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Like many interested in the Tau, I have always wondered about the origins of the members and powers of the Ethereals.
My first thought was the most obvious, they were powered by latent psychic energy, in which case why can't abilities that effect psychics work on them? (I know, it wouldn't be the first time GW has ignored it's own fluff).
But now since the release of 6th ed. I am now certain, and hope others have thought along the same lines, that the second thought is the more likely.
I believe the Ethereal are either the Old Ones in disguise or more likely are direct minions of the Old Ones.
It's always been a weak ass theory of mine until I read the following passage,

"... during a battle on Arthas Moloch, a desert world save for strange monuments and ruined shrines of some long-forgotten culture. All of the Ethereals in Farsight's expedition were slain by an unknown enemy."
Although I'm aware there are more 'unknown enemies' in 40k than there are M&M's, this scream Necrons to me..
But just as important as what killed the Ethereals is WHY, after all, for a race that wants all life dead equally, to dissapear the moment the last Ethereal is dead stinks of a grudge match!! And there is only one race the Necrons hate above all other.
To me this would explain the mystical grip the Ethereals have over not just the Tau but other races as well, it would also explain the prodigious rate of expansion and techno-evolution, that was formerly only held by either Dark Age humanity or the Old Ones and their tools.

What are some other theories you guys might have??

No.

The Old Ones died out 60 million years ago, and those not killed by the C'Tan/Necrons fled, and then degenerated into Lizardman armies on feral worlds. The Tau were, very recently, still discovering fire.

Two things wrong with that, first they can't have all died out if there were survivors, second they were stick eating savages until the Ethereals came along from nowhere, so they clearly aren't natural, hence the discussion

There's a flaw in your argument.

I'm not sure if this is canon or not (not too familiar with Tau), but you claim that Ethereals are immune to abilities that target psykers.

The Old Ones, according to every source we have, were a race of (immensely powerful) psykers.

If Ethereals were Old Ones, they wouldn't die like little bitches like they do in the fluff.

As I said, it is more likely that they are direct tools of the old ones.. More to the point, is anyone going to actually have a conversation about what they could be..? Oh that's right.. Dakka..

I read somewhere that the Tau are the Necrontyr reborn, I mean short lived, high technology, lack of psykers and slow ships. but the Necrontyr where short lived because of their star. Heh would be a cool idea if it were true

also, I always thought dawnblade was a Necron weapon even before the new edition of Necrons, making them space Tomb Kings, maybe Farsight left the empire because he found out something the Ethereals either don't know, or are keeping from the Tau.


Just look at this thing, just screams Egyptians in space..

 Spazamataz wrote:
As I said, it is more likely that they are direct tools of the old ones.. More to the point, is anyone going to actually have a conversation about what they could be..? Oh that's right.. Dakka..

Well if you want speculation, np.

The ethereals could be divergent species of Tau that developed in geographic isolation from the "main" group of Tau that they came to dominate. Say they were isolated on an island or island continent, rapidly evolved their "powers" due to mutation, random genetic drift, natural selection and break down of pre-existing coadaptive gene complexes as a result of a genetic bottle neck and inbreeding greatly reducing their amount of natural genetic variation. Then "voila" you have etherals that come back into contact with the original Tau population and dominate them.

I am going with this theory over the "Old Ones" because my understanding of the background is that the "old Ones" are extinct.

Good point Dancing Wolf, never thought of that... And it does explain alot


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As stated many times in the fluff, the Old Ones ran away after being defeated never to be seen again (big univers lots of holes to hide in), Im not sure if devolving into lizardmen was canon but its certainly accepted fluff.. As for the Darwinism theory.. It's too logical!! Stop making sense!!! This isn't the 21st century it's 40k!!! I kid ;p


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Ps JWhex, explain the lights in the sky that came just before the first appearance with your precious scientific logic!
I'm old school Imperial.. If its weird its a witch!!

Ignore me

I made a post about Necrons and Tau both not having a nose, but I then looked at Necrons and they do

I still think they are genetically engineered by whoever runs the black library

 Spazamataz wrote:
Good point Dancing Wolf, never thought of that... And it does explain alot


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As stated many times in the fluff, the Old Ones ran away after being defeated never to be seen again (big univers lots of holes to hide in), Im not sure if devolving into lizardmen was canon but its certainly accepted fluff.. As for the Darwinism theory.. It's too logical!! Stop making sense!!! This isn't the 21st century it's 40k!!! I kid ;p


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Ps JWhex, explain the lights in the sky that came just before the first appearance with your precious scientific logic!
I'm old school Imperial.. If its weird its a witch!!

