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Ledabot wrote:It WAS YOUR MUM.

Emperors Faithful wrote:

d.fear wrote:none of the above. It was ME!

This.


Seriously though, I don't see the Tau as being engineered. They're just one of the many upstart civilisations, except this one 'got away' (meaning they weren't immediately ground into the dust by a bigger fellow). At most I can see evidence to support rumours that Ethereals may have been tampered with, but no more.

Basically yes. IoM performs about a dozen genocides a day. However, some slip through the net. The T'au serve as a cautionary tale to those who ask why does Humans do so much genociding? Because if you don't: one day they're swinging clubs at you the next they're shooting you in the face with a railgun.

Oh is that what they stole the queen for?... I suppose it was the eldar then. I guess it makes sense because the old ones didnt meddle with existing species, they made their own. My main problem with xenology is it doesn't say if 'vanilla' tau have this gland. Basically if all tau have the gland it's the old ones (the ethereals were merely waiting for the right moment a la EoM) but if only ethereals then it was the eldar (they were created when the tau's benefators deemed it necessary), case closed.

For what I know, Tau dont even register in the warp so a chaos plot seems silly. It could just be that developing in a galaxy filled with so many dangers and enemies they realized that they needed to stick together to survive.

Emperors Faithful wrote:

Ledabot wrote:It WAS YOUR MUM.

My friend wrote that while i was getting food.

Sorry

There is a C'tan obviously pulling the strings in the background of the Tau.

After all how else could they advance so rapidly!

Outside influence all the way - Watch this space the next weapons the Tau develop will be remarkably like gauss weaponry.

Noob question: Who are the C'tan?

The C'tan are the god-leaders of the Necrons, in a very simple answer.

While i do think eldar and old ones are good choices I pose the queastion what about Interex? I mean they had some advanced tech if they were dying otu they would want to spread there ideas and they had advanced tech I mean they did have arrows that made horus's amror look like tin foil.

I vote C'Tan, simple reason, the one thing that stands out in the fluff was the inabilty of the C'Tan to combat the Old ones and their creations when it came to psychic ability and use of the warp. Now you have a new race seemingly guided with super advanced technology, no psychic abilities, and without enough soul to register in the warp. As for being attacked by other Necrons, the C'tan have fought with each other many times, thats why there is only a handful left.

The chaos gods are everwhere mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Now, I'm not that well versed in the WH40K lore as some of you (though I certainly enjoy reading the conspiracy theories!), I am however a bit knowledgable in storytelling technique. You say that it's hinted heavily in this tome "Xenology" that the Ethereals are tampered-with Tau? While it's certainly possible that GW writers throw in such suspicions just to throw people off and create controversy, it's unlikely such ideas be thrown around without thought. If you give hints in a written fiction text, it's usually to promote the idea that it is true (the rumour I mean). So if you look at it from a writer's perspective, I think it's safe to assume that the Ethereals WERE tampered with (not a 100% certain, but certainly more than plausible). As to who stuck their dirty paws in the geneological cookie-jar, I don't have a clue. I voted for the Old Ones outta ignorance, but the Eldar seem as likely to me after reading these posts. Or someone else yet un-introduced. Deception attempts by the C'tan have before (I think) been more personal and direct due to their enjoyment of the worshipping of them. I don't think they'd get the saticfaction they crave from manipulating a race second-hand.

Perkustin wrote:Oh is that what they stole the queen for?... I suppose it was the eldar then. I guess it makes sense because the old ones didnt meddle with existing species, they made their own. My main problem with xenology is it doesn't say if 'vanilla' tau have this gland. Basically if all tau have the gland it's the old ones (the ethereals were merely waiting for the right moment a la EoM) but if only ethereals then it was the eldar (they were created when the tau's benefators deemed it necessary), case closed.

It's a freaky diamond-thingy in the forehead. Although the minis alla have some kind of slit going from the "nose tip" through the bridge and a bit up on the forehead, the only ethereal to actually show any trace on a diamond majig is Aun Shi (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440287a&prodId=prod1060273). All other taus have slits too (including a stranger version on Shadowsun, but she's just a freaky mofo overall) but none show any diamonds. Since Aun Shi's seems to move further up on the forehead, it could be argued that his shows because he has sustained an injury or otherwise been cut to show it.

In artwork the diamond is shown more prominently, most so on Aun Va's body guard in the codex. According to Xenology a similar diamond is found in the Quorl, which is a bee-like race which functions on a hive level, where the diamond functions as a sort of hive mind amplifier to control the drones.

Further I would like to add that the "Author" of Xenology was fething mad to begin with. =p

PS: Anyone to poke fun at my numerous uses of the term "slit" and the fact that the diamond is positioned at the top of said "slit" will be punished with Nurgles Rot... but seriously, who on GW came up with that design? Do they want us to call the Ethereals faces or what?

Quick question...
Who are the Interex?
I have never heard of them.

The tech advancments of the Tau are not fast at all. 100 years ago the car didn't exist now we fly and take trips to the moon. 25 years ago a computer filled a room now it fits in our pockets and can do thousands possibly a million more things. Once the ball got rolling for technology breakthroughs it has turned into a lanslide for us. Why is it hard for everyone to believe that a fictional race could develop within 1,000 years to the level that the Tau have? We are close and have only been working on it for 100 or so years, 900 more to go and who know what we will be doing.

Old ones: Dead.
Eldar: WTF? Seriously?
Chaos: Too obvious and why? Again, WTF?
Elbows: Could they gave done it without Ethereals? No.

C'Tan: Yes, blatantly. As we all know from the fluff Necrons and Tau have been allies for a while now. Fellow dead heads hand in hand til the end of time controlled by the same zap heads. Necrau for the intergalactic smorgasbord of win!

