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 Kaiserbudheim wrote:
Just 'me 2 cents: I'd argue the Tau have a bit of the Halo Covenant thing going on...using troops of multiple races under their dominion (Kroot and Vespid etc.), and a strict religious order with a caste system - replace Prophets with Ethereals and Bam! Tau Empire.

The Necrons as a whole derive a lot of their general characteristics from H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep.

 Nerobellum wrote:
The Necrons as a whole derive a lot of their general characteristics from H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep is more like malign deity in the Cthulhu Mythos fictional universe, where it is known as the Crawling Chaos. First appearing in Lovecraft's 1920 prose poem of the same name...


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Necrons are more terminator, but even terminators are revamps of 1950s space robots....

 Kaiserbudheim wrote:
Just 'me 2 cents: I'd argue the Tau have a bit of the Halo Covenant thing going on...using troops of multiple races under their dominion (Kroot and Vespid etc.), and a strict religious order with a caste system - replace Prophets with Ethereals and Bam! Tau Empire.

Also, I'd like to say Sony's Killzone Helghast look like they took a cue from the Savlar Chem Dogs!

Its a bit difficult to say this because Tau and Halo came out around the same time. So to say one took its fluff from the other is quite a stretch. Also Tau have the greater good as an ideology akin to communism. The collective is more important then the individual and their goal is to make the galaxy better for the next generation. The convenant have the great journey as an endgoal, a religous ideal kind of like heaven.

Necrons are quite simple. They are robot versions of zombies/ skeletons. They are the 40K version of Warhammer's Tomb Lords. Even their name means death - necro.

Crimson Fists? I'm not sure about them. Pedro is the Spanish form of Peter. Cantor is a position in the church. The Cantor, or Chanter, leads the choir. The Cantor in the Catholic Church is a senior position within the Chapter, the Chapter being a group of priests who form to advise a Bishop or look after his diocese in his absence.
The Crimson Fists at least now have a lot of Spanish names.

Tau have Chinese influence. Tau itself comes from the word Tao, meaning way or path. Taosim is a religion, and of course they come from the Eastern Fringes.

cadbren wrote:


Tau have Chinese influence. Tau itself comes from the word Tao, meaning way or path. Taosim is a religion, and of course they come from the Eastern Fringes.

Tau is a greek letter which means 'new' IIRC, The Tau also have major influences from Japanese anime/cartoons in the form of their tech and battlesuits

Actually, according to Andy Chambers, the chief designer at the time, the Tau were intended "to be altruistic and idealistic, believing heartily in unification as the way forward." Graham McNeill was responsible for much of the background material produced for the Tau, developing what Andy Chambers described as "...their proud, quiet but determined character [developed] to the point where they actually became a rather likeable, if slightly naive addition to the cosmos. This development was eventually seen as too disparate from the traditional dystopic atmosphere of the rest of the setting. The Tau were eventually modified to display the same altruistic overtones, but with a heavier Orwellian tone that implies that the Tau engage in mind-control and population replacement on worlds within their domain. (Chambers read the book 1984 by Orwell and got the idea from there...)

Quite honestly, culture? Meh.

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

cadbren wrote:


Tau have Chinese influence. Tau itself comes from the word Tao, meaning way or path. Taosim is a religion, and of course they come from the Eastern Fringes.

Tau is a greek letter which means 'new' IIRC, The Tau also have major influences from Japanese anime/cartoons in the form of their tech and battlesuits

There is a greek letter called tau, but that doesn't fit with the Tau except the similarly sounding name. The eastern philosophy/religion of Taosim/Daoism does fit with Tau. Tao meaning path can then be seen in Tau scouts being called pathfinders. No doubt there are other links.

I think the tie-ins to the Ultramarines are some of the most comprehensive. They have elements from Scottish, Roman, Greek and Mediaeval Europe in their make-up. There also seems to be a Canadian tie-in with the Ultramarines.

 juraigamer wrote:

 Hollowman wrote:


Tau:

Tons of anime featuring battlesuits

Battletech (anime battlesuits filtered through western eyes)

Incorrect, tau are star wars.

Alien allies, mechs, future weapons, assimilation into the empire... you know.

That's ridiculous - it's like saying "Wrong, Imperial Guard are not inspired by World War 2 Germans, they are inspired by WW2 Russians!"

Obviously both things are inspirations on some level. Star Wars did not have mech suits, arguably one of the most distinctive aspects of the Tau. Robo Wars, BattleTech and various anime influences do.