Too easy, those lights were obviously coincidental unrelated atmospheric phenomena such as lighting, northern lights, meteorites, etc. Or they are simply embellishments added to the story by later generations of Tau and furthered by the Etherals for propaganda purposes.

Weather balloons? ;p
So any ideas on who runs the black library... I mean Craftworld eldar created the craft worlds duing the fall didn't they? So does that mean it came after the fall or are the craftworlds based on the black library???

"Oh look I've gone cross-eyed."

Quite obviously the Old Ones constructed the Mass Relays, bringing about a massive robotic invasion, eventually fleeing to a distant rim world where they put themselves in cryostasis for hundreds of years. After the robots stopped killing most of them, the Old Ones sent a vision to the Galaxy. The Ethereals accessed this Old One beacon found on T'au and are hoping to organize a coalition of species to combat the return of the synthetic enemy. Now, the synthetic enemy has returned, and the Ethereals and Necrons are destined to fight each other ina great apocalyptic battle in which there are only four choices colored for each of the elements, where the rogue Commander Farsight will sacrifice himself for the Greater Good.

On a serious note, if your hypothesis was true, why are Necrons and Tau able to ally under the ally matrix?

I have always liked the theory that the Emporers soul in the warp tampered with the tau race after the mechanicum found them. Story goes the Big E cealed T'au off with warp storms, then influenced the mutation of the ethereal gene to create a race perfectly suited to fighting Chaos

The Old ones are Extinct.

Not to mention, as the Necrons have encountered Tau, and Ethereals before, it would be well known to them if they were the Old ones.

The Necrons would have purged them (Again) If they really were Old ones.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I still think they are genetically engineered by whoever runs the black library

Isn't that the Harlequins?

Harlequins have always been the guardians from the fluff I've read about it.. (hardly a source but hey)..
And no Sasori I will NEVER take those blasted Aliied Matrices seriously in all my life... Blood Angels and Necrons??? No allies I nTyranids even though Genestealer cults have infested whole TANK corps fighting besides the swarm in fluff.. Sisters and Black Templar hate each other (even though they both hunt witches... wtf) etc etc etc... Alliance matrix was the single greatest idea with the least amount of thought to come out of GW... and that's saying something... Rage Rant Ended

 Spazamataz wrote:
Harlequins have always been the guardians from the fluff I've read about it.. (hardly a source but hey)..
And no Sasori I will NEVER take those blasted Aliied Matrices seriously in all my life... Blood Angels and Necrons??? No allies I nTyranids even though Genestealer cults have infested whole TANK corps fighting besides the swarm in fluff.. Sisters and Black Templar hate each other (even though they both hunt witches... wtf) etc etc etc... Alliance matrix was the single greatest idea with the least amount of thought to come out of GW... and that's saying something... Rage Rant Ended

I didn't mention anything about the allies matrix in my post, so I don't quite know what you're going on about.

Not Sasori
Xyreal, my bad man sorry

 Sasori wrote:
The Old ones are Extinct.

Not to mention, as the Necrons have encountered Tau, and Ethereals before, it would be well known to them if they were the Old ones.

The Necrons would have purged them (Again) If they really were Old ones.

That's like saying the Necrons would have purged the Eldar, since the Eldar are basically their newest mortal nemesis.

Considering that the Necrons have only been waking up en masse for a (relatively) short while, and are still getting their gak together as a faction, it isn't at all unbelievable for the 'Crons to be aware of what the Ethereals are, and yet still not gone on the offensive.

BlaxicanX wrote:

 Sasori wrote:
The Old ones are Extinct.

Not to mention, as the Necrons have encountered Tau, and Ethereals before, it would be well known to them if they were the Old ones.

The Necrons would have purged them (Again) If they really were Old ones.

That's like saying the Necrons would have purged the Eldar, since the Eldar are basically their newest mortal nemesis.

Considering that the Necrons have only been waking up en masse for a (relatively) short while, and are still getting their gak together as a faction, it isn't at all unbelievable for the 'Crons to be aware of what the Ethereals are, and yet still not gone on the offensive.