Pael wrote:The tech advancments of the Tau are not fast at all. 100 years ago the car didn't exist now we fly and take trips to the moon. 25 years ago a computer filled a room now it fits in our pockets and can do thousands possibly a million more things. Once the ball got rolling for technology breakthroughs it has turned into a lanslide for us. Why is it hard for everyone to believe that a fictional race could develop within 1,000 years to the level that the Tau have? We are close and have only been working on it for 100 or so years, 900 more to go and who know what we will be doing.

True, except it's likely we'll have some manner of cataclysmic war that sets us back thousands of years if 40k has anything to say about it.

This is not a question of "is it reasonable for the Tau to have advanced this quickly?" The big question imo is how and why repeated a few times.

Ex: The Tau have advanced at an astonishing rate.
Q. How did they do that?
A. They haven't had an internal war for thousands of years and they were protected at just the ideal moment by a warp storm, a thing that doesn't often "protect" a planet, but rather starts throwing some weird chaos nonsense all over the place.
Q. How has an otherwise warlike race not fought any internal wars for 6000 years (most of that time with nobody else to fight, societies turn on themselves with no outside force to unite against) and why did a warp storm suddenly appear just before an imperial extermination and not cause any "Chaotic" influence?
A. To the first question: The ethereals appeared suddenly and out of nowhere and everybody is phenomenally persuaded by them.
To the second question:
Q. Where did the ethereals come from and why did they appear so suddenly and with magical peacemaking powers?
A. and

That leaves us with no explanation for anything other than, "In an near perfect environment that ignores friction and gravity and maybe there was a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters writing Shakespeare then this would happen". I acknowledge that in "ideal" circumstances it could work, but there are too many coincidences here to not question it. I personally lean towards the idea of the old ones. The only reason why it wouldn't be them is because they're supposedly all dead, but since when has being extinct stopped anybody?

CodGod wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:RE Eldar: exactly doesn't seem their style. If they had some plan to repopulate 100 worlds in 6,000 years they use it on....themselves. They've got enough problems without making new species for fun.

While I see where you're coming from, I don't think this necessarily makes sense. It's (potentially) easy for a more advanced civilization to help a less advanced civilization than to advance themselves. They didn't really have "a plan to repopulate 100 worlds in 6000 years", they had a means to significantly increase the advancement of a very primitive civilization - bringing the Tau up towards (not to, at least yet, but towards) the level they themselves were already at. Since the Eldar weren't a primitive civilization on the verge of wiping itself out with war, of course their own civilization wouldn't have benefited from the influence of the Ethereals in the way that the Tau did.

Add to the fact that the Eldar hate chaos and actually do like to meddle with worlds/fates/people all over the galaxy, just look at Eldrad Ulthran. For them to alter the path of a warp resistant race from near destruction to small space empire does make sense.

They found a working stc, and have no fear of tech so can evolve there own brand technology from the IoM.

Its the Emperors plan all along!

Lolz.....

Sorry but that is just funny

Taucron ftw!

They coould eb a time delayed plant by the old ones swet up not to develop till long after the war in heaven was over.

The answer is so obviously the C'Tan that I can scarcely believe we are having this conversation.

Damned Eldar technology.

*Sorry, it's a running joke in the local GW that if something relating to 40k does not make sense, you blame eldar technology*

EDIT: I voted Eldar give them technology.

@Ledabot: It's all good, mate.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Emperors Faithful wrote:

d.fear wrote:none of the above. It was ME!

This.


Seriously though, I don't see the Tau as being engineered. They're just one of the many upstart civilisations, except this one 'got away' (meaning they weren't immediately ground into the dust by a bigger fellow). At most I can see evidence to support rumours that Ethereals may have been tampered with, but no more.

Basically yes. IoM performs about a dozen genocides a day. However, some slip through the net. The T'au serve as a cautionary tale to those who ask why does Humans do so much genociding? Because if you don't: one day they're swinging clubs at you the next they're shooting you in the face with a railgun.

"I have always advocated the complete annhilation of all humans, as well as some of the more cunning primates..."

Monster Rain wrote:The answer is so obviously the C'Tan that I can scarcely believe we are having this conversation.

Exactly this. We might as well be arguing about Space Marines being ten feet tall...the answer is so blatantly yes that all we're doing is pandering to absurd viewpoints.

I find it odd no one is thinking it might be an inquisitor from years gone by! An inquisitor could have gone heretic and joined a genestealer cult, used rituals of genetic modification and created the tau, gave them the technology startup from the imperial technology available at the time which they then successfully improved to where they are today!

It's the inquisition! It's so obvious yet so unexpected!

We might as well be arguing about Space Marines being ten feet tall...quote]

Space Marines are nine feet tall.


Unrelatedly
A note to all y'all hataz: I just started this discussion because the Tau Empire's rise to power is a weird thing in the 40k universe and I haven't heard it talked about much. Figured it'd be fun to discuss.

And now for something completely different: Note that this poll currently shows something like a bell curve.

DeepBeige wrote:We might as well be arguing about Space Marines being ten feet tall...quote]

Space Marines are nine feet tall.

The short ones are, maybe.

wikipedia wrote:While the bulk of humanity's military power is found in the Imperial Guard, the Space Marines(Adeptus Astartes)– giant, 10 foot tall, genetically-enhanced super-soldiers with world-destroying firepower and unswerving, fanatical loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind – are the most famous.

On average, they are closer to 10. Sorry, man.

Some marines are more than ten feet. Pasanius from the Ultrasmurfs could have been as tall as 10'1". In fact I think it was 10'1.23647" from memory. It's all there in the fluff.