Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

NagothDaCleaver wrote:They're like gingers, they have no souls

Jackass...



I'd love to see a good Chaos tau army...

All with Mark of Khorne !

It's also worth noting that in the Tau codex it says that given their limited exposure, the Tau had a difficult time understanding the hallucinogenic effects of the warp. In addition to just not having much of a psychic presence in the warp, they have a hard time even grasping what it is makes this warp thing so corrupting and mind bending in the first place.

Yes but you would think that the Ethereals at least would have some trouble with it wouldn't you?

Hawkward wrote:It can't be because they have little or no presence in the Warp. Chaos can corrupt the soulless Men of Iron and CSM vehicles, so that's right out. The Tau would have to be anathema to Chaos somehow.

They can be, they just aren't giant beacons for it. If you expose them to the warp they'll get corrupted/possessed/etc eventually just like anything else.

in one of the WDs that came out early when tau were first released it had a small skirmish fight of tau versus chaos tau and chaos kroot that had been corrupted by some warped planet.

So as per GW they can be corrupted by chaos. I don't think they have to worry about possession from just being noticed in the warp as a mirror to their physical being by a warp entity however.

fleet of claw wrote:I know what you mean, it is as though they are frightened of technology

It's not paranoia if it's true. And it is-- the dark age of technology was a golden age in truth... but it was ended by the rebellion of the robot servants and much other technologies.

Hawkward wrote:Remember, the Tau homeworld was wreathed in Warp storms for thousands of years. Any planet even within the line of sight of a visible Warp disruption gets affected by Chaos - you get side-effects like Cadian purple eyes, or a large number of psykers. Besides, even during the Great Crusade, when militant atheist human chauvinism was essentially required, the Chaos gods were still a viable threat to the Imperium. Also, Chaos feeds off of emotion, sensation, anarchy and stagnation, and all civilizations except the Tau feed it just by existing.

There's something special - or, to be precise, wrong - about the Tau. Anything that can't be affected by Chaos is suspect.

The reason that chaos was a threat during the crusade is that chaos is able to exploit the sins of men, which was easy considering how sinful we are and that we have strong souls.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Medium of Death wrote:Total faith in and dedication to the Ethereals.

Chaos only really effects inanimate objects when they have been subject to prolonged exposure to chaos or through ritual.

The Tau don't really know much of the warp. I'm sure the flesh can be corrupted and probably the soul too, but Chaos needs to make a physical connection with them as their presence is so negligible within the warp.

IIRC there was an article in a WD many moons ago explaining why Daemon Hunters/Grey Knights would fight the Tau. It essentially boiled down to a Daemonic artifact allowing possession of an Ethereal, the Tau now believing the Ethereal had been transformed still followed the code of the Tau and obeyed the Daemons commands.

The only other chaos-Tau Empire related thing I can remember was when the kroot started eating daemons.

But yes, faith is the perfect weapon against Chaos. Anyone heard of the plague of unbelief?

blaktoof wrote:in one of the WDs that came out early when tau were first released it had a small skirmish fight of tau versus chaos tau and chaos kroot that had been corrupted by some warped planet.

So as per GW they can be corrupted by chaos. I don't think they have to worry about possession from just being noticed in the warp as a mirror to their physical being by a warp entity however.

This is actually either you bending the truth or misremembering an article,

The article in question was about Tau fighting chaos troops, after the chaos troops were repelled, the kroot went around feeding off of the corpses. This led to corrupted kroot (as already discussed in the thread) that turned on the very confused Tau. The article has no mention to corrupted Tau, so the point is invalid.

With the right circumstances, Chaos can corrupt anything that isn't a Blank or the Emperor.

Tau aren't Blanks, they aren't even close.

Thing is, Tau aren't worth the effort.

Melissia wrote:With the right circumstances, Chaos can corrupt anything that isn't a Blank or the Emperor.

Tau aren't Blanks, they aren't even close.

