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

You are born into your caste and you don't change it.

The fire caste are simply the warriors. The ones with the guns.
The earth caste are the more domestic branch, from builders, to shop keeps.
The air caste would be the space fleets and all the support that goes with them.
The water caste is administrative and diplomacy. More service oriented jobs.

It is also against the caste system to jump from one caste to another (in fact it is looked down upon if say a group of fire warriors were to help out with farming in a new colony rather than just defend if for expample), nor may any members from differing castes be romantically engaged with one another or have children. =P

Water Caste are also Merchants and Traders.

Earth are more skilled laborers and scientists. I get the impression unskilled labor is handled by drones/automation.

Nope they stick to there roots. Doing anything your caste is not supposed to do is against the law.

It's impossible to change Caste within the Tau Empire.

Each Caste is essentially its own subspecies of the overall Tau species.
The Fire Caste are a different subspecies to the Earth Caste to the Air Caste, etc.

So when humans join or kroot do they decide what caste their in

Langston128 wrote:So when humans join or kroot do they decide what caste their in

They are not sorted into a caste, and are simply auxilery, or helpers.

Other races tend to maintain their segregation under Tau rulership. There is some integration, but for the most part, they can be considered sub-societies.

Langston128 wrote:So when humans join or kroot do they decide what caste their in

Tau can't chose their subrace, other races can't chose to change their race to Tau either. You don't chose your race. Non-Tau are never part of the Tau race and Tau caste system, Tau never try to organise other races into castes.

The Caste system is an illustration of different peoples coming together for "The Greater Good" rather than its apotheosis. The origin of the Caste system was after the Mont'au when the Etherials united the disperate Tau races under one cause. When they discovered the remains of an alien ship on Tau's moon, they knew they were not alone and other races too could know the sense of belonging and drive from embracing "The Greater Good." It is never explicitly stated, but I'm sure the member races also find themselves a role to play in the Tau'va, though likely less rigidly defined as for the Tau, it is still no less important. Kroot, for instance, fill the role of woodland scouts and ambushers, the Nicassar as emmisaries with other races (where perhaps the Water Caste won't do or to augment the Empire's range) and the Gue'la as a means of incorporating more human worlds into the fold.

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 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.

So its like us being told that going out with a person of different color is a crime. lol
Any way, what happens to fire warriors after they are done with soldiering, I mean they aren't good (allowed) for anything else? How long do they have (can they choose between a carrier and a pension the way guardsmen can?) to be "warriors" in order for the to leave the military?

Yori wrote:after they are done with soldiering,

I don't think you understand how a caste-based society works.

The Tau codex does address this. A Fire Warrior begins his career as a Shas'la or grunt, presumably after 'graduating' from some sort of training academy. He will serve 4 years before undertaking a 'Trial by Fire' which will see him promoted to Shas'Ui, dead, or crippled. Another 4 years leads a trial for Shas'Vre, then Shas'El, and finally Shas'O. I think it is then another 4 years, before the option for retirement and some sort of pension probably kicks in. Besides death, this is the only way to leave active military service.

Generally retirement leads to teaching, politics or hermit-hood. Sometimes more then one.

So would humans be used as laborers or warriors?

I suspect that depends on the humans. I think the Tau would accept that there is a form of Caste system within the human populations they have absorbed and make use of such.

However, the more efficient labor practices the Tau would introduce (ie automation) would probably quickly generate a surplus of humans who would then probably join the warrior forces.

The Tau might actually view using them as cannon fodder as serving the Greater Good by keeping their populations in check.

Jefffar wrote:
The Tau might actually view using them as cannon fodder as serving the Greater Good by keeping their populations in check.

Along with sterilizing them to begin with.

Well that's a waste of good breeding stock.

I have heard the sterilization thing before, where does it come from? Is it a GW book or BL?

Hunterindarkness wrote:I have heard the sterilization thing before, where does it come from? Is it a GW book or BL?

I believe it's BS from the DoW ending, I'm not 100% though.

Yeah, it's a highly out of character move put into the end of the Dawn of War game.

AH yeah it seems out of character to me as well, thats something the IoM would do. Welll assuming they allowed any xeno to live that long anyhow.. I never played DoW, another case of contradiction of Canon.

Mr Nobody wrote:So would humans be used as laborers or warriors?

That's not how the tau Empire works. tau don't "use" allies.

