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According to the Tau codex on Aun'va's page, when a Tau Ethereal reaches old age but before they die they take their 'last walk' into one of their mysterious domed temples never to be seen again.

This isn't mentioned anywhere else as far as I know and I don't think anyone has really noticed it.

For me it just adds even more to the mysteriousness of the Ethereals and makes me trust them even less.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Seems comparatively harmless to me.

... still more worth trustworthy than the High Lords of Terra.

It sounds like they dont want the Tau to see a dead ethereal that much, like they have something else to hide when they die of natural causes. I don't really know what to believe about the ethereal origin, and this to me seems like something may happen to the body. Perhaps it reveals that they are eldar in disguise after they die? (Pretty long stretch, I know, and I'm not much of a fan of the eldar theory anyway, but this was the first thing that came to mind)

Its when they reveal that they're actually Necrons under the flesh-suits and need to recycle to a new face and name...

Clearly the Ethereals steal the bodies of other Tau and instead of having different Ethereals each generation it's the same ones with different names.

In seriousness I don't find it that weird or dangerous as it's quite easy to explain rationally in my opinion.

It may also be that the Ethereal Caste does not wish to allow the Tau to see their leaders suffering from debility, or worse, senility.

If the Ethereals have any sort of "control" over the Tau, then having a confused or irrational leader could be extremely costly. Even if their influence was purely motivational, seeing frail, confused, or uncertain leaders would be harmful to morale.

While that might seem sinister to us (shipping off the elderly to die unnoticed), in a society that really worships the "Greater Good", I can easily see the caste itself, and the Ethereals in question, as being in favor of the system.

Also, that could be where they keep all of the good booze.

Joking aside, it is probably a semi mystical religious tradition, meant to imply that ethereals never die. or it could be a "their soul stays on in the temple as an adviser" thing.

They take their long-, erm, last walk into the cursed ear...no, scratch that, wrong setting.

Da Butcha wrote:
It may also be that the Ethereal Caste does not wish to allow the Tau to see their leaders suffering from debility, or worse, senility.

If the Ethereals have any sort of "control" over the Tau, then having a confused or irrational leader could be extremely costly. Even if their influence was purely motivational, seeing frail, confused, or uncertain leaders would be harmful to morale.

While that might seem sinister to us (shipping off the elderly to die unnoticed), in a society that really worships the "Greater Good", I can easily see the caste itself, and the Ethereals in question, as being in favor of the system.

That was either sarcasm or you have never heard of nursing homes

Eh, nursing homes are exactly so they don't die unnoticed. The idea behind them is that there are people on hand to provide medical care, palliative care, etc. to the elderly right up to the end.

Some people view them as somewhere to shove Granny and forget about her, apparently, although strangely I've never met anyone who admits this for themselves...

Theyre chaos daemons returning to the warp....