Thing is, Tau aren't worth the effort.

Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BluntmanDC wrote:

blaktoof wrote:in one of the WDs that came out early when tau were first released it had a small skirmish fight of tau versus chaos tau and chaos kroot that had been corrupted by some warped planet.

So as per GW they can be corrupted by chaos. I don't think they have to worry about possession from just being noticed in the warp as a mirror to their physical being by a warp entity however.

This is actually either you bending the truth or misremembering an article,

The article in question was about Tau fighting chaos troops, after the chaos troops were repelled, the kroot went around feeding off of the corpses. This led to corrupted kroot (as already discussed in the thread) that turned on the very confused Tau. The article has no mention to corrupted Tau, so the point is invalid.

Isn't that the battle where my Tau *sniggers* thought they killed Slaanesh?

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

Melissia wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

It must be the reason they were made..... a race made for the Asian populace must worship anime in all of its forms. Demons cant understand this

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

Melissia wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

It must be the reason they were made..... a race made for the Asian populace must worship anime in all of its forms. Demons cant understand this

The Tau are no more cartoony than Astartes Shoulder Pads...

im2randomghgh wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

Melissia wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

It must be the reason they were made..... a race made for the Asian populace must worship anime in all of its forms. Demons cant understand this

The Tau are no more cartoony than Astartes Shoulder Pads...

haha touche, but their goal of galactic puppies and flowers is inconceivable.

im2randomghgh wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

Melissia wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

It must be the reason they were made..... a race made for the Asian populace must worship anime in all of its forms. Demons cant understand this

The Tau are no more cartoony than Astartes Shoulder Pads...

Why does everyone think Tau are for the asians?

Because they speak with a (badly done) Japanese accent, their gear looks like it came straight outta Robotech, they have hints of Chairman Mao political programs while *also* being... while not the "good guys" of 40k, perhaps the "least evil" or something... and everything about Tau-conquered planets seems to hint to Mega-Tokyo/AD Tank Police or Ghost in The Shell.

Really, though, it's the art. It's not that Tau are designed with "Asian Players' in mind, but more the "Anime Fan Player" in mind, at least IMO.

Psienesis wrote:Because they speak with a (badly done) Japanese accent, their gear looks like it came straight outta Robotech, they have hints of Chairman Mao political programs while *also* being... while not the "good guys" of 40k, perhaps the "least evil" or something... and everything about Tau-conquered planets seems to hint to Mega-Tokyo/AD Tank Police or Ghost in The Shell.

Really, though, it's the art. It's not that Tau are designed with "Asian Players' in mind, but more the "Anime Fan Player" in mind, at least IMO.

I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Artifact worlds are Tomb Worlds, Ethereals were engineered to unite the Tau, etc. etc.

fleet of claw wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

Melissia wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Ya, who would want 100 planets full of Tau, with 1/4 of them being soldiers, with a good portion of those being in suits only slightly weaker than dreadnoughts, and with the rest having weaponry that out-classes SMs?

And yet, for all of their material possessions, daemons don't care. Tau souls simply aren't tasty enough.

It must be the reason they were made..... a race made for the Asian populace must worship anime in all of its forms. Demons cant understand this

The Tau are no more cartoony than Astartes Shoulder Pads...

Why does everyone think Tau are for the asians?

because the release of the 1st Tau codex, and their appearence in 40k fluff from out of thin air, coencided with both the Anime craze wave and the opening of the 1st GW store in Japan.

Nerivant wrote:
I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Really? you see no commonalities between the overly stylised anime films of tech weilding robo-suits and the overly stylised tech wielding combat suits?

How are Tau anti-psyker/ they possess no anti-psyker abilities, if Necrons were involved wouldn't we see the pariah gene in the Tau.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:
I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Really? you see no commonalities between the overly stylised anime films of tech weilding robo-suits and the overly stylised tech wielding combat suits?

