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But primate body structure is "close" to that of human, and none of them have non-lactating breasts but humans.

Humans are also one of the few mammals (dolphins and a breed of monkey being the other two) that mate while "out of season." It is possible (though obviously never stated) that Tau females go into estrus as other creatures do, and that males desire mating only when the females do (despite, perhaps, an allowance for males to always be "ready to go" as they are in nearly all mammals. ). This means that it may even be possible for Tau technology to administer hormones in the diets of it's female Shas'la to suppress the natural hormonal cycle until they are of rank to be allowed to breed.

This of course diverges into the question of whether or not Tau females have an expiration date on their reproductive cells as humans do, and if so if Shas'las are allowed to mate earlier than one might expect. Well, for females. Mating for males is likely still reserved for those venerable warriors who achieve a certain rank. I can see men's fashion magazines on Tau focused on grey haired men as the sexual ideal.

In Fire Warrior, Kais mentions that his father is a Shas'O. Perhaps this was not the case when he was conceived (given the anecdotal belief that Tau survive to the ludicrous age of 35 or so), but it is certainly implied that he had little contact with his father afterwards, with the distinguished Shas'O stopping by to check on him during his Trial by Fire and afterwards in the hospital.

The matter of sentimentality is laid to rest there, where his father gives Kais a holo-slate with meditations on the Tau'va. His father cares for his line enough for there to be (real or imagined) disappointment in Kais. They seem to have an Agoge like system where Shas'las go to from a young age.

Could be to and likely is, every caste has different traditions of child rearing, where the fire warriors may be almost like a spartan style enviroment with sibkos and such, and other castes haveing a more tradition ( human style ) relationship, its very hard to tell from the lack of any real background fleshing out.
Hell the family bonds may even be different in each sept, but my feeling is its a very caste oriented rearing, since that would be the most efficient for the final product of each caste.

Fire warriors : a regimented early age military upbringing
Earth Caste : a apprentice ship style rearing with training in the families aptitudes and displines
Air Caste : simular to Firewarriors but maybe with a bit more academics and engineering available (since they design and crew starships)
Water Caste : may have the most "normal" domestic lifestyle, since a solid family structure builds a confident and potentialy diplomatic individual, they may even ecourage large families to increase that dynamic.

Ethereals : they are a mystery, likely a monestary or cloistered upbringing with dabbling in all of the septs strengths.

Well thats my musings on it at any rate.

Its certaintly possable. Another side benifit to keeping track of your offspring/siblings is to prevent inbreeding, which would be bad for the Greater Good.

But I think it would be more benificial for the Greater Good if Tau reproduced as soon as possable and wern't held back till a certain age. They need more bodies to expand the empire and replace losses. I could see the Tau regulating who breeds with who(finding ideal genetic matches and such), but I think everyone has equal opprotunity. Of course getting the slip back that your genes are not compatable would be pretty sucky

Grey Templar wrote:Its certaintly possable. Another side benifit to keeping track of your offspring/siblings is to prevent inbreeding, which would be bad for the Greater Good.

But I think it would be more benificial for the Greater Good if Tau reproduced as soon as possable and wern't held back till a certain age. They need more bodies to expand the empire and replace losses. I could see the Tau regulating who breeds with who(finding ideal genetic matches and such), but I think everyone has equal opprotunity. Of course getting the slip back that your genes are not compatable would be pretty sucky

Yup have a official notice stating " your input is not needed at this time...for the greater good."
would put a dampner on your mood .

I now have an image of a couple Fire Warriors sitting in a bar and one says to the other, "You too huh?"

As far as mating is concerned, given the caste structure of the Tau, it seems believable that they reproduce through arranged "marriages" either be Ethereal caste "match-makers" or through interaction between two families of the same caste (and presumably sept.).

The only mention is that it is forbidden for there to be inter-caste breeding. That is mentioned in the codex somewhere I believe.

Yep, inter-caste breeding is forbidden to keep the castes pure and focused on their work. I guess each caste has developed traits from specific breeding (fire warriors being tougher, water caste able to persuade people with ease). I guess cross-breeding will taint the traits that the castes have evolved.

This forum has gotton so off topic. But, tau have a strict caste system in which each person lives for one job, intercaste marriage just makes confusion between thier duty to one of the castes more than genetic difference. But genetic mixing is probably part of it.

Zealot Miniatures has some nice heads usable as female Tau heads:
http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/zealot-store#!__zealot-store/alien-female-heads

Reaper has some Andromedans, e.g. this "Tau Liaison officer for a Kroot Kindred":
http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Chronoscope/latest/50136

Sexualizing the Tau... Flat faced, hooved aliens with hatchet wounds on their faces. It's the next step up from furries. /sigh

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Sexualizing the Tau... Flat faced, hooved aliens with hatchet wounds on their faces. It's the next step up from furries. /sigh

But, it is a step up, at least.