Jefffar wrote:The Tau might actually view using them as cannon fodder as serving the Greater Good by keeping their populations in check.

Tau military doesn't utilize the concept of cannon fodder.

Hunterindarkness wrote:I have heard the sterilization thing before, where does it come from? Is it a GW book or BL?

In a non-GW product in an alternative timeline to 40k one Imperial narrator speculates, why men and women living in separate camps get less children. The third likeliest version for him is sterilization (ask Mom and Dad why men and women have to meet each other in order to have children). No wonder it doesn't fit Tau fluff.

Wyrmalla wrote:It is also against the caste system to jump from one caste to another (in fact it is looked down upon if say a group of fire warriors were to help out with farming in a new colony rather than just defend if for expample), nor may any members from differing castes be romantically engaged with one another or have children. =P

So fire caste can only mate with fire caste.. Why do I suddenly have the horrific image of tau inbreeds in my head. Wouldn't this bring upon a bigger problem in the long term? Genetics can be spread but so thin no matter how large the population eventually (I believe)

Also I don't know much about tau but I know I have seen human models fighting for tau, what is that about? Do they have their own caste or sub category within the fire caste?

DeathRex wrote:

Wyrmalla wrote:It is also against the caste system to jump from one caste to another (in fact it is looked down upon if say a group of fire warriors were to help out with farming in a new colony rather than just defend if for expample), nor may any members from differing castes be romantically engaged with one another or have children. =P

So fire caste can only mate with fire caste.. Why do I suddenly have the horrific image of tau inbreeds in my head. Wouldn't this bring upon a bigger problem in the long term? Genetics can be spread but so thin no matter how large the population eventually (I believe)

Not necessarily...
It would eventually lead to some form of speciation but that'd take a while or rather several hundred (if not more) generations...

jareddm wrote:

Yori wrote:after they are done with soldiering,

I don't think you understand how a caste-based society works.

A Tau is a caste member from the day they are born to the day they die, aside from active combat service there are alot of roles a fire caste member can do, ranging from training new members, guard duties and testing new weapon systems.

Squidmanlolz wrote:

Hunterindarkness wrote:I have heard the sterilization thing before, where does it come from? Is it a GW book or BL?

I believe it's BS from the DoW ending, I'm not 100% though.

As already said it is impossible to use DoW as canon due to the fact that it has multiple endings and is not actually a GW source that fits in the 40k universe.

DeathRex wrote:

Wyrmalla wrote:It is also against the caste system to jump from one caste to another (in fact it is looked down upon if say a group of fire warriors were to help out with farming in a new colony rather than just defend if for expample), nor may any members from differing castes be romantically engaged with one another or have children. =P

So fire caste can only mate with fire caste.. Why do I suddenly have the horrific image of tau inbreeds in my head. Wouldn't this bring upon a bigger problem in the long term? Genetics can be spread but so thin no matter how large the population eventually (I believe)

Also I don't know much about tau but I know I have seen human models fighting for tau, what is that about? Do they have their own caste or sub category within the fire caste?

Not really, humanity would be fine if the different races never crossed paths as it were, that would only happen in small populations. The same arguement you made could be used to say that humans should breed with other mammals to increase there genetic variance.

As I already said controlled breeding has already lead to something happening to the Tau race, but it is not a problem, it has lead to each caste have specific advantages for their roles. It must always be remembered that mutation is not always negative.

If you add to this that Tau society is contolled by the greater good, it is logical to assume that anything that hinders the future of the Tau will be removed. This would either be done with genetic screening, selected breeding partners or infantiside of those born with genetic issues.

Kroothawk wrote:

Jefffar wrote:The Tau might actually view using them as cannon fodder as serving the Greater Good by keeping their populations in check.

Tau military doesn't utilize the concept of cannon fodder.

Tau military doesn't utilize canabalism either but the Kroot still do it. Humans in 40K are good at atrition and would probably used in those situations where large casualties were to be expected so that the more expensive to equip Tau forces could be conserved until the right moment.

Jefffar wrote:Tau military doesn't utilize canabalism either but the Kroot still do it. Humans in 40K are good at atrition and would probably used in those situations where large casualties were to be expected so that the more expensive to equip Tau forces could be conserved until the right moment.

As said, Tau won't do that. Cannibalism (eating members of your own race) is not part of Kroot military action either, it is only part of their "burying rituals" but that is another topic.