How are Tau anti-psyker/ they possess no anti-psyker abilities, if Necrons were involved wouldn't we see the pariah gene in the Tau.

No, because I don't see the Tau suits as being similar in style to the image most commonly associated with Anime mecha.

Maybe the Ethereals have a modified version of the Pariah Gene. Maybe the entire Tau race does. Who knows?

Nerivant wrote:

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:
I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Really? you see no commonalities between the overly stylised anime films of tech weilding robo-suits and the overly stylised tech wielding combat suits?

How are Tau anti-psyker/ they possess no anti-psyker abilities, if Necrons were involved wouldn't we see the pariah gene in the Tau.

No, because I don't see the Tau suits as being similar in style to the image most commonly associated with Anime mecha.

Maybe the Ethereals have a modified version of the Pariah Gene. Maybe the entire Tau race does. Who knows?

You don't, but a whole load of others do.

So the necrons modified the pariah gene so that the tau still had a connection to the warp, do not scare the hell out of deamons and don't hurt/kill psykers just by being near them, WOW the C'tan really dropped the ball when they did that, didn't they.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:
I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Really? you see no commonalities between the overly stylised anime films of tech weilding robo-suits and the overly stylised tech wielding combat suits?

How are Tau anti-psyker/ they possess no anti-psyker abilities, if Necrons were involved wouldn't we see the pariah gene in the Tau.

No, because I don't see the Tau suits as being similar in style to the image most commonly associated with Anime mecha.

Maybe the Ethereals have a modified version of the Pariah Gene. Maybe the entire Tau race does. Who knows?

You don't, but a whole load of others do.

So the necrons modified the pariah gene so that the tau still had a connection to the warp, do not scare the hell out of deamons and don't hurt/kill psykers just by being near them, WOW the C'tan really dropped the ball when they did that, didn't they.

Well, this is a thread about Tau and becoming corrupted; immunity to Chaos is still quite useful. If they are, in fact, immune.

They have Little or no pressence in the warp. i bet there is a 0.001/ 1000000000000000000000000000 chance

Nerivant wrote:

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nerivant wrote:
I really don't get the "Anime" argument.

That said, I'm a fan of Necron involvement. Using the Tau as a weapon against Chaos and psykers in general.

Really? you see no commonalities between the overly stylised anime films of tech weilding robo-suits and the overly stylised tech wielding combat suits?

How are Tau anti-psyker/ they possess no anti-psyker abilities, if Necrons were involved wouldn't we see the pariah gene in the Tau.

No, because I don't see the Tau suits as being similar in style to the image most commonly associated with Anime mecha.

Maybe the Ethereals have a modified version of the Pariah Gene. Maybe the entire Tau race does. Who knows?

You don't, but a whole load of others do.

So the necrons modified the pariah gene so that the tau still had a connection to the warp, do not scare the hell out of deamons and don't hurt/kill psykers just by being near them, WOW the C'tan really dropped the ball when they did that, didn't they.

Well, this is a thread about Tau and becoming corrupted; immunity to Chaos is still quite useful. If they are, in fact, immune.

I was saying that why would the C'tan make a far weaker version of the pariah gene, it makes little sense. Tau are also not 'in fact' immune.

the Tau are just good at hiding from the deamons.


if there arn't any nice bright Eldar or Humans around then the Tau will do.


Think of the Tau like the Tofu of a Warp Deamon diet.

yea who could be bothered corrupting Tau when there are billions of PDF to feast on?

IIRC, it's stated somewhere that the Tau are (mostly) immune to chaos due to societal reasons.

Problem is, depictions of Tau society are sketchy at best. I'd bet it has something to do with a philosophy of asceticism and stoicism, combined with a lack of interest in the supernatural. Anyways, it's pretty much left for us to imagine.

I'm sure they wrote the Tau that way to emphasize that, while being inferior to the Eldar or the IoM in most ways, they don't have the critical weakness that caused the cataclysmic fall of the former and the slow rot of the latter. The Tau Either lack this blemish or it simply has not made itself apparent for now.

