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can anyone think of a fluffy reason why tau might turn renegade(not farsight-related) ?

The only way Tau are ever going to leave is that they just feel like it (as farsight did). Tau are unlikely to ever worship chaos for multiple reasons:

Being a very un psychic race they don't even know what it really is.

Due to the nature of their souls possesion is very diifficult if not impossible. Most daemons wouldn't even consider trying.

Tau culture would make it very easily for an ethereal to spot it.

The isn't really a point. Unlike psychic races Chaos can't offer them anything.

If you want renegade tau they need to leave for their owb reasons.

do tau have souls?

They have little warp presence if any at all
that would put them at , yes they probably have souls, they are living after all

in theory those souls could be 'borrowed' by a crafty witch and used as a bargining tool?

This would be a ton of lightweigth Tau souls to be worth considering as offer.

Chaos could take over their allies. Maybe Tau civilians as hostages.
Bargain is : Tau join their former allies and fight for chaos or civillians die.
Should the Tau think of the civilists death as 'for the greater good'? Maybe.
But if its relatives of them and their etherals? Still sacrifice them?
Chaos may be able to press them into service temporarly.

Better option would be Tau secessionists.
A colony could aim to be independent and leave the Empire.
Farsight has proven its possible to leave.
These Tau could have left peacefully ( unlikely ), based on loss of their etherals ( unimaginative ), influenced by their environment or
new pets which turn out to be more than able to swap roles and secretly guide the Tau on their new course.

Retrias wrote:yes they probably have souls, they are living after all

The fact that you are alive in the 40k universe has no bearing on the presence or lack of a soul. Psychic Nulls like the Culexus Assassins are, for all intents and purposes, soulless, and yet are still very much alive.


Honestly, to me, Chaos Tau sounds a bit silly. It really makes no sense, fluff wise, and you'd be better off just making them renegades like Farsight and his crew. That said, if you want them to be gritty and dark, by all means, have at it. You could make them something along the lines of ruthless Space Pirates. They could be victims of mental disease causing psychosis and the like, or maybe even be Tau outlaws. However, a cult of Chaos Tau is just unfluffy in almost every aspect.

The simplest reason that Tau would change from their Utilitarian philosophy would be if an Ethereal-deprived Tau were to, on the ruins of a former Deathworld, find a still-preserved copy of Atlas Shrugged.

MagicJuggler wrote:The simplest reason that Tau would change from their Utilitarian philosophy would be if an Ethereal-deprived Tau were to, on the ruins of a former Deathworld, find a still-preserved copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Just wait till a bunch of Kroot start to play Bioshock =(

Dunno about Chaos Tau, but Renegade Tau would definitely be doable and easy to explain fluff-wise. Just come up with a scenario where the Tau force in question gets bitten in the butt in the name of the Greater Good. Stay behind on this planet right in the path of a Tyranid devourer fleet. Sure you'll be slowly eaten alive while screaming, but its for the Greater Good! We gotta evac the Ethereals first see . . .

Tau Commander: this was ok when it happened to my other 3 brothers and best friend back in Tau military school, but enough is enough! The greater good can suck it, I'm outta here, let's go men!

Then a greater demon appears and offers the Tau power, immortality, and a way of the doomed planet . . . hmmmm see this is where it gets unbelievable. Well maybe someone else can make it work lol.

Allmost impossible...unless say a high-up Tau commander starts using an extremely powerful Chaos weapon.

I did have an idea,regarding renegade tau that had been tempted in to slanneeshi worship. (akin to the way we worship our gods, they don't mutate us, we just do things in their name).

They are a small planet on the edge of the farsight enclsves, who without the guiding light of the ethereals have began to return to the mont'au - when some kind of slanneshi deaomn wearign a mask, showed up and reorganized whilst persuading them to devote themselves to her.

nomsheep wrote:can anyone think of a fluffy reason why tau might turn renegade(not farsight-related) ?

Non-chaotic rebels like Farsight are possible when there are no ethereals around.

Background makes it quite clear that there are no Chaos Tau, not a single one and certainly not an army. Best example is the novel Firewarrior where Chaos attempts to corrupt a single, unusually emotional, battle worn Fire Warrior and fails utterly (paradoxically this novel is often presented as an example of Chaos Tau in the hope that noone has read the book until the end). Tau can be deceived by Chaos, single Tau can be broken and/or killed by CHaos, but not corrupted. Xenology even hints at the fact that Eldar created ethereals to make Tau immune to Chaos, but up to now this is not backed by other sources.

Only thing similar to Chaos corruption is Tau in old Mont'au times, before ethereals arrived and ended the civil war.

Every army should have its renegades - gives you the chance to invent your own paint schemes and doctrines. You don't need chaos to create a weird and discordant army, though admittedly it would be fun to mix the styles.

What about genestealer hybrids?

The Tau themselves are basically immune to the taint of chaos, their allies, however, are not

doctorludo wrote:
Every army should have its renegades - gives you the chance to invent your own paint schemes and doctrines. You don't need chaos to create a weird and discordant army, though admittedly it would be fun to mix the styles.