King Crow wrote:Should've saw this turning into a boob thread a mile away

For the sake of blance I ask this: do you think tau males have two nuts. and are their scrotums hairy?

2.5 and on retractable springs..like googly eyes........

I think they would look cool if they had boob armor and long hair. It would give them more style like how the dark elder abilities are and it would be true to the fluff. Guard should be the same way!

Xenophilia is all kinds of kinky. On another note I would love to see a tau female model. But, Tau females are probably the easiest to convert, all you have to do is claim they are females as breast size is unknown at this point

Commander Ice Shade wrote:Xenophilia is all kinds of kinky. On another note I would love to see tau female model. But, Tau females are probably the easiest to convert, all you have to do is claim they are females as breast size is unknown at this point

Let's just see if GW sees the light in the next codex:tau or at least in the kits.

I'm not 100% sure what i can contribute to this thread, other than...erm...herpderp. Xenophilia is HERESY, do not forget. But in all seriousness, Techpriest Darvus did say in xenology that Tau females had a physique analogous to humans...which shocked him, because all the humanoid races had what he called a "classic" structure - two eyes, mouth, ears, two legs, two arms, etc. The fact that races from across the galaxy could evolve in such a similar way shocked him, leading him to develop the theory that some higher power may have designed all of this. of course, diligent readers will know that clearly the Old Ones created these races (Eldar, Orks, and may have had a hand in the evolution of humans), and clearly liked the "human" body template.

Eldar have boobs. Humans have boobs. If Ork females existed, they would probably have boobs. So if the Old Ones had a any contribution to the Tau's evolution, we can be safe to assume that one gift the Old Ones would have been first to bestow would be the gift of bewbz.

If you can interbreed between castes and have the natural abilities of the offspring mix so they can be efficient at multiple tasks, why wouldn't you do so? Even if you are worse than other tau at everything, having the ability and options to be able to do more things than other tau gives you a humongous advantage.

Squidmanlolz wrote:I would guess that a good deal of female fire-caste would be uninvolved in combat, instead, they would be reserved for reproduction. The Fire-caste suffers the most casualties of any of the castes, reserving some females (or males in that matter) for reproduction ensures that the population can never fall to critical lows.

We don't know that Tau aren't reptiles and can produce 10 eggs in one clutch to be incubated in high tech nurseries.

The highly collectivist/socialist philosophy of Tau society argues that child-rearing duties would not be generally confined within nuclear family units

So it's possible that female Fire Warriors get a certain amount of time for egg laying duties and otherwise are treated the same as the males.

I don't think GW have thought about it in much detail, though. The "no interbreeding" rule is genetically short-sighted and should not be necessary in a mind controlled society.

Crystal Geyser wrote:
Eldar have boobs. Humans have boobs. If Ork females existed, they would probably have boobs. So if the Old Ones had a any contribution to the Tau's evolution, we can be safe to assume that one gift the Old Ones would have been first to bestow would be the gift of bewbz.

Old One Ted: i've designed a new race to combat the Necron.
Old One Barney: Boobs?

Orkz dont do soft things like woman. Its not manly enough.
Tau having boobs? Nope. Luckily not. Luckily not..

chromedog wrote:

Cue: "Three boobs, AWESOME!" comments.

Total recall already took care of that.

"Baby, you make me wish I had three hands!"

LumenPraebeo wrote:If you can interbreed between castes and have the natural abilities of the offspring mix so they can be efficient at multiple tasks, why wouldn't you do so? Even if you are worse than other tau at everything, having the ability and options to be able to do more things than other tau gives you a humongous advantage.

Well the current codex gives a reason why mix breeding is forbidden. Here is the actual line from the codex (yup, I went there and looked it up)

--------"By use of the caste system, not only are the Tau preforming the most basic of genetic engineering, but they also reinforce the individuals belief that they have a position to fill in the empire and their efforts are rewarded."--------

So its a spiritual thing, not just genetic engineering. My personal thought is that the castes should be able to breed with each other, but I do no know if this goes with the theme of a "For the Greater Good" empire.

Crystal Geyser wrote:If Ork females existed, they would probably have boobs.

What do you mean "if"?

NSFW:

Yeah, the first time I went to Warhammer World one of the game tables had that model on it and I laughed my ass off

King Crow wrote:Should've saw this turning into a boob thread a mile away

I imagined your avatar saying this and lol'd

While they are capable of interbreeding, anyone who has a basic understanding of real-world genetics would know that the offspring do not just "gain" the traits of its forbears. The ethereals probably forbid interbreeding because the traits unique to each caste are probably recessive and thus would be lost or diluted.

Yup, breeding 2 animals that have traits you want will often give you the traits you don't want.

Example, dogs. There is a reason mutts look like they do. you breed 2 different breeds together, you will probably end up with something that looks really funky. occasionally the combos are pleasing, like Labradoodles, but most of the time you will have something that looks like