It seems like quite a few people think the Ethereals make the Tau immune to the depredations of Chaos (or at least resistant) but I think it goes a step further.

***Personal Opinion Warning: The following is backed up only minimally by the background. It is largely the opinion of JimSolo***

The warp requires sentience to affect it. Which is why animals don't go around worshipping Khorne and casting Vortices of Doom. The pheremonal influence of the Ethereals is only one reason they control Tau society. Much like the Amplitur in Alan Dean Foster's The Damned trilogy, the Ethereals have interfered with the rest of the Tau on a genetic level, making them even more pliable to the pheremones, as well as dulling their free will. Combine this genetic manipulation with the pheremones themselves and the undercurrent of brainwashing into 'the Greater Good,' and the Tau are left with essentially no free will. They are barely sentient. To them, 'the Greater Good' is thought of before themselves. And since self-awareness is the definition of sentience, it makes them a little more removed from the demons' sphere of influence. As supporting evidence, I point out the polar opposite, the Eldar. Each hyper aware of their self, to the point of feeling personal experience beyond the level that a human can comprehend. Also, the only known race whose excesses actually created a Chaos God. As their abberant psyche is more susceptible to (and influencing on) the Warp, so too are the Tau at the opposite end of the spectrum, a race nearly beyond the point of susceptibility to the Warp.

But that's just my take on it.

Jimsolo wrote:It seems like quite a few people think the Ethereals make the Tau immune to the depredations of Chaos (or at least resistant) but I think it goes a step further.

***Personal Opinion Warning: The following is backed up only minimally by the background. It is largely the opinion of JimSolo***

The warp requires sentience to affect it. Which is why animals don't go around worshipping Khorne and casting Vortices of Doom. The pheremonal influence of the Ethereals is only one reason they control Tau society. Much like the Amplitur in Alan Dean Foster's The Damned trilogy, the Ethereals have interfered with the rest of the Tau on a genetic level, making them even more pliable to the pheremones, as well as dulling their free will. Combine this genetic manipulation with the pheremones themselves and the undercurrent of brainwashing into 'the Greater Good,' and the Tau are left with essentially no free will. They are barely sentient. To them, 'the Greater Good' is thought of before themselves. And since self-awareness is the definition of sentience, it makes them a little more removed from the demons' sphere of influence. As supporting evidence, I point out the polar opposite, the Eldar. Each hyper aware of their self, to the point of feeling personal experience beyond the level that a human can comprehend. Also, the only known race whose excesses actually created a Chaos God. As their abberant psyche is more susceptible to (and influencing on) the Warp, so too are the Tau at the opposite end of the spectrum, a race nearly beyond the point of susceptibility to the Warp.

But that's just my take on it.

Actually, as stated in the codices, the Tau race is simply too young to have developed psykers or any meaningful presence in the warp, meaning they'd be nearly invisible to daemons, and when they die their souls would NOT go to the warp.

Also, the pheromones thing is not canon. In the Codex it says, in an IMPERIAL log, that it is strange that the Tau follow them so willingly, and that imperials THEORIZE that they may have pheromones or latent psychic powers.

From reading the first Tau codex and the second.

Not all of Tau society is without free will. In fact Water Caste diplomats and Earth Caste Engineers in some WD articles (and mentioned in the codex The Rail Rifle's introduction) indicate that these two caste have a need for reassurance and for compliments from the Ethereals that they openly show emotion when the rail rifle malfunctions and the observing Ethereal merely states the weapon isn't ready.

The fire caste show little emotion in the same way Space Marines do. They are both bred and trained for a single purpose, that of battle and war.

Oh and the Tau also have a fear to return to the dark times before unification. Fear is a pretty strong emotion.

It is likely that they are a young race not yet evolved to have psykers. In a lot of the fluff, chaos paid little attention to humans till they "evolved" and became much more interesting. And tasty.