What about genestealer hybrids?

i'd never really considered turning them into a genestealer cullt. hmm..?

"Sir, we appear to be under attack from genestealers."

"By the Emperor, we are doomed."

"It's worse than that, sir...

They've got firepower."

I'm sure a Tzeentchian daemon would be able to fool some tau or trick them sufficiently to do whatever they want possibly even abandon the greater good or whatever. As far as I know you don't have to be possessed for Tzeentch and friends to manipulate you. Then there's always the Deciever and even eldar possibly (it's even hinted in Xenology that they created the ethereals). Plus the whole being fooled thing fits with the tau being naive upstarts.

tau's big thing is "for the greater good" so i can't see them turning.

stompydakka wrote:tau's big thing is "for the greater good" so i can't see them turning.

well, you have reason, and all we know they are nearly immune to Chaos effects, but.... what about alteration of their perception about the "greater good", a subtle and gradual corruption of their believes? i think it can be possible, hard and long lasting effect, but possible

maybe.... a sort of twisted belief that for the greater good includes murdering their brothers/other non-chaos factions

which god would be best though?

nomsheep wrote:which god would be best though?

Tzeentch with no doubt!!! is the only one really able to corrupt the Tau by pure Trickery, remember they're nearly immune to chaos

touche,

Way back in White Dwarf 280-something, when the Daemonhunters had been released for about a month or two, GW did an article on Daemonic adversaries, with a picture of a Tzeentch Lord of Change leading a Squad of Fire Warriors. The article itself had tactics on Chaos Daemon/Tau force usage (I think), and the Daemonhunter's codex itself has a host of reasons why the Tau would and could turn to the dark Gods and their servants.

Another idea is that in their quest to understand the warp, they hire a cultist to summon a daemon, so that they can talk. The Daemon requires 'a body of a great leader' to inhabit during it's stay in the material plane. Who else but the colony's ethereal is up for the role? The Daemon possesses the Ethereal, talks a bucketful of lies to the Tau, misleading them, and makes a great show of it leaving the Ethereal. Of course, this is a trick, and the Ethereal is gone bar the daemon inside. The colony is slowly swayed towards the daemon's teachings - all because they believe they are following the greater good. Cue alien debauchery and murder, the silencing of local opposition, and a campaign against the nearest enemy. This enemy might even be another Tau colony, who are supposedly renegades who have left the Greater Good for their own selfish gain.

Cue amazing Tau Civil war!

I agree that Chaos Tau is pretty much an impossibility. Their allies yes, them no.

But renegade or successionist Tau is a whole differant story as there is already an example of it in fluff. To me if you want renegade Tau have it so your commander was a student of Farsight who followed along the same lines. They could be mercenaries of some sort, or you could have your commander be an actual captain of the Farsight Enclaves I mean Farsight can't be the only commander (if he's actually still alive).

As far as the whole Etherial thing goes I personally don't think that there is an Etherial with EVERY Tau fleet and cadre so while you could say the Etherial was killed you could also say they just didn't have one assigned to them since the first option is kind of cliched. Or heck you could go as far as saying that the Etherial has become dissalusioned for some reason, maybe he has fought alongside the Fire Caste for a long time and has witnessed something that changed his view. He still believes in the Greater Good but he believes that The Empire as a whole is not moving towards that goal as they should be and so he and those under him have seperated themselves so that they may pursue The Greater Good in the "correct" manner.

Just some ideas

Traitor Tau is certainly a possibility. Chaos Tau? Eeh... I doubt most of them are of much interest to Chaos. Though a heavily mutated Tau might be...

I don't think tau could worship. khorne, nurgle or tzeentch as it involves way t o much mutation for it to pyshically be possible.

Melissia wrote:Traitor Tau is certainly a possibility. Chaos Tau? Eeh... I doubt most of them are of much interest to Chaos. Though a heavily mutated Tau might be...

they don't have to be, the chaos gods have to interest the tau.

As far as the whole Etherial thing goes I personally don't think that there is an Etherial with EVERY Tau fleet and cadre so while you could say the Etherial was killed you could also say they just didn't have one assigned to them since the first option is kind of cliched. Or heck you could go as far as saying that the Etherial has become dissalusioned for some reason, maybe he has fought alongside the Fire Caste for a long time and has witnessed something that changed his view. He still believes in the Greater Good but he believes that The Empire as a whole is not moving towards that goal as they should be and so he and those under him have seperated themselves so that they may pursue The Greater Good in the "correct" manner

which would then open him to manipulation.

Tau are mortal, and therefor they can be tempted. Tyranids resist temptation through the hive mind, Eldar do it through devotion to a single path, Grey Knights do it through their training, Sisters do it through faith, Orks do it through their gestalt psychic field, etc etc. The Tau appear to resist temptation through the Ethereals-- there's actually hints that Farsight might be leaning towards becoming Khornate.

Melissia wrote:The Tau appear to resist temptation through the Ethereals-- there's actually hints that Farsight might be leaning towards becoming Khornate.

Waaat?