What do Tau do in their spare time?

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**Henners91**

They go to Tea Houses and play Mah-Jong.

**BSent**

They probably spend it discussing what humans do in their spare time.

**purplefood**

Soulx wrote:They probably spend it discussing what humans do in their spare time.

Oh the irony.

**Shaman**

Free time is against the concept of the greater good.

One should always be busy in action or thought on how best to improve the standing of the Tau Empire.

**syanticraven**

I remember reading about a lot of Tau going to watch an event where some fire caste members show off their training and skills and the last event was a test to see if some important Tau could be promoted in rank.

**Necroman**

Soulx wrote:They probably spend it discussing what humans do in their spare time.

"I heard they play strange games involving dice and small, painted effigies!"

**Iur_tae_mont**

There is a merchant(and diplomat) caste, so they probably shop at some point.

**vodo40k**

Kilkrazy wrote:According to the limited fluff available, Tau art forms include architecture, sculpture, imagery, poetry, and music/song.

Creative prose writing can be inferred from the fact that Tau are persuasive speakers, and therefore can be seen to organise their thinking into semantic units with a high degree of imagination and empathy.

Playwriting and opera can be further inferred from the above.

It is not clear if Tau have a sense of humour and what form that might take. if they do, I can imagine the Fire and Earth Castes being drawn to broad, physical comedy while the Ethereals and Water Caste probably prefer verbal comedy.

Dance, while not specifically mentioned, seems an obvious development for any somatic species, being related to military drill and other co-ordinated activities such as hauling ropes. The same goes for sports, which are healthy and team building.

Given their advanced communication technology, the equivalent of radio, TV, the Internet, and iPods, etc. to disseminate various forms of entertainment seem highly likely.

Virtual reality is used in training, and probably forms the basis of various sorts of games for children and adults.

While not specifically mentioned, lower tech games using dice, cards and boards seem an obvious inference from the other aspects of Tau culture.

Tau are also known to brew alcoholic beverages.

They are also sexual, so there may be sexual activity of a recreational nature.

There is no particular reason to suppose that these activities are restricted to any single caste, though you would probably find that popular TV presenters and actors are more likely to be Water caste for their natural eloquence.

In general, it seems likely that Tau enjoy a wide variety of leisure activities, similar to humans.

Given their predilection for communal activity, I imagine that organised clubs and public ceremonies are fairly common, in the same way that religious activities, 12 O'Clock Hates and the like, are imposed within IoM culture.

I sense Slaanesh may be becoming interested.....

**BluntmanDC**

Shaman wrote:Free time is against the concept of the greater good.

free time does help the greater good, resting time leads to greater productivity

**Shaman**

Designated sleeping times have been provided.

Time is not free, it is either wasted or contributing to the greater good.

The Tau'va is your only concern.

**Mr Nobody**

Your theory of no leisure time may vary from caste or species. Earth and fire caste would probably be more rigid, having less spare time than others. Water and air caste are more "liberal" in their schedule and may spare more time for themselves. Xenos auxiliaries would probably have the most leisure time in order to keep the peace.

**BluntmanDC**

Shaman wrote:Designated sleeping times have been provided.

Time is not free, it is either wasted or contributing to the greater good.

The Tau'va is your only concern.

the tau aren't the borg, the fact that they produce aesthetically pleasing things instead of more efficient and less ornate things, the greater good also refers to having the greatest civilisation (how else are they supposed to get races to jion them freely), they have tv (seeing in a bit of fluff about a reporter and camera man filming some fire warriors) and the arts. Spare time also refers to eating times, i can see earth cast members having slightly dwarven-esque dinning halls with a less rowdy but still 'working mens' enviroment, while the fire caste i can see sport being a favoured free time activity

and shaman tone down the anger

**whatwhat**

Kroot lynching.

**Mr Nobody**

....NO

**Henners91**

Would the Tau really devote resources to recreational activities?

**Mr Nobody**

The government wouldn't, but the water caste, as part of the merchant groups, would have an entertainment industry.

**Ma55ter_fett**

Look at porn maybe?

Do their taxes?

Get wasted on a friday night?

I don't know, they're fething aliens man! Who knows what they get up to when their blood is running high.