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Uniting clans and such, yes, but a whole planet? And, as you say, appearing out of nowhere, with no previous traces.

Nah, this wasn't a natural progression. SOMETHING fishy is going on.

riplikash wrote:Uniting clans and such, yes, but a whole planet? And, as you say, appearing out of nowhere, with no previous traces.

Nah, this wasn't a natural progression. SOMETHING fishy is going on.

A planet of only 4 clans.

Psienesis wrote:There's yet to be an out-of-universe explanation as to how the Tau and the Ethereals function.

Well, depending on where you look - Xenology is pretty explicit about Ethereals having a special organ for mind domination, but that's just one licensed product of many, and others have disagreed with it. The studio material itself leaves this subject deliberately unclear, obviously because GW wants people to make up their own ideas on it.

Psienesis wrote:Personally, I'm one to think that there's no tricks involved, the Tau just really, really like the Greater Good idea and don't need to be coerced into supporting it. Though that really doesn't explain the Vespid helmet thing...

Well, the Vespids aren't Tau. One possibility would be to say that the Tau truly believe in their ideology without any mind domination going on, but they just forced the Vespids into loyalty because they're convinced it's best for them. Kinda like some capitalist and communist governments both tried (or try) manipulating groups not conforming to their adopted and propagated beliefs (see the Korean War or project MKULTRA). The Tau just do it with space science!

Basically "we know we're right and if you don't agree with us we have methods to make you agree".

riplikash wrote:Uniting clans and such, yes, but a whole planet? And, as you say, appearing out of nowhere, with no previous traces.

Nah, this wasn't a natural progression. SOMETHING fishy is going on.

I see what you did there, something FISHY!lol...

But this all a little off topic, there are plenty of thread on how the ethreals managed to unite the tau and maintain rule and order.
Back OT, I agree with one of the points made earlier. The tau have way more leeway in what to do with commands given to them and how those plans are carried out. We also have no idea on what life is really like for those outside the fighting classes, aka Fire and Air. Who knows what the Water class diplomats and merchants do in their free time? The merchants could get the choice to trade whatever they want for all we know. Also the Earth caste builders and farmers could have tons of free time to do who knows what? There isn't really much known abt the tau society or what their cities and everyday day to day life is like. We only know abt the fire caste. It would be like only knowing about the military side of the Imperium,being told nothing abt the hab workers other than that they are hab workers.
We do know a whole lot more abt the necrons however, and that their souls are bound to their iron bodies. Although with the recent update they have evolved to be able to negotiate and interact with other societies, their whole purpose in life is really limited due to their souls being bound to robots. If you could picture what kind of a society the terminators from the terminator movies could make, thats the best they could ever hope to achieve.

So with that in mind it is pretty clear the Tau are more free to do what they choose, in that they have more options available to them. If they wanted to, then they could rebel just like farsight. If they were bound to the ethreals by any kind of mind control than that wouldnt be possible. They chose the current society they live in, and choose how to interact in it. The crons can only choose what they were programmed /made for if they are some of the lesser beings. While the higher up nobility arn't capable of doing much other than destroying all other sentient life in the end.