villians, and are considered the paragons of virtue and a last holdout of light in the dark, grim universe.

Sums up just how grimdark 40K is.

I think the reason the imperium is considered "good"/ paragons of virtue etc. is because we as 40k players are human, and as humans our survival is a good thing to us. Unless your really misanthropic. I havent ever played 40k with a tau, eldar or whatever yet. It would be cool to find a hot eldar chick that plays 40k though, its probably less rare than a human female that plays 40k LMAO.

The only good commie is a dead one.

lol You sir are a true-blue American! <-tears of unbridled patriotism!

Now im gonna go and watch nascar in my trailer while i drink mountain dew and paint my american themed Ig army.

I actually think a patriotic/redneck IG force would look pretty darn awesome.

Stars and bars FTW!!! YEEE HAAW!

The Tau are incompatible with Humanity, as are all of the xenos. The alien does not think like a human, nor desire what a human desires. When you talk of your fellow man there is evil, when you talk of the alien there is only the way the creature acts and the threat that it poses to you.

They must be extinguished. As soon as more dangerous foes have been destroyed the armada of Man will wash them from the stars.

LoboFuego wrote:

The only good commie is a dead one.

Hell yeah! Go blue!!!

Not all Humans are steralised by the Tau. Read their codex sometime . . . Humans usually enter in the Earth-caste area. Only the annoyingly rebellious ones are steralised.

"Listen here Xenos Filth!!! you put that electro-neuterizer anywhere near me, and I'm gonna go black crusade on your like ugly on a grox!!!"

The cities of death book mentions Tau actually executing subjugated human populations on captured planets during their second sphere expansion. The Greater Good is a lie.

i read the codex once

this is all i read




"Kadosh, hail the glorius tau empire may its far seeing leaders protect us, death to humanity may we forever be free from their nine rings of deception."

Everyone believes they're good in this universe, except for chaos because they're the special kid in the corner. It's all a matter of perspective really and if I had to say anything I'd go with Evil mainly because they seem largely intolerant of anyone they can't convert >_>

Sgt.Sunshine wrote:Everyone believes they're good in this universe, except for chaos because they're the special kid in the corner. It's all a matter of perspective really and if I had to say anything I'd go with Evil mainly because they seem largely intolerant of anyone they can't convert >_>

Im not so sure everyone believes they are good. Orks, for example, probably don't even understand the difference between good and bad. So they're incapable of believing themselves to be good.

And then there's the Eldar. I don't think they believe they are "good," they just believe they are "better than YOU" and that they have infinitely more of a right to exist than any of the other races. As such they don't even blink when they feel they need to slaughter an entire world or even solar system of human worlds just to prevent those humans from ever being capable of harming them in the future. And if they would go to those lengths, odds are a farseer saw the future and the price his craftworld would pay if they DIDN'T kill all those innocent people.

Tau originally in and of by themselves are pretty neutrals going by the codex, it is the commie Ethereals are the real evil bastards. Fraked up the Tau as a species real good with the genetic segregation with the castes. Made bureaucrats the dominant caste, even Chaos and IoM ain't that evil. For other species the "convert or die" messege alone make them evil, given the "die" part was use on several of them.

If Tau are commies

then Space Marine are Nazis. they purge every xeno!

It's not the first time that the Imperium of Man is compared to Nazis. And in some way, it's correct, yeah...however, the grimdark truth in the 41st millenium is, that they have a reason to want to purge every xenos.

- Tyranids want to devour the galaxy --> kill 'em all.
- Necrons want to kill every living thing --> kill 'em all.
- Orks wage war on every enemy they can find --> kill 'em all.
- Chaos...traitors who want to destabilize and destroy the Imperium --> kill 'em all.
- Eldar are sometimes allies but more commonly betray humans for their own good, resulting in the deaths of servants of the Emperor --> kill 'em all.
- Tau did nothing bad as long as they kept to themselves, but their expansion of either killing humans or talking them into abandoning the Imperium and therefore destabilizing the Imperium, making it more vulnerable to other enemies --> kill 'em all.

Did I forget anyone? Every race of xenos wants a piece of the Imperium. I guess only a few Eldar craftsworlds or even only single Eldar could live with humans as allies - the rest of xenos and traitors wants to harm the Imperium for one reason or another.

This "purge the xenos" thing is something learned by experience.

Oh, and more on topic: I guess the Tau are not as evil as some other races, but they are not the greater-good-people they say they are. In a way I think they're worse than the Imperium, because they supress their people with this pheromone subtlety. Seems like cheating to me. The Imperium uses religion, okay, but we HAVE a (semi)living god-emperor, for feth's sake! Strongest psyker in the galaxy!

Nah,come on guys
Am no Tau player neither do i like them,but atleast they give you the choice to either join the empire of be killed.