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Pretty sure Kroot eat foes as well, but most disciplined Kroot units seem highly unlikely to do so until after the battle and the area is secured.

I could be mistaken, just how it seemed to me.

The Kroot eat the dead that they might gain something, genetically, from. Unlike the Space Marines, who will eat the enemy dead to gain tactical knowledge from.

Hunterindarkness wrote:Pretty sure Kroot eat foes as well, but most disciplined Kroot units seem highly unlikely to do so until after the battle and the area is secured.
I could be mistaken, just how it seemed to me.

You eat other species as well, doesn't make you a cannibal though
And yes, eating a selection of enemies is a biological necessity for Kroot and usual part of their mercenary contracts. Guess you mixed up "cannibal" (eating members of your own species) with "carnivore" which means meat eater.

Kroothawk wrote:

Hunterindarkness wrote:Pretty sure Kroot eat foes as well, but most disciplined Kroot units seem highly unlikely to do so until after the battle and the area is secured.
I could be mistaken, just how it seemed to me.

You eat other species as well, doesn't make you a cannibal though
And yes, eating a selection of enemies is a biological necessity for Kroot and usual part of their mercenary contracts. Guess you mixed up "cannibal" (eating members of your own species) with "carnivore" which means meat eater.

I was not committing on the term, just the practice. I could not label it cannibalize, myself. I was simply stating I did not feel they would drop in the mist of a battle to feast like undisciplined beasts.

Hunterindarkness wrote:I was not committing on the term, just the practice. I could not label it cannibalize, myself. I was simply stating I did not feel they would drop in the mist of a battle to feast like undisciplined beasts.

Some Kroot units actually specifically have rules because they do exactly that.

This I did not know.

They are forgeworld units or units from the old 3rd ed Kroot Mercenary Codex though.

Langston128 wrote:In tau society do you have to join the fire caste or could you be like a shop owner or airship fueler?

The castes are actually subspecies, so they have very specific career paths open to them

The fire caste are the warriors, they shoot stuff.

The earth caste are the construction workers, engineers and scientists.

The water caste is the administration, diplomacy and merchant class.

The air caste deals with communication (originally) but now is more focused on essentially being the navy/air force/civilian air line pilots.

The ethereal caste are the leaders and philosophers.


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Psienesis wrote:The Kroot eat the dead that they might gain something, genetically, from. Unlike the Space Marines, who will eat the enemy dead to gain tactical knowledge from.

The kroot may gain knowledge instinctual to the creature they eat.

Yup, apparently after feasting on Ork Mek's they were able to build starships.

Curious, if in danger if one of the other caste take up a fallen fire warriors weapon to defend themselves would there be any issues with that? As in being looked down upon for saving their own if not other taus lives?
I ask because someone mentioned that those of given castes doing jobs or tasks outside of their given roles are looked down upon and was curious to the exstent of circumstance to this.
As in before someone mentioned fire warriors doing farm work, if there are little to no farm workers and it needs to get done is it so outright taboo that they still wouldn't or would and still be treated negatively for it? Even if them doing so results in saving many lives/replenishing much needed supplies?

BluntmanDC wrote:The caste system in the Tau does not just relate to the job a Tau performs it is directly related to their race, each caste is a seperate sub-species, with breeding only allowed within your own caste. This has lead to each caste having a different appereance, the air caste are tall, slender and light wieght, while the earth caste are stocky.

Remember, though, each Caste is the tallest out of all the other Castes.

DeathRex wrote:Curious, if in danger if one of the other caste take up a fallen fire warriors weapon to defend themselves would there be any issues with that? As in being looked down upon for saving their own if not other taus lives?
I ask because someone mentioned that those of given castes doing jobs or tasks outside of their given roles are looked down upon and was curious to the exstent of circumstance to this.
As in before someone mentioned fire warriors doing farm work, if there are little to no farm workers and it needs to get done is it so outright taboo that they still wouldn't or would and still be treated negatively for it? Even if them doing so results in saving many lives/replenishing much needed supplies?

We truly know very little about how Tau society would actually work. I suspect that any Tau could defend themselves if in need. Fire Warriors could also take up farming... but they'd grumble that the job is beneath them, not what they were born/trained to do. And as soon as a Earth Caste came along, the Earth would happily take over, because they know that society as a whole would be more productive if the Shas were doing something else with their time.


For those saying the caste system is horrible, social engineering, eugenics, whatever. For the Tau, its not like waking up in the morning and thinking "why can't I be a lawyer?". Its more like thinking, "why can't I be a gorilla?'

I also suspect that most labour is done by automaton rather than the actual Tau themselves. So in the example above the very unhappy Fire Warrior is actually overseeing a batch of agri-drones and hating every minute of it.

Jefffar wrote:I also suspect that most labour is done by automaton rather than the actual Tau themselves. So in the example above the very unhappy Fire Warrior is actually overseeing a batch of agri-drones and hating every minute of it.

In the Savage Scars novel they had drones with limbs that had detachable tools and were used for maintaining agricultural fields and constructions, it also had some form of AI. The IG unit that was accompanying a rogue trade could not differentiate it from a weapons drone at first and wanted to shoot it so all in all looking exactly like the military drones but with mechanical arms instead of guns.

Anfauglir wrote:

BluntmanDC wrote:The caste system in the Tau does not just relate to the job a Tau performs it is directly related to their race, each caste is a seperate sub-species, with breeding only allowed within your own caste. This has lead to each caste having a different appereance, the air caste are tall, slender and light wieght, while the earth caste are stocky.

Remember, though, each Caste is the tallest out of all the other Castes.

?

BluntmanDC wrote:?

Lexicanum wrote:Members of the Fire caste are the warriors of the Tau Empire, and as such are most often seen on the field of battle. They are taller and stronger than the members of the other castes

The Tau of the Air Caste are the tallest and most slender of all Tau

The Water Caste tend to be tall and slender compared to other Tau.

Poor ol' Earth Caste... they seem to have fallen behind.