Considering the Necrons hated the Old Ones, above all else, we would at least been informed from fluff in their perspective, about it ,at the very least.

Whilst I doubt GW is keen to inform us of anything these days.. especially if it doesn't make them money directly..
I can admit the hints would have been far less subtle if they truly were minions of the Old Ones.. maybe.
I mostly just wanted to see different theories of were the fluff could lead.. so thanks to everyone's 2c
And thanks especially for those who weren't afraid to throw outlandish theories into the mix..
Expect more Fluff conspiracies soon!!! or make your own ;p


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 Void__Dragon wrote:
If Ethereals were Old Ones, they wouldn't die like little bitches like they do in the fluff.

... they DO die like little bitches... ;p have you seen there stats?

There is no cannon on the Old Ones. The only information on them comes from some FFG stuff that GW has stated is NOT in line with their BL publications (which don't, to my knowing, touch on the subject).

That being said, what little we do know, is that they

"Were a coalition of races that crossed the ocean of stars and seeded this galaxy with life". So not only were they the first life in the galaxy, they came from (presumably) another galaxy where there are still more of them. The Old ones that were not eaten by the C'tan either died later, or journeyed "home" to whatever galaxy they came from.

The Tau are most likely not related to them since they share so little in common.

 Spazamataz wrote:
Two things wrong with that, first they can't have all died out if there were survivors, second they were stick eating savages until the Ethereals came along from nowhere, so they clearly aren't natural, hence the discussion

Their civilization, and the majority of their population, were killed. Those few who survived became Galactic non-entities, playing no further part in the development of the galaxy, its races, or its technologies. They descended into barbarism, and became a product line for GW, called "Lizardmen".

And there is a fair amount of canon for the Old Ones (inasmuch as GW has canon), as they've been mentioned in various books and Codices as far back as 2nd edition, at least.

There's an old piece of fluff, I think it was in the original Tau codex that says on the night that the Ethereals appeared, there were lithe figures who moved with graceful speed spotted in the mountains watching how things went, they then disappeared and no one knew how.
To me, this points towards Eldar intervention.

 En Excelsis wrote:
There is no cannon on the Old Ones. The only information on them comes from some FFG stuff that GW has stated is NOT in line with their BL publications (which don't, to my knowing, touch on the subject).

That being said, what little we do know, is that they

"Were a coalition of races that crossed the ocean of stars and seeded this galaxy with life". So not only were they the first life in the galaxy, they came from (presumably) another galaxy where there are still more of them. The Old ones that were not eaten by the C'tan either died later, or journeyed "home" to whatever galaxy they came from.

The Tau are most likely not related to them since they share so little in common.

They and the necrontyr were the first life in the galaxy. And I would say they didn't come from a different galaxy as "ocean of stars" couldn't possibly describe the space in between galaxies, not to mention they built and used the web-way for FTL travel which (to my knowledge) does not go beyond our galaxy.

There's actually plenty of canon on the Old Ones

Wrong.

NECRON codex page 6 paragraph 2

"...Old ones, the first of all the galaxy's sentient life....."

I'll search for the quote from the other codex that states how the Old ones "Crossed the Sea of Stars INTO the galaxy"

Seeing that the great plan had failed and that mankind had begun it's decline, the Eldar took matters into their own hands.

They figured that the great plan would work better if the next race to rule the stars was not a psycic race.

With this in mind the Eldar travelled to Loquit, homeworld of the Q'orl. There the Eldar asked for a young future Q'orl queen.

When the Q'orl declined the Eldar stole one anyway. Using the DNA of the Q'orl and probably several other genetic strains, the Eldar created the Tau.

They put the Tau far from both Humans and Q'orl for fear that the Q'orl would dominate the new Tau with the pheremones they produced.

Soon the Imperium discoved the world the Eldar deposited the Tau upon.

To protect the young race the Eldar created a vast warp storm around a small area of space, leaving the Tau safely inside (or safe as could be with Orks around).

The Tau developed quickly but fought each other in violent wars. The Eldar forsee the coming of the Tyranids, the waking of the Necrons, the arrival of the 13th Black Crusade ect.

To help get the great plan back on track the Eldar create the Ethereals and drop them off on the Tau homeworld.

The Ethereals begin their rule over the Tau race, taking orders from noone save the Eldar.